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HISTORY 



OP 



CHESHIEE^^'SULLIVAS 



COUNTIES. 



J 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 




EDITED BY 

D." HAMILTON HURD. 



^7- . 2. 



1.70 



/•? 



PHILADELPHIA: 
J. W. LEWIS c^- CO. 

1886. 



C5 H 



Q 



Col'YKKJHT, ISMi, UY J. \V . I.F.WIS tt TO. 



-IAS. It. ItoiHiKltS I'UlNTlNi; iUMI'ANV. 
nill.ADKI.I'in V. 



PREFACE. 



Lv presenting this work to the public, tlie [)ul)lisliers claim tliat tlu'V have 
at least endeavored to laithfuUy {"ulfill their j)romise.s. The most competent 
persons have been employed in the preparation ol' the woi'k, and it is sincerely 
hoped that readers in the various towns of the counties will lind the narratives 
[)f their special localities interesting and instructive. The work has been com- 
piled from anthenticated and original sources. 

The preparation of the " History of (Jheshire and Sullivan Counties" upon tiie 
within elaborate plan imposed u[)on both editors and publishers a task of no 
small magnitude, and one wdiich they have keenly felt. They submit the work 
to the [lublic ti'usting that their just expectations may be lully rt'alized. 

The PiBLLsnERS. 



CONTENTS 



CHESHIRE OOUKTY. 



OHAPTEIl 

I. GENERAL HISTOllV 

IT. IlENCII AND BAR 

III. I.VTKKXAI. IJII'IIOVEJIEKTS. 



PAOE 

1 



TOWN HISTUEIES. 



P.\GE 
114 

123 
180 
jni) 



ALSTEAD 

I'HESTERFlET.Ii 

DUBLIN 

KITZWII.I.IAM . . 

(ilLSUM 

IIAURISVILLE 210 

HINSDALE 357 

JAFFRKY 220 

KEEXE 24 

MARLIiORiHCII 231 

iMARLOW :il4 

XELSON 3IS 



P.VGE 

RICHMOND 322 

EINDGE 332 

ROXBURV 329 

STODDARD 331 

SULLIVAN 340 

SURRY 342 

TROY 340 

SWANZEY 37.'-, 

WALPOLE 408 

WESTJIORELAND 457 

WINCHESTER 54) 



SULLIVAI^ COUNTY 



CHAPTER 

I. UEXERAL III.STORY . 
H. BENCH AND BAR . . 



TOWN HISTORIES. 



PAGE 

ACWORTII 10 

CHARLESTO'WN 23 

CLAREMONT 40 

CORNISH 141 

CROYDON 150 

GOSHEN 108 

GRANTHAM 170 

LAXGDON. ISl 



PAGE 

LEMrSTER 1S5 

NEWPORT 200 

PLAINFIELD 310 

SPRINGFIELD 317 

SUNAPEE 330 

UNITY ■ :ig4 

WASHINGTilN 391 

APPENDIX 400 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 



CHESHIRE COUNTY 



PA (IE 

Appl'-lnn, .Ii'shk* K 191 

Hull, Diivi.l 582 

Boycleii, Elijah 302 

Buyden, Freileric 3G8 

Briggs, Oliver L 5ii'2 

Biiffuiii, Ciileb T lOG 

Bilffuiil, Iliiskell 518 

Biirt, Chailos W lii 

Burt, Lieiiteuant-Culuncl William 11 15 

Carpenter, Aigeriiuii S , 112 

CIianiliL-rhiin Paniily 513 

Cole, Theodorp 520 

Dickinson, Ansel •. 584 

Elliot Family 104 

Esty, Henry 524 

Faulkuer, ITon. F. A 13 

Faulkner, Francis A 12 

French, Ahijah 51G 

Frost, Itufus S ' 300 

Fuller, John H lOS 

Graves, Josiah O 454 

Greenwood, ColoitL-l W. H 304 

Gustiue, EdwanI 113 



PAGE 

Haile, AVilliani 367 

Hale, Ex-Govcrnor Sjinun,-! W 107 

Harris, Gordis D lOD 

Hemenway, Luther 30G 

Holbrook, Daniel H no 

Holbrook, J. J m 

Horton, Edgar K 530 

Horton, Egbert C 530 

Knowlton, Janu-s 311 

Lane, F. F n 

Leonard, Levi V,'. C 193 

McCollester, Rev. .*^. H 295 

Patten, Daniel W 528 

Robertson, George 371 

Stearns, John 374 

Thompson, Albeit 525 

Turner, Family 553 

Twitchell, Dr. Anio.s 113 

White, Shiibael 527 

Whitney, Charles 308 

Wilkinson, Solon S 313 

W'inch, Nathan 310 



SULLIVAN COUNTY. 



I'AGE 

Aitains, Daniel N 356 

Uakor, Edward D 15 

Balconi, George L 131 

llurton, L. W 3U2 

Clark, William 132 

' Colby,Iiu 13 

I Dunbar, George W 165 

man, Charles U 134 

Farwell, George N 130 

[ Fisher, Leonard 1* , 13'J 

Freeman, P. C 14 

I Goss, Benjamin F 177 

Goodhue, David P 3U2 

Graves, L. J 137 



PAfiE 

Hall, Rufus 178 

Hatch, Mason 298 

Howard, Rev. Lewis 359 

McDauiel, Charle.s 353 

Parker, H. W 9 

Paris, Sherman, residence of. 33 

Quimby, Samuel 35^ 

Richards, Josiah 138 

Runals Family (the) , 3^2 

Sanborn, Thomas 300 

Smith, Alvah , 194 

Swett, John L 297 

ToUes, Nathaniel 135 

Wait, Albert S ic. 

ix 



- ^ 

S 9^^ 



=5 







HISTORY 



OF 



CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



CHAPTER I. 

(lENERAL HISTORY. 

BY WIIXARD BILL. 

Geographical — Topographical — Geological — Botanical — 
V Manufactures— Courts and County Buildings — County 

' Officers— Aboriginal Occupancy— Population from 1867 
to 1880. 

Geogr.vphicai.. — The proviuce of New 
Hanipshire was divided into five counties in 1771. 
One of tiiese was named Cheshire, deriving its 
name from a county in the west of England, cele- 
brated for its manufacture of cheese; hence, 
the name originally. Kcene and Charlestown 
were made the shire-towns. July 5, 1827, the 
county was divided, the northern portion taking 
the name of Sidlivan County. This division 
left Cheshire County with its present limits, 
situate in the southwestern part of the State, 
bounded on the north by Sullivan County, east 
l)y ITillsl)orougli County, south by the Sttite of 
Massachusetts, and west by the west bank of 
the Connecticut River. It extends, lis greatest 
length thirty-one miles north and south, and 
twenty-six miles in extreme width east and 
west. It contains twenty-three towns, eight of 
which were incorporated in the reign of George 
II., — namely, Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Keene, 
Richmond, Swanzey, Walpole, Westmoreland 
and Winchester, — ten in the reign of George 
III., — namely, Alstcad, Dublin, Fitzwilliam, 
1 



Gilsum, Jafifrey, Marlow, Nelson, Rindge, 
Surry, Stoddard, — and five under the govern- 
ment of New Hampshire, — namely, Harris- 
villc, Marlborough, Roxbury, Sullivan and 
Troy. 

TOPOGEAPHICAI.. — The surface of Cheshire 
County is greatly diversified. From the valley 
of the Connecticut on its west to the towering 
height of Grand iSIonadnock on the east, rising 
to an altitude of three thousand one hundred and 
eighty-six feet, is a succession of hill and valley 
and plain, in various places of great natural 
beauty. 

Numerous lakes and ponds feed a network of 
streams of greater or lesser extent. The Con- 
necticut River is the largest stream in botii 
State and county. Rising among the mountains 
of the extreme north of the State, it flows in a 
southerly direction, forming the boundary line 
on its west low- water bank between the States 
of New Hampshire and Vermont ; thence, pass- 
insr throuffh the States of Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, it empties into Long Island Sound. 

Its valley is noted for its productiveness. Ex- 
cluding the falls, the average fall of the river 
is about one and one-half feet to the mile. At 
Bellows Falls its descent is forty-nine feet, 
furnishing ample power for manufac'turing uses. 

Other streams lend beauty and utility to the 
surface of the county, the principal of which 
are the Ashuelot, Cold and branches of the 

1 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Contoocook. The Asliuelot River, rising in 
numerous ponds in Washington, Sullivan 
County, flowing in a southwesterly direction 
througli the towns of Marlow, Gilsuni, Surry, 
Keene, Swanzey, Winchester and Hinsdale, 
where it empties into the Connecticut, is one of 
the most important manufacturing streams in 
the State. All along its course are many im- 
proved water-powers. It is fed by branches 
from ponds that have been converted by dams 
into reservoirs, and thercl:)y affording many 
water-jiowcrs of thcniselves. One of these rises 
in Stoddard and flows throuirh the northwest 
corner of Nelson, southeast corner of Sullivan 
and northwest corner of Roxbury to Keene, 
and one from Dublin through Marlborough to 
South Keene, where it joins the branch from 
Stoddard. Another stream comes from Troy, 
flowing through the southwest corner of Marl- 
borough and joins the Asliuelot in Swanzey. 
The Asliuelot is about forty miles in length, 



Area. Altitude. 

Spoonwood Pond, Nelson 0.25 

Long Pond, Nelson and Hancock 1.2 1338 

North Pond, Harrisville 0.2 1218 

Geological. — When, in the beginning, this 
planet, earth, was hurled, revolving, into space 
by the power of an Almighty hand, a.seething, 
fiery, gaseous mass of molten elements, it 
gradually took form from its revolutions, and 
thereby consistence and compactness. In the pro- 
gress of centuries the surface became crusted 
over, holding within its l)osoni a mighty mass of 
molten matter, freijucntly convulsed by throes of 
sufficient pow(n' to elevate mountain heights and 
depress to ocean beds, separating, disintegrating 
and mi.xing the earth's crust in a manner to 
print in ineffaceable characters the great story 
of the Creation, — a creation not yet completed. 
In C'heshire County we find those characters 
frequent and prominent. Briefly — \ery briefly, 
for sjiace forbids otherwise — we will endeavor 



from its source to the Connecticut ; falls about to sketch a few of the more prominent " Foot- 



one thousand feet, and drains a basin of three 
hundred and seventy-five S(piare miles, or two 
hundred and forty thousand acres. 

The Cold River, rising in Sullivan County, 
flows, in a southwesterly direction, seventeen 
miles through Alstead and Walpole, and 
furnishes water-power to a limited extent. It 
drains a basin of sixty thousand acres nearly. 

The branches of the Contoocook River, in 
the eastern 23ortion of the county, furnish some 
good water-powers. The Partridge Brook, 
rising in Lake Spoffbrd, flows through Chester- 
field and Westmoreland, where it empties into 
the Connecticut, is a rapid stream, falling five 
hundred feet in its course of nearly six miles, 
and affording constant water-power, but only 
partially utilized. In a tabulated form we give 
the principal bodies of water in the county, 
with area of each ih square miles and decimals 
thereof, with altitude in feet above the sea, 
and towns where located, — 



Area. 

Warren Pond, Alstead 0.5 

Spoflbrd Lake, Chesterfield 1.0 

Breed Pond, Nelson 0.7 

Woodward Pond, Roxbury 0.3 

Swanzey Pond, Swanzey 0.2 

Stacy Pond, Stoddard 0.7 



Altitude. 

550 

738 
1250 
1150 



prints of the Creator." From the elementary 
or molten period the earth ]iassed into the 
igneous period. We now see the unstratified 
rocks, of which the enduring granite is the low- 
est of the series and the great frame- work of the 
earth's crust, and by for the most abundant, 
rising to the greatest heights, thrown uj) by 
the subterranean forces. From an endless 
monotonous plain these forces are now operat- 
ing with a power beyond all human conception 
to transform this plain into a broken surface, 
from mountain peak to ocean bed. Of granite, 
Cheshire County contributes her full share of 
earning the sobriquet of the "Granite State." 
Her quarries of granite are unsurpassed. The 
coarser granites are of the oldest formation. 
Cotemporary with the beginning of the 
igneous period, the atmosphere, heavily 
charged with minerals in a gaseous form, 
condensing from the effect of the cooling cartji, 
was deposited, forming another coating of rock 
material. This was the vaporous period. So 
far the earth had been surrounded by an 
atmosphere so dense an<l dark that the lia-ht of 
star nor moon nor sun could })enetrate. Now 
the progress of creation was ripe for the settling 
of the atmospheric moisture into the hollows of 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



tlie earth. It became nearly covered with 
water. This is the aqueous period. Then ('ame 
the long, col<l night, when the summer sun 
failed to thaw the suow and ice that gathered 
ill mighty masses, covering mountains in 
height, forming glaciers of continental extent, 
that planed and trausformed the rugge<l 
volcanic surfaces into new vestments, and 
printing its history in charat^ters the plainest of 
all. An enormous mass of ice, thousands of 
feet in depth, moved down the valley of the 
Connecticut, grinding, crushing, planing its 
way. A tributary glacier flowed down the 
Ashuelot Valley. This mass of ice pressed so 
heavily downward as to compact the earth into 
the lower hill, or, what is generally known, 
and appropriately so, as hard pan. 

This ice-sheet carried along in its track huge 
fragments of detached rock, which, grinding 
and rounding, it deposited in the form of boul- 
ders, generally upon the higher lands. In var- 
ious places they .are [)lentiful. The glaciers 
moved in a southeasterly direction, and this 
movement must have resulted from a different 
chorography of country than exists at the present 
time. The interior of the continent must have 
been elevated many feet. This elevation and 
after-depression must have been of slow prog- 
ress. This movement is still ojierating in var- 
ious places. As the glacier moved down the 
valley, hard-rock fragments were frozen into 
the Iwttoni of the ice-sheet; these, driven along 
by fearful jiower, acted as chisels or gouges, 
deeply scratching the ledges along the course of 
its progress. These strise are everywhere found. 
Mount Monadnock is striated from base to brow. 
Mr. G. A. Wheelock, a local geologist of repute, 
entertains the belief that this niouutain was an 
island in a sea of icebergs, which struck equally 
strong upon the northwest and southeast sides. 

Could our rocks be uncovered from the over- 
lying earth, they would generally sluiw the result 
of their mighty planing and rounding in their 
strife. Now the continent slowly depresses, a 
geological spring-time dawns, a warmer climate 
prevails, the vast fields of ice and snow melt 
rajiidly, mighty floods pour down the valleys 
with resistless fury. Changes impossible to be 
wrought by a moving river of ice, mountain- 



high, are easily effective before a rushing torrent 
of water. Now comes the era of modified 
drift, with its dejjosits of stratified, water-worn 
gravel, sand, clay or silt, an era extending from 
the departure of the great northern ice-sheet 
down to the ]n-esent time. The glacial or drift 
period embraces two eras, — the drift and the 
alluvium. The former is characterized by re- 
peated elcviitions and depressions. It was then 
a " foundering land, under a severe sky, beaten 
by tempests and lashed by tides, with glaciers 
choking its cheerless valleys, and with countless 
icebergs brushing its coasts and grating over its 
shallows." The alluvium era witnesses the per- 
fection of the earth to an extent that fits it as 
the proper al)ode of man. 

" From harmony — from heavenly harmony — 
This universal frame began ; 
From luirmony to harmony, 
Through all the compass of the notes it ran, 
The diapason closing full in man." 

The eastern portion of the county is a [)rime- 
val ridge, though it was snl>nierged at times, 
and is underlaid by the oldest rock formations. 
This ridge belongs to a chain of ridges that was 
the first to appear above the ocean. The dc- 
jnTssiou of the Connecticut Valley, that embi-aces 
a large portion of the county, carries with it the 
later rocks, and has been, and is, the source of 
drainage of the highlands to the northward. 

The eastern part of the county, comprising 
portions of Jaffrey, Dublin, Harrisville, Nelson 
and Stoddard, rests upon the edge of a large 
area of porphyritic gneiss. Another area of it 
forms the elevated and rugged portions of the 
towns of C'hesterfield, Swanzey, Winchester and 
Hinsdale, while it appears in Fitzwilliam, Jaf- 
frey and Marlow. A variety of gneiss known 
as the protogene gneiss extends from the State 
line, through Winchester, Richmond, Swanzey 
and Keene, to Surry, where it changes its form 
and extends to and into Sullivan County, lu 
Surry and Keeue the jirotogene is often found 
of a dee]) red color. Encircling this protogene 
we find hornblende, schist, and, girting this, 
(juartzite. A large surface area of the Jfoiital- 
ban schist in one tract extends from Stoddard to 
the State line through the towns of Rindge, 
Fitzwilliam, Richmond, Troy, Jaffrey, Marlbor- 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ough, Roxbury, Sullivau, Nelsou and Stoddard. 
These I'ocks are feldspathic and ordinary mica 
schist. Tlic mica is seen in large spangles, 
cither black or white. In Rindge a variety is 
found in which quartz predominates, heavily 
charged with iron pyrites, that decomposes when 
brought in contact witii the atmosphere ; tlie 
rock crumbles and the soil is colored reddish- 
yellow from tlio presence of the iron peroxide. 

The ]\[ontall)an rocks in Clieshire County 
are supposed to be of the same age with that 
which composes the summits of the higher 
"White Mountains. A band of micaceous 
<(uartzite, full of fibrolite, two miles wide, crosses 
the towns of Marlow, Alstead, Gilsum and 
Surry, carrying gigantic veins of granite, in 
whicli the mica plates are large and of commer- 
cial value. For many years they have been 
mined in Alstead for glass. The latest group 
of rocks so far found in the county are known 
as the Coos group. Its constituents are (piartz- 
ite, argillite and calcareous schist. A large 
area of Walpoie is covered by the former, and 
it is found in all the towns adjoining the Con- 
necticut River. Mount ^yantastiquet, in Hins- 
dale and Ciiesterfield, is composed of argillaceous 
and mica schist. The eruptive rocks are very 
sparingly represented in this county. The only 
eruptive rock of any extent in the valley of the 
Connecticut in this county is found in West- 
moreland and forms most of the hill southeast 
of the west depot. Inclosed in the Montalban 
schists of Fitzwilliam, Troy, Marlborough and 
Roxbury we find oval deposits of eruptive 
granite. These arc extensively quarried, and 
are held in high repute for building and monu- 
mental purposes. I'crnieating Surry Mountain 
are veins of quartz, bearing metalliferous depos- 
its. A large outlay has been exjjended in eiforts 
to mine it, but not, so far, with success. De- 
posits of infusorial silica, formed of decayed 
organisms, arc f()un(l of excellent quality in 
various places and especially so in Fitzwilliam. 
liog ii-on-ores of the nature of ochre occur at 
Chesterfield, Walpoie, .laffrcy and Surry. 

BoTAmcAL. — From papers prepared by 
^Villiam F. Flint, B.S., of Winchester, we 
glean the following facts relating to the botany 
of Clicshii'c County. Altitude has nnich to do 



in the distribution of plants. A large part of 
the area of the county has an altitude of more 
than five hundred feet above the sea-level. 
Following the trend of the Montalban rocks, 
in the eastern part of the county we find vege- 
tation of the Canadian type. In the valley of 
the Connecticut and of its tributaries we find a 
larger number of siiecies, some characteristic of 
Southern New England. The county was 
formerly covered by a dense forest, through 
which the sun scarcely penetrated at inid-day. 
.\.long the valleys of the Connecticut and 
Ashuelot Rivers were forests of the finest white 
l)ine, the most valued of our timbers, and 
reserved by King George in his grants of the 
several townships for His Majesty's navy. His 
officers provoked the displeasure of the early 
settlers by carving their "broad arrows" on the 
tallest mast-trees. The higher lands were 
covered with heavy growths of hemlock, 
maples, birches, beeches and red oak, while belts 

>f spruce were common. 
The original forest presented the same 

haracteristics as at the present day, save the 
restrictions imf)0sed by the lumberman. The 
old pine forests are represented by thick, 
thrifty grou'ths of their sajilings. These are 
general all over the county. Their conversion 
into wooden-ware has been and is a source of a 
large industry and of much wealth. Next to 
the pine, the hemlock is the most frequently 
found of any conifer; oi'iginally they competed 
with the pine in diameter and height. In the 
cold swamps of the river towns and throughout 
the eastern towns we find the black spruce and 
the balsam fir, and u])on the dry drift knolls 
and sandy plains we find the pitch-pine. In 
the cold peat swanq« and springy lands of 
Fitzwilliam, Rindge and Jaffrey we find the 
tamarack in abiuidance. A variety of the yew, 
generally known as the "ground hendock," is 
common. Passing from the sombre evergreen, 
we turn to the deciduous trees, presenting every 
phase of change, from the leafless branches of 
winter-time to the delicate green of spring, the 
full foliage of summer and the gorgeous hues 
of autumn, when nature's artist paints with 
every conceivable shade of color in tints that 
art cannot produce, ami aivintr to the AnieiMean 



GENEllAL HISTORY. 



forests a hcauty nowhere else to he tbiind. Of 
the ilccidiious trees, the maple is the best 
represented. The white maple is mostly found 
in the valleys, upon the intervale lands. The 
red maple is common everywhei-e. The rock 
or sugar ma[)le is the largest of the genus, is 
found in all of the towns, and fills an impor- 
tant part in tiie economy of the county, furnish- 
ing both sugar and tindicr. The largest groves 
of the rock maple are found in the northern 
and eastern towns of the county. (Jilsum, 
particularly, is noted tor its manufacture of 
sugar. The birch is generally found, but 
attains its fullest development in the eastern 
towns. The gray and black birch are moi-e 
common in the southern and southwestern 
towus, while the yellow and white birch arc 
found everywhere. The bass is quite ct)mmou 
upon the bauks of the river terraces. The 
black cherry and the white ash are found 
sparingly in nearly all the deciduous forests. 
Confined to a strip of territory five to ten 
miles wide, bordering the Connecticut River, 
we fiud the elm, chestmit, white oak, black oak 
and three species of the hickory. The red oak 
is very generally distributed. Upon the 
alluvial soil of the Connecticut we fiud the 
Cottonwood, the butternut and the Ixilm of 
(7 dead, or balsam poplar. Two species of the 
poplar are found, — the one of small dimensions, 
often springing uj) in great abundance where 
woodlands are cut away ; the other, the black 
poplar, is of more pretentions proportions. In 
spring its young leaves are clothed with white 
down, that can be seen a long distance, and 
thereby readily distinguished. Of the shrubby 
plants, the heath family has about twenty 
species in the county. This is a family distin- 
guished alike for beauty and abundance of 
bloom, and for economic purposes. Included in 
this family are two cranberries, three species oi 
Idackberry and the huckleberry. The rhodo- 
dendrons are the finest of the heaths. The 
uuxximum sjjecies is found in Fitzwilliam and 
Ivichmoud. To this familv belongs the kal- 
mias, including the mountain laurel, found in 
the southern portion of the county. The rose 
family is numerously represented. Of the 
herbaceous plants we have a large family. 



W^ild flowers abound everywhere. The space 
of this article will not permit us to mention but 
few of the species of vegetation with which the 
Creator has made glad our fields and forests. 

Soil and Staple Productions. — Natur- 
ally, in a county so greatly diversified in eleva- 
titin by valleys, plains and hills, we should fiud 
the soil varying materially ; even the intervale 
lauds along the several streams bear very little 
similarity in fineness or ])roductiveness. Often 
we see the lesser streams dividing lands of 
striking dissinularity and of natural fcrtilitv. 

The intervale lands along the Connecticut 
River are proverbial for grain-growing capa- 
city. Some of the finest farms in the entire 
State are found in the four towns bordering 
upon this stream. .:Vlong the Ashuelot Valley 
are extensive plains, whose soils widely vary, 
and, lacking the dense fogs of the former 
stream, is subject to later frosts in the spring 
aud earlier in the autumn. INIany fine farms, 
however, are found along this stream. The 
uplands are of a granitic nature, and, as a 
general rule, far less productive than in fornici- 
times ; much of it is too rough for cultivation, 
and is better adapted to the growing of timber 
than of grain. The plain lands are easier to 
cultivate, but require the best of husbandry to 
produce satisfactory results. 

Judicious drainage has converted many un- 
sightly, worthless swamps into the best of grass 
lands. 

The census of 18,S0 conveys an iilca of the 
county staple productions. With "is.jlj farms, 
embracing an area of 23.3, <S4.") acres of improved 
land, there was grown 14,1 lio bushels of Iiarley, 
2416 bushels of buckwheat, loO^T.SS bushels of 
Indian corn, 1)0,774 bushels of oats, .'litoS 
bushels of rye, 2ti(j(j bushels of whe;it, 55,(i()U 
tons of hay, 214,809 bushels of potatoes, 
141,218 pounds of tobacco, aud orchard pro- 
ducts to the value of $57,877. These farms 
supported 4109 horses, 7 mules, 2222 working 
oxeu, 7792 milch cows, 1 ■1,147 neat-stock, 
24,296 sheep and 4788 swine. 

The stock products fin- the year were 128,()70 
pounds of wool, 181,281 gallons of milk, 
732,610 pounds of Initter aud 6-'),376 pounds 
of cheese. 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Notwithstanding the large amount of grain 
grown within the county, tlie consumption of 
Western grain has yearly been steadily and 
heavily increasing. 

Manufactures. — Cheshire County is, to a 
considerable extent, engaged in manufactures ; 
the southern portion of the county especially 
so. Here the wooden-\vare business found its 
early home and abiding-place, contributing 
largely to the prosperity of several towns. The 
waters of the Ashuelot and of its tributary 
streams move a large amount of cotton and 
woolen machinery, while the manufacture of 
j)ottery, shoes, leather, jiajier, lumber and ma- 
chinery receives considerable attention, con- 
sidei'able investment and the employment of 
many people. At ^Valpolc is located an 
extensive brewery. The census of 1880 
enumerated 317 manufacturing establishments 
in this county, with an invested capital of 
$3,758,815, giving employment to 4523 hands, 
whose wages amounted to $1,299,427. The 
total value of raw material used was §4,502,889, 
and the total product was $7,768,943. 

Courts and County Buildincjs. — From 
the division of the county, in 1827, Keene has 
been the shire-town of Cheshire County. Here 
the Inferior Court held its first session in 
October, 1771, and the Superior Court in 
September, 1772. These first sessions were, 
undoubtedly, held in the old meeting-house 
that stood in the northeast corner of Central 
Square and opposite Gerould's block. For 
ten years following the erection of the present 
(/ongregational Church, in 1786, the courts 
were held therein. The centre pews and seats 
were removed temporarily during the session, 
and a bench and a table, called a bar, substi- 
tuted for the use of the judges and lawyers. 

Tile first building especially erected for the 
purpose of a court-house stood near the old 
meeting-hfinsc, and was built in 1796. It W'as 
built mainly through individual enterprise. It 
rendered service for twenty-eight years, when 
it was sold, moved and converted into d well intrs. 
The next court-house was erected in 1824-25. 
Its site is now occupied by the north end of 
Gerould's block and the block of F. F. Lane, 
Esq., upon the corner of Central Square and 



Winter Street. The county, for the considera- 
tion of five dollars, secured a deed of this site, 
of Joseph Dorr, ]\Iarch 20, 1824, with a stipu- 
lated condition that the lot should be used for 
county purposes only. The condition having 
been broken, a suit was brought against the 
county for the recovery of the lot and building 
thereon by the owner of tlie reversionary right, 
Samuel Wood. This suit was protracted for 
six years. Finally, at the March term, 1856, 
Wood's executors secured judgment, and the lot 
passed from the possession of the county. 

The present court-house lot was secured in 
five different purchases, — namely, from Henry 
Coolidge, April 13, 1840, two thousand six 
hundred S(juare feet for nine hundred dollars ; 
from Abijah Wilder a lot north and west of 
above-named lot, July, 1 848, for one thousand 
dollars; again of the same i)art3', in 1857, an 
additional tract for t\\o thousand dollars ; and, 
in 1858, another tract. Having secured a lot, 
the county proceeded to erect the present house. 
Commenced in 1858, it was completed in Feb- 
ruary, 1859, at a cost of nearly twenty-eight 
thousand dollars. Thomas M. Edwards, of 
Keene, Nelson Converse, of Marlborough, Sam- 
uel Ishanijof (iilsum, were the committee having 
the supei'vision of its erection. Gridley J. F. 
Bryant was the architect and Joel Ballard the 
contractor. This building, although considered 
at the time amply suiScient for all coming 
wants of a court-house, still already it is appar- 
ent that more room will be required in the not 
distant future. In 1884 the county erected a 
spacious, costly, and elegant jail u])on lots pur- 
chased of J. H. Elliot, long known as " the 
old glass-factory lot." When this lot is com- 
pleted and adorned as contemplated, together 
with all the conveniences and extras that a lil)- 
eral outlay of money could procure in the plans 
of the buildings, then the convict class wall in- 
deed have a most elegant residence. Upon the 
opening of the new jail the House of Correction 
was removed from Westmoreland and located 
therein. Without enumerating the names of the 
several justices of the several courts, we will 
give a list of the several clerks of courts as 
being more particularly identified with the 
countv, — 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



Clerks of Courts. 
Cmnmon Pleas. 
Simeon Jones, October, 1771, to Ajiril, 177.'5. 
Thomas Sparhawk, April, 1779, to Se]itember, 1812. 
Salma Hale, September, 1812, to April, 18:U. 

Superior Court of Judi.catnre. 
George King, 1772 to 1778. 
George Atkinson, 1778 to 1780. 
Samuel Shurburne, 1780 to October, 1781. 
Nathaniel Adams, October, 1781, to October, ISIU. 

For Both Courts. 
Salma Hale, May, 1817, to April, 1834. 
Henry Coolidge, April, 1834, to April, 1843. 
Leonard Biscoe, April, 1843, to December, 18.')7. 
Edward Farrar, December, 1857, to the presenl 
date. 

Judges of Probate. 

Simeon Olcott, from 1771 to 1775. 

Thomas Sparhawk, from 177.'i to 1789. 

John Hubbard, from 17S9 to 1802. 

Abel Parker, from 1802 to 1823. 

Samuel Dinsmore, from 1823 to 1831. 

Aaron Matson, from 1831 to 1835. 

Frederick Vose, from 1835 to 1841. 

Larkin Baker, from 1841 to 18G4. 

Silas Hardy, from 1864 to 1874. 

Harvey Carlton, from 1874 to 187(;. 

Josiah G. Bellows, from 1870 to the present date. 

Rf.gisters of Prokate. 
Thomas Sjjarhawk, 1771. 
Ichabod Fisher, 1775. 
Micah Lawrence, 1785. 
Samuel Stevens, from 1793 to 1823. 
Frederic A. Sumner, from 1823 to 1827. 
Asa Parker, from 1827 to 1833. 
Elijah Sawyer, from 1833 to 1847. 
George F. Starkweather, from 1847 to 1851. 
( Jeorge W. Sturtevant, from 1851 to 1857. 
Calvin May, Jr., from 1857 to 1859. 
Silas Hardy, from 1859 to 1863. 
George Ticknor, from 1863 to 1866. 
Allen Giffln, from 186(; to 1871. 
Frank H. Hies, from 1871 to 1873. 
Dauphin W. Buokrainster, from 1873 to 1880. 
Henry O. Coolidge, from January, 1880, to the 

present date. 

Registers of Deeds. 

Josiah Willard, from 1771 to . 

James Campbell, from to 1824. 

Lewis Campbell, from 1824 to 1837. 
John Foster,' from 1837 to 1838. 
Charles Sturtevant, from 1838 to 1845. 
Isaac Sturtevant, from 1845 to 1846. 

'Appointed to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of 
Lewis Campbell. 



Barton Skinner, from 1846 to 1852. 
Charles Sturtevant, from 1852 to 1853. 
Harvey A. Bill, from 1853 to 1855. 
Charles Sturtevant, from 1855 to 1859. 
Calvin May, from 1859 to 1862. 
Isaac W. Derby,' from 1862 to 1864. 
John J. Allen, from 1863 to 1883. 
Charles C. Bulfum, from 1883 to present date. 

High Sheriffs. 

Previous to 1878 this office was appointive. Subse- 
ipient to this date Ralph Holt held the office from 
June, 1879, to January, 1880. 

Horace A. Perry, from 1880 to the present date. 

RoAn Commissioners. 

1845. — Barton Skinner, Jonathan K. Smith, Asahel 
r. Humphrey. 

1846._J(inathan K. Smith, Aaron P. Howland, 
Daniel W. Farrar. 

1852.— Augustus Xoyes, Jonathan S. Adams, Jon- 
athan Harvey, Jr. 

1853. — Augustus Noyes, Lanson Robertson, Samuel 
Slade, Jr. 

1854._Samuel Slade, Jr., Laban Rice, Ednuind 
.Jones. 

1855.— Nelson Converse, Arvin Aldrich, John Sy- 

monds. 

County Commissioners. 

John A. I'rescott, 1857; Lanson Robertson, 1858; 
Willard Adams, 1859; Samuel Atherton, 1800; Aaron 
P. Howland, 1861; Jonathan S. Adams, 1862; Sum- 
ner Knight, 1863; Zebulon Converse, 1864; David A. 
Felt, 1865; Sumner Knight, 1866; H. O. Coolidge, 
1867; Franklin H. Cutter, 1868; Joshua B. Clark, 
1869; Aaron Smith, 1870 ; John Humphrey,' 1871 ; 
Alonzo A.Ware, 1872; Willard Bill, Jr., 1873 ; Joseph 

B. Abbott, 1874; Charles H. Whitney, 1875 ; George 

C. Hubbard, 1876; Charles R. Sargeant, 1877; Gard- 
ner C. Hill,* 1878. 

Subsequent to the change of the Constitution 
the following have been elected : 

1878.— Charles R. Sargeant, Gardner C. Hill, Levi 
A. Fuller. 

1880.— Levi A. Fuller, Joseph B. Abbott, George 
W. Stearns. 

1882. — Tosepb B. Abbott, George W. Stearns, Al- 
fred W. Burt. 



2 Resigned in 1863 and John J. Allen was appointed in 
his place November 10th. He was elected in 18G1 and re- 
signed in 1883. 

'Resigned, and Aaron Smith was ap)ioiiited to the va- 
cancy. 

*Prior to the constitutional change of 1878 the county 
commis.sioners held their office for a term of three years, 
and one was elected annually to till the vacancy of a re- 
tiring member. At the present time three are chosen 
bienniiilly. 



8 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1884.— Joseph B. Abbott, Alfred W. Burt, Elbridge 
Kingsbury. 

Internal Impeovement.'^. — The early set- 
tlement of Cheshire County came from the 
southward. Tlic Connecticut River was its 
highway. It had been tlie favorite highway of 
tlic Indian. It was the first highway of the 
settlers of tlie valley and country adjacent 
thereto. At first the bark canoe plied upon its 
\vaters ; then came the rude flat-boat, followed 
by boats of more perfected proportions, spread- 
ing to the breezes winged sails, and, lastly, 
attempts, but not of practical success, of steam- 
propellers. At one time boating and rafting 
assumed considerable ])roportious upon the 
river, but u])on the construction of the railroad 
lines it passed away. Undoubtedly the first 
experiments at .steamboating wei"e made wpon 
the Upper Connecticut as early as 1793 by Cap- 
tain Samuel IMory, and some years prior to 
Fult^in's operations. In 1827 a steamer named 
the " Barnet" ascended the river from Hartford 
to Bellows Falls, creating no little curiosity as 
it came puffing up the river. In after-years 
other attempts at steamboating were made upon 
the Upper Connecticut, but were not of long 
duration. 

Aboriginal Occupancy. — -That portion of 
the Connecticut River valley north of the Deer- 
field River in Miissachusetts was claimed and 
occupied by a tribe of Indians known as the 
Squaldieags. Their territory included Cheshire 
County as far as the INIonadnock Mountain to 
the east. So far as known, it was not a strone: 
tribe, and does not bear a conspicuous position 
in aboriginal histiiry. It probably was closely 
allied to some of the surrounding tribes, notably 
with the Nashaways, who lived upon the 
Nashua and Merrimack Rivers. The Squak- 
heags continued to occupy this vicinity until 
1720, when it appears that thej' disbanded, a 
large portion of whom must have passed to the 
northward and joined the St. Francis tribe in 
Canada. This tribe, in later years, in junc- 
tion with the French, were especially active 
in spreading desolatit)n throughout this sec- 
tion, of wliich the sketches of the several towns 
relate. Tradition has handed down to us the 
inanv favorite resorts in the county which the 



Indians were wont to frequent for hunting and 
fishing purposes. 



p 


Swanzey . 
Troy. . . 
Waipole . 
Westmorela 
Wiuchester 


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Roxbury . 




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Fitzwilliam 
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Hai-risville 








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Settlement. — It has been before stated that 
settlement came upward from the soutJi along 
the Connecticut River ; but it was retarded, again 



BENCH AND BAR. 



and again beaten back, mainly through the 
animosity and depredations of Indians, lleach- 
ing the month of tlie Ashuehjt, it appears that 
it left the Grreat River. Reaching Upper Ashuelot 
(now Keene), in 17.34, the same year it took 
root at Lower Ashuelot (Swanzey), Earlington 
(Winchester). Some two years after, in 1736, 
a settlement was made at Plinsdale, and later in 
the towns above on the Great Kiver. Until 
the close of the Revolutionary War settlement 
proceeded slowly ; it then took a new impetus 
and proceeded rapidly. 

We insert on the preceding page a census table, 
containing a tabulated statement showing the 
movement of population of the several towns 
in Cheshire County at each census since 1767, 
inclusive, with dates of incorporation and first 
called names. 

In 18(jl the tocsin of war sounded high and 
loud over a startled land, and the wires flashed 
the dread news that armed rebellion had fired 
upon Sumter's fated walls. In the great up- 
rising of the North that followed, in the defense 
of the nation, Cheshire County responded to 
every call for troops with alacrity. On South- 
ern soil it shed its best bh)od in order that the 
country might live. The lapse of time has 
dimmed in part the remembrance of the heroism 
of that hour, but we now enjoy the fi'uits of no- 
ble effort and of vietoi-y won. The following 
table shows the number of soldiers furnished by 
each town in response to the several calls, the 
number of soldiers who were killed or died in 
the service and the amount of municipal war 
loan awarded to each town, — 

Killed Municipal 
Towns. Soldiers, and Died. War Loan. 

Alstead 98 ... $8,375.00 

Chesterfield 85 20 7,416.67 

Dublin 91 25 9,100.00 

Fitzwilliam 101 45 7,991.67 

Gilsum 57 ... 5,400.00 

Hinsdale 112 ... 10,.533.33 

Jaflrey 119 ... 9,933.33 

Keene 404 25 37,900.00 

Marlborough ,56 ... 5,600.00 

Marlow 52 18 4,866.67 

Nelson 69 6 5,981.67 

Richmond 68 14 5,050.00 

Rindge 86 16 8,260,00 

Roxbury 17 ... 1,633.33 

Stoddard 66 3 5,358.00 



Towns. Soldiers. 

Sullivan 26 

Surry 32 

Swanzey 148 

Troy .•")4 

Walpole 145 

Westmoreland 82 

Winchester 134 



Killed 


Municipal 


id Died. 


"War Loan. 


12 


2,600.00 


6 


2,666.67 


5 


12,325.00 


10 


4,425.00 




12,660.00 


10 


7,975.00 




12,8(i6.67 



CHAPTER II. 



BKXCil AM) i:.\U. 



Amokg the earliest members of tlu' lefjal pro- 
fession in this section of New England \\'a8 
Elijah Williams, a native of Deerfield, Mass., 
who settled in Keene in 1771. During the Rev- 
olution his sympathies were with the mother- 
country, and after the battle of Lexington he 
Joined the British in Bo.-^ton. He died in Deer- 
field. 

Hon. Daniel Nkwcojib .-settled in Keene in 
1778 and commenced ])ractice there in 1783. 
He was apjiointed chief judge of Cheshire 
County in 1790; was justice of the Superior 
Court of .ludicature from April 6, 1 7!)6, to 1 798. 
He was the first State Senator from Keene. He 
died July 14, 1818. 

Hox. Peter Sprague \\as an early lawver 
in Keene. He became prominent here in 1792. 
He was elected to Congress in 1797 and re- 
elected in 1799. He died in 1800. 

Noah Cooke settled in Keene in 1791, and 
remained in practice there until his death, on 
October 1.5, 1829. He was admitted as an at- 
torney in 1784. 

Hon. Samuel Dinsmoor was born in Wind- 
ham July 1, 1766. He graduated at Dartmouth 
in 1789, and settled in Keene in 1792. He 
was appointed postmaster in 1808, and in ISll 
was elected to Congress. He held numerous 
positions of trust and res^^onsibility, aifd was 
elected Governor of New Hampshire in 1831, 
1832 and 1833. He died March 15, 1835. 

Among those in })ractice in Keene from 1 794 
to 1813 were Hon. Samuel Hunt (member of 
Congress), David Forbes, Samuel West, Noah 
R. Cooke, Foster Alexander, Lockhart Willard, 



10 



HISTORY OF CIIESIIIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Elijah Dunbar, Samuel Prescott, Seth New- 
comb, E. Butteilield and Wm. Gordon. 

Hon. James Wilson commenced practice in 
Keeue in 1815. He graduated at Harvard 
University in 1789, and was admitted to the 
bar in ]7'.t2. In 18(1!) he was elected to Con- 
cn-ess. He died Januarv 4, 1839. Mr. Wilson 
was a lawyer of distintiuished ability, and had 
but few equals in tiie State. Joseph Buffum, Jr., 
commenced practice in Keene in 181(3. He was 
elected to Congress in 1819. 

Levi Chamberlain was one of the leading 
lawyers in New Hampshire. He held various 
official positions, and in 1849 was the Whig can- 
didate for Governor. He was a member of the 
Peace Congress in 1861. He died August ."U, 
1868. Ho was in stature tall, elegant in mamiei-, 
genial and witty. 

Joel Pauker was admitted to the bar in 
Keene in 1817. He was ap])ninted justice of 
the Supi-eme Court of Judicatiue from January 
8, 1833, and was chief justice from June 25, 
1838, to June 24, 1848. He was subsequently 
professor of law in Harvard for a period of 
twenty years. 

The following were in practice in Keene in 
1818 : Noah Cooke, Sanuiel Dinsmoor, Fo.ster 
Alexander, Elijah Dunbar, Joseph Buffiim, 
Jr., James Wilson, Levi Chamberlain, Elijah 
Parker, .loel Parker, Fr. Gardner and Thomas 
M. Edwards. Elijah Parker was a graduate of 
Dartmouth College and a prominent lawyer in 
Keene for many years. 

Thomas M. Edwards graduated at Dart- 
mouth in 1813. He was born in Providence 
in 1795, and was brought here by his parents at 
an early age. He was postmaster in Keene 
from 1817 to 1829; was member of Legisla- 
ture, Presidential elector, member of Congress, 
and was first president of the Cheshire Rail- 
road. He was a prominent citizen of Keene, a 
thorough scholar, an al>le lawyer and a success- 
ful financier. He was a man of great energy 
and executive ability. He died May I, 1875. 

Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., son ot Governor 
Samuel Dinsmoor, was a prominent and in- 
fluential citizen. He was clerk of the Sen- 
ate in 1826, 1827, 1829 and 1831 ; he was 
postmaster at Keene, cashier of the Ashuelot 



Bank and later its president, and was Governor 
of New Hamp.shire in 1849, 1850 and 1851. 
He died February 24, 1869. 

General James Wii>son commenced prac- 
tice in Keene in 1823. He was one of Keene's 
most active, prominent ami esteemed citizens. 
Except the years 18:!8 and 1839, when he was 
a candidate for Governor (and 1833), he was in 
continuous service in the liCgislature from 1825 
to 1840. In 1828 he was Speaker of the House. 
He was elected to Congress in 1847 and re- 
elected in 1849. Upon the breaking out of the 
Rebellion he was offered a brigadier-general's 
commission, which ill health prevented him 
from accepting. He represented Keene in the 
Legislature in 1870 and 1871. 

Phineiias Handerson was born in Am- 
lierst, Mass., December 13, 1778. He studied 
law in the office of Hon. George B. Upliam, of 
Claremont. Soon after his admission to the bar 
he established himself in Chesterfield, at that 
time one of the most flourishing towns in the 
State. He was president of Cheshire bar from 
the time of the organization of the county until 
his death, March 16,1853. He removed to 
Keene in 1833. Hon. Levi Chamberlain speaks 
of him as "one of the most respected and influ- 
ential members of the profession, and that influ- 
ence was the ri'sult of his faithful, upright and 
able performance of duty." 

The various pul)lic trusts to which lie was 
repeatedly cidled by those who knew liim best 
show in what estimation he was held by his 
fellow-citizens. His only son, Henry C. Han- 
dcreon, .served as captain in the war ; was after- 
wards postmaster in Keene, where he died in 
1 874. His seven daughters are still living ; 
two unmarried in the homestead in Keene. 

(See town history of Chesterfield for additional 
fVicts.) 

Saljia Hale was a well-known lawyer of 
Ki'cne, highly respected and esteemed. He 
was deeply interested in matters pertaining to 
the history of Keene, and pi'epared the "Annals 
of Keene," a volumi> of rare interest. Beside 
holding other official positions, he was elected a 
member of Congress. 

William P. Wheeler was a lawyer who 
i-anked with the ablest in the State. He was 




£>y\A.f.T>-il^'^' 




BENCH AND BAR. 



11 



lulniittcd to practice in 1842 :iud settled in 
Keene, where lie remained until his death, in 
May, 1 iS7(). He was county solicitor for ten years, 
and in 1855 and 1857 was a candidate fi>r Con- 
gress. 

FarxitmFlsh Lane, now the oldest menibe: 
of the Ciieshire County bar, and for severa' 
years pi-esident of the Cheshire County Bar As 
sociation, was born in Swanzey, N. H., March 
15, 181(3. 

The first one of this family to settle in New 
Hampshire was his great-grandfather, Elkanah 
Lane, who came from Norton, Mass., about the 
middle of the eighteenth century, purchased 
laud in Swanzey, became a tariuer and was 
a resident of the town and left numerous de- 
scendants. He was a man of perseverance and 
stei'ling honesty of purpose and thought. 

His son Samuel inherited the farm of his 

father, married Scott and had five sons, — 

Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel and Luther, — 
and one daughter, Lucy. He served in the 
War of the Revolution, and althongli a man df 
quiet and unassuming manners, was a sturdy 
patriot and loyal citizen. He died about 18o5, 
aged eighty-four years. 

Ezekiel, his fourth son, was born in 
Swanzey in 17!H). He settled on a firiu ad- 
joining the ancestral homestead and was a 
life-long resident of the town. He was a kind 
husband, good citizen, and, like his father, a 
man of retiring disposition. He married, early 
ill life, Rachel, daughter of rarimni and Rachel 
(Thayer) Fish. (Farnum Fish was a native of 
Massachusetts, but for many years a citizen of 
Swanzey. He was au energetic fiu-mer and 
man of in)te, and one of the controllhig spirits 
of the town, and with commendable public 
spirit endeavored to advance its interests. He 
received the highest respect from his fellow- 
townsmen, ^^'llo elected him to various town 
offices. He held the commission of justice 
of the peace for many years and was a 
captain of militia. He accumulated consider- 
able property, consisting of real estate. He 
died about 1829.) Of the ten children of Ezi- 
kiel and Rachel (Fish) Lane, eight ai'e now- 
living. 

Farnum Fish Lane commenced life without any 



of the adventitious aids that are usually supposed 
to assist in gaining distinction. A farmer's boy, 
his early years, until he reached the age of six- 
teen, were passed tm the farm assisting in the 
work. Then his aspirations f>r an education 
could no longer be resti'aincil, and, leaving 
home, he engaged as a farm labore]' and com- 
menced working and savino- for that object. 
After attending various academies, ])rincipally 
at New Ipswich and Hancock, he taught school 
tor six winters, and, thinking, with Sydnty 
Smith, that " the law is decidedly the best pro- 
fession for a young man if he has anything in 
him," he entered the office of Thomas M. Ed- 
wards, of Keene, as a law student. He aji- 
])lied himself with diligence and assiduity to the 
study of his chosen profession, and, in July, 
1843, was admitted to the bar, and since that 
time has been actively employed in the labors of 
the law. 

He commenced practice in Winchester, and, 
in 184(5, moved to Walpole and was there for 
three years. In 1849 he became a resident of 
Kei'ue, and has aih'ancetl agreeably and pros- 
perously. He is a member of Social Friends 
Lodge, F. and A. M., and of Cheshire Royal 
Arch Chapter of Keene. 

Mr. Lane married, October ;>0, 1 84(i, Harriet 
Locke, daughter of John and Harriet (Locke) 
Butler, of Winchester. Their chiklren are 
Helen L., who married Augustus Lucke, of 
Sherbrooke, Canada, and Emily Ij. 

^Ir. Lane was a Whig until the organization 
of the Repul)lican jiarty, with which he has 
ever since acted, but never as a mere partisan, 
or a politician using jiolitics for |>ersonal I'lids. 
The law has been his sole profession. He has 
never sought a jiublic office, and yet he has 
been rewarded with the fullest trust and confi- 
dence of the })eople. For ten years he held the 
office of county solicitor, and was also county 
treasurer. He was elected to the Legislature 
from Walpole in 1847 and 1848, and then 
again from Keene in 18(i2 and 18(j.'>, that criti- 
cal period in the country's history when the 
wai'-clouds darkened the horizon and legislative 
responsibilities were heavy. He is jirobajjly 
best known as a sound and wise counselor, one 
who labors diligently on his cases, making the 



12 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



most complete and exhaustive research before 
attempting to present liis case or give an opinion. 
As an advo(!ate, he uses nothing like splendid 
action or boistei'ous demonstration, but, what is 
of far more account, clear, potent, sober thought, 
carrying conviction to tlie mind that can or 
cares to think There comes witii wliat he says 
tile feeling always of an earnest, candid man, 
saying notliing for mere effect, and only what 
tiie case justly warrants. By reason of this gen- 
eral confidence, insjiired by manner and method, 
he is always a powerful antagonist, who has the 
ear and confideiice of Ixrth judge and jury. Al 
though, as before mentioned, the oldest member 
of the Cheshire County bar, he is still in full 
practice, with more vigorous liealtli than he has 
enjoyed for years. 

Francis A. Fatlknek. — The Faulkner 
tiimily occupies quite an historic place in Ne\\- 
Enu'land annals. " Mr. Edmond Faulkner, the 
emigrant, was one of the purcliasers and first 
settlers of Andover, Mass., which was bought 
from the Indians about January, 1(346, for £Q, 
and a <'oat." Tlic following extract from the 
will of Francis Fauconee, Gent., of King's 
Cleave, Soutliampton, England, made September 
1, 16(52, and proved 21st May, 1663, connects 
him beyond doubt with this honorable English 
family. " Item : I give and bequeath to my 
brother, Edmund Fauconor, that is living in New 
England, £200 of lawful money of England." 
Tliis family is entitled to l)ear anus as follows : 
"Arms — Sable, three falcons argent, beaked, 
legged and belled or Crest — A garb or (or gules), 
banded, argent. The name Faulkner was va- 
riously spelled in those days, and in this \\ill it 
has as many spellings as the word occurs times. 

The " Mr." was of significance as a title of 
respect, and showed the possessor to be of an 
English family of consequence. But three or 
four in Andover were entitled to bear it. 
Edmond Faulkner was marrieil by John Win- 
throj) to Dorothy Robinson, February 4, 1647, 
at Salem. This was the first marriau-e recorded 
of an Andover citizen. He Mas a man of edu- 
cation, energy and distinction, and connected 
closely and prominently with all public atlairs. 
He was one of the ten freeliolders who founded 
the church in Andover in 1645. He kept the 



first inn, which wa.s burned in 1676 by the In- 
dians, and died January 18, 1686-87. His son 
Francis, "husbandman," named doubtless from 
the maker of the King's Cleave ^\•ill, born 1()57, 
died 1732; married, October 11, 1675, Abigail, 
daughter of llev. Francis Dane, who was min- 
ister of Andover for nearly half a century. Her 
name is prominent in connection with the witch- 
craft delusion. She was accusi'd (if "The felony 
of M'itchcraft," found guilty and condemned to 
death, but through the efftirts of her many 
powerful friends was not executed, although for 
more than eleven years the sentence of di'ath 
hung over her. She stands out one of the 
brightest and strongest figures on that dark page 
of history. [See for full account "Bailey's His- 
torical Sketches of Andover, Mass."] This 
worthy and sorely-tried couple left three sons, 
Edmund, Ammiverliammah and Paul, of whom 
the second removed to Acton, j\Iass., in 1735, 
erected mills, and l)ecame a manufacturer, dying 
August 4, 1756. His son, Francis, born in 
Andover Septo^mber 29, 1728, died in Acton, 
Mass., August 5, 1805. For thirty-five years 
toM'n clerk of Acton, member of the Provincial 
Congress of 1774, a member of the Committee 
of Safety, and several impoi'tant conventions of 
the Revolution, in all these positions he proved 
himself a man of sound judgment and culti- 
vated mind, and an able legislator. He held a 
military commission under George III., but be- 
came an ardent patriot, and one of the foremost 
op])osers of the oppressive acts of Great Britain. 
Early in 1775 he was elected major of a regi- 
ment organized to oppose English invasion. At 
sunrise of the ever memorable 19th of April, 
he marched with a considerable number of 
men to resist the British troops then on their 
way to Concord. He participated in that 
historic engagement, and the pursuit of the 
British to Charleston. [See Shattuck's " Histoiy 
of Concord."] He was lieutenant-colonel of 
the Middlesex militia, which reinforced the Con- 
tinental army at tiie iK'cujiation of Dorchester 
Heights, March, 1776, and commanded the 
regiment which guarded the prisoners of Bur- 
goyne's surrender on the march to Cambridge. 
By his second wife, Rebecca, daughter of Cap- 
tain Kies, of Brookfield, a participant in that 



/ 




. Ett,^ •* -byAS lUtC'W! 



(f.J^. Ju^t.^.^i^J<2^-^-.-^^ 



BENCH AND BAR. 



13 



bloody engagement known as Lovell's fight, 
he had eleven children, the oldest of whom 
was Francis, of Billerica, one of the pioneer 
woolen manufacturei-s in New England. He 
was born January 31, 1760, died February 12, 
1843. He was twice married and had twelve 
children. By his firet wife, Elizabeth Jones, 
M'ere Charles, born September (i, ITS"), died in 
Calcutt;i, August, 1809, and Francis, who was 
born at Watertown, INIass., February 29, 1788, 
came to Keene in 1809 or 1810. June 10, 1818, 
he married Eliza, daughter of Eli Stearns, of 
T^anca.ster, Mass. He died November 29, 1842. 
His wife died October 5, 18(39. Their children 
wlio lived to maturity were Charles S., born 
May 17, 1819, died July 28, 1879; Elizabeth 
J., "born May 25, 1822; Francis A.; William 
F., bom July 7, 1831, died May 1, 1874. 
Francis Faulkner was one of the early manu- 
facturers of New Hampshire, in which business 
he continued until his death, in 1842. He was 
a man of sterling integrity, generous and wise in 
public matters, as in private. He was loved and 
respected by all ; an ardent supporter of the 
Unitarian Society, of which he ^\as one of the 
tbunders. 

Hon. Fraxc'is Augustus Faulkner, son 
of Francis and Eliza (Stearns) Faulkner, was 
liorn in Keene, N. H., February 12, 1825. As 
a youth he was studious, and, in 1841, went to 
that celebrated j^reparatory school, Phillips Ex- 
eter Academy, where he acquitted himself with 
ability and was fitted for college. He graduated 
with honor at Harvard University in the class 
of 184(5, which numbers among its members 
such distinguished names as Hon. George F. 
Hoar, Prof Francis J. Child, Prof. George 
M. Lane, Dr. Calvin Ellis and Henry A. 
Whitney. Tiie friendships and associations 
thus formed were among the warmest and 
highest of his life, and his love for the classics and 
general literature there acquii'ed continued all 
his days, and showed itself in his public and 
private life. Choosing the law for his profession, 
he began its study in 1847 in tlie ofBce of Hon. 
Phinehas Handerson, of Keene, and, in connec- 
tion there\^ith, attended the Hai'vard Law 
Sclidol. He was admitted to practice at Keene, 
at the Sejjtember term of court in 1849, and 



immediately formed a jwrtnership with William 
P. Wheeler, which firm, as Wheeler & Faulkner, 
first appeared upon the docket at the May term, 
1850, and from that time for nearly thirty years 
enjoyed a remarkably extensive and successful 
practice, and was engaged in nearly every case 
of jirominence or importance tried in Cheshire 
County. To the honorable and leadmg positicjn 
taken by the firm much was due to Mr. 
Faulkner. 

During his active practice Mr. Faulkner ac- 
complislied an amount of work whicli excited the 
wcjnder and admiration of the; court and his asso- 
ciates at the bar. To a finely-organized brain 
was united robust, health and untiring industry, 
and an ardent love for his profession. These, 
with his coi-rect and methodical habits, made 
labor almost a pleasure, which success only in- 
creased, while defeat did not diminish it. During 
the life of Mr. Wheeler the unassuming nature 
of Ml-. Faulkner, acknowledging the Iiigh 
ability of his partner as an advocate (and he 
was rarely, if ever, excelled in tliis county), 
[ireferred to take tiie more laborious, but unpre- 
tending, work of preparing their causes, botii for 
trial of facts and on tpiestions of law, and of 
drawing all pleadings and formal paj)ei-s, leaving 
Mr. ^V'heeler to present them to the court. He 
was always thoroughly prepared in season for 
every cause in which they were engaged, 
whether before the jury or the court, and his 
patient research, accurate knowledge and pains- 
taking care made his papers and briefs mt)dels 
of skill and learning, and of great weight with 
the court. 

When circumstances caused him to aj)pear as 
an advocate, it was at once seen that lie had far 
more than ordinary power in that c^ipacity. 
Always dignified and courteous, he depended 
upon fairness and ability to win his causes, never 
resorting to anytliing like a trick. He displayed 
a peculiar power of sifting evidence and dis- 
ch)sing the trutli, and knew wliere his strength 
lay and how to use it. 

His memory wa.s retentive, his knowledge of 
iiuman nature quick and accurate, and in his 
judgment of the character of a client or witness 
he was seldom at fault. His argumcTits to C((urt 
or jui-y were concise and vigorous, alxiundingin 



14 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



apt illustrations and citations, expn?ssed in 
earm>st, simple laiiguagt>, but wnvoying a logic 
Vhicli was convincing. Wiicn oniv ongagvd in 
a CISC he made Ids client's cause his own and 
scrvcil him with i-aiv fidelity t<t tlic end. As an 
advisor he was raivfnl in forming his legal 
opinion, often giving to a question time and 
critiitil study entiivly out of proportion to its 
peenniary important ; but wiien his opinion 
was fornitti he firmly adheixnl to it, and was 
i-aivlv obligt^l to uuKlity it. His temjKn-ament 
and e-ast of mind weiv pi-e-eminently judicial, 
and if he had found it ctunpatiblc with his 
wishes to have actvpttxl the jH>sition on the 
bcncli of the Supivme Court, to which he was 
appt>intM, and ag-ain solicitwl to take, his in- 
timate knowUxlge of all mattei-s of practict' and 
j)i"occihnv would have bivn found of great ust> 
and his decisions have bivn a valuable additiou 
to the li-g-al literatuiv of the State, 

Mr. Faulkner ivpiisentcd Kcoue in the State 
Lttjislatuiv in ISol. 18o2, 1859 and 18G0; was 
cln>stni minierator twenty-two times, successively, 
in town-meeting, fn>m 18o7 to 1803, and was 
an alderman in the fii-st city gtn-eriuucut ; was 
i-ounty solicitor fwm 1 8-^o to 1 8(50 ; ct^mmissioner 
of eniMllment during the Relx>llion; was ap- 
pointtxJ assix"iate justice of the Supreme Court 
in 1874, but decliutxl to serve; was a member 
of the Constitutional Convention of 187G, luid 
held various other positions of honor and trust. 

He was lai-gely intcrt'steii in the s^x-ial busi- 
ni«s and financial life of Kwne ; was a director 
of the Cheshire National Bank and the Asliuelot 
National Ixink, and succtwltxi Mr. "S^'heele^ as 
j^ivsident of the Chesiiire Piwident Institution. 
Ilighlv valuixl asa financial advisoi', many sought 
and were pivfitcil by his judicious ci)unsel. 

In jx»liiics he was a stanch Repnbliam, one 
of the strongt-st local kadei-s of that psu-ty. and 
a pri>minent memlier of the State and Comitj- 
Committces. His upright character, stn>ng per- 
sonality, p^^itive c\>uvietions and jH>pularity 
gave him iufluence in all circles, and there was 
no one whi>se counsel was moiv sought in emer- 
gencies and whose judgment and foivsight did 
better service in seasonably detecting threatened 
evils and in devising the best means for the 
ginieral snxnl. Durinsr the vears of anxietv and 



sacrifice of the great Civil ^\ ar he laboreil loy- 
ally for the cause of the Union, and, by his un- 
tiring enthusiasm, able counsel and jwrsonal ef- 
forts, did nuieh more fi>r the «mse than he 
could have done in any other M-ay. 

In ivligion he was a Unitarian and an active 
memlxT of the society at Kivne, whose liberality 
in all chamtcls of religious influence was never 
found wanting. 

Mr. Faulkner niarrie»l, IVx-ember 18, 1849, 
Caivline, daughter of Hon. Phinehas Handerson. 
.He was very happy in his domestic life, and 
thc>se who did not si\> him in his home can 
hanlly be s:ud to have really known him. It 
was there that he threw off" the bunlens and jx^r- 
plexities of his busy lite and finind the only re- 
laxation he ever alloweil himself — in the society 
of his wife and chililreu. 

They lovingly remember how his natural 
buoyancy and love of fun, represseil by hours of 
exacting business, at home showe<l itself in play- 
ful jokes and in humorxHis anectlotes, and in join- 
ing, with the spirit of a boy, in all the gtimcs 
and sports of the children. 

His house was always open and he enter- 
tained with a gvneivus hospitality. His wide 
circle of friends and actiuaintanccs brought many 
distiuguishetl people as his guests, and Mrs. 
Faulkner, a lady of cidture, who survives him, 
presideil with a quiet dignit}- over his household 
and made the charm of tlie home circle com- 
plete. Their surviving children are Francis 

I Cluld, Ajtlmr and Charles Hem-v. Mr. Faulk- 

I . . . 

1 ner ditxl at his residence in Keene May 22, 1879. 

The following preamble and resolutions were 

I adoptwl by the Chesliin.' County bar as a tribute 

to his memory : 

■' In the course of Divine Providence, a most useful 
and honorable member of our profession, Mr. Francis 
A. Faulkner, has been taken from us by death. The 
i occasion is such as excites in us much and deep feel- 
I ing, which it is natural and right should find some 
. iippropriate expression, and, therefore, according to 
the usage which has long prevailed, the bar gives ex- 
pression to such feelings by the following resolutions : 
"1. That in the death of Mr. Faulkner the profes- 
sion has been deprived of one of its ablest and most 
1 useful members, whose learning and ability, inspired 
I and guided by the truest integrity, have singularly 
I illustrated and adorned the bar of the State and coun- 
! trr. His modest and unassomins manners have had 







/dl^^^^" 



BENCH AND BAR. 



15 



no small influence in cultivating the professional 
amenities and courtesies, which add so much to the 
pleasure of professional life, and redeem it from the 
opprobrium which in other times and places has been 
brought upon it by the unrestrained excesses of pro- 
fessional zeal. 

■'2. That we tender to the family of Mr. Faulkner 
our most respectful and earnest sympathy." 

LlEIT-CoI-. WlI-l.IAM HeXI!Y BlKT, SOU 

of Willard aud ^Martha (Wood) Burt, was born 
in Westmoreland, N. H., May 24, 1824. He 
was descended from Xcw England families of 
honor and respectability. His paternal line of 
descent is derived from James Burt, who sailed 
from London, England, to the Barbadoes in 
lf;3.5, and from there to Newport, R. I. (1639), 
afterwards to Taunton, Mass., where he was 
surveyor of highways in 1045, and took the 
oath of fidelity in 1()54. His will was proven 
March 2, lfi81. The line to Colonel William 
H. is James (1), James (2), Thomas (3), Henry 
(4), Sauuiel (5), Willar.l (6), William H. (7). 
On the maternal side he derived from the A\'ood 
family, well known in the PlyuKtuth colony, 
and through his maternal grandmother, IMartha 
(White) Wood, he was connected with one of 
the White families so prominent in New Eng- 
land history. Family tradition gives him as a 
lineal descendant of Peregrine White, of INIay- 
flower fame, but the stern realities of record 
seem to deny this, and to show his real White pro- 
genitor to be one who, in point of worth, character 
and position, stood even higher, — John White, 
the wealthiest pioneer and proprietor of Lan- 
caster, Mass., an Englishman of education, who 
was in Salem in 1639. " His descendants 
have almost universally held a respectable po- 
.sition in society and in the church. Some have 
risen to distinction in military and civil life." ' 
The line of descent is most probably John (1), 
one of the first j)lanters, captain, etc. ; Josiah 
(2), selectman, deacon, captain, etc. ; Josiah (3), 
representative, selectman, moderator and dea- 
con ; Jotham (4), probably the Major Jotham 
White mentioned in " History of Charlestown, 
N. H.," as quartermaster in Revolutionary 
War ; Martha (5), married Jonathan Wood, of 
Westmoreland, formerly of Fitchburg, Mass., 

' History of Lancaster. 



1785 ; Martha (Wood) Burt (6) ; William 
H. (7). 

Colonel Burt inherited a strong vitality from 
his ancestors, who, for several generations, were 
quiet agriculturists. [Plis grandfather, Samuel 
Burt, married Olive Lincoln, in Taunton, 
Ma.ss., in 1787 (she was descended from two 
leading families of that place, liincoln and 
Leonard), and settled in Westmoreland, N. H., 
as a pioneer, accompanied by a brother and a 
sister. These all attained irreat ases, Sanuu'l 
dying in 1850, almost ninety, and Olive in 
1843, in her- eighty-third year.] 

William passed his early years with his 
parents, who lived with his grandparents on the 
old homestead. He had the privileges of the 
district schools of those days, which, for the re- 
sult attained in self-reliance, mental discipline 
and strength of thought, have had few equals, 
and, attended as they were Ijy scholars ambi- 
tious to excel, instructed by capable teachers, 
and aided by the healthful discipline and at- 
mosphere of home-life, brought forth good 
fruit. His brother and sisters ranked hi<rh as 
scholars, aud the children were stimulated by 
their mother's influence to improve all oppor- 
tunities for intellectual culture. She, a woman 
of rare intelligence and al)ility, especially de- 
sired her sons to be liberally educated, and 
labored untiringly to guide and direct them in 
the paths of knowledge and virtue. Her warm 
sympathy and influence encouraged their asjjira- 
tions for higher education, and her impress was 
beneficial in no common measure to her chil- 
dren. 

When he was nineteen, William began teach- 
ing winter terms of schools, and also became 
interested in the study of phrenology and phys- 
iology, and qualified himself to lecture in the 
smaller places adjacent to his home, and was 
quite successfid. He carved, from a rough 
piece of sandstone, with his jack-knife, a speci- 
men head, which was creditable alike to his ar- 
tistic skill and his understanding of phrenology. 
He cherished a hope that he might fit himself 
for a professional life, and attended three terms 
at Mount Cffisar Academy, at Swanzey, N. H., 
after he was twenty-one, engaging in the in- 
terim in farm labor and as a daguerrean artist. 



BENCH AND BAR. 



17 



tliat he could give tlnni ii|i ;il iiiiy tinio. Un- 
der tlie eall Ibr six liiiiidied thousand men, 
August (i, 18G2, Governor It.inisey divided 
Minnesota into dislriets and appointed recruit- 
ing olliccrs. One of" iiis conunissioiis named 
William 11. Hurt as I'lcrniting officer lor (li(^ 
rarmiiig districts of Washington and Ciiisago 
Counties, wilh rank ol' second licutenanl. This 
was accompanied by orders to enlist a company 
Ibr I he Seventh Minnesota. Mr. Burt was 
on Ills way to dinner, August 7, 1862, when he 
received the notice of the appointment. He 
did not return to his office, but assigned to liis 
wife the care of his ]>apers and went at once to 
duty. lie was ein-olled and niuslere<l into ser- 
vice at St. Paul August Stii, and August Htli 
began to form his company. He enlisted a full 
eom])any — ninety-eight men — and re|>ortc(l for 
duty at Fort Snelling August 1 7(li. II is com- 
pany elected iiim captain August III, and lie 
was commissioned August "21, 1S(!2. His was 
appointed color company (C), and ordered into 
immediate service. 

The defenseless condition of Ihe fi'ontier in 
consequence of the removal of all regular sol- 
diers and movable armament, and (he departure 
of the five regiments of volunteers, ex|)osed the 
State to the horrors of Indian warfare. A con- 
spiracy of Indian tribes, led by the war-clii(>f 
of the Dakotahs, liittlc (^row, inaugurated 
the " Minnesota ISIassaere." I'rompt and de- 
cided action was required to suppress it. The 
new recruits, inexperienced and poorly c(piipped, 
were called upon to ])rot«'t the State. Angust 
2()th, Captain JJurt was ordered to march with 
('Ompanies (^ and I to Fort lli])ley. From 
there his comj)any was ordered to Chijipewa 
Agency to guard the govermnent stores and 
show the Chippewas the futility of any at- 
tempt at rebellion. A "<-ouncil of ])eace " with 
this tribe was soon held at ^^>rt Kipley, Cap- 
tain ]5iu"t being chosen one of' the members by 
the Governor, and by its action peaceful rela- 
tions were continued with the tribe. In this 
Captiun Burt rendt^red good service. A special 
session of the Legislature was called to consider 
the condition of affairs, and Captain ]iurt was 
particularly requested by the (Tovernor to attend 
as a member, and by special order he was 



[)laeed on detached service for that j>ur])ose 
and to secure ilut neeiled clothing for the poorlv- 
clad members of his company, who had Inn- 
riedly left their homes in sunumr dress, ex- 
pecting, after receiving a good military outfit, 
to enjoy a short furlough. The Legislature 
closed its session, the military clothing was ■ 
promised ; two days were taken for his person- 
al matters, in which time his books, papers 
and business were transferred to agents, his 
office vacated, and he was on his way to rejoin 
his company. His life hereafter was to be 
given to his coimtry in hard and exhausting 
service, which finally sai)ped (he strong vigor 
of his stalwart manhood and caused his untime- 
ly death. 

The Seventh Minnesota was assigned to 
duty as guard of th(^ Sioux prisonei's at Man- 
kato, where Captain's Burt's detachment joined 
them, and, November, 24, 18G2, his company 
was mustered into the United States .service. The 
military connni.ssion convened .sentenced three 
hundred of the captives to close confinement 
and thirty-nine to death. Thirty-eight of 
these brutal miu'derers were simultaneously ex- 
ecuted by hanging, December 2(), 18(j2. Caj)- 
tain Btn't, as officer of the day, received great 
credit for his services in carrying out this im- 
|)or(an( order. After guarding the three hun- 
dred ])risoners until spring, Captain Burt, with 
his comj)any, was detailed as military escort to 
convey the Sioux to Kock Island, which M^as 
successfidly done. He also took part in the 
campaign of the summer of 1863 against the 
hostile Indians and captured AYo-wi-uap-a, the 
sou of Litde ( 'row. This expedition drove the 
scattered hostiles beyond the Missonri, and the 
troops reported at Fort Snelling September 16, 
1863. 

Tlu! Seventh was now ordered to St. Tjiiuis, 
where it served until April 20, 1 8(j4, Cajitain Burt 
being commissioned major November 6, 1863. 
He was detailed as a member of a general court- 
martial to be convened April 14, 1864 ; but 
as his regiment was ordered South, he pre- 
ferred to go with it. The first station was 
Paducjdi, Ky., which place they guarded till 
June tilth, -when they were ordered to Mem- 
phis, and assigned to the Thii'd lirigade, First 



18 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Division, Sixteentii Army Corps, uuder Gene- 
ral A. J. Smith. From this time the service 
was hard, exliausting marching, coupled with 
deprivations and splendid fighting. lu the 
desperate three days' battle of Tupelo, Miss., 
July 12th, 13th and 14th, the regiment won 
high honors ; at the Tallahatchie, August 7th 
and Sth, again gained praise. In September 
the First Division made one of the hai'dcst 
marches of the war, in pursuit of General 
Price, through Arkansas and Missouri, — three 
hundred and twenty miles in nineteen days on 
ten days' rations. Another march ensued across 
the entire State of Missouri, the troops wading 
through mud and snow, and fording icy rivers. 
The corps participated in the great battle at 
Nashville, Deceml)er 15th and 16th, and after- 
wards joined in the jnirsuit of Hood through 
Tennessee. They then went to Clifton, Tenn., 
next to Eastjjort, Miss., then to New Orleans, 
and in March, 1865, to Dauphin Island, where 
the army wa.s reorganized for the siege of Mo- 
bile. 

March 20, 18ti5, the corps was landed on the 
e;ist side of Mobile Bay, and on the 25th 
marched to invest Spanish Fort, the principal 
eastern defense of Mobile. This fort ^vas in- 
vested March 27th, and reduced April Sth. The 
Seventh was constantly under fire, and bore the 
greater part of the labor and exposure of the siege. 
After the surrender of Fort Blakely, April 
9th, Mobile was occupied by the Union army. 
The Sixteenth Corps broke canip for a march to 
Montgomery, April 13th. From there the 
Third Brigade went to Selma, Ala., where the 
Seventh did garrison duty until it was ordered 
North to be nnistered out of service, and left 
Selma July 20th, and marched to Vicksburg. 
From there Major Burt was sent in advance 
of the regiment, first to St. Louis, then to Fort 
Snelling, Minn., to pi'epai'e muster-out rolls, 
and thus expedite the discharge of the men. 
The troops were discharged August 16, 1865, 
at Fort Snelling. 

Originally possessed of a strong constitution, 
the exposure of army life exhausted Major 
Burt's vitality, and although the surgi'ons rec- 
ommended a " sick leave " as absolutely essen- 
tial to recnperatc his strength, it was not 



granted by the corps commander, as such an 
efficient officer could not be spared. To him 
the muster out came too late. He returned to 
Keene ; but health never returned, and while on 
a visit to his only surviving sister (Mrs. Shar- 
lot A. West), at Worcester, ]\Iass., he died, 
March 15, 1866. He was commissioned 
brevet lieutenant-colonel United States volun- 
teers by President Johnson, March 20, 1866, 
the I'ank to date from April 8, 1865, " for gal- 
lant and meritorious services at the siege of 
Spanish Fort, Molnle Harbor, Alabama." 

Colonel Burt was a superior man. His ideal 
of life and its duties was high. He felt a sense 
of obligation to make the best use of all his 
faculties, and amid all discouraging circum- 
stances he preserved unweakened his integrity 
and independence. The structure of his char- 
acter was systematic, soli<l and substantial, and 
his manhood was firmly and com])a(^tly jiut to- 
gether. He had a tenacity of purpose that, 
with his positive nature, carried him to suc- 
cess where weaker men would have failed. His 
religious nature developed as a 2)rinci2de of 
right and duty, making him conscientiously 
honest and honoral)le in all the relations of 
life. Irreproachal)le in character, he sc(n'ned 
everything low and groveling, stood on the 
highest plane of temperance and purity, and 
won tiie enduring esteem of his associates. He 
was a devoted son, a strong friend and a valu- 
able member of society. 

The following estimates, from those well 
qualified to judge, will show his proper stand- 
ing as a man, soldier and lawyer. 

Governor Marshall, who served as lieutenant- 
colonel and colonel of the Seventli, and general 
of his brigade, wrote to Colonel Burt from the 
executive chair of Minnesota, December 29, 
1865, — " I am glad this long-delayed commis- 
sion (lieutenant-colonel) has been issued. You 
well earned such recognition of faithful .ser- 
vice." 

From an article in the St. Paul Press, writ- 
ten by a prominent gentleman of Minnesota, we 
make this extract, — " He loved the ^n-ofcssion 
of his choice and applied him.self to its .study 
with a zeal and intensity rarely excelled. His 
ability and industry soon secured for Jiim an 



BENCH AN]) BAR. 



19 



extensive practice and a position at the head of 
tlie bar at wliich he practiced, and he was 
retained on one side or other of almost all 
canses of importance. Owing to the character 
of the l)ii.sin('ss of the St. Croix Valley and the 
financial crisis of ls57-o8, tiie litigation was 
extensive and of a most imjiortaiit character. 
This brongiit him in contact with the best legal 
minds of the State, and as well at )usi jvius as 
at the bar of the Supreme Conrt he was re- 
gartled as among the best lawyers of the State. 
He was true to his client, and identified him- 
self, even to a fault, jierhaps, with tlie cause he 
advofsited. He was a man of exemjtlary habits 
and strict integrity. He was very reticent and 
his manners were somewhat abrupt, but a little 
lamiliarity with him discovered behind this ex- 
terior a heart alive to the kindliest sympathies 
of our nature. Lieutenant-Colonel Burt served 
three years as an officer of the Seventh ]\Iin- 
ncsota Volunteers, — first as captain of Com- 
pany C, and during the last two years as major 
of the regiment. His record as an officer was 
a most honorable one. Indeed, his life was 
sacrificed to his determination to remain on 
duty with his regiment until it should be mus- 
tered out. He never asked for a leave of ab- 
sence. He was at the post of duty always. 
At the battle of Tupelo, Miss., July, 1864 ; at 
the Tallahatchie, in August ; in the campaign 
in Arkansas and ilissouri after Price's army, 
in the fall of 1864; at the battles of Nashville, 
in December, where he conducted with distin- 
guished gallantry the skirmish line of his 
brigade ; at the siege of Spanish Foi-t, in the 
Mobile campaign, in March and April, 1865, 
he performed the whole duty of a soldier and an 
officer. For these services he was recommended 
by General ^Marshall and honorably promoted 
by commission from the President as brevet 
Lieutenant-colonel United States Volunteers." 

The eminent jurist. Judge S. J. R. Mcj\Iil- 
lan, writes, March 2(), 186(5, in a letter to ^Irs. 
Burt,- — "The relations of your husband and 
myself during a period of seven or eight years 
brought us much in contact, and affijrded me 
ample oj)portunity of estimating his character. 
During all my ac^juaintance with him I have 
ever had for him the highest regard and re- 



S])ect. He was a man of strict integrity and 
uprightness in his private and professional rela- 
tions, and as a lawyer I regard him as one of 
the ablest in the State. His professional ability 
secured him a retainer in almost all the impor- 
tant causes in the coiu't at the bar of whii'h he 
practiced, and brought him in contact with the 
leading lawyers of the State, and placed him 
in circumstances calculated to try every ele- 
ment of his character, and through all he bore 
himself manfully, and acquitted himself with 
great credit. Fraud, dishonesty and cliicanery 
he abhorred, and when presented in the course 
of his professional duty, he pursued it unre- 
mittingly. He was prompt and punctual in 
everything he had to do, and I do not remember 
an instance where a (^ause in which he was en- 
gaged, was called for trial, that he was unpre- 
pai'ed through any laelifs of his o^xn. You 
may well cherish his memory with pride." 

Charlks W. BiRT, oldest sou of Willard 
and Martha (Wood) Burt, and only brother of 
Lieutenant-Colonel William H. Burt, was born 
in Westmoreland, N. H., November 6, 1820. 
He attended, su2)plementary to his course at 
district schools, Mount Ciesar and Lebanon 
Academies, and two years at Norwich (Vt.) 
University. He was a thorough student, 
stood high in his classes, and was a popular 
teacher of district schools for some years. He 
studied law with Hon. Levi Chamberlain, 
was admitted to the bar at Keene, and jjrac- 
tised his profession at Colebrook, N. H., from 
1848 to 1854, when he removed to Detroit, 
Mich., and engaged in practice. In 1855 he 
formed a partnership with A. B. Maynard, 
Esq., of that city, which continued until the 
untimely death of Mr. Burt, April 11, 1859. 
Mr. Maynard says of him, — "During our en- 
tire partnership our relations were of the jjleas- 
antest character. He \vas a gentleman of 
decided ability, and no young lawyer in the 
city had a better reputation, both for legal 
learning and al)ility and for the pui'ity and 
uprightness of his character. In his habits he 
was simple and unassuming, and remarkable 
for his industry. Had his life been spared, 
he would, in my judgment, have stood at the 
very head of the bar of ^lichigan as a learned. 



20 



HISTORY OF CHKSlllRK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



able and ttoiisciciilidus lawyer." From the re- 
port of a mei'tiiig of tlie Detroit bar we ex- 
tract, — " Leadinj^ lawyers paid brief, but feel- 
ing and earnest, tributes of respeet to the 
personal worth of Mr. Burt, and of regard for 
his high ptjrsonal charaeter. They spoke of 
him as they kni'w him, — as the modest, retiring, 
yet self-reliant man ; as an earnest seeker after 
truth and justice at all times; as the determined 
hater of what was vicious and wrong ; as the 
warm-hearted, sympathetic man and friend, 
making sacrifices (when he hoped to accom- 
plish good) which few would have done, and 
that' few knew of; as the untiring, indefatigable 
student, the lawyer of sound judgment, exten- 
sive research and of growing, solid reputation. 
These tributes paid to one who had not reached 
life's mid-S})ace were a.s sincere, hearty and 
flattering expressions of opinion as have ever 
been paid, within our knowledge, to a young 
naember of the Deti'oit bar, and, coming from 
the senior members of the profession, attest the 
professional worth and great promise of Mr. 
Burt." 

Among other members of the bar are men- 
tioned J. Henry Elliot, George A. Wheelock, 
C. C. Webster, Edward Farrar (clerk of courts, 
police justice and ex-mayor), F. S. Fiske, Har- 
vey Carleton, Don H. Woodward, Horatio Col- 
ony (ex-mayor), Silas Hardy (ex-judge of Pro 
bate), C. F. Webster, George Ticknor, Hiram 
Blake, L. W. Holmes, E. P. Dole, Francis C. 
Faulkner, Daniel K. Healey, Alfred T. Batch- 
elder (mayor), C. H. Hersey and J. P. Abbott. 

(For additional notices, .see town histories). 

The present members of the Cheshire bar arc 
as follows : 

Edward Farrar (clerk of court), of Keene; John T. 
Abbott (Hersey & Abbott), of Keene ; Alfred T. Batch- 
elder (Batchelder & Faulkner), of Keene; Hiram 
Blake, of Keene; Edmund P. Dole (Lane & Dole, 
also county solicitor), of Keene; William Henry El- 
liot, of Keene; Francis C. Faulkner (Batchelder & 
Faulkner), of Keene; Silas Hardy, of Keene; Daniel 
K. Healey, of Keene ; Farnum F. Lane (Lane & 
Dole), of Keene ; C. Fred. Webster, of Keene ; Leon- 
ard Wellington, of Keene ; Don H. Woodward, of 
Keene; Hosea W. Brigham, of Winchester; Edmund 
M.Forbes, of Winchester; E.J. Temple, of Hinsdale; 
Josiah G. Bellows (also judge of Probate), of Walpole; 
Bolivar Lovell, of Walpole ; E. M. Smith, of Alstead ; 



Amos J. Blake, of Fitzwilliam ; Jesse B. Twiss, o 
Jalfrey. 

Retired Members of the Cheshire County Bar. 
George A. Wheelock, of Keene; John Henry El- 
liot, of Keene; Horatio Colony, of Keene; Harvey 
Carlton, of Winchester ; John H. Fox, of Jaft'rey. 



CHAPTER III. 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

BY HIRAM BLAKK. 

Cheshire Raieroad. — No event in the 
history of Cheshire County has resulted in such 
substantial benetit to its inhabitants as the 
construction of the Cheshire Railroad. 

From 1830 to 1840 the manufacturing in- 
terests of the county had largely increased. 
Woolen and cotton-mills had been ei-ected on 
many of the numerous .streams w'ithin the 
county, affording excellent watcr-])ower. 

Considerable forests of excellent timber yet 
remained ready to be converted into lumber. 
Various kinds of wooden-ware were manu- 
factured, and ready markets for these commod- 
ities were found in Boston and other towns on 
the New England seaboard. 

The difficulty of transporting heavy freight 
by the slow process of horse-power was a serious 
drawback to these enterprises, and the want of 
railroad communication within the county bcaan 
to be seriously felt. 

As early as 1840 the subject of a railroad 
through the country began to be earnestly dis- 
cu.ssed. 

A charter for the Cheshire Railroad, extend- 
ing from the State line between Massachusetts 
and New Hampshire to Bellows Falls, Vt., 
was obtained December 27, 1844. On 
July 1, 1845, it was consolidated with the 
Winchendon Railroad Comj^anj', chartered in 
Massachusetts, March 13, 1845, and extending 
from South Ashburnham, Mass., to the New 
Hampshire line. This consolidated line forms 
the Cheshire corporation as it exists at the 
present time. 

The opening of the road was the occasion of 
great rejoicing to the citizens of Keeue and 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



21 



( licsliire County. Tlie event was celebrated in 
Kcene with gi'eat splendor May 16, 1848. 

The day was muisnally fine, and about five 
thousand people, from different parts of the 
county and vicinity, attended the celebration. 

A train from Boston, consisting of fift(«n 
cars well filled with people, drawn by two pow- 
erful engines, gaily decorated with flags, ever- 
greens and flowers, arrived at half-past one I'.m. 

Its aj>proach was announced, when four miles 
from town, by the discharge of a gun two miles 
distant. This was followed l)y others stationed 
along the line, and as it entered the town it was 
welcomed l)y the ringing of bells, the cheers of 
thousands and the raj)id discharge of cannon. 

The Suffolk IJrassBand, of Boston, accompa- 
nied the train and furnished excellent music for 
the occasion. 

A large procession proceeded to the town hall, 
where a meeting of the stockholders was held; 
after which the procession was reformed and 
marched back to the dejwt, where fifteen hini- 
dred peo[)le partook of a sumptuous baiKjuet 
l>reparc(l by the citizens of Keeue. 

After dinner Hon. Levi Chamberlain, in an 
appropriate speech, welcomed the assemblage to 
Keene. Hon. Thomas M. Edwards, president 
of the cor[)oration, followed ; after which 
speeches were made and sentiments offered by 
many eminent citizens of Boston and other 
parts of Xew England. At the hour of de- 
parture the train moved off on its way to Bos- 
ton amid the cheers of the assembled multitude. 

The remaining portion of the road, from 
Keene to Bellows Falls, Vt., was completed 
January 1, 1849. 

The Cheshire Railroad is the connecting-link 
between Boston [via Rutland), and Burlington. 
It extends thi'ough the county from Winchen- 
don, ]\Iass., through the southwest corner of 
Rindge, through Fitzwilliam, Troy, Marlbor- 
ough, Keene, southwest corner of Surry, West- 
moreland and Walpole, where it crosses the 
Connecticut River at Bellows Fulls, in Vermont. 

The entire length of the road is fifty-three 
and one-half miles. Within the county it is 
forty-two and three-fourths miles. It is one 
of the most thoroughly-constructed roads in 
the country. Its bridges, culverts and abut- 



ments, built of cut granite, are models of civil 
engineering. The general management, from 
the beginning, has been excellent, and its o^jcra- 
tion unusually free from accidents. 

The cost of the road and equipments amounted 
to $2,717,535.26. The ammal receipts for 1884 
were $586,685.02 ; the ex]icnditurcs for the 
same year, $4(i."),575.7!l. 

Four gentlemen have acted as presidents of 
the road during its existence of thirty-.seven 
years, namely, Hon. T. i\I. Edwards, Thomas 
Thatcher, E. Murdoch, -Ir., and Him. William 
A. Ru.ssell. 

Superintendents, B. F. Atlams, L. Tilton, E. 
A. Cliapin and Reuben Stewart; Treasurers, 
C. J. Everett, F. W. Everett and F. H. Kings- 
bury; Master Mechanics, David Upton, George 
W. Perry and F. A. Perry. 

Mr. Stewart, the present superintendent, is a 
veteran in the .service of the company. He 
commenced his service for the road in 1845, 
and was employed three years in its construc- 
tion. He subsecpiently served as ticket agent, 
general freight agent, cashier and auditor. He 
was assistant superintendent for two years un- 
der Mr. E. A. Cliapin, and has held the office 
of superintendent for the past twenty years. 

AsiiUELOT Railroad. — Before the comple- 
tion of the Cheshire Railroad measures for build- 
ing a railroad through the fertile and populous 
valley of the Ashuelot River were already taken. 
The Ashuelot Railroad was incori>orated July 
10, 1846, and the first meeting fi)r organization 
under the charter was called at Winchester 
May 27, 1848. 

John H. Fuller, Es(j., of Keene, was cho.scTi 
president; Francis Boyden, of Hinsdale, clerk. 

In November, 1849, the company contracted 
with Messrs. Boody, Ross & Co., of Spring- 
field, Ma.ss., for building the road, and the work 
was speedily pushed to completion. 

On the 9th of December, 1850, the road was 
opened for public travel. 

This road extends from Keene to South Ver- 
non, Vt., a distance of twenty-three and three- 
fourths miles. Its length in Cheshire County 
is twenty-three miles. 

As it leaves Keene it passes through Swan- 
zey, Winche.ster and the southern part of Ilius- 



22 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tliile ; tlioiice crossing the Connecticut Eiver at 
South Vernon, Vt. It follows the beautiful 
valley of the Ashuelot River, which affords 
abundant water-power, a considerable portion 
of which is improved and a great variety of 
manufactures is carried on. The road is of a 
very light grade and one of the best-constructed 
roads in New England. 

In 1850 the company leased the road to the 
Connecticut River Railroad for a terra of ten 
years, from January 1, 1851, at a rent of thirty 
thousand dollars per year. 

At the expiration of this lease it was leased 
to the Cheshire Railroad until January, l,S(i5, at 
twelve thousand dollars per annum. 

The road continued to be operated by the 
Cheshire Company until April 21, 1877, when 
it was again leased to the Counectieut River 
Road at a rental of thirty per cent, of its gross 
earnings, under which management it uow re- 
mains. 

The cost of the road, with equipments, to 
1875, amounted to five hundred thousand 
dollars. 

The receipts and expenditures are included in 
the accounts of the Connecticut River road. 

Sullivan County Railroad. — The Sulli- 
van County Railroad, extending from Bellows 
Falls, A^'t., to Windsor, in the same State, a 
distance of twenty-six miles, was incorporated 
July 10, 1846, and completed February 5, 1849. 

This road crosses the Connecticut River at 
Bellows Falls, and, miming mainly through 
Sullivan County, N. H., recrosses the river at 
Windsor. 

Nearly two miles of this road run through 
the northwest portion of Walpole, in Cheshire 
County, where the growing village of North 
Walpole is situated. 

This road is operated by the Connecticut 
River Railroad, and with the latter forms a part 
of the Central Vermont system. 

Concord and Claremont Railroad. — 
The original charter for this road, extending 
from Concord to the Sullivan Railroad, in or 
near the town of Claremont, was obtained June 
24, 184S. 

The corporation, as it now exists, is a con- 
solidation of the Contoocook Valley, Merri- 



mack and Connecticut Rivers and Sugar River 
Railroads. 

The first-named branch extends from llop- 
kiuton, through Henniker, to Hillsborough 
Bridy;e, a distance of fifteen miles. This road 
was also chartered June 24, 1S4S, and com- 
pleted in December, 1849. 

The Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers por- 
tion, constructed under the original charter, 
extends from Concord, through Hopkinton, 
Warner, the southern portion of Sutton, to 
Bradford, a disbuice of twenty-seven miles. It 
was completed July 10, 1850. 

The Sugar River portion extends from Brad- 
ford, through Newbury, in the county of Mer- 
rimack, and through Suuapee and Newport, to 
Claremont Junction, on the Sullivan Railroad, 
a distance of twenty-nine miles. It was incor- 
porated July 2, 1866, and completed for travel 
in Se2)tember, 1872. 

The consolidation of the three branches above 
mentioned was effected October 31, 1873, and 
the entire length of the road is seventy-one 
miles. Its length in Sulivan County is about 
eighteen miles. It is now under the same man- 
agement as the Northern Railroad. 

MoNADNOCK Railroad. — -The Monad nock 
Railroad was incorporated December 13, 1848; 
the charter was revived July 6, 1866. It was 
completed for travel June 10, 1871, and ex- 
tends from Winchendon, Mass., through Rindge 
and JafFrey, to Peterborough, a distance of fif- 
teen and four-fifths miles. Its length in Che- 
shire County is about ten miles. 

Leaving Winchendon, it passes through a low 
valley between the hills in Rindge until it 
reaches the head-waters of the Contoocook 
River, near the village of West Rindge. It 
then follows down the valley of Contoocook to 
East JafFrey, and thence to Peterborough. 

The Upper Contoocook furnishes consider- 
able water-power. Cotton and wooden-ware 
mills ai'e located along its course in Rindo-e and 
Jaffrey, and this road has been of great benefit 
to these towns. 

The cost of this road amounted to the sum 
of §366,829.47. The annual receipts for 1884 
were §27,342.39; the expenditures for 1884, 
$22,009.01. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



23 



J. Livingston, of Peterborough, was its first 
j)resideiit, and C. A. Parks, of JaflFrey, treas- 
urer. After its completion it was operated by 
the company until October 1, 1874, when it 
was leased to the Boston, Barre and Gardiner 
road for ninety-nine years. 

The lease was transferred to the Cheshii-e 
Railroad January 1, 1880, for six years, at a 
rental of twelve thousand dollars per annum, 
with the option of extending the same for fif- 
teen years thereafter. 

The road is still ojierated by the Cheshire 
Company. 

Manchester and Keene Railroad. — 
This road was incorporated July 10, 1864; its 
<liarter was extended June 24, 1870, and June 
26, 1874. 

It leaves Keene and runs easterly through 
the southwest corner of Roxbury, through 
Marlborough and Harrisville, to Hillsborough 
C^'ounty line ; thence through Hancock to its 
terminus, at Greenfield. 

Its entire length is twenty-six miles ; its 
length in Cheshire County is nearly thirteen 
miles. The scenery along the route, for variety 
and grandeur, is equal to any in the State. 



The building of the road was commenced in 
the summer of 1876, and after considerable 
delay, occasioned by the failure of contractors, it 
was completed on the 29th of November, 
1878. 

The last spike was driven by Hon. Samuel W. 
Hale, one of the directors of the road. 

On the following day an engine and well- 
filled passenger-car passed over the road, and its 
arrival in Keene was witnessed by a large num- 
ber of spectators. 

April 30, 1880, the Supreme Court, in be- 
half of the bondholders, appointed George A. 
Ramsdell, of Nashua, receiver, who rej^aired 
and commenced running the road. 

On the 1st of September, 1880, the mortgage 
trustees took possession of the road liy order of 
court, and operated it until October 26, 1881, 
when it was sold by them at auction for one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars to 
Hon. S. W. Hale, who afterwards transferred 
his title to the Boston and Lowell and Cont'ord 
Railroads, which corjiorations contLnued its oper- 
ation. 

It is now in good repair and forms a part 
of the Boston and Lowell system. 



HISTORY OF KEENE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Geographical— Original Grant by Massachusetts— First 
Proprietors' Meeting — Laying out the Grant — Early 
Votes — First Settlements— The Pioneers — The Indian 
Troubles — Building of the Fort- Josiah Fisher killed by 
Indians — Further Depredations of the Savages — The 
Settlement Abandoned. 

The town (ifKcene lies near the centre of 
the county and is boiimletl as follows : On 
the north by W^estnioreland, Surry and Gilsum ; 
cast by Sullivan and Roxbury ; south by Swan- 
zey and west by Chesterfield and Westiuorehind. 

The territory embraced within the bounds of 
the present town of Keene, together with a por- 
tion of Sullivan and Roxbury, was one of the 
Massachusetts grants, made in accordance with 
a vote of the General ('ourt of that province of 
July, 173-}. On the 19th of October following 
a committee, consisting of Joseph Kellogg, Tim- 
othy D wight ;ind William Chandler, was ap- 
pointed to lay out the townshij)s on Ashuelot 
River forthwith. They reported in Fel)ruary, 
1734, and the township was lotted iu May or 
June following. The first proprietors' meeting 
was held in Concord, Mass., June 2(j, 1734, and 
in Sejjtember following Jeremiah Hall, Daniel 
Hoar, Josiah Fisher, Elisha Root, Nathaniel 
Rockwood, Seth Heaton and William Puffer vis- 
ited Upper Ashuelot, as the place was called, and 
held a proprietors' meeting. They did not ar- 
rive at the line of the township until late in 
the evening of the ISth, the day to which the 
meeting was adjourned; and, as soon as their 
pilot informed them they had pa.ssed it, they 
opened the meeting and adjourned to the next 
day. 

At the meeting held the next day a vote was 
passed thai tli(^ wliolc of Ijic intcrvtile land in 
24 



the township should be surveyed, and that half 
of it should be lotted out in two inclosures, one 
so situated as to accommodtite the fifty-four 
liouse-lots laid out on the village plain, the 
other so as to accommodate the nine house-lots 
laid out on Swanzey line. A committee was 
also appointed " to search and find out the best 
:uk1 most convenient way to travel from the 
upper unto the lower township." 

At this period Upper Ashuelot was a frontier 
settlement, iu the bosom of the wilderness. It 
was, of course, most exposed to savage incur- 
sions, and was liable to suffer, in their ex- 
tremity, all those distresses and calamities which 
may be alleviated, if not prevented, by the 
tissistance and good offices of others. Its near- 
est neighbor was Northfield, twenty miles dis- 
tant; Winchester, which was first granted, not 
being then settled, or containing at most not 
more than two or three huts. 

The next meeting of the proprietors was held 
at Con(!ord, Mass., on the last Wednesday of 
May, 1735. The committee ajipointed to sur- 
vey the intervale land made a report. The lots 
they had laid out contained eight acres; and, as 
they were not all equal in tpiality, the propri- 
etors voted that certain euumerated lots should 
htive qualification, or allowance, to consist of 
from two to four acres each, tmd appointed 
a committee to lay out these allowances. The 
practice of qualifying lots, thus introduced, was 
afterwards pursued, and occasioned great irreg- 
ularity iu the future allotments of land. 

At this meeting a committee was appointed 
" to join with such as the lower town propri- 
etors shall appoint, to search and find out 
whether the ground will admit of a convenient 
road from the two townships on Ashuelot River 
down to the town of Townsend." 



KEENE. 



25 



At a subsequent meeting, held in Septembei- 
of the same year, in the township, the pi'opri- 
etors were assessed in the sum of sixty j'ounds, 
and a committee was " appointed to bill out this 
money according to the proprietors' directions." 
It appears Iiy the record, that the mode of 
hilling out the money remaining in the treasury 
was often practiced. ,\ committee was also ap- 
pointed to lay out a road to the saw-mill place, 
whicli is about three-(|uarters of a mile north 
from the house-lots. A vote was also passed 
ottering one hundred acres of "middling good 
land " and twenty-five pounds to any person or 
persons who would engage to build a saw-mill, 
and saw boards for the proprietors, at twenty 
shillings per thousand, and slit-work for £Z lOg. 
per thousand. John Corbet and Jesse Root 
appeared and undertook to build the mill, and 
a committee was thereupon appointed to lay 
out the land. The mill was to be finished by 
the 1st day of July, 1736. Under date of 
May, 1 73o, appears a record of the expense of 
laying out the second division of lots. The 
surveyor was allowed fifteen shillings (seventy 
cents), four others were allowed twelve shillings 
and two others ten shillings per day. 

On the 30th day of September, 1 736, a meet- 
ing of the proprietors was opened, according to 
appointment, at the house-lot of Joseph Fisher, 
but was immediately removed to the hou^se of 
Nathan Blake. This house was probal)ly the first 
erected in the township. xV committee was 
appointed " to agree with a man to build a 
grist-mill," and they were authorized to offer 
" not exceeding forty pounds encouragement 
therefor." The proprietors also voted to build 
a meeting-house at the south end of the town 
street, at the place appointed by the General 
Court's committee, to be forty feet long, twenty 
feet stud and thirty-five feet wide, and to lay 
boards for the lower floor — the house to be 
finished by the 26th day of June, 1737. 

At the same meeting a vote was passed to 
widen the main street, which was originally but 
four rods wide. It provided that, if the pro- 
]irietors of the house-lots on the west side of 
the street would surren<ler four rods in depth 
on the end of their lots adjoining the street, 
they should luu'e it made up in quantity iu the 



rear. This proposition was acceded to, and to 
this measure the village is indebted for its broad 
and elegant main street. 

No person had hitherto attempted to remain 
through the winter in the township. Those 
who came in the siunmer to clear their lands 
brought their provisions with them, and erected 
temporary huts to shelter them from the weather. 
In the summer of 1736 at least one house 
was erected ; and three persons, Nathan Blake, 
Setli Heaton and William Smeed, — the two first 
from AV'rentham and tlie last from Deerfield, — 
made preparations to pass the winter in the 
wilderness. Their house was at the south end 
of the street. Blake had a pair of oxen and a 
horse, and Heaton a horse. For the support of 
these, they collected grass in the open spots; 
and in the first part of the winter they employe<l 
tliem in drawing logs to the saw-mill, which 
had just been completed. Blake's horse fell 
through the ice of Beaver Brook and was 
drowned. In the beginning of February their 
own provisions were exhausted, and to oljtaiti 
a suj)ply of meal, Heaton was dispatched to 
Xorthfield. There were a few families at Win- 
chester, but none able to furnish what was 
wanted. Heaton procured a quantity of meal ; 
but before he left Northfield the suow began to 
fall, and when, on his return, he arrived at Win- 
chester, it was uncommonly deep, and covered 
with a sharp crust. He was told "that he might 
as well expect to die iu Northfield and rise 
again in Upper Ashuelot, as ride tliithcr on 
horseback." Remembering the friends he had 
left there, he nevertheless determined to make 
the attem])t, Init had proceedei^l but a short 
distance when he found that it would be impos- 
sible to succeed. He then returned, and directed 
his course towards Wreutham. Blake and 
Smeed, hearing nothing from Heaton, gave tlie 
oxen free access to the hay, lefl Ashuelot, and 
on snow shoes proceeded either to Deerfield or 
Wrentham. Anxious for their oxen, they 
returned early in the spring. They found them 
near the Branch, southeast of Carpenter's, much 
emaciated, feeding upon twigs and such grass as 
was bare. The oxen recognized their owner, 
and exhibited such pleasure at tlie meeting as 
drew tears from his eyes. 



26 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



At a meeting of the proprietors, held May 12, 
1737, they voted to assess sixty pounds on the 
projtrietors of the house-lots for the purpose of 
hiring a gospel minister, and ehose a committee 
to agree with some meet person to preach the 
gospel among them. Tliis meeting was ad- 
journed, to be held at the meeting-house place 
on the 20th of May. On the day apjiointed it 
was there opened, but was immediately removed 
to the intervale land, and there a vote was passed 
that another division of meadow land should be 
made. A committee was also chosen to "rep- 
resent tiiis propriety in applying to, and receiv- 
ing of, the Honourable, the General Court's 
committee fur this township, the money granted 
to said proprietors when they shall have the 
frame of a meeting-house raised, and forty 
projjrietors settled on the spot." 

The next meeting was held at the meeting- 
house frame, June 30th. Jeremiah Hall was 
recompensed for his services in searching for 
and laying out a road to Townsend, and two 
others were added to the committee appointed 
to apply to the General Court's conunittee "tor 
the one hundred pounds" mentioned in the 
proceedings of the last meeting. It was also 
voted "that no meeting of the proprietors be 
held, for the fliture, but at this place, so long as 
there shall be seven proprietors inhabiting 
here." 

At a meeting held October 2(jth a vote was 
passed that the " worthy Mr. Jacob Bacon should 
draw for the second division of meadow land, 
for the whohi propriety." This is the first time 
that the name of Mr. Bacon, who was the first 
settled minister of the town, is mentioned in the 
records. 

At the same meeting a vote was passed to 
lay out one hundred acres of upland to each 
house-lot or right. The proprietors were to 
draw lots for choice, and he who drew No. 1, 
was to make his pitch by a certain day; and 
those who drew the successive numbers on suc- 
cessive days, excluding Sundays, thus "giving 
every man his day." Each lot was surveyed by 
a committee, in such place and in such shape as 
the proprietor drawing it directed. Some of 
the plans recorded in the proprietors' records 
exhil)it figures which Euclid never imagined, 



and probably could not measure. Common 
land was left in every part of the township, in 
pieces of all sizes and shapes. 

Although the whites were at this time at 
peace with the Indians, yet, deeming it not pru- 
dent to remain without some means of defense, 
the proprietors at this meeting voted that they 
would finish the fort, which was already begun, 
and that every one that should work or had 
worked at said fort should bring in his account 
to the surveyor of highways and should be al- 
lowed therefor on his highway tax-bill. This 
fort was situated on a small eminence a few rods 
north of the present residence of Lemuel Hay- 
ward. When completed it was altout ninety 
feet square ; there were two ovens and two wells 
in the inclosure. It was built of hewn logs. 
In the interior, next to the walls, were twenty 
barracks, each having one room. On the out- 
side it was two stories high, in the inside but 
one, the roof over the barracks sloping inwards. 
In the space above the barracks were loop-holes 
lo fire from with muskets. There were two 
watch-houses, one at the southeast corner and 
one on the western side, each erected on four 
high posts set ujiriglit in the earth ; and for 
greater safety, the \vhole was surrounded by 
pickets. 

January 7, 1740, a meeting of the propriet(-)rs 
was held. In the warrant calling it, an article 
was inserted " To make such grant or grants of 
land to such person oi- persons as they shall 
think deserve the same tor hazarding their lives 
and estates by living here to bring forward the 
settling of the place." Upon this article the 
following vote was passed, which probably gives 
the names of nearly all the men then residintr 
in the township and the number of dwellings 
erected : 

" Voted, to grant ten acres of upland to each of the 
persons hereafter named, viz. : .Jacob Bacon, clerk ; 
Josiah Fisher, Joseph Fisher, Nathan Blake, William 
Smeed, Seth Heaton, Joseph Ellis, Ebenezer Nims, 
Joseph Guild, Joseph Richardson, Isaac Clark, Ed- 
ward Dale, Jeremiah Hall, Ebenezer Force, Daniel 
Haws, Amos Foster, Ebenezer Day, Beriah Maccaney, 
Jabez Hill, Obed Blake, Jeremiah Hall, Jr., David 
Nims, Timothy PutFer, Ebenezer Daniels, Nathan 
Fairbanks, John Bullard, David Foster, Solomon 
Richardson, Abner Ellis, Henjamin (Juild, Asa Rich- 



KEENE. 



27 



ardson, Ebeuezer Hill, Saimiel Fisher, Kjihraim Dor- 
man, Timothy Sparbawk, Jouathaii Uiulerwood, John 
Andrews, Samuel Smith, Samuel Daniels (39), and to 
such other persons having an interest here, who, from 
the first of next March to March, 1742, shall make 
up the quantity or space of two years in living here, 
and build a legal dwelling-house, to the number ol 
sixty, including those before mentioned." 

A rumor of" war liaving- reached tlie towii- 
shij), the proprietors, Febniar)' 25tli, voted 
that they would build another fort whenever 
seven of the jii'oprietors should re<|uest it. It is 
not known that this fort was ever built. They 
also voted that there should be allowed for 
every man who should work uj^ou the forts 
eight shillings, and for every pair of oxen four 
shillings, per day. 

The long and spirited contest between the 
provinces of Massachusetts and New Hamj)- 
shire, respecting the divisional line between 
them, had been carried before tiio King in Coun- 
cil, and, in 1740, a decision was made that 
from a point three miles north of Pawtueket 
Falls the line should run due west until it 
reached His Majesty's other governuients. This 
left Upper Ashuelot far within the boundaries 
of New Hampshire. Upon this subject the 
l)roprietors, on the 3d day of October, held a 
meeting, and the following proceedings appear 
upon their records : 

" The proprietors being informed that by the deter- 
mination of his majesty in council, respecting the 
controverted bounds between the province of Massa- 
chusetts and New-Hampshire, they are excluded from 
the province of the Massachusetts Bay, to which they 
always supposed themselves to belong. 

"Therefore, unanimously voted that a petition be 
presented to the King's most excellent majesty, set- 
ting forth our distrest estate, and praying we may be 
annexed to the said Massachusetts province. 

"Also unanimously voted, that Thomas Hutchin- 
son, Esq., be empowered to present the said petition 
to his majesty, and to appear and fully to act for and 
in behalf of this town, respecting the subject matter 
of said petition, according to his best discretion." 

Mr. Hutchinson had previously been ap- 
pointed the agent of ^lassachusetts to jirocure 
an alteration of the order in Council. He made 
a voyage to England, but failed to accomplish 
the object of his agency. 

On the 10th of July, Deacon Josiah Fishc]- 
was killed as he was driving his cow to pasture. 



The road leading up the; river then left the 
main street by Mr. Lamson's tan-yard, led 
along the margin of the meadow, back of his 
house, crossed West Street a few rods west of 
Aaron Hall's house and continued up the I'iver, 
near the adjoining low land, until it came upon 
the route of the present turnpike above Deacon 
Wilder's house, now occupied as a tavern. 
Fisher was found dead and scalped in the road, 
near where the Lam.son Block now stands, 
and it was supposed that the Indian who shot 
him was concealed behind a log which then lay 
within the present limits of Mr. Lamson's gar- 
den. He had a brass slug in his wrist, which, 
<it the time, was conjectured to have been cut 
from a warming-pan that had lately been lost 
by one of the inhabitants. 

In the early part of the year 1746 the Gen- 
eral Coiu-t of Massachusetts sent a party of men 
to Canada, for what purpose was not generally 
Ivuown. On their return they passed through 
Upper Ashuelot. On arriving in sight of the 
settlement they fired their guns. This, of course, 
alarmed the iniiabitants, and all who were out- — 
and several were in the woods making sugar — 
hastened home. From some cause or other sus- 
]iicion was entertained that a party of Indians 
had followed the returning whites, and for sev- 
eral days the settlers were more vigilant and 
more circumspect iu their movements, seldom 
leaving the fort, except to look after their cattle, 
which were in the barns and at the stacks in 
the vicinity. 

Early in the morning of the 23d of A]iril, 
Ephraim Dorman left the fort to search for his 
cow. He went northwardly, along the borders 
of what was then a hideous and almost imper- 
vious swamp, lying east of the fort, until he 
arrived near to the j'lace wiiere the turnjiike 
now is. Looking into the swamp, he perceived 
several Indians lurking in the bushes. He 
immediately gave the alarm, by crying " In- 
dians ! Indians!" and ran towards the fort. 
Two, who were concealed iu the bushes between 
him and the fort, sprang forward, aimed their 
pieces at him and fired, but neither hit him. 
They then, throwing away their arms, advanced 
towards him ; one he knocked down by a blow, 
which deprived him of his senses ; the other ho 



28 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



seized, and, beiug a strong man and able 
wrestler, tried his strength and skill in his 
favorite mode of " trip and twiteh." He tore 
his antagonist's blanket from his shoulder, leav- 
ing him nearly naked. He then seized him bv 
the arms and body ; but as he was painted and 
greased, he slipped from his grasp. After a 
sliort struggle, Dormau (juitted him, ran to- 
wards tlie fort and reached it in safety. 

Wiien tiie alarm was given, the greater i)art 
of tiie iiduibitants were in the fort ; but some 
had just left it to attend to tlieir rattle. Cap- 
tain Simms, the commander, as was the custom 
every morning before prayers, was reading a 
chapter in the Bible. He inuuediately exclaimed, 
" Rush out, and assist those wlio are out to get 
in ! " Most of the men immediately rushed out, 
and each ran where his interest or affections led 
him ; tiie remainder chose positions in the fort, 
from whicii they could lire on the enemy. 

Those who were out, and within hearing, 
instantly started for the fort ; and the Indians, 
from every direction, rushed into the street, fill- 
ing the air with their usual horrid yell. Mrs. 
McKenny had gone to the barn, near where 
Miss Fiske's house now stands, to milk her 
cow. She was aged ami corpulent, and could 
only walk slowly. When she was within a few 
rods of the fort, a naked Indian, proliably the 
one with whom Dorman had been wrestling, 
darted from the bushes on the east side of the 
street, ran up to her, stabbed her iu the back, 
and crossed to the other side. She continued 
walking, in the same steady pace as before, 
until she had nearly reached the gate of tlie 
fort, when the blood gushed from her moutii, 
and she fell and expired. John Bullardwas at 
his barn, below Dr. Adams' ; he ran towards 
the fort, but the instant he arrived at the gate, 
he received a shot iu his back. He fell, was 
carried in and expired in a few hours. Mrs. 
Clark was at a liarn, near the Todd house, 
about fifty rods distant. Leaving it, she espied 
an Indian near her, who threw away his gun, 
and advanced to make her a prisoner. She 
gathered her clothes around her M'aist, and 
started for the fort. The Indian pursued ; the 
woman, animated by cheers from her friends, 
outran her pursuer, who skulked back for liis 



gun. Nathan Blake was at his barn, near 
where his son's house now stands. Hearing 
the cry of Indians, and presuming his barn 
would be burnt, lie determined tliat his cattle 
should not be l)urnt with it. Throwing open 
his stable-door, he let them loose, and presum- 
ing his retreat to the fort was cut off, went out 
at a back-door, intending to place himself in 
ambush at the only ])lace where the river could 
be crossed. He had gone but a few steps 
when he was hailed by a party of Indians con- 
cealed in a shop between him and the street. 
Looking back, he perceived several guns pointed 
at him, and at this instant several Indians 
started up from tiioir places of concealment 
near him, upon which, feeling himself in their 
power, lie gave himself up. They siiook hands 
with liim, and to the remark he made that he 
liad not yet breakfasted, they smilingly replied 
that " it must be a poor Englishman wlio could 
not ffo to Canada without his breakfast." Pass- 
ing a cord around his arms above the elbows, 
and fastening them close to his body, they gave 
iiim to the care of one of the party, wlio con- 
ducted him to the woods. 

The number of Indians belonging to the 
party was supposed to be about one liundred. 
They came near tlie fort, on every side, and fired 
wiienever they supposed their shot would l>e 
etfeetual. They, however, neither killed nor 
wounded any one. The wliites fired whenever 
an Indian presented himself, and several of 
them were seen to fall. Before noon the 
savages ceased firing, but they remained several 
days in the vicinity. 

The guns first fired were heard at the firt in 
Swanzey, the commander of which immediately 
sent an express to Winchester, witli information 
that the Indians had made an attack uj>on Upper 
Ashuelot. From ^V"i^chester an express was 
sent to the next post, and so on from post to 
post to Northampton, where Coloi:el Pomeroy 
commanded. Collecting all the troops and 
militia there, and pressing all the horses in the 
place, he instantly, at their head, set out for 
Upper Ashuelot, and on his way added to his 
number all the disposable force iu the interme- 
diate settlements. In little more than forty- 
eight hours from the time the express started 



KEENE. 



29 



from Swaiizey lie, with four or five hundred 
iiieu, arrived at Upper Ashuelot, the distance 
<lowii and hark being at least ninety miles. 
The arrival so soon of this relief was as unex- 
])ected as it was gratifying to the settlers. The 
next morning Pomeroy sent out his men to 
scour the woods in searcli of Blake. While 
these were absent the Indians again showed 
themselves on the meadow^ southeast of the 
fort, where they killed a number of cattle. To 
recall the troops, an ahirm was fired, but was 
not heard. In the afternoon they returned 
unsuccessful, and that evening Mr. Bullard and 
]\Irs. McKenny were buried. The next morn- 
ing they found the track of the Indians, and 
followed it until they came to the place of their 
encampment at night. This was east of Beech 
Hill, not far from the present residence of Cap- 
tain Chapman. It appearing that they dis- 
jicrsed, when departing from this place, they 
were pursued no farther. Colonel Pomeroy, on 
his way back to the fort, found that a house 
belonging to a Mr. Heatou, and standing near 
the place where his son's house now stands, had 
l)een l>urnt. Among the ashes they discovered 
human bones, and the leg of an Indian, micon- 
sumed. As it is known to have been the custom 
of the Indians to take the most effectual means 
in their power to conceal the amount of their 
loss, they had doubtless placed in this house, 
before they set it on fire, the bodies of such of 
their party as had been killed, which they had 
not otherwise concealed. The number, as near 
as could be ascertained, was nine, and one or 
two were burnt in the barn of Mr. Blake. 

The next day incpiiry was made for Mark 
Ferry, the hermit. As he did not reside 
among them, and had never performed the 
duties of relation, friend or companion to any 
of the settlers, they felt little solicitude for his 
fate ; but, Colonel Pomeroy offering to send a 
party of men, they agreed to send a j)ilot to 
the place where they supposed he might be 
found. This was Ferry meadow, on the 
stream called Ferry Brook, within the present 
limits of Sullivan, whither he had repaired, as 
to a place of safety, when driven l)y the flood 
from his cave from Bullard's Island. They 
found his horse confined under the shelter of 



the root of a fallen tree, and, looking further, 
espied him perched high upon the limb of a 
large tree, mending his clothes. His personal 
appearance indicated that he had not received 
the benefit of shaving, nor ablution, for months. 
They compelled him to descend, brought him to 
the fort, led him to the officers' quai-ters, and, 
with mock formality, introduced him to all the 
officers and gentlemen of the party. 

Apprehending no further danger to the 
settlers, C<ilonel Pomeroy and his men returned 
to their homes. 

In thi' early part of May the same or 
another party of Indians hovered about the 
settlement, watching for an opportunity to 
make prisoners and to plunder. For several 
successive nights the watch imagined that they 
heard some person walking around the fort. 
When it came to the turn of young McKcnnv, 
whose mother had been killed, to watch, he 
declared he should fire on hearing the least 
noise without the fort. In the dead of night 
he thought he heard some person at the [)icket 
gate, endeavoring to ascertain its strength. 
Having loaded his gun, as was usual among 
the first settlers of the country, with two balls 
and several buckshot, he fired through the gate, 
which was made (jf thin boards. In the morn- 
ing blood was discovered on the spot and also a 
number of beads, supposed to have been cut, 
by the shot, from the wampum of the Indian. 

The inhabitants remained in the fort until 
March or April, 1747. About this time they 
passed an informal vote, releasing Mr. Bacon, 
their minister, from all his oblia-ations to them, 
and resolved to abandon the settlement, which 
resolution was immediately executed. Soon 
after, a party of Indians visited the place and 
burnt all the buildings, except the mill on 
Beaver Brook and the house in which tlie 
miller had resided. 

It has been already mentioned that Mr. 
Blake, when captured, was pinioned and con- 
ducted by an Indian into the woods. xVfter 
traveling al)out two miles they came to a small, 
stony brook. The Indian stooped to drink, 
and, as Blake's hands were not confined, he 
thought he could easily take up a stone and 
beat out his brains. He silently prayed for 



30 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



direction, aud his next thought was that he 
sliould always regret that he liad killed an 
Indian in that situation, and he refrained. 

No i)artieulars of his journey to Canada ha\e 
been obtained, except that he passed by Charles- 
town. At Montreal he, with another prisoner 
of the name of Warren, was compelled to run 
the gauntlet. Warren, receiving a blow in the 
face, knocked down the Indian who gave it, 
upon which he was assaulted l)y several, M'ho 
beat him unmercifully, making him a cripple 
for life. Blake, exhil)iting more patience and 
fortitude, received no considerable injury. lie 
was then conducted to Quebec, and thence to 
an Indian village several miles north of that 
place, called Conissadawga. He was a strong, 
athletic man, and possessed many qualities 
which procured him the respect of the savages. 
He could run with great spe(>d, and in all the 
trials to which he was put, and they were many 
and severe, he beat every antagonist. 

Not long after his arrival at the village the 
tribe lost a chief by sickness. As soon as hi.'- 
decease was made known the women re[)aired 
to his wigwam, and, with tears, sobs and 
clamorous lamentations, mourned his death. 
The fimeral ceremonies performed, the men 
sought Blake, dressed him in the Indian 
costume, aud invested him with all the 
authority and privileges of the deceased, as one 
of the chiefs of the tribe aud as husband of the 
widow. In the family to which he now stood 
in the relation of father there were, as lie has 
often remarked, several daughters of uncommon 
beautv. Yet, notwithstanding; this mod fortune, 
he still had difficulties to encounter. The tribe 
was divided into two parties, his friends and 
his enemies. The former consisted of the 
great mass of the tribe, who respected him for 
qualities to which they had not equal pz"e- 
tensions ; the latter, of those who were envious 
of his success and had been worsted in their 
contests with him. These, to humble his pride. 



sent far into the northern wilderness, and pro- 
cured a celebrated Indian runner to run against 
him. At the time assigned, the whole tribe 
assembled to witness the race, and a Fi'ench- 
man, from Quebec, hap[>ened to be present. 
Perceivintr the excitement among then, he ad- 
vised Blake to permit himself to be beaten, 
intimating that fatal conse(iuences might ensue 
if he did not. The race was run, and Blake, 
as advised by the Frenchman, jiermitted his 
antagonist to reach the goal a moment before 
he did. He persisted, however, after his 
return from captivity, in declaring tiiat he 
might have beaten him if he had tried. The 
event of the race restored harmony to the tril)e, 
and Blake was permitted to live in peace. 

But, remembering the family he had left, lie 
felt anxious to return to his home. After 
much intercession, the^tribe propo.sed that if he 
would build a house like those of the English, 
he should be permitted to go to (Quebec. Pre- 
suming that, when there, he could more easily 
obtain his liberty, he gladly acceded to the 
pro[)osition. With such tools as the Indians 
possessed he prejiared tlie necessary timber, 
splitting the boards from the tree, and soon 
completed his task. He then went to Quebec 
and gave himself uj) to the French. He had 
been there but a short time, when his Indian 
wife came in a canoe to reclaim him. He re- 
fused to return, l)at, she soliciting and even 
demanding him, he declared to her that, if he 
should be compelled to set out with her, he 
would overturn, the canoe and drown her, upon 
which she concluded to return without him. 
In the fall the P^reneh commandant gave Blake 
his election to pass the winter, as a laborer, with 
a farmer in the vicinity of Quebec, or be confined 
in the common gaol. He chose the latter, and 
had no reason to regret his choice, as he had a 
comfortable room and sufficient rations assigned 
him. He remained in confinement until spring, 
when his liberation was procured. 



KEENE. 



31 



CHATTER II. 

E.EE'SE— (Continued). 

Close of the [ndian Troubles — Keturn of the Settlers — Up- 
per Aslmelot Again (Occupied — Incorporation of the 
Town — Captain Jeremiah Hall Appointed Agent — The 
Pii-st Petition for Incorporation, in 1 751 , not Granted 
—The Petition of 1753— Charter Granted April 11, 1753 
— First Meeting of Proprietors — The Town Revisited by 
Indians. 

The year 1750 witnessed the return of the 
settlers to the Upper Aslmelot, from whence 
lliey had been driven a few years previously by 
the merciless Indian war whidi was carried on 
by King Philip. 

Upon the reoccupation of the place the set- 
tlers at once decided to present a petition to the 
Governor for the incorporation of the territt)ry, 
and the first movement for the incorporation of 
the town by the State of New Hampshire was 
under date of February 11, 1750, when 
Ctiptain Jeremiah Hall was appointed to pre- 
sent the ease to the Governor as follows : 

" We whose Names are Hereunto Subscribed In- 
liabitauts of tbe upper Ashuelot for a Long time 
Labour under many Great Diliiculties lor waut of 
Town Priviledges we Do Tliercfore Hereby Constitute 
and Impower our Trusty friend Cap' Jeremiah Hall 
to Represent our Difficulties to his Excellency the 
Governor of New Hampshire and to Any Others Con- 
cerned In that affiiir that we may be Incorporated 
Into a Town and Likewise we give power to him to 
Chuse a man to assist him In the aftaires 
" Upper Ashuelot February y'' 11* 1750 
" William Smeed Ebenezer D.ay 

Ebenezer Nims Gideon Ellis 

David Nims Michaell Medcalf 

Ephraim Dorman Michaell medcalf jr 

Nathan Fairbanks Oliver Medcalf 

Joseph Elles Abijah medcalf ■ 

Jonathan Underwood Jabez Hill 

John Rogers David Foster 

Nathan Blake Amos Foster " 

" We the Subscribers Do hereby Impower Cap' 
Jeremiah Hall to Pertition In our behalf for the Upper 
Township on Ashuelot River where we Dwell to his 
Excellency the Governour of New Hampshire and all 
Concern'd in that aftair In the same form that it was 
laid out by the Massachusetts 
"Upper Ashuelot Feb^^ 11"= 1750 



Nathan Fairbanks 
Joseph Elles 
Nathan Blake 
Ebenezer Day 
Gideon Ellis 
Michael Medcalf 



David Foster 
Oliver medcalf 
Michaell medcalf jr 
Abijah medcalf 
Samuell Hall 
Jesse Hall " 



" William Smeed 
Ebenezer Nims 
David Nims 
Ephraim Dorman 



Jabez Hill 
Jonathan underwood 
John Rogers 
Elijah Dorman 



February 20th, Benjamin Guild was chosen 
to assist Capttiin Hall in " Petitioning His Ex- 
cellency " as follows : 

" We whose Names are Hereunto Subscribed Being 
Propriators of the Upper Ashuelot Township so 
called Do hereby Impower M' Benjamin Guild to 
joyne with Cap' Jeremiah Hall in Petitioning His 
Exelency the Govoner of the Province of New Ham- 
shire He observing the Instructions Given by others 
of the Propriators to the said Cap' Hall 
"Wrentham Feb' 20'" 1750 
" John Whiting William Hancock 

Daniel Haws Samuel Danils 

Joseph Fisher Esther Messenger 

Samuel Fisher Jonathan Whiting 

Benjamin Guild Jacob Bacon 

( )bediah Blake Natli" Fairbnks 

Ebenezer Daniells Abigail Guild 

Nathaniel Ware Robert Blak 

Hannah Dale Seth Hcaton 

Abner Ellis Elijah Blake 

Asa Richardson Josiah Fisher for the 

Sarah Greene hares o f A a r o n 

.Toseph Richardson Fisher 

Daniell maceene Nathan Bucknam " 

The following is the first petition for the in- 
corporation of the town, 1751 : 

■' To His Excellency Banning Wentworth Es<i' Gov- 
ernor and Commander in Chief in and over his 
Majestys Province of New Hampshire and to the 
Honorable his majestys Councill for said Province 
" The Petition of Jeremiah Hall and Benjamin 
Guild in beh.alf of them Selves and others Inhabitants 
Sellers and Proprietors of a certain Tract of land 
Called the upper Township on Ashuehit River in the 
Province of New Hampshire on the East side of Con- 
necticut River (a plan of which Tract of land is here- 
with presented) most humbly Sheweth, that in the 
year 1737, in virtue of a Grant from the massachusets 
Government, a plantation was begun on said Tract of 
land — That in the year 1738 a minister was settled 
there and a meeting house built — That before the last 
Indian War with tlie Indians there were Thirty one 
Dwelling houses built on said Tract of land Sundry 
barns and a Fort of near a hundred foot square having 
eighteen fire Rooms within said fort a Saw mill and 
Grist mill built — tli.at the sellers and others who were 
preparing for setling there before the Indian War had 
made large Improvements there and laid out their 
Sulistance in doing the )Same — 



32 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUiNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" That in the Spring of y' year 1747 — The Indians 
burnt down all the dwelling Houses there except four 
— also burnt down all the Barns but one also burnt 
down the meeting house and the Fort also much 
houshold Stuff and killed Considerable Cattle Horses 
Sheep and Swine That the s" Settlers and Proprietors 
are returned and returning on to the said Tract of 
land in order to cultivate and Improve the same and 
in case a peace Continues with the Indians in a few 
years there will be forty or fifty familys in case there 
was an Incorporation — Wherefore your Petitioners 
most humbly Pray your Excellency and Honours to 
Incorporate the s* Tract of land agreeable to the 
bounds thereof by the plan annexed and grant to your 
Petitioners and others their Constituents such Im- 
mutys and Privileges as other Towns Enjoy in this 
Province & your Petitioners as in duty bound 
shall ever pray &c 

" March y" 4'" 1750-1 

"Jerejiiah Hall. 
"Bexjamix Guild." 

This pi'tition, howev^cr, was not granted, and, 
February 2, 1753, the following petition \vas 
presented and a charter was granted April 11, 
1753, under the name of Keene, prolialily in 
honor of Su' Benjamin Keene, of England, who 
at that time was minister from England to 

Spain : 

" Upper Ashualot Feb" y" 2'^ 1753 
" We whose names are underwritten Do hereby 
Authorize and Impower our Trusty Friend M' 
Ephraim Dorman to Prefer a Petition to his Excel- 
lenc}' the Governour of New Hampshire for a Town- 
ship known by the Name of the Upper Ashuelot and 
to Pray his Excellency to Grant a Charter of this 
Land to the Inhabitants and others Concerned in said 
Lauds and to Insert a Clause in said Petition Praying 
his Excellency that if it might be Consistent with his 
Pleasure he would Insert a Clause in his Charter 
whereby every man may be Intitled to those Lands 
which he Thought himself to be the Honest owner of 
he Paying the Charges that have arisen on said Lauds 
to Prevent Endless Law-Suits and other Difficulties 
Impending over us and to set forth in said Petition 
the Great Cost and Expence we have been at in Build- 
ing two Forts and Defending the Kings Lands and 
the Great Losses we have Sustained by the Enemy as 
set forth in the Petition Lodged with M' Atkinson 
Secretary and to take the Names Lodged with M' 
Livermore and annex to said Petition 
"Jeremiah Hall David Nims 

William Barnes Ebenezer Day 

Ebenezer Daniells William Smeed 

Jabez Hill Ebenezer Nims 

Timothy Harington Isaac Clark 

Daniel Twitchel Nathan Bluke 

Amos Foster Michael mcdcalf ju 



Titus Belding 
Samuel Reed 
Benjamin Larrabee 
David Foster 
Benjamin Twitchell 



Joseph Elles 
Gideon Ellis 
Eleazer Sanger 
Jonah French " 



The first meeting of the proprietors, under 
this charter, was held at Keene, on the first 
Wednesday of May. Votes were passed grant- 
ing to Benjamin Bellows one hundred and 
twenty-two Spanish milled dollars for his ser- 
vices and expenses in obtaining the charter; 
and to Ephraim Dorman eight dollars forgoing 
to Portsmouth ; raising one hundred and twenty- 
two pounds, old tenor, to i)roeure preaching : 
and granting to Theodore Atkinson, the sec- 
retary of the province, three hundred acres of 
land. 

The first town-meeting M-as held May 2, 
1753, and the following officers were chosen: 
Selectmen, Ephraim Dorman, Michael Metcalf 
and William Smeed ; Town Clerk, David 
Nims; Treasurer, David Nims; Constable, 
Ebenezer Nims ; Surveyors of Highways, 
Gideon Ellis and Isaac Clark; Hog-Reeves, 
Jonah French and William Barran; Fence- 
Viewers, Lieutenant Seth Heaton and Nathan 
Blake ; Field-Drivers, John French and 
Samuel Hall. Benjamin Bellows was moder- 
ator of this meeting. 

The inhabitants immediately directed their 
attention to the concerns of religion. As a place 
for public worship, they erected a building of 
slabs, the earth serving as a floor ; and with the 
inhabitants of Swanzey they made a joint 
arrangement for tiie settlement of a pastor. 

In the warrant calling a town-meeting, to be 
held June 13th, is the following article : " To see 
if they (the freeholders, etc.) will make choice 
of the Rev. INIr. Carpenter for our minister." 
From the expressions here used it is probable 
the church had already acted on the subject. 
At the meeting Mr. Carpenter was chosen ; the 
sum of " fifty pounds, silver money, at six shil- 
lings and eight-pence the ounce, or equivalent 
in our own province bills," w^as oifered him as a 
settlement; and the town engaged to find him, 
yearly, twenty cords of fire-wood. A contract 
was subsecjuently made with IVIr. Carpenter, 
whicli was to continue in force three years, and 



KEENE. 



33 



ill wliicli it was stipulated that lie slioiilil receive 
from Keene a salary of tweuty-six poiuids, 
lawful money. He also officiated as the minister 
of Swanzey. 

In December the inliabita,nts voted to liuiid 
a meeting-house, forty-five feet long and thirty- 
five wide, and agreed to set it at "the crotch of 
the roads, so called, one road leading up the 
river, and tlie other across the river to Ash 
Swamp." 

But in January, 1754," in consideration of the 
unfitness of the ground, and the exposedness to 
fire, and to tlie enemy, in case of a war," they 
voted to set the house "on the road that soetli 
from the town street to the mills, on the hiohest 
ground, between the causeway, by William 
Smeed's, and the bridge, by the clay-pits,' 
Smeed lived where Dr. Twitcheli, Sr., resided, 
and the bridge was north of what was known as 
Colonel Perr}''s store. 

In this year the savages again committed 
acts of hostility. Some time in the fall an 
express arrived at Keene bringing information 
that a ]iarty of the enemy had appeared in the 
vicinity of Penacook (Concord), «here the)' 
luid killed and caittnred several whites. This 
was in the afternoon. The inhabitants imme- 
diately assembled, and appointed several persons 
to keep guard through the night, directing 
them to walk continually from the hou.se of 
David Nims (near Lewis Page's house, in 
Prison Street) to the meadow gate (near Mr. 
Carpenter's), and agreed immediately to com- 
plete the fort, the rebuilding of which had 
already been commenced. The next day everv 
one able to labor went to work upon the fort, and 
soon prepared it for the reception of the settlers. 

When traces of Indians were discovered near 
any of the frontiers it was the custom to fire, as 
an alarm to all within hearing, three guns in 
regular and quick succession. If heard at any 
of the posts, it was answered in the same man- 
ner ; if not answered, the alarm was repeated. 
In June the people of Westmoreland, discover- 
ing traces of Indians, fired an alarm, which 
was heard at Keene. A body of men was im- 
mediately sent to their relief ; but they returned 
without discovering the enemy. That thev 



were lurking in the vicinitv and that they fol- 
lowed home the party from Keene is probable, 
as the next day they captured Benjamin Twitcheli. 
He had been to Ash Swamp ; on his return he 
took with him a tub, which, it is sujjposed, he 
carried upon his head. This tub was afterwards 
found on the east bank of the river, near where 
the mills now stand ; and there the Indians 
probably seized him. He was conducted uj) the 
river ; in the meadows west and north of Dea- 
con Wilder's the Indians killed several oxen, a 
horse and colt. The colt \vas cut up and the 
best ])ieces of meat carried off. In this meadow 
they left a bow, made of lever-wood, and sev- 
eral arrows. They encamped for the night in 
MeCurd)''s meadow, in Surry, where four 
crotched sticks were discovered driven into the 
ground in such positions as led to the belief 
that to each was confined one of the limbs of 
the prisoner. The jiarty then proceeded to Que- 
bec, where Twitcheli met with Josiah Foster 
and his family, who were captured at "Winches- 
ter. For the honor of Foster, the particulars 
of his capture should be recorded. Returning 
home one evening, he found his house in the 
possession of Indians, who had captured his wife 
and children. He could have escaped ; but he 
determined to give himself up, that he might 
share their fate and have an opportunity to 
alleviate their sufferings. He accompanied 
them to Quebec, carrying his wife on his back 
a great part of the way. There they remained 
until, being ransomed, they were sent by \\ater 
to Boston. Twitcheli was put on board the 
same vessel ; but, being taken sick, he was set 
on shore and died in a few days. 

A mouth or two afterwards a party of In- 
dians were discovered in the meadow south of 
the town line by the people of Swanzey. Thev, 
with four soldiers to guard them, were coming 
in a body, and armed, to work in the north 
meadows. The soldiers, who were in advance, 
heard a rustling in the bushes, and one, suppos- 
ing it to be caused by a deer, fired his musket 
at the spot. The Indians, supposing they were 
discovered, rose and fired at the soldiers, who, 
frightened, ran to the quarter now called Scot- 
land. The peoj>lc, coming up, saw the Indians, 



3+ 



HISTOllY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



attacked them, and drove them to the plain 
west of the factory. An express was instant- 
ly sent to Keenc, and a party of fifteen men 
under Captain Mctcalf went out to meet them. 
This party went first to the foot of the hill, 
beyond Mr. Heatou's, supposing the Indians 
would there cross the Branch. E.emainin<; 
tiiei-e a short time without discovering any In- 
dians, a Mr. Howard proposed to go to another 
ford still farther up. Josiah French, a shrewd 
man, observed, " Those who wish to meet with 
the Indians had better stay here; I feel no de- 
sire to see them, and will go over the hill witii 
Howard." It was agreed to go over the hill ; 
but no sooner had they reached the top of tlic 
nearest eminence than they discovered nine In- 
dians crossing at the ford they had left. They 
lav in wait for them a few hours, but did not 
see them afterwards, lleturning to the fort, 
Howard received no mercy from the men, 
women and children within it. Sevei-al days 
afterwards the men went in a body, and armcid, 
to hoe Mr. Day's corn, near Surr}', and discov- 
ered tliat an old house in that neighborhood 
had been burnt ; it was supposed to have been 
set on fire by the same jiarty of Indians. 

Afterwards, but in what year is not recol- 
lected, another, and the last, party of Indians 
made a visit to Keene. The inhabitants had 
cleared and fenced a large common field consist- 
iiio; of about two liundred acres, which was 
used as a cow pasture, and the access to it was 
by a path which ledsoutliwardly along the high 
ground east of the place where tiie turnpike 
and Baker's lane unite. When driving their 
cows to this pasture, it was the custom of the 
inhabitants not to go in the path, for fear of 
a surprise, but on one or the other side of it. 
Early one morning they came suddenly upon a 
party of Indians, concealed in thick bushes and 
busily engaged in mending their moccasins. 
They instantly stai'ted up and escaped. It 
was afterwards ascca-taincd that the leather with 
which they were mending their moccasins had 
been stolen the night before, from a tannery at 
Walpole (or C'iiarlestown). 



CHAPTER III. 

K EE X E— ( CoiiiiHiierf). 

WAR OF TIIE REVOLUTION.' 

First Reference to the War in Town Records — Vote to get 
Stock of I'owiler, Lead and Flints — Keene in the Bat lie of 
Lexington — Tories — Bobea Tea — Various Resolutions — 
List of Patriots — Battle of Bennington — Captain Mack's 
^•ortie — Elijah Williams — His Return to Keene — Un- 
pleasant Reception — List of Foot Com]iany in Keene in 
1773_Alarm-List of 1774. 

The first reference on the town records to the 
War of tlie Revolution is under date of 1774. 

In a M'arrant calling a town-meeting to be 
held the 26th of September the following 
articles were inserted : " To see if it be the mind 
f)f the town to provide ammunition for a town 
stock, and grant money for the same;" and 
" To see if it be the mind of the town to sign the 
covenant and engagement, which was sent and 
recommended by the committee of corre- 
spondence, relating to the non-importation agree- 
ment." 

Upon the first article the town " Voted, to get 
a stock (if ammunition for the town, viz.: 200 
His. of good gunpowder, 400 Wit^. of lead, and 
1200 flints; and to raise twenty-four ]>ounds, 
lawfid money, for jiroviding said artit^les." 

Upon the other article the following ])ream- 
ble and vote were adopted : " HV/crca-s' the towns 
in this ])rovince have chosen members to rep- 
resent them in a General Congress of all the 
colonies, now sitting at the city of Philadelphia, 
to consult and determine what steps are neces- 
sary for the colonies to adopt, Voted, therefore, 
not to sign the non-importation agreement 
until we hear what measures said Congress have 
agreetl upon for themselves and their constitu- 
ents." 

October 17th, Captain Isaac Wyman and 
Lieutenant Timothv Ellis were chosen delegates 
to attend the County Congress at Walpole. No 
information concerning the object or proceed- 
ings of this Congress has been obtained. 

In the winter of this year Elijah Williams, 
Esq., instituted a suit against a citizen of Keene, 
the writ being in the form then usual, commenc- 



'Extracted from "Hale's Annals. " 



KEENE. 



intj, "George the Tliird, by tlie grace of God, 
King," ete. Inuiiudiately afterwards a large 
iuuhIkt of people, many coming from the neigh- 
Iioriug towns, assembled at Keene, seized Wil- 
liams aud took him with them to their place of 
meeting, which was a barn standing by itself 
in a field. They required him to stop the suit, 
and to promise that he would issue no more writs 
in the name of the King Perceiving he had 
no alternative, he complied, and was then set ut 
liberty. 

On the 4th of January, 1775, at a legal town- 
meeting, the inhabitants " Vokd, to come into 
the measures recommended by the Continental 
Congress, in their association agreement." They 
chose, agreeably to said advice, Isaac Wyniaii, 
Timothy Ellis, Thomas Baker, Dan Guild and 
William Ellis a Committee of Inspection. 
They also chose Isaac Wyman to represent the 
town at the meeting to be held at Exeter on the 
21st day of said January, for the choice of dele- 
gates to the Continental Congress. 

At a town-meeting held February 23d, Cap- 
tain Isaai! Wyman was chosen "to represent 
the town in the General Assembly, holden at 
Portsmouth, on the said 2."3d day of February, 
and so, day by day, during their sessious." 

On the 1 9th of April was fought the battle 
of Lexington. The in.stant that news of the 
battle arrived in town, which was in the fore- 
noon, Captain Dorman, who then commanded 
the militia, called upon Captain Wyman. 
" The regulars," said he, "have come out to 
( 'oncord, have killed six men, and the battle 
was raging when the messenger started. What 
shall be done?" "Send expresses," said Cap- 
tain Wyman, "to every part of the town, notify- 
ing the inhabitants to meet, forthwith, on the 
green, and be governed by theirdecision." Ex- 
presses were sent, the citizens met in the after- 
noon, and a vote was unanimously passed that 
a body of men should be sent to oppose the reg- 
idars. The question was asked, " Who shall 
lead them?" Captain Wyman was nominated, 
was chosen, and, though for advanced in years, 
cheerfully consented to go. Volunteers were 
then called for, and about thirty presented them- 
selves. Captain Wyman directed them to go 
home immediately and prepare provisions for 



their use, "for," said he, "all the roads will be 
full of men, and you can procure nothing on the 
way;" and he then ajjpointed sunrise the next 
morning the time, and his house the place of 
rendezvous. At sunrise they met, and im- 
mediately started for Concord. In the after- 
noon General Bellows, (Jolonel John Bellows 
and Thomas Sparhawk arrived from Walpole, 
and, riding to his house, in(|uirod for Captain 
Wyman. Being answered tiiat he had started 
at sunrise, at the head of a company of men, 
thev exclaimed, "Keene has shown a noble 
spirit!" and iiastened onwards. They were 
soon followed by a party of men from Walpole. 

At an informal meeting of the inhabitants, 
held (in the 27tli of April, they chose Timothy 
Ellis a delegate to meet the committee at Exeter, 
and to sit, as a member, in the Provincial 
Congress, whenever they convene. He ex- 
pressed his willingness to accept the office, but 
declared that he had not, and could not, in 
season, procure money enough to bear his ex- 
penses. The inhaliitanls, thereupon, "l'o/<yZ, 
that he might draw from the treasury four 
pounds, lawful money." 

Soon after the iiattle of Lexington several 
Tories, among whom was Elijah Williams, 
Esq., left this vicinity, and joined the British 
in Boston. 

In the warrant calling a town-meeting on 
the 7tli day of December, one of the articles was, 
"To see if it be the mind of the town, that the 
names of those jiersons who buy, sell or make 
use of Bohea tea be advertised in the public 
prints." At the meeting, held on the day ap- 
pointed, this article passed in the negative ; but 
a committee of inspection was appointed to see 
that the resolves of the Coutiuental Congress 
be complied with. After dismissing two other 
articles, relating to the troubles of that period, 
the town unanimously adopted the following 
resolves, which may be termed the Statute Law 
of Keene. And here it may be proper to state 
that no judicial courts were held in the county 
from 1774 to 1778. 

" Whereas, by the uiihappjMlispiites now subsisting 
between Great Britain and the American Colonies, 
the laws of several of them have been entirely sub- 
verted, or wholly neglected, to the great detriment of 



3G 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



society, and of individuals, whereby many disorderly 
persons, taking undue advantage of the times, as a 
cloak to put their revengeful designs in execution, do 
wickedly and maliciously threaten to abuse and 
destroy the persons and property of many of the 
good and wholesome inhabitants of the land, and the 
executive power being thrown by ; and the Con- 
gresses, neither Continental or Provincial, have, as 
yet, found out or published any method or systejn of 
government, for the security of our persons or prop- 
erty ; and until such a system as they in their wisdom 
shall see fit, or some other be proposed, — 

" We, the inhabitants of the town of Keene, in the 
county of Cheshire, and province of New-Hamp- 
shire, legally convened, being desirous of order and 
good government, and for the security of our lives, 
persons and property, do pass the following Resolves: 

" 1st. It is Resolved, that a committee of three good 
and steady men of the town be chosen to act upon, and a 
proper officer appointed to prosecute the Resolves 
hereafter mentioned. 

" 2d. Wliereiia, prol'ane cursing and swearing are 
highly provoking to Almighty God and offensive to 
every true Christian, which we fear, if not discount- 
enanced, will provoke the Divine Majesty to bring 
heavy judgments upon us, and still heavier, deliver us 
up to the desire of our enemies; to prevent cursing 
and swearing, be it Besolved, that if any person or 
persons shall profanely curse or swear, and shall be 
thereof convicted before the committee, by sufficient 
witnesses or by confession of the |iarty, every such 
offender shall forfeit and pay to the committee, for 
the use of the poor of said town, a sum not exceeding 
three shillings, nor less than one ; according to the 
repeatedness of the offence, and pay cost of prosecu- 
tion, which cost shall be ascertained by the committee 
before whom the person shall be convicted, and in 
case any person, convicted as aforesaid, shall refuse 
to pay the sum or sums so forfeited and adjudged, he, 
she or they shall be immediately committed to the 
common gaol not exceeding ten days nor less than 
three for said fQrfeiture, and until he pay all just 
costs. 

"3d. WhercaK, it is highly necessary that every 
()erson of able body sh(rald betake himself to some 
honest calling, and not mis-spend their time in loiter- 
ing and tippling in licensed houses or elsewhere in 
this town, to prevent which, 

"Be it Ressolved, that if any person or persons, fit 
and able to work, shall refuse so to do, but loiter and 
mis-spend his or their time, wander from place to 
place, or otherwise misorder themselves, by drinking 
or tippling in any of the licensed houses or elsewhere 
in this town, after nine o'clock at night, or continue in 
any of the aforesaid houses above the space of one 
hour, unless on necessary business, all such persons 
being convicted of any of the aforesaid articles before 
said committee, by sufficient witnesses, shall, for every 



such offense, forfeit and pay to the said committee, 
for the use of the poor of said town, the sum of two 
shillings, and all just costs of trial, which shall be 
adjudged by said committee, and in case any person, 
convicted as aforesaid, shall refuse to pay the sum or 
sums so forfeited and adjudged, he or they shall bo 
committed to the common gaol, there to remain not 
exceeding ten days, nor less than three days, for said 
forfeiture, and until he pay all just costs. 

"4th. Whereas, personal abuse tends to promote ill 
blood and discord among society, to prevent which, 
be it Resolved, that if any person or persons shall 
smite, or strike, or tlireaten to abuse or destroy the 
person or property of another, he or they so offend- 
ing shall, i'or the first offense, i)ay to the said com- 
mittee, for the use of the poor of said town, the sum 
of five shillings, and costs of prosecution, and double 
that sum for the second offense, and for the third or 
any after offense, shall be imprisoned or publicly 
whipt, according to the judgment of the committee 
before whom they are convicted, and in case any per- 
son, being convicted as aforesaid, shall refuse to pay 
the sum or sums so forfeited and adjudged, he or they 
shall be committed to the common gaol, there to re- 
main not exceeding ten days nor less than four, for 
said forfeiture, and until he pay all just costs. 

"5th. Further be it Resolved, that if any person oi- 
persons shall presume to purchase, or bring into this 
town, any teas, of what sort soever, until the minds 
of the Congress respecting that article shall be fully 
known, shall forthwith deliver up such teas to one or 
more of the committee, to be stored b)' them and 
kept for the owner until the minds of the Congress 
be known respecting that matter, and in case any 
person shall refuse to deliver up said teas, the com- 
mittee have power to imprison him until he does. 

"Gth. And for the better execution of all and every 
the foregoing articles, it is Resolved, that all and each 
of the said committee shall have full power and 
authority to bring before them any of the inhabitants 
of this town, or any person residing in said town, that 
shall offend in any of the foregoing resolves, and 
upon his or their own views, or other sufficient con- 
viction of any such offense, to impose the fine and 
penalty for the same, and to commit the offender 
until it be satisfied. 

" 7th. It is likewise Resolved, that the officer ap- 
pointed shall have power and authority to carry any 
person that shall he found trespassing in any of the 
foregoing particulars, before said committee for trial, 
and, if need be, may command aid and assistance in 
discharging his trust, and any person refusing to give 
aid or assistance, as aforesaid, he or they shall forfeit 
the sum of three shillings for every offence, and have 
their names inserted in the public Gazette as un- 
friendly to good order. 

"And all masters and heads of families in this town 
are hereby directed to take effectual care tliat tlieir 



KEENE. 



children, servants and others under their immediate 
government do not trespass in any of the foregoing 
particulars. 

" Chose Thomas Baker, Eliphalet Briggs and Dan 
Guild as a committee to judge, determine and act up- 
on said Resolves and [)Ut them in execution, and 
chose Elijah Blake officer for the purpose mentioned 
in said Resolves." 

This extract infonn.s the reader of the origin 
of the Committee of Safety for the State, ami 
enables him the better to understand the follow- 
ing document : 

" To the. Selectmen of Keene : 

"Colony of New Hampshire. 
"In Committee of Safety, April 12th, 1776. 
" In order to carry the unwritten Resolve of the 
Hon'hle Congress into Execution, You are requested 
to desire all Males above Twenty-One Years of Age, 
(Lunaticks, Idiots, and Negroes excepted,) to sign to 
the Declaration on this paper ; and when so done to 
make return hereof, together with the Name or Names 
of all who shall refuse to sign the same, to the General 
A.ssembly, or Committee of Safety of this Colony. 
" ]\I. Weare, Chairman. 

" In Congress, March 14, 177G. 

"Resolved, That it be recommended to the several 
Assemblies, Conventions and Councils, or Commit- 
tees of Safety of the United Colonies, immediately to 
cause all persons to be disarmed, within their respec- 
tive Colonies, who are notoriously disaffected to the 
cause of America, Or who have not associated, and re- 
fuse to associate, to defend by Arms the United Colo- 
nies, against the Hostile Attempts of the British 
Fleets and Annies. 

" Extract from the Minutes. 

(copy.) "Charles Thompson, SerU/. 

" In consequence of the above Resolution, of the 
Hon. Continental Congress, and to show our Deter- 
mination in joining our American Brethren, in do- 
fending the Lives, Liberties and Properties of the In- 
habitants of the United Colonies, 

" We, the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage, 
and promise that we will, to the utmost of our Power, 
at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms 
oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets 
and Armies against the United American Colonies. 



" Thomas Frink. 
Nathan Blake. 
Eliphalet Briggs, Jr. 
Josiah Richardson. 
Joseph Blake. 
Daniel Kingsbury. 
Dan Guild. 
Eli Metcalf. 
Ichabod Fisher. 



Bartholomew Grimes. 
David Willson. 
Benjamin Balch. 
Ebenezer Day. 
John Dickson. 
Naboth Bettison. 
Abraham Wheeler, Jr. 
James Wright. 
John Houghton. 



Thomas Wilder, 
Isaac Wyman. 
David Foster. 
Ephraim Dornian. 
Seth Heaton. 
Andrew Balch. 
(xideon Ellis. 
Thomas Baker. 
Benjamin .Vrcher. 
.Joseph Ellis. 
Simeon Washburn. 
David Nims. 
Elisha Briggs. 
Benjamin Archer, Jr. 
Samuel Wood. 
Eliphalet Briggs. 
Nathaniel Briggs. 
Elij;di Blake. 
Uriah Willson. 
.folin Le Bourveau. 
David Foster, Jr. 
Timothy Ellis. 
Gideon Tiffixny. 
Jesse Hall. 
Michael Metcalf. 
Jesse Clark. 
Gideon Ellis, Jr. 
David Nims, Jr. 
Abraham Wheeler. 
William Ellis. 
Joshua (Osgood. 
Nathaniel Kingsbury. 
Reuben Daniels. 
Reuben Partridge. 
Cephas Clark. 
Ebenezer Carpenter. 
Timothy Ellis, Jr. 
Eliakim Nim«. 
Caleb Ellis. 
Joseph Willson. 
Davis Howlett. 
Timothy Ellis ye 3d. 
Benjamin AVillis. 
SanuieV Chapman. 
John Balch, 
Abijah Metcalf 
Henry Ellis. 
Luther Bragg. 
Seth Heaton, Jr. 
Josiah Ellis. 
Benjamin Osgood. 
Ebenezer Newton. 
Daniel Willson. 
Ezra Harvey. 
David Harris 
Obadiah Blake, Jr. 
Zadoc Nims. 
Isaac Clark. 



Silas Cook. 
Nathan Blake, Jr. 
Nathan Rugg. 
Stephen Larrabee. 
Robert Spencer. 
Ebenezer Cook, 
.loshua Ellis. 
Jotham Metcalf 
Moses Marsh. 
Simeon Clark, Jr. 
Benjamin Ellis. 
Ashahel Blake. 
Samuel Bassett. 
Jedediah Wellman. 
.Tonathan Heaton. 
Simeon Ellis. 
Benjamin Elli=. 
James Crossfield. 
Joseidi Ellis, Jr. 
Thomas Baker, Jr. 
Thomas Wells. 
Achilles Mansfield. 
Royal Blake. 
William Gray. 
Aaron Gray, Jr. 
John Daniels. 
Samuel Daniels. 
Jedediah Carpenter. 
William Goodenough. 
A din Holbrook. 
Hezekiah Man. 
Jeremiah Stiles. 
Samuel Hall. 
Jonathan Archer. 
Abraham Pond. 
Silas French. 
Eliphalet Carpenter. 
Benjamin Willard. 
Jacob Town. 
John Day. 
Peter Rice. 
Isaac Esty. 
Jonathan Dwinell. 
Thomas Dwinell. 
John Connolly. 
Abijah Wilder. 
Zadoc Wheeler. 
Daniel Snow. 
William Nelson. 
Israel Houghton. 
William Woods. 
Asaph Nichols. 
Elisha Ellis, 
Thomas Fields. 
Michael Sprought. 
Benjamin Tiffany. 
James Eddy. 



38 



HISTORY OF CIIKSHIKK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



"Agreeably to the witliiii direclioii, we have re- 
quested all in this Town to sign, as herein set forth ; 
and licreto annexed the names of all those who Re- 
fuse to sign within Deelaration, vi/.: 



"l\riij. Josiah WilhuM. 
Lt. IJenJainin Hall. 
Dr. .losiali I'onieroy. 
Samuel Wadsworth. 
Robert (lilman. 
.lohii White. 
Kleazer iSanger. 



Aimer Sanger. 
Thomas Cutter. 
James I'erkins. 
Benjamin O.-^good, Jr. 
John Swan. 
James Hunt. 



" El,IPH.\I.KT liUICliS, Jl! 
" JOSIAH Rk.'H.VRDSON, 

" Joseph Hkake, 

" D.\i\IKt. KlX.SBfKY. 



! Seli'clmen 
' of the Town 



of Keeiie." 



TIu' representatives ol' the (u'lionil .Vs.seiuhly 
liavino; desired their ('oiistitiients to nominate 
justices of tiie peace, the inhabitants, A])ri! 3d, 
" 17)/((/, unanimously, tliat it is the mind of this 
t(i\vi\ that (\)lonel Lsaac Wyman he ai)pointed." 

August 'Jd, " Captain Kliphalet Brioos was 
cho.sen a <U;lesi'ate, to meet with other delea'ates 
at \\'alpolc, to consuh autl agree upon siieh 
nu'liu)ds as siiali he thougiit neces.sarv for the 
general good, and our nintiial defen.se and 
safet}'." This convention was called by order 
of a sub-committee of the several Comniitteos 
of Safety in the county. 

The following memorandum is copied from 
the records of this year, 1777 : 

" Whereas, orders were sent from the Court to the 
Seleetmen, desiring them to assist the eommanding 
officers of the militia in the town, by causing a town- 
meeting to be called, in order to raise men for the 
Continental army during the war, in obedience to 
which, a legal meeting was warned, and the town met 
on the 31st of March, made several proposals for en- 
couragement, and voted thirty pounds to each man, 
if a sullieient number would turn out, but as not any 
appeared, the meeting w:is dismissed and nothing 
voted that was conclusive or valid." 

In ilay or June a court, appointed by the 
Committee of Safety in the county, was held at 
Keeue, before' whom were brought the princi- 
pal Tories in the county, to be tried for their 
offenses or opinions. It has not been a.scer- 
taiued who were memiiers of this court, but 
Benjamin Giles, of Newport, and Colonel 
IlanuiKind, of Swanzey, were probably two. 
The Tories were guarded by a body of men, of 
whom ^Ir. Floyd, of \A'alpole, was commander. 



The court sat nearly two weeks before they 
came to any decision ; and it was supposed by 
some, at the time, that the object of this delay 
was that the violent Whigs, by whom they 
were snrroiuidcd, might become weary and dis- 
perse, and leave tliem at liberty to give a more 
lenient judguient than was demanded. In the 
end the court decided (hat the Tories should be 
conlinecl to their farms, and give bonds fir 
their good bi^havior. 

At a town-meeting held June 11th a com- 
mittee was chosen " to state the price of articles, 
labor, tte., as the law directs." The town " ^^otcd 
to pay to each man that has or shall enlist into 
the Continental army, for the term of three 
years, or doing the war, to make up the (piota 
of this town, the sum of thirty pounds, exclu- 
sive of the bounty given by this State; and 
also to allow those that have done service in the 
war heretofore, in the same proportion as fifty- 
six pounds is for three years; and a committee 
was chosen to make an exact proportion of what 
every man had done in the war, in time past, in 
order that an exact asse.ssnient may be made for 
the above said charge." 

Mrs. Sttu-tcvant, who is the widow of Cor- 
nelius Stnrtevaut, Jr., the printer, was born in 
1770, and is now living with mental faculties 
bright and vigorous, well remembers that, in 
early girlhood, when going to .school from 
West Street to the school-house just south of 
the old Ralston house, she passed the old jail, 
standing- near where the Emerald House now 
stands. It w;is made of hewn logs, with a 
small hole for a window. She and her com- 
panions often stopped to hear a Mr. Baxter, 
who was confined there, sing the " Yicar of 
Bray." This Baxter was a Tory, lived in Surry 
or Alstead, and was probably then confined for 
Toryism. Tradition speaks of him as wealthv 
for the time, bold, reckless, fond of enjoyment 
and of defying public opinion. He doubtle.ss . 
.sang the " Vicar of Bray " to reproach and pro- 
voke the rebels outside for having deserted their 
King and sworn allegiance to the new govern- 
ment. He emigrated to Nova Scotia. 

The battle of Bennington was fought this 
year. On the fall of Tieonderoga urgent calls 
came from the Americans in that region to the 



KEENE. 



39 



]i('ople of" Vermont and New Hampshire to 
liasten to their assistance. 

Major Ellis, Josiah Richardson, Josliua Du- 
rant and others immediately crossed the Green 
Mountains, and soon found themselves in front 
of the Hessian hreastworlv, sustaining and re- 
turning' an incessant fire. Tiie niajur, sonu'- 
what exeitcul, ordered a charge, and himself and 
most of his men leaped over, among wliom was 
Duraiit. The Hessians wavei'ed, scatteivd and 
fled. Durant pursued a party of three, and 
gaining fast upon them, tiie hindmost turned 
hack, their muskets at tiiis moment touching 
eacii other. Durant fired first and killed his 
antagonist. While reloading, the other two 
turned hack upon him. He wrenched his bayo- 
net from his gun, seized one by the collar, and 
was about to stab the other, when both called 
tor quarter and surrendered themselves prison- 
ers. The three were brothers. For many 
years afterwards Durant occasionally wore, as 
trophies, a waistcoat and silver-mounted breast- 
j)in taken from the man he had killed. 

Mr. liichardson came home with the glory 
of having caj)tured three Hessians. He allowed 
the world to believe the story to be true, as in 
fact it was, but to his friends he admitted that, 
either from terror or dissatisfaction with their 
condition, the}' appeared to be not very unwill- 
ing (captives. 

InDecemlier, in town-meeting, Captain Stiles, 
Captain Howlet and Jabez Fisher were succes- 
sively chosen representative, and each declined 
accepting the office ; Timothy Ellis was then 
chosen and consented to serve. The town " Voted 
to empower the representative to act in behalf 
of the town in the choice of delegates to the 
Continental Congress." A similar vote was af- 
terwards annually passed, from which it may 
be inferred either that the town did not con- 
sider their representatives had authority, or that 
the latter were unwilling to act in this behalf 
without such a vote. 

At a meeting held January 17, 1778, the in- 
habitants, " after I'eading and conferring upon 
the Articles of Confederation of the Continental 
Congress, voted that it is the minds of the town 
that they be established by this .State. 

" VoterJ, further to instruct th<' representative 



to use his influence in the General Assembly 
that a free and full representation of every town 
in this State take place to a Convention, to meet 
at such time and place as the General Assembly 
shall ajjpoint," to form a ])lan of government 
for said Stat(>. 

Chose Captain Stiles, Major Ellis and Cap- 
tain (triswold delegates to meet at Surry, and 
consult with the delegates of the other towns. 

A])ril 27th, Jeremiah Stiles was chosen a 
delegate to UKH't in the convention to be held 
at Concord for the purpose of forming a Con- 
stitution and plan of government for the 
State. 

At a meeting held March '2, 1 779, the town 
" Vnird that the selectmen be a committee to 
give the representative instructions to use his 
influence that the delegates from this State to 
the Continental Congress lay claim to the New 
Hampshire Grants, so called, provided (hat 
Congress will not confirm the same into a new 
State." 

In this year ('a|itain Mack, of Gilsum, 
probably incited by some of the zealous Whigs 
in Keenc, collected a party with a view of ap- 
prehending several Tories who resided here, and 
who were suspected of furnishing the enemy 
with provisions. On the evening of the 30th 
of May ' they assembled at Partridge's tavern, 
near Wright's mills, on the road to Surry. In 
the night Mack sent forward several men with 
directions to place themselves separatelv at the 
doors of those houses where the Tories resided, 
and prevent their escape. At sunrise he rode 
into Keene, at the head of his party with a 
drawn sword ; and when he came to the house 
of a Tory he ordered the sentinel standing at the 
door to "turn out the prisoner." The prisoner 
being brought out and placed in the midst of 
his party, he proceeded onward. Having gone 
through the street, collected all of them and 



' 'J'lie first line of a song, remembereil by an aged citizen, 
tixes tlie ilny wlien tliis parly visitt'4 Ki-cne : 

•' (In tlie tliirty first of May, 
Appearoil in Keenc, at iireali of ilay, 
A mob, liotli liobl and stout, " 

Tliose wlio lived in tliese times well remember ihal Ibe 
muses were not silent amid tlic din of arms. 



40 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



searched their cellars for provisions, of which 
he found little, he returned to the tavern of 
Mr. Hall, and confined them in a chamber. 

But, when lie first made his api)carance, 
information was sent to Mr. Howlet, who then 
commanded the militia, of the commotion in 
the village. He instantly sent expresses to 
warn his company to a])pear forthwith in the 
street, with their arms and ammunition. They 
came about the middle of the forenoon, were 
paraded, facing south, in front of the meeting- 
house, then standing south of where it now 
does — on a line with the north line of West 
Street — and were ordered to load their guns 
witli powder and ball. Mack paraded his com- 
pany across tlie street from the tavern to the 
Watson house, facing their antagonists. Col- 
onel Alexander, of AVinchester, who tlien com- 
manded the regiment, had been sent for, and 
now came. He asked Captain Alack if he in- 
tended to pursue his object. " I do," replied he, 
"at the hazard of my life." "Then," said the 
colonel, emphatically, " you must prepare for 
eternity, for you shall not be permitted to take 
vengeance, in this irregular mode, on any men, 
even if they are Tories." This resolute speech 
cooled the ardor of many, .\fter deliberating 
a while, Mack ordered his party to face about, 
and led them a short distance southward ; and 
the militia then went into the meeting-house. 
Not lono- afterwards the mob faced about affaiu, 
and marchiKl silently by the meetiug-house, 
towards Surry; but though silently, they did 
not march in silence, for the women, as they 
passed, furnished noisy and lively music, on 
tin pans and warming-pans, until they disap- 
peared from view. 

At a meeting held July 7th the town chose "a 
committee to hire and agree with five men to 
serve in the Continental army, on the best terms 
they can ;" and the same committee were empow- 
ered to hire two men for the Rhode Island ser 
vice, at the town's charge. 

October 20th the town voted to i-aise three 
hundred and thii'ty pounds for paying the charge 
of raising men for the defense of the State of 
Rhode Island, and the sum of four hundred 
and thirtj-'One pounds for the charge of raising 
men for the Continental service. 



June 27 1780, the town voted to give fifty 
dollars (as it is valued and stipulated in the act 
of court) to each able-bodied man that will 
enoawe in the Continental service, iu behalf of 
the town, for the space of six months. 

In the warrant calling a town-meeting, to 
be held July 20th, the following article was 
inserted : 

" Whereas, liy an act ol' the General Assembly of 
this State, each town is obliged to provide (monthly) 
a quantity of beef for the use of the Continental army, 
for the space of five months ; therefore to see what 
method the town will take to i)rocure said quantity of 
beef." 

At the meeting the town voted "to raise eleven 
thousand three hundred and nine pounds of beef, 
each person to have liberty to pay his equal pro- 
portion thereof in beef, or to ])ay so much 
money in lieu thereof as h'e was taxed in the 
last State and Continental tax." 

On the 24tli of January, 1 781, the selectmen, 
reciting that, " by a late act of the General As- 
sembly, each town is oblige to furnish their 
quota of men for the Continental army as soon 
as possible," called a meeting, to be held Febru- 
ary 7th, " to sec what method the town will 
take to raise their quota." 

At a meeting thus called the f()llowiug votes 
were passed : " Voted, to choose a committee to 
make an average of M'hat service each man has 
done heretofore, as to hiring men or going per- 
.sonally into the service of the United States." 
Upon further consultation and consideration, it 
was voted to ])ostpone the average to some future 
time, and " Voted, to divide the ratable inhabit- 
ants of the town into twelve equal classes, and 
each class to procure a man to serve in the Con- 
tinental army the space of three years, or 
during the war, upon their own charge, as soon 
as may be." 

At a meeting held April l(i, 1782, the town 
voted to choose a committee to make an account 
of the service each man lias done in the present 
war, and make an average, so tliat each man 
may have credit for what he has alicady done; 
and also to divide or class the inhabitants into 
twelve e(jual classes (credit for what each man 
has done to be given him), and each class to 
provide, or hire, a man for the space of three 



KEENE. 



41 



years, or during the war, upon their on cost; 
said classes to be so made tiiat each pay equal 
taxes. 

At a town-meeting held June 19, 1783, the 
town " Voted, unanimously, tiiat tiie representa- 
tive be instructed to use iiis influence that all 
who have absented themselves fi-om any of the 
United States of America, and joined with, or 
put themselves under the protection of, the ene- 
mies of the United States, be utterly debarred 
from residing; within this State." This vote 
was passed at the I'cquest of the representative, 
Daniel Kingsbury, to be instructed on the sub- 
ject. 

The treaty of peace with Great Britain hav- 
ing secured to tlie Tories the privilege of retui'u- 
ing to this country to collect their debts and 
and settle their affairs, Elijah Williams, Esq., 
came to Kceuc for that purjwse in the begin- 
ning i)f this year. His appearance here so ex- 
asperated the zealous Whigs that they seized 
him and carried him before Thomas Baker, 
Esq., a justice of the peace. What were the 
charges against him, or whether any charges 
were exhibited, has not been ascertained. The 
justice, perhaps with a view to protect him 
from outrage, ordered liim to recognize for his 
appearance at the Court of Sessions, to be held 
at Charlestowu, in April, and committed him to 
the custody of the sheriff. With this the pop- 
ulace wore not satisfied, and they discovered an 
intention of assaulting and Ijeating him ; but 
he was surrounded and guarded to his lodgings 
1)V the old and the young men who happened to 
be present. 

The animosity of the Whigs, aggravated 
probably by the arts of those who were in- 
debted to him, was, however, so great that they 
determined he should not thus escajie their ven- 
geance. On the day before that appointed for 
the sitting of the court a party concealed them- 
selves in the pines near Fisher Brook, intend- 
ing, when he passed with the sheriff, to get him 
into their power. The sheriff passed without 
him, relying upon the promise he had made to 
appear at court the next day. This circum- 
stance excited their suspicions ; they came im- 
mediately into the street, seized Williams at his 
lodgings, and, placing him in the midst of 



them, repaired to a tavern in Ash Swamp. 
When lie arrived there two bundles of black- 
beech rods were produced, from which it ap- 
peared that a plan had been concerted to compel 
him to run the gauntlet, with the view, prolta- 
bly, of inducing him, by such harsh treatment, 
again to leave the country. But by this time 
a large number of considerate citizens had as- 
sembled and arrived at the tavern. A proposi- 
tion was made that the whole subject should be 
referred to a committee. A committee was ap- 
pointed ; their rei>ortwas too favorable to Wil- 
liams to suit the majority, and was rejected. 
Another conmiittec was appointed, who reported 
that he should leave tiie town the next day and 
leave the State the next week. This report 
was agreed to; but the minority, still dissatis- 
fied, privately sent out messengers, to collect 
more of their friends. This being communi- 
cated to those who were disposed to protect 
Williams, they advised him to retire imme- 
diately. An attempt was made to prevent him 
from mounting a horse, which had been offered 
him by a friend. A conflict ensued, in which 
the horse was overthrown, and several persons 
were knocked down with clubs. Heat length, 
however, mounted, with the assistance of his 
friends, and rode through the crowd, which 
continued to oppose him. 

The next day he repaired to C-harlestown, 
and presented himself to the court, which 
thereupon passed the following order: "That 
Elijah Williams, Esq., now in the keeping of 
Isaac Griswold, by virtue of a mittimus from 
Thomas Baker, Esq., continue in the custody 
of the said Isaac until he shall have tran.saoted 
the business upoii which he came into this part 
of the country, and then be permitted to leave 
this State, upon his good behavior, without 
further molestation." After settling his affairs 
Williams repaired to Nova Scotia. Shortly 
after, in consequence of ill health, he returned 
to Deerfield, his native town, died, and wits 
Inu'ied by the side of his ancestors. 

The following is a list of the foot company 
in Keene in 1773 : 

" Lieut. Benjamin Hall. Josejih Gray. 
Ensign Michael Metcalf. Samuel Hall. 
Clerk Simeon Clark. Jesse Hall. 



42 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Serj. Elijah Blake. 
Serj. Thomas Baker. 
Serj. Isaac Esty. 
Serj. Jede. Carpenter. 
Corp. Dau Guild. 
Corp. Joseph Blake. 
Corp. Aliijah Metcalf. 
Benjaniiii Archer. 
Jonathan Archer. 
Ashael Blake. 
John Brown. 
Elisha Briggs. 
John Balch. 
Benjamin Balch, Jr. 
Luther Bragg. 
Samuel Bassett. 
John Burt. 
Nathan Blake, Jr. 
Obadiah Blake, Jr. 
Royal Blake. 
Naboth Bettison. 
Thomas Baker, Jr. 
John Pray Blake. 
Cephas Clark. 
Seth Clark. 
Eliphalet Carpenter. 
Ebenezer Carpenter. 
Samuel Chapman. 
Silas Cook. 
Isaac Clark. 
Simeon Clark, Jr. 
Jonas Clark. 
John Day, Jr. 
John Daniels. 
Reuben Daniels. 
John Dickson. 
Addington Daniels. 
Ebenezer Day, .Jr. 
Jacob Day. 
James Dean. 
Timothy Crossfield. 
Joseph Ellis, Jr. 
Gideon Ellis, Jr. 
Simeon Ellis. 
Timothy Ellis (3(1). 
William Ellis. 
Caleb Ellis. 
Stephen Esty. 
James Eady. 
Henry Ellis. 
Benjamin Ellis. 
Benjamin Ellis, Jr. 
Joshua Ellis. 
Jabez Fisher. 
Silas French. 
David Foster, Jr. 
Peter Fiskin. 
Aaron Gray, Jr. 



Peter Hubbert. 

Seth Heaton, Jr. 
John Houghton. 
Joseph Hills, 
Davis Howlet. 
Ziba Hall. 
Jonathan Heaton. 
Luther Heaton. 
Nathaniel Kingsbury. 
Daniel Kingsbury. 
Stephen Larrabee. 
Daniel Lake. 
Ezra Metcalf. 
Jonathan Metcalf. 
Moses Marsh. 
Eli Metcalf. 
Daniel Metcalf. 
William Nelson. 
David Nims, Jr. 
Ebenezer Newton. 
Asahel Nims. 
Eliakim Nims. 
Zadock Nims. 
Alpheus Nims. 
Joshua Osgood. 
Benjamin Osgood, Jr. 
Amtjs Partridge. 
Jonathan Pond. 
Abiathar Pond. 
Nathan Rugg. 
Josiah Richardson. 
Eleazer Sanger. 
Abner Sanger. 
Robert Spencer. 
Jeremiah Stiles. 
Richard Smith. 
John Swan. 
Jacob Town. 
Joseph Thatcher. 
Abraham Wheeler, Jr., 
Joseph Willson. 
William Woods. 
Oliver Wright. 
Jedediah Wellman. 
David Willson. 
Daniel Willson. 
Thomas Wells. 
John White. 
James Wright. 
Zadock Wheeler. 
Walter Wheeler. 
Samuel Wadsworth. 
Abijah Wilder. 
Jonathan Wheeler. 
Thomas Wilder. 
Thomas IMorse. 
Ephraim Leonard. 
Peter Daniels. 



William Goodenow. Luke Metcalf. 

.John Griggs. Isaac Wyman, Jr. 

" Errors excepted. 

" Epheaim Dorman, C. 
" To Col. Josiah AVillard, Keene, August 7, 
1773." • 

The following is the alarm-li.st belougiiig to 
Keene : 

Lieut. Seth Heaton. 
Dea. David Foster. 
John Day. 
Abraham Wheeler. 
Nathan Blake. 
Joseph Ellis. 
Uriah Wilson. 
Ebenezer Nims. 
David Nims. 
Gideon Ellis. 
Lieut. Andrew Balch. 
Aaron Gray. 
Ebenezer Day. 
Eliphalet Briggs. 
Benjamin Archer. 
Capt. Isaac Wyman. 
Doct. Obadiah Blake. 
Lieut. Timothy Ellis. 
Thomas Frink, Esq. 
Doct. Josiah Pomeroy. 
Doct. Gideon Tiffany. 
Elijah AVilliams. 
Israel Houghton. 



Samuel Woods. 
Samuel Daniels. 
Jesse Clark. 
Joseph Brown. 
Robert Gillmore. 
Obadiah Hamilton. 
Peter Rice. 
Elisha Ellis. 
Isaac Billings. 
Josiah Ellis. 
Timothy Ellis, Jr. 
Ichabod Fisher. 
William Gray. 
Benjamin Hall, Jr. 
Benjamin Osgood. 
Nathaniel Hall. 
Samuel Woods, Jr. 
John Connolly. 
Samuel Colhoun. 
Ebenezer Cooke. 
Daniel Snow. 
Eliphalet Briggs, Jr. 



CHAPTER IV. 



KEEtiE— {Com i lined). 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



First Cougrcgational Church — Second IJongregationiil 
Church — Unitarian Church — Baptist Church — St. .lames' 
Church — Methodist Church — Roman Catholic Chiircii. 

The First Congregational Church. — • 
The first reference to the ecclesiastical history 
of the town found on the old proprietors' records 
is under date of September 30, ITofi. 

At a proprietors' meeting held at Keene, then 
known as the township of the Upper Ashuelot, 
September ;](), l7.3(i, it was voted "that they 
will build a Meeting-house at theupper township 
on the Ashuelot, so called, 40 feet long, 20 feet 
stud, and 30 and 5 feet wide, at the south end 
of the town street (to underpin, cover and 



KEENE. 



43 



inclose the same, and lay down hoards for the 
lower floor), at the place appointed by the Gen- 
eral Court's committee ; and that Messrs. Jere- 
miah Hall, Samuel Daniels, Joseph Richardson, 
Stejihen Blake and Josiah Fisher be a com- 
mittee to build or let the same ; and to see that 
said work be completely performed by the 2(jth 
day of June next." 

The first jiastor was the Rev. Jacob Bacon. 
He was called to settle as the minister of the 
new plantation May 5, 1 73.S, and was ordained 
October 18th of the same year. The committee 
who presented the call consisted of Jeremiah 
Hall, David Foster, Isaac Clark, Josiah Fisher 
and Ei)enezer Nims. 

The church was organized October LS, 1737, 
and soon after David Foster and Josiah Fisher 
were appointed deacons. Rev. Mr. Bacon was 
dismissed in 1747. 

The town was chartered in 1753, and at the 
first meeting held under the new charter it was 
voted to build a meetinir-house of slabs for tem- 
porary use, and in the following December it was 
voted to build a meeting-house forty-five feet long 
antl thirty-five feet wide. This house was 
erected on the common and used till the fall of 
1786, when it was removed to the west side of 
the common and rebuilt as the court-house of 
Cheshire County. 

The second house of worship was erected 
in 1786, and was an enterprise of no small 
magnitude for those early days. The pews were 
bought in anticipation of its being built and 
were generally paid for in cattle, which were 
sold at great discount. The following items 
are extracted from the records of the buildinsr 

o 

committee : 

" To a journey in February, 1787, to Sutton, Frank- 
lin and Boston, to purchase oil, glass and vane, £1 
4s. Od. 

" To a journey down with 27 head of cattel to 
AVrentham, December, 1787; also, a journey to Provi- 
dence to buy the glass for the meeting-house ; and 
expense of keeping said cattel, £5 3.s. lOd. 

" May, 1788. — To a journey to Providence after the 
glass ; to caning glass from Providence to Wrentham ; 
also, a journey from Providence to Boston, 19s. Id. 

" Paid for cattel more than they sold for in cash, 
£16 18s. 5d. 

" To cash to defray the expenses of Samuel Heaton 



down to Wrentham after the glass for the meeting- 
house, wagon and two horses, £1 18s. 4rf. 

" Paid Mr. John Ward & Co., Providence, for glass, 
£38 5s. 4rf." 

The pews sold for £941 os. Raised by tax, 
four hundred pounds. 

The building committee consisted of Lieu- 
tenant Benjamin Hall, Deacon Daniel Kings- 
bury, Major Davis Howlet, Mr. Benjamin 
Anlier, Lieutenant Reuben Partridge, Mr. Abi- 
jah Wilder and Mr. Thomas Baker. 

The pews were sold at auction, as follows : 

PEW.S ON THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE. 

£ S. 

Daniel Newcomb, Esq., Xo. 15 IS 

Abijah Wilder, No. 20 18 10 

Daniel Xewcomb, Esq., No. 17 18 

Benjamin Hall, No. 18 IS 10 

James Wright, No. 62 17 

Thomas Baker, Jr., No. 19 16 10 

Nathan Blake, Jr., No. 61 16 10 

Abel Blake, No. 57 15 10 

Isaac Billings, No. 46 15 10 

Josiah Eichardson, No. 34 16 

Aaron Ernes, No. 16 15 

Colonel Timothy Ellis, No. 63 15 10 

Thomas Baker, Esq., No. 14 15 

Benjamin Hall, Esq., No. 47 14 

Aaron Willson, No. 24 14 

Israel Houghton and I n^ .,- ., , 

Elisha Briggs, J 

Alpheus Nims, No. 9 14 

David Howlet, No. 21 14 

Isaac Blake and 1 x^ .i- i . rv 

, , , ^^0. 2/ 14 

Joseph Blake, ) 

Royal Blake, No. 60 14 

Thomas Field, No. 26 15 

Asa Dunbar, Esq., No. 35 14 

Alexander Ralston, No. 33 14 

John Swan, No. 59 13 10 

Luther Emes, No. 36 13 10 

Jotham Metcalf, No. 28 13 10 

Daniel Kingsbury, No. 56 13 10 

Reuben Partridge, No. 31 12 10 

John Houghton, No 30 12 

Cornelius Sturtevant, No. 45 12 

Elijah Dunbar, No. 10 12 

Abraham Wheeler, Jr., No. 3 11 10 

Eliphalet Briggs, No. 48 11 (» 

John P. Blake and | jjo. 29 10 10 

Andrew Slylield, J 

David Nims, Jr., No. 8 10 10 

William Wood.s, No. 11 11 10 

Benjamin Archer, No. 51 10 

Benjamin Hall, No. 49 10 

Eli Metcalf, No. 12 10 10 



44 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



£ s. 

Benjnmin Bakh, No. 50 10 

Isaac Griswold, No. 44 10 

Daniel Ncvvcomb, Esq., No. 1 10 10 

Ebenezer Day, No. 55 10 

Thaddeus Metcalf, No. 13 10 

Ephraim Wright, No. 42 10 10 

David Wilson, No. 22 10 10 

Joshua Durant, No. fi4 10 

Eri Richardson, No. 23 10 

John Dickson, No. 43 10 

Samuel Bassett, No. 7 10 

David P^oster, No. 53 10 

Asahel Blake, No. 32 10 

Jesse Clark, No. 52 10 

Hananiah Hall and | jj^^_ g^ jq „ 

Samuel Osgood, ) 

Josiah WiHard, No. (J 10 

Josiah Willard, No. 41 10 

John Stiles, No. 4 '. 10 10 

Joseph Brown, No. 39 10 

Bartholomew Dwincll and ] -,- , -.q q 
John Stiles, i 

Daniel Wilson, No. 38 10 

Dan Guild, No. 2 10 

Simeon Clark, No. 37 12 10 

Josiah Willard, No. 40 10 

PEWS IN THE GALLERY. 

Thomas Baker, Jr., No. 13 9 10 

Stephen Chase, No. 16 8 10 

Benjamin Kemp, No. 10 9 10 

Timothy Balch and | ^^^^ j„ ^ ^^^ 

Ebenezei- Robbins, i 

Elisha Briggs, No. 15 7 10 

Eliakim Nims, No. 11 7 10 

Daniel Newcomb, Esq., No. 8 7 

Elisha Briggs, No. 12 6 10 

Benjamin Willis, Jr., No. 20 6 15 

Isaac Billings, No. 6 6 15 

Elisha Briggs, No. 14 6 15 

Asa Ware and 1 jj^_ 23 10 

Jonas Osgood, J 

Daniel Kingsbury, No. 19 6 05 

Eliphalet Briggs, No. 21 G 

Elisha Briggs, No. 7 5 10 

Nathaniel French, No. 9 5 

Millet Ellis, No. 22 4 10 

Daniel Newcomb, Esq., No. 18 7 

Elisha Briggs, No. 25 4 05 

Abijah Wilder, No. 24 9 

Reuben Partridge, No. 5 4 05 

Thomas Field, No. 4 4 10 

Alexander McDaniels, No. 2 4 05 

Eliphalet Briggs, No. 3 4 05 

Tiinothy Balch, No. 1 5 

The pews on the ttoor (.•^ixty-three) sold for 



seven hnndred and eighty-nine pounds ; those 
in the gallery (twenty-five) for sixty pounds ; 
the whole number for eight hundred and forty- 
nine pounds, — about three thousand dollars. 

This church was remodeled in 1828 and sev- 
eral times since. 

]\Ir. Bacon's successor as pastor was Rev. 
Ezra Carpenter, who was installed October 4, 
1753, over the united chui-ch of Keene and 
Swanzey. He remained about seven years. 

At the separation of Keene from Swanzey the 
Keene C^luuTh was organized with foifrteen male 
members, and June 11, 1761, Rev. Clement 
Sumner was ordained as pastor. He officiated 
about eleven years, and was succeeded, in 1777, 
by Rev. Aaron Hall. He was ordained Feb- 
ruary 18, 1778, the church at this time consist- 
ing of seventy-seven members. Mr. Hall 
officiated as pastor thirty-seven years. He died 
August 12, 1814. During his ministry two 
hundred and eleven menabers were received into 
the church. 

Rev. David Oliphant was the next pastor, 
installed May 24, 1815. He remained about 
three years and was succeeded by Rev. Z. S. 
Barstow, D.D.,Avho was ordained July 1, 1818. 
Dr. Barstow's pastorate covered a period of fifty 
years. He resigned March 1, 18(J8. Rev. J. 
A Hamilton was his helper from February 1*, 
lS(il, till August 10, 18(j5, and Rev. J. A. 
Leach from August 16, 1866, till September 
21, 1867. 

Rev. William S. Karr, installed July 9, 1868, 
left January 1, 1«73. 

Rev. Cyrus Richardson, from July 10, 1873, 
till July 10, 1883. 

The church at present (1885) has no settled 
pastor. 

Congregational Society ^ (Unitarian). 
— This society was organized March 18, 1824, 
by an as.sociation of sixty-nine men, under the 
statutes of the State of New Hampshire. It 
took the designation of " Keene Congregational 
Society." Mr. Creorge Tilden is now, and has 
been for some years, the only survivor of that 
original membership. Among the original 



' Tlie items Tor this sketch were very kindly furnished by 
Rev. William Ovue White. 



KEENE. 



45 



members were Samuel Dinsmoor and Samuel 
Dinsmoor, Jr. (each Governor of New Hamp- 
shire), Thomas M. Edwards (late a member 
of Congress), Salma Hale (member of Con- 
gress) Silas Perry (the Revolutionary soldier), 
John Elliot, Aaron Appleton, John Prentiss, 
Francis Faulkner, James Wilson, Jr., William 
Lamsou, Sumner Wheeler and Benjamin F. 
Adams ; and Phineas Handorson, in l.S.3(), and 
William L. Foster, in 1S42, added their 
names. Levi Chamberlain was a punctual 
attendant, althoiiglx his name is not ou that 
early list. 

The time-honored deacons, Samuel Wood, Jr., 
and Adolphus Wright, are there, — the one serv- 
ing upwards of twenty-nine and the other thirty- 
five years,^fitly succeeded in office by John 
Clark, who also served (until his death) nearly 
twenty-seven years. 

Add to such names among the departed, as 
chronicled above, the sons of Francis Faulk- 
ner, who, in a business career or at the bar, 
achieved renown; or men like W^illiam P. 
Abbott, of Nashua, who, thirty years ago, 
joined the parish heart and hand ; and it be- 
comes evident that its influence has left its 
mark upon the community. And }'et, without 
the scores of earnest, faithful, industrious men 
with their households, who have adorned a 
more quiet career, the society could not have let 
its light shine as it has. 

Rev. William Orne White says : " I deemed 
myself fortunate in succeeding, in 1851, such 
ministers as Thomas Russell Sullivan and Abiel 
Abbot Livermore, one of whom hatl given nine 
and a half and the other thirteen and a half years 
to the parish, and had left beliind them tlie record 
of earnest work, and that ' good name ' which 
' is better than precious ointment.' " 

The church edifice was enlarged by one-third 
its space and remodeled in 1867—68. 

Early in 1869, through the gift of one thou- 
sand dollars by the late Charles Wilson, the 
germ of the Invalids' Home was planted, which 
by subsec^uent bequests of five thousand dollars 
and upwards from the late Mrs. Rebecca H. 
Cooke, and one thousand dollars from the late 
John J. Allen, as well as through numerous sub- 
scriptions and the co-operation of friends in 



other parishes in Keene, has been enabled to 
reach its present state of efficiency. 

Nearly five thousand dollars were paid to- 
wards the missionary etforts of the American 
Unitarian Association by members of the 
parish during the twenty -seven years of ilr. 
White's ministry, besides contributions to 
Freedmen's Schools, the New Hanq)shire Or- 
phans' Home and other charities. Mr. White's 
predecessor had been eminently faithful to this 
department of parish exertion. 

Mr White recorded two hundred and thirty- 
one baptisms, all but a very few being in Keene. 
In Keene or its vicinity he officiated, during his 
pastorate, at nearly five hundred burials. 

It is proper to add that the Keene AtheuEeum 
(precursor of the Keene Public Library) 
owed its origin largely to effijrts of persons of 
our own parish. Yet, in saying this, the cor- 
dial co-operation — during the war and at other 
times — of generous-hearted souls in all the 
parishes, in the behalf of the soldiers, frecd- 
men, etc., cannot be forgotten. 

Baptist Church.' — Baptists from Middle- 
borough, Mass., located in the east j)art of 
Westmoreland, where they constituted a church 
in 1771. This family sjiread into the west part 
of Keene. Here a church of the same faith 
was recognized by an ecclesiastical council ou 
the 9tli day of September, 1816, consisting of 
thirteen members. It was gathered under the 
ministry of Rev. Charles Cummings. The 
churcli was received into the Dublin Baptist 
Association in Octolier of that year. A small 
meeting-house, with square pews and a gallery, 
was built that autumn. It was situated in that 
part of the town known as "Ash Swamjj," and 
dedicated December 25, 1816.^ Worship was 
continued here, at irregular periods, under many 
discouragements, till 1838, when Baj)tist preach- 



1 By Rev. William H. Eaton, P.D. 

'This meeting-house was built mainly tlirough the 
agency of David Carpenter, whose son, Caleb Carpenier, 
paid largely toward the removal of the debt on the new 
house on Court Street. The frame of the ohl house still 
exists, in part, in the dwelling-house on the corner of 
Middle and Summer Streets, now owned by Mr. James 
Donnelly. The bell is slill preserved and is now used in 
die new church. 



46 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ing was commeuced in the village. The effort 
was so successful that a brick meeting-house, 
forty-five feet by sixty-eight and a half feet, 
on Winter Sti'eet,' was dedicated September 
17, 18.")!l. The interest in the village was 
started and the house built under the efficient 
labors of Rev. John Peacock. He baptized 
forty-six during the year and a half of his 
ministry. Rev. Mark Carpenter, late of Mil- 
ford, was publicly recognized as pastor of the 
church on the 22d of April, 184U, and dis- 
missed on the '^d of October, 1844, having 
liaptized sixty into the fellowship of the church. 
He was succeeded by Mr. Hoi'ace Richardson, 
of Cornish, a recent graduate of Newton Theo- 
logical Institution, who was ordained May 7, 
1845. He was dismissed April 1, 1846. After 
him Rev. (xilbert Roi)bins, late of Rumney, 
took charge of the church, commencing his 
laboi-s in August of that year. He remained 
here eleven years, tendering his resignation 
in June, 1857. It was a time of sowing and 
not of reaping, though he had the privilege in 
one associatioual year of baptizing twenty- 
two. 

In 185.3 a convenient two-story parsonage, 
with a small barn, was built on the west side of 
Court Street, about one-half mile fronj the 
meeting-house. The lot measured .sixty-six 
feet front, with an average depth of about 
one hundred and fifty-five feet. The land 
and buildings cost sixteen hundred and fifty 
dollars. 

In October of 1857, Rev. Leonard Tracy be- 
came the pastor, and in June of 1 86-) gave up 
his charge, respected and beloved by all. In 
the mean time he baptized twenty-six. In the 
autumn of 1863 the attention of the people was 
directed to Mr. William N. Clarke, of Caze- 
novia, N. Y., a recent graduate of Hamilton 
Theological Seminary, and he was ordained the 
pastor January 14, 1864. He remained here 
five years and a half, in which time he baptized 
twenty-two and gave a moral impulse to the 
church. While he was here a new organ was 

'The building committee for tlie house on Winter Street. 
were Levi Willard, William Stowits and Amasa Brown. 
The house remains on its original location, though oc- 
cupied for secular purposes. 



purchased, costing twelve hundred and fifty dol- 
lars. He closed his labors here May 9, 1869. 

He was succeeded by Mr. Austin V. Tilton, 
a graduate of Newton Theological In.stitution, 
and a .sou of Rev. J. D. Tilton, of Milford. He 
was ordained September 30, 1869, and con- 
tinued his labors here till May 5, 1872. He 
" labored for dii-ect .spiritual fruit," and had the 
satisfaction of adding to the church, by baptism, 
twentv-five in less than three years of his 
ministry. 

On the 26th of May, 1872, Rev. William H. 
Eaton, D.D., late of Nashua, was invited to be- 
come pastor. After spending about two months 
with the people he accepted the call. He was in- 
stalled September 1st. The question of a new 
house of worship had been under discussion for 
sometime. After the settlement of Dr. Eat<jn 
the question was .soon revived. All felt that 
extensive repairs must be made on the old 
house, or a new house must be built. The lat- 
ter plan was finally agreed upon with great 
unanimity. A lot was purchased on the east 
side of Court Street, known as the Abijah Wil- 
der estate. It included a two-story dwelling- 
house on the corner of Court and Vernon 
Streets, which was set aside as a parsonage, while 
the other was sold for five thousand two hun- 
dred dollars. After disposing of some of the 
land on the east side of the Wilder lot, the re- 
mainder, with the dwelling-house, cost ten 
thousand five hundred dollars. 

Cirouud was broken fir the new church on the 
3d day of June, 1873, with appropriate reli- 
gious services. The house was dedicated Mav 
12, 1875. It is made of brick, and measures, 
in the main body, fifty-nine by one hundred and 
four feet. The recess is twenty-eight and a half 
by fourteen feet. The spire rises to the height of 
one hundred and sixty-seven feet from the 
ground, surmounted by a gilded weather-vane 
five feet high. The style of architecture is 
Romanesque. The auditorium is in the second 
story, and easily accommodates seven hundred 
and fifty people. It is finished in ash and l)lack 
walnut. The orchestra is in the rear of the 
pulpit. There is a small gallery over the front 
vestibule ; there are six beautiful memorial win- 
dows, three on each side. The acoustic proper- 



KEENE. 



47 



tics of the house are excellent. The rooms on 
the first floor consist of chapel, vestry, parlor, 
kitchen, pantry, toilet-room, etc. The whole 
house is well-proportioned, substantially built, 
conveniently arranged and tastefully decorated. 
It cost, with furniture, exclusive of the land, 
fifty-two thousand dollars.' The l)uildincr of 
this house of worship was followed by great 
financial depression in the conimunity, which 
imposed a very heavy debt ujion the church and 
society, M'hich was borne ^^•ith a commendable 
degree of ]}atieuce and fortitude. They paid 
for all home expenses, An an average, about 
seven thousand dollars a year, for twelve years, 
and they now have the reward of having their 
valuable church property Dearly free of debt. 
Since 1872 the numerical increase of the church 
has been small, yet fully equal to any other 
period of the same length, with one exception. 
During Mr. Eaton's ministry, thus far, fifty-one 
have been added by baptism and fifty-eight by 
letter. Still, the diminution by deaths and re- 
movals has been almost equal to the additions. 
However, the church, through its entire history, 
has gradually increased from the original tiiir- 
teen, in September, 1816, to one hundred and 
ninety-six, in ^larch, 1885. 

The Sabbath-school, comparatively, is large 
and promising, consisting of eighteen teachers, 
two hundred and eighty scholars, with an aver- 
age attendance of about one hundred and thirty- 
five. The library numbers eight hundred and 
fifty Volumes ; A. G. Sprague, superintendent. 

St. James' Chirch.-— Strictly speakinir, the 
history of St. James' Church, Keene, dates from 
tlie year 1858. 

Previous to this time, however, services had 
been held from time to time, as 0{)portunity 
offered, by various visiting clergymen. 

For instance, the Rev. ]\Ir. Leonard, rector 
of St, Paul's Church, Windsor, Vt., visited 
Keene, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Dunham 
and other parishioners, and held several services 
in the village some time in the year 1816. 

' The building committee for the new church on Court 
Street were Reuben Stewart, Moses Ellis, Dauphin W. 
Comstock, Joseph Foster and John Flynn. The architect 
was .S. .S. Woodcock, Boston, Mass. 

' By Rev. W. B. T. Smith. 



Soon after this visit the regular services of 
the church were conducted for several weeks, 
probably by the Rev. Mr. Leonard, assisted by 
the Rev. Mr. Moss, of Newburyport, Mass., in 
the " old court-house," then standing on the 
site of what is now called Gerould's Block. 

Among the citizens favoring this undertaking 
were Elijah Dunbar, Esq., and Dr. Thomas 
Edwards. Their services, however, soon ceased. 

An occasion fif marked interest was the fun- 
eral of Hon. Ithamar Cha.-iC, father of the 
late Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. 

The funeral service was held in the Congre- 
gational house of worship, and was conducted 
by the Rev. Dr. Strong, of (ireenfield, Mass., 
August 11, 1817. 

This is supposed to have been the first funeral 
service e%'er conducted in Keene according to 
the rites of the Protestant Episcopal Ciuu-ch. 
It was largely attended, and is said to have 
created a very favoralile impression of the 
church. 

Bishop Griswold, of the Eastern Diocese, once 
visited Keene, confirming Dr. and ]Mrs. Ed- 
wards. 

The Rev. Mr. Barber, rector of I^nion Church, 
West Claremont, occasionally officiated in 
Keene, and administered the sacrament of 
Holy Baptism. From time to time, also, ser- 
vices were held in town by the Rev. Nathaniel 
Sprague. 

The Rev. Dr. Sprague was a native of Keene, 
and improved every opportunity of extending 
the knowledge and influence of the church in 
i these parts. 

Happily, a memorial window was placed in 
St. James' Church in 1864, when the building 
was completed, which serves to keep alive the 
memory of the many good words and works of 
this ftiithful servant of Christ. 

The Rev. Henry N. Hudson, of the Diocese 
of Massachusetts, also held a series of services 
in Keene in the summer of 1850. 

These services were sustained by a distin- 
guished layman residing in Boston, — the late 
Henry M. Parker, — and were at first held in the 
town hall ; but this room proved to be too 
large and expensive for the present undertaking, 
and, after much delay and difficulty, Mr. Hud- 



48 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



sou succeeded iu securiug a more suitable room. 
This was in the second story of an unoccupied 
building belonging to the late Hon. James 
Wilsou. 

This room Mr. Hudson himself took great 
pleasure iu putting in order, making the furni- 
ture with his own hands, except the settees, 
which, greatly to his regret, he was obliged to 
purchase, which, he observes, was the most un- 
pleasant part of it all. 

The room was large enouah to accommodate 
about seventy-five individuals. Services were 
held here reunlarlv throuoh the summer and 
early fall, on Sundays, morning and evening, and 
on Saints' days. 

These services were well attended and excited 
considerable interest in church methods. Mr. 
Hudson rented a small nuisical instrument, and 
he remarks that by the good will and favor of 
some worthy young people, he had " the benefit 
of a competent choir and reasonably good 
music." 

Mr. Hudson's work was at length interrupted 
by a call from Bishop Chase to supply his own 
place as rector of Trinity Church, Claremont, 
while he himself was absLMit doing episcopal 
duty in the Diocese of New York. 

There was no att('m[)t to organize a parish in 
Keene at this time, and when Mr. Hudson was 
released from duty at C'lareraont it seemed to 
him to be impracticable to resume this mission- 
ary undertaking. And although occasional 
services had been held from time to time in 
private houses, by diiferent visiting clergymen, 
nothing further was done looking to the estab- 
lishment of the Episcopal Churcli til! the sum- 
mer of 1858. 

On June 24th of that year (St. John Bap- 
tists' Day) tiie Right Reverend Carlton Cha.se, 
D.D., bisiiop of the diocese, visited Keene, held 
evening service and preached. 

He was encouraged, by the expressed wishes 
of those he met, to attempt the permanent es- 
tablishment of the services of the church. 

Accordingly, he invited the Rev. Edward A. 
Renouf, theu a.ssistaut mini.ster at St. Stephen's 
Church, Boston, Mass., to visit Keene and act 
as his missionary for a few weeks. Mr. Renouf 
at once accepted the invitation, and, with the 



assistance of the Rev. Dr. Fuller, also of the 
Diocese of Massachusetts, services were soon 
begun, and, lieing well attcndeil, were continued 
regularly through September and October fol- 
lowing. 

At length Mr. Renouf resigned his position 
at St. Stephen's, and directly after Easter, 18.")9, 
undertook entire charge of the work. Mean- 
while he purchased the estate where he now re- 
sides (1885), and, in July of the same year, re- 
moved thither with his family. 

On Ma}' 1.''), 1859, the parish of St. James' 
Church was duly organized and the usual 
officers cho.sen. 

May 15th certain friends of the church 
bought of the Cheshii'e Railroad Cnmpany the 
lot now occupied by the church edifice, for the 
sum of thirteen hundred dollars, and deeded it 
to tiie parish. 

May 18th the Rev. E. A. Renouf was called 
to be rector of St. Jame.s' Church, aud at once 
accepted the call. 

May 25th this parish was admitted into 
union with the Convention of the Dincese of 
New Hampshire, and was represented in that 
convention by Mr. H. Brownson, as lay dele- 
gate. 

On Sunday, August 7th, the Holy Com- 
nuinion was celebrated in this parish for the 
first time. On the Sunday followiug (Augu.st 
4th) the Sunday-school was organized with 
four teachers and sixteen ])upils jjresent. 

In October, 1 8(50, plans t'nv a stone church, with 
seating capacity of about five hundred, were sub- 
mitted for approval by C. E. Parker, architect, 
of Boston, Mass., at an estimated cost not to 
exceed twelve thousand dollars, which, after 
some modifications and no small difiicultv and 
delay, were at length agreed upon, and ground 
was broken Ascension Day, May 14, 1863. 
The corner-stone was laid by the bishop of 
the dioce.se, assisted by the rector and several 
clergymen of this and the Diocese of Vermont, 
June 30, 1863, at which time an able address 
was delivered by the Rev. Isaac G. Hubbard, 
D.D., rector of Grace Church, IManchester, 
N. H. The building was completed and made 
ready for u.se during the following summer. 

The first .service was held in it August 21, 



KEENE. 



49 



1X04 ; but the chancel furniture and other ap- 
pohitments were still incomplete, and there re- 
mained an unliquidated debt of seven thousand 
dollars, which delayed for several years the 
service of consecration. 

On April 17, 1868, the Rev. Mr. Renouf 
tendered his resignation of the rectorship, to 
take effect on the ."Jlst of May fullowing. 

During Mr. lienouf's rectorship of nine 
years there were of baptisms in St. James' par- 
ish, 95; confirmations, 58; admitted to Holy 
Communion, 9(i ; marriages, 32 ; burials, 64. 
The whole amount of oflfijrings, exclusive of the 
cost of the church building-lot, was seven thou- 
sand nine hundred and tiftv-niue dollars. 

The Rev. George W. Brown was called to 
1)6 rector October 1!), 1868. During his rec- 
torship the church was decorated within, and, 
after prolonged effort, the money needed to liq- 
uidate the debt was raised, the late Hon. Wil- 
liam P. Wheeler having pledged one thou- 
sand dollars toward the whole amount needed, 
jjrovided the parish would raise the rest. Ac- 
cordingly, the church was consecrated by Bishop 
Niles, November 22, 1877. 

Mr. Brown resigned the rectorshij) April 13, 
1879. 

May 9th of the same year the Rev. A. B. 
Crawford was called to be rector, and resigned 
April 9, 1882. 

June 19, 1882, the Rev. Floyd W.Tomldns, 
Jr., rector of St. Paul's Church, Minneapolis, 
Minn., was called to be rector of St. James' 
Church ; accepted, and entered upon his duties 
as rector September 1, 1882. Mr. Tom- 
kins resigned March 1, 1884, in order to accept 
a call to Calvary Chapel, New York City. 

September 15, 1884, the Rev. W. B. T. 
Smith, rector of Union Church, West Clare- 
mont, was called ; accepted, and entered upon 
his duties as rector Sunday, November 23, 
1884. 

Grace Methodist Church was organized 
in November, 1835, with thirty members. 

The present church edifice was erected in 
1 869 at a cost of forty thousand dollar's. 

RoMAx Catholic Church. — There is also 
a Roman Catholic Church here, with Rev. J. 
R. Power as pastor. 
4 



CHAPTER V. 

KEENE— (C./»(/"i(crf). 
BY WILLIAM S. BRIGGS. 

The Cemeteries — Gravestone Inscriptions — Historical 
Notes — Reminiscences. 

To guard properly, and care for the resting- 
places of our dead is alike the dictate of affec- 
tion, Christianity and our comiuon humanity. 
This is the duty first of friends and families ; 
but these all die, while the t<jwns, the State, 
remain. 

I find in tlie records of the proprietors of 
the town of Keene that it was voted, February 
23, 1762, that the neck of land where Isaac 
Clark and Amos Foster were buried be appro- 
priated and set apart for a buryiiig-place for 
the town. This lot, I think, must be the one 
now belonging to the farm of Captain Robin- 
son, at the lower end of Main Street. Captain 
Ephraim Dorman, one of the original proprie- 
tors of the town, living in Keene in 1738, died 
here in 1795, and was burietl in this place. 
This burying-ground was probably used by the 
town to bury their dead for more than thirty 
years. The burying-ground on Washington 
Street was not used, as I can learn, until about 
1795. Visit our beautiful new cemetery on Bea- 
ver Sti'cet ; look at the costly monuments in 
granite and marble, the beautiful trees and flow- 
ers, planted by the hand of affection ; ask that 
mourner that is shedding tears above the new- 
made grave, or the present owner of any of 
the lots in this beautiful place, if they could 
believe any one that should tell them that in 
less than one hundred years all these monuments 
will be removed far from this j)lace, the graves 
all leveled and the grounds ploughed and 
planted, and the bones of their dear ones go to 
fertilize the soil, that a good crop of corn and 
potatoes might be raised, — no one would believe 
this story ; and he that was bold enough to tell 
it would be looked upon as a false prophet, or 
one that should be confined in an insane asylum 
as a dangerous person. Yet this same thing 
has been done in this very goodly town of 
Keene. On that neck of land set apart by the 



50 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



fathers, and at that time (1762) the owners of 
the town, these men, with their wives and chil- 
dren, were buried ; costly monuments (for the 
times) were erected, with their good deeds and 
their virtues inscribed thereon ; for many years 
their graves were strewn with flowers, and 
tears were shed for the loved ones by their chil- 
dren's children ; but can one of the descend- 
ants of these patriots tell where the bones of 
their ancestors now rest ? Not one of them ; for 
their monuments have been removed, the ground 
leveled, ploughed and planted, as any other part 
of the farm, and their dust goes to enrich the 
land. Could towns be made to suffer, as indi- 
viduals, for wrong-doing, I don't know of any 
penalty too great to be imposed on the town of 
Keene for this great wrong. I remember more 
than forty years ago hearing the old people 
talking abmit the old burying-ground, and 
saying that it was a disgrace not to protect it ; 
but nothing was done until the annual town- 
meeting March 12, 18-14, when William Lam- 
son (a man who, while living, always protested 
against tlie desecration of these graves) made 
the following communication to the meeting : 

" Mr. Edwards (Tbos. M. Edwards, moderator) : I 
intended to request the selectmen to insert in the 
warrant for this meeting, ' To see what the town will 
do with the old burial-ground on the farm now owned 
by Sam'l Robinson, Esq.' There is a bottom of a 
stone wall that once enclosed it, but in such a condi- 
tion that cattle walk over it; many of the grave- 
stones have been broken off, but few are now stand- 
ing ; one of these is that of Capt. Dorman, whose 
life is the history of our town. I now present this, 
hoping that the town will choose a committee to ex- 
amine into its situation, and make a report at our 
next town-meeting. I would recommend that the 
committee be elected from our citizens advanced in 
life, and who may know something of the history of 
the town." 

A committee was appointed at this meeting 
consisting of Calvin Chapman, Salma Hale 
and Aaron Hall. At the annual town-meeting 
held March 11, 1845, the subject was referred 
to the same committee, who were autiiorized, if 
they deemed it expedient, to fence the old bury- 
ing-gronnd at the expense of the town. No- 
thing was done that year. At the annual town- 
meeting Marcii 14, 184(j, it was voted that the 
selectmen be directed to cause a projjer fence to 



be constructed around the old burying-ground 
near Mr. Robinson's, at the south end of Main 
Street, " j^i'ovided Mr. Robinson consents, and 
the expense shall not exceed seventy-five dol- 
lars." Nothing was ever done — why, I know 
not ; but I think it was ascertained that the 
town had lost their rights in the " bones of the 
original owners." After this the grave-stones 
that could stand alone were taken up and set 
against the fence; and those that knew the 
graves know theiu no more. A few years ago 
Mr. Stephen Barker, then having the care of 
the new cemetery, to save the few remaining 
monuments (thirteen in number) caused them to 
be removed to the new cemetery and set up in 
good order just north of the receiving-tomb. 
On one of these monuments you may read, 
" Here lies the Body of Elizabeth, eldest 
daughter of the Rev. Clement and Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Sumner, who departed this life Feb. 2(3th, 
A.D. r7(i7." Now I propose to add to this 
inscrij)tion — " I once lived, I died and was bur- 
ied, but where my bones are now crumbling 
into dust no mortal man can tell." Now who 
was this Captain Ephraim Dorman, whose life 
Mr. Ijamson said was the history of the town ? 
I have searched the records of the proprietors 
of the town of Keene, and find that he was 
born in 1710 and lived in Keene in 1738 ; in 
1740 the proprietors voted him and thirty -eight 
others ten acres of upland for hazarding their 
lives and estate by living here to bring forward 
the settling of the place. 

The following is an extract from the " An- 
nals of Keene," published in 182fi : 



" Early in the morning of the "i^d of April, 174(5, 
Ephraim Dorman left the fort in search for his cow. 
He went northwardly along the borders of what was 
then a hideous and almost impervious swamp, lying 
east of the fort, until he arrived near the place where 
the turnpike now is. Looking into the swamp he 
perceived Severn! Indians lurking in the bushes. He 
immediately gave the alarm by crying 'Indians! In- 
dians !' and ran towards the fort. Two who were 
concealed in the bushes between him and the tort 
sprang forward, aimed their jiistols at him and fired, 
but neither hit him. They then, throwing away their 
arms, advanced towards him ; one he knocked down 
by a blow, which deprived him of his senses ; the 
other he seized, and, being a strong man and able 
wrestler, tried his strength and skill in his favorite 



KEENE. 



51 



mode of ' trip and twitch.' He tore his antagonist's 
l)hinket from his slioulders, leaving him nearly naked. 
He then seized him by the arms and bod}-, but as he 
was painted and greased, he slipped from his grasp. 
After a short struggle Dorman quitted him, ran 
towards the fort and reached it in safety." 

E^jliraim Doruian was one of the original 
])roj)rietor.'5 to call the first legal town-meeting 
ill Keene. At tliis meeting, held on the first 
Wednesday of May, 175;>, it was "Voted that 
the sum of eight dollars be paid to Ephraim 
Dorman for his services in going to Portsmouth 
on business relating to the charter. Voted to 
Benjamin Bellows one Jiundrcd and twenty-two 
Spanish milled dollars for his services and ex- 
penses in getting the cliarter of Keene. Voted 
to raise one hundred and twenty-two pounds, 
old tenor, for the use of preaching the present 
year. Chose Ephraim Dorman one of the 
assessors of the town." 

At the second meeting Dorman was one of a 
committee to see that the proprietors' title to 
lands in the township be lawful and good ; if 
so, to give them liberty to have them I'ecorded 
in the jjroprietors' " Book of Records." Feb- 
ruary 23, 1762, he was on a committee to draw 
lots for a division of lands among the proprie- 
tors of the town. March 7, 1769, he was 
moderator in town-meeting. In 1773 he was 
captain of the foot company of Keene, number- 
ing one hundred and forty-six men ; was also 
one of tlie first to start a company for the seat 
of war after the fight at Lexington, April 19, 
1775. 

Now does not this man deserve a monument 
of marble or bronze, with this inscrijition on it : 
" He gave his property, his life, his all, to 
Keene ?" Captain Ephraim Dorman died in 
Keene May 7, 1795, aged eighty-five. To show 
the contrast in f)atriotism one hundred years 
ago, as compared with tiie present time, read 
the following : " At a town-meeting held in 
Keene Sept., 1773, voted to give Dea. David 
Foster liberty to lay out three acres of land ou 
the "West Beach Hill, in the common land, in 
such place as he may choo.se, in recompense for 
his services done for the proprietary in eight 
years pai<t." 

The following are the inscriptions copied 
from the thirteen old slate monuments brougiit 



from the old burying-ground, and now in the 
new cemetery. I have numbered them to keep 
them distinct : 

No. 1. — Elizabeth Sumner. 

No. 2. — William Sumner. 

No. 3. — In memory of Abncr, son of Mr. Nathan 
Blake, who died July 7th, 176<!, in the (ith year of his 
age. 

No. 4. — Here lies the body of Elizabeth, eldest 
daughter of the Revd. Clement and Mrs. Elizabeth 
Sumner, who departed this life Feb. 2(Jth, a.i>. 17(>7, 
aged 7 years and 4 days. 

'■ In the midst of life we are in death. 
O hap[)y child, how soon thy race was run '. 
Now free from anxious care and sorrow. 
While with thy Saviour and forever l)lest." 

No. 5. — In memory of ye Widow Betsej^ Fair- 
banks, ye wife of Capt. Nathan Fairbanks ; she deed. 
Feb. ye 26th, 1772, in ye 69th year of her age- 
No. 6. — Here lies the body of William, eldest 
son of the Rev. Clement and Mrs. Elizabeth Sumner, 
who died December 13th, 1765, the day of his birth. 
'"Time how short, eternity how long!" 

No. 7. — "In memory of Mrs. Zipjiorah, wife of Mr. 
Ezra Harvey, who deed. Oct. ye 30th, 1778, in ye 27th 
year of her age. 

No. 8. — In memory of Zipporah, daughter of Mr. 
Ezra Harvey and Elizabeth his wife; she died Janu- 
uary 21st, 1778, aged 2 years 7 mo. 21 dayes. 

No. 9. — In memory of David Baker, son of 
Thomas Baker, Esq., and Mrs. Sarah, his wife, who 
died January ye 27th, 1789, in ye 20th year of his 
age. 

" Time was I stood where thou dost now. 
And viewed the dead as thou dost me; 
Ere long thou'lt lie as low as I, 
And others stand and look on thee." 

No. 10. — Capt. Ephraim Dorman, died May 7th, 
179o, aged 85. Capt. Dorman was one of the first 
settlers and an original proprietor of the town of 
Keene. 

No. 11. — Mrs. Hepzibah Dorman. 

No. 12. — In memory of Mrs. Abigail, wife of 
Genl. James Reed, who departed this life August 
27th, 1791, in the 68th year of her age. 
" There's nothing here but who as nothing weighs. 

The more our joy the more we know it's vain ; 

Lose then from earth the grasp of fond desire, 

Weigh anchor and some happier clime explore." 

Mrs. Abigail Reed. 

No. 13. — Memento Mori. This stone is erected 
to perpetuate the memory of Madam Ruth Whitney, 
who departed this life in the 72d year of her age. 
She was successively married to the Revd. David 
Stearns, of Luningburg, and the Revd. Aaron Whit- 
ney, of Petersham, both of whom she survived. For 
diligence, patience, piety and knowledge, she was 



52 



HISTORV OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



eminently distinguished. As this stone cannot tell 
all her virtues, suffice to say that as a wife, she was 
prudent and faithful ; as a mother, discreet and ten- 
der ; as a neighbor, friendly and charitable; as a 
Christian, intelligent and exemplary. A life thus 
spent terminated with composure on the first of No- 
vember, 1788. 

"The righteous shall be had in everlasting remem- 
brance." 

Tlie old burying-ground on Washington 
Street lias been used as a j)lace for Ijurying tlie 
dead since the year 1788. I remember ;dmost 
every one that has been interred here in the last 
fifty years, and the number is between two and 
three thousand. As I first remember it, it was 
surrounded on all sides with a stone wall, the 
same kind that may be found to-day on almost 
all our hill farms. There was a small building 
in the liack part of the yard, painted black, to 
keep the tools in for digging the graves, also 
for storing the biers. There were two biers, 
one for adults and one for children. At a 
funeral the coffin was placed on the bier, and a 
black cloth, called a pall, spread over it. Eight 
persons were selected, called the pall-bearers, 
four to carjy the body, the other four to walk 
on before to assist when necessary, the mourn- 
ers and friends following behind on foot. Thus 
the funeral procession moved along until it 
reached the grave, when the last ceremony was 
performed, the church bell tolling all the while. 
In those days the bell was also tolled in the 
morning of the day of the funeral as a notice 
to the people of the town that a funeral was to 
take place on that day. After striking the bell 
a few times in the morning of the day of the 
funeral, the age and sex was struck, — if for a 
male, one blow ; if for a female, two ; then the 
number of blows corresponding to the number 
of years the person had lived. So the bell 
tolled its story and those hearing its sound 
could tell who was to be buried on that day. 

About 1830 the tombs on the west side of the 
yard were built ; those on the south some years 
later. These tombs were used for many years, 
but it was always a very unpleasant duty to 
open them ; coffins would soon decay and fall 
in pieces, and many times in the spring of the 
year I have known the snow to melt and run 
in at the door and cause the bodies to float 



around. There are probably at this time the 
remains of about one hundred bodies in these 
tombs. These receptacles for tlie dead are now 
but seldom used. I will begin on the riffht- 
hand side as we go in through the gate, and 
give the names of the owners and inscriptions 
on their tombs : 

No. 1. — Phinehas Fisk. 

No. 2. — William Lamson. 

No. 3.— Thos. Edward and John Hatch. 

No. 4.— John Elliot. 

No. 5. — David Carpenter. 

No. 6. — Noah Cooke. 

No. 7. — F. Faulkner and R. Montague. 

No. 8.— Aaron Hall. 

No. 9. — C. Chapman, D. Heaton, J. Towns. 

No. 10.— J. Wright, E. Wright, E. Wright (2d). 

On the left-hand side : 

No. 1. — Samuel Dinsmoor. 

No. 2. — James Wilson. 

No. 3.— John H. Fuller. John H. Fuller died 
Feb. 24, 1869, aged 77 yrs. and 4 mos. Pamelia, wife 
of John H. Fuller and daughter of Rev. E. Conant, 
died July 27, 1829, aged 30. Foster A., their infant 
son, 1829. Sarah A., their daughter, December 25, 
1838, aged 19. James G., tlieir son, Jan. 25, 1853, 
aged 27. In memory of Lucius D. Pierce, Attorney 
at Law, Winchendon, Mass., died May 8, 1858, aged 
38. Fred K. Bartlett, Attorney at Law at St. Croi.x 
Falls, Wis., died Dec. 1, 1858, aged 39, husbands of 
Lucy and Sophia, daughters of John H. Fuller. 

No. 4. — Charles G. Adams. 

No. 5. — Joseph Dorr and Ormand Dutton. 

No. C— Eli Metcalf, died August 3, 1835, aged 85. 
Elizabeth Metcalf, died Feb. 13, 1842, aged 86. They 
gave their whole property in charity. 

No. 7. — S. Hastings, L. B. Page, A. Dodge. 

No. 8.— Abel Blake and Nathan Dana. 

In May, 1853, Just before the centennial cel- 
ebration came off, the tombs, being in rather a 
dilapidated condition, through the efforts of 
Rev. Z. S. Barstow and others, were put in 
good condition and whitewashed, so as to appear 
decent on that occasion. I think nothing has 
been done to them since. In 1847 the town 
voted to build a new fence around the yard ; so 
the old wall was removed and the present fence 
put up ; the old black hearse-house has since 
been taken away. 

In 1855 the town purchased of Thomas M. 
Edwards what Mas then called the old nuister- 
ficld, for the new cemetery on Beaver Street, 



KEENE. 



53 



and many of the remains liave been removed 
from the old grounds to the new, as the old 
yard was nearly full. The writer at the time 
the land for the new cemetery was bought was 
one of the selectmen of the town, and, with a 
few, urged the necessity of purchasing more 
laud, — that is, going as far as Beach Hill, — but 
the very tvise men told us that this lot would 
answer for fifty years at least. 

On one of the first monuments we see in going 
into this old cemetery we read, " To preserve 
from oblivion the memory of Wm. M. Pierce." 
Now it was from this old grave-stone that I 
selected my text, and by copying the inscrip- 
tions on all of the monuments, will do my share 
towards preserving them. I will let each stone 
tell its own story, and should there be among 
your readers those that find the name of a dear 
relative or friend among this long list, I am 
confident they will do what they can towards 
keeping the old burying-ground on Washing- 
ton Street sacred. Let it be a pleasant place 
for us to visit while living, and a safe place for 
our bones when dead. When this last shall 
take place, we will simply leave this injunction 
to Ijody-snatchers and gossips : " Let our dead 
alone— resurrecting neither our bodies nor our 
faults." I have arranged the list alj)habeti- 
cally, also giving the oldest date first in each 
case: 

No. 1. — la memory of Lt. Daniel Adams, who died 
Oct. 27th, 1813, aged 59 yrs. 

No. 2.— Children of b" F. and L. R. Adams : Mary 
Jane, died Feb. 18, 18.34, aged 2 yrs. ; Julie Ann, 
died July 1, 1837, aged 1 yr. ; Frank Benjamin, died 
Dec. 5, 1842, aged 4i yrs. 

No. 3. — Abigail Adams, died Aug. 4, 1841, .aged 72 
yrs. 

No. 4.— Elijah Adams, died Dec. 31, 1862, aged 76 
years. 

No. 5. — Amanda Adams, wife of Elijah Adams, 
died July 25, 1852, aged 66 years. 

No. 6. — Hannah T. Fowler Adams, wife of Levi M. 
Adams, died Aug. 25, 1850, aged 27. 

No. 7. — D. Adams (marl)le monument). 

No. 8.— Daniel Adams, M.D., died June 9, 1864, 
aged 90 yrs. 8 mos. 10 days. 

No. 9.- — Nancy Adams, wife of Dr. Daniel Adams, 
died May 14, 1851, aged 70 yrs. 8 mos. 15 days. 

No. 10. — Edward Knight Aldrich, son of Dunbar 
Aldrieh,died Marcli 27, 1831, aged 1 yr. 8 mos. 

No. 11. — Abbott (marker). 



No. 12. — Mary Ann Abbott, daughter of Daniel 
and Polly Abbott, died Sejit. 20, 1831, aged 6 years 20 
days. 

" The fairest flower soon fades away." 

No. 13. — Frank Fisk Albee, son of John .T. and 
Harriet M. Albee, died Aug. 13, 1854, aged 4 mos. and 
22 days. 

No. 14. — Ella Maria, daughter of John J. and 
Harriet M. Albee, died Oct. 14, 1855, aged 3 weeks. 

No. 15. — ^Harriet Fisk Albee, wife of John J. Alliee, 
died July 23, 1858, aged 34 years. 

No. 16.— Capt. Eliphalet Briggs, died Oct. 11, 1776, 
aged 42 yrs. 

No. 17. — Mary Cobb, wife of Capt. Eliphalet 
Briggs, died June 9, 1806, aged 69 yrs. 

No. 18.— Eliphalet Briggs, died March 23, 1827, 
aged 62 yrs. 

No. 19. — Elizabeth Briggs, wife of Eliphalet 
Briggs, died March 23, 1819, aged 49 yrs. 

"Virtue alone is happiness below." 

No. 20.— Polly Briggs, died July, 1795, aged 3 yrs. ; 
Sally Briggs, died July, 1795, aged 9 mos. ; daughters 
of Eliphalet and Elizabeth Briggs. 

No. 21. — Eliza S., daughter of Eliphalet and Emma 
Briggs, died Aug. 2, 1839, aged 14 yrs. 

No. 22. — Briggs (granite monument). 

No. 23.— Eliphalet Briggs, ob. June 13, 1853, aged 
65 yrs. 

No. 24.— Lucy Briggs, ob. Dec. 19, 1845, aged 57 
yrs. 

No. 25.— Sarah W. Briggs, ob. July 10, 1873, aged 
43 yrs. 

No. 26. — Nancy A. Briggs, wife of William .S. 
Briggs, died Feb. 14, 1868, aged 46 yrs. 

No. 27. — Daniel Adams Briggs, born Feb. 21, 1847, 
died May 26, 1847. 

No. 28.— Ellen Briggs, daughter of L. H. and E. 
H. Briggs. 

No. 29. — Mary A., wife of Joseph W. Briggs, and 
daughter of Josiah Colony, born Sept. 14, 1825, died 
April 11, 1859. 

No. 30.— Wilder Briggs, died March 15, 1827, aged 
34 yrs. Charles S., son of W. and Sally Briggs, died 
May 20, 1827, aged 4 mos. Sally Briggs, wife of 
Wilder Briggs, died May 20, 1851, aged 66 yrs. 

No. 31. — Louisa Briggs, 1788 (granite marker). 

No. 32.— Elijah Blake, died April 3, 1791, aged 7 
mos. 

No. 33.— Parley Blake, died August 29, 1797, aged 
6 weeks and 4 days. 

" And these babes must pay their due. 
Sine riper years must pay it too." 

No. 34.— Mrs. Sally E., wife of Capt. Abel Blake, 
who died July 16, 1803, aged 40 yrs. 

" Death is a debt to nature due. 
Which I have paid, and .so must you." 

No. 35. — In memorv of !\[r.s. Elizabeth, wife of 



54 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Mr. Nathan Blake, who died July 19, 1804, aged 83 
years. 

" Let me not forgotten lie. 
Lest you forget that you must die." 

No. 36.— Mr. Nathan Blake, died August 4, 1811, 
in the 100th year of his age. 

No. 87.— Ruel C, son of Ruel and Betsey Blake, 
died Feb. 5, 1818, aged 11 inos. and 23 days. 

No. 38. — Mary Ann, daughter of Rufus and Betsey 
Blake, died Oct. 26, 1838, aged 16 yrs. and 4 mos. 

No. 39. — Elizabeth C, daughter of Ruel and Betsey 
Blake, died Nov. 13, 1838, aged 18 yrs. and 1 mo. 

No. 40. — Sarah R., daughter of Ruel and Betsey 
Blake, died March 20, 1834, aged 7 yrs. and 8 mos. 

No. 41. — Stephen A., son of Ruel and Betsey 
Blake, died Oct. 31, 1835, aged 6 yrs. and 10 mos. 

No. 42. — James, son of James and Ruth Bufl'um, 
died May 27, 1837, aged 6 yrs. and 5 mos. 

No. 43. — Charles, son of James and Ruth Buffum, 
died June 2.5, 1837, aged 1 yr. and 1 mo. 

No. 44. — Susan, daughter of James and Ruth Buf- 
fum, died March 3, 1840, aged 6 weeks. 

No. 45.— Mary B. Buffum, died Aug., 1869, aged 47 
yrs. 

No. 46. — Ruth Bliss, wife of James Buffum, died 
Nov. 23, 18.53, aged 51 years. 

In tliis old buiying-ground on Washington 
Street have been buried many of our friends 
that we like to keep in remembrance ; and 
amouj them the name of one who, while in life, 
said the last words at the grave of more of the 
dead lying here than any man now living — the 
Rev. Dr. Z. S. Barstow, who for fifty years was 
the pastor of the old Congregational Church. 
The inscription on his tombstone tells the whole 
story better than I could do it. Also may be 
found the name of Deacon Elijah Carter, one of 
Dr. Barstow's good deacons; also of the Hon. 
Ith'r Chase, the father (I have been told) of the 
late Cliief Justice Salmon P. Chase. All, I 
think (that ever knew her), will agree with me 
in saying that the line on the monument of 
Miss Eliza Carter was strictly true. Although 
she had passed her three-score years and ten, 
" She was always young." The names of Hon. 
Levi Chamberlain, the two Dinsmoors (Samuel 
and Samuel, Jr.), Lieutenant Charles B. Dan- 
iels, who gave his life for his country, Miss 
Catherine Fiske, the founder of Keene Female 
Seminary, and many other names that we have 
known and respected will be found in this 
number. Akso the name of Mi.ss Lvdie Beals, 



aged one hundred and two years, the oldest in 
this burying-ground. 

No. 47.— Thomas Baker, died July 15, 1806, aged 

76. 

'' No more my friends, don't mourn for me, 
I'm gone into eternity. 
Make sure of Christ while life remains. 
And death will be eternal gain." 

No. 48. — Sarah Baker, wife of Thomas B.aker, died 
April 24, 1807, aged 75. 

No. 49.— Benjamin F. Brown, died May 28, 1851, 
aged 43. 

No. 50. — Benjamin F. Brown, adojited son of B. F. 
and C. Brown, died August 7, 1839, aged 4 years. 

No. 51. — Sarah Brown, died January 25, 1843, aged 
34. 

No 52.— Dea. Amasa Brown, died March 22, 1843, 
aged 73. 

No. 53. — Lucy C, daughter of Wm. and .Vnn \V. 
Brown, died March 20, 1844, aged 7 years. 

No. 54. — Ann W. Fiske, wife of William Brown, 
died July 24, 1854, aged 55. 

No. 55. — Eunice Brown, died Aug. 7, 1847, aged 39. 

No. 56. — In memory of Amasa Brown, who died 
April 13, 1847, aged 80 years. " 

No. 57. — In memory of Hannah, wife of Amasa 
Brown, wlio died January 4, 1847, aged 70 years. 

No. 58. — Dea. Lebanon Brown, died July 21, 1846, 
aged 35. 

No. 59.— Polly Brown, died Aug. 7, 1856, aged 64. 

No. 60.— Mrs. Susan Brown, died May 22, 1857, 
aged 61. 

No. 61. — James, son of William and AnnaBlacka- 
dore, died Aug. 15, 1817, aged 2 years and 3 months. 

"Frail as the flower that blossoms but to die." 

No. 62. — Sally Bond, daughter of John G. and 
Sally Bond, who died Sept., 1809, aged 7 months. 

No. 63.— Mrs. Lydie Beals, died Feb. 13, 1815, aged 
102. 

No. 64. — Charles Barnhart, died June 7, 1829, aged 
32. 

No. 65.— David Barker, died Aug. 7, 1829, aged 33. 

No. 66. — David S. Barker, died at Havana, Cuba, 
June 24, 1843, aged 21. 

No. 67. — Miss Hannah, daughter of Mr. Aaron 
and Mrs. Sarah Blanchard, died Nov. 25, 1832, in her 
31st year. 

No. 68. — James, son of Nathan and Harriet Bassett, 
died July 1, 1833, aged 8 years and 9 months. 

No. 69.— Samuel Bassett, died Nov. 8, 1834, aged 
81. 

No. 70. — Martha, wife of Samuel Bassett, died 
June 19, 1842, aged 86. 

No. 71. — Jemima C, wife of Geo. A. Balch, died 
Sept. 2, 1850, agea 45. 

No. 72. — George W., son of Geo. A. and .lemima 
Balch, died April 13, 1848, aged 15 years. 



KEENE. 



55 



No. 73.— Artemas A. Boyden, died April .30, 1844, 
aged 23. 

No. 74. — Emily C, daughter of John and Celecta 
H. Bowker, born Jan. 12, 1842, died Sept. 26, 184i). 
" Beautiful, lovely, 

81ie was but {;'iven, 
A fair bud on earth 
To bloom in Heaven." 

No. 75. — Pollen C, daughter of John and Celecta 
H. Bowker, born Feb. 9, 1851, died Dec. 30, 1853. 
" So fades the lovely blooming flower." 

No. 76. — Sarah Abbie Bridgnian, died July 12, 
1850, aged 2 years and 7 months. 

No. 77. — Frank, son of Edward and Sarah E. Bow- 
tell, died March 25, 1852, aged 1 year and 4 months. 

No. 78.— George Burrell, died Dec. 24, 1853, aged 
34. 

No. 79.— Mary Ann Pitchard, wife of C. A. Brooks, 
died Dec. 4, 1854, aged 33. 

No. 80. — Lovey Ann, wife of Courtney Bingham, 
died April 16, 1871, aged 69. 

" Asleep in Jesus." 

No. 81.— Rev. ZedekiahS. Barstuw, D.D., for tifty 
years pastor of the First Congregational Church in 
Keene, ordained July 1, 1818, resigned his pastorate 
July 1, 1868, died March 1, 1873, aged 82 years and 5 
mouths. 

"I have fought a good fighl, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." 

Elizabeth Fay Barstow, for fifty-one years the 
wife of Rev. Z. S. Barstow, died September 15, 1869, 
aged 77 years. 

" She opened her mouth with wisdom and in her 
tongue was the law of kindness. Her children rise 
up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he 
prai-eth her, and let her own words jiraise her." 

Timothy Dw-ight, eldest son of Rev. Z. S. and 
Elizabeth F. Barstow, died Dec. 22, 1820, aged 5 
months'. 

Elizabeth Whitney, only daughter of Rev. Z. S. 
and Elizabeth F. Barstow, died Jan. 3, 1832, aged 7 
years and 4 months. 

No. 82.— Z. S. B. (marble marker). 

No. 83.— E. F. B. (marble marker). 

No. 84.— James Crossfield, died Feb. 25, 1853, aged 
75. 

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 

No. 85. — Hannah, wife of James Crossfield, died 
May 18, 1809, in the 58th year of her age. 

No. 86. — James Crossfield, died June 21, 1811, in 
the 60th year of of his age. 

No. 87. — Roxana, wife of James Crossfield, died 
May 20, 1856, aged 64. 

"There is rest in Heavou." 



No. 88.— Emily J., daughter of K. and R. G. 
Crossfield, died April 29, 1854, aged 19 years and 6 
months. 

No. 89. — Lestina, wife of Samuel Crossfield, died 
April 2, 1857, aged 31. 

No. 90. — Here lies the body of Mrs. Clarinda, wife 
of Mr. Daniel Chapman, and daughter of Mr. Aden 
Holbrook, who died Dec. 6, 1812, aged 29. 

No. 91. — Calvin Chapman, born July 28, 1776, died 
Aug. 3, 1855. 

No. 92. — Sarah Nims, wife of Calvin Chapman, 
born May 9, 1777, died Feb. 22, 1834. 

No. 93.— Calvin Chapman, Jr., born Jan. 11, 1803, 
died Oct. 26, 1872. 

No. 94.— David W. Chapman, died March 31, 1852, 
aged 45. 

"Tread lightly where thy father sleeps. 
Within his cold and narrow bed. 
For one his bridal vigil keeps. 

Above the wept and sainted dead. 
Tread lightly by his narrow tomb. 
And o'er it plant the gentle flowers. 
In a far brighter laud than ours." 

No. 95. — Rebecca, wife of David W. Chapman, 
died Aug. 9, 1856, aged 43. 

No. 96. — George, son of David W. and Rebecca 
Chapman, died March 25, 1838, aged 2. 

No. 97. — Warren, son of David W. and Rebecca 
Chapman, died June 17, 1851, aged 12. 

No. 98. — Sophronia S., wife of King B. Chapman, 
died Nov. 18, 1849, aged 29. 

No. 99. — Mary Ann, daughter of King B. and 
Sophronia S. Chapman, died Aug. 4, 1849, aged 4 
years. 

No. 100. — Jonathan C. Carpenter, died Sept. 24, 
1815, aged 2 years 8 months and 8 days. 

No. 101.— Mira H. Willard, wife of Caleb Carpen- 
ter, died March 12, 1857, aged 49. 

No. 102.— David W., died Sept. 18, 1832, aged 2 
years and 10 months ; Julia E., died Jan. 23, 1843, 
aged 3 years and 11 months ; children of Caleb and 
Mira H. Carpenter. 

No. 103.— The Hon. Ith'r Chase, died Aug. 8, 1817, 
aged 55. 

" And now. Lord, what is my hope — ■ 
Truly my hope is ever in thee." 

No. 104. — Eliza Carter, born in Dublin March 5, 
1792, died in Keene Dec. 7, 1864. 

"She was always young." 

No. 105. — In memory of Charles Carter, died Oct. 
20, 1817, aged 29. 

" There is rest in Heaven." 
(Masonic emblem.) 

No. 106. — The grave of Dea. Elijah Carter, who 
died Feb. 2, 1835, aged 71 years. 

" Go, hajjpy spirit, seek that blissful laud. 
Where ransomed sinners join the glorious band 



56 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Of those who fought for truth, blest spirit, go, 
And perfect all the good begun below." 

No. 107.— Mary, wife of K. Carter, died Nov. 16, 
1839, aged 28. 

No. 108.— Benaiah Cooke, died Aug. 8, 1852, aged 
62. 

No. 109.— Joiiah Cooke, died Sept. 11, 1834, aged 2 
years. 

No. 110.— Mary Eliza Cooke, died Aug. 17, 1837, 
aged 3 years. 

No. 111.— George Cooke, died Feb. G, 1838, aged 9 
months. 

No. 112.— Frederick Cooke, died Aug. 9, 1842, aged 

14 months. 

No. 113. — Mary R. Cooke, died Jan. 7, 1855, aged 

15 years and 10 months. 

No. 114.— Harriet W. Cady, died Oct. 9, 1841, aged 
43. 

No. 115. — Rev. Reuben Collins, of the M. E. church, 
died Dec. 24, 1842, aged 32. 

No. 110. — Comfort Conner, died May 14, 1820, aged 
37. 

No. 117. — My husband, John S. Currier, died July 
31, 1844, aged 32. 

No. 118. — Coolidge (granite monument). 

No. 119.— Henry Coolidge, obt. 1843, aged 55. 

No. 120.— Caroline C. Coolidge, obt. 1846, aged 33. 

No. 121. — Lawson Coolidge, obt. 1849, aged 41. 

No. 122.— George H. Coolidge, born Feb. 15, 1811, 
died Jan. 26, 1868. 

No. 123.— Hannah Taylor, wife of Josiah Colony, 
died June 30, 1846, aged 51. 

" The memory of the departed is endeared as a de- 
voted wife, a kind and aU'ectionate parent, a regardful 
neighbor. A calm and serene death followed a quiet 
and contented life." 

No. 124. — Harry, son of Henry and Mary Colony, 
died Sept. 12, 1855, aged 10 months and 26 days. 

No. 125. — George R., son of Willard and Priscilla 
Clark, died Aug. 18, 1847, aged 24. 

" No pain nor grief, no anxious fear, 

Invades thy bounds ; no mortal woes 
Can reach the peaceful sleep here, 
While angels watch its soft repose." 

No. 126.— Ebenezer Clark, died Aug. 1, 1848, aged 
77 ; Eunice, his wife, died April 14, 1865, aged 87. 

No. 127.— Sands Caswell, died Nov. 10, 1851, aged 
29. 

No. 128. — Mrs. Nancy Crandell, daughter of Wil- 
liam Esty, died March 25, 1852, aged 60. 

No. 129. — Jesse Corbett, died Aug., 1866, aged 
76. 

No. 130.— Betsy Twitchell, wife of David Carter, 
died Jan. 20, 1853, aged 80. 

No. 131.— Levi Chamberlain, died Aug. 31, 1868, 
aged 80 years. 

" How calm he meets the friendly shore 
Who lived adverse to sin I" 



No. 132. — Harriet A. Goodhue, the dearly beloved 
wife of Levi Chamberlain, died June 26, 1868, aged 
67. 

" The guileless soul, the calm, sweet trust. 
Shall have a large reward." 

No. 133.— Elijah Dunbar, Esq., died May 18, 1847, 
aged 87. 

No. 134.— Mary R., wife of Elijah Dunbar, died 
Nov. 29, 1838, aged 70. 

No. 135.— Polly, daughter of Elijah and Mary 
Dunbar, died May 25, 1795, aged 4 years ; Laura 
Elizabeth, daughter of Elijah and Mary Dunbar, 
died Jan 11, 1810, aged three years. 

No. 136.— Mary Ann Dunbar, died June 2, 1820, 
aged 20. 

No. 137.— Mrs. Hannah Dunn, died Oct. 8, 1828, 
aged 84. 

" The sweet remembrance of the just, 
Shall flourish when they sleep in dust." 

No. 138.— Asa Duren, died April 5, 1871, aged 
69. 

No. 139. — Maria V. Wood, wife of Asa Duren, 
died May 18, 1854, aged 64. 

No. 140. — Augustus, son of Asa and Maria Duren, 
died Nov. 5, 1829, aged 7 months and 12 days. 

No. 141.— Cynthia Duren, died April 22, 1861, 
aged 61. 

No. 142. — Dinsmoor (marble monument). 

Samuel Dinsmoor, born July 1, 1766, died March 
15, 1835, aged 68 ; Mary Boyd, wife of Samuel Dins- 
moor, and daughter of Gen. George Reed, of London- 
derry, died June 3, 1834, aged 64; Mary Eliza, 
daughter of Samuel and Mary Boyd Dinsmoor, and 
wife of Robert Means, of Amherst, born Dec. 2, 1800, 
died August 16, 1829, aged 28 ; Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., 
born May 8, 1797, died Feb. 24, 1869, aged 69 ; Anna 
Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., and daugh- 
ter of Hon. William Jarvis, of Weathersfield, Vt., 
born June 30, 1818, died July 17, 1849, aged 31. 

No. 143.— Samuel Dinsmoor, died March 15,1835, 
aged 68. 

No. 144.— Mary Boyd, wife of Samuel Dinsmoor, 
died June 3, 1834, aged 64. 

No. 145. — Mary E. Dinsmoor, wife of Robert 
Means, died Aug. 16, 1829, aged 28. 

No. 146. — Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., died Feb. 24, 
1869, aged 69. 

No. 147. — Anna E. Jarvis, wife of Samuel Dins- 
moor, Jr., died July 17, 1849, aged 31. 

No. 148. — Julie A. Fiske, wife of William Dins- 
moor, died Jan. 4, 1854, aged 39. 

No. 149.— Abiathar Dean, died Oct. 2, 1832, aged 
64. 

No. 150.— George C. Dean, died Oct. 2, 1835, aged 
35. 

No. 151. — To the memory of Charles B. Daniels, 
born Aug. 30, 1818, graduated at the W. P. Military 
Academy June, 1836, was mortally wounded while 



KEENE. 



57 



gallantly leading liis company in the assault of the 
enemy's works at Molino Del Rey, Mexico, Sept. 8, 
1847, and died of his wounds in the city of Mexico 
Oct. 27, 1847, aged 31 years. 

"By the purity of his life and fidelity to the de- 
mands of his profession, he adorned it by his valor, 
he fulfilled its sternest demands." 

No. 152. — To the memory of Jabcz W. Daniels, 
born Aug. 1, 187<5, died Oct. 7, 18o2, aged 82 years. 

"A just man who walked in all the commandment^ 
of the Lord blameless." 

No. 15.3. — To the memory of Eleanor Daniels, 
born May G, MIS, died June 29, 18G3, aged 90 years. 

No. 154. — Caroline E. Daniels, daughter of Warren 
and Caroline C. Daniels, died Feb. 25, 1836, aged 8 
months. 

No. 155. — Davis (granite monument). 

No. 156.— Abby Z., daughter of H. and A. T. Da- 
vis, died July 29, 1853, aged 5 months. 

No. 157.— Lueian H., died Dec. 16, 1845, age<l 1 
year; Ella A., died Aug. 31, 1849, aged 8 months ; 
children of Henry and Allura Davis. 

No. 158. — Allura T., wife of Henry Davis, died 
Sept. 14, 1853, in her 34th year. 

No. 159. — Mary G., wife of John B. Dowsman, died 
Feb. 10, 1H38, aged 28 years. 

No. 160.— Martha Ann, died Feb. 8, 1838, aged 5 
years 9 months ; Mary Jane, Feb. 17, aged 3 years 3 
months; Chas. Warren, March 11, aged 9 months; 
children of Charles and Ann D. Dwinnell. 
" The fairest, loveliest sons of earth, 
Like charms may fade away ; 
But o'er their memory shed a tear, 
That cannot e'er decay." 

No. 161. — Cyrus Dickey, who died while a member 
of the senior class in Dartmouth College, Sept. 30, 
1840, aged 26. 

" True excellence ripens but in Heaven." 

No. 162.— Chas. Dunbrack, died March 2, 1844, 
aged 72. A native of Edenlmrgh, Scotland, and for 
many years a resident of Halifax, N. S. 

No. 163. — Catherine, wife of Henry Dowdell, died 
June 19, 1850, aged 35. 

No. 164.— Eliza, wife of Wm. Dort, died Sept. 10, 
1852, aged 25. 

No. 165. — Lucretia Dawes, born in Boston, Mass., 
May 23, 1788, died in Keene, X. H., Oct. 20, 1855. 

" He that believeth in me though he were dead, 
yet shall he live." 

No. 166.— Jlr. Timothy Ellis, who died March 30, 
1814, aged 66. 

No. 167. — In memory of Mrs. Beulah Elli.s, wlio 
die<l May 22, 1822, aged 73. 

No. 168.— Joshua Ellis, died Aug. 31, 1838, aged 
53. 

No. 169. — Parker Ellis (on pine board). 



No. 170. — George Andrew, son of Geo. L. and 
Susan Ellis, died Sept. 23, 1863, aged 24 years 6 
months. 

" Re.st, dearest sufferer, rest in Jesus' arms." 
No. 171. — Paulina Tucker, daughter of Nathaniel 
Evans, died Jan. 25, 1831, aged 4 yrs. 

No. 172. — Harriett Wiggen, wife of Nathaniel 
Evans, died July 5, 1835, aged 36. 

No. 173. — Harriett K., wife of Nathaniel Evans, 
died June 8, 1842, aged 34. 

" I leave the world without a tear, 
Save for the friends I hold so dear; 
To heal their sorrows Lord descend, 
And to the friendless prove a friend." 
No. 174. — Rebel ca A,, wife of Geo. W. Emerson, 
died April 27, 1835, aged 25. 

No. 175.— George W. Emerson, died Dec. 28, 1829, 
aged 2 years; George W. Emerson, died Sept. 6, 1830, 
aged 7 months; children of Geo, W. and Rebecca A. 
Emerson. 

No. 176. — In memory of Mr. Charles Fitch, who 
died Feb. 18, 1800, in his 30th year. 

" It is hard to leave our friends behind. 
And fair earth's bounteous sweets ; 
The place where man is first consigned. 

And where nuin his dear partner meets ; 
But we must all submit to iate. 

And when our call is pronounced upon, 
We must leave our world and state. 
And go to regions above unknown." 
No. 177.— John Fitch, died June 22, 1848, aged 
87. 

No. 178.— Lydia Fitch, wife of John Fitch, died 
May 28, 1870, aged 84. 

No. 179. — In memory of Caroline, daughter of Mr. 
Waltrous and Mrs. Mary P^airchild, who died Dec. 10, 
1819, aged 11 years. 

No. 180. — Mrs. JMary, wife of Mr. Phinehas Fiske, 
deceased July 11, 1821, aged 31. 

No. 181. — Catherine Fiske, founder and principal 
of the Female Seminary in Keene, N. H., for 38 
years a teacher of youth, died May 20, 1837, aged 53. 

" Reader, whoe'er thou art, do .justly, love mercy, 
and walk humbly with thy God." 

Azuba Morse, the mother of Catherine Fiske, died 
Nov. 9, 1837, aged 72. 

No. 182. — David Gilman Forbes, who died Feb. 5, 
1822, aged 21. 

" In bloom of youth behold he dies." 

No. 183.— .Tohn Foster, died Feb. 7, 1854, aged 57 ; 
Sophia, wife of John Foster, died April 20, 1832, 
aged 36. 

No. 184. — ^William, son of Joseph and Mary Fos- 
ter, died IMarch 15, 1833, aged 8. 

" So fades the lovely flower 

Ere half its charms are shed ; 



58 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Cut down in an untimely hour 
And numbered with the dead." 

No. 185.— Harriett P., daughter of the Eev. S. 
Farnsworth, late of Hillsborough, died March 22, 
1841, aged 6 years. 

No. 186. — J'rost (granite monument). 

No. 187.— Amanda Frost, died 1845, aged 28. 

No. 188.— Julia S. Frost, died 1844, aged 17 
months. 

No. ISP. — My husband, Harlow Frost, died Nov. 
25, 1865, aged 49. 

No. 190. -Our Willie, Willie H. Frost, son of Har- 
low and Eliza W. Frost, died March 28, 1843, aged 2 
years 5 months. 

No. 191. — Koxana Allen, wife of Jason French, 
died Nov. 5, 1852, aged 35. 

No. 192. — Abigail Wood, widow of Eleazer Furber, 
died July 15, 1853, aged 55. 

No. 193. — Jehoshiphat Grout, who departed this 
life Sept. 26, 1806, aged 53. 

No. 194. — This monument is erected to the memory 
of Mrs. Anna, wife of ]\Ir. J. Grout, who departed 
this life Aug. 9, 1810, aged 57. 

No. 195.— James Gibson, died April 26, 1S46, aged 

38. 

" Not lost, but gone before." 

No. 196.— Eliza K , wife of Caleb S. Graves, died 
March 18, 1845, aged 35. 

"Jesus can make a dying bed 

Feel soft as downy pillows are, 
While on his breast I lean my head 
And breath my life out sweetly there." 

No. 197. — John B., son of A. C. and L. Greeley, 
born March 9, 1848, died March 10, 1849. 

No. 198. — George W. B., son of A. C. and L. Gree- 
ley, born xVug. 9, 1852, died Aug. 7, 1853. 

No. 199. — Oscar S., son of Edward S. and Mary 
Greenwood, died July 17, 1850, aged 2. 

" Dearest babe, thy days are ended. 
All thy sutlerings now are o'er, 
No more by our care befriended, 
Thou art happy evermore." 

No. 200. — Sibyl, wife of Benjamin Good, died Jan. 
13, 1854, aged 25 years. 

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art 
with me. Thy rod and thy stafl' they comfort me." 

No. 201. — Reuben B., son of Benjamin and Sibyl 
Good, died December 26, 1850, aged 2 years and 10 
months. 

No. 202. — Edwin, son of Benjamin and Sibyl Good, 
died Jan. 27, 1851, aged 4 years and 1 month. 

No. 203.— Cornelius C. Hall, died Nov., 25, 1815, 
aged 39; Fanny Hall, daughter of Cornelius and 
Elizabeth Hall, died Dec. 21, 1806, aged 3 years. 

No. 204. — E;dnie G., daughter of Hcni'y C. and 



Ellen F. Hall, died Oct. 12, 1846, aged 4 months 6 

days. 

" Sleep on, sweet balie, 
And take thy rest, 
God called thee home. 
And he thought best." 
No. 205.— H. M. (granite stone). 
No. 206.— Major Davis Howlet, died Feb. 23, 1817, 
aged 79. 

No. 207. — In memory of Mrs. Mary, wife of Major 
Davis Howlet, who died April 1, 1826, aged 85. 

No. 208. — Davis, son of Davis Howlet, died June 
21, 1799, aged 79. 

No. 209.— Mr. Davis Howlet, died Aug. 25, 1824, 
aged 50. 

No. 210.— Mr. William Heaton, who died Dec. 29, 
1822, aged 33. 

No. 211. — Mary Eliza, daughter of Oliver and 
Louisa Heaton, died June 29, 1837, aged 4 years 6 
months. 

No. 212. — Louisa S., wife of Oliver Heaton, died 
Dec. 23, 1843, aged 45. 

No. 218. — This monument erected to the memory 
of Miss Mary Holbrook, eldest daughter of Mr. Elihu 
and Mrs. Mary Holbrook, who died Jlarch 27, 1806, 
aged 14 years. 

" Stay, thoughtful mourner, hither led 
To weep and mingle with the dead; 
Pity the maid who slumbers here, 
And pay the tributary tear. 
Thy feet must wander far to find 
A fairer form, a lovelier mind, 
An eye that beams a sweeter smile, 
A bosom more estranged from guile, 
A heart with kinder passions warm, 
A life with fewer stains deformed, 
A death with deeper sighs confess'd 
A memory more beloved and bless'd." 

Here will be fouud many old, familiar naine.s ; 
among them, that of Betsey Niirss Leonard, 
who was born only two years later than the 
organization of the town of Keenc, 1755, and 
lived to be more than one hundred years old. 
I remember her as a very pleasant old lady. 
Mrs. Honghton, her danghter, is still living on 
Court Street. jNIrs. Leonard on her one hun- 
dredth anniversary received her friends. Elijah 
Knight, Estj., kept the old tavern now owned 
l)y Miss Kate Tyler,' on Court Street. When I 
was a boy he died in the Fuller house, on 
Washington Street. Stephen Harrington and his 
son, Asaph, both were model hotel-keepers, and 
known everywhere. Stephen Harrington was 
born in Lexington, Mass., only six months after 
the battle, in 1775. Major (Jeorge Ingersoll, 



KEENE. 



59 



who was born in 17r)4, and who was twenty- 
one years old when tlie Declaration of Indepen- 
dence was declared ; Rev. George G. Ingorsoll, 
D.D., whom to know was to love and respect ; 
also the name of Daniel Hough, whom I re- 
member as a mereliant in Keene, whose store 
was just south of the Eagle Hotel, uow a part 
of the hotel ; also the name of Lutlier L. Hol- 
brook, my old friend and shop-mate, and a long 
list of names that we like to remember. 

No. 214.— L. L. Holbrook,died at Keeseville, N.Y., 
Oct. 20, 1844, uged 29. Francis A. wife of L. L. 
Holbrook, aud daughter of Abijah Wilder, died Nov. 
10, 1851, aged 35 years. 

" Tlicre is rest in Heaven." 

No. 215. — Betsey, dauglitcr of Rufus and Dorothy 
Houghton, died Oct. 26, 1809, aged 2 years 8 months 
and 3 days. 

" See tire dear youtli just enter life, 
Bud forth like a flower in May ; 
Stay long enough to seal our hearts. 
Then smile and die away." 

No. 210. — In memory of Dr. Dan Hough, who de- 
parted this life Feb. 26, 1828, aged 49. 

No. 217. — Louisa 1-^llis, wife of Luther Howe, died 
March 21, 1835, aged 54. 

No. 218. — Louisa Howe, died Sept. 21, 1854, aged 
41. 

No. 219. — Mary A., wife of Sylvester Haskell, died 
April 14, 1835, aged 33. 

No. 220. — Charles C, only son of Charles and 
Isabell Hirsch, died Aug. 29, 1842, aged 10 months 
11 days. 

" Rest, sweet babe, thy days are ended, 
Quick thy passage to the toml) ; 
Gone, by angel bands attended, 
To thy everlasting home." 

No. 221. — Stephen Harrington, born in Lexington, 
Mass., Nov. 22, 1775, died Oct. 25, 1847. 

No. 222. — Mary Prescott, wife of Steplien Harring- 
ton, died Aug. 10, 1802, aged 80. 

No. 223.— Asaph Harrington, died May 26, 1867, 
aged 57. 

No. 224.— Alfred Hebard, obt. July 12, 1848, aged 
32. 

No. 225. — Rufus, son of Josiah and Sophronia 
Hayden, died Dee. 25, 1853, aged 5 years 9 months. 

No. 226.— John Hoar, died June 24, 1846, aged 
33. 

No. 227.— Mary Ann, wife of John Ho.ar, died 
July 16, 1846, aged 30. 

No. 228.— John E., died Sept. 15, 1840, aged 4 
months; Albert A., died June 30, 1845, aged 5 weeks; 
children of John and Mary Ann Hoar. 



No. 229.— Daphne Hour, born Feb. 25, 1811, died 
Jan. 31, 1873. 

No. 230.— Jason Hodgkins, died July 24, 1856, 
aged 30. 

No. 231.— Harriet M., wife of Jason Hodgkins, 
died May 2, 1854, aged 23. 
" She died and left me 
This spot, this calm and quiet scene, 
And those who saw her smile in death 
No more may fear to die." 

No. 232.— Loviua Holman, died Nov. 17, 1856, 
aged 27. 

No. 233. — Sacred to the memory of Caroline H. 
IngersoU, who was boru at West Point, N. Y., Dec. 
5, 1797, died at Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 12, 1812, aged 
15; also, Mary IngersoU Adams, wife of Charles 
Adams, Esq., who was born at West Point, N. Y., 
May 5, 1799, died at Burlington, Vt., May 4, 1832, 
aged 33; both daughters of George and Martha 
IngersoU. 

"Strangers and pilgrims here, our home is in 
Heaven." 

No. 234. — Martha Goldthwait IngersoU, widow of 
Major George IngersoU, born in Boston, JIass., July 
7th, 1764, died in Burlington, Vt, April 24th, 1839, 
Mged 74 years. 

No. 235. — The remains of Major George IngersoU, 
late of the United States Army ; born at Boston, 
Mass., April 2d, 1754, died at Keene July 16th, 1805, 
aged 51 years. 

" In that high world which follows this 

May each repeat in words of bliss — 

We're all, all here." 

No. 236. — IngersoU (marble monument). Rev. 
George Goldthwait IngersoU, D.D., son of Major 
George and Martha G. IngersoU, born in Boston, 
Mass., July 4, 1796, died in Keene, N. H., Sept. 16^ 
1863. 

" Hope which entereth within the vail." 

Allen Parkhurst, son of Rev. Geo. G. and Harriet 
P. IngersoU, boru Nov. 10, 1823, in Burlington, Vt., 
died Sept. 8, 1859, in Keene, N. H. 

No. 237. — George and Harriet (marker). 

No. 238. — George P. IngersoU (marker). 

No. 239.— Allen P. IngersoU (marker). 

No. 240.— Joseph Ingalls, died Oct. 12, 1858, aged 
83. 

No. 241.— Mrs. Lucy Ingalls, wife of Joseph In- 
galls, died Oct. 12, 1822, aged 49. 

No. 242.— Anna L., wife of Josejih Ingalls, died 
July 24, 1850, aged 58. 

No. 243. — John, son of Joseph and Anna Ingalls, 
died Dec. 29, 1851, aged 18. 

No. 244. — In memory of John, son of Jloses John- 
son, who died April 22, 1795, aged 7. 

No. 245.— Mary A., daughter of Charles and Harriet 
G.Jones, died Oct. 6, 1839, aged 15 months. 



60 



HISTORY OF CHPISHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. 246. — Josepheus H., daugliter of Sylvester 
and Elizabeth Jones, died June 14, 1839, aged 13 
mouths. 

No. 247. — Harriet E., daughter of Sylvester and 
Elizabeth Jones, died March 6, 1840, aged 3 years. 

No. 248. — Widow Abial Keyes, who died Aug. 19, 
1807, aged 78 years. 

No. 249.— Zebadiah Keyes, died Sept. ](!, 1859, 
aged 83. 

No. 250. — Sybel, wife of Zebadiah Keyes, died 
March 15, 1861, aged 70. 

No. 251. — Fanny, daughter of Mr. Zebadiah and 
Mrs. Sybel Keyes, died Aug. 19, 1812, aged 2 years 
and 7 months. 

No. 252. — Sally Ann, daughter of Zebadiah and 
Sybel Keyes, died Aug. 20, 1833, aged 19 years and 7 
months. 

No. 258.— Mary Kllen, daughter of Charles and 
Elizabeth Keyes, died April 13, 1852, aged 5 years 
aud 10 months. 

No. 254. — Ezra Kilburn, died March 27, 1853, aged 
85. 

No. 255. — Leverett, son of Edmund and Julia 
Kimball, died June 7, 1S2G, aged 18 months. 

" With anxious care each art was tried 
The lovely flower to save, 
But all in vain — the shaft of death 
Consigned it to the grave." 

No. 256. — Children of Charles and Ruby O. Kings- 
bury. Charles Edward, died Aug. 28, 1838, aged 15 
weeks. 

No. 257.— Stella Maria, Sept. 19, 1843, aged 14 
months. 

No. 258.— Charles Edward, died March 29, 1849, 
aged 5 days. 

No. 259.— Stella Maria, died Oct. 1, 1853, aged 8 
years. 

No. 260. — Cyrus Kingsbury, died June 30, 1863, 
aged 65. 

No. 261. — Rachel, wife of Cyrus Kingsbury, died 
March 26, 1843, aged 38; John S., their son, died 
March 16, 1843, aged 8 months. 

No. 262. — Sarah, daughter of C. and R. Kingsbury, 
died Aug. 12, 1849, aged 9 years. 

No. 263.— Elijah Knight, Esq., died 1842, aged 
86. 

No. 264.— Martha Knight, died 1847, aged 73 
years. 

No. 265.— John McKoy, died May 20, 1842, aged 
43 years. 

No. 266. — Here are the remains of James Lanman, 
who died the 22d day of June, a.d. 1809, aged 60 
years, formerly deacon of the church in Brattle Street, 
Boston. 

" Faithful to his family, to his friends and to the 
church of Cxod. The sweet remembrance of the just 
shall flourish while they sleej) in dust." 



No. 267. — Miss Hannah Lanman, born in Cam- 
bridge, Mass., Jan. 3, 1760, died Jan. 16, 1837, aged 
81. 

No. 268. — Sacred to the memory of Susan Dawes 
Lanman, wife of Daniel Gilbert, of Boston, and only 
child of James and Susanna Lanman, who died Aug. 
5, 1851, aged 25. 

" Blessed are the pure in spirit." 

No. 269. — Mrs. Lydia Lebourveau, died April 6, 
1846, aged 83. 

No. 270. — In memory of Emily, daughter of Mr. 
George W. and Mrs. Betsey Ijebourveau, who died 
Oct. 26, 1822, aged 16 months. 

" Sleep on, sweet babe. 
And rest secure; 
Thy body's safe. 
Thy soul's sure." 
No. 271. — George W. Lebourveau, died June 25, 
1828, aged 40 years. 

No. 272.— Capt. John Leonard, died April 27,1829, 
aged 76. 

No. 273.— Betsey Nur.ss Leonard,' wife of Capt. 
.lohn Leonard, born April 27, 1755, died Dec. 7, 
1855, aged 100 years 7 months and 10 days. 

No. 274. — Rowland Sumner Leonard, son of Joseph 
B. and Ruth H. Leonard, born Aug. 31, 1840, died 
May 25, 1841, aged 8 months and 25 days. 
" Shed not for him the bitter tear. 
Nor sorrow with a vain regret; 
'Tis but the casket which lies here. 
The gem in Heaven is sparkliug yet." 
No. 275. — Lawrence Leonard, died Sept. 15, 1843, 
aged 40. 

No. 276. — Mary, daughter of John and Hannah 
Lawrence, died April 19, 1843, aged 7. 

No. 277. — Alvin Lawrence, died Dec. 19, 1849, 
aged 25 years. 

No. 278.— In memory of Thaddeus MacCarty, Esq., 
who died Nov. 21, a.d. 1802, aged 55 years. 

No. 279. — In memory of William, son of Doctor 
Thaddeus and Mrs. Experience JlacCarty, who died 
Feb. 4, 1797, aged 13 years. 

No. 280. — Martha, wife of Benjamin Maun, Esq., 
died May 17, 1808, aged 65. 

No. 281.— Charlotte Mundell, died Nov. 15,1828, 
aged 18. 

No. 282.— This marble was erected by Mr. Gilbert 
Mellen to preserve from oblivion the memory of his 
aflectionate consort, Mrs. Mary Mellen, who died 
April 26, 1814, aged 42. 

" Interred within this silent grave she lies. 
Mouldering dust obscured from human eyes. 
Her soul has sweetly fled to realms above 
Where vice and woe are not, but all is love." 

' This lady rode from Keene to Boston anj b.ack in the 
cars after she was one hundred years old. How many 
women of the present day will do it ? 



KEENE. 



(Jl 



No. 283.— Cyrus Mulliken, died Dee. .31, 1840, 
aged 44. 

No. 284. — Mary, wife of Cyrus Mulliken, died 
April IG, 1845, aged ?,[). 

No. 285.— Harriett Mulliken, born Aug. 26, 1828, 
died March 22, 18G7, aged 38. 

" This is but the mortal part." 
No. 286.— Alexander Milliken, died May 14, 1854, 
aged 74. 

No. 287.— Martha, wife of Abijah Metcalf, died 
May 11, 1838, aged 40. 
No. 288.— Capt. Henry N. Metcalf 

" 'Ti.s sweet to die for one's country. 
Henry N. Metcalf, Co. F, N. H. Vols., killed at 
Gettysburg July 2, 1863, aged 30. 

No. 289. — Martha Wood, daughter of Abijah and 
Martha Metcalf, died Aug. 20, 1865, aged 27. 

No. 2'.t0. — Rebecca, wife of M. Metcalf and mother 
of Josiah and Rebecca Capen, died May 16, 1851, 
aged 88. 

No. 291. — In memory of Elizabeth W. May, who 
died June 16, 1835, aged 15 years. 

" Happy soul, thy days are ended. 
All thy mourning days below ; 
Go, by angol guards attended, 
To the sight of Jesus, go." 

No. 292.— Salome, wife of Silas :May, died April 22, 
1845, aged 27. 

No. 293. — Harriett C, daughter of Wm. and Al- 
niira Marsh, died March 10, 1837, aged 3 years and 3 
mouths. 

No. 294.— George Marsh,' died Feb. 14, 1851, aged 
38. 

No. 295. — Mary E., wife of George Marsli, died 
May 20, 1859, aged 41. 

No. 296.— Charles H., son of G. and M. E. Marsh, 
died April 9, 1841, aged 15 months. 

No. 297. — Sophia Munn, died Oct. 3, 1842, aged 5 
mouths ; Enieline Munn, died Nov. 24, 1843, aged 4 
months and li days; children of John D. and Eliza- 
beth Munn. 

No. 298. — Geneve S., daughter of Abel H. and 
Mary S. Miller, died Aug. 26, 1845, aged 13 months 
and 10 days. 

No. 299. — Mary J., daughter of Isaac and Sarah 
Ann Mason, died Sept. 2, 1845, aged 9 months and 16 
days. 

No. 300. — Francis M., son of Isaac and Sarah Ann 
Mason, died July 15, 1848, aged 7 years 10 months 
and 7 days. 

No. 301. — Harriet A., daughter of John and Ma- 
tilda W. Mason, died Dec 16, 1853, aged 12 years and 
2 months. 

1 George Marsh was killed on the Cheshire Railroad by 
heing crushed between a car and a platform of a freight 
dejiDt ill Keeue. 



" Too soon thou art gone, thou loved one, 
And left thy dearest friends to mourn." 
No. 302.— John W., son of John and Matilda W. 
Mason, died May 6, 1855, aged 18 yrs. 

No. 303. — Sabra, wife of Jonathan Maustield, died 
Dec. 1, 1849, aged 58. 

" Dear friends, weep not for me, 
I'm free from pain and care ; 
The Lord has called me hence, 
And I his l)lessiugs share." 
No. 304. — Jonathan E., son of Laton and Lydia 
Martin, died March 14, 1849, aged 14 months. 
" TIiou destroyeth the hope of man." 
No. 305. — Here lies the body of George Newcomb, 
son of Daniel Newcomb, Esq., and Sarah, his wife. 
He was born Oct. 16, 1783, admitted a member of 
Dartmouth College Aug. 28th, 1792, aud drowned in 
Ashuelot River June 10th, 1796. 

" Cropped like a rose before 'tis fully blown. 
Or half its worth disclosed. 
Fate gave the word, the cruel order sped. 
And George lies numbered with the dead." 
No. .306. — Daniel Newcomb, M.D., was born April 
2d, 1785, ami died May 13, 1809. 

" He healed others — himself he could not heal." 

No. 307. — Here lies the body of Mrs. Sarah New- 
comb, wife of Daniel Newcomb, Esq., and daughter 
of the Rev. David Stearns, of Lunenburg. She was 
born April 25th, 1758, and died Nov. 13th, 1796, in 
the 39th year of her age. 

" How loved, how valued once, avails thee not. 
To whom related or by whom begot, 
A heap of dust alone remains of thee, 
'Tis all thou art, and what we all must be." 

No. 308. — Daniel Newcomb was born at Norton, 
Mass., 1746; was graduated at Harvard College 1768; 
settled at Keene as attorney-at-law 1778 ; w-as chief 
justice of the county court and senator in the State 
legislature ; died at Keene July 14, 1818, aged 72. 

" He neither sought nor declined honours." 

No. 309.— Here lies the body of Seth Newcomb, 
who was born Oct. 20, A.D. 1786, died Oct. 31st, 1811 
aged 25 years, whose life, though short, was active ; 
too much devoted, however, to the world, and too 
little to his Maker ; and not till the chastening liand 
of providence was in mercy extended to him did he 
duly estimate the importance of faithfully examin- 
ing the evidence of Christianity ; but severe and lono-- 
continued sickness induced reflection and inquiry, 
and the result was regret that his conduct had been so 
long influenced by worldly views, and full conviction 
of the truth of our holy religion ; and he died, as he 
believed, a humble and penitent sinner, resting his 
hopes of pardon and .salvation on the merits of his 
Redeemer. 



62 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. 310. — Hannah Newcomb was born at Boston, 
Mass., 1769, died at KeeneSept. 2, 1851, aged 82 years. 
" Her children arise and call her blessed." 

No. 311.— Everett Newcomb, died Sept. 10, 1837, 
aged 50 years. 

No. 312. — Sarah R. Newcomb, died .Tune 19, 1873, 
aged 81. 

No. 313 — Hannah Newcomb, died June 7, 1870, 
aged 46. 

No. 314. — Phinehas Nurse (granite monument). 

No. 315.— Miss Susan Nurse, died Nov. 8, 1843, 
aged 26. 

No. 316.— Sibyl Norton, died July 3, 1822, aged 19 
months. 

No. 317. — James K. Norton, died Feb. 4, 1823, aged 
6 months. 

No. 318.— James H. Norton, died July .3, 1826, aged 
6 months. 

No. 319.— Drusilla S. Norton, died Nov. 2, 1832, 
aged 5 years and 6 months. 

No. 320.— Horace J. Norton, died Nov. 30, 1832, 
aged 2 years and 8 mouths. 

No. 321.— John L. Norton, died Feb. 18, 1847, 
aged 12 years. 

No. 322.— Roswell Nims, died April 24, 1855, aged 
71. 

No. 323. — Sally, wife of Roswell Nims, died Oct. 
24, 1857, aged 68. 

No. 324.— Roswell Nims, Jr., died Sept. 25, 1838, 
aged 25. 

No. 325. — In memory of Mr. David Nims, who 
died July 21, 1803 (age is not plain). 

No. 326. — lu memory of Mrs. Abigail Nims, wife 
of Mr. David Nims. She died July 13, 1799, aged 
80 years. 

No. 327. — In memory of Capt. Alpheus Nims, who 
died June 8, 1804, aged 49 years. Also, George, died 
Oct. 8, 1796, aged 6 years ; Nabby, died Aug. 9, 1794, 
aged 15 months ; Eliakin, died Sept. 5, 1796, aged 16 
months; Josiah Richardson, died March 16, 1801, 
aged 7 months ; Alpheus, died March 8, 1802, aged 2 
days ; children of Capt. A. Nims. 

No. 328. — Abigail, wife of Alpheus Nims, died 
April 9, 1816, in her 49th year. 

No. 329. — Erected in memory of George, son of 
Alpheus and Abigail Nims. He died at Getersburg, 
Virginia, Dec. 31, 1818, aged 20 years and 6 months. 

No. 330.— Esther Newell, died Sept. 14, 18G7, aged 
69. 

" Dear mother, gone to rest." 

No. 331.— John Newell, died Sept. 25, 1850, aged 
51. 

" A husband dear, a father kind. 
Has gone and left his I'rieuds behind ; 
Has gone, we trust, to realms of light, 
Where all Christ's followers will unite." 

No. 332.— Charles William, an infiint, died July 21, 
1841; Sar.ah Ann, died Nov. 19, 1853, aged 9 years 



and 3 months; children of Wm. A. and Susan D. 
Norwood. 

" Peace to their ashes, may they sleep 
In arms of heavenly love, 
, And when our- pilgrimage is o'er, 

We hope to meet again." 
No. 333.— Freddy, died Jan. 12, 1856, aged 8 
months ; Carrie J., died Jan. 10, 1857 ; children of 
Chester and Caroline Nichols. 

" Sleep on, sweet babes, and take thy rest, 
God early called, for He knew best." 
No. 334. — Mr. Thomas Ocington, who departed 
this life Oct. 3, 1814, in the 21st year of his age. 
" Happy the soul that does in Heaven rest. 
Who with his Saviour he is ever blest ; 
With heavenly joys and raptures is possessed. 
No thought Init his God inspires his breast." 
No. 335.— Samuel Osgood, died July 11, 1828, aged 
71. 

No. 330.— John Osgood, died April 7, 1828, aged 
50. 

No. 337. — Ellen, daughter of Thomas and Char- 
lotte C. Grady, died June 29, 1858, aged 11 months 
and 25 days. 

" Thy home is Heaven." 

No. 338. — To preserve from oblivion the memory of 
William M., son of Mr. William and Mrs. Abigail 
Pierce, who died Feb. 8, 1812, aged 1 year. 

" Sweet babe, a dying father wept for thee. 
Its mother kind mourned the sad decree ; 
To Jesus this little child is gone. 
For of such is the kingdom of Heaven." 
No. 339. — Sacred to the memory of Mr. William 
Pierce, who departed this life March 8, 1812, aged 43. 
" Not prudence can defend, nor virtue save 
Our dying bodies from the silent grave ; 
Tho' mouldering in the dust this friend must lie, 
His soul immortal can never, never die." 
No. 340. — Mrs. Abigail, wife of Mr. William Pierce, 
born Oct. 28, 1775, died Feb. 2, 1818, aged 42. 
" Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return." 
No. 341. — His own epitaph. 

Here lie the mortal remains of ,Tohn Prentiss, born 
in Reading, Mass., March 21, 1778. He established 
the New Hampshire Sentinel in 1799, and conducted it 
principally 49 years. Died June 6, 1873, aged 95. 
" He lived — he died — Behold the sum. 
The abstract of the historian's page!" 
No. 342. — Here rest the remains of Diantha A., 
wife of John Prentiss. She died March 1, 1856, aged 
74. 

" She has gone to the day-break. 
Where the shadows flee away." — Sol. Song. 
No. 343. — In memory of Pamelia Mellen, third 
daughter of John and Diantha Prentiss, who died 
Oct. 9, 1820, aged 13 years and 4 months. 



KEENE. 



63 



" Tell those who sigh 
O'er some dear friend's untimely doom 

That all must die ; 
She whom they saw laid in the tomb, 
In God's own paradise may bloom." 
No. 344. — lu memory of Ellen Sophia, fourth 
daughter of John and Diantha Prentiss, who died 
Dec. 28, 1825, aged 14 years and 8 months. 
" Dust to its narrow home beneath, 
Boul to its place on high; 
They that have seen thy look in death, 
No more may fear to die." 
No. 345. — pjdmund S., son of John and Dianth:i 
Prentiss, died May 23, 1846, aged 26. 

No. 346. — Sacred to the memory of George A. 
Prentiss, commodore United States Navy, son of 
John and Diantha Prentiss, who died April 8, 1868, 
aged 59. 

" His hands are folded on his breast, 
The long disquiet merged in rest. 
How sink the brave who sink to rest, 
By all their country's wishes blest." 
No. 347.— Geo. W. Prentiss, of New York, died 
Feb. 28, 1829, aged 37. 

No. 348.— Charles P. Perkins, died Dec. 4, 1850, 
aged 46. 

No. 349.— Mary F. Perkins, died Aug. 14, 1853, 
aged 49. 

No. 350.— IMary L., daughter of Charles P. and 
Mary F. Perkins, died Sept. 5, 1832, aged 2. 

No. 351. — Charles Henry, sou of Charles P. and 
Mary F. Perkius, died June 1, 1838, aged 5. 

No. 352.— Ferdinand Freckle, died Nov. 19, 1833, 
aged 39. 

No. 353.— Ann C. Parsons, died Feb. 10, 1833, 
aged 21. 

" She was amiable, unassuming, conscientious, and 
faithful in the discharge of duty. The grave of the 
young, whose health and vigor promised many com- 
ing years, teaches the living the importance of a con- 
stant trust in God, thus to be prepared for affliction, 
disease and death. 

No. 354.— James Parker, died April 27, 1 862, aged 
73. 

No. 355. — Martha, wife of James Parker, died Julv 
28, 1850, aged 64. 

No. 356. — Sarah E., daughter of James and Martha 
Parker, died Dec. 14, 1838, aged 17. 

" Dearest sister thou hast left us, 
And thy loss we deeply feel ; 
But 'tis God tliat has berei't us ; 
He can all our sorrows heal." 

No. 357.— Jonathan Parker, died Aug. 28, a. d. 
181T, in the 56th year of his age. 

No. 358. — Hepsibeth, wife of Jonathan Parker, died 
Nov. 21, 1848, aged 84. 



No. 359.— Esther P., wife of L. B. Page, died Feb. 
27, 1870, aged 70. 

No. 360.— AldenL., son ofL. B. and E. P. Page, of 
Co. C, 2d Reg. Maine Vols., died July 4, 1862, aged 
25. 

No. 361.— Esther L., daughter of L. B. and E. P 
Page, died May 5, 1841, aged 7 years. 

No. 362.— Roxanna Plantain,^ died June 26, 1843, 
aged 46. 

No. 363. — Putnam (granite monument). 

No. 364. — Edward Poole, a native of Danvers, Mass., 
died May 7, 1847, aged 34. 

No. 365.— Helen Poole, died Nov. 17, 1846, aged 22 
months. 

No. 366. — Hannah K. Perham, wife of Geo. W. 
Perham, died at Nashville, N. H., Oct. 8, 1849, aged 
28. 

No. 367. — Relief, wife of Samuel Payson, died July 
13, 1857, aged 79. 

"In that bright world which follows this, 
May each repeat in words of bliss. 
We're all, all here." 

No. 368.— Ella F., daughter of James H. and Susan 
Payson, died May 1, 1855, aged 2 years and 4 months. 

" Safe in Heaven, and so soon." 

No. 369.— Hulda Pond, born Aug. 7, 1777, died 
March 23, 1864. 

No. 370.— Mrs. Sarah McNiel, wife of David Rich- 
ardson, died April 2d, 1814, aged 24. 

No. 371. — Hon. Josiah Richardson, died Feb. 20, 
1820, aged 74. 

No. 372. — Artemas Richardson, died Nov. 4, 1845, 
aged 51. 

No. 373.— Charles Richardson, died Jan. 20, 1848, 
aged 16. 

No. 374. — Martha M. Richardson, died April 6, 
1863, aged 26. 

No. 375. — Alexander Rolston, a native of Falkirk, 
lied March 29, 1810, aged 64. 

"In mv distress I called my God, 

^Vhen I could scarce believe him mine ; 
He bowed his ear to my complaint. 
Then did his grace appear divine." 

No. 376. — Jannett, wife of Alexander Rolston, a 
native of Falkirk, Scotland, died June 11, 1833, aged 
85. 

No. 377.— Levi Russell, died Sept. 21, 1831, aged 
31. 

Eliza Emeline Ru.ssell died Nov. 16, 1832, aged 5 
years and 9 months; Mary F. W. died Jan. 29, 1832, 
aged 7 months; daughters of Levi and Elizabeth 
Russell. 

No. 378. — Rebecca A. Martin, wife of Jeduthun 
Russell, died Feb. 17, 1863, aged 74. 

' She was colored and once a. slave. 



64 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. 379.— Jonathan Rand, died Feb. 11, 1838, aged 
76. 

No. 380.— Anna, wife of Jonathan Rand, died July 
26, 1858, agod 85. 

No. 381.— William Rand, died Dec. 23, 1837, aged 
25. 

No. 382. — Emily A., daughter of Isaac and Julia 
A. Rand, died Feb. 22, 1847, aged 6 months. 

No. 383. — Harriet Louisa, daughter of Isaac and 
Julia A. Rand, died June 8, 1857, aged 13 years. 

No. 384.- Betsey H., wife of Elisha Rand, died 
April 7, 1851, aged 50. 

No. 385.— Lydia G., wife of Elisha Rand, died 
Sept. 21, 1855, aged 46. 

No. 386.— Ezra Rider, born in Dublin, died Aug. 
11, 1850, aged 64. 

" Even so those who sleep in Jesus will C4od bring 
with him at his coming." 

No. 387. — Isaac Redington, died Sept. 5, 1854, 
aged 83. 

No. 388.— Mercy D. Redington, died Jan. 29, 1860, 
aged 85. 

No. 389. — In memory of Jeremiah Stiles, Esq., 
who died December 6, a.d. 1800, aged 56 years. 

No. 390. — Erected in memory of Mrs. Mary, relict 
of Jeremiah Stiles, Esq., who died March 22, A.D. 
1810, in the 29th year of her age. 

No. 391. — Death loves a lofty mark. 

Here lies the body of Peleg Sprague, Esq. He 
was born in Rochester, Mass., Dec. 10, 1756. Gradu- 
ated at Dartmouth College in the year 1787, was 
chosen a member of Congress in the year 1797, and 
died April 20, 1800, in the 44th year of his age. 

" What tho' we wade in wealth or soar in fame. 
Earth's highest station ends in here he lies, 
And dust to dust concludes her noblest song." 

No. 392.— To the memory of David, son of Peleg 
Sprague, Esq., and Mrs. Rosalinda, his wife, born 
Nov. 12, 1796, and died May 15, 1797. 

No. 393.— Abner Sanger, died Oct. 1, 1822, aged 
83. 

No. 394.— Rhoda Sanger, died June 28, 1811, aged 
75. 

No. 395. — Sarah Fisher, widow of Cornelius Stur- 
tevaut, Jr., died at Piketon, Ohio, Aug. 2, 1821, aged 
50. Henry, their son, died at Hudson, N. Y., Sept. 
6, 1812, aged 17. 

No. 396.— Sarah, died Dec. 15, 1832, aged 29; 
Maria, died Feb. 24, 1804, aged 6 years ; daughters 
of Cornelius Sturtevant. 

No. 397. — Isaac Sturtevant, died July 1, 1863, aged 
62. Caroline Maria, died Oct. 12, 1849, aged 9 years; 
Anna, died Aug. 19, 1847, aged 3 months; daughters 
of I. and L. E. Sturtevant. 

"Suffer little children to come to me." 

No. 398.— Milo Stone, who died July 16, 1834, 



.aged 33. 



No. 399. — Charles Adams, son of Milo and Eunice 
E. Stone, died June 29, 1834, aged 7 months. 

No. 400.— John Snow, died Dec. 18, 1845, aged 
75. 

No. 401. — Sally, widow of John Snow, died Blay 6, 
1856, aged 79. 

No. 402. — Esther, daughter of John and Esther 
Snow, died Jan. 8, 1836, aged 31 ; Cyntha, daughter 
of John and Esther Snow, died April 3, 1840, aged 
19. 

No. 403. — Lucretia JI., only child of George M. 
and Olivia I. Snow, dieil June 3, 1844, aged 3 years 
and 11 months. 

No. 404. — Gustavus A., son of John and Jerusha 
Snow, died July 9, 1839, aged 9 months and 8 days. 

No. 405.— Luther Smith, died Oct. 21, 1839, aged 
73. 

" Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think 
not the Son of Man cometh." ' 

No. 406. — Sarah, wife of Luther Smith, died June 
7, 1858, aged 90. 

No. 407.— Rosina Smith, died Jan. 2, 1850, aged 
43. 

No. 408. — Sarah, daughter of Luther Smith, died 
Nov. 25, 1864, aged 64. 

No. 409. — Cline Smith (granite monument). 

No. 410.— Augustus A. Smith, died Aug. 8, 1843, 
aged 64. 

No. 411.- Stephen Sibley, died Jan. 18, 1846, aged 
49. 

No. 412.— Esther, wife of Stephen Sibley, died March 
25, 1872, aged 70 years and 9 months. 

No. 413.— Albinus Shelley, died Sept. 22, 1848, aged 
40. 

No. 414.— John L. Staples, died April 28, 1855, aged 
47. 

No. 415. — Eliza A., wife of John L. Staples, died 
Jan. 10, 1851, aged 42. 

No. 416.- — Jerusha, wife of Curtis Spaulding, died 
Jan. 7, 1852, aged 54. 

No. 417.— George N., son of N. E. and M. E. Starky, 
died Feb. 10, 1852, aged 6 years. 

No. 418.— Mary E., daughter of N. E. and M. E. 
Starky, died March 24, 1852, aged 8. 

No. 419. — Sacred to the memory of Susan G. Sel- 
fridge, who departed this life Sept. 28, 1841, aged 
62. 

" The last tribute of filial love. 

" I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Sa- 
viour. He that liveth and believeth in me, though he 
were dead yet shall he live. And he tliat liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die."'^ 



' Luther Smith was the old clook-maker ; he dropped 
down dead while going into his house. 

- The Rev. .\bial .\. Livermore caused this beautiful trib- 
ute to be engraved on thi.s marble. 



KEENE. 



65 



Xo. 420. — Tlioniiis Tlioniiisdii, lidrn April (5, 1785, 
(lied June 4, 1857. 

No. 421. — Here rests the mortal part of Mrs. Tliirza, 
wife of Mr. Thomas Thompson, whose virtues en- 
ileareil her to her family, friends and acquaintances; 
she died May 11, 1822. aged HG. 

No. 422. — Betsy, wife of Thomas Thomjison, born 
March 1, 1786, died Aug. 1, 18r)7. 

No. 423. — In memory of Thirza Elriiira A., daugh- 
ter of Thomas and Thirza Thompson, who died Sept. 
19, 188(), aged 17. 

" Sleep, sister, sleep, for now the dawn 
Of brighter day has met thine eye. 
The hand of death has gently drawn 
The curtain of another sky." 
Xo. 424. — In memory of Thomas Thompson, who 
died Feb. 24, 1813, aged 71. 

No. 425.— Widow Sally Thompson, died April 21, 
1840, aged 81. ' 

No. 42(3. — Julia A., wife of Thomas C. Thompson, 
died January 2, 1850, aged 32. 

" True excellence ripens but in Heaven." 

No. 427. — Augusta, daughter of A. and H. Thomp- 
son, died Feb. 27, 1832, aged 4 years. 

No. 428. — George, son of A. and H. Thompson, died 
Jan. 5, 1850, aged 27. 

No. 429. — Sarah, daughter of A. and H. Thompson, 
died March 30, 1849, aged 19 years and 10 months. 

No. 430. — Aaron Thompson, died March 10, 1847, 
aged 57. 

No. 431. — Hannah, wife of Aaron Thompson, died 
Nov. 30, 1848, aged 57. 

No. 432. — Thompson (granite monument). 

No. 433. — Mary Ann, daughter of A. and H. Thomp- 
son, died Nov. 6, 1843, aged 2G. 

No. 434. — Sarah Athea, daughter of Joshua C. and 
Caroline Thompson, died March 21, 1854, aged 2 years 
11 months and 7 days. 

" Blossomed to die, 
O, do not weep. 
Suppress that sigh, 
I sweetly sleep." 

No. 435.— Harry Towne, died June 8, 1826, aged 24. 

No. 436.— Ephraim Towne, died March 24, 1849, 
aged 68. 

No. 437. — Harriet W., wife of Joseph S. Towne, 
died Feb. 11, 1852, aged 36. 

No. 438. — In memory of George E. Towne, who 
died Nov. 6, 1851, aged 30. 

No. 439. — Elvira, daughter of George E. and Mar- 
tha M. Towne, died Sept. 11, 1850, aged 1 year 5 
months and 21 days. 

" Shed not for her the bitter tear. 
Nor give the heart to vain regret, 
'Tis but the casket that lies here. 
The gem that fills it .sparkles yet." 



No. 440.— Stephen Trask, died Aug. 7, 1830, aged 
66. 

No. 441.— Ezekic-1 H. Trask, died May 10, 1830, 
aged 25. 

No. 442.— Walter Tavlor, died Aug. 30, 1852, aged 
64. 

No. 443.— :Milla, wife of Walter Taylor, died Oct. 
9, 1839, aged 52. 

No. 444.— Harriet G. Taylor, died Dec. 8, 1837, 
aged 21. 

" Hope is a pledge of glorious rest. 
To weary mortals given, 
A Hower we cultivate on earth, 
To reap the fruit in Heaven." 

No. 445.— Harriet Ada Tilden, died Oct. 10, 1844, 
aged 18. 

No. 44(;.— Elijah Turner, died May 26, 1845, aged 
58. 

No. 447.— Wm. H. Turner, died July 2, 1825, aged 
26. 

"With silent li])s to Heaven we give him up. 
Submissively we take the cup, 
'Tis bitter, but 'tis given." 

No. 448. — Little Georgie — George O., son of H. U. 
and M. P. Thatcher, died Sept. 9, 1863, aged 9 months. 

No. 449.— John G. Thatcher, died June 2(5, 1842, 
aged 56. 

No. 450.— John Thurstain, died July 30, 1845, aged 
73. 

No. 451.— Roswell Thurstain, died April 29, 1850, 
aged 42. Francis W., William C, Julia A., Lyman 
C, children of Eoswell and Frances Thurstain. 

No. 452. — Twitchell (marble monument). 

No. 453. — Amos Twitchell, born in Dublin April 
11, 1781, died May 26, 1850. 

No. 454. — Elizabeth Goodhue, wife of Dr. Amos 
Twitchell, died Oct. 24, 1848, aged 60. 

No. 455. — William Torrance, aged 39 years. Born 
in Enfield, Mass., Dec. 1, 1815; graduated at Amherst 
College in 1844; for years instructor of Keene Acad- 
emy and the first principal of the High School ; died 
Feb. 3, 1855, universally lamented. 

"The pure in heart shall see God." 

His pupils in grateful remembrance of his virtues 
have erected this monument. 

No. 456.— Elizabeth Wright, died March 14, 1799, 
aged 52. 

No. 457.— James Wright, died May 3, 1811, aged 
61 years. Martha Wilder died March 16, 1819, aged 
35. 

No. 458.— Adolphus Wright, born June 13, 1785, 
died Nov. 23, 1864. 

"Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for 
the end of that man is peace. 

No. 459. — Mrs. Jerusha, wife of Mr. Adolphus 
Wright, died March 17, 1828, aged 43. 



66 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. 460.— Sylvia, wife of Adolphus Wright, died 
Dec. 19, 1866, aged 79 years and 11 months. 

" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 

No. 461. — In memory of George Andrew, youngest 
son of Adolphus and Jerusha Wright, who died .Tan. 
29, 1819, aged 6 years and 6 months. 

No. 462.— Giistavus Wright, died Dec. 5, 1834, aged 
27. 

No. 46.3. — George Andrew, died Oct. 2.5, 1824, aged 
3. Frederick Wm., died March 7, 1827, aged 16, sons 
of Adolphus and .Terusha AVright. 

No. 464.— Mr. Ephraim Wright, died Dec. 24, 1821, 
aged 66. 

No. 465. — Sophronia Wright, died July 5, 1821, aged 
20 months. Sophronia, died Aug. 12, 1822, aged 1 
month, daughters of Mr. Ephraim and Mrs. Charity 
Wright. 

No. 466.— Alba Wright, died Dec. .5, 18.51, aged 
35. 

No. 467. — Betsy, wife of Salmon Wright, died Oct. 

3, 1837, aged 27 years. 

No. 468. — Sewell J., eldest son of Salmon and Betsy 
Wright, died Aug. 31, 1837, aged 2 years and 3 
months. 

No. 469. — Franklin H., son of Salmon and Betsy 
Wright, died Oct. 8, 1837, aged 1 year and 1 month. 

No. 470.— George Wells,' died July 25, 1803. 

No. 471. — William Wyman, died April 27, 1811, 
aged 36. 

No. 472. — Mary, wife of William Wyman, died Nov. 

4, 1813, aged 40." 

No. 473. — Hannah, wife of Josiah Ward, died Aug. 
13, 1815, aged 32 years. She was the daughter of 
Eben Philips, of Grafton, Mass. 

" Sleep soft in dust, wait the Almighty's will ; 
Then rise unchanged and be an angel still." 

No. 474.— William Woods, died March 23, 1812, 
aged 83. 

No. 475. — In memory of Naome, wife of William 
Woods, who died Sept, 9, 1815, aged 73. 

No. 476.— Elijah Woods, died June 19, 1852, aged 
74. 

No. 477.— Sally, wife of Elijah Woods, died Oct. 9, 
1844, aged 66. 

No. 478.— Joshua Woods, died Oct. 26, 1820, aged 
65. 

No. 479.— Charlotte E., wife of Oren Woods, died 
Dec. 9, 18.34, aged 21. Dinah, wife of Oren Woods, 
died Dec. 21, 1850, aged 39. 

No. 480.— Samuel Wood, born 1764, died 1846. Abi- 
gail Wood, his wife, born 1767, died 1848. Children 
of S. and A. Wood : Abigail, born 1793, died 1795 ; 



1 This young man was drowned in the Ashuelot Elver. 
There was formerly a picket fence with cedar posts around 
this grave ; one of the posts still standing, having done 
service over seventy years. 



Harriet, born 1800, died 1802 ; James, born 1807, died 
1809 ; Sophia D., born 1804, died 1819 ; Mary A., born 
1810, died 1831. 

No. 481. — Deacon Samuel Wood, born at Westfield, 
Mass., Jan. 3, 1791, died Dec. 29, 1854. 

No. 482. — Emily, wife of Dea. Samuel Wood, born 
at Lancaster, Mass., July 27, 1795, died April 10, 
1857. 

No. 483.— Martha Wyman, born Dec. 27,1818, died 
Aug. 27, 1819 ; John, born Aug. 27, 1820, died July 
8, 1832; Elizabeth Newell, horn Feb. 20, 1821, died 
Julys, 1844; Samuel, born Feb. 20, 1824, died March 
29, 1824 ; Martha Ann, born March 1, 1825, died Sept. 
.30,1825; Abigail Fosdick, born July 4, 1820, died 
Sept. 29, 1826; children of Samuel and Emily Wood. 

No. 484. — Laura Ann, daughter of Alinon and Jane 
Woods, died Jan. 9, 1843, aged 1 year and 6 months. 

No. 485. — Ann E., daughter of Henry and Susan 
Wiiods, died June 11, 18.57, aged 11 years and 6 
months. 

No. 486. — In memory of Mrs. Bial, wife of Mr. Jo- 
siah Willard, who departed this life March 31, 1805, 
in the 26th year of her age. 

No. 4S7. — Jennett, daughter of Roswell and Eliza- 
betli Willard, died March 2, 1816, aged 15 months. 

No. 488.— Edwin T. and George C, children of 
Henry and Sally Willard. 

No. 489.— Allie Winnefred Willard, died March 14, 
1859, aged 2 years 1 month and 15 days. 

" This star went down in beauty, 
Yet 'tis shining now 
In the liright and dazzling coronet 
Tliat decks the Saviour's brow." 

No. 490.— Henry W. Willard, of the First New , 
Hampshire Cavalry, died at Annapolis, Md., March 
3, 1865, aged 16 years and 6 months. 

No. 491.— Solomon R. Willard, died June 26, 1854, 
aged 30; Eunice Trask, his wife, died Oct. 3, 1857, 
aged 33. 

No. 492.— Daniel AVatson, died June 17, 1837, 
aged 76. 

No. 493. — Susanna, wife of Daniel Watson, died 
Feb. 26, 1850, aged 83 years. 

No. 494. — Eliza, daughter of Daniel and Susanna 
Watson, died July 19, 1817, in the 24lh year of her 
age. 

No. 495. — In memory of Capt. David Wilson, who 
died Dec. 5, 1818, aged 70 years. 

No. 496. — Mrs. Ellenor, wife of D.avid Wilson and 
late widow of Samuel Chapman, died Aug. 26, 1828, 
aged 84 years. 

No. 497.— Mrs. Becca Wilson, died Feb. 27, 1831, 
aged 50 years. 

No. 498. — Harriet C, daughter of Joseph and 
Roxanna Wilson, died Oct. 29, 1829, aged 10 months. 

No. 499.— Charles Wilson, died May 5, 1845, aged 
49 years. 



KEENE. 



67 



No. oOO. — An infant daughter of Charles and Flora 
S. Wilson, born and died Aug. 28, 1852. 

No. 501. — C. D. Wilson, wife of Norman Wilson, 
died Oct. 21, 1846, aged 38 years. 

No. 502. — Granite monument, David Wilder, Ca- 
leb Wilder and Lucy Gowing. 

No. 503. — Here lies the body of Mrs. Mary, wife of 
John Wilder. She was born the 5th of June, 1781, 
and died Oct. 20, 1800, in the 29th year of her age. 

" How loved, how valued once ;rs'ails thee not, 
To whom related or by whom begot ; 
A heap of dust alone remains of thee, 
'Tis all thou art and what we all must be." 

No. 504. — In memory of our father, Aljel Wilder, 
ilied April 3, 1862, aged 91 years and 7 months. 

No. .")05. — In memory of Mrs. JIary, wife of Abel 
Wilder, who departed this life July 19, 1813, aged 36 
years. 

No. 506. — Azel, son of Dea. Abijah Wilder, born 
Nov. 23, 1788, died April 9, 1860. 

" There remaineth a rest to the i)eople of God." 

No. 507. — Elvira Warner, wife of Azel Wilder, 
born March 2, 1792, died Jan. 28, 1863. 

" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord ; they 
rest from their labors and their works do follow 
them." 

No. 508. — Charles Johnson, son of Azel and Elvira 
Wilder, died Dec. 28, 1818, aged 2 years and 4. 
months. 

No. 509. — Azel Bradley, son of Azel and Elvira 
^Vikler, born April 3, 1825, died Ajiril 30, 1826. 

No. 510.— Lucius E. Wilder, died Oct. 23, 1843, 
aged 25. 

No. 511. — Lauretta, youngest daughter of Azel and 
Elvira Wilder, died May 12, 1848, aged 18 years. 

No. 512. — Charles J. Wilder, first lieutenant Com- 
pany H, Thirty-ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, 
killed in action at Derbytown Road, Va., Oct. 18, 
1864, aged 43 years. Elmiua N., widow of Charles 
J. Wilder, died Oct. 15, 1807, aged 44 years. 

No. 513. — Edward Warner, son of Edward B. and 
M. A. Wilder, born Feb. 4, and died Oct. 18, 1864, 
aged 8 months and 14 days. 

" Little Warner, if my tears fell 'tis not for pain I 
weep, 

I know that safe in Heaven God n ill keep 

The little babe that with me went to sleep." 

No. 514.— Dea. Abijah Wilder, died Jan. 9, 1835, 
aged 83 j'ears, who was forty-eight years an esteemed 
officer in the church. Mrs. Tamer, fourth wife of 
Dea. A. Wilder, died Dec. 10, 1834, aged 85 years. 
Sarah, his first wife, died March 8, 1780, aged 28 years. 
Martha, his second wife, died March 28, 1774, aged 
37 years. Bulah, his third wife, died Dec. 27, 1788, 
aged 31 years. 

" These all died in faith." 



No. 515.— Martha Wilder, died Jan. 27, 1864, aged 
82. 

" Beloved as daughter, si.ster and friend. 
She hath done what she could. 

" During forty-three years Superintendent of the 
Sabbath-school. Her house was ever open to the 
disciples of Christ for prayer, and her labors were 
abundant for the poor, the sick and the afflicted. 
These things shall be told of her for a memorial." 

No. 516. — Erected to the memory of Dr. Joseph 
Wheeler, who died April 23, 1826, aged 46 years. 

No. 517. — Erected in memory of Mr. Lynds Whee- 
lock, who died May 28, 1825, aged 41. 

No. 518. — Sarah F., wife of Lynds Wheelock, died 
Oct. 12, 1839, aged 46 years. 

No. 519. — Sacred to the memory of Sophia Penne- 
man, daughter of Mr. Lynds and Mrs. Sally Wheelock, 
who died Aug. 22, 1819, aged 2 years. 

No. 520. — Adeline, daughter of Lynds Wheelock, 
died April 17, 1829, aged 4 years and 4 months. 

No. 521.— David Warren, died Feb. 15, 1835, aged 
7 weeks. Susan K., Jan. 9, 1840, aged 2 years and 7 
months, children of David and Lydia Warren. 

No. 522. — Julia, daughter of Luther and Lucinda 
White, died Sept. 22, 1846, aged 4 weeks and 2 days. 
"Ah ! lovely babe, no sooner mine 
Than God the gift reclaim ; 
The loss is ours, the gain is thine, 
Thy bosom knew no stain." 

No. 523. — (Granite monument.) Selden F. AVhite, 
born April 16, 1812, died Nov. 22, 1867. Emily W., 
born May 21, 1815, died Dec. 11, 1857. John, born 
Feb. 2, 1837, died Sept. 2, 1837. Emily A., born 
Nov. 29, 1843, died May 26, 1844. Jennie A., born 
Dec. 15, 1851, died Dec. 20, 1853. 

No. 524. — Betsey, wife of Shubacl ^Vhitc, died May 
1, 1838, aged 28. 

No. 525. — Miss Palmira Warner, died Ajiril 26, 
1840, aged 50 years. 

No. 526.— Alva Walker, died Oct. 25, 1842, aged 47 
years. 

No. 527. — Emily N., wife of Benj. E. Webster, of 
Boston, Mass., died June 13, 1845, aged 26 years. 
" Beloved friends, prepare to meet thy God." 

No. 528. — Mary E., wife of E. W. Winchester, died 
May 22, 1845, aged 21 years. 

" Known only to be loved." 

No. 529.— Julia A., daughter of E. W. and M. E. 
Winchester, died Aug. 25, 1848, aged 4 years and 10 
months. 

No. 530. — Miriam, wife of Nathan Willey, died 
June 7, 1847, aged 67. 

No. 531.— Seth Willey, died March 14, 1863, aged 
59. 

No. 532. — Charlotte C, wife of Roswell Weeks, 
died at Winchester Aug. 6, 1851, aged 55 years. 
" I am not lost, but gone before." 



68 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. 533.— Ella, daughter of Thos. H. and Martha 
W. Williams, died Nov. 25, 1854, aged 3 years, 1 
month aud 15 days. 

The Old Graveyard at Ash Swami', 
NEAR THE J08IAH Sawyer Place. — I learn 
from an old citizen that the land for this bury- 
ins-sround was mxen to the district by a man 
that formerly owned the Sawyer place (probably 
Abraham Wheeler), and that his neighbors and 
friends turned out and built the stone wall 
around it, the place having been used ever since 
bv the inhabitants of this part of the town for 
a place to bury their dead. Near the entrance 
on the right, as you go in, is the Ingersol family 
tomb ; it has not been opened for many years. 
I have been told that it has been the custom for 
a long time to bury the poor and friendless in a 
row" on the extreme west part of the yard, and 
here yon will find a long row of" God's poor;" 
but my religion teaches me that when the last 
trump shall sound, many that were buried here 
will have as clear a record as others that have 
costly monuments, and had more friends while 
on earth. 

Among the list of names found on the mon- 
uments in this old yard will be found many 
that took an active part in the first settlement of 
the town, and at this day, although moi'e than 
eighty-eight years have passed since the first in- 
terment, may be found many of their descend- 
ants owning or living on the farms of their 
ancestors. The old buryiug-ground hasalwavs 
been kept in good order, improvements con- 
stantly being made, and now, by taking a few 
rods of land on the north, south aud west sides, 
it would be sufficient for the needs of this part 
of the t(»wn for another century. The follow- 
ing is a list of the interments in this cemetery, 
with the inscriptions upon the tombstones : 

No. 1.— Sarah F. Richardson, wife oi'Nilcs Aldrich, 
died June 3, 1853, aged 22. 

"A wife and mother gone 

To a better world we trust ; 
Angels, watch ye round her tomb. 
And guard her peaceful dust. 

" Dearest partner, how I miss thee, 
And deplore thy loss on earth ; 
Though while here I loved thee deeply, 
Now I feel aud know thy worth. 



" And may we, while we mourn the blow. 
With filial reverence kiss the rod. 
And feel that though she's lost below. 
Our daughter, sister, lives with God. 
"Dear as thou wert, and justly dear. 
We will not weep for thee, 
One thought shall check the staiting tears — 
It is that thou art free." 
No. 2.— Polly, wife of Calvin Allen, died Dec. 31, 
18G3, aged 63. 

" We mourn thy loss." 
No. 3.— Frank, son of H. H. and F. J. Ashcroft, 
died April 17, 1871, aged 17 days. 

" Many hopes lie buried here." 
No. 4.— Daniel Bradford, died April 21, 1838, aged 
67. 

No. 5. — Erected to the memory of Mrs. 8arah, wife 
of Daniel Bradford, Esq., a native of Duxbury, Mass., 
who died Nov. 21, 1823, aged 51 years. 

No. 6. — Miss Emily, daughter of Daniel and Sarah 
Bradford, died June 3d, 1815, aged 17. 

" Various are the shafts of death." 
No. 7.— Thomas Baker,> died April 2, 1842, aged 89. 
No. 8. — Betsey, wife of Thomas Baker, died Sept. 
12, 1839, aged 75. 

No. 9. — In memory of Emily, daughter of Mr. 
Thomas and Mrs. Betsey Baker, who died JIarch 17th, 
1813, in the 9th year of her age. 

"So fades the lovely blooming flower, 
Frail solace of an hour ; 
So soon our transient comforts fly. 
And pleasure only blooms to die." 
No. 10. — Two infant sons of David and Amanda H. 
Baker, died Oct. 2, 1829, and March 29, 1831. 
" Departed innocence to memory dear, 
Shall oft receive the tribute of a tear. 
While fond affections mourn thy early tomb." 
No. 11.— David Baker, died April 20, 1868, aged 72 
years and 8 months. 

" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 
No. 12.— Solomon Blake, died Oct. 30, 1809, in the 
32d year of his age. 

No. 13.— Dr. Obadiah Blake,' died June 22, 1810, in 
the 92d year of his age. 

' Thomas Baker, in 1773, belonged to the Foot Guard of 
Keene ; in 1776 he, with Don Guild and Eliphalet Briggs, 
was chosen a committee to put in execution certain resolves 
passed by the town, among them one to prevent profane 
cursing and swearing ; also to prevent everybody from 
spending their time in tippling-houses and being out after 
nine o'clock at night. 

- Dr. Obadiah Blake belonged to the Alarm-List of Keene 
in 1773 ; he also was chosen one of a committee to hire a 
minister in 1761. The Rev. Clement Sumner was settled 
about this time, and this committee was voted twelve 
pounds, lawful money of the Massachusetts Bay, for the 
trouble and charges in providing for the ordination 



KEENE. 



69 



No. 14. — Lydia, wife of Dr. Obadiah Blako, died 
June 28, 1810, aged 77 years. 

"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." 

No. lo. — In memory of Royal Bhike, born June 30, 
1706, died Oct. 9, 1827. 

No. 16. — In memory of Phillis, wife of Royal Blake, 
born Nov. 3, 1763, died Sept. 6, 1827. 

No. 17.— Eli Blake, died July 14, 1837, aged 70 
years. 

No. 18. — Deliverance, wife of Eli Blake, died April 
14, 1845, aged 70. 

No. 19. — Josei>h Brown, died Jan. 3, 1836, aged 71. 

No. 20. — Keziah, his wife, clied Jan. 3, 1836, aged 
72. 

No. 21.— Ami Brown, died Sept. 27, 1858, aged 88. 
Mary E., wife of Ami Brown, dieil Oct. 23, 1853, aged 
87. ' 

No. 22. — Hepsey, daughter of Ami and JIary E. 
Br(jwn, died Oct., 1803, aged 2 years and 9 months. 

" Sleep on, sweet child. 
And take thy rest, 
God hath pronounced 
Such children blessed." 
No. 23. — Hepsey Brown, died April 6, 1831, in the 
24th year of her age. 

" Hear what the voice of Heaven i)roclaims 
For all the pious dead ; 
Sweet is the savor of their names, 
And soft their sleeping bed." 
No. 24.— Allen Brown, died July 10, 1840, in the 
31st year of his age. 

" I leave this world without a tear, 
Save for the friends I hold so dear; 
To heal their sorrows. Lord, descend, 
And to the mourners prove a friend." 
No. 25.— Wealthy M., wife of Allen Brown, died 
June 29, 1840, in the 28th year of her age. 
" Stop each fond parental tear. 
And each fraternal sigh, 
She is freed from all her troubles here 
To dwell with God on high." 

No. 26. — Sylvia E., wife of Joseph Brown, died 
Jan. 10, 1857, aged 51. 

" Go, peaceful spirit, rest, 

Secure from earth's alarms, 
Go sleep upon the Saviour's breast, 
Encircled in His arms. 
" We weep to see thee die, 
We mourn thy absence yet, 
O may we meet thee in the sky. 
And there our tears forget.." 
No. 27. — Calvin Brown, died Aug. 31, 1826, in the 
35th year of his age. 

" My flesh shall slumber in the ground 
Till the last trumpet's joyful sound. 
Then burst the chains with sweet surprise 
And in mv Saviour's image rise." 



No. 28.— John F. Brown, died May 18, 1827, in the 
34th year of his age. 

" Is this the lot that all must die? 
Will death no ages spare? 
Then let us all to Jesus fly. 
And seek for refuge there." 
No. 29. — Squire Brown, died Dec. 18, 1829, aged 
31. 

" Dear companion, now in your bloom. 
Behold me mouldering in this dark tomb; 
When God doth call us, all must go. 
Whether we are prepared or no." 
No. 30. — Esther Billings, consort of Mr. Isaac Bil- 
lings, died June 1, 1806, aged 64 years. 

No. 31.— Sarah Bor.sh, died April 1, 1852, aged 6 
weeks. 

No. 32.— Edmund Beebe, died July 3, 1848, aged 

40. 

" Weep not for me." 

No. 33. — Lucinda C, wife of Edmund Beebe, died 
Nov. 7, 1855, aged 53. 

" Dearest mother, thou h.ast left us. 
Here thy loss we deeply feel. 
But 'tis God that hath bereft us ; 
He can all our sorrows heal." 

No. 34.— Charles E., died Nov. 3, 1836, aged 'tl 
months ; I-:ithca Amelia, died March 3, 1846, aged IS 
months, children of Edmund and Lucinda C. Beebe. 
" Farewell, dear idol of our hearts. 
To thee short life was given. 
Thy morning broke most sweetly here. 
Thy evening closed in Heaven." 

No. 35. — Jane M., daughter of Edmund and Lu- 
cinda C. Beebe, died Nov. 11, 1857, aged 16 years and 
2 months. 

" Friends nor physicians could not save, 
My mortal body from the grave, 
Nor can the grave confine me here — 
When Jesus calls I must appear." 

No. 36. — Hannah C, wife of Stilman Buss, died 
Sept. 13, 1849, aged 37 years. 

No. 37. — Mary Jane, daughter of Stilman and Han- 
nah C. Buss, died April 11, 1852, aged 13 years. 
" Farewell, dear Mary, thou art gone 
To join thy mother dear. 
And left thy friends to mourn alone 
In this cold world so drear. 

" But, Mary dear, we hope to meet. 
In that world above. 
Where those dear friends have gone before. 
Where all is peace and love." 

No. 38. — Ferdinand, son of Stilman and Hannah 
C. Buss, died April 7, 1854, aged 9. 

" Farewell, sweet one in Heaven, 
Where thou art shining now, 



70 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



I know tluit siu ;ind sorrow 
Are banished from thy brow." 
No. .39.— Calvin Bragg, died March 1, 1810, aged 
42 years. 

No. 40. — Sally, wife of Aaron Gary and former 
wife of Calvin Bragg, died Aug. 1, 1840, aged 62 
years. 

No. 41.— Huldah Bragg, died Dee. 10, 1818, aged 
18. 

No. 42. — Mary, daughter of Roswell and Raehel 
Bragg, died May If!, 1841, aged 8 years and 4 months. 
No. 43.— Eliza Bragg, died Sept. 29, 1872, aged 63 
years 5 months 29 days. 

" (tone but not forgotten.'' 
No. 44.— Wm. Britton (2d), died Jan. 28,1836, aged 
62 years. A native of Mansfield, Mass. 

No. 45.— Sarah S. Banks, died July 2, 1836, aged 26 
years. 

No. 46. — Rosdelino, daughter of Theodore and 
Betsy Bolio, died July 3, 18o4, aged 1 year and 12 
days. 

" Weejj not ; to mourn it is not meet. 
For all that's earthly sure will fade ; 
Look then above and hope to greet 
Thy loved one now an angel made." 

No. 47.— Andrew H. Blodgett, died May 3, 1872, 
aged 58 years. 

No. 48.— Charles A. Bates, son of J. M. and Eliza 
Bates, died June 16, 1806, aged 11 years and two 
mouths. 

" Dearest Charlie, thou hast left us." 

No. 49.— .lohn Colony, died June 24, 1797, aged 67 
years. 

No. 50.— .Milly, wife of John Colony, died Jan. 24, 
1X11, aged 77 years. 

Xo. 51. — Timothy Colony, died Aug. 29, 1.S36, aged 
72 years. 

No. 52. — Sarah, wife of Timothy Cohmy, died April 
27, 1853, aged 82 years. 

No. 53. — Mary, daughter of Timothy and Sarah 
Colony, died Aug. 22, 1819, aged 26. 

No. 54. — George, son of Timothy and Sarah Colony, 
died Feb. 4, 1820, aged 9 years. 

No. 55. — Lockhart, son of Timothy and Sarah Col- 
ony, died December 23, 1823, aged 23 years. 

No. 56. — Lucy H., wife of Charles K. Colony, died 
April 21, 1.H56, aged 36 years. 

" I go to my Father." 

No. 57. — Georgcett C, daughter of C. K. and L. H. 
Colony, died July 16, 1846, aged 10 months. 

" Beautiful and lovely. 
She was but given, 
A fair bud to earth. 
To bloom in Heaven." 

No. 58. — Roscoe C, son of C. K. and L. H. ( 'ninny, 
died April 8, 1848, aged 2 months. 



" Thou art gone, dearest boy, 
Love's bright cord riven, 
Thou hast joined little sisters 
Now angels in Heaven.' 

No. 59. — In memory of Lovey, daughter of Je.sse 
Clark, Jr., and Delano Clark, who died Jan. 22, 1800, 
aged 15 years and 8 months. 

No. 60. — In memory of Fanny, daughter of Jesse 
Clark, Jr., and Delano Clark, who died Sept. 20, 1799 
aged 1 year and 1 month. 

No. 61. — In memory of Mrs. Betsey, relict of Dea. 
Simeon Clark, who died Aug. 5, 1817, aged 86 years. 

No. 62.— Gideon Clark, died Sept. 6, 1859, aged 73 
years. 

No. 63. — Delano Ware, wife of Gideon Clark, died 
Oct. 22, 1867, aged 76 years. 

No. 64. — Mary M., daughter of Gideon and Delano 
Clark, died Oct. 6, 1825, aged 2 years. 

No. 65.— Franklin G. Clark,' ' died Jan 23, 1837, 
aged 21 years. 

No. 66. — Charles S., son of W. and C. Crane, died 
March 8, 1854, aged 6 months. 

No. 67. — Charles Cooke, died Aug. 18, 1824, aged 
57 years. 

No. 68. — Mary, widow of Charles Cooke, died Nov. 
23, 1852, aged 81 years. 

No. 69. — Harriet M., daughter of Charles and Har- 
riet Cooke, died Aug. 19, 1818, aged 3 years and 7 
months. 

No. 70.— Nancy C. Miller, wife of Wm. P. Cochran, 
died Jan. 9, 1871, aged 51 years 1 month and 21 
days. 

No. 71. — Austin, aged 4 years and 4 months ; Cor- 
nelia, aged 2 years and 6 months — children of Wm. P. 
and Nancy C. Cochran, died Jan. 9, 1854. 

No. 72. — William E., son of Wm. P. Cochran, died 
Nov. 25, 1874, aged 19 years 9 months and 1 day. 

No. 73. — John Chamberlain, died Aug. 29, 1870, aged 
75 years. 

No. 74. — Sylvia P., wife of John Chamberlain, died 
Oct. 28, 1852, aged 55 years. 

" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
henceforth." 

No. 75.— John Chamberlain, died Aug. 12, 1849, 
aged 19 years and 9 months. 

" Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 

No. 76. — Nancy, wife of John Chamberlain, died 
.Fune 10, 1822, aged 24 years ; Olive H., wife of John 
Chamberlain, died April 15, 1826, aged 34 years. 



' 1 was an apprentice with Franklin G. Clark in my fath- 
er's old .shop on Washington Street. At the end of hisMp- 
prenticeship Clark started in the stage, with one of my 
sisters and her young child, for Troy, N. Y. The stage was 
overturned, Clark killed, and my sister and child badly 
hurt. 



KEENE. 



71 



No. 77.— Elisha Chamberlain, died June 11, 1840, 
in tlie 78th j-ear of his age. 

" Thy virtue and thy worth 

Shall fond remembrance cheer, 
And ease the aching heart, 
That drops the falling tear." 

No. 78. — Susannah, wife of ElishaChamberlain, died 
May 10, 1846, aged 80 years. 

No. 79. — Ellen E., daughter of Wm. and Mary 
Chamberlain, died March 18, 1847, aged 3 years. 

No. 80.— Thonas Dwinell, died July 9,1866, aged 
70. Arabella, died Aug. 26, 1865, aged 7.'), wife of 
Thomas Dwinell. 

No. SI.— Thomas Dwinell, died April 14,1838, aged 
84. 

No. 82. — Sarah, wife of Thomas Dwinell, died Nov. 
29, 1845, aged 84. 

No. 83. — Mary, daughter of Mr. Thomas and Sazy 
Dwinell, died 26 July, 1811, aged 13 years 3 months 
and 12 days. 

No. 84. — Charles E., son of Benjamin and Fanny 
Dwinell, died April 24, 1838, aged 7. 

No. 85. — Mary Ann, wife of Oren Dickinson, died 
April 20, 1840, aged 3\. 

No. 86. — Elvie, daughter of Oren and Emily Dick- 
inson, died Dec. 13, 1858, aged 2 years 2 months and 
12 years. 

" She is gone, aye gone forever. 
Dead to earthly grief and care ; 
But she lives in Uod's own kingdom, 
We will hope to meet her there." 

No. 87. — Elmer F., son of Oren and Emily Dickin- 
son, died June 17, 1864, of wounds received in battle 
near Petersburg, Va., aged 23. A member of the 23d 
Reg. Mass. Vols. 

" He dwelleth in heaven, yet deep in our hearts. 
His image is grown and now departs ; 
And while we yet linger we watch and we wait, 
Till death who has parted again shall unite." 

No. 88. — In memory of James Daniels, who died 
April 25, 1814, aged 53. 

No. 89. — Ezra Daniels, died Sept. 3, 1835, aged 
75. 

No. 90. — Charles Daniels, died March 0, 1849, aged 
46. Minna, his wife, died Dec. 29, 1861, aged 59. 

No. 91. — John D., son of Charles and Minna Dan- 
iels, died Aug. 23, 1845, aged 3 years and 9 months. 

No. 92. — Bethiah, wife of Dea. Eli Dort, departed 
this life June 10, 1833, aged 71. 

No. 93.— Arvill, wife of Obed Dort, died June 3, 
1843, aged 37. 

"The storm that wrecks the wintry sky 
No more disturbs her calm repose, 
Than Summer evening's latest sigh, 
That shuts the rose." 

(Erected by an affectionate son). 



No. 94. — Lewis Edgar, son of Obed and Louisa Dort, 
died May 5, 1854, aged 4 years and 6 months. 
" My precious boy, a short farewell ; 
'Tis hard to jiart with thee. 
But God beheld thee far too pure 
For our own society. 

" We miss thy lovely face. 

Thy sweet and prattling voice ; 
Lone and sad your mother is, 
Without her lovely boy. 

"Dear mother, weep not; tears will hide 
My glory from thy view ; 
For soon you'll follow me. 

And then we'll string the harp anew." 

No. 95. — Hannah, consort of Mr. Joshua Durant, 
died October 10, 1798, aged 48. 

No. 96. — ilrs. Cynthia Emery, died June '>, 1823, 
aged 31. 

No. 97. — Archelaus Ellis, died Feb. 26, 1845, aged 
67. 

No. 98. — Mrs. Polly Houghton, wife of Archelaus 
Ellis, died July 26, 1865, aged 85. 

" We lay thee down with many a sigh, 
In the cold lap of Mother earth ; 
But thy remembrance shall not die. 
Nor the dear memory of thy worth. 
No. 99. — Miss Fanny, daughter of Archelaus and 
Polly Ellis, died March 10, 1832, aged 17. 

No. 100. — Mrs. Charlotte, daughter of Archelaus 
and Polly Ellis, died Jan. 9, 1835, aged 21. 

No. 101. — Elmina D., wife of Eugene S. Ellis, died 
March 1, 1872, aged 57 years 10 months and 25 
days. 

" Mother at rest in Heaven." 

No. 102.— Mary E., died Sept. 11, 1841, aged 10 
months ; Franklin E., died Jan. 18, 1843, aged 10 
months; children of Eugene S. and Elmina D.Ellis. 

" Here lies the grief of a fond motherand the blasted 
expectations of an indulgent father. They lived be- 
loved and died lamented." 

No. 103.— George S. Ellis, died Oct. 29, 1872, aged 52 
years 7 months and 10 days. 

" Father at rest." 

No. 104.— Nathaniel Ellis, died Nov. 16, 1857, aged 
28. 

" Dearest husband, thou has left us ; 
Still thy loss I deeply feel ; 
But 'tis God that hath bereft us. 
He can all my sorrows heal. 

"Yet again I hope to meet thee. 
When the day of life is fled ; 
Then in Heaven with joy to greet thee. 
Where no farewell tear is shed." 

Rosa Jane, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah J. 
Ellis, died April 12, 1858, aged 1 year and 3 months. 



72 



HISTORY OP CllESHIilE COUxNTY, NKW HAMPSHIRE. 



"Sweet little Rose, have you gone 
To join your father dear? 
Though hard to part, we must not mourn, 
But hope to meet you there." 

No. 105.— Daniel Fi.sher died Marc'h 30, 1859, aged 
72. 

"Blessed arc the dead who die in the Lord." 

No. 106. — Susan Shaw, wife <if Daniel Fisher, died 
Aug. 8, 1864, aged 66. 

No. 107. — Thomas S., son of Daniel and Susan 
Fisher, died Feb. 26, 188(;, aged 7 months and 7 
days. 

No. 108. — Daniel H.,son of Daniel and Susan Fish- 
er, died Jan. 2, 1841, aged 18 years and 11 months. 

No. 109. — Loring S., sou of Daniel and Susan Fish- 
er, died Sept. 3, 1850, aged 18 years and 6 months. 

No. 110.— David Foster, died 7 Jan., 1798, aged 
42. 

No. 111.— Mary, wife of David Foster, died March 
30, 1833, aged 77. 

No. 112. — Sally, daughter of Mr. David and Mrs. 
Mary Foster, died 24 Aug. 1798, in the 2d year of her 
age. 

No. ll;i.— Betsey, daughter of Mr. David and Mrs. 
Mary Foster, died 7 Nov. 1810, aged 27 years. 

No. 114. — In memory of Mrs. Nancy Foster, who 
died Nov. 11, 1824, in the 31st year of her age. 

No. 115.— Polly Foster, died April 26, 1848, aged 
57. 

No. 116. — Samuel Foster, died Dec. 3, 1848, aged 
67. 

No. 117. — In memory of Abijah Foster, who died 
April 2, 1822, aged 59 years. 

No. 118. — In memory of Artemisia, wife of Abijah 
Foster, who died Jan. 8, 1837. aged 71. 

No. 119. — In memory of Capt. George A. Foster, 
who died Aug. 15, 1839, aged 41. 

No. 120.— Elijah W. Felt, died March 20, 1855, 
aged 72. 

No. 121.— Ruth, wife of Elijah W. Felt, died March 
24, 1855, aged 62. 

No. 122. — Susan D., wife of \. 0. Field, born Aug. 
17, 1844, died April 23, 1866. Edward O., son of 
A. O. and S. D. F'ield, born Jan. 1, 1866, died March 
11, 1866. 

No. 123.— John Grimes, died Jan. 24, 1843, aged 
80. 

No. 124. — Mary S., relictof-Iohn Grimes, died Aug. 
22, 1847, aged 82 years and 10 months. 

No. 125. — John Grimes, Jr., son of Mr. John an<l 
Mrs. Mary Grimes, died 3 Sept., 1813, in the 22d year 
of his age. 

No. 126. — Our mother, Mary Grimes, wife of the 
late Jotham Stearns, died Feb. 3, 1875, aged 79 years 
and 3 months. 

No. 127. — Alexander Grimes, died Ai)ril I.'?, 1876, 
aged 87 years 10 months and 23 days. 



No. 128. — Abigail, wife of Alex. Grimes, died Sept. 
25, 1869, aged 81 years and G months. 
"Asleep in Jesus." 
No. 129. — Alexander, son of Alexander and Abigail 
Grimes, died Sept. 19, 1826, aged 3 years 3 months 
and 11 days. 

No. 130.— George Grimes, died Sept. 3, 1865, aged 
65. 

No. 131. — Sarah A., daughter of (reorge and Har- 
riet (irimes, died Dec. 12, 1845, aged 7 years and 8 
months. 

No. 132.— Hannah Grimes, died March 11, 1876, 
aged 78 years and 9 months. 

No. 133. — Betsey Grimes, born July 20, 1786, died 
Feb. 20, 1875, aged 88 years and 7 months. 
'■ We miss tine." 
No. 134.— Jesse Grimes, died Sept. 30, 1861, aged 
69. 

No. 135. — Lucinda Grimes, died .4pril 14, 1875, 
aged 78 years 3 months and 23 days. 

" She said, when speaking of Jesus : 'He has been 
a very precious Saviour to me, the chief among ten 
thousand and the one altogether lovely.' " 

No. 136. — Thomas Henry, son of Thomas and 
Nancy E. Grimes, died Sept. 27, 1854, aged 2 weeks 
and 4 days. 

No. 137.— Uly.-;ses G., died Nov. 9, 1872, aged 2 
years 11 months and 21 days. Twin children of 
Chauncy A. and Cornelia R. Grimes. Infant daugh- 
ter died Nov. 19, 1869. 

" I take these little himbs, said he. 
And lay them in my breast ; 
Protection they shall find in me, 
In me be ever blest." ' 
No. 138. — Aaron Gary, died Dec. 24, 1845, aged 
75. 

No. 139. — Sally, wife of Aaron Gary, and former 
wife of Calvin Brown, died Aug. 1, 184U, aged 62. 

No. 140. — Asaph L. Graves, died Sept. 6, 1849, aged 
25. 

" Hajipy soul, thy days arc ended, 
All thy mourning days below ; 
Go, by angel guards attended. 
To the sight of Jesus, go. 

" Waiting to receive thy spirit, 
Lo ! the Saviour stands above. 
Shows the purchase of his merit. 
Reaches out the crown of love." 
No. 141. — Emily B., wife of Sewell Gurler, died 
Aug. 18, 1863, aged 50. 

"Farewell, dear friend, whose tender care 
Has long engaged my love; 



'The Grimes family were a long-lived race. You may 

count up twelve here whose aggregate ages foot up eight 
hundred and seventy years, an average of more than sev- 
enty-two years. What other family can say as much? 



KEENE. 



73 



Your fond embrace I now exchange 
For other friends above." 
No. 142.— Esther M., daughter of S. and E. B. 
Gurler, died June 24, 18G8, aged 29 years and two 
months. 

No. 14.3.— Jacob Hart, died Feb. 19, 1856, aged 
80. 

" My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the 
strength of my heart and my portion forever." 

No. 144. — Eachel Haynes, wife of Jacob Hart, died 
July 11, 1858, aged 72. 

" My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that 
watch for the morning." 

No. 145. — George J., son of Nehemiah and Ma- 
randa R. Hart, died Dec. 23, 1807, aged 23 years 4 
months and 15 days. 

"How we loved him!" 
No. 14(i.— Fred H., son of W. H. and Nancy S. 
Hadley, died April 28, 1872, .iged 21. 

" I am the resurrection and the life." 
Frankie, son of W. H.and N. S. Hadley, died Aug. 
9, 1864, aged 11 years. 

" Frankie. 
" Oh, our darling Frankie, 
Thou art gone to-day, 
Where no flowers wither, 
No roses fade away." 

No. 147.— William H. Hadley, died . 

Nancy S., his wife, died June 26, 1875, aged 56 
years. 

" Hadley— Father and Mother." 

No. 148. — Jonathan Houghton, died April 8, 1849, 

aged 72. 

" Father." 

No. 149. — Nabby, wife of Jonathan Houghton, 
died Aug. 4, 1861, aged 81. 

" Mother." 
No. 150.— Abijah Houghton, died Dec! 22, 1831, 
aged 84. 

No. 151. — Alice M., wife of Henry D. Houghton, 
died July 28, 1874, aged 23 years and 9 months. 
" Free from all life's ills and troubles, 
Passed beyond the billow's foam, 
Anchored on the rock eternal. 
She .at last is safe at home." 
No. 152.— Mrs. Martha Harvey, died Aug. 2, 1837, 

aged 74 years. 

" Mother." 

Henry, adopted son of Henry and B. H. Mason, 
died Sept. 18, 1837, aged 4 years and 7 months. 

No. 153.— Francis S. Wilson, wife of Geo. W. Ham, 
died Sept. 15, 1867, aged 32. Sammie, son of George 
W. and Francis S. Ham, died Feb. 24, 1864, aged 4 
years and 13 days. 

No. 154. — Nancy S., wife of F. Holman, Esq., died 
Oct. 26, 1845, aged 25. 



"'Tis finished, the conflict is past, 
The Heaven-born spirit is fled ; 
Her wish is accomplished at last. 

And now she's entombed with the dead." 
No. 155.— Daniel Holbrook, died Jime 10, 1831, 
aged 67. 

"My friends, come drop a mournful tear 
Upon the dust that slumbers here ; 
And when you read this state of me. 
Think of the glass that runs for thee." 
No. 156. — Joanna, wife of Daniel Holbrook, died 
Dec. 29, 1820, iu the 54th year of her age. 

"Stoop down my thoughts that used to rise, 

Converse awhile mth death ; 

Think how a gasping mortal lies, 

And pants away his breath." 

No. 157.— Emily N., daughter of A. and M. H. 

Kingsbury, died Aug. 13, 1855, aged 3 months. 

No. 158.— Mary L., daughter of A. and M. H. 
Kingsbury, died May 3, 1864, aged 4 mos. 

No. 159. — Arathusa Smith, wife of Isaac Lingsey, 
died Jan. 25, 1858, aged 58. 

No. 160.— Charlie F., son of Luther and Abby 
Moon, died April 26, 1856, aged 2 years. 

No. 161. — Eliza J., wife of Frank JI. Mcssinger, 
only daughter of John and Sarah L. Smith, died 
March 11, 1877, aged 19 years 8 months and 9 days. 
" Eliza, asleep iu Jesus." 
No. 162. — Emma C.Mason, died Sept. 4, 1875, aged 
18 years and 7 months. Solon S. Mason, died April 
9, 1871, aged 9 years. 

" Sister and Brother." 
No. 163. — Henry Mason, died Jan. 25, 1870, aged 
83. 

" Husband, Father." 

No. 164. — Angeline G., wife of Simeon Mason, died 
May 5, 1862, aged 38. 

No. 165.— Hepsibah, relict of Capt. Thaddeus Met- 
calf, died May 1, 1851, aged 87. 

" My flesh shall rest in hope." 

No. 166.— Capt. Thaddeus Metcalf, died April 11, 
1823, aged 64. 

" There is rest in Heaven." 

No. 167.— William H. Metcalf, M.D., died at 
Amoskeag, N. H., Sept. 3, 1842, aged 35. 

"Time flies and eternity is thine." 

No. 168.— William Norton, died April 6, 1855, 
aged 64. 

" In your patience possess your souls." 

No. 169.— Nathan H., son of Mr. Nathan and Mrs. 
Deba Pond, died 15 Feb., 1800, aged 10 years. 

No. 170. — In memory of Mr. Joab Pond, who died 
Feb. 23, 1820, aged 65. 

No. 171. — Joanna, wife of Mr. Joab Pond, dieil 19 
Oct., ISOG, in the 52d year of her age. 



74 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAJMPSHIRE. 



" Go home, my friends, and cease from tears, 
Here I must lie till Christ appears. 
Repent in time while time you have. 
There's no repentance in the grave." 
No. 172.— Mr. John Plumley, died 5 Nov., ISIO, 
aged 33 years. 

" Go home, my friends, and cease from tears. 
Here I must lie till Christ appears. 
Repent in time while time you have. 
There is uo repentance in the grave." 
No. 173. — Abigail, wife of Ebenezer Perry, died 
Jan. 5, 1875, aged 82. Ebenezer Perry, died June 7, 
1846, aged 64. 

" Earth'.s sweetest music on his dull ear folleth, 
AVith an unheeded tone; 
Yet heareth he the still small voice that calleth, 

Come, for thy task is done." 
(Erectedby G.W.Perry.) 

No. 174. — Martha Richardson, wife of Geo. W. 
Perry, died July 2, 1857, aged 38. 

" Earth's love we know has passed away, 

Exchanged for love of Heaven more pure. 
But thine for us without decay, 
Deathless, immortal, shall endure. 
" Thou'lt greet us when at length we come. 
From sorrow, sin and death set free ; 
Receive us to thy Heavenly home, 
To share its holy joys with thee." 

No. 175. — Lewis S., son of C. K. and Millusa A. 
Pemberton, died March 6, 1859, aged 1 year 2 months 
and 3 days. 

" Little Lewis dear. 
Short is the time that intervenes. 
And we thy face shall see." 
No. 176.^(Marble monument.) 
Alden S. Page, born Aug. 27, 1802, died Sept. 5, 
1S73. Harriett A., died March 4, 1832, aged 1 year 
7 months and 14 days. Edgar A., died April 8, 1835, 
aged 2 years and 23 days. Louisa H., died March 4, 
1846, aged 1 year and 10 months. 

No. 177.— Mariette E., daughter of John R. and 
Mary A. Freckle, died Aug. 11, 1847, aged 7 months. 
" Thou sweet and cherished babe, adieu ; 
Thy stay on earth was short ; 
But thou wilt live in memory's view, 
And never be forgot." 
No. 178. — Zachary Taylor, son of John R. and Mary 
A. Preckle, died Oct. 5, 1849, aged Id months and 22 
days. 

" Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade. 
Death came with friendlj' care; 
The opening bud to Heaven conveyed. 
And bade it blossom there." 

No. 179. — Lucretia A., wife of Amos Richardson 
(2d), died Dec. 4, 1854, aged 35. 

"Am I prepared?" 



No. 180. — (Granite monument.) 
Barzilla Richardson, died April 19, 1850, aged 57. 
"Wife, children, oh, how dear ! 
My pains were cruel and severe ; 
My pains are past, I am at rest, 
God orders all things for the best. 
" Then rest in hope, ye stricken band. 
Till Jesus welcomes you above ; 
There will you rest in spirit land, 
The husband — Father of your love." 
No. 181.— Stephen Russell, died Sept. 5, 1849, aged 
82. 

No. 182. — Bridget, wife of Stephen Russell, died 
March 5, 1844, aged 72. 

No. 183. — Sarah, wife of Dr. Dudley Smith, and 
daughter of Alex, and Abigail Grimes, died Dec. 17, 
1875, aged 59. 

No. 184. — To our sister, Louisa F. Smith, died Aug. 
23, 1868, aged 48. 

" Her trust was in Christ." 

No. 185.— Rhoda E., died Sept. 14, 1860, aged 17 
years; Willie T., died Jan. 1, 1853, aged 7 years; 
Webbie D., died Jan. 17, 1853, aged 18 months ; chil- 
dren of Henry W. and Eunice D. Smith. 

No. 18G. — William, son of Charles and Martha 
D. Slyfield, died Jan. 20, 1854, aged 1 year and 6 
months. 

No. 187.— Jeduthun Strickland, died Jan. 6, 1843, 
aged 78. 

No. 188.— Josiah Sawyer, died July 5, 1876, aged 
80 years 1 month and 16 days. 

" Father." 

No. 189. — Jane, wife of Josiah Sawyer, died Dec. 
26, 1863, aged 64 years 10 months and 18 days. 
" Mother." 

No. 190.— Arvilla C, wife of William W. Sawyer, 
died Sept. 6, 1848, aged 29. 

No. 191.— .John G. Stearns, died Dec. 2, 1840, aged 
22 years 4 months and 7 days. 

No. 192.— Samuel Towns, died Aug. 11, 1858, aged 
77. 

No. 193. — Susan, wife of Samuel Towns, died Sept. 
2, 1850, aged 63. 

No. 194. — Sarah E., daughter of Sam'l and Susan 
Towns, died May 6, 1855, aged 24 years. 

No. 195. — Maria E., wife of Andrew H. Towns, 
died July 30, 1849, aged 27. 

No. 196.— John Thayer, died March 19, 1833, aged 
50. 

No. 197. — Sally, wife of John Thayer, died June 
14, 1857, aged 74. 

No. 198. — In memory of Daniel, son of Caleb and 
Chloe Washburn, who died Jan. 25, 1793, aged 8 
days. 

No. 199. — In memory of Betsey, daughter of Caleb 
and Chloe Washburn, who died Nov. 17, 1800, aged 6 
months. 



KBENE. 



75 



No. 200.— William Winchester, died 11 Aug., 1808, 
aged 42 years. 

"Here calmly rest, escaped this mcirtal strife, 
Above the joj's, beyond the waves of life, 
Fierce pangs no more thy faithful bosom stain. 
And sternly try thee with long years of pain. 

" Life's journey o'er, he closed the willing eye, 

'Tis the great birthright of mankind to die ; 

Here mixed with earth his ashes must remain, 

Till death shall die and mortal rise again." 

No. 201. — Sarah Lawrence, consort of William 
Winchester, died Aug. 80, 1SS4, iiged 31. 

No. 202.— Sarah Winchester, born Oct. 5, 1800, 
died May 24, 1850, aged 49. 

"Bles.sed are the dead who die in the Lord." 

No. 203.— Eben Warner, departed this life Jan. 19, 
1809, aged 63. 

No. 204.— Capt. Isaac Wyman, died April 8, 1835, 
aged 79. A soldier of the Revolution. 

No. 205 — Lucretia, wife Capt. Isaac Wyman, died 
17 May, 1811, in the 53d year of her age. 

No. 206.— Capt. Asa Ware, died June (5, 1831, aged 
80. 

No. 207. — Mary, wife of Captain Asa Ware, died 
Aug., 1796, aged 35. 

No. 208.— Solomon Woods, died Oct. 29, 1837, aged 
65 years. 

No. 209.— Widow Elizabeth, relict of Mr. Thomas 
Wright, died 10 June, 1802, aged 89. 

No. 210.— William Wilson, died Aug. 26, 1854, aged 
74. 

No. 211. — Erected in memory of Susannah, wife of 
Mr. William Wilson, who died April 24, 1804, aged 
21. 

" Great God, I own thy sentence just. 
And nature must decay ; 
I yield my body to the dust. 
To dwell with fellow clay." 

No. 212. — Prudence, wife of William Wilson, died 
March 21, 1832, aged 53. 

No. 213. — Frances S., daughter of Aaron and Olive 
Wilson, died Dec. 26, 1834, aged 3 years 3 months 
and twelve days. 

No. 214. — Florence E., daughter of Joseph and Jo- 
anna Wilson, died Sept. .SO, 1849, aged 3 years and 6 
months. 

No. 215. — Fidelia N., wife of Benjamin Wilson, died 
Sept. 1, 1851, aged 21 ; also an infant babe, died Sejit. 
3, aged 3 months and 8 days. 

No. 216. — Mary E., daughter of Benjamin and Fi- 
delia N.Wilson, died Sept. 14, 1851, aged 2 years and 
9 months. 

No. 217.— Joseph Wheeler, died July 26, 1867, aged 
72 years 7 months and 4 days. 

" The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh." 

No. 218. — Betsy P., wife of Joseph Wheeler, died 
Feb. 11, 1864, aged 66. 



" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." 

No. 219.— Solomon Woodward, died Dec. 9, 1838, 
aged 70. 

No. 220. — Susannah, wife of Solomon Woodward, 
died June 6, 1847, aged 75. 

No. 221. — William H., son of Solomon and Susan- 
nah Woodward, died May 30, 1812, aged 5 years. 

No. 222. — Susan Woodward, died June 24, 1840, 
aged 31. 

The Old Gkavkyard at the North 
Part op- the Town. — Away back in the past, 
so far back that no niau now living can remem- 
lier, lived in the town of Koene a man by the 
name of Israel Houghton. This was one hun- 
dred and twenty years, and more, ago. He 
owued many acres of land in the north part of 
the town. For love and aifectiou, and that his 
.son John might have lands that he could call 
his own, this good father deeded, in 1769, a 
farm, from his many acres in the nortii part, to 
his beloved .sou. Tliis same John Houghton 
gave the land from this farm for the North 
Burying-Ground, as it was called, about oue 
imndred years ago. This fact I learned from 
the late Mrs. Betsey Plonghton, whose husband 
was a son of John Houghton. This Captain 
John Houghton for many years was a promi- 
nent man in Keene ; was one of the selectmen 
in 1787, aud went from Keene and took part 
in the battle of Bennington, 1777. The last 
time I saw Mrs. Betsey Houghton, less than a 
year ago, she told me this incident of Captain 
John : He left Keene for Bennington, and went 
around by the way of Albany, N. Y. Here he 
called on a notorious Tory, with whom he was 
well acquainted. The man being absent, he 
demanded of his wife only one large cheese 
(he M'as a farmer, and had plenty of them). 
She told him a rebel should never have one of 
her cheeses. He then told her if she refused 
he would let the boys in, and they would prob- 
ably take all she had ; so she repented, and he 
left with a big cheese. He returned safely to 
Keene from the battle-field, and here he lived 
to the age of seventy-two. He died August 
15, 1818, and was buried in this old burying- 
ground that he had given to his neighbors so 
many years before. 

The interments in this old burying-ground 
are as follows : 



76 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. 1.— Boardwin Brown, died July 20, 1867, aged 
60 years. 

Adeline E., wife of Boardwin Brown, died Sept. 6, 
1871, aged 67. 

" We trust in God." 

No. 2. — Mary C, daughter of Boardwin and Ade- 
line E. Brown, died Aug. 26, 1871, aged 33 years. 
" Gone home to rest." 
No. 8. — Julia A., daughter of Boardwin and A. E. 
Brown, died June 21, 1803, aged 23. 
" Leave ye the body 

Beneath the cold sod, 
She hath gone homeward 
To dweii with her God." 
No. 4.— Ruth Batcheller, relict of Breed Batcheller, 
died June 26, 1840, aged il4. 

No. 5. — Lucius, sou of Perley and JIary E. Baleh, 
died Feb. 15, 1865. 

" One sweet flower has bloomed and faded. 
One dear infant voice is fled. 
One sweet lost bud the grave has shaded. 
Our loved Lucius now is dead." 
No. 6. — Erected to the memory of Mr. Caleb 
Chase, who died April 7, 1814, in the 26thyear of his 

age. 

" Adieu, my friends, a long adieu, 

To earthly comforts and to you; 
My Jesus calls me for to go 
And leave all earthly things below. 
Adieu, my young companions all. 
From death's arrest no age is free, 
Take warning from my sudden call. 
And be prei)ared to follow me." 
No. 7. — Sacred to the memory of Capt. Stephen 
Chase, who died April 6, 1830, aged 07. 

No. 8. — In memory of Betsey, relict of Stephen 
Chase, died Aug. 12, 1850, aged 83. 

No. 9.— Sarah Louisa, daughter of Stephen and 
Louisa Chase, died Feb. 7, 1840, aged 5 years and 5 
nu)nths. 

No. 10. — Juliette Selden, daughter of Stephen and 
Louisa Chase, died Sept. 20, 184'J, aged 4 years and 6 
months. 

" Weep not, to mourn it is not meet. 

For all that's earthly sure will fade ; 
Look thou above, and hope to greet 
Thy loved one, now an angel made." 
No. 11. — Ella Augusta, daughter of Stephen and 
Louisa Chase, died Sept. 26, 1849, aged 1 year and 8 
months. 

" Dear parents do not weep for me. 
My aching heart is now at rest; 
From sin and sorrow I am free, 
And with my Saviour I am blest." 
No. 12. — Frank Henry, son of Stephen and Louisa 
Chase, died Sept. 23, 1856, aged 2 years, 5 months and 
i> (lavs. 



No. 13. — Edward S., son of Stephen and Louisa 
Chase, born Feb. 16, 1851, died June 2, 1800. 

No. 14. — Mary Jane, daughter of Stephen and Lou- 
i.sa Chase, born Sept. 15, 1838, died Oct. 30, 1860. 

No. 15. — Emily A., daughter of Stephen and Lou- 
isa Chase, died Dec. 15, 1867, aged 37. 
" Asleep in Jesus." 
No. 16.— Alba Chase, born July 13, 1812, died Nov. 
18, 1874. 

" With us thy name shall live 
Through succeeding years. 
Embalmed with all our hearts can give, 
Our praises and our tears." 
No. 17.— Charles Chase, born July 17, 1803, died 
Aug. 4, 1860. 

" He liath gojie home." 
No. 18.— Charles D. Chase, born Sept. 24, 1840, died 
at Jackson, Miss., July 20, 1863 ; member of 9th Eeg. 
N. H. V. 

No. 19. — Lucia M., daughter of Charles and Han- 
nah Chase, died Oct. 3, 1859, aged 15 years, 2 months 
and 17 days. 

"We miss our dear Lucia." 

No. 20. — Charles E., son of Charles and Hannah 
Chase, died Sept. 15, 1839, aged 1 year, 11 months and 
28 days. 

No. 21. — George M., son of Charles and Hannah 
Chase, died Dec. 20, 1842, aged 5 mouths. 

No. 22.— Ziba Chase, died July 7, 1850, aged 50. 

No. 23. — In memory of Stephen, son of Lt. Stephen 
Chase and Mrs. Betsey, his wife. He died June 8, 
1797, in the 7th year of his age ; whose death was oc- 
casioned by the fall of a tree. 

" How short the span, 
Short from the cradle to the grave !" 

No. 24.- — Hosea B., son of Hosea and Hannah D. 
Chase, died Sept. 26, 1839, aged 5 weeks. 

No. 25. — William H., son of Hosea and Hannah D. 
Chase, died Sept. 23, 1860, aged 16 years, 11 months 
and 23 days. 

" One less to love on earth. 
One more to meet in Heaven." 

No. 26.— Bela Chase, born Dec. 2, 1795, died Jan. 
31, 1868, aged 72. 

No. 27.— Charlotte J., daughter of Albert and El- 
len M. Church, died Sept. 9, 1850, aged 2 years and 9 
months. 

No. 28.— William D., son of Albert and Ellen M. 
Church, died Aug. 6, 1850, aged 3 years and 10 
months. 

No. 29. — Nancy, widow of Elihu Dort, wife of 
George Allen, died July 13, 1875, aged 76. 

No. 30.— David B. Dort, died Jan. 29, 1859, aged 
44. 

No. 31.— Charles F., died March 24, 1855, age<l 2 
years, 7 months and 2.S days ; an infant son, died Oct. 



KEENE. 



77 



10, 1849, aged 6 days ; children of David B. and 
Frances A. Dort. 

" Bnd for time, 
Bloonung in eternity." 
No. 32. — Edward C, son of David B. an<l Frances 
A. Dort, died Feb. 10, IStU, aged 5 years and 5 

months. 

" Too beautiful for earth, 
He soared to Heaven." 
No. 83. — Annie Durkee, wife of Ahuon Dnrkee, 
died July 20, 187r), aged 06. 

No. 34.— Betsey, wife of Jolin Day, died May, 1805, 
aged 52. 

No. 35. — In memory of Mr. Ebenezer Day, who 
died Jan. 12, 177(1, in the 60th year of his age. 
" Death conquers all." 
No. 36. — In memory of Mrs, Bathsheba Day, relict 
of Mr. Ebenezer Day, died Sept. the 5th, 1798, in the 
73d year of her age. 

" Death is a debt to nature due, 
^Vhich I have paid and so must you." 
No. 37.— Sabra Day, died Sept. 2, 1840, aged 74. 
No. 38.— Benjamin Dwiuell, died July 29, 1805, 
aged 76. 

No. 39. — Mary, wife of Benjamin Dwinell, died 
March 5, 1820, aged 92. 

No. 40.— Henry Ellis,' died Aug. 3, 1838, aged 90 
years. 

" His mind was tranquil and serene. 
No terrors in his looks were seen, 
His Saviour's smile dispelled the gloom, 
And smoothed his passage to the tomb." 
No. 41. — Jlillitiah, relict of Henry Ellis, died April 
30, 1850, aged 98. 

"She's traveled her appointed years, 
And her Deliverer's come, 
And wiped away his servant's tears. 
And took his exile home." 
No. 42.— Samuel Ellis, died Dec. 26, 1861, aged 
81. 

No. 43.— Sally, wife of Samuel Ellis, died Nov. 14, 
1865, aged 79. 
No. 44.— Milla Ellis, died Nov. 22, 1870, .aged 87. 
No. 45.— John Farrar, died Oct. 23, 185G, aged 69. 
No. 46.— Martha E. Farrar, died March 30, 1852 
aged 22 years. 

No. 47. — Sarah C, wife of Warren Foster, died 
March 15, 1841, aged 25. 

No. 48. — George Goodnow, died Sept. 4, 1800, aged 
67. 

No. 49. — Marinda, wife of George Goodnow, died 
Jan. 28, 1865, aged GG. 

No. 50. — Hannah, daughter of George and Marinda 
Goodnow, died Aug. 23, 1858, aged 20. 

' Henry Ellis belonged to the foot company of Keene in 
1773. 



No. 51. — Emina 8., daughter of George and Marin- 
da Goodnow, died Aug. 6, 1S66, aged 26. 

No. 52.— Mary F.,daughter of George and Marinda 
Goodnow, died Oct. 17, 1872, aged 30. 

No. 53.— William Goodnow, died Feb. 4, 1867, aged 
78. 

No. 54. — Sarah B., wife of William Goodnow, died 
July 12, 1843, aged 45. 

" Friends and physicians could not save 
My mortal body from the grave, 
Nor can the grave confine me here 
Wlien Christ my Saviour shall appear." 

No. 55. — William K., son of William and Sarah B. 
Goodnow, died May 15, 1849, aged 22. 

No. 56. — Charles E., son of ^Villiam and Sarah B. 
Goodnow, died March 14, 1855, aged 26. 

No. 57. — Emily Baker, daughter of Mr. William 
and Mrs. Sarah Goodnow, died Sept. 22, 1832, aged 5 
months. 

No. 58. — Daniel, son of Mr. William and Jlrs. Sa- 
rah Goodnow, died March 16, 1832, aged 9 years. 

No. 69. — Jlrs. I\Iary,wife of Mr. William Goodnow, 
died Dec. 10, 1831, aged 69. 

No. 60. — Henry Goodnow, died Jan. 25, 1844, aged 
60. 

"He's gone and left this world of sin, 
The dark and dismal shore ; 
We only part to meet again. 
And meet to part no more." 

No. 61.— AVilliani Goodnow, died Jlarch 22, 1809, 
aged 58. 

No. (i2.— Charlotte Goodnow, died July 3, 1823, 
aged 21. 

No. 63. — Nancy Goodnow, died May 4, 1823, aged 
27. 

No. 64. — Mary Goodnow, died April 26, 1818, aged 
31. 

No. 65.— Sally Goodnow, died Jan. 28, 1872, aged 
79. 

No. 66.— Hepsibah fJooiInow, died Jan. 18, 1858, 
aged 73. 

No. 67.— Mary B. Goodnow, died Oct. 3, 1846, aged 
28. 

No. 68.— Frances R., wife of Willard Gay, died 
March 30, 1842, aged 24. 

No. 69. — Nancy Graves, died Sept. 7, 1846, aged 
80. 

No. 70.— Capt. John Houghton, died Aug. 15, 1818, 
aged 72. 

No. 71.— Relief Houghton, died June 14, 1841, 
aged 90. 

No. 72.— My husband. Whcclock Houghton died 
July 14, 1864, aged 86. 

No. 73.— Adin Holbrook, died Aug., 1843, aged 91. 

No. 74.— Mr.s. Mary, wife of Adin Holbrook, died 
July 29, 1824, aged 66. 

No. 75. — Enos Holbrook, born Sept. 17, 1789, died 
Aug. 8, 1876. 



78 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE 



No. 76. — JIary K., wife of Enos Holbrook, born 
Sept. 19, 1790, died May 24, 1867. 

No. 77. — Sarah E. Holbrook, daughter of Eiiosand 
Mary K. Holbrook, born June 13, 1823, died Nov. 6, 
1870. 

No. 78.— Clarinda A., daughter of Eiios and Mary 
K. Holbrook, born Aug. 15, 1831, died Oct. 5, 1853. 

No. 79. — Nathaniel Kingsbury, died Jan. 26, 1803, 
in the 64th year of his age. 

No. 80.— In memory of Mrs. Hannah, wife of Mr. 
Nathaniel Kingsbury, who died Sept. 25, 1785, in her 
47th year. 

No. 81. — Rebecca, wife of Nathaniel Kingsbury, died 
March 16, 1824, in the 64th year of her age. 

No. 82.— Capt. Samuel Kingsbury, died Oct. 10, 1863, 
aged 69. 

No. 83. — Sarah, wife of Capt. Samuel Kingsbury, 
died Oct. 18, 1863, aged 71. 

No. 84. — Delilah H., wife of Josiah Kingsbury, died 
Dec. 11, 1870, aged 49. 

No. 85. — In memory of Mrs. Zilpah Kilburn, wife 
of Mr. Jehiel Kilburn, who died Dec. 27, 1804, in the 
22d year of her age. 

(!\Iade by Moses Wright, of Rockingham, — price, 
six dollars.) 

No. 86.— George Mansfield, died Feb. 25, 1873, aged 
62 years and 8 months. 

No. 87. — Su.sannah T., wife of George Mansfield, 
died March 1 8, 1864, aged 41. 

" Not lost, but gone before." 

No. 88.— Moses Moody, died Dec. 13, 1845, aged 
42. 

" Man of the world, as you pass by. 

Look here beneath this clod I lie. 
And born of frail mortality, 
What your lot must surely be. 
And when ambition fills your breast. 
Think of my lonely place of rest." 

No. 89.— Frederic Metcalf, died Sept. 16, 1849,aged 
81. 

No. 90.— Esther D., wife of Frederick Metcalf, died 
Feb. 27, 1847, aged 74. 

No. 91.— Betsey G. Metcalf, died July, 1741, aged 
44. 

No. 92. — William F., .son of William and Amanda 
Metcalf, born Dec. 9, 1839, died April 25, 1872. 

No. 93.— Our dear little Eddie. Died April 17, 
1860, aged 5 years 1 month and 26 days. 

" Not lost but gone before." 

No. 94. — Infant son, aged 2 weeks. 

No. 95. — Harriet Mary, daughter of William and 
Amanda Metcalf, died Aug. 12, 1839, aged 1 year and 
6 months. 

No. 96. — Harriet Mary, daughter of William and 
Amanda Metcalf, died Dec. 13, 1837, aged 2 years and 
2 months. 

No. 97. — Edward G., son ol' William and Amanda 



Metcalf, died April 25, 1853, aged 9 years and 10 
months. 

" Affectionate in life, lovely in death." 

No. 98.— Levi Pond, died Oct. 8, 1870, aged 77. 

" We have kissed the pale lips forever closed. 
And laid him gently to rest." 

No. 99.— Our Mabel. Mabel E., daughter of A. and 
E. Pond, died March 24, 1868, aged 8 years and 7 
months. 

" Mabel dear, how we miss 
Her gentle footsteps now. 
The low soft tones — the pleasant smile, 
The sweet and sunny brow. 

No. 100. — In memory of Jonathan Pond,' who died 
March 5, 1817, aged 77. 

No. 101. — In memory of Mrs. Thankful Pond, who 
diedSept. 16, 1821, aged 77. 

No. 102.— Phinehas Pond, died June 12, 1837, aged 
70. 

No. 103.— Louis Pond, died Oct. 12, 1842, aged 71. 

No. 104.— FilisterPoud, died Nov. 16, 1842, aged 61 
years. 

No. 105.— Philinda Pond, died Oct. 22, 1862, aged 

59. 

"My glass is run." 

No. 106. — Edmund J. Perham, member of the 9th 
Reg. N. H. v., died at Knoxville, Md., Oct. 20, 1862, 
aged 37. 

" Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be 
comforted." 

No. 107. — Martha S., wife of E. J. Perham, born 
Nov. 10, 1836, died Feb. 13, 1860. 

" Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God." 

An infent of E. J. and M. S. Perham, born Feb. 7, 
died Feb. 9, 1860. 

No. 108.— Silas Perry,'' born April 14, 17(53, died 
June 3, 1852, aged 89 years 1 month and 20 days. 

No. 109. — -Catherine, wife of Silas Perry, died Jan. 
4, 1830, aged 66. 

No. 110. — (Marble monument). Perry. 

Joseph Perry,'' born March .30, 1788, died June 17, 
1865. Lydia Perry, his wife.born Feb. 23, 1787, died 
.luly 25, 1871. 

No. 111. — Aaron Reed, born A|)ril 30, 1791, died 
July 21, 1859. 



' Jonatlian Pond's name is on the uuister-roll as belong- 
ing to the foot company in Keene in 1773. 

'' Silas Perry came to Keene about tlie year 1792, having 
enlisted in the war from Westminster, Mass. He was one 
of the guard at the execution of Major Audrfe. 

^ Joseph Perry was a great mathematician liesides a life- 
long Democrat. A sliort time before he ibeii I asked liim 
to explain to me the diti'erence between a Republican and 
a Democrat. His reply was the ins and the outs. 



KEENE. 



79 



No. 112.— Diantha P., born Feb. 10,1824, died Aug. 
7, 1852; Henry W., born April 25, 1827, died March 
19, 1832; Charles J., born April 15, 1832, died March 
31, 1833, children of Aaron and Mary Reed. 

No. 113.— Paschal R., died Dec. 3, 1812, aged 15 
years; George L., died Aug. 12, 1833, aged 8 years; 
Lydia Ann, died May 26, 1833, aged 9 months, chil- 
dren of Obadiah and iVIary Reed. 

No. 114.— Cornelius Sturtevaut,' died March 8, 1820, 
aged 01. 

No. 115. — Sarah, wife of Cornelius Sturtevant, died 
April 25, 1826, aged 88. 

No. 116. — In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth, widow of 
Mr. Cornelius Sturtevant, of Plymplon, Mass., died 
May 16, 1790, in the 89th year of her age. 

No. 117. — This monument is erected to the memory 
of Mr. Luke Sturtevant, who was instantly killed by 
the f\ill of a tree June 22, 1811, aged 43. 
" Reader, behold as you pass by, 
As you are now so once was I ; 
As I am now so you must be. 

Prepare for death and Ibllowmc." 

No. 118. — Abigail, wife of Luke Sturtevant, died 
Sept. 19, 1839, aged 64. 

No. 119.— John A. Sturtevant, died July 11, 1832, 
aged 27. 

No. 120. — Abigail F., wife of Warner C. Sturtevant, 
died June 13, 1843, aged 32. 

No. 121.— Luther Sturtevant, died Dec. 31, 1863, 
aged 89. 

No. 122. — Azul)ah, wife of Luther Sturtevant, died 
Dec. 15, 1849, aged 76. 

No. 123. — In memory of Maj. Isaac Sturtevant, who 
died July 5, 1816, aged 39 years. 

"Beneath the sacred honors of the tomb. 
In awful silence and majestic gloom ; 
The man of mercy conceals his head 
Amidst the silent mansions of the dead. 
No more his liberal hand shall help the poor. 
Relieve distress and soften joy no more." 

^ The Sturtevant family have been identified with the 
town of Keene almost from its first settlement to the pres- 
ent day. Cornelius Sturtevant was born in 1735, only 
three years after the first settlement of the town (1732). 
Coming from Massachusetts to Keene when it was but a 
wilderne.ss, he first settled just across the line in Gilsum, 
and lived in a log house ; his descendants are still living 
here, even to the fifth generation. Cornelius was .^ school- 
teacher as well as a farmer. He raised a large family. 
We of the present generation remember many of his 
grandchildren. George AV., Isaac, Charles, Fanny, Luther, 
Linda, Warner and many more of them, all good, substan- 
tial citizen. Genl. John W. Sturtevant, a great-great-grand- 
son of Cornelius, is one of our leading citizens, a member of 
the firm of G. H. Tihlen & Co. He is a member of the 
present Board of Education, and is also a representative 
from Keene in the Legislature. 



No. 124. — In memory of Jemima Tifl'any, who de- 
parted this life Feb. 7, 1789, in the 78th year of her 
age. 

No. 125. — Erected to the memory of Mr. Joseph 

Turner, who died April 5, 1818, in the 75th year of his 

age. 

" My glass is run. 

Stop, traveller, don't heedless pass me by. 

But stop and shed a tear and heave a sigh, 

Here lies a man whose heart was kind and free, 

Who was ever loved with godlike charity." 

No. 126. — Isaiah Wilder, died in Gilsum Oct. 11, 
1867, aged 85 years and 7 months. 

No. 127. — Saloma, wife of Isaiah Wilder, died Jan. 
28, 1849, aged 60. 

No. 128. — Juliette Augusta, daughter of David and 
Betsey Wood, died April 6, 1863, aged 12 years and 6 
months. 

No. 129. — Ella Mariah, daughter of David and 
Betsey Wood, died March 11, 1863, aged 10 years and 
6 months. 

No. 130.— Abijah Willson, died May 28, 1854, aged 
86. 

No. 131. — Phebe, wife of Abijah Willson, died .Tune 
20, 1840, aged 73 years. 

No. 132. — Rebecca, wife of Abijah Willson, died 
Oct. 22, 1852, aged 74. 

No. 133.— Phebe, died Aug. 27, 1803, aged 2 years 
and 6 months. Uriah, died Sept, 8, 1803, aged 14 
years and 8 months. Avery, died at Mobile, Ala., 
March 12, 1837, aged 29. 

No. 134.— George Willson, died Feb. 22, lS73,aged 
63 years, 3 months and 3 days. 

" Gone but not forgotten." 

No. 135. — In memory of Relief, daughter of Mr. 
Joshua Washburn and Hepsibah, his wife, who died 
Dec. 20, 1791, aged 2 years, 4 months and 20 days. 

"As I am now so you must be, 
Therefore prepare to follow me." 

No. 136. — George P. Wetherbee, died July 17, 
1836, aged 20. 

No. 137.— Mr. Phinehas AVright, died May 6, 1812, 
aged 60. 

No. 138.— Mrs. Zilpah Wright, died Sept. 30, 1841, 
aged 85. 

Cornelius Sturtevant, Jr., published a newspaper in 
Keene called the Sising Sun, before the IfctP Hampshire 
Sentinel was started by Mr. John Prentiss. He left Keene, 
went into the army, and died in Piketon, Ohio, August 2, 
1821, at the age of fifty. The late George W. Sturtevant 
was a small boy when his Uncle Luke w.as killed by the fall 
of a tree. He was told to get out of the way, as the tree 
might fall on him ; but, instead, his uncle was instantly 
killed. The present generation know but little of the 
trials and hardships of their ancestors ; their real life was, 
many times, stranger llian fiction. 



80 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. lo9. —In memory of Fanny, diiugliter of Mr. 
Pliinehas AVright and Zilpah, his wife, who died 
Aug. 5, 1803, in tlie 8th year of her age. In memory 
of Roxana, daughter of Mr. Phinehas Wright and 
Zilpah, his wife, who died Aug. 5, 180.3, in the 12th 
year of her age. 

No. 140. — In memory of Miss Rebecca Wright, 
daughter of Mr. Phinehas Wright and Zilpah, his 
wife, who died March 2, 1804, in the 25th year of her 
age. 

No. 141.— Caleb Wright, died Nov. 21, 18G9, aged 
75 years and 9 months. 

No. 142. — Sarah, wife of Caleb Wright, died Nov. 
16, 1888, aged 42. 

No. 143. — Betsey P., wife of Charles Wright, died 
Dec. 20, 1858, aged 39. 

Thk Oi.i) Graveyard on West Hill. — 
This graveyard is just off tlie road that leads to 
Westiuoreland, near Mr. Benjamiu F. Foster's 
farm. Probably niiie-teiiths of the people in 
town are not aware that there is such a 
graveyard in Jvecne ; but those of us who have 
always li\ed here and have seen fifty winters or 
more, will, as we read the inscriptions on these 
monuments, have many of the old faces brought 
before us again. The most ancient monument 
in this yard is dated 1798; the latest, 1868. 
There are thirty-eight monuments in good 
condition ; there are two others Avhose in- 
scriptions are illegible, and quite a number 
of graves are mai'ked with a granite head- 
stone with no inscription. On the tliirty- 
eiglit monuments I find <inly five died under 
tilt; ag(_' of five years ; two between twenty and 
forty ; four between forty and fifty ; thirteen 
between fifty and seventy ; seven between sev- 
enty and ninety ; and one lived to the great age 
of ninety-two, showing conclusively that the 
west side of the Ashuelot River is the healtluest 
part of Keene. The following is a list of the 
inscriptions upon tlie tombstones: 

No. 1.— Horatio S. Black, died Nov. 14, 1841, aged 
3 years and 2 days. Charles H., died July G, 1841, 
aged 6 weeks. Sebrina J., died June 1,1840; chil- 
dren of S. and M. L. Black. 

No. 2. — Emma A., daughter of S. and JI. L. Black, 
died Sept. 27, 1863, aged 2 years 10 months and 10 
days. 

" Our little prattling Emma, 
Our loved and cherished one. 
Went home to dwell with Jesus 
At the setting of the sun." 



No. 3. — In memory of John Balch, who died March 

15, 1824, aged 06. A Revolutionary soldier. 

No. 4. — Lucy, wife of John Balch, died June 5, 
1831, aged 69. 

No. 5.— Andrew Balch, died May 26, 1845, aged 58. 

No. 6.— Olive A. F., died July 23, 1822, aged 11 
months. Philinda, died Sept. 3, 1826, aged 15 months ; 
daughters of Andrew and Louisa Balch. 

No. 7. — In memory of Roslinda Balch, who died 
Aug. 23, 1824, aged 23. 

" That once loved form now cold and dead, 
Each mournful thought employ.'' 

No. 8. — Balcarras Craig, died JNlay 6, 1850, aged 63. 

No. 9. — Betsy, wife of Balcarras Craig, died Nov. 

16, 1863, aged 80 years and 6 mouths. 

No. 10. — Lizzianna, daughter of Thomas and Eliz- 
abeth Craige, died July 23, 1856, aged 17 months and 
2 days. 

" Sleep on, sweet babe, and take thy rest ; 
God called thee home when He thought best." 

No. 11.— William Dickinson, died Jan. 20, 1847, 
aged 62. 

No. 12. — Roxsalana, wife of William Dickinson, 
died Feb. 6, 1833, aged 44 years. 

No. 13. — Francis, son of Abraham and Mary Dick- 
inson, died March 28, 1847, aged 18 years and 8 
months. 

" Beloved in life, lamented in death." 

No. 14.— Emery Dickinson, died Sept. 25, 1868, 
aged 57 years and 9 months. 

No. 15. — In memory of widow Sarah Eaton, who 
died Feb. 6, 1812, in the 24th year of her age. 

No. 16.— Thomas Gurler, died Oct. 9, 1858, aged 83. 

"The slumberer shall awake; the unsealed eye see 
its Redeemer, and although the worm destroy this 
body, yet the dead shall rise to immortality." 

No. 17. — Susannah, wife of Thomas Gurler, died 
Sept. 14, 1835, aged 57. 

" Blessed are they who die in the Lord." 

No. 18.— Granite (stone), 1798. 

No. 19. — Sarah, wife of John T. Harvy, died March 

16, 1853, aged 48. 

No. 20. — Nabby, wife of Isaac Miller, died Aug. 

17, 1830, aged 46. 

No. 21. — Joseph, son of Alonzo and Crissana May- 
nard, died May 8, 1838, aged 3 years and 6 months. 

No. 22. — Rufiis Henry, son of Liberty and Clarrisa 
Page, died Dec. 26, 1856, aged 17 years 7 months and 
11 days. 

No. 23.- — Martha J., daughtej of Liberty and Clar- 
risa Page, died Oct. 12, 1852, aged 1 year and 21 days. 

No. 24. — Simeon, son of Liberty and Clarrisa Page, 
died March 11, 1838, aged 6 months and 13 days. 

No. 25. — In memory of George, son of Mr. Levi 
arid Mrs. Lucy Pattridge, who died January, 1803, 
aged 22 months. 



KEENE. 



81 



No. 26. — In memory of Mrs. I.ydia Pattridge, who 
died November, 1798, aged 51. 

" Virtue now receive a reward, 
And every grace with sweet accord 
Shall now unite to praise the Lord, 
In hallelujahs to our God." 

No. 27.— Joseph Sylvester, died Feb. IG, 1824, aged 
80 years. 

No. 28.— Mahi table, wife of Joseph Sylvester, died 
March 9, 1824, aged 7(1 years. 

No. 29.— Dea. Daniel Snow, died May 15, 1806, 
aged 80 years. 

No. 30. — Abigail, wife of Dea. Daniel Snow, died 
JIareh 29, 1805, aged 75. 

No. 31. — Esther, wife of Dea. John Snow, died Feb. 
20, 1820, aged 51. 

No. 32.— Silas Williams, thed Oct. 21, 1829, aged 
88 years. Erected by their daughter Elizabeth. 
" Gone but not forgotten.'' 

No. 33. — Charity, wife of Silas AV^illiams, died 
March 26, 1859, aged 92 years. 

" Absent but dear." 

No. 34. — Esther P., daughter of Jason and Sally 
Williams, died Sept. 17, 1830, aged 4 years. 

No. 35.— Charles E., son of Jason and Sally Wil- 
liams, died March 16, 1836, aged 4 mouths and 16 
days. 

No. 36. — Cynthia Jane, daughter of Jason and 
Sally Williams, died June 24, 1852, aged 18 years 11 
months and 15 days. 

" Dear Cynthia, we loved thee." 

No. 37.— Eliphalet Wilber, died June 29, 1841, 
aged 57 years. 

" My children dear, as you draw near. 
Your father's grave you'll see, 
Not long ago I was with you. 
But soon you'll be with me." 

No. 38.— James Wilson, died Jlay 14, 1837, aged 63 
years. Rebecca, wife of James Wilson, died June 26, 
1835, aged 46 years. 

The Old Graveyaed at Ash Swajip. — 
At a mot'ting ut'thi' proprietors liekl February 2.">, 
1702, it was voted that the neck of land where 
Isaac Clark and Amos Foster were buried be 
apj)ropi'iated and set a^jart for a buryiug-phice 
for the town. Tliis land had been used for a 
Innying-place for some years before 1762, but 
at this time it was set apart from the commou 
Uuid, by the original proprietors, to be forever 
kept as a burying-plaee. Here I find a monu- 
ment erected to the memory of Amos Foster, 
who died in March, 1761, so I am sure this 
neck of land is the one meant in the old records, 
6 



thus conclusively proving this to be tlie oldest 
place of burial in town. There are indica- 
tions to show that there have been bui'i<xl in 
this old buiying-place about one hundred ; but 
to-day there arc but eleven monuments to be 
found, and on some i)f these the inscriptions 
cannot be made out, and in a few short years 
no monument will be left in this, the first bury- 
ing-place of the fathers of Keene, to mark the 
spot where their bones lie. 

Tsaac Clark was buried in this burying-plaee, 
l)ut no monument nuu'ks the spot. His home 
stood near where ]\Ir. Leonard Wright nciw 
lives. Possibly there is not a soul now living 
in Keene to-day that cai-es a straw whether 
Isaac Clark ever lived or died ; but let us see 
what the original proprietors of the town 
thought of him, some one hundred and forty-six 
years ago (January 7, 1740). They voted to 
make such grant of land to such persons as 
they shall think desire the same, for hazarding 
their lives and estate bv living here to bring; 
forwai'd the settling of the place. Under this 
vote Isaac Clark was granted ten acres of up- 
land. He was chosen at the first meeting of 
the proprietors, held on the first Wednesday of 
May, 11 ■')'■], to survey the lands and run the 
bounds. (This was when the charter of the 
town was first adopted.) Isaac Clark died 
about 1761. His estate was settled by Ejihraim 
Dorman, the man that called the first legal 
town-meeting Keene ever held. Isaac Clark 
once owned four hundred acres of land in Ash 
Swamp. The old records tell us that he was 
baptized in Boxford, Mass., February 1, 1713; 
lived in Ashuelot and Keeue, N. H. His will 
was proved March 25, 1761. He married 
Mary Dorman, daughter of Elphraim Dorman, 
December 22, 1751. She died before 1761. 
He letl n(^ issue. 

In 1746, when Isaac Clark's ^vife was a girl, 
about one hundred Indians appeared in the town 
and killed a number of the inhabitants (this 
was the time they surrounded Nathan Blake's 
l)arn, making him prisoner and taking him to 
Canada). Mrs. Clark was at a barn some fifty 
rods distant ; leaving it, she espied an Indian 
near her, who threw away his gun and advanced 
to nuike her his prisouer, thinking it an ea.sy 



82 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



task to catch a white squaw. She gathered up 
lier clotlies around her waist and started for the 
fort (near the Dr. Adams place, where Mr. 
Lenuiel Hayward now lives). Slie, animated 
by cheers from her friends, outran licr pursuer, 
who skulked back f >r his gun. Isaac Clark 
and wife were buried in this old burying-place, 
but in what grave no man can tell, as the marble 
that marked the spot has entirely disappeared. 
The following is a list of tlie inscriptions on all 
the monuments now standing : 

No. 1. — Iq memory of Mrs. Hannah, wife of Mr. 
Royal Blake, who Dcc'd Nov. ye 21st, 1779, aged 19 
years. 

No. 2. — In memory of Joseph, son of Mr. Royal 
Blake ' & Mrs. Hannah, his wife, he Dec'd Nov. ye 
7th, aged 12 weeks. 

No. 3. — In memory of Mrs. Zipporali Blake, wife 
of Doct. Obadiah Blake, who Dec'd Feb. 25, 1785, 
aged 57 years.^ 

' Royal Blake was a member of the foot company, 1773. 
He died October 9, 1827, ageJ seventy-one, and was buried 
in the old yard pear the Sawyer place. 

2 Clement Sumner was the first settled gospel minister 
of the town (April 27, 1761). Dr. Obadiah Blake was one 
of the committee to make the settlement. This committee 
was voted twelve pounds, lawful money of the Massachu- 
setts Bay, for the trouble and charge in providing for the 
counsel at Mr. Sumner's ordination ; also five pounds for 
paying Mr. Sumner for five weeks' preaching before his 
settlement. It was voted by the town this year that " the 
Rev. Mr. Sumner's salary be stated on commodities as 
they be now, and so from year to year. Commodities as 
they be now : wheat at 3s. 2Jt/. sterling per bushel ; pork 
at 3'/. per pound ; beef at 2d. per pound : Indian corn at 
l.s. 8rf. per bushel ; rye at 2s. Gd. per bushel; labour in 
tlie summer at 2s. per day." This was afterwards recorded 
upon the suggestion of Mr. Sumner that the article of beef 
was stated above the market price. Dr. Blake was one of 
tlic selectmen in 1702 ; he also belonged to the alarm-list 
in 1773. He has one grandson still living,— Mr. Cyrus 
Blake, now living in Newton, Mass., an old man. Justin 
I). Blake, of Ash Swamp, Oscar and Orman Colony, of the 
Cheshire Republican, and Joshua D. Blake, of Surry, are 
wreat- grandsons. The Blake family was noted for their 
great strength. Joshua D. Colony told me that on one 
occasion his father, with his horse and wagon loaded 
with one thousand brick, got stuck in the mud near where 
Deacon Binney used to live, and was about unloading, 
when Royal Blake came along and told him to hold on 
a miuiite. He crawled under the wagon and, putting his 
shoulder under the axle-tree, told Colony when he heard 
the old wagon crack to put on the lick. The load was 
lifted and he drove along. He was also known to take a 
barrel of cider out of his cart alone and carry it into the 
cellar. 



No. 4.— Dea. Simeon Clark,' died 9 Dec., 1793, aged 
70. 

No. 5. — Unity Diu-ant, Consort of Mr. Joshua Du- 
rant,- died 29 Nov., 1781, aged 20. 

No. 6. — Here lies the Body of Mr. Naham, who 
Dec'd [the rest obliterated]. 

No. 7. — Ellis , Henry , Jedatiah Foster [the 

rest gone]. 

No. 8. — Here lies buried Mr. Amos Foster,'' who 
Dec'd March the 22, 1701, in the 40th year of his age. 

No. 9.— My Father. 

No. 10. — In Memory of Mrs. Hannah, Wife of Mr. 
John Grundy, Jun'r, who Dec'd Oct. 3, 1783, in ye 31 
year of her age. 

"Here lies the grief of a fond mother. 
She was a dear and dutiful daughter, 
A kind wife and a tender mother. 
Reader, behold as you pass by, 
As you are living, once was I." 

No. 11. — In memory of Mary, Daughter of Jere- 
niiah Stiles, Esq.,* & Mrs. Mary, his wife ; she Dec'd 
April ye 17, 1781, aged 1 Day. 

1 He belonged to the foot company, 1773. In 1778 was 
paid £2 2s. id., balance for serving in the late war. 

2 He lived on the Baker place, Ash Swamp. Our Mr. 
Joshua D. Colony was named after Mr. Joshua Durant, 
and to show that it meant something in those days, the 
boy was presented with a fine wool sheep. 

' Amos Foster left, by will, one-half of his property to 
tlie town. The value of the legacy is not known ; but, in 
August, 1702, the town voted that Mr. Sumner's settlement 
and his salary for the first year should be paid from this 
fund. 

* Jeremiah Stiles was the writer's great-grandfather. He 
was a man whom the town of Keene delighted to honor, 
for he was in some office in the town from February 15, 
1709, until his death, December 6, 1800 — more than thirty 
years, lie lived on the corner of Cross and Washington 
Streets, where Mr. Clark's house now stands. He be- 
longed to the foot company in 1773, to the Committee of 
Safety, 1770, was a representative of the town, delegate to 
the Constitutional Convention held at Concord, 1778, se- 
lectman, town clerk, assessor, petit and grand juryman, 
moderator in town-meeting, one of the committee to ar- 
range for the settlement of the Rev. A.aron Hall, and a 
subscriber to the fund to purchase the first town-clock 
ever in Keene, in 1797. He and his good wife, Mary, 
were buried in the old graveyard on Washington Street. 
Now will the present generation consent to have that neck 
of land set apai-t by the first settlers for a place to bury 
their dead be plowed up and planted, as was the case of 
the old yard on the Robinson farm ? I can't yet quite be- 
lieve it, but time will tell. 

The town voted, March 3, 1789, to fence the several 
burying-places in the town and draw a committee of four 
for that purpose, who are hereby authorized to call on their 
neighbors to turn out and do said work without any cost or 
charge to the town. Chose Major Willard, Michael Metcalf, 



KEENB. 



83 



CHAPTER YI. 

KEESE— {Continued). 

BANKING INTEREST. 

The Cheshire National Bank — The Ashuelot National Bank 
— The Keene National Bank — The Citizens' National Bank 
— The Cheshire Provident Institution for Savings — The 
Keene Five-Cent Savings-Bank — Keene Guarantee Sav- 
ings-Bank. 

The Cheshire Bank was chartered with a 
capital of $100,000, by the State of New 
Hampshire, in 1803, for a period of twenty 
years, or till 1824; then till 1844, and again 
till 1864, inclusive. The original corjiorators 
were Judge Daniel Newconib, Noah Cooke, Esq., 
and Elijah Dunbar, Esq. John G. Bond, 
Judge Newcomb's son-in-law, procured most of 
the stock subscriptions, among which are the 
names of Samuel and Nathan Applcton, Eben 
Francis, Stephen Salsbury, John Bellows, Josiah 
Knapp and several others of Boston, Daniel 
Newcomb, John G. Bond, AVilliam Lamson, 
Moses Johnson, Alexander Ralston, Stephen 
Harrington, Eben Stearns, Joseph Hay ward 
and Foster and Luther Alexander, of Cheshire 
County, with fifty-five others on the list. 

The first building for the bank was of brick, 
two stories high, and was taken down in 1847 
to make way for the Cheshire Railroad's pas- 
senger station. Daniel Newcomb was president 
from 1804 to 1811, when he resigned, and in 
the " war period," soon after, the banic struggled 
against insolvency till November, 1813, when 
Samuel Grant was ch(jsen president and Na- 
thaniel Dana cashier, in place of i\.rba Cady 
(who was elected February, 1806, and whose 
predecessor was E. Dunbar), and a revival of 
credit and business secured. Mr. Grant was 
president till July, 1829, and Salma Hale, his 
successor, till March, 1842, at which time Levi 
Chamberlain was made president, and steps 
were taken to reorganize the bank under its 
amended charter, available from 1844 to 1864, 
inclusive. In this reorganization John Elliot 



Levi Pattridge and Captain Jolin Houghton." A vote was 
passed, August 27, 1792, to fence the several burying- 
grounds ; also, in March, 179.5, and .July "25, 179.5, the town 
was divided into districts for burying their dead. 



was chosen president ; was succeeded in 1 856 
by Levi Chamberlain and in 1861 by John 
Henry Elliot, under whom, at the expiration of 
its charter, the bank was made national, Avith a 
ctipital of $200,000. James Henry AVilliams 
was cashier from 1841 to 1847, then Zebina 
Newell till 1855, then Royal H. Porter, when 
the bank's State charter expired, tie continues 
to be cashier at this writing, with John Henry 
Elliot as president. The bank's j)resent granite 
building was erected in 1847, and has all the 
modern defenses against invasion. 

The Ashtielot Bank, of Kecue, was incor- 
porated January 2, 1833, with a charter for 
twenty years, and commenced business early in 
that year. The corporators named in the chai'ter 
were John H. Fuller, Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr.. 
Phineas Fisk, John Elliot and Justus Perry, 
and the first meeting was held at Stephen Har- 
rington's hotel on February 19, 1833, when 
f(irty-rive additional members were admitted to 
the corporation, making in all fifty. 

The j)i't'sent baukiug-hou.se was built in 
1 833, under the direction of John Elliot, at a 
cost of $2998.24. 

The first board of directors were Samuel 
Dinsmoor, John H. Fuller, Thomas M. Ed- 
wards, William Buffum, George S. Root, Phin- 
eas Handersou and Benjamin F. Adams, the 
last-named being the only surviving member. 

The first president ^\•as Samuel Dinsmoor, 
who served until his death, in 1835. He was 
succeeded by his son, Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., 
wln> was continued in the office until he resigned, 
in 1853. 

Thomas !M. Edwards was chosen president in 
1853, and held the office till elected to Congress, 
in 1859, when he resigned, and William Dins- 
moor succeeded him, and was annually re-elected 
until his resignation, in 1869, when Mr. Ed- 
wards was again chosen, and held the office till 
his death, in 1875. George A. Wheelock was 
appointed president upon the death of Mr. 
Edwards, in 1875, and has been annually re- 
elected since. 

Two Governors of the State and one Repre- 
sentative in Congress are among the foregoing 
list of jiresidents of this bank. 

Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., was cashier fi-om 



84 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



March, 1833, to Juue, 1835; Henry Seymour, 
from June, 1835, to August, 1830 ; Thomas H. 
Leverett, from August, 183fi, to June, 1869; 
and Henry O. Coolidge, from Juue, 1869, to 
the present time. 

The l)auk was rechartercd December 17, 
1852, and was converted into a national organi- 
zation February 17, 1865, under the name of 
" The Asliuelot National Bank of Keene," and 
its corjjorate e.xistence has beeu extended to 
February 17, 1905. 

The original capital was $100,000. In July, 
1875, it was increased to $150,000. 

The present board of directors consist of 
George A. Wheelock (president), Caleb T. Buf- 
fum, Charles J. Amidon, John M. Parker, Al- 
fred T. Batchelder, Henry O. Coolidge and 
Christopher Robb. 

Keeke National Bank. — The Cheshire 
County Bank was organized August 11, 1855. 
First Board of Directors, Zebina Newell, George 
Huntington, AVilliam Haile, Frederick Vose, 
Amos A. Parkei', Lawson Robertson and Har- 
vey A. Bill ; Presidents, Zebina Newell, Fred- 
erick Vose, Edward Joslin ; Cashiers, George 
W. Tilden and J. R. Beal. 

Mr. Newell held the office of president from 
organization till his death, March 29, 1858. 
Succeeded by Frederick Vose, who held the oflSce 
till his death, November 24, 1871. Succeeded 
by Edwin Joslin, the present incumbent. 

George W. Tilden held the office of cashier 
from first organization till his death, February 
8, 1879. Succeeded by J. 11. Beal, the present 
incumbent. It was organized as a national 
bank February 7, 1865. 

First board of directors: Frederick Vose, 
John Bowker, Edward Joslin, Amos F. Fiske, 
Reulien Stewart and Horatio Kimball. 

Original capital, $100,000 ; present capital, 
the same. 

Present l)oard of directors: Edward Joslin, 
John Bowker, Elisha F. Lane, Josiah G. Bel- 
lows and Alfi'ed T. Batchelder. 

This bank occupies its own banking-house, 
having purchased the building of Henry Pond 
when the Cheshire County Bank was organized ; 
rearranged and made substantial improvements 
to the building during the year 1883. 



Citizens' National Bank Mas incdipirated 
September 18, 1875, and commenced business 
October 1, 1875, No. 2299, with a capital of 
$100,000. 

The first board of directors were William 
Haile, Henry Cohmy, Stephen D. Osborne, 
Caleb T. Buffum, Janaes Burnap, Samuel W. 
Hale and Daniel W. Tenney ; President, 
Stephen D. Osborne; Cashier, Obed G. 
Dort. 

In January, 1878, Obed G. Dort was elected 
president and Henry S. Martin cashier, and 
continued in office until the present (1885). 
Present capital, $100,000 ; surplus, $25,000. 

Present officers : Obed G. Dort, president ; 
H. S. Martin, cashier ; Obed (t. Dort, James 
Burnap, Joiui Synionds, Elijali Boyden, Sam- 
uel W. Hale, Clark N. Chandler and William 
P. Chamberlain, directors. 

ChESIIIKE PltOVIDENT InsTITITION FOR 

Savings was ehai-tered in July, 1833, and 
organized August 13, 1833. The incor- 
porators were Thomas Brilows, Samuel 
Grant, John Wood, Salma Hale, Eliphalet 
Briggs, Justus Perry, Aaron Hall, Levi Cham- 
berlain, Azel AVilder, Abijah AVilder, Jr., John 
Elliot, Oliver llolman, J. Colony, Amos 
Twitchell, Charles G. Adams, Levi W. Leonard, 
John H. Steele, James Walker, Azel Hatch, 
Walter Tufts, Joseph Weeks, Larkiu Baker, 
Elijah Carpenter, Levi Blake, Abner Boyden, 
William S. Brooks and Georsje Tilden. 

The first officers were Amos Twitchell, presi- 
dent ; Justus Perry, first vice-president ; Abijah 
Wilder, Jr., second vice-president ; George Til- 
den, secretary and treasurer. 

First trustees : Salma Hale, John Wood, 
Levi Chamberlain, Larkin Baker, John Elliot, 
Phinehas Fisk, Azel Wilder, Walter Tufts, 
Levi Blake, Levi W. Leonard, Timothy Hall, 
Samuel Wood, Jr., Oliver Holman, Thomas M. 
Edwards and Eliphalet Briggs. 

Board of investment : Justus P((rry, John 
Elliot, Samuel Wood, Jr., Azel Wilder and 
Levi Chamberlain. 

The first deposit was made September 10, 
1833, by Ashley Spaulding ; amount, $100. 

The following is a list of the presidents from 
1833 to 1885: Dr. Amos Twitcliell, from 1833 



KEENE. 



85 



to 1(S53, deceased; Hon. Salraa Hale, from 
1853 to 1856, resigned; Hon. Levi Chamber- 
lain, from 1856 to 1867, deceased; Hon. Sam- 
uel Dinsmoor, from 1867 to 1870, deceased ; 
Hon. William P. Wheeler, from 1870 to 1877, 
deceased ; Hon. Francis A. Faulkner, Esq., from 
1877 to 1880, deceased ; George Tilden, from 
1880 to 1883, resigned; Edward C. Thayer, 
from 1883 to 1885, resigned ; George A. 
Wheelock, from 1885 — present incumbent. The 
secretary and treasurers : George Tilden, from 
1833 to 1880; O.scar G. Nim.s, from 1880— 
present incumbent. 

The officers for 1 885 are Gecjrge A. ^^^heelock, 
president; A. T. Batclielder, William S. Briggs, 
vice-presidents ; O. G. Ninis, secretary and 
treasurer; Trustees, John Henry Elliot, Henry 
C. I»ipi'r, E. H. Porter, Edwai-d Fari-ar, F. C. 
Faulkner, J. R. Beal, George W. Stearns, C. J. 
Amidon, Barrett Riphy, J. G. Bellows, George 
H. Tilden, Silas Hardy, Reuben Stewart, F. H. 
Kingsbury and Frederick A. Faulkner; Board 
of Investment, A. T. Batchelder, Barrett Rip- 
ley, R. H. Porter, J. H. Beal, Reuben Stewart ; 
Auditors, J. R. Beal, '\\'illiam S. Briggs, George 
H. Tilden, F. C. Faulkner and Silas Hardy. 

The Keexe Fivi-:-Cent,s Sa vinos-Bank 
was incorporated in 1868. The incorporators 
were as follows : John H. Fuller, Allen Giffin, 
Edwai-d Joslin, John Grimes, Caleb T. BuiFum, 
George Holmes, Dauphlin W. Buckminster, 
Samuel O. Gates, George W. Ball and Samuel 
Woodward. 

The first board of trustees were Edward Jos- 
lin, John Bowker, George W. Ball, Caleb T. 
Buffum, D. W. Buckminster, Clark F. Rowell, 
John Humphrey, George Holmes, AVm. Haile, 
O. Sprague, Elijah Boyden, Henry Colony, F. 
Vose, H. O. Coolidge and P. Batcheller. 

The first officers were John H. Fuller, presi- 
dent ; Samuel ^Voodward and Farnuni F. Lane, 
vice-presidents ; O. G. Dort, treasui-er. 

The presidents have been Jolm H. Fuller, Far- 
num F. Lane, Samuel A\'oodward, Henry 
Colony and C. T. Buffum ; Treasurers, O. G. 
Dort- and G. A. Litchfield. 

First deposit made by Xellie I. Rowell, Jan- 
uary 1, 18G9 ; amount $10. The present deposits 
amount to $1,800,000. 



The officers for 1885 are C. T. Buffum, 
president ; Edward Joslin, Elijah Boyden, vice- 
presidents ; G. A. Litchfield, secretary and 
treasurer ; Trustees, F. A. Perry, George W. 
Ball, H. O. Coolidge, Clark f' Rowell, John 
Humphrey, Don H. Woodward, N. O. Way- 
ward, John O. Jones, John B. Fisk, Obadiah 
Sprague, Elbridge Clarke, F. E. Keyes, Hiram 
Blake, Joseph B. Abbott and George C. 
Hubbard; Board of Investment, C. T. Buffum, 
Edward Joslin, F. A. Perry, J. O. Coolidge 
and Hiram Blake. 

KeENE GitAKANTY SAVIN(iS-BANK was 

incorporated in 1883, Avith a guaranty fund of 
$50,000. Farnum F. Lane, James Burnap, 
Henry Colony, John Symonds, Obed G. Dort, 
John E. Colony, John S. Collins, Charles L. 
Russell and Asa C. Dort, incorporators. 

The first lioard of trustees was composed of 
Henry Colony, Obed G. Dort, Horatio Colony, 
Samuel W. Haile, Farnum F. Lane, George E. 
Colbrook, Clark X. Chandler, James Burnap, 
John S. Collins and George G. Davis. 

The first jiresident was J. Burnap ; treasurer, 
O. G. Dort. 

The officers for 1885 are : Presi<lent, J. Bur- 
nap ; Treasurer, O. G. Dort ; Trustees, James 
Burnap, John S. Collins, Horatio Colony, 
Clark N. Chandler, William P. Chamberlain, 
Charles H. Hersey, Obed G. Dort, George G. 
Davis, George E. Holbrook and Silas M. Dins- 
moor; Board of Investment, J. Burnap, O. G. 
Dort, William P. Chamberlain, C. N. Chan- 
dler and S. M. Dinsmoor. 

The first deposit was made October 1, 1883, 
amount, $25. Present amount of deposits, 
$225,000. Number of open accounts, six hun- 
di-ed. Deposits average $375 each. 

This bank was incorporated and organized 
on the new guaranty plan, the fourth of its 
kind in the States. A capital of $50,000 
was subscribed and paid in, to be held as a 
special guaranty, that depositors siiould 
receive the principal which they deposited 
and the interest which the bank agrees to pay, 
the losses being cliargeable to the guaranty fund. 

And as the deposits increase, the guaranty fund 
must be increased, and never fall below ten per 
cent, of the general deposits. 



86 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The management of the bank is wholly in the 
hands of the owners of the guaranty fund (sub- 
ject to tlie banking laws of the State), and every 
officer must be a contributor to the said fund. 



CHAPTER VII. 

KEE'S'E—lContUnted). 

EDUCATIONAL. 

First Vote Concerning Schools — Judge Daniel Newcomb's 
Private School— The High School of 1 828— Teachers' 
Institute— Catharine Fiske's Female Seminary— The 
Keene Acailemy — The Academy and District Troubles — 
The High School. 

The first reference to educational matters 
found (in the old t(i\vn records is under date of 
1764, when the town voted six pounds sterling 
to defray the charges of a school, and in 17(36 
it is " Voted that the security for the money 
given to the town by Captain Natlianiel Fair- 
banks, deceased, the interest of which was for 
the use of a scliool in this town, be delivered to 
the care of the town treasurer and his successors 
in office for the time being." 

Judge Daniel Newconib is credited by Josiah 
P. Cooke, Esq., in Hale's " Annals," with having 
founded a private school about 1793, mainly at 
his own expense, and as the best friend of 
" good learning " that the town had. 

"In 1821 the town records state that it is 
voted that the town will, at their annual meet- 
ing, in each year, choose five or more suitable 
persons to constitute a committee of examina- 
tion, M'hose duty it shall be to examine those 
persons who shall (iffer tliemselves as instructors 
of the public schools witliiu the town; and in 
182.3 it is voted that Zedekiah 8. Barstow, 
Aaron Appleton, Joiin Jilliot, John Prentiss 
and Thomas M. Edwards be a committee to 
examine teachers, agreeably to the vote of the 
town." 

In 1828 we find, from the town records, that 
there was an endeavor to establish a High 
School, Eev. Z. S. Barstow, Rev. Thomas Rus- 
sell Sullivan, pastor of the Keene Congrega- 
tional (Unitarian) Society, General Justus 
Perry, Aaron Hall (son of the deceased minister 



of that name) and Azel Wilder being a com- 
mittee on that subject. It was also "Voted 
that the instructor of this school shall not en- 
deavor to inculcate, in .school, doctrines peculiar 
to any one religioas sect, nor distribute to his 
scholars any religious publication." It was 
agreed that " the school might be kept during 
the first year, seven, and during the second 
year, eight months, which," it was urged, " is 
at least three and four months longer than a 
school has usually been kept by a master." It 
appears from minutes kept by the late Dr. Bar- 
stow, secretary, that after two or three months 
spent in writing to the presidents of Dartmouth, 
Amherst, Middlebury and Yale Colleges, Mr. 
Edward E. Eels, a graduate of Middlebury 
College, was engaged as High School teacher 
for two months, at twenty-five dollars a month, 
independent of board. His term expired 
January 29, 1829. Sul)se(|uently, Mr. A. H. 
Bennett was the instructor for three months, 
"at forty dollars a month, including board." 

In 1845, and for a short time previous, a 
Teachers' Institute was established in the 
county by private subscription. 

On March 12, 1850, Keene voted seventy- 
five dollars for a Teaclicrs' Institute, on condi- 
tion of the cooperation of other towns in the 
county. 

Reference to educational matters in Keene 
woidd be incomplete which did not cln-onicle 
the " School for Young Ladies and Misses," in 
which, under date of 1817, Miss Fiske and 
Miss Sprague advertise that they shall " pay all 
possible attention to the improvement of the 
manners, morals and minds of their pupils." 

April 11, 1811, Miss Catharine Fiske began 
her school in Keene, known as "' The Female 
Seminary," conducting it fi^r twetity-three years, 
with signal success, until her death, 1837. Miss 
Fiske had been engaged in teaching for fifteen 
years before coming t( i Keene. Rev. Dr. Barstow, 
in an obituary sketch, published in the Boston 
Recorder for September 1, 1837, estimates that 
during the thirty-eight years of her service, 
more than two thousand five hundred pupils 
came under her care. He commends especially 
" her tact in eliciting the dormant energies of 
some minds, and the stimulus afforded to those 



KEENH 



87 



that wore apt to learii." Afterwards the late 
Mrs. Stewart Hastings and Miss Barnes, later 
Mrs. T. IT. Leverett, were among tlie teacliers 
associated with Miss Fiske in her school. Miss 
Withington conducted it for a while after Miss 
Fiske's decease. 

Keexe AcAPir;jiY. — In the year 1835 a 
movement was started ft)r the founding of an 
academy in the town, and a committee, consisting 
of Eliphalet Briggs, William Lamson and 
Samuel A. Gerould were chosen to select a site 
and draft a plan for building. A subscription 
paper was circulated and o\w hundred and one 
subscribers were obtained. The site, corner 
^yinter and Middle Streets, was selected, and in 
the ftill of 1836 the building was completed. 
The academy was dedicated on Christmas eye, 
1836, and opened early in 1837. 

The first board of trustees were Joel Parker, 
Amos Mitchell, Zedekiah S. Barstow, Abial A. 
Liyermore, James Wilson, Aaron Hall, Azal 
Wilder, William Lamson, Elijah Parker and 
Eliphalet Briggs, of Keene ; John Sabin, of 
Fitzwilliam ; Elisha Rockwood, of Swanzey ; 
Alanson Rawson, of lloxbury ; Larkin Baker, 
of Westmoreland ; and Pliny Jewell, of Win- 
chester. 

The lot was deeded to the trustees by Abijah 
Wilder, May 24, 1839, and the pajiers were 
drawn under the direction of Joel Parker. 

The academy was understooil to be an ortho- 
dox institution. Article 5th of the trust deed 
says, " The Trustees shall neither elect nor 
employ any person as Principal of said Acad- 
emy who is not a professor of religion in an 
Orthodox Congregational or Presbyterian 
Church, and who does not hold in substance 
the faith now held and maintained by the 
church of the First Congregational Society of 
Keene." It was also further stated that " The 
basement be used for a chapel by the First 
Congregational Church in Keene, and for no 
other purpose, they keeping it in repair. Also, 
the attic story for a singing hall for the church 
of said society, they keeping it in repair." ' 

The first principal of the academy was Mr. 

1 It may be well enough to state, however, that a large 
proportion of the subscriptions to build the academy came 
from the members of the Congi-egational Church. 



Breed Batchelder, assisted by INIiss ]\I:uy E. 
Parker and Miss Leverett. 

Mr. Batchelder remained until the spring of 
1839. 

INIr. Batehelder's successors were as fiillows : 
Noah Bishop, from the S])ring of 1839 till tiie 
close of 1840; Abraham Jenkins, till the spring 
of 1841 ; Mrs.A. E. P. Perkins, till the autumn 
of 1844 ; Seneca Cummings, from the fill of 
1844 to the spring of 1845 ; Miss L. H. Kim- 
ball, from the spring of 1845 to the fall of 
1845; N. G. Clark, from the fall of 1845 to 
the spring of 1847; AVm. W. Blodgett, from 
1847 till the spring of 1848; Mr. ^^^.od\vorth, 
from 1848 to 1850; Wm. Torrance, from 1850 
to 1853, being the last ])rincipal of the Keene 
Academy. Mr. Torrance was highly rcs]K'cted. 
He died here February 3, 1855, aged thirty- 
nine years. 

The erection (if the academy biiil<liiigs en- 
tailed a larger expense than was originally an- 
ticipated (three thousand five hundred dollars), 
and the amount re([uired (one thousand dol- 
lars) was borrowed on the notes of Elijah 
Parker, Aaron Hall :ind Eli]ihalet Briggs, and 
the amount, with interest, M-as ]>iiid from the 
estates of these gentlemen by their administra- 
tors. Mr. Timothy Hall presented the academy 
a bell, antl also the V)linds of the building, and 
Mr. Elij)halet Briggs presented ;i set of globes, 
valued at one liuitdred dollars. 

Li the spring of 185;> a committee of the 
associated school districts proposed to purcliase 
the property for a High School. The first meet- 
ing of the trustees, to consider the proposition, 
was held at the academy April 28, 185;?. Pres- 
ent — S. Hastings, William Lamson, Charles 
Lamson, Eliphalet Briggs, Daniel Aikens and 
Levi Chamberlain. A't a sul)se(pient meeting, 
held June 13, 1853, it was voted to lease the 
property to the districts for ten years, at an 
annual rent of two hundred and fifty dollars, the 
first three years' rent to be expended in repairs 
on the buildings. At the expiration of the 
lease it was renewed for three years, at three 
hundred and fifty dollars for the first two, and 
four hundred and fifty dollars for the third year. 
December 19, 1866, a committee, appointed 
by the districts, was chosen to select a lot for a 



88 



HISTORY OF OHKSHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



High School building, vrnd the academy lot was 
decided upon ; and eight days latiT, December 
■27tli, tiiey made application to buy ; the trustees, 
ho\\'ever, rt'fused to sell, claiming they had no 
authority. January 10, 1867, a petition was 
presented to the selectmen to lay out the lot, 
with the buildings, for the use of the High School. 
The trustees pi-otested against the districts' tak- 
ing tiie pmpci-ty, but on the oOtli of January, 
same year, tlie selectmen laid out the lot, for 
the use of the High School, and awarded six 
thousand one hundred dollars damages. Tlie 
sum was not accepted, and tlie trustees ap]ilietl to 
the Legislature, at the June session, for the incor- 
poration of tiie academy, and a charter was 
given. 

September 22, 1868, the subject came up for 
hearing before Judge J. E. Sargent, referee, with 
[Ton. T. M. Edwards for plaintitls and Hon. 
able W. P. Wheeler for defendants and the 
tlecision was in iavor of the High Scliool. 

The present officers antl trustees of Keene 
Academy are as follows : W. S. Briggs, pres- 
ident ; S. S. Wilkinson, vice-president; R. 
H. Porter, secretary and treasunT ; W. S. 
Briggs, R. H. Porter, Solon S. Wilkinson, Bar- 
rett Ripley, (leorge E. Holbrook, Isaac Rand, 
John Humphrey, Chas.Bridgman, S. G. Griffin, 
S. D. Osborn, Allan Gerould, Jr., Elisha F. 
Lane, S. Hale, Azro B. Skinner and I. N. 
Spencer, trustees. 

Amount of the fund April 1, 1885, was, 
§22,731.36. 

The High School opiMied with Mr. Tor- 
rance as princi]ial, and tlie principals from that 
time to the })resent have been as follows : Chas. 
E. Bruce, L. W. Buckingham, A. J. Bur- 
bank, S. H. Brackett, Hooper, and M. A. 

Bailey the present incumbent. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

KEENE— (CoH(iniieii). 
MISCELLANEOUS. 

Masonic — Odd-Fellows — Other Societies — Public Library — 
The Press — The Sentinel — The Cheshire Republican — The 
New England Observer — Keene in 1831 — Post-Office — 
Court-Houae — -The King's Cannon — Manufacturing In- 
tei'ests — Members of Congress — Governors — War of the 
Rebellion — Soldiers' Monument — Physicians — City of 
Keene — First Charter Election — Officers Elected — 
Mayors, Aldermen, Councilmen and Clerks to Present 
Time — Present Officers. 

Social Friends Lodge, F. and A. M. 
was chartered June 8th, 1825; but in 1827 
tiie Morgan troubles began in Western New 
York, resulting in a strong Anti-JNIasonic party, 
which spread over the whole northern jiart of 
the country, continuing for ten years, when it 
ceased to exist. During this time Social Friends 
Lodge, with most of the other lodges in this 
|)art of the country, wound up its affairs and 
ceased to exist. 

In 1855 a few bretiiren having tlie interest of 
tlie craft ;it heart, begtui to talk up the matter 
of reviving Freemasonry in this town ; so they 
met for I'chearsals in Deluge Engine-House, 
only one of them being able to answer a word 
of the lectures. They soon aj)j)lie(l to the Grand 
Master for a charter ; he told them he could not 
give them a charter, because there was one 
already in existence. In the course of time 
John Prentiss succeeded in finding the old 
charter of 1825, when they were allowed by the 
(jrand Lodge to go to work. Accordingly, the 
first stated coniniunicatidu was held April 9, 
1856, in Odd-Fellows' Hall, where the meetings 
continued to be held until 1860, when the lodge 
leased and occupied the apartments in the east 
end of St. John's building. 

In 1868 the rooms were found to be too 
small for the growing onhr of I'^reemasonry, 
when the building was enlarged, and the lodge 
moved into a larger hall in the west end of the 
hiiilding, using the old hall for an armory and 
banquet hall. 

In 1869, owing to the rap)id growth of the 
order, several of the older members, thinking it 
would be for the good of the cnift to start an- 



KEENE. 



89 



other lodge, applied to the Grand L(.id,iie, and a 
chartei- was granted for the Lodge of the Temple. 

In 1874 the Masonic apartments in St. John's 
building were again enlarged, by increasing the 
size of the lodge-room and adding a large ban- 
quet hall in the third story of the building. 

The followino; is a list of I'ast IMasters : 

A. S. Carpenter was elected W. Master June 11, 
1856. 

Barrett Ripley was elected W. Master April 26, 
1858. 

A. S. Carpenter was elected W. Master again April 
11, 1859. 

R. H. Porter was elected W. Master Ajiril 2, 1860. 

T. .1. French was elected W. M.aster April 22, 1861. 

Don H. Woodward w.as elected W. Master April 
14, 1862. 

Edward Gustine was elected \V. Master April 18, 
1864. 

S. S. Wilkinson was elected W. Master April 10, 
1865. 

S. A. Carter was elected W. M.aster April 23, 1866. 

Horatio Colony was elected W. Master April 15, 
1867. 

C. S. Coburn w:is elected W. Master April 6, 1868. 

L. J. Tuttle was elected W. Master April 11, 1870. 

O. M. Holton was elected W. Master March IS, 
1872. 

F. L. Howe was elected W. Master March 30, 1874. 

F. K. Burnham was elected W. Master March 29, 
1875. 

H. W. Hubbard was elected W. Master March 20, 
1876. 

Elisha Ayer was elected W. Master March 26, 1877. 

O. M. Holton was elected W. Master again March 
4, 1878. 

George A. Gordon was elected W. Master March 
3, 1879. 

S. M. Ray was elected W. Master March 7, 1881. 

George H. Fames was elected W. Master March 6, 
1882. 

George G. Dort was elected W. Master March 2, 
1885. 

Lodge of the Te.mple received a dispen- 
sation April 6, 1869, from the Most Worship- 
ful Grand Master Alexander M. Winn, who 
ajjpointed Bnjther A. S. Carpenter tlie first 
Master, Brother D. W. Buckminster as the first 
Senior Warden, and Brother Edward Farrar a.s 
the first Junior M'arden. This new lodge was 
an oifshoot of Social Friends Lodge. But little 
work was done by tlie lodge while under dis- 
pensation. At the annual meeting of the M. 
W. Grand Lodge, the June tbllowlng, a petition 



was presented asking the Grand Lodge to grant 
a charter to this new lodge. 

There was opposition from soiue members of 
Social Friends Lodge to granting this charter, 
not in a factious spirit, but doubting the expe- 
diency or necessity of anotlier lodge at Keene ; 
and it was argued with considerable force, by 
some ISIasons, that two lodges would be an iu- 
juiy instead of a benefit to Masonry. 

The weigiit of the evidence presented to tiie 
Grand Lodge convinced them that the good of 
Masonry would be promoted by granting a 
charter. Therefore a charter was granted to 
the new lodge, to be called The Lodge of the 
Temple, to be numbered 88 and assigned to 
District No. 3. Soon after the formation of 
Lodge of the; Temjile business throughout the 
country beciune prostrated, and the effect was 
such that very few petitions were presented to 
the lodge ; under the circuiti stances, the lodge 
became financially embarrassed, so much so that 
its future life, prosperity and usefulness were 
anything but encotu'aging ; Init by strict econ- 
omy during the prosperous times thtit followi'd, 
the lodge is now placed upon a solid foundation 
financially, having a membership of over 
ninety and every indication of a long and useful 
career. The relations that exist between Social 
Friends Lodge and Lodge of the Temple are 
of the most fraternal and pleasant character, 
and the idea that two lodges are not needed at 
Keene has, it is hoped, long since passed away. 

The following is a list of the Past Masters : 

A. S. Carpenter was appointed W. Master April 6, 
1869. 

Thomas E. Hatch was elected W. Master Decem- 
ber 25, 1869. 

Edward Gustine was elected W. Master April 5, 
1870. 

E. E. Lyman was elected W. Master Ai)ril 4, 1871. 
Francis Brick was elected W. Master April 1, 1873. 
Daniel McGregor was elected W. Master .June 5, 

1875. 

John G. Stone was elected W. Master April 4, 
1876. 

George J. Appleton w:is elected W. Master April 3, 
1878. 

F. H. Whitcomb was elected W. Master April 6, 
1880. 

George W. Flagg was elected W. Master Ajiril 4, 
1882. 
O. G. Nims was elected W. Master March 28, 1884. 



90 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Cheshire Eoyal Arch Chapter. — This 
chapter was reorganized Oct. 1 2, 1 859. The High 
Priests iiave been : H. M. Streeter, 1859 ; Bar- 
rett Ripley, 1861 ; T. E. Hatch, 18().3; J. H. 
Elliot, ]8()5; E. Gustine, 1867; S. A. Car- 
ter, 1869 ; E. Ayer, 1872; L. J. Tuttle, 1875; 
O. M. Holton, 1879; Geo. W. Flagg, 1881; 
J. B. Fisher, 1883; M. V. B. Clark, 1885. 

The chapter is in a flourishing condition ; its 
financial standing is sotnid, and its membershi]) 
is about one hundred and fifty. More than five 
hundred members have been enrolled upon the 
books of this association of Masons since May 4, 
1816, at which time it commenced to work in 
Keene under dispensation. The charter was 
granted to the Hon. John Prentiss, founder of 
the Neio Hdinpshire Sentinel, and Rev. Brough- 
ton White, (jf Westmoreland, the latter becom- 
ing its first High Priest. The meetings were 
tiicTi held in Prentiss' (now Whitcomb's) block, 
in the attio of which may be found, to-day, a 
part of tlic 1)1(1 cha])ter furniture. The par- 
aphernalia, however, was taken to Iowa, and 
used in a chapter there by the late Genei-al 
James Wilson, who was High Priest of Cheshire 
Chapter for a number of years previous to its 
dormancy, wliieii was brought about ])rior to 
18.35, by the Morgan c^xeitement. The ciiarter 
of Cheshire Chapter bears date of IVIay 1, 1819, 
and was signed ])y Thomas Smith Webb, Dep- 
uty-General Grand High Priest, whose name is 
familiar to Free-Mtusons throughout the country 
and wliose "Masonic Monitor" has founfl a 
j)lace in every Masonic liljrary. One hundred 
years ago Thomas Smith Webb was a book- 
liinder on Main Street, Keene. He was ini- 
tiated as an Entt'red Apjirentiec December 24, 
1790, passed to the degree (jf Fellow Craft 
December 27, 1790, and raised to the sublime 
degree of Master-Mason December 27, 1790, 
in Rising Sun Lodge, No. 4, Keene. Subse- 
quently he became very promim^ntas a Masonic 
author and ritualist. He elaborated the ritual 
of the Order of the Red Cross, and, by borrow- 
ing from the esoteric rituals of both the lodge 
and chapiter, connected it with Masonry, and 
thus the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross 
became a part of the; so-called American York 
Rite of Free-Masoul•^'. TIic charter of Che- 



shire Chapter was declared forfeited aud ordered 
to be stricken from the Grand Chapter books, 
June 14, 1843, the chapter having failed to 
make retiu-n since 1835. It was restored Octo- 
ber 12, 1859. The early records are not extant, 
but are complete since the revival of the chap- 
ter, October 12, 1859, since which time the 
meetings have been continuous. 

There is also a council located here called St. 
John's Council, No. 7, with Josiah L. Seward, 
T. I. M. 

Hugh de Payens Commandery.^ — In 
1863 the matter of having a conunandei'y of 
Knights Templar at Keene was agitated by the 
Masons of Keene and vicinity. At that time 
there were but a very few Knights Templar in 
New Hampshire. The Grand Commandery of 
the State had been formed. The Masons of 
this section were informeil that it would be nec- 
essary that a certain number of Chapter Masons 
should take the Templar degree, then apply to 
the Grand Commandery for a dispensation or 
charter. It was found necessary to have the 
recommendation of some Sir Knight, who be- 
longed to some commandery and resided in this 
vicinity. Only one could be found. That was 
Sir Knight Oliver G. Woodbury, of Westmore- 
land. He was a member of Vermont Com- 
mandery, Xo. 4, Windsor, \i. By the request 
of sonic^ ('ha]rt('r Masons of Keene, Sir Knight 
Woodbuiy made ari'angements with this eom- 
tnandery to confer the Templar degrees on the 
following Masons (as the records show) : Don 
H. Woodward, H. M. Streeter, Barrett Ripley, 
Elisha F. Lane, Edward Gustine, William S. 
Briggs, John H. Elliott, Edward Farrar, John 
A. Chamberlain. 

November 30, 1863, they started for Ver- 
mont to receive the degrees. On arriving at 
Windsor they were informed that the Grand 
Commandery of Vermont considered it essential 
tliat the council degrees should be taken before 
receiving the Templar degrees. By a dispen- 
sation they received the council degrees in As- 
cutney Council, at Windsor, Vt., November 30, 
1863. After receiving the council degrees they 
continued their journey to Hartford, Vt., where 



By Ilun. E. (lusline. 



KEENE. 



91 



the meeting of tlie commaadeiy was held at 
tliat time. At tliat early day of Templar Ma- 
sonry they had no ])artieular plaee in the dis- 
trict for holding meetings. The officers desig- 
nated where and when the meetings should be 
held. Under such circumstances they did not 
always find suitable accommodations. On this 
occasion the meeting was held in the attic of 
the hotel. One window in the gable end, the 
rough boards and bare raftei's were calculated 
to impress on thi' minds of the candidates the 
rough iiabit and ccjurse fare of our ancient Sir 
Knights. The kind and cordial greeting that 
was extended to them by the Sir Knights made 
the; surroundings appear very pleasant. After 
two days of pilgrimage they returned to tiicir 
homes, well pleased with the Sir Knights whom 
tiiey had met and thc^ Templar degrees. 

In lS()(j the Sir Knights applied lor a dis- 
pensation, which was granted by Eminent Grand 
Commander Charles A. Tufts, August 20, ISlili, 
to Thomas E. Hatch, Edward Gustine and 
their associates. Sir Knight Hatch was ap- 
pointed by Grand Commander Tufts as his 
proxy to organize this new commandery, whicli 
was done September 7, 1866. It received its 
charter at the annual conclave of the Grand 
Commandery, September 25, 1866. 

Thomas E. Hatch was a]ipointed its first 
Commander, and held the office one year. After 
procuring suitable jewels and regalia, on De- 
cember 4, 1866, the officers of Hugh de Payens 
Commandery, of Melrose, Mass., under the 
command of Eminent Sir Knight L. L. Fuller, 
visited this new commandery (of the same 
name) and assisted in conferring the degrees. 

At the annual assembly in 1867, Simon G. 
Griffin was elected Eminent Connnander. In 
1876, Solon A. Carter was elected Eminent 
Commander. In 1878, Solon S. Wilkinson was 
elected Eminent Commander. In 1880, Don 
H. Woodward was elected Eminent Com- 
mander. In 1883, Frank L. Howe was el(>cted 
Eminent Commander, and is its jjresent Com- 
mander. The several Commanders have been 
very efficient and satisflictory officers. The 
commandery was chartered in 1866 with nine 
charter members ; in 1884 it had a membership 
of one hundred and fifty. 



Accepted Scottish Rite was organized 
August 7, 1884, under the authority of "The 
Supreme Grand Council, Sovereign Grand In- 
spector-General, 33d and last degree, for the 
United States of America." 

Bodies meet jointly, in St. John's Hall, third 
Thursday of each month. New Hampshire 
Consistory: Frank H. Whitcomb, 111. Com.- 
in-Chief Cheshire! Chapter Rose Croix : 
Frank L. Howe, M. W. P. M. Monadnock 
Council, Princes of Jerusalem : Brainard T. 
Olcott, M. E. S. G. M. Ashuelot Lodge of 
Perfection : Frank H. AVhitcomb, T. P. G. M. ; 
George W. Flagg, Deputy for New Hampshii-e. 

Active members of the Supremo Council for 
New Hampshire,— George W. Flagg, 33° 
Deputy ; Frank H. Whitcomb, 33°; Brainard 
T. OlJott, 33°. 

The membershij) of tiiese bodies is large, and 
the funds rate second in amount among the 
Masonic organizations in this city. 

Keene Natural History Soceety was 
organized October 23, 1871, and incorporated 
May 31, 1880. George A. Wheelock, presi- 
dent ; Sanniel Wadsworth, vice-president ; D. 
W. Gilbert, secretary and treasurer ; C. F. 
Rowell, I. J. Prouty, W. R. Dunham, E. J. C. 
Gilbert and H. Blake, executive committee ; 
Ira D. Gates, custodian. 

Keene Humane Society was organized 
December 18, 1875, and incorporated Jiuie 3, 
1879. President, Charles H. Hersey; Vice- 
Presidents, C. T. Buffiim, E. A. Webb, A. B. 
Hay ward, E. A. Renouf, S. G. Griffin, Hora- 
tio Colony, Mrs. C. S. Falkner ; Directors, 
Horatio Kimball, A. B. Skinner, Mrs. 
C. T. Bufi'um, Mrs. S. D. Osborne, Mrs. 
C. Bridgman, Mrs. A. S. Carj^enter, 
James Marsh, Mrs. O. G. Dort, Dr. G. B. 
Twitchell, Mrs. W. P. Wheeler; Secretary, 
Miss. E. Henderson; Treasurer, Clark F. 
Rowell ; Prosecuting Attorney, John T. Abbott. 

Invalids' Home was incorporated Novem- 
ber, 1874. President, Mrs. A. S. Carpenter; 
Directors, Mrs. G. D. Harris, Mrs. E. C. 
Thayer, Mrs. R. H. Porter, Miss E. J. Faulk- 
ner, Mrs. K. (_'. Scott, F. F. Lane ; Secretary, 
Miss B. M. Dinsraoor; Treasurer, I. N. Spencer. 

Public Schools. — The following gentlemen 



92 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEAV HAMPSHIRE. 



compose the board of officers for Union School 
District : Rev. Edward A. Renouf, chairman of 
the Board of Education ; Wilton H. Spalter, sec- 
retary of the board ; Henry S. Martin, treasurer 
of the district ; Wilton H. Spalter, agent 
of the district; Ira D. Gates, janitor of High 
School building. 

The Board of Education is comjjosed of the 
following : George Tilden, term expires March 
1885; George A. Wheelock, term exjjires 
Mar(;h, 1885 ; Henry S. Martin, term expires 
March, 1885 : Wilton H. Spalter, term expires 
March, LSSfi; Joseph B. Abbott, tei-m expires 
]\[arch, 1881! ; Ira J. Prouty, term expires 
March, 188() ; Rev. Edward A. Renouf, term 
expires Marcli, 1887 ; t'harles H. Hersey, term 
exjiires March, 1887 ; John AV. Sturtevant, 
term expires March, 1887. 

IL'f/h School, Winter Street. — The High School 
building, completed in 1876, at a cost of fifty 
thousand dollars, is a model in architectural 
design, and will accommodate over three hun- 
dred pupils. In addition to the High School 
proper, tlirre arc four grammar schools, of the 
first, second and third grades, kept in the build- 
ing. 

The instructors are IMiddlescx A. Bailey, 
A.M., principal ; William F. Gibson, sub- 
master ; Miss E. M. Taft, assistant ; Miss Alice 
M. Whitcomb, assistant. 

Grammar Schools. — First Grade : High 
School building, Miss M. A. Wheeler, S. Liz- 
zie Green (assistant). 

Second Grade : Rooai 1 , High School build- 
ing, Miss Julia D. Hatch ; Room 2, High School 
buildins, Miss Helen M. Ho\Yard. 

Third Grade: Room 1, High Schocjl building. 
Miss Lizzie M. Nims ; Room 2, School Street, 
Miss Carrie R. Hutchins. 

Fourth Grade : Room 1, Centre Street, Miss 
Carrie E. Whitcomb ; Room 2, School Street, 
Miss Fannie M. Rhan ; Room 3, Church 
Street, Miss Sarah L. Bixby. 

Secondary Seliools. — I^iucoln Street, Flora E. 
Sargeant ; Main Street, Harriet A. Hemenway ; 
Pearl Street, Annie M. O'Connor; School 
Street, Gertrude E. Stone ; Washington Street, 
S. Annie Strong; Fuller School, Anna F. 
Downer. 



Primary Schools. — Lincoln Street, Jennie A. 
Tuttle ; Main Street, Anna E. Bates ; Pearl 
Street, Nan L. Hart; School Street, Nellie M. 
Towne ; AA'ashington Street, Hattic M. Metcalf ; 
Centre Street, Jennie S. Abbott ; Fuller School, 
Mary A. Conroy. 

Suburban Districts. — The schools not belong- 
ing to the Union District are ten in number, and 
are placed under charge of a superintendent. 
The superintendent of suburban schools is 
Gardner C. Hill. 

Independent Order of Odd Fellows — 
Beaver Brook Lodge, No. 36. — Eugene M. 
Keyes, N. G. ; D. H. Dickersou, V. G. ; Frank 
M. Davis, Rec. Sec; A. W. Dickinson, Treas. ; 
Frank E. Joy, Per. Sec. 

Friendship Rebehah Degree Lodge, No. 6. — 
Elsie M. Fay, N. G. ; Ella M. Griffith, N, G. ; 
Kate C. AVard, Roc. Sec. ; Abby J. Roby, 
Treas. ; Carrie L. Geer, F. Sec. 

3Ioiiaclnock Encumpiiient, No. 10. — Clinton 
Collins, C. P. ; R. AY. Ward, S. W. ; C. Pressler, 
H. P. ; AYalter W. Glazier, Scribe ; Sylvester 
Spaulding, Treasurer. 

United Ordeii of the Golden Cross. 
— Keene Coinmandery, No. 90, and Ashuelot 
Council, No. 833, Royal Arcanum, are situated 
liei-e. 

Independent Order of Good Tejiplars. 
— Refuge Lodge, No. 59, was organized Jaim- 
ary 20, 1882. 

Keene Light Guard. — Company G.: Cap- 
tain, Francis O. Nims ; First Lieutenant, Edward 
P. Kimball ; Second Lieuteuaut, Charles AY. 
Starkey ; Sergeants, Charles E. Joslin, D. H. 
Dickinson, A^'illiam H. Reyoum, E. O. Upham, 
C. H. Clark. 

Company H. — Captain, George AY. Fisher; 
First Lieutcntmt, Jerry P. AYellman ; Second 
Lieutenant, Frank Chapman ; Sergeants, E. A. 
Shaw, F. E. Barrett, O. G. Nims, Sumner 
Nims. 

Battalion. — This organization was organized 
October 17, 1877, and comprises Companies G 
and H of the Second Regiment. The follow- 
insf are the officers of the Battalion : Com- 
mander, Lieutcnant-Colouel Fred. A. Faulkner ; 
Major, Albert AY. Metcalf; Clerk, J. C. Reed ; 
Treasurer, Oscar G. Nims ; Executive Commit- 



KEENE. 



93 



tee, Frank Chapman, Jcriy P. Welliuan, E. M. 
Keyes ; Committer on Arms, Eqiiipmonts and 
and Uniforms, Captain G. W. Fislier, Cap- 
tain F. O. Nims, Lientenant C W. Starkey; 
Armorer, Vi\ AV. Ross. 

A Post of the Grand Army of the Re- 
ru BLTO was organized here in 18(j8 ; reorganized 
January, 1880. L. ^V. Foskett, Commander : L. 
H. Starkey, Senior Vice-Commander ; Ambrose 
A. Stik'S, Junior Vice-Commander ; William 
yV. Ross, Adjutant; L. D. Darling, Quarter- 
master ; H. W. Eastman, Officer of the Day ; 
,1. S. Warner, Officer of the Guard ; Dr. G. B. 
Twitcliell, Surgeon ; E. E. Bissell, Chaplain. 

AxciKXT Order of Hiberxiaxs was or- 
ganized April 5, 1874. 

Fire Derartment, 1885. — -The officers are : 
Chief Engineer, George D. A\ heelock ; Assist- 
ants, J. A. Batchelder, H. H. Barker, "William 
H. Reyoum, C. L. Kingsbury, H. W. Harvey ; 
Clerk, C. L. Kingsbury. 

Keene Steamer and Hose Company, No. 1.— E. 
S. Foster, captain ; H. H. Haynes, lieutenant ; 
J. P. A^'ellwan, foreman of hose ; G. H. Piper, 
engineer ; D. E. Ladd, assistant engineer ; H. 
W. Keyes, clerk ; M. V. B. Clark, treasurer. 

Deluf/e Hose Company, Xo. 1. — O. P. Applin, 
foreman ; Charles Balch, first assistant ; (ieorge 
F. Howe, second {Assistant ; Edward Stone, clerk; 
Charles G. Gihnore, secretary and treasurer; 
Fred. H. Towue, steward. 

Phcenix Hose Company, No. 4. — M. L. I.,an- 
dei-s, foreman ; AVm. R. ^\'iggett, first assistant ; 
Charles S. Carkin, second assistant ; F. F. 
Stearns, clerk ; Frank P. Gaynor, secretary and 
treasurer ; F. N. AVoods, steward. 

Washington Hooh-and- Ladder Company, JVo. 
1. — Joseph E. Ciriffith, foreman ; George Blais- 
dell, fii-st a.ssi.stant ; E. A. Seaver, second a.ssistant ; 
A. E. Fish, secretary and treasurer; Fred R. 
Smith, steward. 

Public Library.' — In the old " Annals of 
Keene," under date of 1815, we find this para- 
graph,— 

" We do not now stand apart from the rest of the 
world ; neither our position, nor the circumstances 
that surround us, present any features, grand, 
remarkable or romantic. . . . The deeds of our an- 

I By Mrs. M. R. Osborne. 



cestors are interesting to us, not merely because they 
were the deeds of our ancestors, nor because they are 
viewed through the long vista of past time, but prin- 
cipally because they were performed by a few meu of 
stout hearts and strong wills, amid perilous and re- 
markable circumstances ; and are appreciated by the 
vast importance of their consequences. Individuals 
are lost in the multitude, and a multitude excites no 
interest." 

And ^A•hat is true of individuals is also true 
of institutions, — they have a history interesting 
to none, perhaps, outside of their own immediate 
vicinity, and yet the annals of a town or coimty 
would be incomplete without this record. 
Hence, tin's sketch of the Keene Public Libraiy. 

The Keene Pulilie Library had its beginning 
in 1859 in a joint stock-company, represented 
and sustained by an association of stockholders, 
each holding one or more shares at five dollars 
per share, subject to assessment annually. An- 
nual subscribers, by the payment of two dollars, 
were entitled to all the privileges of the library. 

In 1859 by-laws and a constitution were 
drawn up and subscribed to, as follows : 

" We, the undersigned, hereby associate ourselves 
together for the establishment of a library in Keene, 
under the corporate name of the ' Keene Public Li- 
brary,' agreeably to the preceding Constitution and 
By-Laws, for the objects and upon the conditions there- 
in expressed; and we hereby adopt said Constitution 
and By-Laws as a part of our articles of agreement. 
.Vnd we further agree that our first meeting be held 
on the 3d day of May, 1850, at the Town Hall in 
Keene, at 7J o'clock P.M., and be organized as the 
majority shall decide. 

" Wm. P. Wheeler. Geo. Cook. 

Faruum F. Lane. I). H. Sawyer. 

Leonard Bisco. Edward A. Webb. 

Geo. B. Twitchell. Oilman Josliu. 

John Henry Elliot. Wm. Henry Thayer." 
William S. Briggs. 

At the first annual meeting of the stockhold- 
ers a board of twelve trustees was elected, con- 
sisting of the same persons, with the aildition 
of John Bowker. George B. Twitchell was 
chosen chairman, and William H. Thayer sec- 
retary (whose duty it should be to prepare a 
catalogue), and Leonard Bisco librarian, "the 
Trustees agreeing to pay him the sum of fifty 
dollars for the use of the room and the care 
and delivery of books, including all the duties 
of I^ilirarian for one year." 



94 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" On the opeuing of the Library, Sept. 3tl, 
the Secretary reaJ a brief address, which tlie 
Board agreed to publish in the Newspapers, 
with soiiMi alteratious." The first sum voted 
for books was oue hundred dollars. At the 
first annual meeting, in May, the treasurer's re- 
port represented the sum of two hundred dol- 
lars. Of tlie twelve gentlemen elected trustees, 
only four have <leparted this life. Those who 
remain hale and hearty t(j-day are F. F. Lane, 
Rev. William (). White, William H. Thayer, 
M.D., John Henry Elliot, George Cook, John 
Bowkcr, William S. Briggs and George A. 
Wheelork. 

In LS62 the following vote appears on the 
records: '' ]'utcd to appropriate two hundred 
and five dollars for the expenses of the ensuing- 
year, — Ninety dollai-s for the purchase of 
books. Ninety dollars for the .salary of Jyibra- 
rian and Twenty-five for rent, gas and inciden- 
tal expenses." 

Valuable gifts of books and public docu- 
ments were received from time to time. One 
hundred and fifteen dollars was the largest sum 
expended in any one year before the vote to 
transfer the library to the city, in 1875. A 
meeting was called September 19, 1874, to hear 
the I'eport of the committee previously chosen 
l>y the stockholders (consisting of William P. 
Wheeler, George A. Mlieelock and F. S. Strat- 
ton) to confer with a committee chosen by the 
city, in relation to surrendering the shares of 
the stockholders to the city, and take any action 
deemed necessary to transfer .the library and 
any other property of the association to the city. 
The committee chosen by the city were William 
Dinsmoor, Asa Smith (couucilmen), S. S. Wil- 
kinson (alderman), with full authority to con- 
summate the transactions ; and on February 
1, 1874, F. S. Stratton and George A. ^\llee- 
lock, on the jJart of the association, and William 
Dinsmoor, on the part of the city, met and for- 
mally transferred the library to the city, under 
tiie following conditions and regulations, viz. : 
" The city shall furnish suitable apartments, and 
for five years shall expend the sum of not less 
than three hundrtnl dollars, and after that a 
sum of not less than five hundi'cd dollars, for 
the purchase and i-epair of books, until such 



time as the Library shall receive an income of 
not less than one thousand dollai's per annum." 
The city also voted to maintain " a free public 
library, \^hich should be well I'quipjjed with 
standard, historical and general works, constitu- 
ting an armory in which our young men might 
furnish tht>mselves weapons for the intellectual 
contests of the day, and every care should be 
exercised in its formation to guard its shelves 
strictly from worthless books." They also 
decreed that the joint standing committee should 
have charge and management of said library, 
appoint a librarian and define his duties and 
make all such rules and regulations as they 
shall deem proper. Alderman Wilkinson and 
Councilmen Dinsmoor and Smith constituted 
that committee, and leased the rooms of the 
Social Union, and the books i-ecommended, 433 
in number, were purchased, which, with the 
2G44 received from the association, made a total 
of 3077 volumes. The first librarian was Cy- 
rus Piper, who reported at the annual meeting 
valuable gifts of books, reports, public docu- 
ments, etc., and not a book lost during the 
year. 

In 1877 the city passed an ordinance "com- 
mitting the Library to a Board of Trustees 
consisting of six persons, three of whom may 
be ladies, and all to serve without compensa- 
tion, to be appointed as follows : two for one 
year, two for two years and two for three 
years, and at the expiration of the term of 
office of each two, their successors shall be ap 
pointed for three years." William P. Cham- 
berlain, Mrs. H. M. Hatch, A. B. Heywood, 
Mrs. M. R. Osborne, D. W. (lilbert and Mrs. 
E. J. C. Gilliert constituted the board of trus- 
tees, four of whom have remained on the board 
until the present time, and the librarian then. 
Miss Brooks, who succeeded her father after his 
decease, is still at her post. 

The mayor, in his review of the library the 
third year after its transfer to the city, depre- 
cated the fact " that so large a per cent, of the 
books read were fiction, revealing a frivolous 
taste prevailing in the community." In 1880 
the Keene Public Library became a member of 
the Library Association, tuid the trustees 
availed themselves of the valuable aid afibrded 



KEENE. 



95 



thereby to increase tlie efficiency of their 
library. The lack of two things liad been a 
hindrance to its growth and prosperity, viz. : a 
proper classification of books and a catalogue 
that would be a more comjilete guide in the 
finding of books. 

In 18S1 a large, commodious and well- 
lighted room was provided by the city in City 
Hall Block, and the books were renumbered 
and classified, according to their subjects. A 
card-catalogue had also been completed, based 
U2)on the same jjlan, and containing copious ref- 
erences to the contents of books, and an exhaust- 
ive analysisof the subjects treatedin them. A new 
method of keeping the record of books loaned 
and returned, has been adopted, which, in effici- 
ency and simplicity is mucli superior to tlie old 
ledaer svstem, and lost books can be more easily 
traced. The book committee of three persons, 
chosen from the board of trustees, have always 
aimed to carry out the legitimate object of a pub- 
lic library — that of furnishing the meaus of in- 
struction and education, instead of amusement 
only, and have placed on the shelves works of an 
enduring charactc^r, such as should I'ender it more 
valual)le as it increases in size, instead of filling 
it with books of a sensational nature, which will 
become valueless when their short day has passed. 
Many valuable gifts have greatly enhanced the 
value of the library. And before closing this 
fragmentary sketch permit me to invite the 
citizens of our county, when visiting Kcene for 
business or pleasure, to step into our Public 
Library, where our obliging and business-like 
librarian will show the admirable working of the 
card-catalogue (whicii cost days and months of 
continuous labor), where the anxious seeker after 
some missing-link, with which to complete his 
essay or discussion, is directed straight to the 
liiddeu truth or historical fact, and thus mucii 
valuable time is saved. Tiien, passing on to the 
Reference Department, i)ause and look over 
the table covered with the best magazines, and 
if it chance to be out of school hours, you will 
see pupils seated around it, not to read the 
stories, but to glean choice bits of kuowledge 
from the excellent articles on science, biography 
and travel, contributed by master-minds in our 
own and foreign lands. 



But the grandest portion of our library is the 
solid books of reference and excellent maps and 
charts. Here you -will find the members of our 
higher grades of school, with pencil and note- 
book in hand, carefully noting facts and dates 
to aid them in acquiring the liberal education 
which is the birthright of every child in Keenc. 

One who has been abroad many years said, 
on returning here to his native city, " I find the 
beauty of Keene greatly enhanced by her fine 
public and private buildings, her broad streets 
beautified and arched by the spreading branches 
of her noble elms ; but the crowning gem to me 
is her Public Library, with its almost faultless 
appointments." 

But this " beginning," we trust, is only the 
earnest of the future Public Library of Keene, 
when, througii the munificence of our late gen- 
erous citizen, John Symond.s, supplemented by 
the aid of both of our citizen.s, a fire-proof build- 
ing, with its library hall filled with light alcoves, 
holding their precious treasures, its well- 
appointed reading-room, its art gallery and 
museum of natural history, when the fifty-five 
hundred volumes shall be multiplied, it may be 
five times, it may be ten, and who knows, but a 
hundred-fold ! 

Tlie present board of trustees are AVilliam 
P. Chamberlain, Dexter W. Gilbert, Charles 
H. Hersey,Mrs. E. J. C. Cilbert, JVIiss Kate I. 
Tilden, Mrs. M. R. Osborne; Mrs. L. M. 
Converse, librarian ; ]\Iiss Z. B. Gilmore, as- 
sistant librarian. 

The Press. — The first newspaper in Keene 
was the New Hampshire Recorder and Weeldij 
Advertiser, established by James D. Griffith in 
1787. This was continued until March .3, 
1791. 

The Neio Hampshire Sentinel was established 
in Alarch, 1799, by John Prentiss, who was 
connected with it nearly half a century. His 
son, John W., became associated with him in 
October, 1828, and the paper was conducted 
under the firm-name of J. & J. W. Prentiss 
until June 20, 1834, when John Prentiss again 
appeai-s to be the sole proprietor. In 1838 the 
firm again became J. & J. W. Prentiss. In 
1847 J. W. Prentiss again assumed control, and 
soon after Alfred Godfrey became associated 



96 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



with its publication, under the name of J. W. 
Prentiss & Co. July G, 1855, the Avierican 
Neii'S was uuited with the Sentinel, and the firm 
became A. Godfrey and G. S. Woodward. It 
was subsccj^uently published by S. & G. S. 
Woodward; later by Thomas Hale, G. S. 
Woodward, Albert Godfrey and T. C Rand. 
In July, 18(i5, the firm consisted of T. C. 
Rand, G. S. Woodward and Oliver L. French. 
In 1 8(5G it was issued by George Ticknor & 
Co. From December, 1866, to 1868, Mr. 
French was the sole proprietor. ]\Ir. T. C. 
Rand then purchased an interest, and the Sentinel 
was conducted by Rand & French until Sep- 
tember, 1872, when C.J. Woodward purchased 
an interest, and the jiaper was then issued by 
the Sentinel Pul)lishing Company, which name 
has continued to the jiresent time. No further 
change appeared in the ownership of the paper 
until j\Iarch, 1880, when Mr. William H. Pren- 
tiss became a member of the firm, and the )S'e/i<mf/ 
is now published by Messrs. Rand, Woodward 
and Prentiss, under wliose able management 
it has taken front rank among the leading 
journals of the State. It is Republican in 
politics. 

The Cheshire Repuhlican, the leading Demo- 
cratic paper of Western New Hampshire, was 
established in Walpole, N. H., April 11, 1793, 
and removed to Keene November 14, 1828. It 
was originally called the Farmers' Museum. It 
has been successively published since its removal 
here by Nahum Stone, B. Cooke, H. A. Bill, 
Horatio Kimball, J. N. Morse and W. B. Allen, 
J. N. Morse, and Joshua I). Colony & Sons. 
The Republican came into the possession of 
Colony & Sons in 1878 and atonce entered ujion 
a prosperous era. They brought to the enterprise 
energy and ability, which soon became manifest. 
It is Democratic in politics and a fearless ex- 
ponent of the principles of that party. 

The following are obsolete publications : 
The Cheshire Advertiser, The Columbian In- 
former, The Rising Sun and the American Ncws_ 
The latter was merged with the Sentinel in 
1855. 

Tlie Nem England Observer was com- 
menced at White River Junction, Vt., January 
1, 1878, as The Republican Observer. Thomas 



Hale, a veteran journalist, was its founder, and 
he continued to be its editor and publisher un- 
til June, 1880, when the subscription-list and 
material was purchased by a stock company 
and removed to Keene, and the jjaper was re- 
christened the New England Observer. Mr. 
Hale remained as its editor until the following 
spring, when he v,'as succeeded by H. L. In- 
man, the manager, who has since filled both jio- 
sitious. The New England Observer is Repub- 
lican in politics, but not in an organic sense, 
reserving the right at all times to believe tliat the 
good of all is j)referable to the success of any 
party, when that party is clearly in the wroug. 

Kekxe in IS.'il. — The first Directory of 
Keene was published in l<s;31, "with four 
original engravings." This Directory contained 
the names of thirteen streets and about five 
hundred people. The business interests, etc., 
at that time were represented as follows : 

Apothecaries. — S. & H. Gcrould, A. & T. Hall. 

Attornei/s-at-Law. — Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., Elijah 
Duubar, Thomas M. Edw.ards, Elijah Parker, Joel 
Parker, James Wilson, James Wilson, Jr. 

Booksellers. — J. & J. W. Prentiss, Geo. Lincoln. 

Baptist Church. — Rev. E. Hale, pastor. 

First Congregational Church. — Rev. Z. S. Baretow, 
pastor ; Elijah Carter, Thomas Fisher, C. H. Jaquith, 
Abijah Wilder, deacons. 

Keene Congregational Socictg. — Rev. T. R. Sullivan, 
pastor; Samuel Wood and AdolpLns Wright, deacons. 

Engine Companies. — No. 1, John V. Wood, captain ; 
No. 2, J. B. Davis, captain. 

Insurance Agents. — Elijah Parker, Thomas M. Ed- 
wards, Justus Perry. 

Hotels. — Eagle Hotel, Stephen Harrington, proprie- 
tor; Plicenix Hotel, John Hatch, proprietor. 

Taverns. — Henry Goodenow, Abigail Metcalf, Josiah 
Sawyer, J. & R. Shelly and Samuel Streeter. 

Libraries. — Cheshire Athenaeum, Cheshire Theolog- 
ical Institute, Juvenile Library, Keene Book Society, 
Circulating Library, School Library. 

Livery /Staife.— Stillraan French, T. E. Sears. 

Mannfacturers. — Perry, AVTieeler & Co., bottles ; 
Adams, Holman & Button, A. & T. Hall, potashes ; 
Adams, Holman & Dutton, window-glass. 

Baker. — Amos Wood. 

Blacksmiths. — Aaron Davis, J. Daniels, J. Towns, 
N. Wilder, J. Wilson, N. Wood. 

Book-Binder. — George Tilden. 

Brick-Maker— T]iomas M. Edwards. 

Butchers. — Barker & McNiel. 

Carpenters. — Nathan Bassett, S. Crossfield, K. Cross- 
field, .John Fitch, E. Newcomb, Jotham Parker, G. 
W. Sturdevant, John S. Thatcher. 



KEENE. 



97 



Chaise- Maker. — Thomas F. Ames. 

Clock-Maker. — Luther Smith. 

Clothiers. — Faulkner & Colony. 

Coopers. — Abel Angier, A. Dodge, Elisha Fassett, 
E. Hale, James Perry, Silas Perry. 

Glazier. — Walter Taylor. 

Gravestone- Maker. — El iplialet Briggs. 

Gun-Maker — John C. Masou. 

Hair-Dresser. — Adolphus Wright. 

Hatter. — Dexter Anderson. 

Hoe-Makers. — Aaron Davis, Azel Wilder. 

Last-Maker. — C. II. Jacjuith. 

Masons. — J. B. Davis, J. F. Locke, D. Marsh, J. 
Parker, C. Wilson. 

Millers. — T. Dwinell, Jr., Faulkner & Colony, E. 
Holbrook, Geo. Page. 

Milliners and Dress-Makers. — Jerusha Brown, Misses 
Dodge, Harriet Keyes, Jane N. Leonard, Eliza R. 
Eidgway. 

3Iillwrir/hts.- — Enos Holbrook, George Page, Aaron 
Willson, Jr. . 

Morocco- Dressers. — Harington & King. 

Pail-Makers. — S. Perry, J. Willson. 

Painters. — Gideon Clark, Charles Ingalls, Walter 
Taylor. 

Printers. — J. & J. W. Prentiss, N. Stone. 

Pump-Makers. — Page & Holman, Oliver Willson. 

Saddlery.- — T. F. Ames, David Watson. 

Shingle- Maker. — George Page. 

Shoemakers. — Harington & King, C. H. Jaquith, 
Abijah Kingsbury, Wilson & Wade. 

Sleigh- Maker. — A. Wilder, Jr. 

Stone- Cutters. — A. Dickerson, J. Ellis. 

Tailors. — G. C. Dean, Montague & Wright, Mon- 
tague & Dinsmore. 

Taihresses. — Mrs. I'aker, F^sther Page, Hannah 
Stiles, Mrs. Welden, Mary Wright. 

Tanners. — Harington & King, C Lamson. 

Tinner. — J. P. Barber. 

Turners. — Page & Holman, A. AVilder. 

Jewelers. — J. Corbett, S. & H. Gerould, J. H. Pond, 
J. Uidgeway. 

Wheel-Head Maker. — A. Wilder. 
Wheelwright. — C P. Perkins. 

Music and Musical Instruments. — George Tilden. 

Newspapers. — The Farmer's Museum, Xahuni Stone, 
editor; New Hampshire Sentinel, J. & J. W. Prentiss, 
circulation, 1150. 

Physicians. — Charles G. Adams, J. B. Doiisman, 
Amos Twitchell. 

Saw- Mills.— ThonvAn Dwinell, Jr., Faulkner & Col- 
ony, Perry & Angier, J. Perry, George Page, Caleb 
Wright. 

The selectmen for this year were Eliphalet 
Briggs, Henry Coolidge and Thomas Thomp- 
son ; Eliphalet Briggs, clerk ; William Dins- 
more, postmaster ; Eepresentatives, Aaron Hall 
and James Wilson, Jr. 



There were fonrteen school districts, with six- 
teen teachers and seven hundred and sixty-eight 
scliolars. The school money raised was thir- 
teen hundred and fifty dollars. The enterpris- 
ing business men, as evidenced l)y the adver- 
tisements in this j)ionoer Directory, were Thomas 
F. Ames, George Tilden, Jolin C. Mason, 
Abijah Kingsbury, Adams, Holnuui ct Dutton, 
Lamson & Dutton, A. & T. Hall, Evans & 
Perkins, Montague & Dinsmoor, Perry, Wheeler 
& Co., S. & H. Gerould and J. & J. W. Pren- 
tiss. It contained a view of tlie Congregational 
Church, Unitarian Church, Phoenix and Eagle 
Hotels. 

Post-Offioe. — The late Hon. Salma Hall, 
while compiling his " Annals of Keene," wrote 
to the Post-Oiiice Department at Washington 
in relation to the first post-office in this town, 
and received the following letter in reply: 

" Owing to the destruction of a large part of the 
books and papers of the Department, by the firo of 
1836, we have no means of giving s.atisfactory answers 
to the inquiries contained in your letter of the 5th 
inst. We are enabled, however, to state positively 
that, in the early part of 1795, Asa Bullard was the 
Postmaster at Keene, N. H. (then spelt Keen). His 
account, rendered for the quarter (or part of the 
quarter, possibly) ending 31st March, 17D5, shows 
that the net proceeds of the office for that quarter 
amounted to $1.36. The next quarter, it appears, 
they came up to $4.49. By the Auditor's records, 
which go back to 1775, it does not appear that any 
account, prior to the above, was opened with the 
office at Keene. From this circumstance, and the fact 
that Keene is not mentioned in the list of offices 
(about two hundred in number, and believed to be all 
then in ojjeration in the United States), to which a 
circular of the Postmaster-General was sent, under 
date of 18th June, 1792, it seems very probable that 
Asa Bullard was the first Postmaster of Keene, and 
that he was appointed some time in the first quarter 
of 1795, or, possibly, in the latter part of 1794. 

" It appears, by a copy of a letter from the First 
Assistant Postmaster-General to Jeremiah Libbey, 
Esq., Postmaster of Portsmouth, N. H., dated 16th 
Sept., 1794, that ' Ozias Silsby's proposal for carrying 
the mail from Boston to Keen' had then just been ac- 
cepted ; and contracts were enclosed for execution. 
It is not stated when the contract was to go into oper- 
ation, nor how frequently the mail was to be conveyed. 
It seems that the route to Keene was by the way of 
Portsmouth ; and it is not probable that the service 
beyond Portsmouth was oftener than once a week, 
because it apjiears that, in winter, it was at that time 
but twice a week between Boston and Portsmouth. 



98 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



How long the mail was in passing between the two 
places (Boston and Keene) we have not, from any of 
the existing records, been able to ascertain." ' 

The Kixu's Cannon. — At the term of the 
Superior Court held in Keene in October, 1807, 
came on the trial of a prosecution instituted by 
the inhaljitaiits of AYalpole against certain citi- 
zens of Keene " for taking and carrying away, 
in tlie night-time, a piece of ordnance of the 
value of two hundred dollars, the property of 
said town of Walpole." 

For the better understanding of tliis matter, 
it is necessary to go back to a remote period of 
our liistory. In the early settlement of the 
country, on Connecticut River, four forts were 
erected on its banks, and each was supplied by 
His Majesty, the King of England, with a large 
iron cannon. These forts were numbered — that 
at Chesterfield being No. 1, that at Westmore- 
land No. 2, that at Walpole No. 3 and that at 
Charlestown Xo. 4. These cannons remained in 
those several towns after tiie achievement of 
our independence, were prized as trophies of 
victory, and made to speak in triumpliant tones 
on every Fourth of July and other days of 
public rejoicings. Their reports sounded to tlie 
inhabitants of the adjoining towns as exulting 
claims to superiority, they having no sucli 
trophies to speak for them. That at Walpole Avas 
left unguarded in tlie Main Street. In the 
spring of this year a citizen of Keene, then a 
youth, but since distinguished in tlie service of 
his country, liaving received an elegant sword 
for his gallant defense, in the War of 1812, of 



1 It has been ascertained that Asa BuUard was an officer 
in tlie Revolutionary War — probably a captain, for he was 
so styled when he first came to Keene. While here he re- 
ceived an appointment in the militia which gave him the 
rank of major, and he was afterwards known as Major 
BuUard. He resided and kept the post-office in the rough- 
cast house formerly occupied by Elijah Dunbar, and now 
by Joshua Wyman. Ue afterwards removed to AValpole 
and kept tavern there ; and it was at his house that for 
some time the club of scholars and wits, who made them- 
selves and the Farmers' Museum famous throughout the 
country, by their lucubrations, and consisted of Joseph 
Dennie, afterwards editor of Portfolio, at Philadelphia, 
Royal Tyler, afterwards chief justice of Vermont, Samuel 
Hunt and Roger Vose, both afterwards members of Con- 
gress, Samuel West and others, held their periodical sym- 
posiums. 



Fort Covington, near Baltimore, arranged a 
party who repaired to >\'alpole in tlie night, 
took possession of the (aunou and Ijrotight it in 
triumph to Keene. 

The whole population of Walpole were in- 
dignant at being deprived, in this way, of their 
valued trophy, and determined to appeal to the 
laws to recover it. Several attempts to tirrest 
the offenders proved abortive, but this only 
added to their zeal. A respectable citizen of 
Walpole was sent to aid tlie sheriff. Knowing 
tliat he whom they most wished to secure con- 
cealed liimself whenever apprized that the oiHeer 
was visible, they lay in ambush for him in the 
swamps south and west of his father's residence. 
It happened that Dr. Adams was at this time 
gunning, as was his frequent habit, in the same 
grountls. He saw tliem, and knowing that they 
saw him, he walked hurriedly away. They fol- 
lowed ; he hastened his walk, they theirs, until 
tiie walk became a run, and the run a race. His 
Iviiowledge of the minute topograjjhy of the place 
enabled him to take sucli direction as might be.st 
suit his purpose. Methiuks I see him now, 
lightly springing from hassock to hassock, from 
turf to log, now and then looking back, with 
ftice sedate and eagle eye, to see how his jjur- 
suers sped. By turning and winding he led 
them into a bog, and gained distance while they 
were struggling to gain firm foothold. They 
outran him, liowever, and arrested him at his 
door ; but were soon convinced they h:id not 
caught the right man, and returned, not the less 
irritated, to \\'alpole. 

Several of the delinquents were at length 
arrested and brought to trial. The court (Chief 
Justice Smith, afterwards Governor, presiding) 
decided that the said cannon was not the j)rop- 
erty of the said town of Walpole, and the de- 
fendants were discharged. It was immediately 
drawn near tlie court-house, loaded and fired. 
" May it please your honor," said Ct)unselor 
Vose, " the case is already reported." 

This was the year in wliich tiie sufferings 
from the Embargo exasperated a large portion 
of the people of New England. It is worthy 
of note that the selectmen of Keene, on being 
legally requested so to <lo, called a meeting of 
the qualified voters of the town "to take into 



KEENE. 



99 



consideration the present alarming situation of 
our country, to express our sentiments thereon 
and to adojjt such measures for a redress of 
grievances as shall be thought expedient." It 
was the practice in Revolutionary times for towns 
to resolve and even act in their corporate capa- 
city in relation to public ailairs ; but the in- 
stances have been few in which they have so 
done since the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States. Tliis instance is not now men- 
tioned to censure it. It might be attended with 
many good results if all the citizens of a town 
were to be called together occasionally to dis- 
cuss public measures. At such meeting all 
parties might be heard, and argument be com- 
bated by argument. At this meeting several 
resolutions were adojjted, l)ut no measures were 
determined on. 

The irritation of the people of Waljmle at 
the loss of their valued trophy, or more, per- 
haps, at the manner in which they had been de- 
prived of it, continued unabated ; and they de- 
termined to take redress into their own hands. 
They had been informed that the cannon was 
concealed in a granary, in a back store, on the 
south side of West Street, near Main Street. On 
the evening of the 4tli of July a plot was ar- 
ranged to regain possession of it. A confederate 
(a stage-driver) was sent immediately to Keene, 
in a huge stage-wagon, to gain information and 
take measures to facilitate the execution of the 
project. He ascertained that it was concealed in 
the place mentioned, bargtiined for some grain, 
and, at his suggestion, was allowed to take 
the key, that he might get the grain very 
early in the morning without disturbing 
the clerks. Returning immediately, he met on 
their way a cav'aleade of about thirty, mostly 
voiuig men, conuuanded by a military officer of 
high I'ank, and made his repoi-t. They left 
their horses in the cross-road, then fringed with 
bushes, leading, from Court Street to Wasliing- 
ton Street, and in a few minutes entered the 
granary. The first motion of the camion, 
the night being still, made a terrific 
noise. The town bell was rung and an alarm of 
fire was raised. The men in the granary la- 
bored for a time without success, and almost 
without hope. Outside, men were seen skulk- 



ing behind buildings and flittintr from coi'ner 
to corner. At length, by a desperate effort, 
it was lifted iuto the wagon, and the team 
hurried towards Walpole. At break of day 
they were welcomed home by the ringing of the 
bell and by the applause of a crowd awaiting in 
anxiety the return of their fellow- townsmen. 

In the mean time a large number of the 
citizens of Keene mounted their horses and pur- 
sued the returning party ; but fortunately they 
took the wrong road, and thus a desperate con- 
flict was avoided. A report was current, at the 
time, that they took the wrong road by design ; 
lint this was pronounced a base and baseless 
slander. 

But the history of the King's cannon is not 
yet complete. It was soon afterwards furtively 
taken by a body of men from A\"estminster, 
Vt., to be used in celebrating the Declaration of 
Independence ; and was retaken, on a sudden on- 
set, by a large body of men from Walpole, the 
selectmen at their head, while actually in use 
for that purpose. It was afterwards taken by 
ijieu from Alstead, and report says that it was, 
after that, appropriated by an ii'on founder and 
transmuted into implements of husbandry. 

Manufacturing Interests. — The Faulk- 
ner tt Colony woolen-mill is one of the oldest es- 
tablishments of its kind in the State. The entire 
produc^tion of this mill is flannel. The founders 
of this interest have long since passed away, and 
the business is now conducted by their descend- 
ants. 

The Keene Furniture Company was estab- 
lished in 1868. This company employs about 
one hundred hands. Its principal owner is 
Edward Joslin ; F. L. Sprague and C. L. 
Kingsbury are the managers of the business. 
The works are located in the Hope Steam Mill 
Company's buildings. 

The Cheshire Chair Company is also located 
in the buildings of the Hope Steam Mill Com- 
pany. It was organized January 1, 1869, and 
at present consists of Edward and C. E. Joslin 
and George W. McDuliee. The Keene Chair 
Company is also a lai'ge establishment, at South 
Keene, of which Hon. S. W. Hale is president. 

The celebrated ''Clip[)er " mowing-machine is 
manufactured at South Keene. Among other 



100 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



manufacturers are Nims, Whitney & Co., manu- 
facturers of sasli, doors and blinds ; C. N. Tot- 
tingham & Co., manufacturers of sleighs. 
J. & F. French, manufacture the Kcene sleigh. 
This business was commenced in 1839. Wil- 
kinson & McGregor manufacture the celebrated 
Keene harness. Tlie Humphrey ^Machine Com- 
pany manufactures the I X I^ turbine water- 
wheel. A wheel costing ten thousand dollars was 
made at this establishment, in 1884, for a Low- 
ell mill ; pottery (J. S. Taft & Co.), brick, 
paint-brushes, impervious cans, etc., are also 
manufactured here. The Hojie Steam Mill 
Company, in addition to supplying power for 
other manufacturers, manufactures pails, tubs, 
etc. ; John Simons, tannery ; Frank E. Foster, 
taimery ; INIorse Bros., soap-^vorks ; Upham's 
glue works. 

Members of Congress. — Keene has fur- 
nished six members of C^^ngress : Peleg Sprague, 
Samuel Dinsnioor, Sr., Joseph Buftum, Salma 
Hale, James Wilson, Jr., and Thomas McKay 
Edwards. 

Governors. — Samuel Dinsmoorand his son, 
Samuel Dinsnioor, Jr.,' have been the only Gov- 
eiMiors elected from Keene until 1882. In that 
year Samuel W. Hale was elected Governor. 

War of the Eebellion. — The first war- 
meeting was held in Keene April 20, 1861. The 
meeting was called to order by Hon. Levi 
Chamberlain, and the following officers were 
chosen : President, ex-Governor Samuel Dins- 
moor ; Vice-Presidents, ex-Governor William 
Haile, Colonel David Buffum, Captain J. S. 
Adams, William P. AVheeler, Colonel Benjamin 
Read, Colonel T. A. Barker, F. A. Faulkner 
and Hon. Jacob Taylor ; Secretaries, George H. 
Tilden and A. S. AVhitcoml). 

This meeting was an enthusiastic one, and one 
of the resolutions adopted at its close was " that 
we will encourage and sustain, with our approval 
and sympathy, and also with 'material aid,' 

' Levi Chamberlain ot'tUe Cheshire bar, was at one time 
the opposing candidate of the latter. Mr. Chamberlain, 
well knowing that in Keene the men of his own political 
stripe preponderated, playfully suggested, with his charac- 
teristic mirth, tliat to avoid putting the State to so much 
trouble. Mr. Dinsmoor and he had best " leave the case 
out " to the decision of the friends and neighbors by whom 
they were best known. 



those citizens of our county who shall enroll 
themselves as soldiers in response to the rec(>nt 
call of the Governor." And most thoroughly 
was this resolution carried out. Keene respond- 
ed promptly to the call of her imperiled country. 
Kev'. William ( )rne White, in speaking of 
this "war-meeting," in the admirable address 
delivered by him in Keene, July 4, 1876, 
says,— 

" It was a memorable scene, when, in the sunlight 
of the afternoon of May 20th, 1861, the late Ex-Gov- 
ernor Dinsmoor stood upon the platform erected for 
the occasion, on Central Square, and, in ])resence of 
a multitude, said, as he introduced to them Hon. 
James Wilson, still happily spared to us (both deco- 
rated with the red, white and blue) : ' Amid the gen- 
eral gloom which pervades the community there is 
yet one cause for congratulation, — that we at last see 
a united North.' Representing diflerent i)olitical or- 
ganizations, these honored men served to typify the 
patriotism, which, in that trying hour, fused so many 
hearts in one. How the women, moved with a com- 
mon purpose, toiled week after week, year after year, 
in connection with the ' Soldiers' Aid Society,' or to 
help the benevolent work of the United States Sani- 
tary Commission ! - How like romance sound some 
of the surprises caused by the handicraft of the New 
Hampshire women.-' A Dublin soldier-boy, in his 
distant hospital, gains strength to scan the names in- 
scribed upon his album-quilt, and is strangely stirred 
as the names grow mf)re and more familiar, until at 
last he sees the handwriting of his own mother. 

" As we recall those memorable days, how that com- 
pany of the Second Regiment, moving forth fromour 
railroad station, at the signal of prayer, comes back to 
our minds, and those tents of the New Hampshire 
Sixth, as for weeks together they whitened the plains 
beyond the Ashuelot ! How shall I speak of the cour- 
age, the patience, the devotion of such men ? I aban- 
don the attempt. In summer and winter, week in and 
week out, they have their perpetual orator. There 
he stands in brazen panoply of armor ! If you have 
never heeded him, you will not heed me! But in 

'So early as March 11, 1862, the town votes three thou- 
sand dollars for the relief of wives, children or parents of 
volunteers. 

' After the subsidence of the war five hundred dollars 
a year were paid by a combination of persons in the va- 
rious religious societies, for two or three years, to the 
" Keene Freedman's Aid Society.'' The "Ladies' Charita- 
ble Society " unites, as it has for many years, the sympa- 
thies of all the parishes. The " Invalids' Home " was 
founded chiefly by the aid of the " Keene Congregational 
(or Unitarian) Society, " its chief benefactor being the late 
Charles Wilson, who left to the Home the sum of one thou- 
sand dollars. 



. KEBNE. 



101 



his meditative attitude, to me he speaks, uot wholly 
of the storm-cloud of battle, nor of freedom dawning 
upon millions of a once enslaved race ; he seems to 
dream, besides, of brighter days for his country, days 
when ' men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, 
and their spears into pruning-hooks, nation shall not 
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more.' The time shall come when no living 
tongue among their comrades shall be left to tell of 
Lane and Leverett, of Metcalf and Flint, Crossfield 
and Rugg, and Howard and Cheney, and their asso- 
ciates, who returned, not alive, to the dear old home ! 
One by one, all who bore part in the gigantic contest 
shall have passed onward. Yet even then, God grant 
that those silent lijis may speak eloquently to the fu- 
ture dwellers in this happy valley, of those sons of 
Kcene who, in behalfof their country, presented 'their 
bodies a living sacrifice.' " 

Tlie record of" Keene during the War of the 
Rebellion is one in which her citizens may justly 
feel a patriotic pride. Captain Henry C. Han- 
derson recruited the first volunteers. The first 
company raised became Company G of the First 
Rt'giment, A. J. Sargent, cajitaiu. The follow- 
ing companies also went out from Keene : Com- 
pany A, Second Regiment, T. A. Barker, cap- 
tain ; Company F, Fifth Regimeut, H. T. H. 
Pierce, captain ; CJompany E, Sixth Regiment, 
O. G. Dort, captain ; Company I, Ninth Regi- 
ment, John W. Babbitt, captain ; Comjjany G, 
Fourteenth Regiment, Solon A. Carter, captain. 
A portion of Company K, Third Regiment, was 
also from Keene. 

The Sixth Regiment was organized at Keene, 
commanded by Colonel Nelson Converse, and 
later by Colonel S. G. Griffin, afterwards major- 
general. A portion also of Company K, Third 
Regiment, was from this town. 

The following is the roll of honor : 

Captain Henry N. Metcalf, killed at Gettysburg. 

A. W. Heuton, died of wounds. May 25, 1862. 

William H. Hookins, died of wounds, July 25, 
1862. 

G. H. Muchmore, first lieutenant, killed at second 
battle of Bull Run. 

J. H. Jenks, sergeant-major, killed at Ced.ar Creek, 
October 19, 1864. 

Edward E. >!?turdevant, major, killed at Fredericks- 
burg. 

Henry Holton, died March 17, 1863. 

John A. Drummer, died December 9, 1861. 

John G. Darling, died. 

Henry White, died December 9, 1861. 



C. C. Cheney, died February 26, 1862. 

Henry Flint, died October 16, 18G2. 

George W. Marsh, drowned August 31, 1862. 

Henry Sprague, died August 17, 1863. 

C. D. Chase, died July 20, 1863. 

F. J. Leverett, died October 2, 1863. 

E. J. Perham, died October 26, 1862. 

C. E. Towns, died February 20, 1865. 

N. T. Dunn, died September 8, 1864. 

L. M. Parker, died June 20, 1865. 

Edwin Marvin, died December 15, 1862. 

E. F. Dickinson, died of wounds, June 17, 1864. 

H. W. WiUard, died Jlarch 3, 1865. 

Charles J. Wilder, killed October 13, 1864. 

Soldi EKs' Moximknt. — The first move- 
ment for the erection of a soldiers' memorial in 
Keene was started in 1868, when two thousand 
dollars was voted for the purpose, and a build- 
ing committee chosen. In August, 1870, an 
additional sum of five thousand dollars was 
voted, and a committee of five chosen to erect 
upon Central S(piare such a moiuiment as they 
should think best. 

The monunu'ut stands at the extreme south 
end of the jjark in Ceutral Scpiare, facing the 
south. It was designed by Martin Milmore, of 
Boston, and was cast by the Auies JMaiuifactur- 
ing C'ompany, of Chicopee, Mass. 

It consists of a bronze figure of a soldier, t'ight 
feet in height, standing at rest ; the butt of the 
musket is placed upon the ground, and, passing 
uj) between the right arm and the body, is su])- 
ported by the right hand, which is raised to- 
wards the shoulder and grasps the piece in a firm 
but pliant manner. 

The figure rests priueipally upon the right 
leg, while the left is advanced to an easy posi- 
tion, giving balance and repose to the whole. 

The drapery is that of a common soldier in 
the late war, including the overcoat, which was 
so useful in active service, and which now serves 
so admirably as a foil to the stiffness of the or- 
dinary costume and gives to the figure something 
of the grace necessary to a work of art. The 
pose of the figure is easy, at the same time firm 
and commanding. The countenance ex- 
presses that clear intelligence and sterliug com- 
mon sense which distinguishes the true Ameriam 
volunteer, and the whole aspect of the statue is 
that of the cinirageous, ready, firm and patriotic 
citizen-soldier. The figure stands upon a pedestal 



102 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of lloxbuiy granite, composed of the following 
.sections : 

A lower liase, seven and one-half feet sqnare 
and fifteen inches high ; second base, six feet 
two inches square and eighteen inches high ; 
third base, five feet four inches square and nine 
inches Jiigh ; fourth base, four feet ten inclies 
.square and twelve inches high. On these four 
bases rest the die, wliich is four feet S(|uare by 
five feet eight inches in lieight ; the whole .sur- 
mounted by a cap, five feet four inches square 
and eighteen inches thick. On tlie south of the 
die is a bronze tal)let, forty-eight by thirty-three 
inches, bearing the following in.scription : 

"Keene will cherish in perpetual honor the mem- 
ory of her sous who fought for liberty and the integ- 
rity of the Republic. 

1861-1865. 
" The honor of the heroic dead is the inspiration of 
posterity." 

The entire lieiglit of the jjedestal is twelve 
feet ten inches, and the total lieight of the pedes- 
tal and statue twenty feet ten inches. Surround- 
ing the monument, and distant from it ten feet, 
is a granite curljing. 

The monument was dedicated October 20, 1871, 
amid a large concourse of people. Many distin- 
guislied guests were also present, among whom 
were General Kilpatrick, General Garfield, Gov- 
ernor Weston and staft", Mr. ^Nlihnore, of Boston, 
and others. The introductory address of the day 
was delivered by Major-General S. G. Griffin, 
who was president of the day. The presentation 
address was delivered by Dr. Geo. B. Twitehell, 
and Mr. Geo. H. Gilbert, chairman of the Board 
of Selectmen, responded with an addi-ess of accept- 
ance. The oration was delivered by General 
Judson Kilpatrick. Remarks were also made 
by Governor Weston, Senator Patterson, General 
Garfield, Colonel C^irroll D. Wright, Martin 
Milmore, Hon. Thomas M. Edwards, Hon. Ro- 
sea Parker, General Natt. Head, General M. T. 
Donahue and Hon. Peter Sanborn. 

Physicians. — The following jihysicians have 
practiced in this town : Dr. Daniel Adams, Amos 
Twitehell, Chas. E. Adams, (son of Dr. Daniel), 
.Fos. Wheeler, Thaddous INIcCarty, Daniel Hough, 
.1. B. Douseman, George B. Twitehell, — — 
Smith, .J. F. Jeni.son, Tlios. B. Kitteredge, Dr. 



Cole, A. S. Carpenter, H. H. Darling, Ira 
Prouty, Wm. Geddes (deceased), Wm. R. Dur- 
ham, Geo. W. Flagg, I. J. Prouty, Dr. G. C. 
Hill, Mrs. G. C. Hill, G. H. Bridgman, S. M. 
Dinsmoor, A. B. Thurston and J. H. Leaeh. 

City of Keene. — The first meeting of the 
legal voters of Keene for the choice of city and 
ward officers was held on the second Tuesday 
in Afiril, 1(S74, when the following officers 
were elected ; and on the 5th day of May fol- 
lowing were duly clothed with administrative 
powers. 

1874. 

M.iyor: Horatio Colony. 

Aldermen: Ward 1, Horatio Kimball; Ward 2, 
Edward Farrar ; Ward 3, Don H. Woodward ; Ward 
4, Francis C. Faulkner ; Ward 5, Reuben Stewart. 

City Clerk: Heury S. Martin. 

President Common Council : Heury H. Darling. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, Alanson S. Whitcomb, Fran- 
cis French, Franklin J. Ware ; Ward 2, Henry H. 
Darling, Miles S. Buckminster, George W. Holbrook ; 
Ward 3, Joseph R. Deal, James W. Dodge, Nathan 
G. Woodbury; Ward 4, Frederick H. Kingsbury, 
Leander W. Cummings, Charles N. ^Vildcr ; Ward 5, 
William Dinsmoor, Oscar J. Howard, Horace Ham- 
blett. 

1875. 

Mayor : Horatio Colony. 

Aldermen: Ward 1, Solon S. Wilkins<ni ; Ward 2, 
Edward Farrar; Ward 3, Joseph R. Real ; Ward 4, 
William P. Abbott ; Ward 5, Reuben Stewart. 

City Clerk : Frank H. Starkweather. 

President Common Council : Frederick H. Kings- 
bury. 

Councilmen ; Ward 1, Francis A. Perry, Asa Fair- 
banks, Willi.am L. Davis ; Ward 2, George W. Hol- 
brook, Miles S. Buckminster, Asa Smith ; Ward 3, 
Allen Giffin, William H. Knowlton, Daniel H. Saw- 
yer; Ward 4, Charles N. Wilder, Frederick H. 
Kingsbury, Charles Shrigley ; Ward 5, William Dius- 
moor, Reuben Hyland, Horace Hamblett. 

1876. 
Mayor: Edward Farrar. 

Aldermen : Ward 1, Solon S. Wilkinson ; Ward 2, 
Thomas E. Hatch ; Ward 3, Joseph R. Bcal ; Ward 

4, William P. Abbott; Ward 5, Henry S. Martin. 
City Clerk : Frank H. Starkweather.' 
President Common Council : Charles Shrigley. 
Councilmen: Ward 1, Francis A. Perry, Asa Fair- 
banks, iSamuel O. Gates; Ward 2, Asa Smith, Oren 

5. Gleason, Warren W. Mason ; Ward 3, William H. 



' City Clerk Starkweatlier liaving died in office June 1st, 
Lucius C. Doolittle was elected to fill the place August 8th 
following. 



KEENE. 



103 



Knowlton, Daniel H. Sawyer, William P. Chamber- 
lain; Ward 4, Charles Shrigley, Josiah M. Wood- 
ward, Gardner C. Hill ; Ward 5, Horace Hamblett, 
Reuben Hyland, Edward C. Thayer. 

1877. 

Mayor : Edward Farrar. 

Aldermen: Ward 1, George W. Ball; Ward 2, 
Thomas E. Hatch ; Ward 3, Ira F. Prouty ; Ward 4, 
George H. Tilden ; Ward 5, Henry S. Martin. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President Common Council : Gardner C. Hill. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, Benjamin D. Hutchins, 
James S. Taft, Luther Starkey ; Ward 2, Warren W. 
Mason, Oren S. Gleason, Orlen D. Pratt ; Ward 3, 
William P. Chamberlain, Jason French, Harvey 
Phillips; Ward 4, Josiah M. Woodward, Gardner C. 
Hill, Joseph Wilson ; Ward 5, Edward C. Thayer, 
Frederick E. Robinson, George F. Sanborn. 

1878. 

Mayor : Reuben Stewart. 

Aldermen : Ward 1, George W. Ball ; Ward 2, 
George K. ^V^ight; Ward 3, Ira F. Prouty ; Ward 4, 
George F. Tilden ; Ward 5, Edward C. Thayer. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President Common Council : James S. Taft. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, Benjamin D. Hutchins, 
James S. Taft, Daniel R. Cole; Ward 2, James C. 
Whittle, Orlen D. Pratt, John W. Nye; Ward 3, 
Charles A. Gale, Jason French, Harvey Phillips; 
Ward 4, Norris G. Gurnsey, Jehiel Harlow, Joseph 
Wilson ; Ward 5, George F. Sanborn, Cheever P. 
Felch, Laton Martin. 

1879. 

Mayor : Reuben Stewart. 

Aldermen: Ward 1, Horatio Kimball; Ward 2, 
George K. Wright; Ward 3, Jason French ; Ward 4, 
Norris G. Gurnsey ; Ward o, Luther P. Alden. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President Common Council : Charles A. Gale. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, Charles F. Wilson, Franklin 
J. Ware, Fred. A. Barker ; Ward 2, James C. Whittle, 
John W. Nye, Caleb Goodnow ; Ward 3, Charles A. 
Gale, Clark N. Chandler, Albert O. Fisk ; Ward 4, 
Jehiel Harlow, Dexter W. Gilbert, Warren O. Wil- 
son ; Ward 5, Cheever P. Felch, Laton Martin, James 
H. Smith. 

1880. 

Mayor : Horatio Kimball. 

Aldermen : Ward 1, Charles F. Wilson ; Ward 2, 
Cyrus Piper ; Ward 3, Jason French ; Ward 4, Norris 
G. Gurnsey ; Ward 5, Edward B. Tarbell. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President Common Council : Dexter W. Gilbert. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, Hiram Blake, James 
Spencer, Milton M. Parks ; Ward 2, Jerry P. Well- 
man, James W. Russell, Charles W. Buckminster ; 



Ward 3, Albert 0. Fisk, George W. McDuftee, James 
H. Fisher ; AVard 4, Dexter W. Gilbert, George H. 
Richards, Charles W. Shedd ; Ward 5, James H. 
Smith, Sylvanus A. Morse, Henry S. Coulliard. 

1881. 

Mayor : Ira W. Russell. 

Aldermen : Ward 1, C!harles F. Wilson ; Wanl 2, 
Cyrus Piper; Ward 3, George W. McDuflee; VV'ard 
4, Dexter W. Gilbert; Ward 5, Luther P. Alden. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President Common Council : George H. Richards. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, Milton M. Parks, James 
Spencer, Rufns Freeman ; Ward 2, Jerry P. Well- 
man, James W. Russell, Henry W. Nims; Ward 3, 
James H. Fisher, Clark N. Ch.andler, Austin E. 
Howard ; Ward 4, George H. Richards, Charles W. 
Shedd, Zebina K. Graves ; Ward 5, Stei)hen L. Ran- 
dall, De Los C. Ball, Henry S. Coulliard. 
1882. 

Mayor : Ira W. Russell. 

Aldermen : Ward 1, Ralph J. Holt ; Ward 2, George 
B. Twitchell ; Ward 3, George W. McDuffee; Ward 
4, Dexter W. Gilbert ; Ward 5, Luther P. Alden. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President of Common Council : Stephen L. Ran- 
dall. 

Councilmen : Ward 1. Rufus Freeman, Albert W. 
Shelden, Edwin M. Bullard ; Ward 2, Henry W. 
Nims, George L. Burdett, Charles L. Johnson ; Ward 

3, Clark N. Chandler, Austin E. Howard, Charles 
Bridgman ; Ward 4, Zebina K. Graves, Clement J. 
Woodward, Charles H. Hersey ; Ward 5, Stephen L. 
Randall, De Los C. Ball, Henry S. Coulliard. 

1883. 

Mayor : Horatio Kimball. 

Alderman : Ward 1, Silas Hardy ; Ward 2, George 
L. Burdett; Ward 3, George E. Holbrook ; Ward 4, 
Frederick H. Kingsbury ; Ward 5, Reuben Hyland. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President of Common Council: Charles H. Hor- 
sey. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, James Marsh, Clark F. 
Rowell, Daniel C. Howard ; Ward 2, Walter W. Gla- 
zier, Asa M. Holt, Franklin H. Fay ; Ward 3, Austin 
E. Howard, Virgil A. Wright, Henry A. Stone ; 
Ward 4, Clement J. Woodward, Charles H. Hersey, 
Charles Wright ; Ward 5, Leonard Wright, Marcus 
Ellis, Frederick A. Barker. 

1884. 
Mayor: Horatio Kimball. 

Aldermen: Ward 1, Daniel C. Howard; Ward 2, 
(ieorge L. Burdett ; Ward 3, Henry N. Stone ; Ward 

4, Frederick H. Kingsbury ; Ward 5, Reuben Hy- 
land. 

City Clerk : Lucius C. Doolittle. 

President of Common Council : Virgil A.Wright. 



104 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Councilmen : AVard 1, M. V. B. Clark, Charles S. 
Cobuni, Harrison R. Ward ; Ward 2, William E. Bur- 
dett, Franklin H. Fay, John Gould ; Ward 3, Henry 
Giffin, Albert A. Woodward, Virgil A. Wright ; Ward 
4, Charles Wright, Abel E. Johnson, Charles Abbott 
(2d) ; Ward 5, Frederick A. Barker, William H. El- 
liot, Parker C. Butler. 

1885. 

Mayor : Alfred T. Batchelder. 

Aldermen : Ward 1, Daniel C. Howard ; Ward 2, 
Franklin H. Fay; Ward 3, Solomon F. Merrill; 
Ward 4, Caleb T. Buffum ; Ward 5, De Los C. Ball. 

City Clerk : Samuel Nims. 

President of Common Council : Charles S. Coburn. 

Councilmen : Ward 1, Charles S. Coburn, M. V. B. 
Clark, Harrison E. Ward ; Ward 2, John Gould, Syl- 
vester Spaulding, Charles R. Nims ; Ward 3, Albert 
A. Woodward, Henry Giffin, Charles Wright (2d); 
Ward 4, Joshua D. Stevens, Samuel A. Gerould, Jr., 
Henry M. Nims ; Ward 5, Parker C. Butler, Henry 0. 
Spaulding, Lester K. Styles. 

City Solicitor : John T. Abbott. 

City Treasurer : Henry O. Coolidge. 

City Marshal : Edwin R. Locke. 

Constables : Edwin O. Keith and Edwin R. Locke. 

City Messenger : Edwin O. Keith. 

Police Justice : Edward Farrar. 

City Physician : Gardner C. Hill. 

Sext(m : Henry Purcell. 

Superintendentof Water- Works and Sewers: D. H. 
Sawyer. 

Superintendent of Highways : Elmer A. Nims. 

Librarian : Mrs. Lizzie M. Converse. 

Assistant : Miss Zeolide B. Gilmore. 

Trustees of Public Library : D. W. Gilbert, Charles 
H. Hersey, William P. Chamberlain, Mrs. E. J. C. 
Gilbert, Miss Kate I. Tilden and Mrs. M. R. Osl)orne. 

Superintendent of Cemeteries : Henry Purcell. 

Overseer of the Poor : William L. Davis. 

Health Commissioners : Clark F. Rowell, George 
H. Bridgman, M.D., and Don H. Woodward. 

Assessors : Sylvanus A. Morse, Daniel A. Brown 
and Daniel R. Cole. 

Collector: Luther P. Alden. 

Engineers of Fire Department : George D. Whee- 
lock (chief), John A. Batchelder, Henry H. Barker, 
William H. Reyoum, Chester L. Kingsbury and 
Henry W. Harvey. 

Police Officers : William H. Reyoum, Ira D. 
Gates, Jacob Staples, Henry H. Haynes, Edwin O. 
Keith, James R. Livermore, Walter C. Fassett, 
Frederick L. Pitcher, Frank D. Griswold, Amasa 
Plastridge, Frederick H. AVilson and Joseph W. 
Cummings. 

Surveyors of Wood : Charles K. Pemberton, M. A. 
Stowell, C. A. Mason, Z. K. Graves, H. C. Fairbanks, 
John B. Fisher, S. L. Bartlett, G. H. Follansbee, 
Mortimer Reardon, Eugene Seaver, S. H. Holman, 
T. H. Bolio and E. R. Gerould. 



Surveyors of Lumber: C. K. Pemberton, M. A. 
Stowell, C. A. Mason, S. H. Holman, H. R. Ward, 
J. Wilson, D. C. Thompson, M. E. Buckminster, 
O. C. Mansfield and Henry N. Stone. 

Weighers : H. P. Muchmore, H. A. Woodward, 
F. E. Foster, L. P. Alden, William March, George 
Giffin, L. W. Hammond and George E. Fuller. 

Selectmen : Ward 1, Charles W. Buckminster, 
Richard W. Ward, Herbert A. Davis ; Ward 2, Liberty 
W. Foskett, George C. Wood, Carlos L. Seavey; 
Ward 3, Albert W. Green, Frederick W. Chase, Al- 
bert Wright ; Ward 4, Oscar H. Fay, Theodore H. 
Bolio, Myron C. Ellis; Ward 5, Calvin H. Ellis, 
Charles H. Butler, John Driscoll. 

Moderators : Ward 1, James Marsh ; Ward 2, 
Charles G. Farrar ; Ward 3, George E. Whitney ; 
Ward 4, Zebina K. Graves ; Ward 5, Frederick L. 
Pitcher. 

AVard Clerks ; Ward 1, Ainsworth M. Nims ; Ward 
2, George E. Poole; Ward 3, Hosea Foster; Ward 4, 
Michael L. Landers ; Ward 5, Frank E. Wheelock. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



ELLIOT. 

Genesu of a New Eiightnd Branch of the Tamihj, 1G50 to IRSO. 

The progenitors of the Elliot stock in Great 
Britiiin were undoubtedly of Normaii origin, 
and their descendants have been for many cen- 
turies more or less conspicuous in English and 
Scottish annals. The name abroad carries for 
the most part a double I and a single t; but in 
New England it is often shortened of an l, or 
lengthened by a t. 

1. Lieutenant Andrew Elliot, of Bev- 
erly, came from Somersetshire, England, M'ith 
his family in the latter half of the seventeenth 
century ; married (1) Grace, (2) Mary ; was 
representative in 1690-92, and was one of the 
jurors on the Witch Trials. His will is dated 
February 26, 1703-4, and proved April 2, 
1704, in which he mentions: 1st, Mary, his 
wife for forty years and more; 2d, his son 
William, his present wife, Mary, and children, — 
Andrew, William, John, Judith, Mary, Emma 
and Elizabeth ; 3d, his son Andrew, deceased, 
and his children, — Andrew, Samuel, Mercy and 
Grace ; 4th, his daughter, Mary Woodbury, 
relict of Nicholas Woodbury; 5th, his daughter. 



i 



m 




/^..X- 



KEENE. 



105 



K la l51i)W(r, and Iut son, AirIi'cw Wood- 
bury; Ctli, jiTandrliildrcn, Joanna and Andrew 
Woodbury, chil(b-cii of his son-in-law, An(b-('-w- 
\Voodbury, decQnmd.— Essex Wllh, VIII. 95. 
No iTcord is found in Essex County of the 
birtlis of iiis cIiiUhTU, and they wore probably 
all born in East Coker, in England, between 
IGoO and 1660. He liail,— 

1. Andrew, Jr., born , (b'owned off Cape 

Sable, September, 1688. 

II. William,^ born , his will proved 

February, 1721-22. 

Iir. Mary, married Niciiolas Woodbury. 

IV. Emma, married (1) Andrew Woodbury, 
(2) A. Blower. 

Andrew Elliot, Jr., married Mercy Shattuck 
Deeember, 1680; had Mercy, 1681; Andrew 
1683 ; Samuel, 1686 ; and Grace, 1687. Many 
of his posterity are recorded among the dis- 
tinguished citizens of Boston. 

2. William Em-ioi',^ married Mary, 
daughtei' of Francis Brown, of Newbury. He 
had sons, — 

I. Andrew,-' born March 3, 1682 ; di.'d April 
20tli, same year. 

II. Andrew,-' born IMareh 14, 168:] ; had a 
large family.* 

III. William,^ l)oi'u September 14, 1685; 
had a large family.^ 

IV. John,-' born May 16, 169:5 ; died Ajiril, 
1751; and daughters: Judith, born March, 
1688; Mary, born June, 1691; Emma, born 
May, 1697; and Elizabeth, born October, 
1699. 

3. Joiix ElJ,l()T,-' married (1) April 10, 
1715, Elizabeth, daughter of Freeborn Balch, 
who died May 21, 1718. Tiieir children were: 

I. Skipper,^ born .January 1, 1715—16; lived 
in Newbury. 

II. John,-* born March 10, 1717 ; died June 
25, 1781. 



* Into the large family, either of Willi.am or Andrew, 
grandsons of Lieutenant Andrew, and sons of William, 
nio.st probably may be traced Elias Elliot, born 1707; 
mai'ried, 17"2y, Ruth Lawrence, of Groton ; had William, 
Oliver, Jeremiah, Elias and five daughters, and died in 
1788. His son Oliver lived to the age of one hundred and 
two years. — sero in coelum. 



Married (2),April 20, 1720, Haimali Waldron. 
Tiieir sons were : 

III. Nathaniel,' born March, 1721. 

IV. William,' born July, 17:',1 ; and 
dangiiters : P^ ranees, born July, 172."5; Eliza- 
beth, born June, 1725; Abigail, born June, 
1729 ; and Hannah, born January, 1736. 

4. John Em.iot,' married Sarah (born 
1720, died 1791); settled in Bradford, on the 
Merrimac, where his children were born ; 
subsequently lived a few years in Nottinghtnn, 
and, iu his old age, near his sons, in Mason ; 
sold, in April, 1 764, land in Beverly inherited 
from his father; died 1781. — Essex County 
Deeds, Lb. X. p. 240. His sons were : 

I. John, Jr., born 1 747 ; married Rachel ; 
had Andrew, \\'illiam, David and two 
daughters ; died at Hudson. 

II. William, Kev., born December, 1748 ; 
marricul Dorothy Merrill, and had a son, 
William, Jr., and ibur daughters; then mar- 
ried Kebecca Hildreth, and had seven sons — 
Israel, Joseph, Seth, Jesse, Sanniel, Aljel, Ad- 
dison David^and foiu- daughters. 

III. Andrew, Deacon, born 1755; mtu'ried 
Hannah Dakin ; had John, Andrew, George, 
Amos, William and five daughters; died 1811. 

IV. David,-' "Ensign," born 1751; died 
1793; and daughters: Abigail, born 1750, 
married (1) A. Winn, (2) W. Barnes, (3) J. 
Dakin, had twelve children, died 1844; and 
Sarah, born 1753, married John Tarbell. 

5. David Elliot.''' — A .soldier with his 
brother, John, Jr., in Captain Ttjwne's com- 
])any, of Colonel Keed's regiment, at the battle 
of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. His company 
was discharged at the evacuation of Boston, the 
spring following; married (1) 1778, Hannah, 
daughter of Deacon Benjamin Adams, of New 
Ipswich, born 1761, died 1789. Their chil- 
dren were : 

I. Hannah, born 1781, died 1855; married 
Amos Emory ; their children were : David El- 
liot, Eunice Adtims, Eliza, Elijah, Harriet, Em- 
ily, Elvira, Ilainiah, iVmos, Lucretia, Azro, 
Henry Everett, Henrietta. 

II. John," born 1783, died 1865. 
Married (2) I^ucy Campbell, n?e Emory, born 

1756, died 1846 ; their children were: 



106 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



III. David, born 1790, died 1798. 

IV. Daniel, Dr., born 1792, Dartmouth Col- 
lege, 1813; married Abby (Jreelce ; had two 
sons and two daughters, viz. : Augustus Gree- 
lee, Henry Bond, Lucy and Caroline; died 
1865. 

6. JoHX Elliot.^ — Business life, chiefly 
with his maternal relative, Aaron Appletou, at 
Keene, manufacturing window-glass ; he Mas 
for many years President of the Cheshire Bank, 
at Keene ; married Deborah Bi.\l)y ; born 1787, 
died 1880, and liad two sons and two daugh- 
ters, viz.: 

I. D. Maria, died, unmarried, in 1862, aged 
fifty-one. 

II. John Henry,' Harvard Univei-sity, 1835, 
A.B. and A.M. 

III. James Bixby, married (1) Harriet R. 
Eames, who died 1868; had four sons and two 
daughters, viz. : James H., Hai'vard Univer- 
sity, 1864, Arthur N., George B., Andrew R., 
Grace and Florence. 

Married (2) Jane Savage. 

IV. Frances, died an infant, 1818. 

7. JoHX Hexuv EiJ.toT,' studied law ; bus- 
iness life was spent as treasurer, trustee and ac- 
tuary of the Ashuelot Railroad ; secretary and 
director of the Cheshire Railroad ; president of 
Cheshire Fire Insurance Company and of the 
Cheshire Bank ; and president or director in 
several other corporations. He was a member 
of the Executive Council of New Hampshire 
at the fall of the slaveholders' reign and the 
rise of the plutocratic rule of the nation. Rei- 
puhlicce forma — laudarc fncilius quam cvcnirc. 
Married, 1848, Emily Ann Wheelock, born 
1821, died 1860 ; their children were: 

I. William Henry, Harvard University, 
1872, A.B. andLL.B.; married, 1882, Mary 
Fiske Edwards. 

II. John "\\'lieelock. Harvard University, 
1874, A.B. and M.D. ; married 1883, Mary 
Lee Morse. 

III. Emily Jane, married, 1882, Tucker 
Daland ; Harvard Univer.sity, 1873, A.B. and 
LL.B. 

IV. Rns.sell Gray, died an infant, 1858. 



CALEB T. BUFFUM. 

Caleb Talbot Buffum, son of James and 
Ruth (Bliss) Bufium, was born in Royalston, 
Mass., June 4, 1820. His father, a farmer, 
married Eutli, daugliter of Nathan Bliss, and 
had ten children, of \\hom six are living. (Na- 
than Bliss was one of the " embattled farmers 
of 1776," and attained a great age — over ninety 
years.) James Buffum moved to Keene about 
1830, where he now resides, aged ninety-two. , 

Caleb, in his sixteenth year, went to learn 
the tailor's trade with Dinsmore, White & 
Lyon, a leading mercantile liouse of Keene. 
Remaining with them four years, he worked as 
journeyman one year, tlien, in 1841, he formed 
a co-partuersiiip with Jonas Parker, under firm- 
title of Buffum & Parker, and commenced 
liis long and successful business career as a 
clothier in Keene. For fifteen years this firm 
was one of the prominent mercantile houses of 
Keene, and conducted a large and prosperous 
business. Then Mr. Buffum, aspiring for a 
larger field and greater o])p(irtunities, closed his 
connection with the firm of whicli he had been 
so long a member and established himself in 
Boston as a wholesale dealer in clothing and 
furnishing goods. This new sphere of activity 
was highly congenial to Mr. Buffum's business 
nature, and had not his health failed, he to-day 
would doubtless be one of Boston's merchants ; 
but on account of his health he was compelled 
to dispose of his business interests in Boston, 
and go to Florida to recuperate. In the spring 
he returneil to Keene, with his health greatly 
im})roved, and finding tlie bracing atmosphere 
of his own home to be more beneficial to him 
than that of Boston, he repurchased his old 
interest in the clotliing business, and, with his 
brother formed the firm of C. T. & G. B. 
BufTum, and, with slight changes, this was con- 
tinued until January, 1871, when Mr. Buffum 
retired from active business. As a business man, 
Mr. Buffum has been energetic, far-seeing, saga- 
cious, ctu'eful and conservative. He never 
strained liis credit and believed heartily in casli 
payments, and during his entire business life 
never gave but one note in commercial transac- 
tions. His shrewd common sense and good 




/^/^^^^^'■jyr^^ 



KEENE. 



107 



jiidgraent combined with liis financial ability 
liave made liim a prominent ihctor in the 
moneyed institutions of Keene. He has been 
for several years a director of the Ashuclot 
National Bank. When the Keene Five-Cents 
Savings-Bank was incorporated, in 1868, he was 
one of the incorporators, was made one of the 
trustees, and placed on the board of invests 
ment, to which he has given much time, and of 
which he is now a valued member. January 1, 
187(3, he w-as elected president of the savings- 
bank and yet contiiuies in that ofSce. He is 
actively interested in the Lombard Investment 
Company, of Boston, Mass., and Creston, Iowa, 
of \\ hicli he is a director. He has dealt somewhat 
in real estate in Keene and quite largely in 
Western and Florida lands. He is interested in, 
and officially connected with, several financial 
and monetary institutions in the West. 

Republican in politics, he represented the 
town of Keene two years in the State Legisla- 
ture, but has not sought official distinction or 
political preferment. He is an alderman of 
Keene the present year. In religious belief he 
is a liberal Unitarian, and a generous contribu- 
tor to that church of which he is a member. 
He has been much interested in the Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and 
for a long term of years was president of the 
Keene Humane Society, resigning the position 
in 1884. 

Mr. Buffum married, first, April 19, 1843, 
Susan R., daughter of Lewis Gilmore, of 
Charlestown, N. H. ; she died December 21, 
1854. They had one child, Ellen A., who died 
at the age of sixteen. He married, second, 
February 23, 1857, Sarah A., daughter of Asa 
Stratton, of Greenfield, Mass. The two chil- 
dren of this marriage were Fred. Lincoln, born 
November 14, 18(J0, died December 5, 1807, 
aged seven yeare, and Susie S., born April 19, 
1865. 

Since his retirement from active business 
Mr. Bufium has traveled extensively through- 
out the United States, having j^assed three 
winters in Florida, California and on the 
Pacific slope. He is a great lover of liunting 
and fishing, and enjoys the charms which a 
true lover of nature discovers in her varied 



creations. It is said of him, by one who knows 
him well, that " few men know better lu)\v to 
crack a joke, catch a fish or make life hap[)ier 
than Caleb T. Buftum." He has a fine collec- 
tion of mounted birds and animals, — trophies of 
his skill with gun and rod. To these have 
been added other specimens, the gifts of friends, 
and various minerals, geological and antiquarian 
objects of interest, the whole being arranged 
and classified with that system and order wliicli 
is an essential part of ]\Ir. Buffiim's nature, 
and to which he attributes his success in life. 

He possesses a strong personality, is leal and 
loyal in his friendships, and is a gentleman of 
broad and lil)cral views : consequently an ex- 
tremely agreeable social comjjanion. He is 
kind and affectionate in his family relations, and 
a worthy citizen, whose character through life 
has been marked by honesty, integrity and 
honor ; he, to-day, holds no second plac« in the 
rco-ards of his lars;e circle of friends. 



EX-GOVEHXOR .SAMUEL ^V. IIALE. 

Ex-Governor Samuel W. Hale has been a 
well-known resident of Keene for more than 
a (piarter-century. It was not his native place, 
but there he has spent most of his maturer years. 
He was born in Fitchburg, Mass., April 2, 
182.3, and is descended from Moses Hale, of 
Newbury, whose sou, jSIoscs Hale (2d), married 
Abigail Smith, of West Newbury, and came t(j 
Fitchburg to live about 1786. He there 
reared a family of children, the third of whom 
was Samuel Hale, who married Saloma Whit- 
ney, of Westminster, Mass. Both Moses Hale 
and his son Samuel were f;irmers by occupation, 
and the old homestead was situated on one of 
those magnificent hills which now overlook the 
thriving city of Fitchburg. Among these 
plea.saut surroundings the boy Samuel ^\'hitney 
Hale had his birth, and here, by vigorous out- 
door labor, a strong physical constitution was 
moulded. As is always the case, the early 
teachings of this home in moral and religious 
truths have exercised a constant influence in 
developing character. 

The advantages of the district school and 
town academv were the best to be had at home. 



108 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



but they were iiiipruved uutil the boy graduated 
into the more extensive school of life's labors. 
At an early age he began to work on his father's 
farm, and continued to do so until, at the age 
of twenty-two, he left the parental roof to en- 
gage in business with his brother, already es- 
tablished in Dublin, N. H. Tliere he remained 
until the year 1859, when lie removed to Keene, 
then a busy town, awakened into life by new 
industries. He there began the manufacture of 
cliairs, at first in a small way ; but, as the busi- 
ness prospered, enlarging it, until it Iieeame the 
South Keene Chair Company, which has con- 
ducted for many years an extensive trade. Mr. 
Hale, from time to time, became interested in 
various business enterprises. In 1879 he es- 
tablished the Ashuelot Furniture Company, 
which employed more than one hundred men, 
until it was destroyed by tire, in February, 
1884. In 1882 he purchased the Lebanon 
Woolen Mills, at Lebanon, N. H. 

He became a director in tlie Citizens' National 
Bank of Keene and the Wachusett Bank of 
Fitcliburg. The building of the Manchester 
and Keene Railroad, now a branch of the Bos- 
ton and Lowell, was a great undertaking, and 
required the most untiring energy and persever- 
ance. It was " confessedly a disastrous failure 
until Mr. Hale and his associates came to its 
rescue." They succeeded in carrying it to a 
successful completion. He was at one time 
treasurer of the Boston, Winthrop and Point 
Shirley Railroad, and subsequently president of 
the Boston, Winthrop and Shore Railroad. 

Ever since its organization, ex-Governor Hale 
has been a strong su232)orter of the Republican 
party. His first vote wa.s cast for the Free-Soil 
candidate. During the struggles against sla- 
very, in discussion and in the War of the Rebel- 
lion, his advocacy of the principles of freedom 
and equality was uucomf)romising. In 186(3 
he was elected a member of the State Legisla- 
ture, and re-elected the next year. He was a 
member of the Governor's Council in 1869 and 
1870, and a delegate to the Republican National 
Convention in 1880. After a jjrolonged and 
exciting canvass he was nominated, in Septem- 
ber, 1882, to be the Republican gubernatorial 
candidate. The campaign was one of Unusual 



interest, but, amid the general disaster which 
overtook the Rejjublicans throughout the coun- 
try, INIr. Hale was elected Governor of New 
Hampshire. He filled the executive office for 
a term of two years, from June, 1883. Dur- 
ing his administration many imjjortant measures 
were adopted. Ex-Governor Hale has been 
known as a friend of eveiy good cause. He 
is coimected with the Second Congregational 
Church in Keene, and is a member of the 
Masonic order. 

He married, in 1850, Emelia M. Hay, (jf 
Dublin, and has two children, — a son, M'illiam 
S., of Keene, and a daughter, Mary L., the 
wife of Rev. William De Loss Love, of Hart- 
ford, Conn. 

For many years ex-Governor Hale has I'e- 
sided in the house built by ex-Governor 
Samuel Dinsmoor, on Main Street, Keene. 



JOHN H. FUIjLER. 

No history of Keene would be complete 
without more than a reference to John H. 
Fuller. Identified with every business de- 
velopment, the largest purchaser of wool in the 
county, when it was a common thing for a 
single farmer to raise from one to two thousand 
pounds, he was yet democratic and unconven- 
tional in all things, with an honesty that was 
never questioned. His son, John Quincy Ful- 
ler, furnishes the steel engraving acconi]wmying 
this history as a son's tribute to the memory of 
a worthy father. The following sketch of Mr. 
Fuller was written by J. Henry Elliot, his 
associate and friend of years : 

John Houghton Fuller was of a family that 
emigrated from Lunenburg, in Massachusetts, 
to Walpole, in this county, some time in the 
final decade of the last century. 

He passed his minority in Walpole, and be- 
gan active life in a country store, first in Ches- 
terfield, then in Winchester and lastly in Keene, 
where he soon engaged in wool dealing, which 
became the main business of his afiter-life. 

While living in Winchester he was called to 
act as adjutant-general of the government 
fi)rces stationed at Portsmouth in the closing 
season of the War of 1812 ; and it was there, 



■^- 









""Y/ ''fyAllfl'V^"' 




KEENE. 



lOSJ 



too, tliat he niarriod a daughter of the Rev. 
Ezra Conant, by wlioiu he had three sons and 
three daughters. He was the principal pro- 
moter and first president of the AVinchestcr 
IJank, of the Ashuclot Railway and the Keene 
Five-Cents Savings-Bank. 

He reclaimed, at great expense, a large area 
of waste land in Keene, lying north of Cross 
Street and between Court and ^\'asllington 
Streets — laid out and built streets, located a 
school reservation and aided many homeless 
families to secure; homes upon wise and practic- 
able terms. 

He died suddenly in the winter of 1869 at 
the age of seventy-seven years, leaving a repu- 
tation of the highest type of old New England 
character and a well-to-do estate, that was in 
no way tainted or fused with false weights or 
measures. 



CORDIS D. HARRIS. 

Arthur Harris, an Englishman, emigrated to 
America in the early part of the seventeenth 
century, as we find him a resident of Duxbury, 
Mass., in 1640, and he was one of the first set- 
tlers and one of the three original proprietors 
of Bridgewater. He died in Boston in 1693. 
He had four children, and of his numerous de- 
scendants, many have become distinguished in 
the various professions and callings for which 
their natural talents and tastes have fitted them. 
The line to the present generation is Arthur, 
Isaac Abner, Abner, Abuer, John, Wilder, 
Cordis D. 

Mr. Wilder Harris was formerly a resident, 
engaged in farming and the manufacture of 
lumber, of Chesterfield, N. H. ; in 1865 he re- 
moved to Brattleborougli,Vt., where he now lives. 
Although now, (Ai)ril, 1885) nearly eighty-eight 
years old, Mr. Harris airries his years with all the 
activity and grace of a much younger man — the 
result of his vigorous constitution, busy life and 
temperate habits. He has always been warmly 
interested in religious matters, and is a liberal 
contributor to the support of the Methodist 
Church. His children are George Francis, born 
March 7, 1818 ; Broughton Davis, born Au- 
gust 16, 1822 ; and Cordis Day. 



Cordis Day Harris, third child of Wilder 
and Harriet (Davis) Harris, was born in 
Chesterfield, N. H., October 29, 1824. His edu- 
cation was received at the common schools and 
academy of Chesterfield, in which town he 
learned the trade of carpenter. Believing a 
larger place would give more remuneration for 
his labor, he removed to Fitchburg, Mass., in 
1845, where he established a home, marrying, 
October 29, 1848, Eunice B., daughter of Ziba 
and Nancy (Babbitt) Albee, also of Chestei'field, 
and resided there for nineteen years. He first 
carried on carpentering and building for several 
years with success. He began his long and ex- 
tensive connection with railroad contracting in 
1851, by taking a contract to build depots and 
turn-tables on the St. Lawrence and Atlantic 
Railroad; and, l)y steady and rapid advances, he 
was soon holding contracts involving large 
amounts to build railroads. He was of strong 
physifiue, active, resolute and accomplished 
much labor. He always has had a pleasant 
frankness of manner, which won many friends. 
This had a hapjiy influence in his business re- 
lations, which were highly satisfactory. In May, 
1864, accompanied by his wife, he went to Cali- 
fornia, where he l)eeame a resident, and, with his 
accustomed activity, was soon connected with 
important business interests. He remained on 
the Pacific slope until October, 1872, passing 
most of that period east of the Sierras, pros- 
pecting and mining in the various States and 
Territories of California, Nevada, Idaho and 
Utah. His energy, pluck and perseverance were 
handsomely rewarded. July 4, 1870, he dis- 
covered in the Pilot Knob range of mountains, 
in the extreme west part of Utah, the valuable 
Tecoma mines, rich in carbonate of silver and 
lead. These were worked from the time of 
diseoveiy until September, 1872, when they 
were sold to Messrs. Howland & Aspinwall, of 
New York. 

Returning to New Hampshire, Mr. Harris 
made his home first in Chesterfield, and since 
1873 in Keene, in close proximity to the scenes 
of his boyhood, where he has since resided. 

Although in possession of an amjile compe- 
tency, Mr. Harris is of too active a tem})era- 
ment to witlidnuv from business life. He is a 



no 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



member of the firm of Harris Brothers & Co., 
general contractors for the construction of rail- 
roads, public works and other operations of 
magnitude ; and, in companj- with his brother, 
Brougliton D., lie is now largely engaged in 
operating the famous Peacli Orchard coal-mines. 
Peach Orchard, at Lowance County, Ky., which 
they jiurchased January 1, 1884. The daily 
output of the mines is at present four hundred 
tons. This amount they are proj)i>sing to soon 
raise to eight hundred or a thousand tons per 
day. 

Mr. Harris has been a pronounced Whig and 
Republican, casting his first vote for President 
in 1848 for General Taylor. He represented 
Chesterfield in the State Legislature of 1873, 
and Keene in that of 1881. He is a Unitarian 
in religious belief, and a member of Lodge of the 
Temple, F. and A. jNL, of Keene. Possessed of a 
powerful will, untiring energy and industry, 
and endowed with a high order of business talent, 
he has overcome all obstacles that confronted 
him. With his strong physique and resolute 
nature, he has been a man of one purpose — his 
business. Generous, kind-hearted, public spirit- 
ed, energetic and wide-awake, Mr. Harris is a 
good representative of the clear-headed, ambi- 
tious, successful business men of Cheshire 
County. 



DANIEL H. HOLBROOK. 

It is probable that no other name is so inti- 
mately connected with the introduction of 
water into Keene and the construction and care 
of the water-works, in the mind of the public, 
as Daniel H. Holbrook, and it seems apjjropri- 
ate to give a space in this record to his life. 

Daniel H. Holbrook (7), son of John and 
Mercy (Hill) Holbrook, was born in Swanzey, 
N. H., January 8, 1806, and is consequently 
seventy-nine years old. He comes of an old 
Massachusetts family, dating in American resi- 
dence to the early days of the colony, and going 
back through centuries of honorable and dis- 
tinguished existence in England, where the 
family is entitled to bear arms. The first 
American emigrants of the name, and the pro- 
genitors of tiie greater nnmlx'r bearing the 



name to-day, were John and Thomas, brothers, 
who settled in Weymouth, Mass., in 1640. 
Accoi'ding to the best autliorities attainable the 
following is the line to Daniel H. : John (1), 
was a man of consideration, had quite a family, 
and a son, John (2), who became a resident in 
Weymoutii. His son, John (."3), settled in Ux- 
bridge, where he was a man of public note, and 
entrusted witli various offices. John (4) mar- 
ried, in 1732, a native of Mendon. John Hol- 
brook (6) was born in Uxbridge, Mass., in 1778, 
and was the son of John Holbrook (o), a farmer 
in the fertile valley of the Blackstone River. 
This farmer, John (5), married Rhoda Thay- 
er, of Mendon, a daughter of a promi- 
nent, numerous and honorable family of New 
England, and emigrated about the year 1800 to 
Swanzey, N. H., where he passed the remainder 
of his life. John (6) had a decidedly mechani- 
cal turn of mind and learned the trades of car- 
pentei', joiner and wheelwright. In 1799 he 
enlisted as a soldier for nine months in the so- 
called French and Sjjanisli War, to rej^el inva- 
sion. He married, in Mendon, Mass., Mercy, 
daughter of Daniel and Mercy (Howard) Hill. 
He was a skilled mechanic, and, after working 
at his trade for two years, he also removed to 
Swanzey, settling in the south part of the town, 
where, in process of time, he purchased land 
for a home, and erected buildings thereon. He 
lived to be about sixty, — dying May 7, 1838. 
Althonah a strouo; adherent to Jefiersonian De- 
moci'acy, he was not an active politician, but 
was much interested in military matters, and 
was infiuential in forming a company of men, 
who, like himself, were exempt from military 
service. In this comj)any he held a lieutenant's 
commission, and was noted as a disciplinarian. 
His children who became adults were Rhoda, 
married Nathan Cheney, resided in Boston, 
where she died, leaving one child, Ellen ; Dan- 
iel Hill ; Abida, marzied Hiram BoUcs, lived 
and died in Baraboo, Wis. ; Sophia, married 
Carlostine Blake, and now lives in Keene (her 
two children, John H. and Nathan C, died 
when young men) ; Susan A., married Randall 
Bolles, lived and died in Swanzey (her chil- 
dren were Hiram H., M. Maria (Mrs. Angell), 
Abida A. (Mrs. Abijali Holbrook), Ellen E. 




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KEENE. 



Ill 



(Mrs. Frederick Farr) ; Cliloe, married James 
Pierce, lives in Sliarpsville, Pa. (has children, 
Jonas J., Walter and Wallace (twins), Franklin, 
James B.); John ; Mercy H., married Ebenezer 
Flanders, of Hopkinton, Mass., and now lives 
in Henniker (^Irs. Mercy Holbrook was born 
July 1, 1800, and died in December, 1876). 

Daniel Hill Holbrook was named from his 
maternal o-randfather, Daniel Hill, a worthy 
farmer of Mendon, Mass., — a man of stront; 
physi(jue and of strong mental qualities. He 
fought valiantly in the Continental army of the 
Revolution, ami, at a hale old age, was gathered 
to his fatiiers, honored and mourned by all. 

Daniel Holbrook, imtil he was sixteen, was 
given such educational advantiiges as were af- 
forded by the old-time district schools, and was 
especially apt and ready in mathematics, ac- 
quiring such skill in mental calculations as to 
surprise even now many expert accountants. 
He labored with his father until 1825, both as 
a carjionter and farmer, when he went to Bos- 
ton, and was a witness to the imposing ceremo- 
nies attending the laying of the corner-stone of 
Bunker Hill monument. He remained in Bos- 
ton a year or two, then returned to Swanzey, 
and commenced that life of hard work which, 
united with good judgment and skill, during 
the course of years, built up not only financial 
prosperity, but also a character for integrity, 
ability and sterling common-sense. He became 
a farmer and also mauufactuied lumber, which 
latter business acquired, in time, large propor- 
tions. 

He purchased, in 1832, the mills known 
as Holbrook's Mills, which he rebuilt in 1845. 
He became, in connection with manufacturing, 
an extensive dealer in lumber, purchasing the 
product of other mills, filling many contracts 
with railroad corporations, sending many rafts 
down the Connecticut, and shipping largely to 
Keene, Brattlcborough and other places. 

In 1865, his diligence and attention to business 
having met a satisfactory return, he sold his 
mill and removed to Keene, wdiere he has since 
resided. He married, September 5, 18.37, Caro- 
line, daughter of Josiuh and Sojihia (Lawrence) 
Prime. She died December 5, 1880. Their 
children were Ellen S. (died young), Chloe P., 



John J. (see biography) and Frances V. (^Irs. 
D. M. Nichols). 

Since his residence in Keene, Mr. Holbrook 
has been most active in his connection with the 
water- works. In 1868 he was one of a commis- 
sion of five elected by the town to introduce 
water into the city, — build necessar}' dam,s, 
reservoirs, etc. Tiie greater part of the super- 
intendence of this work i'ell upon Mr. Holbrook, 
and from that time to the present he has been 
prominently connected with it. He has been 
superintendent and commissioner, and in 1872 
he successfully conducted the water under tiie 
i^shuelot River, and introduced the water on 
the north side. His wise judgment, practical 
experience and mechanical skill have been of 
great benefit to the city in this branch of public 
service. He consented to serve as assessor iuid 
supervisor of Swanzey in 1849, but could not 
spare time from his business to acc^ept other 
proffered offices. He was a Jeffersonian in pol- 
itics until 1872, supporting the Democratic 
nominations. Since then he has acted indejien- 
dently of party. 

With a strong mind and \\ell-preser\ed phy- 
sical powers, Mr. Holbrook is passing the closing 
years of his life, cheered by the affection of lov- 
ing daughters, and blessed with the esteem of a 
large range of acquaintance, who prize him for 
his sterlino; worth. 



JOHX .TOSIAII HOLBROOK, A. jr. 

John Josiah Holbrook, only son of Daniel 
H. and Caroline (Prime) Holbrook, was born 
ill Swanzey, X. H., December 10, 1844. He 
received an academic education, shoA\"ing the 
true qualities of a successful student, at the sem- 
inaries of his native town and Townshend, Vt., 
and at the High School of Keene. He prepared 
for college at New London, N. H., and entered 
Brown University, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1872, and where, as expressed by one of 
his university professors, " he distinguished 
himself above all others by his taste and aptitude 
for experimental science," and w'as an enthusi- 
astic and earnest worker. After graduation, 
with deep religious consecration, he pursued the 
three years' course of study at Newton (Ma.ss.) 



112 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRP] COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Theological Seminary, eompletiug his studies 
therein LSTo. He had a special fitness, however, 
as a teaciier of" mathematics and natural sciences, 
and deeming that he could do efficient service 
in that sphere, and follow a useful path of 
religious duty in that direction, lie became the 
professor of natural sciences and mathematics at 
New London Academy. He showed great 

ability as an instructor, and, after two years' 
time, he removed to Keene, now his father's 
home. From 1.S79 until the time of his death, 
which occurred in Keene, March 24, 18S4, he 
followed the pi'ofession of civil engineering and 
surveying. 

Mr. Holbrook was a ready writer, and did 
much valuable work for the press during a pe- 
riod of several years, and was frequently called 
to preach. His sermons were carefully consid- 
ered and showed a deep religious spirit, which 
was the foundation of his character. He was 
favorably known in Keene and in the coranui- 
nity as a successful business man of Christian 
integrity. He took an active interest in public 
affairs, and in his business was brought into a 
pleasant relationship with many citizens of this 
county, both in public and private matters. He 
was a devoted and beloved teacher in the Sab- 
bath-school of the Baptist Church, of which he 
had been a valued member and earnest worker 
for eighteen years. 

There was never anything in Mr. Holbrook's 
life for his friends to regret, and there was much 
for them to bear in loving remembrance. He 
was exceptionally happy in his friends and asso- 
ciates, and signally so in the dear home circle, 
where his aged father and sisters now mourn 
his " going before." 

The following extract from a letter written by 
the Rev. J. L Seward, now a Unitarian clergy- 
man of Lowell, voices the sentiment of a large 
circle of sorrowing frientls, " who knew him but 
to love him : " 

"I cannot forbear a word of sympathy and 
an expression of esteem for one \\honi I so 
greatly respected. His fine presence, scholarly 
mind and gentlemanly deportment were all cal- 
culated to attract friends and call forth their 
respect and approbation. From my first ac- 
quaintance with him our relations were cordial 



and agreeable. I valued his friendship and 
appreciated his worth. He was one of those 
noble men who.se enjoyment is in the attainment 
of truth and knowledge ; whose friends, are 
not only their kins-people and acquaintances, 
but the great laws and truths which God has 
given for our study and contemplation in the 
great book of nature. T sympathized with his 
love for mathematics and natural science, and I 
respected his modesty, his manliness, his love of 
study and his devotion to duty." 



ALOERNOX SIDNEY CARPENTER, M.D. 

Algernon Sidney Carpenter, M.D. , afteralong 
professional life, most of which was passed in 
Keene, died March 4, 1885. He Mas son of 
Dr. E. and Judith (Greene) Carpenter, and 
was born in Alstead, N. H., October 16, 1814. 
He descended from a somewhat noted medical 
family, his father having been an able and suc- 
cuccessful physician; and several uncles and 
other relatives were celebrated for their profes- 
sional skill. After an academic course he read 
medicine with his father, and then entered the 
medical college at Middlebury, Vt., graduating 
about 1837. He practiced his profession a 
short time in Gardner and Northfield, Mass., 
and then settled in Keene. In 1859, Novem- 
ber 30th, he married Jane F., daughter of Hon. 
Henry and Calista (Pond) Coolidge. Tliey 
had two daughters, — Mary Algerniene and 
Caroline Sidney. 

A2:)art from his professional duties, Dr. Car- 
penter felt a deep interest in all that pertained 
to the welfare of Keene, and was a ju'ominent 
factor in social circles. He possessed rare con- 
versational powers, expressing his thoughts with 
well-balanced and discerning intellect and ready 
wit. Few surpassed him in repartee, and his 
satire was keen and cutting. He took a great 
interest in, and gave much of his time to, Free- 
Masonry. In 1855, the Social Friends Lodge 
of that order having been for some time dor- 
mant, he caused its revival, and at tiiat time was 
the only Free Mason in town who knew the 
work. He was Master of the lodge in 1850, 
1857 and 1859. He was a charter member 
and first Master of the Lodge of the Temple. 





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KEENE. 



113 



Ho was a member of Cheshire Royal Arcli Chap- 
ter, St. John's Council of Royal and Select 
Mastere, and Hugh de Payens Comulaudery of 
Knights Templar. 

In politics Dr. Carpenter was a constitu- 
tional Democrat ; he held to the doctrines of 
Thomas .lefferson, and wished to preserve the 
integrity of those principles which he consid- 
ered the guiding stars of the republic, and be- 
lieved in and earnestly advocated the success of 
the Democratic party as the only way to consum- 
mate the perpetuity of t)ur national existence. 

But it is not as a citizen or politician that Dr. 
Carpenter demands our chief attention, but as 
the kind-hearted, successful physician. In his 
profession he occupied a foremost rank. He 
was a scholarly man, of quick j^erceptions, who 
made the case of his patients his own, and his 
success was due to his firmui'ss, self-reliance, 
excellent judgment and discretion. He gained 
the confidence, esteem and regard of his pa- 
tients, and they Itelieved iuhim thoroughly and 
completely. In those grave and desperate 
cases where life and death were struggling for 
the mastery, he was watchful and vigilant, skill- 
ful to meet any emergency or change, with the 
best remedial agencies. Although habitually 
cautious, he did not shrink from the responsi- 
bilities of his calling, and used the most heroic 
treatment if he deemed the case demanded it. 
Quackery, in all its forms, he most heartily de- 
spised. 

Like most men of positive nature, strong 
will and generous im2)ulses, he made many de- 
voted friends and some bitter enemies. He was, 
for years, a landmark in this city, kind and 
charitable to the poor, genial and pleasant in 
his home and society, courteous in his inter- 
course with his medical brethren, and in many 
ways was one of the strong representative jJro- 
fcssional men of Cheshire County. 



EDWARD GUSTINE. 

Edward Gustine was born in the town of 
Winchester September 2, 1819, the past twenty 
years of his life having been spent in Keene, 



where he now resides. His father, Edward 
Gustine, was a merchant. He received a com- 
mon-school education, learned the business of 
a machinist and has been mainly engaged since 
entering active life as a gas and water engineer. 
He has had contracts for extensive works, both 
gas and water, at diffei'ent places in this State, 
Massachusetts, Vermont and New York, all of 
which have been carried out in a thorough and 
satisfactory manner. 

A decided Republican, though never an active 
politician, Mr. Gustine has not been largely in 
public life, but served as a member of the House 
in 1865 and again in 1875 and 1876, acting as 
chairman of the committee on State Prison the 
latter year, and was also a member of the Con- 
stitntional Convention. He subsequently repre- 
sented this district in tiic State Senate. He en- 
joys the full confidence of his fellow-citizens re- 
gardless of party, and whenever a candidate for 
office, receives many votes of those op])osed to 
him upon political questions. In the Senate he 
served ujion the committee on incorporations, 
banks and manufactures, lieing chairman of the 
latter. He frequently particii)ated in debates, 
and, although making no pretensions to oratory, 
his suggestions, practical in their character, were 
not without influence. 

Mr. Gustine married Miss Sarah H. Worces- 
ter, of Lebanon, jNIc., by whom he has two 
children, — a son and daughter. The son, Ed- 
ward W. Gustine, is engaged in mercantile bus- 
iness in Keene. In religion he is a Unitarian 
and an active member of the society in Keene. 
He has long been prominent in the Masonic or- 
ganizations, local and State, having been Master 
of both lodges and High Priest of the chapter at 
Keene, and Avas Grand High Priest for New 
Hampshire in 1870 and 1871, and has held va- 
rious other honorable j^ositions in Masonic bodies. 
Thoroughly public-spirited and a friend of all 
progressive enterprises, he has contril)uted in no 
small degree to the prosperity of the flourishing 
city in which he resides. 



DR. TWITCHKLL. 
(See Appendix.) 



HISTORY OF ALSTEAD. 



CHAPTER I. 

This town lies in tlie uorthern part of tlie 
county, and is hounded as follows : North, by 
Sullivan county ; cast, hy Marlow ; south, by 
Gilsuui and Surry ; and west, by Walpole. 

The town was first granted by Governor B. 
Weutworth to John Towle and sixty-three 
others, by the name of Newtoo, December 28, 
1752; about the same time the first grant was 
made of Acworth, and probably for the same 
reason, as I believe no attempt was made to 
settle tlie town under this grant. 

It was re-granted, August 6, 1763, to Samuel 
Chase and sixty-nine others, by the name of 
Alstead, and settlements conamenced soon after. 
In 1771 tluu'e were twenty-five or more fami- 
lies in town ; but some of the provisions of the 
charter not having been fulfilled, it was 
" extended " by (Tovcrnor Jolin Weutworth, 
January 25, 1772, in answer to a jietition from 
the inliabitants. 

The Governor's reservation of five hundred 
acres was located in the northwest corner. 

Among the prominent men prior to 1800 
were General Amos Shepard, Nathaniel Sartell 
Prentice, Absalom Kingsbury and Rev. Levi 
Lankton. Captain Jason Wait commanded a 
company in Col. Bedell's regiment in the Rev- 
olution. 

Petition for a Grant of the Township, 1750. 

" To His Excelleucy Benniug Weutworth Esq. 
Capt° General & Governour in Chief in and over His 
Majestyes Province of New Hampshire. 

" The Huml^le Petition of us the subscribers for 
ourselves and our associates being in number Fifty one 
114 



Humbly Bhewetli th.at your Petitioners are desireous 
of Setleing a Townsliip in some of tlic unappropriated 
Lauds in said province. 

" Wherefore your Petitioners Humbly Pray tliat 
your Excellency will be pleased to grant to your Pe- 
titioners a Township of the Contence of Six Miles 
Square in some of his Majestyes Land, in said Prov- 
ince of New Hampshire that are not allrcady appro- 
priated, Subjected to such orders and restrictions as 
Your Excellency in Your Great Wisdom Shall See 
Meete. And as in Duty bound they will ever pray 
&c. 

" John Fowle 
" Seth Blogget 
"Boston Sep' 10, 1750. 
" Josiah Convers Arch'' M'Ncill 

John Fullton Kobert Hill 

David Whiteing Jason Winship 

Thos. Draper Joseph Newhall 

William Fild Jacob March 

Samuel Winship Tho' Bennett 

Samuel Smith John Bishop 

.John Botherick James Pierce 

David Comee John Skinner 

Jonathan Briant Jon' Bradish 

Nathan Newh;ill Benj" Bellkiiap 

Francis Whiteniore R. Cotton 

Ebenezer Frances John Hill 

William Whitemore Isaac Kidder 

Abiel Richardson W™ Dunlap 

Ebenezer Shattuck Caleb Brooks 

Unite Moseley John Martin 

Will'" Maxwell Noah Richardson 

Sam' Servise John Douglass 

Benj" Furness Fran' Shaw 

William Crombie Will"" Fisher 

Nath' Wales Tim" Winshij) 

Joseph Scott Th° Lambert 

Ebenezer Field Isaac Fillebrown " 

The grant was made December 28, 1752, to 
the foregoing persons and several others, but I 



ALSTEAD. 



115 



thiuk no settlements were made under it, and 
none of these appear in tiie grant of 17()3. 

Statement of Grievances, 1777. 

" The Inhabitants of the Town of Alstead in Town 
meeting aissembled Feb. 4, 1777 to consider of matters 
of grievance to themselves and others to hiy before 
the Hon''' Committee of the Council and House of the 
State of New Hampshire : Do mention the following 
articles as grievous to them and needing redress. — 
That the present assembly was not called according 
to the direction of the Hon"'" Continental congress by a 
full and free representation thro, the State : ibr a 
number of Delegates from a part of the Towns of the 
State did without any previous notice, and before the 
advice of the Continental congress came to hand did 
set up a plan of representation, in our opinion, partial 
and defective, curtailing and abridging the privileges 
of many of the Towns in this part of the state, as the 
natural i-iglit of one Town is equal to that of another. 

" Further the present assembly in our opinion is 
not set up as the great Lawgiver and Author of Gov- 
ernment requires: His order is that Rulers be fearers 
of IIi7ii, haters of covetousness : whereas the present 
plan requires no religious or moral, but only pecuni- 
ary qualifications for posts of office, which serves to 
discourage virtue and to promote vice as conjoined 
with wealth: The niethodof choosing Councillors and 
Representatives has a tendency this way likewise, as 
by just implication every person paying rates man, 
woman or child, however immoral and wicked, may 
vote in the choice of members of the assembly, by 
which means if the majority arc evil, as like approves 
of its like, the vile will bear rule over a state profess- 
ing true religion. The present plan of Government 
was set up while we were under the King of Britain, 
but now we are independent of him, and therefore a 
new form of Government ought as soon as may be to 
be erected, by a full and equal representation of every 
incorporated Town thro the State, and that the plan 
of the same be sent to each Town for their approba- 
tion, and that which the majority agree to, be con- 
sidered as the constitution of this State. The act 
past Septenib' 19 1776, we view as unintelligible, and 
by uo means calculated to answer the end pretended 
of having an equal representation. The last assembly 
did not act a disinterested party or for the good of the 
State, in confining all places of trust as much as they 
could among themselves : or in rejecting Coll Hunt 
from being High Sheriff of this county, after his ap- 
jioiiitment, even before he refused to accept, which, 
with the putting in of Coll Hale we suspect was done 
by the infiucnce of a certain well known member in 
these parts. 



" Lastly the giving commissions for war, is another 
article of grievance, which is a thing unpreceilented 
in any free state, and s'* commissions are kept from 
the eye of the people, and they are unacquainted with 
the unlimited powers given officers thei'cby, we have 
exjiressed these matters in a way to be understood, 
and hope that they will be attended to by your 
Honors as their im[)ortance and the Public good re- 
quires. 

"At y" aforesaid meeting was chosen Absalom 
Kingsbury & Jonathan Shepherd Jur. a committee 
for s*' Alstead to present y° above to y° Hon'''° Com- 
mittee. 

"Test Absaloji Kingsbeuy Town Clerk 

" The ibregoing is a True Copy of y' voate of the 
Town of Alstead as Matters of Grieveances to be laid 
before y' Hon' Committee from y" Hon"' Assembly of 
y' State of New Hampshire 

" Test Absalom Kingsbery, Town Clerk 
"The Committees of Mario Surry & Westmoreland 
concur with ye within matter of Agreevencis." 

Petition of Prudence, the Wife of Simon 

Baxter. 
" To the Hon'"" Counsel and assembly for the State 
of New Hampshire — the humble petition of Prudence 
Baxter of Alstead in the County of Chesire humbly 
shews and gives your Honours to be informed that 
your petitioner dos not send this prayer to your hon- 
ours for riches nor honours — but for mercy and 1 may 
say forlited mercy might be extended to Simon Bax- 
ter the husband of your petitioner — who did in .Inly 
1777 go over to the enemy — but has ever sence the 
day he joined them been sorry for his fault — and has 
Repented his Erro with a flood of Tears — I dont mean 
to trouble your patiences with any thing but the 
Truth, and Capt Holmns of Walpole and Capt Gil- 
bert of Littleton Can and will if Called upon Testify 
that the s" Baxter has for a Long Time past ben a 
friend to america and Capt Wait of this Town who is 
now in the army and has ben a prisoner with the 
enemy Can Testify the kindness ye s'' Baxter shew to 
the prisoners of the united states and ever sence has 
had a Desire to Return and sware aligence to the 
united states and is now Detained in a flag in Boston 
harbour — and their does earnestly pray for mercy 
— and as their is none that is guilty has Less 
then he so none a fairer plea for pardon — o spair him 
I humbly pray — I ask not for his Estate — only for his 
Life under such Limitation as you in your wisdom 
shall see proper to alow — the s'' Baxter did while hear 
do his part in the war as my familey has sense with- 
out complaining — sufl'er him I humbly pray to be 
once more a subject of this state and have the Liberty 



116 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of the oath of aligence to the united states — I Cair not 
how we Live oi- how we are fed, if he can but have 
authoritive Liberty to Live in tliis state, tlie small 
[property] that we did possess shall with pleasure go 
only spair him — and as mercy is the Dealing of god 
and the Brightest Virtue of the human mind — o Let 
Baxter be one subject of your mercy — the glory of a 
merciful Deed is in proportion to the Crime for which 
the Deed of mercy was Extended. 

" The arms of america has spread Terrow thro the 
world — that their mercy might not be Coniiued or 
Limeted — I do, in my husbands name, Lay myself 
and him att the foot stool of this state for mercy, and 
if we must perish we must perish there — as in duty 
bound shall ever pray 

"Alstead, December ye 14*, 1778. 

" Prudence Baxter." 

Capt. Lemuel Holmes, of Surry, and Capt. 
Jason Wait, of Alstead, the men referred to in 
the foregoing, were prisoners of war in New 
York when Simon Baxter and his son William 
were with the enemy, and, being old neighbors, 
probably received favors from them. 

Simon Baxter's property was declared con- 
fiscated to the State ; and Isaac Temple, Timothy 
Fletcher and Absalom Kingsbury were ap- 
pointed commissioners on the same, with the 
latter as trustee, who made an inventory of his 
estate, which includes the following: "Apart 
of the S"" Lot in the eighth Range, about 100 
Acres, and one half of Lot N° 17 in tlie North 
Range of Lots in Alstead, and two acres in the 
Citidale [?] Lots — one Dwelling House in the 
Highway." Mrs. Baxter petitioned, May 13, 
1778, with the " approbation of Abra" Brown, 
Nath' S. Prentice selectmen of Alstead," stat- 
ing that she had a large family of children, 
some of whom were small, and asked that the 
forfeiture of the estate might not be exacted. 

It seems that Simon Baxter left the flag- 
shij) in some way, as he and Benjamin Baxter 
were taken from Alstead to Exeter aliout 
January 21, 1779, and delivered to the Com- 
mittee of Safety by Absalom Kingsbury, and 
was there confined in jail for some time. 

Confession of William Baxter. 
" I left home 28"' of March 1778 & went to Cam- 
bridge there 1 found my father and he was to be ex- 



changed and said I must go with him I told him 1 
Did not Love to Leave my mother he said I had 
better go with him & 1 finally concluded to go with 
him to Rhode Island which I Did when I got to 
Rhode Island I worked with one . . . seaven or 
Eight Days my father Did not Do any Business that 
I know of then he and I went to N York and had the 
Small pox together and was in N. York about A 
month then he told me I must go to Long Island and 
look out for myself and Dr. Pomroy [Doctor Josiah 
Pomeroy was an ' absentee ' from Keene] would get 
me a place to live at and I went to Long Island with 
Dr. Pomroy and left my father at N York and I Lived 
with one Abraham Brinkrofl' about a week and then 
my father come to me and told me he Intended to 
Return to Cambridge for they Meaning the Regulars 
would not exchange him unless he would go into 
their servis & he said he would not Do that — he had 
Drawn Rations till then and because he would not go 
into the Regular Servis they stopt his Rations then 
he worked in the same house with me till we went on 
board the Carteal that lay at newtown and went to 
N York before we went from Newtown my father & 
Dr Pomroy went Somewhere and then my father Gave 
me five hundred £ N York Currency and told me he 
had it-of Dr Pomro\' for which he told me he gave 
Dr Pomroy a note for twenty Pounds in hard money 
and my father told me to ])ut it where the people of 
the house could not find it and said when we got back 
to Cambridge we could live well I told him we should 
be found out he was very angry with me & said he 
brought me to be a help to him but instead of that I 
was nothing but a plague and said he wished I was at 
home again — then we went to Yoi'k and while we 
were waiting for the flag to come of I went to work to 
help Lode the Vesel and my father went Back to Dr. 
Pomroy at Newtown and when he came back he 
brought about A thousand Dollars More as near as I 
Can Remember and told me to hide it and said he 
was to have some more as soon as it was struck of and 
Signed — the Next Day he went of again and brought 
so much as with what he told me to hide the Day be- 
fore Made up A thousand pounds that I saw but how 
much more I Dont Know then he had some hard 
money and with that bought Cloathing to send by me 
to his tamely — while we lay at N York one evening 
Benj" whiting Sam' Tarbull Will Stark Robt L. 

Fowle Blair two Cummins Benj" Trow my father 

and myself ware togather at .In" Strouts in New York 
and I see Benj" Whiting have one thousand Dollars 
in forty Dollar bills and offered my father if he would 
take the Money and put it of att Cambridge or any- 
where in y' Country he would give him five hundred 
Dollars of it which my father took but told me he Re- 



ALSTEAD. 



117 



turned it Back then the said Beujamin AVhiting Said 
if he could not get any Body to fetch it Meaning the 
money he would fetch it himself for all the D* Rebels 
would be overcome before Next year was out — the 
next Day we Sailed for Boston and alter we had got 
to Boston I told my father I would not go back he 
said he believed I had as good go home and told me 
to take the Cloatliing with me and carry it home to 
Mother and he counted some money to me vis ten 
forty Dollar Bills & Seaventeen twenty D° and about 
Ninety five Dollars in good Money and told me to be 
carefull I said I was afraid it would hurt me he said 
the money would do him no good and if I was like to 
be hurt by it I might burn it — and then I set of for 
Cambridge and went to Joseph Welches and he was 
going to Boston and said he wanted some paper 
money and Asked me if I had any that I could spare 
I told him yes and I gave him fifty six Dollars for a 
Joannes and he went to Boston and came and told 
me he had got a hors for me and a boy to Carry me 
to Littleton for twenty d(dlars and said if I would 
give him twenty more he would find another hors for 
my baggage and said he had some more hard money 
& if I would change fifty paper Dollars he would let 
me have another Joannes which I Did and if I would 
give him fifty six Dollars he would let me have two 
Guinues which I Did I saw a hessian in Cambridge 
and changed fifty Paper Dollars for two Guinnes then 
I left Cambridge and went to Littleton and Cap' Gil- 
bert & I went to boston to Get my father out of the 
flag but Gen' Heath would not Permit him to come 
out & there I bought 3 yd" of Salloon & 3 yds of Lace 
& Exchanged 3 twenty Dollar bills then I returned 
to Cambridge and there I Met a Negro fellow with a 
watch and I gave him four twenty Dollar bills and 2 
Eight Dollar bills & one four Dollar liill f<ir y' watch 
then I returned to Littleton & from there to Keen 
and got to Benj" Halls and his Son Annanias asked 
me if I had got any. Catchett meaning counterfit 
money I told him yes he Looked on it and told me he 
would put it of for me & Return me two thirds of it 
in good money which I consented to Do after that 
Zibia Hall his Brother asked me if I had any Cat- 
chett I told him I had not for Anna' had got it he 
said he was the wrong Person to give it too for he 
would be to Ventersome I saw Anny after that he 
told me that Zibia wanted it for he had put of A large 
Some of it which if I mistake not was four Hundred 
Dollars & that 30 Dollars wjs returned Back which 
he could not put of So I went home and was Imme- 
diately taken up and then I sent my Brother Joseph 
to Anna hall for the money I left with him and he 
brought 7 forty Dol Bills & 1 twenty Do & 1 good Do 
& Keep' two I had Left ten forty Dollar Bills with 



him & one twenty — My Brother Joseph & I hid the 
money he brought from Anna' Hall in the barn 
Namely 7 forty Dollar bills & 1 twenty Do all the 
Money I mentioned in the foregoing Account that I 
have not Called good I suppose was Counterfit — while 
I was at Cambridge at Joseph Welches Welch In- 
quired of me About the Monmouth Battle & about ' 
y° Brittish troops I told him they Suffered a Gooil 
Deal he said the Rebels had it in there papere that 
they ware beat but he Did not Believe it and said he 
wished to God that he was at New York with his 
famely and Enquired if there was any Houses to be 
Let I told him yes but they ware very Dear he Re- 
peated he Wished he was there Dear as they was — 
while I was in New- York I saw one Timothy Lovell 
of Rockingham and one Hubbard of Windsor in y' 
State of Vermont two Refugees and they have both 
stole out since and I saw Lovell in Littleton and he 
told me not to Mention to any Body that he was out 
of New York for it might hurt him and would not 
Do me any Good and he enquired where Maj"' Joseph 
Blanchard Lived & said he was going there to Holies 
but nobod)' suspected that Hubbard had been to N 
York that I know of and he now Lives j)eaceably at 
home as I have heard I Likewise saw one Joseph 
Durfey of New London in y"" State of Connecticut in 
New York He said he Did not know what the Reb- 
ells would Do to him when he came out nor Did not 
care a D** t — d. 

" the foregoing Relation is to the Best of my Re- 
membrance the truth the whole truth and Nothing 
but the truth which I can attest before the Almighty 
God. 

"January 8'" 1779. 

" William Baxtee. 

"N.B. Said Baxter confessed that his brother 
Joseph told him that annanias Hall told him he put 
off a 40 Dollar bill to one Hall a sadler in Keen, in 
the following way the Sadler gave a good 40 Dollar 
Bill to said annanias to change into small Bills — and 
ann' said after taking the good Bill & could not 
change it, and then gave him a Counterfeit in Lieu." 

William Baxter was arrested by Joel Chand- 
ler, constable, on a warrant from Nathaniel S. 
Prentice, taken before said Prentice, November 
11, 1778, examined and st'nt to the General 
Assembly. At the examination before " Squire 
Prentice," Captain Lemuel Holmes testified as 
follows : 

"I Lemuel Holmes of Lawful age Testi5' and say. 
That as 1 was Prisoner on Longisland when William 
Baxter who Left his home in Alstead came their with 



118 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



his father who came from Boston to Newyork s* 
William Baxter whilst he continued Their Lived with 
a farmer on Longisl.ind & Laboured for him for hier 
and did not join in the Brittish servis or Draw Either 
Money or Provision from them to my knowledge but 
Lived in a Peacable Retired manner with a farmer 
that appeared To be a friend to america : I further 
say that Simon Baxter father to ye s'' William De- 
clared te me that he ordered his son away, and as he 
found it more DiiEcult to support him their Than he 
Expected he thought Best for him to Return : S'* 
William Baxter came to Longisland some time in 
June Last Past according to my Best Reraemberauce 
— further this Deponent saith not. 
"Alstead Nov." ye 11, 1778. 

" Lemuel Holmes." 

This was sworu before Nathaniel S. Prentice. 

In Honse of Representatives, November 18, 
1778, William Baxter was ordered to be de- 
livered to the sheriff, in order to be " sent back 
to New York by the first conveyance." It 
seems that he was not sent, however, but was 
admitted to bail, the bond requiring him not 
to go beyond the limits of Exeter. In May 
following ho had a pass to go to Alstead and 
return in twenty days. In July he was granted 
a permit " to pass and repass from Portsmouth 
to Exeter on Business for the printers ; " and 
in April, 1780, lie was employed by the Com- 
mittee of Safety to carry letters " to the County 
of Cheshire to call the General Court together," 
for which he was paid one hundred dollars. I 
think some allowance should l)e made for his 
conduct, on account of his age and his having 
been influenced by his father, although I think 
his statement relative to Dr. Ziba Hall was not 
true. Dr. Hall was a respectable physician in 
Keene for many years. 

" State of New Hampshire, Cheshire, ss. 
" Alstead, Nov. 26, 1781. 

" Whereas tlie major part of the Selectmen of Surry 
refused to obey the within precept, being under oath 
to the State of Vermont, and having sent the same to 
the Selectmen of Alstead, the major part of whom 
likewise refused to obey the same on the same account. 
We the subscribers Selectmen for Alstead and Surry, 
and all the Selectmen in said Towns that acknowl- 
edge the jurisdiction of New Hampshire, did on the 
ninth of this instant November notify all the legal 



inhabitants of the towns of Surry, Alstead and Marlow 
within mentioned to meet at the house of Mr. Timothy 
Fletcher in Alstead on Monday the 20'" day of this 
instant Nov. at ten o'clock in the forenoon for the 
purpose within mentioned. Who being accordingly 
met made choice of Mr. Absalom Kingsbury to rep- 
resent them in the General Assembly within men- 
tioned. 

" Timothy Fletchei:, Selectman for Alstead. 

" W" RtJSSELL, Selectman for Surry. 
" In Committee on Claims 1 

Concord June 13, 1783. J The Bounty paid by 
Alstead to & which has been deducted from David 
Abraham's account amounts to Thirteen pounds Thir- 
teen shillings 

"Attest JosiAH GiLMAx Treas." 

David Abraham served also for Gilsum. 

Petition about Taxes. 

"To the Hon'''" the council and house of Representa- 
tives for the State of New Hampshire. 
"The Petition of the Town of Alstead within said 
State Humbly Sheweth That considering the great 
Scarcity of a medium of currency we feel the greatest 
Impractibility of Discharging our Legal Taxes to the 
State to which we belong by cash. And as there is a 
number of Soldiers from amongst us that have Serv'' 
in the continental Service and a great part of there 
wages is yet due — the greater part of whom are Nesces- 
etated for present Belief and the produce of our 
Husbandry would be that that would grant them Re- 
lief perhaps as well as the cash — the former of which 
is in our Power to Relieve them with when the Latter 
is utterly out of our Power to Supply with at present 
— Therefore your Petitioners pray that they may be 
directed in a mode that your hon(nirs in your great 
wisdom Shall point to pay our (Quotas of Taxes in 
arrears [mediately to the Soldier lor the reasons above 
mentioned and your petitioners as in Duty bound 
Shall Ever pray. 

" Amos Shepherd] Selectmen of 
" Nathan Fay ] Alstead 

"John Wood r in behalf and 

" TlM° Fletcher I by order of the Town 
" Alstead 20'" Sep' 1783." 

General Amos Shepherd was one of the lead- 
ing men of Alstead from 1777 until his death. 
He was noted for iudustry, economy, honesty 
and fidelity, and ac((uired a fortune for those 
days ; frequently held positions of trust in the 
town; was elected State Senator in 1786, and 
re-elected fourteen times ; was president of that 



ALSTEAD. 



119 



body from 1797 to 1804 ; was a member of the 
Coimcil in 1785. He died January 1, 1812. 
Petition of Nathaniel Shepherd, Deek-Eeeve. 

" To the Hon"'-" the council and house of Kepresen- 
tatives for the State of New Hampshire, 
" The Petition of Nath' Shepherd of Alste.ad in the 

county of cliesliire state aforesaid. 
" Humbly Sheweth 

" That whereas your petitioner was chosen by the 
Town of Alstead Deer reife for the year of our Lord 
One Thousand Seven hundred & Eighty .and your 
Petitioner in Prosecuting his trust in that office under 
oath complained of one Elnathan Jeuning as a person 
that h.ad Broke the Law of the State in that case 
made and provided — Unto N.ath' S. Prentice & 
Thomas Sparhawk Esqs Two of the Justices of s"* 
county as Directed in said act and your petitioner at 
a Large Expense of his own pursued the steps of the 
Law and made it appear to the said Justices that the 
said Jennings was actu.ally guilty of killing Deer 
contrary to Law ; there Judgment accordingly was 
that he should pay a fine as the Law Directs which 
the one half thereof was promised by said .act to the 
Prosecutor which relying on the faith of the State he 
Expected, but to his great Surprise one of the said 
Justices Received a Special order from the President 
of sd State forbiding him in any way or manner to 
Demand the Said fine of the said Jennings whereby 
he was and hath been ever since kept out of his Right 
as promised in s'' act with an additional cost of his 
own Now your Petitioner prays that the aforesaid 
order maybe Revoked or that your Petitioner maybe 
Releived in some other way which your Hon" in your 
great wisdom shall think proper which your Petiti. 
oner Supposeth he hath an undoubted Eight to Ex- 
pect. And your Petitioner .as in Duty bound will 

Ever pray. 

"Nathaniel Shepherd. 

"Alstead 23" Ocf 1783." 

The said Jennings proved that lie was in the 
Continental army three and one-half years, was 
driven from Long Island by the British on 
account of his loyalty, came to this State in July, 
1779, did not know anything aliout the law, 
and was poor and needed the meat for the sub- 
sistence of his family. For these reasons Presi- 
dent Weare issued a special order to stay pro- 
ceedings. 

" State of New Hampshire 1 To the Hon"" general 
Cheshire ss. ) Assembly. 

" the petition of the inhabitants of the town of Al- 



stead in the County of Cheshire humbly sheweth that 
whereas there was in the ye.ar 1780 a Large sum of 
Continental Money Due from this Town to the state 
aforesaid — but for several Reasons (which would be 
irksome to us, as well as Disagreeable to your Honors, 
to mention at this Time we pass them) the aforesaid 
money w.as not p.aid into the Treasury in season as it 
ought to have been — but not out of any ill intention 
in us, in regard to the money, or in any manner to 
Defraud, or keep Back, what was really due from us, 
to the said state, the truth of which will appear, by 
reciting one or two paragrafts in one of our Town 
Meetings about that time. 

" the 1" is this — that this Town will make a settle- 
ment with New Hampshire respecting all Debts that 
we have been with them in contracting , 

" the second — Voted to chuse a Committee of three 
men to receive accounts from soldiers — (Viz) those that 
served the last campaign (meaning under the Author- 
ity of New Hampshire) as three months men, and six 
months men, and to take the said soldiers Receipts 
for the same money so paid, this last, as far as the 
money amounted, was to answer the first, and from 
w^hich we humbly conceive, your honors will be Led 
to see, th.at the people in this Town have not been so 
oppose<l to the Laws and orders of the gener.al As- 
sembly, as ha.s been represented, and that the people 
have been, was then, and Now .are, willing to pay 
there full Quotas of money to Defray the public 
charge — for in that great hurry, and heat of the people 
those two votes before Recited ware obtained — Your 
Honours are as sensable of the Extreem scarcity of 
money thro the state as we can be, and if the Treas- 
urer should be directed to call upon those two men 
in whose hands the aforesaid money now remains for 
so large a sum of hard money — your honours may 
Easilyjudge the tatal consequences it would prove to 
them .and there fameleys. 

" We your petitioners therefore in the most humble 
manner prostrate our selves at the feet of the gener.al 
Assembly humbly praying that your Honours would 
not in your wisdome and goodness by misrepresenta- 
tion impute too much iniquity to the good people in 
this Town — ^but make some proper allowancies for 
hum.an frailty by extending compjission to those two 
men, and receive the money they h.ad collected before 
the time Expired for receiving Continent<al money as 
has been done for other Towns in this county those 
two men .aforesaid (viz) Nathan Fay, and Zebulon 
Crane are men of veracity who are at this time be- 
trusted with public honours from New Hampshire — 
and whose affidavits in all matters may be relied on — 
this petition is not the prayer [of] one individual, but 
the voice of the people at Large in this Town — who 



120 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



with Confidence in your Clemency, and Contrishon in 
our selves present this petition to your wise Consider- 
ation as in Duty hound shall ever pray. 

''Signed hy order and in behalf of the inhabitants 
of the Town of Alstead. 

Alstead September ■2V"' 17S3. 

Amos Shepherp^ 

JoH>' woop '*- Selectmen 

Ti.M"^' Fletcher [ 

" Aecp"' & votetl that the Select men Sign the Same 
in behalf of y'' Town 

" Attest Nath' S. Prentice Toipn Clerk" 

In the House of Representatives, December 
2G, 1783, it was " \'oted, Tliat the prayer of 
sjtiil petition l>e so far gitinted iis to receive the 
money whidt is now in the hands of Nathan 
Fay, one of the constables, amounting to 
£1530.. IS'.. 0. Continental Currency it" tliat 
tlie treasurer disctnint the stime out of tlie taxes 
calUxl for from the Towu of Alstead in tlie year 
17S0." 

Tlie Council coucun-ed tlie same day. 

Certificate of Selectmes about Taxes. 
" These may Certify that it appears by Samuel 
Kidders Tax bill for 17So— that Lot X^' 5 in the Eighth 
Range was Taxetl in the war Tax two shillings and 
tenpenee and X" 4 in the Tenth Range three shillings 
and nine pence to the same fcix — and to the state tax 
N" 5 in y' Eighth Range 3/10— and N" 4 in y' lO"' 
Range 5/ 2 — and in ye County Tax N" 5 in y' S"" 

Range 1/ all in the said Kidders Tax bills who 

was constable for 17SS which said Lots belong to the 
Confiscated Estate of Simon Baxter an Absentee 
'• £0 . . 16 . . 7. 
" Alstead January 2P' 17S6. 

" Isaac Temple "i 
"BF.x..MVoon SeUctmen 

! oj 

" Reibex Hatch | Ahiead 
" Joel Chaxdler 1 
" Portsm' Feby 14, 1780. 
" Received an order for sixteen shillings and seven 

pence. 

" Amos Shephekp.' 

In 17S9, Gideim Delano and Eli Snow killed 
a wolf each in Alsteiid, for wliich they received 
a !?tate boimty. 

PeTITIOX for AtTTHORITY TO TaX NoX-ReSIPEXT 

Laxps. 

" To the Hon"" Senate and house of Representatives 
of the State of New Hamjishire in general Court 



Convened at Portsmouth on the S"" day of January 

A. D. 1790. 

" The Petition of the Selectmen of Alstead humbly 
sheweth that said Town hes a Large Shair of roads 
and Bridges to Support it being a Veri mountainous 
town and to ad to these burdon the County have 
lately laid out a Road through the Soutlieasterly part 
of said Town through the non-residents Land about 
three niilds which is no advantage to said inhabitants 
therefore your petitioners pray that the Selectmen 
of said town lay a Tax of two pence per acor on all 
the nonresidence Land in Said town to be Laid out 
on the roads through there own Lands, or other ways 
as you in your great wisdom Shall see meet. 

" and we as in Huty bound shall ever pray. 

^ in be half of 
"Oliver Shepaep V the Seleehnen 
] o/Ahtead." 

January 11. 1790, the matter was before the 
House of Representatives, and a he:iring oixlereil 
for the next session. 

January 21, 1791, a bill grauting the author- 
ity asked for was pa.ssed and concurreil in by 
the Senate. 

Remoxstraxce agaixst Settixg Off a Parish. 

" To his Excellency the Governor and Hon''''' General 

Court of New Hampshire. 

" We the subscribers inhabitants of the Town of 
Alstead, being this day informed that a petition is 
circulating in the ejist part of this Town to the gene- 
ral Court praying to be set ofl" as a Distinct parish ; 
Now we would inform the Hon*"'' General Court, that 
the situation of this Town is such that a Division 
would be hurtful to the whole on many reasons that 
might be given as the matter is suden and unex- 
pected to us till this date, and the Notice we had 
accidental and the voices of the inhabitjmts have not 
been asked, and a day of hearing on the said petition 
might be a Large bill of Cost to this Town — ^we pray 
therefore that the petition aforesaid might not have a 
hearing as in Duty bound shall ever pray. 

■ Alstead may 31* 1793." 

" Reuben Hatch. Nath° Man. 

Job Thompson, Jr. John Worster. 

Joel Chandler. Ebenezer Palmer. 

Asa Hatch. Paul Robins. 

Absalom Kingsbery. Josiah Crosby. 

Edward Waldo. Ephraim Kingsbery. 

Isaac Brown. No;ih Vilas. 

John Robbins. Moses Farnsworth. 

Joshua Wood. Lemuel Barker. 



ALSTBAD. 



121 



Jijsiali Robcns. 
William thompson. 
John Burroughs. 
Benj" Baxter. 
William Hlade. 
Elisha Kiugsbery. 
Ilichard lOmerson. 
Daniel I'erin. 
John Sladc, Jr. 
Daniel Waldo. 
Elkanah Stephens. 
Nath' Rust. 
David Hale. 
Frederick wardner. 
Isaac Cady. 
Judah Hatch. 
Phinehas Hatch. 
Joshua Crane. 
Asa Grant. 
Chr' Williams. 
Jonas Farke. 
Mason Hatch. 
John Fletcher. 
Jonathan King. 
Michel Grant. 
James Kingsbery. 



Nath' Clark. 
Tho' Farnsworth. 
Nath' Cooper. 
Amos Shejiard. 
William Simons. 
Abel Hebbard. 
Jacob Cheever. 
Sam' Sladc. 
James Brown. 
Nathaniel Right, Junr. 
Azel Hatch. 
Jacob Wardner. 
Thomas Root. 
Josiah Cook. 
Dan' Williams. 
Joseph Cady. 
Josiah Cook, .Jr. 
.ri)se[)h I'eck. 
John Ladd. 
Rich'' Beckwith. 
Luke Harris. 
Benj' Cutter. 
Jesse Watts. 
David Hodgman. 
Josiah Brooks. 
Roswell Waldo. 
Elias Brown. Gideon Delano." 

Kemonstranck of Selectmen. 
" To his E.Kcellency the Governor, the Hon''''' senate 
and house of representatives, in General Court 
Assembled, may it please your honors. 
" We, the Subscribers, Selectmen of the Town of 
Alstead, beg Leave to inform your Honors that this 
day we ware inform'' that a Petition is now Circulat- 
ing in the East part of this Town praying to be set 
off as a distinct Parish, or otherwise, as the General 
Court may think proper. This matter has twice been 
before the inhabitants of this Town and twice Reject- 
ed by a Large majority, as a division of this Town at 
present would be very injurious to this Town in 
General, and they have not brought there petition 
before the inhabitents to know their minds on the 
matter. As selectmen and Guardians of the ])ublic 
affairs, we pray the petition aforesaid might not liave a 
hearing. 

"Alstead, may 31* 1793. 

" Isaac Temple, \ Selectmen 
" Oliver Shepard, J of Alstead." 

Petition for the Incorporation of a Re- 
ligious Society. 

" To the Honorable the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives for the State of New Hampshire in 
General Court Assembled. 



"The Petition of a number of Inhabitants of the 
Town of Alstead, in said State 

" Humbly Sheweth, — That whereas your Petition- 
ers, being a compact Society in one part of the Town, 
and some years p.ast built them a meeting-house and 
settled them a Minister, when there was no other set- 
tled minister in the Town, and have ever since paid a 
tax towards the support of their Society by them- 
selves, without being called upon to support the 
ministry any other way ; but still we find ourselves 
under some embarrassments, not having legal author- 
ity to call on one another for the taxes so made, and 
having got the approbation of the Town by their Vote 
in Town-meeting — legally appointed therefor — There- 
fore your Petitioners humbly pray that all those now 
paying taxes, or that may hereafter choose to pay 
taxes towards the support of the ministry & meeting- 
house, with us may be incorporated into a Society 
solely for that purpose. And your Petitioners, as in 
duty bound, will pray. 

" Alstead, 26'" Nov'., 1793. 
"Nath' S. Prentice. Larnard Mann. 

Isaac Kent. John Wait. 

Abel Phelps. Stephen Bridgham. 

Oliver Brown. Moses Blanchard. 

William Wood. Paul Gale. 

Laban Johnson. S^-dis Miller. 

Spencer Brown. Thomas Wood. 

Solomon Prentice, Jr. Elijah Holbrook. 

Eli Harrington. Jon" Newton. 

Samuel Smith. Benj" Wood. 

Amaziah Wheelock. Asa Whitcomb. 

Elisha Gale. Abra" Brown. 

Sylvester Partridge. John Brooks. 

John Bryant. John Kent. 

Jonathan Atherton. Je-sse Fay. 

John Wood. John Brimmer. 

John Bridgham. Eph"* Barnard. 

Daniel Newell. Sartell Prentice. 

Nathan Fay. Phineas Olds. 

Thomas Taylor. Samuel Ball. 

.Tedidiali .Johnson. Abel Childs. 

Thoma.s Wait. Jonas Newton." 

James Arcli. 

The original was .signed also hy Abel Dut- 
ton, William Richardson, Aristides Iliiestis, 
Timotliy Child, Eleazer Miller. 

In House of Representatives, December 31, 
1793, a, hearing was ordered for the second 
Wednesday of the next session ; meanwhile the 
petitioners were to post a copy of the ])etitiou 
in .some public place in the town and deliver a 



122 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



copy to the town clerk, which the following 
certificates show was complied with : 

" Cheshire, ss. March 11*, 1794. This petition and 
order of Court thereon, was delivered to me this day, 
and this day I read it in open Town-meeting, in the 
Town of Alstead. " Isaac Temple, T: Clerk. 

" Agreeable to tlie order, herein contained, this Pe- 
tition and order of Court has ben Posted up in the 
Town of Alstead. 

" Tho' Taylor, 
" SiMox Brooks, Jr., 
" Job Thompsox, Jr., 
" James Kingsbury, 



Selectmen." 



Vote of Town in Favor of the Incorporation 
OF A Religious Society. 
" In a warrant. Legally executed, for calling a 
Town-Meeting in the Town of Alstead, on the nine- 
teeth day of Nov"', Last past, was the following arti- 
cle (viz.) article 3*: 

" To see if the Town will approve of the persons 
paying Taxes to the Rev*" Levi Lankton, to be incor- 
porated into a society by themselves, for the purpose 
of Maintaining their minister and Meeting-house. 

"In Town-Meeting, Nov" 19'\ 1793, article 3^ the 
Question being put wheather the inhabitants of this 
Town will approve of the persons paying Taxes to the 
Rev"" Levi Lankton, to be incorporated into a society 
by themselves, for the purpose of Maintaining their 
minister and Meeting-house, passed in the affirma- 
tive. " A true copy of Record 

"Attest — Isaac Temple, T: Clerk. 
" Alstead, Dec"' 20'", 1793." 

" At the annual Meeting of the Inhabitants of the 
town of Alstead, holden March 10'", 179-5. 

" Article 16'", — To see if the inhabitants aforesaid 
will vote that the persons that now do or may here- 
after pay Taxes to the Rev'' Levi Lankton may be In- 
corporated into a Society for the purpose of Soporting 
their Minister and Meeting-House. 
" Passed in the affirmative. 
" Alstead, May 13"", 1795. 
" Moses Hale, 
"Daniel Perin, 
" Abel Phelps, 
" Jn° Brigham, 
" Ephraim Kingsbertt, 
" The above is a true copy of record. 

" Attest, Daniel Perin, Town Clerk." 



Selectmen of 
Alstead. 



The foregoing petitions, etc., resulted in the 
incorporation of a society by the name of 
the Second Parish in Alstead, tlie act passing 
the House June 15, 1795, the Senate the next 
day, and receiving the approval of Governor 
Gilman, June 18, 1795. 

Petition of Elisha Kingsbery for Loan. 
" To the Honorable the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the State of New Hampshire, to be 
Convened at Amherst in said State on Wednesday, 
the fourth day of June, 1794. 
" Humbly Sheweth your Petitioner. 

"That your Petitioner did, in the year 1792, at 
great Expence, build a Liuceed Oil Mill, and in the 
year 1793, on his own Expence, & on the same Dam 
build a Paper Mill, both which mills are nearly 
finished and do good business to the great advantage 
and benefit of the Public in this part of the State. 
That your Petitioner finds a great demand for his 
Paper, not only in this, but in the Neighbouring 
State of Vermont, so that not only the saving of the 
importation of that valuable article in this part of the 
State is made, hut is also likely to bring a considera- 
ble Quantity of money into this part of the State. — 
That the demand for paper has increased so much that 
he finds himself uuable to procure Stock sufficient to 
supply all his customers by reason of this great ex- 
pence in Constructing his works. 

"Therefore prays that your Honors would grant 
him the Loan of two hundred pounds for one or two 
years, upon security of the Mortgage of the Mill, to 
the st^ite that he may be enabled to carry on his 
works to the better advantage of the publick and save 
the importation of those articles into this part of the 
State. And your Petitioner, as in Duty bound will 
ever pray. 

" Alstead, May 3P', 1794. 

" Elisha Kingsbeky." 

The foregoing was before the Legislature 
June 9, 1794, and a committee appointed to 
consider the matter ; but I am uuable to find any 
record of their report. — (Hammond.) 



HISTORY OF CHESTERFIELD. 



BY OEAN E. RANDALL. 



CHAPTER I. 

Geography and Geology. — -Chesterfield 
is bounded on the north by Westmoreland and 
Keene, on the east by Keene and Swanzey, on 
the south by Winchester and Hinsdale, on the 
west b}' the Connecticut River, or, more strictly 
speaking, by Brattleborough and Dummerston, 
in Vermont. The area of the town, exclusive 
of the Connecticut, which flows along its 
western border for a distance of about six 
miles, is probably between forty-two and forty- 
four square miles. The first recorded per- 
ambulation of the town lines took place in 
1793, at which time the line between Chester- 
field and Westmoreland was measured by 
Jonas Robbins, of the latter town, and found 
to have a length of " seven miles and three- 
fourths and fortv-four rods," its direction being; 
" east, 10° \%y south." 

The line running from the northeast corner 
of Chesterfield to the southwest corner of 
Keene wiis described as having a length of 
one mile and sixteen rods, and a direction of 
"south, 8° 30' east;" and the line running 
from the southwest corner of Keene to the 
northwest corner of Swanzey as having a 
length of two hundred and sixty-three rods, 
and a direction of "east, 8° 30' south." The 
line between Chesterfield and Swanzey was 
surveyed the same year by John Braley, and 
was described as iiaving a direction (starting 
from the northwest corner of Swanzey) of 
"south, 33i° west;" but its length was not 



stated. According to measurements made at 
a later date, this line has a length of nearly 
foiu" and one-half miles. 

The same surveyor also surveyed, in 1793, 
the line that separates Chesterfield from Win- 
chester and Hinsdale, and found it to have a 
direction of " west, 10o-° north," starting from 
the southeast corner of Chesterfield. The 
length of this line was also not stated, but it 
is about seven and seven-eighths miles. 

The surface of the town is, for the most part, 
hilly, the meadows and plains being compara- 
tively limited. At a few jjoints on the Con- 
necticait there are small meadows and plains, 
some of the latter having an elevation of two 
hundred feet, or more, above the river. There 
are also small meadows in other parts of the 
town, through which flow some of the larger 
brooks. 

Wautastiquet, or West River Mountain, lies 
in the extreme southwest corner of Chesterfield 
and northwest corner of Hinsdale. This 
mountain rises abruptly from the Connecticut, 
and has an altitude of about twelve hundred 
feet above sea-level. From its summit, iu the 
days of the early settlements, the Indians are 
said to have watched the oj^erations of the 
settlers in the vicinity of Fort Dummer. 
Hence, the name of Indians' Great Chair has 
been applied to a particular portion of the 
summit of this mountain. The longer axis of 
Wantasti(juet is nearly parallel to the river, 
and has a length of from three to four miles. 

There are several hills in the town worthy of 

123 



124 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



iiuntioii. Mount Pistarccii, near Chesterfield 
Factory, lias an altitude, j)rol)al)ly, of about 
one thousand t'oet above the level of the sea. 
Streetei" Hill, in the northwestern (|uarter of 
the town, is so called because it was at one 
time inhabited by several families of the name 
of Strccter. Its altitude is somewhat greater 
tlian that of Pistareen. Atherton Hill, iu the 
eastern part of Chesterfield, received its name 
from the circumstance that Joseph Atherton 
settled on it in 1795. There are several other 
lulls iu the town tJiat are higher than Streeter 
Hill. 

There arc no large streams of water flowing 
tltrou(/h Chesterfield, but tiie Connecticut flows 
along its western bortler. Its height above 
sea-level, at a point opposite Brattleboroiigh, is 
two hundred and fourteen feet. 

The largest brook, flowing M'holly within 
the limits of the town, is Catsbane Brook. 
This stream rises in the low lands south of the 
Centre village, and in tlie vicinity of Barrett 
Ilill, and flows in a nortiiwesterly direction for 
the distance of about five miles, emptying into 
the Connecticut uear the West village. The 
name of this brook Ciui only be accounted for 
by the following tradition, which has been 
handed down from the first settlers : At a very 
early period iu the town's history two men, 
whii were traveling through the forest, stopped 
on the banks of the brook to eat their lunch. 
Haviug finished their meal, one of the men 
said he wished to set out again on the journey. 
Tiic other replied that he wished to take 
another draught of the water of the brook 
before leiiving. " For your sake," said his 
companion (using at the same time certain 
emphatic words), " I wish this water had 
catsbane iu it ! " He probably meant rats- 
bane. In all probability, this singular name 
was applied to the brook a number of years 
before the settlement of the town. 

Partridge Brook, in some respects the most 
important stream that has its origin iu the 
town, is the outlet of Spaffbrd's Lake. It 
takes the water of the lake from the "channel" 



uear Factory village, flows a short distance in 
a southeasterly direction, then, turuing sharply 
to the northward, plunges down through a 
deep gorge, and flows on, for a distance of 
about two miles, to the Westmoreland line. 
From the Hue it coutiuues its course iu a 
northwesterly direction through Westmoreland, 
tor a distance of four miles, or more, and 
empties into the Connecticut near the county 
farm. It is certain that this brook was known 
by its present name before Chesterfield was 
settled, inasnuich as it was called Partridge 
Brook, in the proprietary records of M'est- 
morelaud, as early as 1752. There are also 
several other brooks in Chesterfield of lesser 
importance. 

Spaflbrd's Lake lies nearly iu the centre of 
the northern half of the town. According to 
an estimate based on the proprietors' chart, or 
plan, this beautiful sheet of water has an area 
of about seveu hundred square acres. This 
estimate may be somewhat too small ; but, from 
all the information the writer cau obtain 
relating to this subject, it appears to him that 
the area of this lake cannot exceed one thou- 
sand acres. The shore of the lake is, for the 
most part, either sanily or rocky ; and its water 
is remarkably pure, being supplied, in great 
part, by springs beneath its surface. 

Pierce's Island, iu the southwestern part of 
the lake, contains from four to six acres, 
ludiau relics — principally stone pestles and 
arrow-heads — have been found on it. 

It is not known with certainty how the lake 
came by its name of S})atford"s Lake, but the 
tradition has always been that a mau of tlie 
name of Spaffbrd once lived uear its shore ; 
heuce its name. 

There are good reasons for believing that the 
lake received its name before the town was 
actually settled, and that the Spaffbrd who is 
said to have lived near its shore was a hunter, 
whose residence was only temjxirarv. 

Catsbane Island, which lies about half a mile 
below the mouth of Catsbane Brook, in rhe 
Connecticut, is worthy of mention. This islaud 



CirKSTKRFIKIil). 



1-25 



— wiiich is in view i'rom tlie lower ferry — eon- 
tains but a few ;ieres, and is principally noted 
as being, in all probability, near tli(\ place 
where the Indians (M'ossed (lie rivei' on their 
way to ( 'anada, after havinti; defeated Sei'geant 
Taylor's [)Mrty in .Tnly, 174.S. It is ])ossible, 
however, that the place ralh^d " ( 'attsbane," in 
kSero-eant 'l\aylor's diary, was (he mouth of 
Catsbane I?i-ook'. [ 

The rocks of Chesterfield belong principally to 
that gronp of rocks denominated by Professor C. 
H. Hitchcock flic Co()s (rmup, and consist of 
<|nart/ite, gneiss, mica slate, mic'a schist, horn- 
i)lende rock and c^)nglonlerat(^ In the sonth- 
eastern i|narter of the town there is foinid, in 
great abnndanee, a rock calle<l |)oi'plivi-itic 
gneiss. This rock is n^jt found in tlu! wcs(ci'n 
[)art (if the town. No valuable minerals have 
been found in any considerable (piantities; yet, 
iron ore was discovered many years ago on 
\Vantasti(|net, and graphite, or plumbago, may 
exist in some localities, ^fhe so-called mine 
on Wantasti(]uet is in Hinsdale. (Quartz is 
found in considerable quanties ; in ou(^ or two 
localities, in a ])nl\'crulcnt condition. Inferior 
specimens of tourmaline have also been found. 

Numerous evidences of the action of mov- 
ing ice in the Glacial Period exist in the town. 
In some locations the ledges ar<' grooved and 
striated in a way p(,'culiar to those regions that 
have been sid)jected to glacial action. Enor- 
mous botdders, evidently brought from a great 
distance, in some instan<-es have been deposited 
upon the highest hills. 

Near the mouth of the Catsbane Brook ai-e 
examples of river terraces. The height of the 
terraces in Chesterfield and Westmoreland va- 
ries from three hundi-ed and fifty to foui- hun- 
dred feet above the sea. No fossils arc known 
to have been discovered in Chesterfield, the 
rocks, for the most part, not being of a kind 
known as " fossiliferons." 

Incorporation and Skitlemknt. — Pend- 
ing the King's det'ision respecting the dividing 
line t)etween Massat^husetts and New Hamp- 



shire, the Ceni^-al Court of the former province 
granted upwards of thirty townships between 
the Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers. The 
town.ship that lay just north of Arlington 
(which endn'aced a portion of the territory now 
belonging to Ilinsihdc and Winchester) and 
east of the Coiniei^ticut was callc(l Township 
No. l,au(l was nearly idc^ntical with the pres- 
ent township of Cli(!stcrlield. Townships Nos. 
1, '1, .") and 4 were accepted by the ( Jenei'al 
Court of Massachusetts, Novendicr .">(), 1 7.'5(). 
Sauuiel Chamberlain, of Wcslfoi'd, Mass., was 
empowered, December 13, 1737, to call the first 
meeting of the proprietors of No. 1 for organi- 
zation. It is not known, however, that any 
scttlcnieiit was attenijjted iu (his township 
under the Massachusetts charter, in fact, the 
inctu'sions of the h^rcnch and Indians into this 
part of the ("onnecticnt Valley rendered any 
attempt to settle the new township extremely 
hazardous lor some years snbse([uent to 1737. 

A treaty of peace between France and Kng- 
land was signed at Aix-Ia-(jhapelle, ()etobei' 7, 
174.S ; but, in this country, hostilities did not 
wholly cease for some time ; f<)i', June 20, 1 749, 
the Indians assaulted No. 4, and carried off 
Enos Stevens, son of ('aptain Stevens. In 
1750, '51 and '52 there was peace in the Con- 
necticut Valley. Movements we^ro now ma(l(! 
to get the towushi[)s that had been cliart(>red by 
Massachusetts, but which had been severed from 
that province by the final determination of the 
southern boundary of New Hampshire, recliar- 
teretl by the government of the latter |)roviucc. 

Some time in the year 1751, .losiah Willard, 
John Arms and fifty-six others petitioned Gov- 
ernor Benning Wcntworth to recharter Town- 
ship No. 1. The following is a copy of the 
petition : 

"Province of [ To His Excellency Benning Went- 
New Hamj/. J worth, Esq., Gov'' in and over His 
Maj'-™ Province of N«w Hamp'', &(^, the Hon' His 
M.oj'''' Council. 

"The Petition of the Subscribers iiumbly Shew.s 
that Sundry of your Petitioners some years before the 
last Indian War luid entered on a tract of Tiand 



126 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



('ailed N". Oue, on the Easterly Side Connecticut 
River, and adjoining to the same next above Win- 
chester, under the Grant of the Massachusetts Bay, 
but since the Dividing line Between the s'' Massa- 
chusetts and the Province of New Hamp' has been 
ascertained by his Majesty, Wee find that the same 
falls within the Province of New Hampshire, and are 
Desirous to pursue our former Intention of making 
a Settlement there if we may be favored with a grant 
from his Majesty of that township, under Such Re- 
strictions as other Towns Holding under his Maj- 
esty in this Province. 

" Wherefore your Petitioners pray that a Grant 
may be made tliem of the said Township N°. one, in 
Such a way and manner as y' Excellency & Hon" 
See meet, & y' Peti" as in Duty Bound Shall ever 
pray—." 

Ill accordance with this petition, Governor 
Wentworth, with the advice and consent of the 
Council, granted a charter, February 11, 1752, 
to Josiah Wilhird and others, incorporating 
Township No. 1 under tlie name of Cliester- 
field. Why this name was bestowed upon No. 
1, when it w;is rechart<^'red, is not known with 
certainty. 

It is probable, however, that tiie name was 
given to the town by Governor Wentwortli 
and his Council, either in honor of the Earl of 
Chesterfield or the town of the same name in 
p]ngland. Certain circumstances lead to the 
belief that the name was bestowed in honor of 
the former. In the first pla(«, the Earl of 
Chesterfield was a man of much note at the time 
the town was reehartered, having not only 
held important government offices, but having 
just brought about an important reform of the 
calendar, that took effect the same year (1752). 
lie was also distinguished as an orator and 
writer. In tlie second place, it is well known 
that (irovernor Benniug Wentworth was fond 
of naming towns in New Hampshire in honor 
of distinguished men and places in England. 

The names of the grantees of Chesterfield, 
as appended to the charter, were as follows : . 

"Josiah Willard, Nathan Willard, Valentine But- 
ler, John Arms, John Arms, Jun'r, Oliver Butler, 
Oliver Willard, Oliver Willard, Jun'r, Josiah Wil- 
lard, Jun'r, Nathan Willard, Jun'r, Wilder Willard, 



John Moore, William Willard, Caleb Trobridge, 
William Lawrence, John Hunt, Simon Hunt, Jona- 
than Hubbard, Samuel Kennada, Solomon Willard, 
Billy Willard, Simon Cooley, Joseph Willard, Wil- 
liam Deen, Simon Stone, Peter Oliver, David Hub- 
bard, Thomas Pain, John Wheelwright, Nathaniel 
Wheelwright, Joseph Wheelwright, Jeremiah Wheel- 
wright, Simon Willard, Benj'a Lynd, John Spaftbrd, 
Silas Spafford, Sam'l Davis, Phineas Wait, Joanna 
Wetherby, Elias Alexander, John Brooks, James 
Whitney, Abraham Kendel, Benj'a French, Josiah 
Brown, Ebenez'r Day, John French, Jun'r, Sam'l 
Greeley, Will'm Spalding, Moses Gould, Will'm 
Down, Robert Fletcher, David Field, Sam'l Field, 
David Sterns, John Kendel, Daniel Kendell, James 
Stootley, His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., 
one tract of land to contain five hundred acres, one 
whole share for the Incorporated Society for the prop- 
agation of the Gospel in foreign parts, one whole 
share for the first settled minister of the Gospel in 
said Town, one whole share for a Glebe for the min- 
istry of the Church of England, as by law estab- 
lished. Samuel Wentworth, of Boston, Theodore 
Atkinson, Richard Wibird, Samuel Smith, John 
Downing, Sampson Sheaffe, Jno. Wentworth." 

Theodore Atkinson was secretary of the 
province. Richard AVibird, Samuel Smith, 
Sampson Sheaffe and John Downing were 
members of the Council at the time the town- 
ship was regranted. 

Colonel Josiah Willard, the leading grantee, 
was, for many year.s, a resident of Winchester. 

The charter of Chesterfield is similar to those 
of other towns granted by Governor Went- 
worth. The township is described therein as 
follows : 

"All that tract or parcel of land situate, lying and 
being within our said Province of New Hampshire, 
containing by admeasurement twenty-three thousand and 
forty acres, which tract is to contain sis miles square, 
and no more ; out of which an allowance is to be 
made for highways and unimprovable lands by rocks, 
ponds, mountains and rivers, one thousand and forty 
acres free, according to a plan and survey thereof, 
made by our Governour's order, and liereunto an- 
nexed, butted and bounded as follows, — viz.: begin- 
ning and adjoining to a stake and stones near the 
bank of Connecticut river, which is the northwest- 
erly corner bound of a place called Winchester, 
thence running south seventy-eight degrees east upon 
Winchester line aforesaid, till it meets with the 



CHESTERFIELD. 



127 



western line of the lower Ashuelots, so called, then 
carrying all the breadth of land between the river 
of Connecticut aforesaid and the said Ashuelots, so 
far up northerly as will make the contents of six miles 
square, bounding on this extent by a stake and stones 
near the bank of the river, and thence running south, 
seventy-eight degrees east, till it meets with the Ash- 
uelots aforesaid." 

The cliarter provided tliat the township 
should be divided iuto seventy e([ual shares, 
and tliat a tract of laud near the eentre of the 
same should be " reserved and marked out for 
town lots," containing one acre each. Every 
grantee was entitled to one of these lots. In 
accordance with a provision of the charter, the 
town was surveyed (as were also Westmoreland 
and Walpole at the same time) and a plan of 
it drawn by Josiah Willard and Benjamin 
Bellows. 

This plan was finished March 18, 1752, and 
is now in the office of the Secretary of State, 
at Concord. It shows that the general out- 
lines of Chesterfield Mere about the same when 
the first survey under the new charter was 
made as they are now. The line between 
Keene and Chesterfield, running irom the 
northeast corner of the latter town to the south- 
west corner of the former, was stated to be about 
two hundred and twenty-five rods in length. 
The same line, as measured by Jonas Robbins, 
in 1793, was found to be "one mile and six- 
teen rods" long, or one hundred and eleven 
rods longer than in 1752. Fnim this circum- 
stance it might be inferred that this line had 
been lengthened before 1793, and that the line 
between Swanzey and Chesterfield, which was 
described in the original plan as being five 
miles and one hundred and eighty rods long, 
corresf)ondingly shortened. No record of .any 
such alterations in these lines has, however, 
been found. 

Owing to the loss of the projirietary records, 
nothing is known concerning the meetings of 
the proprietors of the town, or the business 
transacted at such meetings, save what is to be 
inferred from the proprietors' " chart," or plan 



of the town, which, fortunately, has been pre- 
served, and is in tolerably good c(jndition. It 
is not known when or by whom this plan was 
made ; but it is evident that it was made as 
early as 17(J0 or 1761, inasmuch as the earliest 
deeds sometimes refer to it. 

Governor Wentworth's share (five hundred 
acres) lay in the northwest corner of the town, 
and is known at the present day as the Gover- 
nor's Farm. ^U'cording to the plan, John 
Weutworth also had a share of three hundred 
acres. These two shares are indicated on the 
plan as " B. and J. Wentworth's shares," and 
formed a tract bounded on the north by West- 
moreland line and <>n the west by Connecticut 
River. It had an average length of about six 
imndred and eighty-seven rods and a width of 
two hundred rods. Aaron Smith, son of Moses 
Smith, the first settler, settled on Governor B. 
Wentworth's share about 1767, as did after- 
wards his brother, Benjamin Smith. John 
^yentworth's share was located just east of the 
Governor's Farm, and was purchased by Wil- 
liam Randall in 17<S0. 

The glebe is not marked on the plan, but 
lay in the southeast quarter of the town. The 
minister's share consisted of lots No. 5 in the 
first, fifth and eighth ranges of lots, and the 
tenth house-lot in the ninth range. Concerning 
the location of the share reserved for the " In- 
corporated Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts," nothing is known. 

Nor is it now known whether the "town- 
lots," mentioned in the charter, were ever laid 
out or not ; but it is certain that some of the 
hundred-acre lots, near the central part of the 
town, were divided into " half-lots," or " fifty- 
acre lots," which are sometimes designated in 
old deeds as "house-lots." 

A whole share consisted, nominally, of three 
lots, of one hundred acres each; but is a^ipears 
that most of the jjroprietors also owned one 
" house-lot " each. 

Although circumstances were apparently fa- 
vorable for immediately settling the new town- 



128 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ship at the time the new charter was grauted, 
no settlement was effected till nine years after- 
wards. The last French and Indian A\'ar, 
which soon lu'oke out, rendered the establish- 
ment of new settlements in the Connecticut 
Valley, north of the Massachusetts line, ex- 
tremely difficult and hazardous. 

But the comjilete concjuest of Canada by tlie 
English, in 1760, put an end to the incursions 
of the French and Indians, and peace once 
more reigned in the valley of the Connecti- 
cut. 

The grantees of Chesterfield, having been un- 
able to carry out the provisions of the charter 
within the specified time (live years), petitioned 
the Governor and Council for an extension of 
time, in order that their grants might not be 
forfeited. In accordance with this petition, the 
charter was "lengthened out," June 11, 1760. 
The term of one year was granted for the ful- 
fillment of the conditions imposed upon the 
grantees, which term was to be renewed annu- 
ally "till His Jlajesty's plenary instructions 
could Ijc received." 

On the 20th day of February, 1761, Moses 
Smith, who at that time was Sivid to be " of 
Hinsdale," purchased of Oliver Willard, of 
Brattleborough, one whole right, or share, in the 
township of Chesterfield, whicii right, or share, 
belonged to the said Willard by virtue of hisbeing 
one of the grantees. The numbers of the lots were 
not given in the deed, but it is known tliat two 
of them were the lots numbered 14 and 15, in 
the sixteenth range ; the other was probably 
lot Xo. 1 1 , in the second range. Oliver Willard 
also owned house-lot No. 10, in the twelfth range. 

Havins secured some of the best laud in the 
new township, ISIoses Smith made preparations 
for establishing a home upon the same for him- 
self and family. Accordingly, in the month of 
November, 1761, a.s the tradition has always 
been, he and his son-in-law, William Thomas, 
came up the Connecticut in canoes or boats, for 
the purpose of making the first settlement in 
the town of Chesterfield. 



The exact date of this event is uncertain, as 
it has been stated to be lioth the loth and the 
25th of November. Larkin G. Mead, Esq., 
who wrote a brief sketch of Chesterfield for the 
" Histoi'ical Collections," in 1822, adopted the 
latter date. There can be no doubt, however, 
that it was in the month of November, 1761, 
tliat the first settlement was effected by Smith 
and Thomas. 

Both men brought their families with them ; 
Smith's consisting, so far as known, of his wife 
Elizabeth, and his sons, Aaron, Moses, Amos, 
Joseph, Benjamin and Keubeu. Of these sons, 
Aaron, the oldest, M'as about twenty-one years 
old ; Reuben, the youngest, was aliout three 
years old. Thomas' family consisteil, prol)- 
ably, only of himself and wife, Mary, Smith's 
daughter. 

Smith built a log cabin on lot No. 14, in 
the sixteenth range. The place where this 
stood is a short distance north of the pi'esent 
resideuce of his great-grandson, George Smith, 
and a few rods east of the highway, which, at 
this point, runs near the bank of the river. 

The site of the cabin is still indicated by a 
depression in the plain. 

Thomas erected his cabin near the i-iver's 
bank, at a point about one mile and a half be- 
low Smith's " pitch." It .stood a few rods east 
of the lower ferry, and a few feet north of the 
present highway leading easterly from the 
same. Its site is still mai'ked l)y a depression 
in the earth, and a mound adjoining the depres- 
sion on its eastern side. This mound consists, 
in great part, of ashes and charcoal. 

When spring came, the work of clearing a 
patch for cultivation was probably begun, al- 
though the work of felling trees may have 
been prosecuted throughout the winter, when 
the weather permitted. 

On the 25th day of April, 1762, Thomas' 
wife gave bii'th to the first white child born in 
the town. This child was called Mary. She 
married Lemuel Stoddard. 

There are reasons for believing that the first 



CHESTERFIELD. 



129 



male cliild l)orn of white parents in Chester- 
field was Lotan Hildreth, son of Jonathan 
Hildreth, born March 29, 17G3. 

It is greatly to be regretted that the history 
of the town from the date of settlement to the 
year 1767 is almost a complete blank. The 
town records begin with the latter date ; so 
tliat, on account of the loss of the proprietary 
records, as already stated, we have but little to 
guide us in our study of this period, save a few 
traditions and what can be gleaned from a few 
old deeds. It is certain, however, that a large 
number of families had become established in 
the town before 1767. In the spring of 1762, 
Captain Simon Davis, of Greenwich, Mass., 
and Abel Emmons settled in the western part 
of the town ; and some time the same year 
Peter Wheeler also came to settle. A saw-mill 
is also said to have l)een constructed this year 
by John Snow and Moses Smith. The pro- 
prietors granted two pieces of land to them, on 
condition that they should erect a mill, keep it 
in good repair for the following five years, and 
saw boards at as reasonable a rate as was done 
in other places. There is a tradition that, after 
the first boards were sawed, they were laid down 
so a» to form a kind of rude floor, upon which 
the settlers danced, to celebrate the event. 

This mill was built on Catsbane Brook, in 
the western part of the town, and stood near 
the place where Wai-ren W. Farr's house now 
stands. A grist-mill was also erected, at an 
early period, near this saw-mill. Both mills 
were carried away by a freshet in the summer 
of 1826. 

The following persons are known to have 
settled in Chesterfield before 1767 : 

Ephraim Baldwin and Jonathan Cobleigh, 
as early as 1763 ; Daniel Farr, Samuel Farr, 
and Nathan Thomas, as early as 1764 ; Jonathan 
Farr, Jr., and Timothy Ladd, in 1765; Eleazer 
Cobleigh and Silas Thompson, in' 1766. 

Of course, the above-named settlers, with 
their families, constituted but a small part of 
the whole number that were in the town in the 
9 



year 1767, which year Chesterfield had three 
hundred and sixty-five inhabitants. Among 
those who had become residents before the 
last-mentioned date were Jonas Davis, Ebenezer 
Davison, Thomas Emmons, Jonathan and 
Samuel Hildreth, James Robertson, James 
Wheeler and Nathaniel Bingham. 

As already stated, the town records begin 
with the year 1767; but there are reasons for 
believing that town-meetings had been hold an- 
terior to that date, the records of which have 
been lost. 

The following is a copy of the warrant for a 
town-meeting held on the second Tuesday in 
June, 1767 : 

" Province of New Hampshire. 

To Samuel Hildreth, cnustable in and for the town 
of Chestertield ; you are, in his majeste's name, here- 
by commanded to warn all the Inhabitans of Sd 
town to meet att the house of Jonas Daviss In Sd 
town, on the Second tuesday of June Next, att one 
o'clock iu the afternoon, then and thereto act on the 
following articels : 

" 1. To Chuse a moderator to govarn Sd meeting. 
" 2. To Se whether the Town will Raise money to 
Defray town Charges and hire Schooling. 

" 3. To See whether the town will hire preaching. 
" 4. to See whether the town will Except of the 
Roads as they are now Laid out. 

"make Due Return of this warrant att or before 
Sd Day apinted for Sd meeting. 

" Dated Chestertield may ye 14, A. D. 1767. 
" Simon Davis, 

" John Snow, Selectmen 

" Jonathan Hildreth, [ of 

" Eleazer Cobleigh, I Chesterfield." 
" Ebenezer Davison, J 

At the meeting called by the above warrant 
Captain Simon Davis was chosen moderator. 
The sum of five pounds, lawful money, was 
voted to defray town charges, and the River 
road, running from Westmoreland line to Hins- 
dale line, was accepted. 

Several other new roads were also accepted 
at the same meeting:. 

It appears from a brief record of a meeting 
held July 5, 1768, that the town voted to build 
a road " fi-oin the road that goes to Keene, 



130 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



along by the potash [potasheiy], to the road 
that goes to Winchester." 

The record for 1769 is a complete blank. In 
1770 the record begins anew, and from that 
time to the present is unbroken. On the 16th 
day of January, 1770, Josiah Willard, the 
leading grantee, was petitioned by thirteen of 
the inhabitants of Chesterfield to issue a war- 
rant for a meeting to be held in the following 
March. The petitioners stated that they had 
lost their " charter privileges " of holding town- 
meetings. At the meeting called in accordance 
with this petition Mr. Willard was present, 
and administered the oath of office to the offi- 
cers who M'ere chosen. 

In 1773 the population of the town num- 
bered seven hundred and forty -seven persons, 
viz., — 

Unmarried men, sixteen to sixty 55 

Married men, sixteen to sixty 109 

Males under sixteen 224 

Males sixty and upwards 12 

Unmarried females 220 

Married females 120 

Widows 7 

Slaves 

Total 747 

In 1775 the number of inhabitants was eight 
hundred and seventy-four, viz., — 

Males under sixteen 241 

Males sixteen to fifty, not in the army... 155 

Males above fifty 30 

Persons gone in the army 36 

Females 412 

Slaves 

Total 874 

The settlers who came in during the first two 
or three yeai-s after 1761 appear to have lo- 
cated, for the most part, in the western and 
central portions of the town ; but by the year 
1770 they seem to have been j)i'etty evenly 
distributed over its territory, except in the 
easternmost parts of the same. As nearly as 
can be ascertained, there were very few settlers 
in the southeast quarter of the town previous 
to 1780, especially in that part of it known as 



" Hardscrabble." From about 17S0 to 1805, 
however, numerous settlers came into that quar- 
ter, which, in spite of its ruggeduess and rocki- 
ness, has produced some of the best citizens of 
the town. 

The " New Boston " District, which may be 
roughly defined as comprising the upper half 
of the valley of Leavitt's Brook, was partially 
settled before 1770. It appears to have pos- 
sessed its maximum number of inhabitants be- 
tween 1790 and 1800. 

A settlement was estalilished at an early 
period on Streeter Hill, which had for many 
years a pretty numerous population. Even the 
" Dish Land," which lies to the northward of 
Streeter Hill, was once partially occujjied by 
settlers. 

The earliest settlers built, of course, log 
houses ; but, John Snow's saw-mill having been 
erected in 1762, some of tho.se who came after- 
wards built very small frame houses. As the 
families became larger, or as the owners became 
more prosperous, many of the log houses were 
replaced with better ones, or the small frame 
houses were enlarged. 

There is a tradition that, one or more winters 
in the early history of the town, some of the 
settlers in the western f)art of it were obliged 
to go almost to the extreme eastern part to get 
hay for their horses and cattle, di'awing it home 
on hand-sleds. The hay thus obtained had 
been cut in certain swales, and consisted of wild 
grass. 

Wolves and bears were more or less trouble- 
some to the early settlers, sometimes killing 
then- sheep, pigs and calves. Wolves appear 
to have been numerous at one time, and even 
since the year 1800 have been occasionally 
killed in the town, as have also bears. It is 
said that John Darling, Sr., wiio first settled on 
Barrett Hill, used to hunt these animals for the 
bounty that was paid for their destruction, and 
obtained considerable money in this M'ay. 

On one occasion a party of men fi-om five 
towns assembled at the house of Abraham 



CHESTERFIELD. 



131 



Stearns, in the eastern part of the town, for a 
grand bear-hunt. They succeeded in killing 
one bear, for which Mr. Stearns (probably in 
his capacity of selectman) gave them, as boun- 
ty, a barrel of rum valued at twenty dollars ; 
and they remained at his house till they had 
drunk it all ! 

Though the early settlors were, in general, 
hardy and robust, they appear to have been as 
much afflicted by contagious and epidemic dis- 
eases as the latter generations, and probably 
more so. Especially was this the case with the 
children, who suffered much from scarlet-fever 
and what was then called " throat-ail," a dis- 
ease that appears to have been very similar to, 
if not identical with, diphtheria. Fevers of 
various kinds sometimes raged, causing many 
deaths among young and old. The crowding 
of large families into veiy small houses, and 
the want of means for combating disease, 
necessarily caused great mortality in the case of 
epidemic and contagious diseases. 

The records of deaths are so few and imper- 
fect that it is impossible to ascertain how many 
persons died in the town in any year when the 
mortality was unusually large ; but the little 
grave-stones occasionally found standing in a 
row, or near together, in the old cemeteries, are 
sad evidences of the mortality that sometimes 
existed among the children. How many were 
buried to whose memory no stones were ever 
erected no one can tell. 

Chesterfield Durixg the War of the 
Revolution. — At a town-meeting held in 
Chesterfield, January 17, 1775, it was voted to 
accept of the result of the General Congress 
held at Philadelphia in the autumn of the 
preceding year, and to pay this town's propor- 
tion of the expense of another Congress to be 
held in the same city the following INIay. 
Lieutenant Brown, Lieutenant Hinds, Nathan- 
iel Bingham, Silas Thompson and Ephraim 
Baldwin were chosen a committee " to draw up 
articles," and make return of the proceedings 
of the meeting to the Provincial Committee. 



In the warrant for the annual town-meeting, 
held on the 1st day of March, the same year, 
was the following article : " To see if the town 
will choose a committee, agreeal)le to the advice 
of the Continental Congress, whose business it 
shall be attentively to observe the conduct of 
all persons touching said Congress." Ensign 
Moses Smith, Deacon Silas Thompson and 
Lieutenant Jacob Hinds were chosen a com- 
mittee for the purpose stated in the warrant. 

On the 14th day of the next December 
a town-meeting was held, at which Archibald 
Robertson was chosen to represent Chesterfield 
and Hinsdale in the Provincial Congress, 
to be held at Exeter on the 21st day of the 
same month. Cajjtain Shattuck, Aaron Cooper, 
Captain Hildreth, Ensign Smith and Lieuten- 
ant Fletcher were constituted a committee to give 
Mr. Robertson his instructions. 

Previous to September of this year (1775) 
thirty-six Chesterfield men went into the array, 
the most of them enlisting in Colonel James 
Reed's regiment. The " Army Rolls " in the 
office of the adjutant-general of the St;ite show 
that this town paid bounties to the amount of 
£40 6.9. 8d. to men who enlisted on account of 
the Lexington alarm. 

On the 14th of March, 1776, the General 
Congress passed the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That it be recommended to the several 
Assemblies, Conventions and Councils, or Commit- 
tees of Safety of the United Colonies, immediately to 
cause all persons to be disarmed, within their respec- 
tive Colonies, who are notoriously disafl'ected to the 
cause of America, or who have not associated, and 
refuse to associate, to defend by Arms the United 
Colonies against the hostile attempts of the British 
fleets and armies." 

This resolution having been i-cceived by the 
Committee of Safety for the colony, it was 
transmitted to the selectmen of the towns 
throughout the whole c(jlony, together with the 
following request : 

" Colony of New Hampshire. 
"In Committee of Safety, April 12th, 177(5. 
" In order to carrv the underwritten Resolve of 



132 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the Honorable Continental Congress into execution, 
you are requested to desire all males above twenty- 
one years of age (lunatics, idiots and negroes excep- 
ted) to sign to the Declaration on this paper ; and 
when so done to make return thereof, together with 
the name or names of all who shall refuse to sign the 
same, to the General Assembly or Committee of Safety 

of this Colony. 

" M. Weare, Chairman." 

THE declaration. 

" We, the Subscribers, do hereby Solemnly engage 
and promise that we will, to the utmost of our Power, 
at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms, 
oppose the Hostile proceedings of the British Fleets 
and Armies against the United American Colonies." 

The selectmen of Chesterfield, having re- 
ceived the "Declaration," sent the following 
reply to the Committee of Safety. The date of 
their letter is not given, but it must have been 
written before the 12th of June : 

" To the Honorable Committee of Safety or General As- 
sembly of the Colony of New Hampshire. 

" As soon as ever we received your Directions request- 
ing us to desire all the Males in this Town to sign to a 
Declaration (Luuaticks, &c., excepted) in obedience 
thereto we Immediately proceded to give publick No- 
tice of your Intentions and otherwise as we Thought 
would have the most effectual Tendency to have put 
into execution, in order that we might make a Return 
by our Representative, but having so short a Time for 
to accomplish the Matter in so great a Town, and be- 
ing unwilling to omit anything relating to our Duty 
and which might be for the Benefit of the Whole, we 
calmly deliberated on the matter, asked ye advice of 
our Representative and others of Sense and Steadi- 
ness, and as we were not limited to a certain Time to 
make a Return, we propose to make one as soon as it 
may be done with conveniency. 
" So rest your Humble Servts., 

" Ephm. Baldwin, -i Selectmen 
" Michael Cresey, I of 

"Sam'l Hildreth, J Chesterfield." 

June 12, 1776, the selectmen made the 
following return : 

" In obedience to the within Declaration that we 
Rec'd from your Honors, we proceeded According to 
your Directions and the persons Names uuderwriten 
are those that Refuse to sign to the Declaration on 
your paper : 



" Capt. Jona. Hildreth. Eseek Earl. 

Lieut. Ephraim Whitney. Ebenezer Harvey. 

Ephraim Whitney. Joseph Prentice. 

Elisha Walton. Sam'l Davis Converse. 

Eleazer Pomeroy. Silas Bennett. 

Ebenezer Cooper. Sal. Keing [Sam'l King]. 

Ebenezer Fletcher, Jr. 

" Eph. Baldwin, 1 

" Moses Smith, Jr., | Selectmen 

" Michael Cresey, I "/ 

" Ephe'm Hubbard, Chesterfield." 

"Sam'l Hildreth, J 

NAMES OF those WHO SIGNED THE DECLARATION. 

Abraham Wood. John Pratt. 

Simon Davis. Nathaniel Bingham. 

Isaac Davis. Abel Ray. 

John Snow. Samuel Farr. 

Oliver Cobleigh. Nehemiah Merrill. 

Jonathan Farwell. Samuel Farr, Jr. 

Oliver Farwell. John Haskell. 

Silas Thompson. Ezekiel Powers. 

William Farwell. Silas Wood. 

Jonathan Davis. Obadiah Merrill. 

Warren Snow. William Henry. 

Ebenezer Streeter. Daniel Farr. 

William Thomas. Amasa Colburn. 

Daniel Baldwin. Thomas Harris. 

William Simonds. Douglas Robbins. 

Amos Smith. Ullainell Merrill. 

Josh Smith. Sherebiah Fay. 

[prob. Jos. Smith.] Zur Evans. 

Jonathan Farr, (4th). William Farr, Jr. 

Jonathan Farr, (3d). Ithamar Chamberlain. 

Thomas Farr. Caleb Johnson. 

Benjamin Hudson. Amos Streeter. 

Moses Smith. Abner Johnson. 

Josiah Streeter. Kimball Carlton. 

Michael Woodcock. Theodore Bingham. 

Jonathan Cobleigh. John Pierce. 

Jonas Stearns. Benjamin Colburn. 

Samuel Fairbanks. Ephraim Farr. 

Jonathan Farr, (2d). Isaac Farr. 

Josiah Lamb. Thomas Darby. 

Samuel Walker. Joseph Metcalf. 

Archibald Robertson. Martin Warner. 

Andrew Colburn. David Stooder, Jr. 

Lawrence Walton. [David Stoddard, Jr.] 

Phineas Brown. Samuel Peacock. 

John Sanderson. John Peacock. 

William Fisher. Ephraim Baldwin. 
Jonathan Hildreth, Jr. Michael Cressey. 

James Wheeler, Jr. Samuel Hildreth. 

Josiah Hastings. Moses Smith, Jr. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



133 



Auilrew Hastings. 
Noah Emmons. 
Jonathan Cre.ssey. 
Ephraim Wheeler. 
John Cobleigh. 
Joseph Higgins. 
James McEhoy. 
Joseph Wheeler. 
James Wheeler. 
Zenas Fairbanks. 
Nathan Bishop. 
Isaac Hildreth. 

Israel Johnson. 

James Robertson. 

Elisha Rockwood. 

Dan Cobleigh. 

Aaron Farr. 

Peter Wheeler. 

Moses Ellis. 

Ephraim Hubbard. 

Amos Davis. 

John White. 

Nathan Metcalf. 

John Bishop. 

Jonathan Cobleigh. 

Nathan Thomas. 

Abel Emmons. 

William Robertson. 

Edward Hildreth. 

James Davis. 



William Aires. 
David Stone. 
John Grandy. 
John Grandy, Jr. 
Increase Lamb. 
Abner Albee. 
Ebenezer Taft. 

John Richardson. 
Daniel Kinnison. 

Joel Whitney. 

David Farr. 
James Mansfield. 

Amos Hubbard. 

Jonathan Farr (1st.) 

Patrick McMichael. 

Abijah Kingsbury. 

Ebenezer Gail. 

Sylvanus Battey. 

Ebenezer Faver. 

Abijah Stearns. 

Matthew Gray. 

William Hildreth. 

James Reed. 

John Ellis. 

Oliver Hubbard. 

Michael Metcalf. 
Charles Johnson. 
Benjamin Smith. 
Samuel Fletcher. 
Abraham Farr. 



Enoch Streeter. 

One Inindred and thirty-nine persons signed 
the declaration, and thirteen refnsed to sign. 
The declaration was known as the " Association 
Test," and, according to the returns that were 
made, was signed by eight thousand one hun- 
dred and ninety-nine persons in the colony of 
New Hampshire, while only seven hundred 
and seventy-three persons refused to sign. 

At a town-meeting held December 2, 1776, 
Michael Cressey was elected to represent the 
town in the Assembly that was to meet at 
Exeter the third Wednesday of the same 
month. Rev. Mr. Wood, Deacon Thompson, 
Lieutenant Fairbanks, Dr. Harvey and Lieu- 
tenant Rockwood were chosen a committee to 
give Mr. Cressey his instructions. In accord- 
ance with the vote passed on the 2d day of 
December, the committee chosen for that piu-- 
pose gave Mr. Cressey these instructions : 



" To Mr. Michael Creasy, Representative for the Town 
of Chesterfield in the State of New Hampshire. 
" Sir .-—Whereas it having pleased Almighty God 
to humble the people of this land, by permitting the 
tyrant of Great Britain and his minions, in the ful- 
ness of their rage, to prevail against them, by sub- 
verting the Civil Constitution of every Province in 
his late American dominions, affecting thereby the 
activity of Law and Justice iind [promoting] the in- 
troduction of vice and profaneness, attended with 
domestick confusion and all the calamities attendant 
on the dissolution of the power of Civil Government 
which in this alarming progress have made it abso- 
lutely necessary for each state to separate itself from 
that land from whence their forefathers were exiled 
by the cruel hand of tyranny, and to form for itself, 
under the ruler of all the earth, such plans of Civil 
Government as the people thereof should think most 
conducive to their own safety and adv.antage ; not- 
withstanding the importance of an equitable system 
of Government, as it atfects ourselves and our poster- 
ity, we are brought to the disagreeable necessity of 
declaring that it is our candid opinion that the State 
of New Hampshire, instead of forming an equitable 
plan of Government, conducing to the peace and 
safety of the State, have been influenced by the in- 
iquitous intrigues and secret designations of persons 
unfriendly, to settle down upon the dregs of Monarch- 
ial and Aristocratical Tyranny, in imitation of their 
late British oppressor. We can by no means imagine 
ourselves so far lost to a sense of the natural rights 
and immunities of ourselves and our fellow men, as 
to imagine that the State can be either safe or happy 
under a constitution formed without the knowledge 
or particular authority of a great part of its inhabi- 
tants; a constitution which no man knows the con- 
tents of except that the whole Legislative power of 
the State is to be entirely vested in the will and 
pleasure of a House of Representatives, and that 
chosen according to the Sovereign determination of 
their own will, by allowing to some towns sundry 
voices in the said House, others but one, and others 
none ; and in a Council of twelve men, five of which 
are always to be residents of Rockingham County, 
who by the assistance of two others of said Council, 
have the power of a casting voice in all State affairs. 
Thus we see the important affairs of the State liable 
to be converted to the advantage of a small part of 
the State, and the emolument of its officers, by reason 
of the other part of the State not having an equal or 
equitable share in the Government to counterbalance 
the designs of the other. You are therefore author- 
ized and instructed to exert yourself to the utmost to 



134 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



procure a redress of the aforementioned grievances 
and in case tliey will not comply, to return home for 
further instructions. 

'' Solomon Harvey, per order Com. 
" Chesterfield, December ye l:ith, 1770." 

The iiilial)itauts of Chesterfield were not 
alone in complaining of the injustice, as they 
regarded it, of the priuciple of representation 
that had been adopted. A number of towns in 
the western part of the State remonstrated 
against the form of government that had been 
assumed, and some of them refused to send 
representatives to the Assembly. It was 
asserted tliat every incoi'porated town, whether 
large or small, should be entitled to at least 
one representative ; and some towns maintained 
that there ought to be no Council to negative 
the proceedings of the House. 

At the annual town-meeting for 1777, held on 
the -5^1 day of March, Lieutenant Fairbanks, 
Jonathan Farr (2d), Lieutenant Robertson, War- 
ren Snow and Lieutenant Rockwood were chos- 
en a "committee. of inspection and correspond- 
ence." In the warrant for this meeting was the 
following article : " To see if the town will write 
anything to ease any reflections cast on the 
Hon'ble Committee from the General Court, 
by a letter sent to said committee from this 
town." The vote on this article was in the 
negative. The " Hon'ble Committee from the 
General Court," mentioned in the warrant, was 
appointed December 30, 1776, "to take under 
consideration the diffit'ulties and Grievances Sub- 
sisting and Complain'dof by Sundry Towns & 
Peo})lc in the County of Grafton, & any other 
Towns, resjjecting the present Form of Govern- 
ment &c." The letter referred to was sent to 
this committee by the town committee. The 
following extract from this letter is apparently 
the portion that was regarded as "casting re- 
flections " on the General Court's com- 
mittee : " We beg therefore to be excused from 
holding any personal conference with you on 
the subject, as we deem it highly inconsistent 
with the Nattn-e of adjusting grievances of any 



kind to oblige the aggrieved individuals to make 
separate and unconnected appearances to confer 
and make answers to matters respecting the 
whole : unless the assemlily consider us as a 
number of captious individuals without con- 
nection or cause of complaint." 

Another town-meeting was called for June 
12th. The warrant was ])receded liy an " intro- 
ductory address " to the inhabitants of the town, 
by Samuel Fairbanks and Elisha Rockwood. 
This address was as follows : 
" To the Inhabitants of Chesterfield : 

" Gentlemen : You are not ignorant of the 
calamities of this present day. Enemies without the 
state, and within ; and being of late often alarmed 
by hearing of many conspiracies of such persons as 
were generally esteemed friendly to the American 
Cause and Freedom ; and also of the great oppression 
of some and rejoicings of others at the fall and under 
Vallument of the paper currency, and some rejecting 
the Regulating Acts ; all the above said circumstances 
considered, with many others that might be offered, 
it appears necessary that every town should be 
fiirnished with full sets of officers, both selectmen 
and committees of correspondence; and, as one con- 
stable is gone, or going, out of town, there will be 
need of one in his room and stead, — we have thought 
fit by the advice of some and desire of others, to call 
the town together for the purposes hereafter men- 
tioned." 

The fourth article of the warrant that fol- 
lowed this address was, "To see if the town 
inhabitants will choose a committee of corre- 
spondence to unite with other towns in this day 
of distress, and use means to defend all our 
lawful rights." The constable referred to in the 
address was John Pierce. 

In June of this year (1777) Ebenezer Har- 
vey, Eleazer Pomeroy and Samuel King, all of 
Chesterfield, were brought before the " Court 
of Inquiry," at Keene, charged with being hos- 
tile to the United States. They were put by 
the Court under bonds in five hundred pounds 
each to remain within the limits of their respec- 
tive farms. The following is an extract from an 
address sent by the Chesterfield Committee of 
Safety to the General Court, relating to the per- 
sons in question : 



CHESTERFIELD. 



135 



" To fhe Honorable Court of the State of New Hamp- 

s/i ire : 
" The Committee of Safety of Clifsterfiekl 
hnmbly sheweth this Hon'''" House, that whereas 
sundry Persons, viz : Ebeuezer Harvey, Elezor Poni- 
roy and Sam'l King, all of Chesterfield abovs'', 
were some time in June last, summoned to appear 
before the Court of Enquiry, at Keen, as being Enem- 
ieal to the United States of America, and upon 
tryall were, found guilty of a misdemeanor against 
the State : — on which account they were fined and 
confined to their farms by Bond till that or some 
other Court or authority should set them at Ijiberty :^- 
upon vvhich they, or some of them, Beg'd the Favour 
of s'' Court, thaLJhey might have y" Liberty of tak- 
ing the Oath of Fidelity to the States; on which 
accompt Esq' Giles went Immediately to Exeter, as 
we have been informed, and procured said oath or 
form of it, and sent to us by Sheriff Cook, 
of Keen, and (mr Direction was to take a justice of 
the Peace and tender s'' oath to those confined per- 
sons, to y» end they might take it and performe ac- 
cordingly and be at Liberty ; and we followed the 
Directions of Esq'' Prentice and Esq'' Wyman. The 
aforementioned confined persons said they were will- 
ing to take y" said oath, if it came from lawful au- 
thority ; but they Disputed y° authority and paid no 
regard to Esq'' Prentice Letter, which was to take the 
Oath of fidelity and be set at Liberty ; and as they 
were fully fixed in principal or will, they apply'd to 
Justice Baldwin and he liberated them. Again they 
apply'd to Esq' Wyman and notwithstanding they 
neglected to take the oath, he, said Justice, enlarged 
their bonds just so far as to serve their own turns ; — 
all which was contrary to y* advice of the Committee, 
except they would take y" oath of Fidelity to the 
States, and their bonds are just so far enlarged as to 
serve their own turns ; and when called upon to do 
any publick service, they say that they are confined, 
and so are excused : all which gives great uneasiness 
to many steady friends to America. . . . We 
do therefore pray your Honours to take these things 
into your wise consideration, and Dismiss or Confine 
the abovementioned persons, and that they be sub- 
jects of their duty and service in y" defense of our 
much oppress'd land. 

" Samuel Fairbank, ") Committee 
" Elisha Rock wood, '[- of 

" James Eobert.son, j Safety. 
" Chesterfield, December y» 13th, 1777. 
" To the Hon'''" Court or Committee of Safety of this 

New Hampshire State, (a Copy near similar to 

the former petition.) 
Test." " Sam' Fairbank, Chairman, 



Esquire Criles aud Esquire Prentice, referred 
to in this petition, were probably Benjamiu 
Giles, of J^ewport, a proniiuent member of the 
House of Representatives, and Nathaniel Sartel 
Prentice, of Alstead. Esquire Wyman was 
undoubtedly Colonel Isaac Wyman, of Keene. 

April 6, 177(S, the selectmen of Chester- 
field and the town Committee of Safety joined 
in recommending the discharge of Harvey, 
Pomeroy and King, without tlieir taking the 
" oath of fidelity." Accordingly, they were 
discharged the next day by Justices Prentice 
and Wyman. 

Justice Baldwin, mentioned in the above 
address, was Ephraim Bakhviu, of Chester- 
field. In a letter written by the Chesterfield 
committee to President Weare, dated November 
3, 1777, Baldwin was accused of having pro- 
cured one of Burgoyne's proclamations, and of 
" defending the part that the enemies of this 
land take." The («mmittee added : " Great 
care and Pains was Improved with s"" Justice 
to Convince him, and after Certain days the s'' 
Justice signed a Piece acknowledging to the 
Com' and all good People that he, s'* Justice, had 
given the greatest Reason Imaginable to his 
friends and Neighbors to view him as unfriend- 
ly to his Country : and signing said Piece and 
Delivering it to the Chairman of the Committee, 
y" said Piece being on the Table before them, s* 
Justice takes the Piece without so much as ask- 
ing the Comm' or either of Them, and Betakes 
himselfto another room and erases out some 
words, and was Putting in others, and being eu- 
(juired of why he did thus and so, he, said Justice, 
after some words, moved that all the matters 
of Dispute then depending between himself and 
Committee might be Transmitted to the General 
Court, etc." Esquire Baldwin was also accused 
of setting at liberty persons confined by the 
Court of lL,<iuiry, of which he was a mem- 
ber. 

In the preceding September depositions 
were made by Anne Snow, Abial Johnson, John 
Sargent and Fear Sargent, his wife, relative to 



136 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMrSHIRE. 



the Tory sentiments expressed by Baldwin. 
Under date of the 5th day of the same montii, 
Esquire Prentice, of Alstead, wrote a letter to 
him, reinonstratiug with him for the course he 
had taken and advising him to make a " public 
and free recantation" of his opinions, etc. 
This letter wan formally approved, also, by 
Benjamin Bellows. September 25th, Esquire 
Baldwin made public acknowledgment of the 
truth of the charges brought against him, 
confessed sorrow for his conduct and promised 
to " improve the utmost of his power and skill 
in y' Defense of America." He furthermore 
stated that all that had been done by hiui that 
seemed to be hostile to the American cause had 
been done " entirely through Inadvertancy and 
Not f)'om any good will to georg, the Brittish 
King." 

Notwithstanding this confession (which, as 
appears from the town committee's letter to 
President Weare, dated November 3, 1777, he 
was accused of trying to alter after he had 
signed it) the Committee of Safety of Chester- 
field petitioned the Legislature, February 6, 
1778, to take some action with regard to Es- 
quire Baldwin's conduct. The 2d day of 
the following March the House voted " that 
Ephraim Baldwin, Esq., of Chesterfield, be 
cited to appear before the General Assembly, 
on the second Friday of their next session, to 
answer to a complaint exhibited to this Court 
against him by the Committee of Chesterfield, 
as speaking or actiug in some measure Enemi- 
cal to the Liberties of the American States." 

If any action was taken by the Assembly 
respecting Baldwin's case, it was not recorded, 
for the journal of the House contains no 
further reference to the matter. 

August 1(5, 1779, the town voted not to accept 
the plan of government for the State that had 
been drawn up by a convention assembled at 
Concord for that purpose. The record states 
that it was " rejected by the number of fifty-two 
which were all [that were] then present." 

At a town-meeting held the 1st day of May, 



1 780, it was voted to raise eight thousand pounds 
to be expended on the highways. Each man 
was to be allowed twelve pounds per day for 
his own labor, and £7 4s. for the use of a yoke of 
oxen. Tliis nominally enormous sum was doubt- 
less raised to make allowance for the great de- 
preciation of the currency. 

During the last two or three years of the War 
of the Revolution Chesterfield seems to have fur- 
nished but a very few men for the military service 
of the United States, and several times refused 
to bear its proportion of the burdens of the war. 
For this reason fines were afterwards imposed 
upon the town. In a petition to the General 
Court, drawn up by the selectmen of Chesterfield, 
June 1, 1786, they used the following language 
in speaking of the fine tjiat been imposed for 
deficiencies in the last quota of men: "As to 
that Point, we are conscious to ourselves, if the 
honorable House had been Rightly Informed of 
what we as a Town have done and performed 
in the war, our Fines might have been much 
abated ; But not casting ye blame on ye Honor- 
able Court, we blame ourselves for defects in ye 
Returns made by ye officers then improved." 

It is evident that Chesterfield's lukewarmness 
in the American cause during the last two or 
three years of the war did not arise fr(jni the 
prevalence of Toryism in the town, but rather 
from the disturbed state of affairs within its 
borders, caused by the memorable controversy 
about the "New Hampshire Grants." 

As already stated, Chesterfield paid bounties 
to the amount of £40 Qs. 8d. to men who en- 
listed on account of the " Lexington alarm ;" 
but the names of the men who received the 
bounties have not as far as known been fully 
ascertained. 

Soon after the battle of Lexington three regi- 
ments were organized in New Hampshire, the 
Third being commanded by Colonel James Reed, 
of Fitzwilliam. One company in this regiment 
was commanded by Captain Jonathan Whitcomb. 
In this company were the following Chesterfield 
men : 



CHESTERFIELD. 



137 



Joseph Smith, fifer. 
Eleazer Jurdau. 
Jonathan Farr. 
Joshua Farr. 
Eleazer Stoddard. 
Joseph Metealt'. 
Charles Johnson. 
Elijah Walton. 



Josiali Hastings. 

Elisha Walton. 

Eleazer Cobleigh, drumm'r. 

Ephraim Farr. 

Asa Gale. 

John Merrill. 

Benjamin Wheeler. 



Captain Whitcomb's company appears to liave 
l)een at Aledford, Mass., October 13, 1775, as at 
that date the men signed a receipt for money 
I'eceived "in lieu of coats promised by the 
Colony of New Hampshire." 

Another company in Colonel Reed's regiment 
\va.s under the command of Captain Jacob 
Hinds, of Chesterfield. Tiie following men, 
besides Captain Hinds, belonged to this town : 

Ezekiel Davis, sergeant. Jacob Davis. 
David Stoddard, sergeant. Jacob Hinds, Jr. 
William Farwell, sergeant. Richard Coughlan. 

[On one roll the last-named is put down as 
sergeant-major.] This comj)any also appears 
to have been at ]\Iedford in October. 

The men in these two companies received 
wages ranging from six pounds to £8 lis. 5d. 
for terms of service varying from three mouths 
to three months, sixteen days. Captain Hinds 
received £19 4s. 3tZ. for three months and eight 
days' service. It is evitlcut, however, that both 
companies served longer than the maximum 
time given in the pay-roll. 

Colonel Reed's regiment took part iu the 
battle of Bunker's Plill, as it is commonly 
called. 

xlccording to the " Army Rolls," a man 
named John Davis (or John Dawes, as given on 
one roll), of Chesterfield, a member of Reed's 
regiment, was killed iu this battle, and Josiah 
Walton, also of Chesterfield, wounded. With 
regard to the first-named, the writer has not 
been able to determine whether he really 
belonged to this town or not; the last-named 
may have been intended for Elijah Walton or 
Elisha Walton. 

It is not known how long tiie Chestei'field 
men in Reed's regiment remained in the service 



after October, 1775; but it is evident that some 
of them had returned home before June 12, 
1776. 

Early in 1776 a regiment of New Hampshire 
men was raised for the defense of the western 
frontier of the State, aud placed under the com- 
mand of Colonel Timothy Bedel. This regi- 
ment was at the " Cedars," in Lower Canada, in 
May of that year, where it was soon afterwards 
surrendered to the enemy by INIajor Butterfield, 
who had command at that time. One company 
of this regiment was commanded by Captain 
Daniel Carlisle, of Westmoreland, and contained 
at least four Chesterfield men, viz., — 

Aaron Smith, ensign. Thomas Gibbs, sergeant. 

Nathaniel Bacon, titer. Eleazer Jordan, corporal. 

It is quite proljable that there were several 
more men from Chesterfield in the same com- 
pany, but they cannot be identified with cer- 
tainty. 

The non-commissioned officers and privates 
received each, when mustered, one month's 
wages, a bounty of forty shillings, fifteen shil- 
lings for " blanket-money," and one penny jier 
mile for " billeting." Their term of service 
probably did not exceed a year. The following 
is a copy of a sworn statement made by Thomas 
Gibbs respecting his losses at the " Cellars" : 

"I, the Subscriber, whose name is hereunder writ- 
ten, was in Coll" Timothy Beddell Regiment, But 
more espeshaly under the Command of major But- 
terlield, Commander at the Seaders, and was Capti- 
vated and Stripped by the Savage of the following 
Articles in y° year 177G. 

" Thomas Gibbs. 

£ s. d. 

"Thomas Gibbs lost one gun 21 

INewBever Hatt 12 12 

1 Brace Ink Stand 14 

1 Powder home 110 

1 Comb 3 6 

1 Coat 1(5 16 

1 pr Shoes 2 2 

1 Snap Sack, 1 Bag 1 18 

1 Canteen 7 

£56 13 6" 
It appears from the record tliat Gibbs was 
not indemnified for his losses. 



138 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



In July and August of the same year, a reg- 
iment of New Hampshire meu was raised, of 
which Joshua Wingate wascoloneL One com- 
pany in this regiment was commanded by Cap- 
tain William Humphrey. This comjjany con- 
tained the following Chesterfield men : 



Gustavus Bingham. 
Aniasa Colburu. 
Johu Peacock. 
Amos Pattridge. 
Nathaniel Sanger. 
William Dav. 



Joseph Metcalf, corporal. 
John Pratt. 
James Wheeler. 
Joseph Metcalf, Jr. 
Thomas Metcalf. 
Elijah Watson [Walton]. 

Perhaps the name of Ebenezer Porter should 
be added. 

This regiment was sent to reinforce the 
northern army in New York State. ]\Iost of 
the privates in Captain Humphrey's company 
received, each, advanced wages and bounties 
amounting to £d I8.5. The time of service has 
not been determined, but it is certain that some 
of the Chesterfield men had returned home 
before May and June of the following year. 

One of the companies of Colonel Nahum 
Baldwin's regiment (raised in September tlie 
same year, and sent to reinforce the Continen- 
tal army in the State of New York) was com- 
manded by Captain John Houghton. It con- 
tained the following Chesterfield men : 

John Bishop. Jonathan Cressey. 

James Robertson. Jonathan Farwell. 

Josiah Hastings. Isaac Farr. 

Jonathan Farr. Nathan Thomas. 

Ezekiel Powers. Jonathan Farr (3d). 

Each man was paid six pounds in advance 
and allowed £1 13s. 4d. for two hundred miles 
of travel. The date of their discharge has not 
been ascertained, but most of the men from 
Chesterfield were at home early in the summer 
of the next year. 

Another regiment was raised in New Hamp- 
shire in December, 1776, for the same purpose 
as the two last mentioned. It was commanded 
by Colonel David Gilman. In Captain Fran- 
cis Towne's company, in this regiment, were at 
least two meu from Chesterfield, viz. : Zenas 
Fairbanks (Jonas Fairbanks on one roll) and 
Aaron Farr. 



They each received wages from December 5, 
1776, to March 12, 1777, amounting to £6 
10s. 8d., and were allowed two pounds for four 
hundred and eighty miles of travel, at one pen- 
ny per mile. 

Amos Colburn, of Chesterfield, was commis- 
sioned second lieutenant in Colonel Alexander 
Scammel's regiment, November 7, 1776, and 
appears to have remained iu the service till 1779, 
if not longer. 

Ebenezer Fletcher, of this town, was also 
first lieutenant in the same regiment, having 
been appointed January 15, 1777. 

November 11, 1776, William Lee, of Ches- 
terfield, was appointed lieutenant in Colonel 
Cilley's regiment and served till January 8, 
1778. 

It appears from the following extracts from 
the journal of the House that, some time in 
June, 1770, the selectmen, or towu Committee 
of Safety, made a requisition on the colonial 
authorities at Exeter for gunpowder for the use 
of the town : 

" Monday, June 17,1776. — Voted to choose a com- 
mittee of this House to confer with a committee of 
the Honorable Board on the expediency of furnishing 
the town of Chesterfield with powder to defend them- 
selves against the attempts and assaults of all persons 
who appear by their conduct inimical to this Country, 
and to make report to this House as soon as may be, 
and that Captain Prentice, Major Bellows and Dr. 
Dearborn be the committee of this House for that 
purpose." 

" Tuesday, June IS, 1776- — Voted that half a barrel 
of gunpowder be delivered out of the powder-house 
in Exeter, to the selectmen of Chesterfield, on their 
order, for the use of said town of Chesterfield, 
and that the said selectmen of Chesterfield, or some 
person in their stead, give a receipt therefor, and 
promise to account with the treasurer of this 
Colony for the same." 

The honorable board concurred with the 
House in both votes. 

In the company commanded by Captaiu 
Waitstill Scott, of Westmoreland, (in Colonel 
Ashley's regiment), and which marched to 
Ticonderoga in May, 1777, were the following 
meu who belonged to Chesterfield : 



CHESTERFIELD. 



139 



James Robertson, first lieu- 
tenant. 

Samuel Davis, ensign. 

William Hildreth, ser- 
geant. 

Daniel Colburn, corporal. 

Daniel Farr, corporal. 

Eleazer Jordan. 

Joseph Metcalf. 

Amos Partridge (or Pat- 
tridge). 



Eli Partridge (or Pat- 

tridge). 
Samuel Stearns. 
Ephraim Farr. 
Thomas Farr. 
Jacob Farr. 
Charles Farr. 
,Tohn Sanderson. 
AVilliam Thomas. 
Nathaniel Walton. 



Tlie most of Cajitaio Scott's men served 
about forty clays, and were discharged June 21st. 
They received pay at the rate of .£4 10s. per 
mouth, and were allowed three pence per mile 
for marching to Ticonderoga, and two pence per 
mile for the return march. The distance, each 
way, was called one hundred and ten miles. 

The troops that went to Ticonderoga in 
May had scarcely arrived home when tidings 
were brought of the actual approach of Bur- 
goyne's army toward tliat important post. 
Again the New Hamp.shire militia was called 
upon to march to the rescue. One of the com- 
panies in Colonel Ashley's regiment was com- 
manded by Lieutenant Oliver Cobleigh, of this 
town, and nearly, or quite, all the men belonged 
also to Chesterfield. Tlie roll of Lieutenant 
Cobleigh's company was as follows : 

Josiah Hastings, ensign. .Jonas Davis, sergeant. 
Samuel Davis, sergeant. James Wheeler, sergeant. 
Ezekiel Powers, sergeant. Dan Cobleigh, corporal. 



Privates. 

Ebenezer Fletcher. 
Josejjh Higgins. 
Elisha Walton. 
Henry Cressey. 
Joseph Higgins, Jr. 
Ephraim Amidon. 
Amos Smith. 
Aaron Smith. 
Martin Warner. 
Jonathan Starr (?) (prob- 
ably Farr). 
Jonathan Davis. 



Amos Davis. 
Jonathan Farr, ,Tr. 
Daniel Baldwin. 
Thomas Whitcomb. 
Isaac Hildreth. 
Benjamin Smith. 
Ebenezer Farr. 
Eleazer Stoddard. 
Jonathan Cressy, Jr. 
Joel Whitney. 
William CrafFord. 
Amos Streeter. 
John Peacock. 

The fortress at Ticonderoga was evacuated by 
the Americans on the 6th of July, so that the 



troops that started to its assistance were not in 
season to be of much use. Some of them 
learned of the evacuation before they had pro- 
ceeded a great way, and returned home. None 
of Lieutenant Cobleigh's men seem to have 
been absent more than thirteen days, and some 
not more than seven, four or three days. 

They all belonged to Chesterfield, with the 
possible exception of Thomas Whitcomb, Wil- 
liam Crafford (or Crawford) and Ephraim 
Amidon. The last-named was either of West- 
moreland or this town. 

Another company in Colonel Asliley's regi- 
ment was conmianded b3' Lieutenant James 
Robertson, of Chesterfield. The following Ches- 
terfield men, under command of Lieutenant 
Robertson, set out for Ticonderoga, June 29, 
1777: 



Moses Smith (who also 
ranked as lieutenant). 

Daniel Kennison, ensign. 

.lohn Ellis, sergeant. 

Silas Richardson, sergeant. 

John Pratt, sergeant. 

.Tonathau Farwell. 

John Davison. 

William Henry. 

Nathan Metcalf. 

Thomas Daby. 

Joseph Metcalf. 

Ebenezer Streeter. 

Asa Gale. 

Amos Partridge (or Pat- 
tridge). 

Samuel Walker. 



Daniel Colburn. 
Samuel Davis Converse. 
Oliver Hobart (probably 

Hubbard). 
Zenas Fairbanks. 
Thomas Metcalf. 
Reuben Hildreth. 
Jesse Hildreth. 
Joseph Smith. 
Silas Thompson. 
Nathaniel Bingham. 
Andrew Hastings. 
Elisha Eockwood. 
Joseph Metcalf, Jr. 
Reuben Graves. 
Asa Metcalf. 



It is possible that a few more of the men 
who marched with Lieutenant Robertson also 
belonged to Chesterfield ; but the above-named 
are all that can be identified with certainty. The 
men of this company were absent, at the long- 
est, only thirteen days ; some of them not more 
than two or three days. 

One of the regiments in General Stark's 
brigade was commanded bv Colonel Moses 
Nichols. The Eighth Company of this regiment 
was under command <>f Captain Kimball Carl- 
ton, of Chesterfield. The record says that this 



140 



HISTOllY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



compauy " marched from Chesterfield and 
towns adjacent, July 22, 1777." It took part 
in the battle of Bennington, on the 16th day of 
August following. The following are the 
names of men in this company who have been 
identified with certainty as belonging to this 
town : 

Josiah Hastings, ensigu. Amos Partridge (or Pat- 
Daniel Farr, sergeant. tridge). 

Noah Emmons, corporal. Benjamin Streeter. 

Thomas Metcalf. Daniel Baldwin. 

Joseph Metcalf. Jacob Farr, Jr. 

Charles Farr. Jonathan Cobleigh. 

William Farr. Samuel Peacock. 

Lemuel Stoddard. xVmos Hobart (prob.ably 
Jonathan Farr. Hubbard). 

Jonathan Hildreth, Jr. Aaron Fisk. 

Theodorus Bingham. Samuel D. Converse. 

According to tradition, John Pierce and 
others of Chesterfield (whose names are not now 
known), took part in the battle of Bennington 
as independent volunteers. Oliver Brown aud 
Thomas Farr are said to have driven cattle for 
the use of the American army. The British 
captured the cattle, whei'eupon the two young 
men went into the ranks and served as soldiers. 
It has always been claimed that the roar of the 
cannon on that eventful day, was heard by 
several differeut persons in this town. It was 
heard, it is said, by the wife of Aaron Fisk, 
who lived ou the hill west of Spaflbrd's Lake. 
Greatly agitated thereby, she walked about the 
house as long as it continued. 

The most of Captain Carlton's men .served 
two months aud two days, and received pay at 
the rate of £4 10s. per month, each. 

No Chesterfield men are known to have been 
killed at this battle, and the names of those 
who were wounded, if any, have not been as- 
certained. 

In Jnue, 1777, Gustavus Bingham and John 
Grandy, both of Clicsterficld, enlisted ; but in 
what regiment has not been determined with 
certainty. Both were discharged January 10, 
1778. The town paid bounties this year (1777) 
to the amount of £100 8,s. 



In 1778 Chesterfield paid bounties to the 
amount of £66 13s. 9cZ. The name of only 
one of the men who enli.sted this year has been 
ascertained, viz., John Hill, aged twenty-three 
years. He enlisted in Captain Wait's com- 
pany, Stark's regiment, and received, in May, 
a bounty of twenty pounds. 

In 1779 the bounties and mileages paid by 
the town to soldiers amouuted to upwards of 
four hundred pounds. In the spring of this 
year the following Chesterfield men enlisted in 
Captain Ej)hraim Stone's comjjany. Colonel 
Mooney's regiment : 

Jonathan Cressey. John Putnam. 

Martin Hildreth. 

Each received a Ijounty of thirty pounds, 
aud eleven pounds for one hundred and ten miles 
of travel (to Providence). Colonel Mooney's 
regiment was raised for the defense of Rhode 
Island. 

In July, the same year, the followiug men 
eulisted for the town of Chesterfield : 



William Nichols. 
Phineas Hemenway. 
Thomas Woolev. 



David Pierce. 
Simon Pierce. 



Tluy enlisted in the " Continental service" 
f\)r the terra of one yeai", aud received a boimty 
of sixty pounds each. 

In the summer of 1780, Francis Crane, 
Williaui Lee, Reuben Still, David Still, Nathan 
Dodge, all enlisted for the town of Chesterfield, 
and served a £e\v months, at the least. Crane, 
in a petition dated April 7, 1783, .stated that, 
" being at Glasgo, in the Bay State, on or about 
the Twentieth of sd July [i.e., July, 1780], he, 
the Deponent Did by misfortune and axcident 
Cut off two of his Fingers aud was thereby Dis- 
abled to go forward to the army, and was under 
the care of Doc : Primous, a noted aud ap- 
proved Doctor & Surgeon, near four months, 
&c." 

The following is the doctor's certificate : 

" East Windsor, June the 27, 1782. 
" whereas, I was imployed to Doctr francis Grain, of 
said East Windsor, for the Los of too fingers and a 



CHESTERFIELD. 



141 



weakness in his Breast wliicli said Grain was unfit for 

Soldier's Duty from July, 1780, till January ; given 

under my hand. 

" Peimous Masamit, Doctor.'^ 

Tlio following (jhesterfield men also enlisted 
this year (1780) in Colonel Moses Nichols' 
regiment, raised for the defense of West Point : 

John Pratt (who appears Daniel Baldwin. 

to have been appoint- Noah Emnion.s. 

ed a lieutenant). Aaron Cressey. 
Ebenezer Saflbrd. 

In October the same year, the British and 
Indians burned Royalton, Vt., and committed 
other depredations in the vicinity of that town. 
It seems that Captain Josiah Hartwell, perha2)S 
of Chesterfield, with a few men from his town 
(whose names have not lieen ascertained), was 
among those who went in pursuit of the enemy, 
("aptaiu Hartwell's pay-roll, " allowed by tlie 
( General Court's sj)ecial Connuittee in the lump," 
amounted to <£37 14s. 4cZ. 

The following is an extract from a petition 
sent to the Legislature by the selectmen of 
Chesterfield, dated June 1, 1786 : 

"... We would humbly inform this House, 
that we hired one Merifield Vicary, who served in 
Coll : Hazell's Regt, and we have obtained his Dis- 
charge ; we also hir'd one Nath' Merrild [Merrill] for 
three years and also one Silas Ray, who served dur- 
ing y" war, — and your humble Petitioners beg we 
might have credit for what service we have done in 
y' war, &c." 

The Legislature allowed seventy-two pounds 
for Silas Ray. 

Merrill and Ray were members of Captain 
John Grigg's company, Colonel Scammel's 
regiment ; as were also Levi Farwell and John 
Daniels, both of Chesterfield. 

At a town-meeting held January 11, 1781, a 
settlement was made with Nathan Thomas and 
others for lead furnished for the use of the 
town on the occasion of a certain " alarm," in 
October, 1776. The cause of the "alarm " has 
not been ascertained. The following is a state- 
ment of the amount of lead furnished, together 
with the names of those who furnished it : 
Nathan Thomas, 6 pounds, 6 ounces ; Noah 



Emmons, 1 pound, 12 ounces; Abel Emmons, 
3 pounds ; Jonathan Farr (2d), 9 pounds, 8 
ounces ; Captain Simon Davis, 9 poimds. 

It was voted to allow six Continental dollars 
per pound for the lead ! 

In August, 1794, C!hesterfield "Voted to 
make up the soldiers' wages equal to forty shil- 
lings per mouth, including the jjay which Con- 
gress has given them, exclusive of the cloth- 
ing." 

The names of but few Chesterfield men who 
were wounded or killed, or who lost their lives 
from any cause while serving their country in 
the struggle for independence, have been ob- 
tained by the writer. 

According to the town records, Nathan 
Bishop died in the army in 1777 ; David Stod- 
dard, Sr., wont into the army, it is said, and 
never returned ; Elisha Bingham was discharged 
from the service and died while on his way 
home ; Gustavus Bingham was also wounded 
in the head some time during the war, but re- 
covered. As already stated, John Davis (or 
Dawes) was officially reported as killed, and Jo- 
siah Walton as wounded, at Bunker's Hill ; but 
the.se two cases are somewhat in doubt. 

Chesterfield's Part in the Contro- 
versy ABOUT THE NeW HAMPSHIRE GrANTS. 

— The year 1781 will ever be memorable in 
the annals of Chesterfield ou account of the ex- 
citement and strife that existed within its bor- 
ders, arising from what is known in the history 
of the States that took part therein as the 
" Controversy about the New Hampshire 
Grants." The government of New York 
claimed jurisdiction as far eastward as the Con- 
necticut, by virtue of a grant from Charles the 
Second to the Duke of York, in 1674. In 
spite of this claim. Governor Benning Went- 
worth, of New Hampshire, continued to grant 
townships west of the Connecticut, having 
made, up to 1764, inclusive, about one hundred 
and twenty-nine grants, including Brattlebor- 
ough, Bennington and many other now import- 
ant towns of Vermont. 



142 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



After the establishment of the iudepeudeuce 
of Vermont, a majority of the inhabitants in a 
number of towns in the western part of New 
Hampshire were desirous of forming a union 
with the former State. Among the towns in 
favor of this project was Chesterfield, in which 
a bitter partisan spirit seems to have been en- 
gendered, that came near culminating in blood- 
shed. 

Two, at least, of the Board of Selectmen for 
the year 1781 belonged to what may be called 
the Vermont party. These were Samuel King, 
Jr., and Moses Smith, Jr. By them a town- 
meeting was called, in the name of the " Gov- 
ernment and Good People of the New Hamp- 
shire Grants," to be held on Tiun'sday, March 
29th. The second article in the warrant for 
this meeting was, " To see if the town will 
agree to establish or accept of the union agreed 
upon between the Legislature of the State of 
Vermont and the Committee of the New Hamji- 
shire Grants, held at Windsor in Februar}', 
1781." The third article was, "To choose one 
or more members to sit in the Assembly of 
Vermont on the first Wednesday of April 
next, in case the union takes place, or in the 
Convention at Cornish un the aforesaid day, 
as the circumstances may require." 

At this meeting it was voted to accept the 
terms of union mentioned in the warrant, and 
Deacon Silas Thompson and Samuel King, Jr., 
were chosen to repi'esent the town in the As- 
sembly of Vermont. The number of votes in 
favor of union with that State was ninety ; 
against, thirty-two. 

On the 2d day of May following another 
town-meeting was held, called, as the record 
states, " agreeable to the order of the State of 
Vermont." At this meeting E2)hraim Baldwin 
was chosen town clerk. Sixty-nine men then 
took the oath prescribed by the law of Ver- 
mont, and proceeded to vote for chief judge, as- 
sistant judges, high sheriiF, judge of Probate and 
justices of the peace, all for the " County of 
Washington, in the State of Vermont." At 



another meeting, held the 14th day of the same 
month, several more " freemen " were sworn in. 

The town was now completely in the posses- 
sion of the " Vermont jiarty," and remained so 
during the rest of the year ; but the adherents 
of New Hampshire were by no means inactive, 
and stoutly opposed the proceedings of the ma- 
jority. 

On the 25th day of August, the same year, 
Nathaniel Bingham, Michael Cressey, William 
Lee and James Robertson drew up a memorial 
to the Council and House of Representatives 
of New Hampshire, in which they deplored 
the action of the partisans of Vermont, and 
gave the names of eighty of the inhabitants of 
Chesterfield who declared that they still re- 
garded themselves as subjects of New Hamp- 
shire. The memorialists concluded by begging 
for advice and protection, and subscribing them- 
selves as " loyal and affectionate subjects." 

On the 5th day of November following, in 
the evening, several of the inhabitants of Ches- 
terfield met at the house of Nathaniel Bingham, 
a short distance north of the Centre villao-e, on 
what is now sometimes called Wetherbee Plill, 
for the purpose of nominating one or two per- 
sons to be commissioned as justices of the peace 
by the New Hampshire Legislatiu-e. While 
they were assembled for this purpose, Samuel 
Davis, of Chesterfield, acting as constable 
under the authority of Vermont, entered Mr. 
Bingham's house, with several others, and 
attempted to serve a " precept " on James Rob- 
ertson. Dr. Belknap says that the precept, or 
writ, was in an action of del»t. Davis, how- 
ever, was not able to accomplish the object of 
his visit, on account of the opposition, as he al- 
leged, of Mr. Bingliam and John G randy, Jr. On 
the 12th of the .same month warrants were issued 
for the arrest of Bingham and Grandy, "in the 
name and by the authority of the freemen of the 
State of Vermont," and they were soon after- 
wards committed to tiie jail in Charlestown, 
from which they sent a petition to the General 
Assembly of New Hampshire, praying for 



CHESTERFIELD. 



143 



relief. Bingbam also seut a letter to the 
Speaker of the New Hampshire House of 
Representatives, containiug a statement of 
the facts relating to his and Grandy's arrest 
and imprisonment. Colonel Enoch Hale, 
of Kindge, sheriff of Cheshire County, hav- 
ing been authorized by the Assembly to re- 
lease all the prisoners in the Charlestown jail 
confined by the Vermont authorities, endeavored 
to execute his commission without delay, but was 
himself arrested and committed to the same jail 
by a <leputy-sherilf acting under authority of 
Vermont. The Vermont authorities, fearing that 
the New Hampshire government would attempt 
to accomplish with the aid of military force 
what the Cheshire sheriff had failed to do, sent 
a re([uest to Samuel King, Jr., of this town, 
who was then serving Vermont as colonel of 
a regiment of militia, to hold his men in readi- 
ness to march " on the shortest notice." It ap- 
pears that King immediately took measures to 
get his men in readiness, for he was particularly 
zealous in his support of the cause of the 
"grants," and seems to have been ready to 
fight, if necessary. The following letter from 
Michael Cressey, of Chesterfield, to General 
Bellows, of Walpole, gives some insight into the 
state of affairs in this town at that time : 

" Sir, — I Beg the Leave to inform your Hon'r that 
the Perteued Coll. King has sent out, By order, as I 
am informed from Doc. Page [sheriff of the so-called 
county of Wasliington], to Raise his Rige'rat to op- 
pose New Hampshire, and that he Called the militia 
of this Town together yesterday to see who would 
tight against New Hampshire ; and that, as I am 
Credably informed, there was about sixty turned out 
as VoUenters for that Purpose, and the sed King 
Urged them in the strongest terras to Stand By one 
another, and by thire officers, for thire Rights against 
the State of New Hampshire, assuring them if they 
stood firm New Hampshire would not fight. It is 
also reported that he sent over to Captain Sarjants, 
at Brattilbrough, to assist, but what return unknown. 
Sir, I thought Proper to inform you of these move- 
ments, and I Pray Heaven to give both you and the 
State of New Hampshire wisdom to conduct matters 
wisely at such a Critical day as this. From your 
most obedient and Humble Sarv't., 

" MicuAEL Cressey. 

" Chesterfield, Dec'ber ye 5th, 1781. 
"To Gex'al Bellows." 



Near the end of the month in which this let- 
ter was written, Colonel Samuel King was ar- 
rested by a New Hampshire special sheriff 
(Robert Smith), who started with him for 
Exeter ; but he had got no farther than Keene 
with his prisoner ^vhen he was set ujjon bv a 
party of anti-New Hampshire men (the most of 
whom appear to have been from Chesterfield 
and Westmoreland), who rescued King (Jan- 
uary 1, 1782). King was soon afterwards re- 
arrested, but does not ajipear to have been kept 
long in confinement, as he was soon afterwards 
taking part again in town affairs. 

On the 1st day of January (at midnight), 
.1782, Captain Josejjh Burt, of Westmoreland, 
wrote a letter to President Weare, of the 
Council, in which he stated that the party who 
had rescued King, in the morning of the same 
day, returned to Chesterfield and arrested Lieu- 
tenant (James) Robertson, whom they were dis- 
posed " to treat according to the custom of ^^er- 
niont, — that is, by whipping him." Captain 
Burt's informant was Mr. Bingham's son, who 
said that a number of persons had been driven 
from their homes that night by the riotous 
Vermont men. The captain also added : " The 
triumphs of the Vermouts are great, and [they] 
sa}' that New Hampshire dare not come like 
men, in the day-time, but like a thief, and steal 
a man or two away." 

The next day (January 2d) General Bellows 
also sent a letter to President Weare, depicting 
in very vigorous language the unhajjpy condi- 
tion of affiiirs in Chesterfield. After corrob- 
orating, in the main, the statements in Cap- 
tain Burt's letter, the general added : " I am 
credibly informed that there is in said Chester- 
field about an Hiuidred Persons who support 
said King, who Damn New Hampshire and 
all their authority to Hell, and say they (New 
Hampshire) can do nothing only in a mean, un- 
derhanded way. In short, they Defy all the 
authority and force of the State, and are deter- 
mined to support and maintain their usurped 
authority, maugre all attempts that have [been] 



Ui 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIKE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



or shall be made to curb aud resti-aiu their 
usurpatious. . . ." 

Such was the state of affairs in this part of 
the State, especially ia Chesterfield, iu the win- 
ter of 1781-82. Happily, however, through 
the intervention of Congress, this memorable 
controversy was brought to a close, and, on the 
2;3d of February, 1782, the Vermont Assembly 
passed a resolution relincjuishing all claims to 
territory lying within the prescribed boundaries 
of that State. Yet i)eace and harmony were by 
no means wholly re-established in the disaf- 
fecteil towns. Says Belknap : " Though cut oH' 
from their connection with Vermont, the re- 
volted towns did not at once return to a state of 
peace ; but the divisions and animosities which 
had so long subsisted continued to produce dis- 
agreeable effects." 

It having been definitely settled that Ches- 
terfield belonged to New Hampshire, upwards 
of thirty of the inhabitants and freeholders of 
the town made application to General Bellows, 
of Walpole, and William Lee, of Chesterfield, 
justices of the peace, to issue a warrant for the 
annual town-meeting for the year 1782. At 
this meeting, held the 6th day of March, the 
Vermont party still asserted its power, by elect- 
ing at least a majority of the principal town- 
officers ; whereupon the minority submitted a 
vigorous protest. 

An event that occurred in September of the 
same year shows how bitter the o})positiou still 
was to the New Hampshire government on the 
part of some of the inhabitants of Chesterfield. 
When the Inferior Court met at Keene, that 
month, a party of anti-New Hampshire men, 
led by Samuel Davis, of Chesterfield, attemjjted 
to break it up. It appears, however, that 
Davis and his men soon found themselves out- 
numbered, and desisted from their undertaking. 
He, together with others, was arrested and put 
under bonds to appear at the next term of the 
Superior Court ; but they were afterwards dis- 
charged without punishment. The fact that it 
was thought necessary to send a military force 



into Chesterfield at one time, to aid in the 
collection of taxes, is further evidence of the 
hostility that was still manifested toward New 
Hampshire. It appears that Colonel Reuben 
Alexander, of Winchester, received orders "to 
raise the body of his regiment," or as many of 
his men as might be sufficient, and march them 
into Chesterfield on Tuesday, the 21st day of 
Januar}', 1783, to assist in collecting taxes; 
but on account of the " clamor of the people," 
he feared to comply with the order, stating, as a 
further reason, that " the greater part that 
could be raised would turn out witli intent to 
mutinize and confound our proceedings." Op- 
position to New Hampshire gradually died out, 
however, and for a whole century Chesterfield 
" has creditably performed her part in war and 
in peace." 

Soldiers Furnished by Chesterfield in 
THE Second War with Great Britain. — 
If any men enlisted from Chesterfield in the 
military or naval service of the United States 
in the years 1812 and 1813, their names ai'e not 
known to the writer. 

September 9, 1814, Governor Gilman Issued 
an order for the whole of the militia " to hold 
themselves iu readiness to marcli at a moment's 
warning, completely armed and eipiipped ac- 
cording to law, and as well provided as possible 
with blankets and ammunition." An order had 
already been issued, two days before, for de- 
tachments from twenty-three regiments of the 
militia. These orders were received by the mi- 
litia with great enthusiasm, and were promptly 
obeyed. The men detached in accordance with 
the order of Septeniber 7th were duly organized 
into several regiments and battalions, which 
formed one brigade under the command of 
General John Montgomery. The first draft 
was made in Chesterfield September 13th. The 
names of the men thus obtained were as fol- 
lows : 

Amos Stone, sergeant. Eli Darling, corporal. 

Privates. 

Joshua Wiggins. Isaac Wetherby. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



145 



Francis Wincli. Ezra Putney. 

Stephen Streeter, Jr. Roswell Metealf. 

Montgomery Darling. 

These luen were to serve tliree montlis, unless 
sooner rlischarged. They formed part of Cap- 
tain Nathan (Midden's company, in the First 
Regiment of detached militia, commanded by 
Colonel Xat. Fisk, of Westmoreland. Cap- 
tain Gliddeu was of Unity. Eli Darling was 
discharged November 3d ; Joshua Wiggins 
' and Isaac Wetherby, November 10th. Mont- 
gomery Darling was aci'identally liit by a 
bayonet on the gun of a fellow-soldier, anil lost 
the sight of one eye from the effects of the 
wound. He was discharged November 6tli. 

The next drafl was made September 26th, and 
the followins: men were obtained : 



Samuel L. Draper. 
Daniel Stearns. 
Elijah Lyons. 



John Bass. 
Philip Bacon. 
Lyman Toms [Tombs]. 



The men obtained I)y this draft formed a 
part of the company commanded liy Ca})tain 
Reuben INIarsh, of this town, in the Second Regi- 
ment of detached militia. Ara Hamilton and 
Bradley I\Iead, also both of Chesterfield, were 
lieutenants in the same company. Ca[)tain 
Marsh and Lieutenants Hamilton and jNIead went 
to Portsmouth with the detachment, which was 
five days in marching to that place. Samuel 
L. Draper went as a substitute ; but, on his ar- 
rival at Portsmouth, Captain ilarsh j^rocured 
for him the position of fifer for the company. 
John H. Fuller, then of Chesterfield, afterwards 
of Keene, was adjutant of the regiment to which 
Captain Marsh's company belonged. The men 
were to serve sixty days, but they were dis- 
charged a few days before the expiration of their 
term of service. Elijah Lyons was discharged 
November ;id. The British did not attack 
Portsmouth, as was anticij^ated, and the greater 
[)art of the troops that had assembled there were 
discharged before their term of service expired. 

Record of the Citizen.s of Chesterfield 

I WHO Enlisted in the Military Service 

OF the United States during the War of 



the Rebellion (1861-65). — On the breaking 
out of the War of the Great Rebellion the mili- 
tary spirit that had so long lain dormant was 
again aroused, and men of all political beliefs 
laid aside their differences for a while, and joined 
with one another in their efforts to sustain the 
general government in the attempt to put down 
the most formidable rebellion recorded in the 
annals of the world. Chesterfield furnished 
during the war upwards of one hundred and ten 
men for the Union army, of whom seventj'^-four 
were residents of the town ; the rest werg not 
citizens of Chesterfield, but were hired by the 
town to fill its quota, or by individuals as sub- 
stitutes. 

Only one of the substitutes was a resident of 
Chesterfield; the rest were mainly "brokers' 
men," and belonged, in great part, to the class 
of men so well known during the war as" bounty- 
jumpers." 

With very few exceptions, those persons who 
were citizens of the town at the time of their en- 
listment served till they were honorably dis- 
charged. 

The following record of the soldiers furnished 
by Chesterfield during the Civil War contains 
only the names of those who were actually resi- 
dents of the town at the time of their enlistment. 
It has been carefully compiled from the records 
of the town, from the reports of the Adjutant- 
General of the State, and from information de- 
rived from private sources. 

fNoTE.— When the cause of a soldier's discharge is not 
stated, it is to be understood that he was discharged by 
reason of expiration of term of service or termination of 
tlie war]. 

Norris E. Bancroft, private, Company F, Eighth 
Maine Infantry ; three years ; mustered in Au- 
gust 1-1, 1861 ; discharged January 18, 1866 ; 
served two years and twenty days as a re-enlisted 
veteran. 

Clinton A. Bancroft, private. Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in September 23, 1862; discharged July 8, 
1865. 

Bradford Britton, musician, Company E, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 



14G 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



November 28, ISGl ; discharged June 16, 1862 ; 
discharged for disability. 

George B. Britton, private, Company E, Twentieth 
Miissachusetts Infantry ; three years ; mustered 
in August 8, 1861 ; taken prisoner at the battle 
of Ball's Blufl; Va., October 21, 1861, and con- 
fined at Mayo's tobacco-factory, Richmond, about 
three weeks, at Belle Island about six weeks, at 
Salisbury, N. C, about five months ; transferred 
to Second United States Cavalry December 27, 
1862; captured again near Winchester, Va., Au- 
gust 16, 1864, and confined, most of the time, at 
Salisbury, N. C, till February 22, 1865. 

Roswell Butler, private. Company E, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
November 28, 1861; discharged June 16,1862; 
discharged for disability. 

John H. Butler, private, Company A, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in September 22, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 
1865. 

Richard T. Cobb, private. Company B, Twelfth Mass- 
achusetts Infantry ; three years ; enlisted April 
23, 1861 ; discharged July 8, 1864 ; wounded in 
the chin : taken prisoner at the battla of Gettys- 
burg July 1, 1863, and confined at Belle Island, 
near Richmond, Va., till March 8, 1864. 

Warren Colburn, private, Eleventh Vermont In- 
fantry ; three years ; enlisted October, 18()3 ; 
taken prisoner and died in the Rebel prison at 
Andersonville, Ga., October 4, 1864. 

Julius C. Converse, private, Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in December 29, 1863 ; discharged July 8, 
1865. 

Nelson S. Crouch, private, Company F, First New 
Hampshire Cavalry ; one year ; mustered in 
February 28, 1865 ; discharged July 15, 1865. 

Calvin G. Darling, private, Company F, I^ourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in Sept. 23, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 1865. 

Murray Davis, private. Company F, Fourteenth New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
December 29, 1863; discharged July 18, 1865; 
wounded in the left leg at the battle of Win- 
chester (or Opequau Creek), Va., September 19, 
1864; leg amputated. 

Noyes J. Davis, private. Company H, Second Regi- 
ment Berdan's Sharpshooters; three years; en- 
listed December 28, 1861 ; served three years . 
transferred to Invalid Corps September 30, 1863 ; 
wounded in the right wrist at the battle of 
Chancellorsville, Va. 



George P. Eddy, private. Company A, Second New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
May 31, 1861 ; discharged November 9, 1862.; 
discharged from Second New Hampshire Infantry 
for disability; re-enlisted in Second Massachu- 
setts Artillery August 7, 1863 ; discharged Au- 
gust 9, 1865. 

John M. Farnum, private. Company F, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
December 29, 1863; discharged January 25, 1865; 
discharged for disability. 

Charles M. Farr, j)rivate, Company A, Second New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
May 31, 1861 ; discharged October 23, 1862 ; 
first discharge for disability ; re-enlisted for the 
town of Newport, and was mustered in Company 
C, First New Hampshire Cavalry, April 11, 
1864 ; mustered out as first sergeant July 15, 
1865. 

Charles R. Farr, private, Company F, First Vermont 
Cavalry ; three years; mustered in November 19, 
1861; discharged November 18,1864; promoted 
to commissary sergeant October 29, 1862. 

Ransom C. Farr, private. Company F, First Vermont 
Cavalry ; three years ; mustered in November 19, 
1861; discharged December 19, 1862; first dis- 
charge for disability ; drafted and mustered in 
Company G, First New Hampshire Cavalry, 
July 21, 1864 ; promoted to sergeant ; discharged 
July 15, 1865. 

Bradford C. Farr, private. Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in September 23, 1862 ; discharged Febru- 
ary 4, 1863; discharged for disability. 

Wesley O. Farr, private, Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in September 23, 1862 ; discharged Janu- 
ary 20, 1865 ; discharged for disability ; promoted 
to corporal February 1, 1864. 

Larkin D. Farr, private, Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hamjjshire Infantry; three years; mus- 
tered in Dec. 29, 1863 ; discharged July 8, 1865. 

Chancey S. Farr, private. Company F, F'ourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in December 29, 1863 ; discharged July 26, 
1865 ; captured at the battle of Cedar Creek, 
Va., October 19, 1864, and confined in the " prison 
pen" at Salisbury, N. C, from November 4th 
following till February 20, 1865. 

Stephen P. Faulkner, jn-ivate. Company C, Eight- 
eenth New Hampshire Infantry; one year; 
mustered in August 31, 1864; discharged June, 
1865. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



147 



James C. Field, private, Company C, Seventeenth 
United States Infantry ; three years ; enlisted 
September 16, 1861 ; discharged January 20, 
1863 ; discharged for disability. 

Francis A. Field, private, Seventeenth United States 
Infantry ; three years ; enlisted September 16, 
1861. 

Harrison F. Fisk, private. Company E, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
November 28, 1861 ; discharged August 25, 1862; 
discharged for disability. 

Oscar T. Frink, private, Company E, Second New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
September 17, 1861. 

Calvin P. Gilsou, musician, Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in Seiitember 2.3, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 
1865. 

Walter W. Glazier, private. Company C, Eighteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry; one year; mustered 
in August 31, 1864 ; discharged May 30, 1865. 

James H. Goodrich (2d), private, Company F, First 
New Hampshire Cavalry; one year; mustered 
in March 8, l.'<6-"); discharged July 15, 1865. 

John F. Goodrich, private, Company A, Fourteenth 
United States Infantry; three years; mustered 
in September, 1864; served three years. 

John H. Goodwin, first sergeant, Company F, Four- 
teenth New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; 
mustered in September 23, 1862; discharged 
July 8, 1865; promoted to second lieutenant 
February 17, 1865. 

Charles L. Harvey, private, Company F, Second 
New Hampshire Infantry; three years; mus- 
tered in September 2, 1861 ; discharged Novem- 
ber 29, 1862 ; discharged for disability. 

Foster W. Hastings, private. Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mus- 
tered in September 23, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 
1865 ; promoted to corporal November 1, 1864. 

Herbert R. Hastings, private, Company F, Four- 
teenth New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; 
mustered in September 23, 18i:>2 ; discharged 
August 13, 1863 ; discharged for disability. 

Eugene F. Hastings, corporal. Company A, Four- 
teenth New Hampshire Infantry; three years; 
mustered in September 22, 1862; discharged July 
8, 1805. 

Hubbard W. Henry, private. Company F, Four- 
teenth New Hampshire Infantry; three years; 
mustered in September 23, 1862 ; died of disease 
at Alexandria, Va., February 7, 1864. 

Dwigbt L. Herri ck, private. Company C, Eighteenth 



New Hampshire Infantry; one year; mustered 
in August 31, 1864 ; discharged June 10, 1865 ; 
promoted to corporal. 

Sidney B. Higgins, private. Company E, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
November or December, 1861 ; first discharge for 
disability ; re-enlisted, and was mustered as ser- 
geant in the same company and regiment De- 
cember 24, 1863 ; promoted to first lieutenant 
March 6, 1865 ; discharged July 17, 1865 ; 
wounded October 1, 1864. 

John W. Hildreth, private. Company E, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
November 28, 1861 ; discharged September 29, 
1862 ; discharged for disability. 

George L. Hildreth, private. Company E, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
December 7, 1861 ; discharged July, 1862 ; dis- 
charged for disability. 

Taylor E. Hill, private. Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry; three years; mus- 
tered in September 23, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 
1865. 

Frank J. Holt, private, Company A, Eighteenth 
New .Hampshire Infantry; one year; mustered 
in September 13, 1864; discharged June 10, 
1866. 

Joseph Holt, private. Company F, Eighteenth New- 
Hampshire Infantry ; one year ; mustered in 
October 28, 1864; discharged May 18, 1865. 

George Hopkins, enlisted in various organizations. 

Way land N. Hosley, private. Company F, I'ourth 
Vermont Infantry; three years; enlisted Sep- 
tember 2, 1861 ; discharged September 21, 1864 ; 
transferred to Veteran Reserve Ccu-ps November 
15, 1863. 

Henry H. Howe, sergeant. Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years; mustered 
in September 23, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 1865. 

Barton Howe, Jr., private. Company C, Eighteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; one year ; mustered 
in August 31, 1864 ; discharged June 10, 1865. 

Robert Jackson, private. Seventh Connecticut Infan- 
try; mustered in September, 1864; wounded in 
the mouth. 

(.'harles B. Lewis, private, Company C, Seventeenth 
United States Infantry ; three years ; enlisted 
September 17, 1861 ; discharged January 21, 
1863; first discharge for disability ; re-enlisted, 
and was nuistered, for one year, as corporal in 
Company E, Eighteenth New Hampshire Infan- 
try, September 26, 1864; promoted to sergeant 
,Iune 1, 1805; discharged June 10, 1865. 



148 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Reuben A. Lewis, private, Company A, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; one year; mustered 
in September 20, 18(54; discharged July 8, 1865. 

Lucian 0. Lincoln, corporal, Company F, Fifth New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
October 23, 1861 ; discharged July 7, 1862 ; first 
discharge for disability ; re-enlisted, and was 
mustered, for three years, in Company F, Four- 
teenth New Hampshire Infantry, October 2, 
1862 ; discharged July 8, 1865. 

Horace S. Lincoln, private. Company F, Eleventh 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years; muster- 
ed in July 28, 1864; discharged July 17, 1865; 
transferred to Company F, Sixth New Hamp- 
shire Infantry, June 1, 1865. 

James M. Martin, private. Company D, Second New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
September 17, 1861; died of disease at Harrison's 
Landing, Va., August 11, 1862. 

Henry J. McClenning,private,CompanyF, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; muster- 
ed in September 23, 1862 ; died of disease at 
Washington, D. C, August 7, 1863. 

J. Milo Richardson, Fourteenth New Hampshire 
Infantry ; did notleave the State ; soon discharged 
for disability. 

Daniel E. Robbins, private, Company F, Sixth New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
November 28, 1861; served three years; re-en- 
listed as a veteran, and was mustered in the same 
company and regiment, January 4, 1864 ; dis- 
charged July 17, 1865 ; severely wounded in the 
head at the battle of Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 
1864. 

Otis Saflbrd, private, Company K, Second New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
September 2, 1861 ; discharged July, 1864 ; re- 
enlisted and was mustered for one year in Com- 
pany ¥, First New Hampshire Cavalry, February 
28, 1865; discharged July 15, 1865; wounded in 
the right leg at the second battle of Bull Run, 
Va. 

Norman D. Satford, private, Company E, Fifth New 
Hampshire Infantry; three years; mustered in 
November 28, 1861 ; discharged October 6, 1862 ; 
first discharge for disability ; re-enlisted and was 
mustered for one year as sergeant in Company 
E, Eighteenth New Hampshire Infantry, Sep- 
tember 24, 1864 ; promoted to first sergeant 
April, 1865; discharged June 10, 1865. 

Leavitt W. Safford, private, Company F, First New 
Hampshire Cavalry; one year; mustered in 
March 16, 1865 ; discharged July 15, 1S65. 



Otis H. Scott, private. Company F, Fifth New Hamp- 
shire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in October 
23, 1861; discharged December 22, 1862; dis- 
charged for disability. 

George D. Scott, private, Comi)any F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered 
in September 23, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 1865. 

Henry Herbert Snow, private. Company F, Four- 
teenth New Hampshire Infantry; three years; 
mustered in September 23, 1862 ; discharged May 
25, 1863 ; discharged for disability. 

.Tames S. Stoddard, private. Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years; mustered 
in September 23, 1862 ; discharged July 8, 1865 ; 
promoted to corporal September 26, 1863 ; to 
sergeant, February 12, 1864; at the battle ot 
Winchester, Va., he was hit five or six times in 
different parts of his person and clothing, one 
bullet entering his mouth and knocking out 
several teeth. 

Edwin H. Streeter, private. Company I, Ninth New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
August 15, 1862 ; discharged June 10, 1865 ; pro- 
moted to corporal March 1, 1865. 

Alljert W. Streeter, private, Company I, Ninth New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
August 15, 1862; died of disease at Falmouth, 
Va., February 6, 1863. 

Herbert N. Streeter (brother of Albert W.), jirivate. 
Company I, Ninth New Ham|isbire Infantry; 
three years ; mustered in August 22, 1862 ; died 
of disease at Falmouth, Va., February 7, 1863 ; 
wounded in the hand at the battle of South 
Mountain, Md. 

Marshall S. Streeter, private. Company F, Fourteenth 
New Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered 
in September 23, 1862 ; wounded in the left leg 
at the battle of Winchester, Va., September 19, 
1864, and died from the effects of the wound at 
Baltimore Hospital, October 9th, the same year. 

Herbert B. Titus, Company A, Second New Hamp- 
shire Infantry ; three years ; discharged June 10, 
1865; commissioned second lieutenant June 4, 
1861 ; first lieutenant, August, 1861, and .issigned 
to Company F ; promoted to major of the Ninth 
New Hampshire Infantry June 14, 1862; com- 
missioned colonel of the same regiment Novem- 
ber 22, 1862 ; discharged September 27, 1864, but 
reinstated by Special Orders No. 377, par. 18, War 
Department, November 1, 1864 ; at the battle Of 
Antietam, Md., September 17, 1862, he was 
severely wounded in the right shoulder ; March 
15,1865, he was appointed brigadier-general by 



CHESTERFIELD. 



149 



brevet, " for gallant and meritorious services 
during the war." 

David B. Tyrrel, private, Company A, Second New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
August 24, 1861 ; discharged August 24, 1864. 

Everett C. Tyrrel, private, Company D, Second New 
Hampshire Infantry ; three years ; mustered in 
September, 1861; discharged May, 1863; dis- 
charged for disability. 

David S. Walton, Jr., private. Company I, First Ber- 
dan's United States Sharpshooters; three years; 
enlisted September 11, 1861 ; discharged Decem- 
ber 10, 1862 ; discharged for disability. 

Lyman H. Warren, private, Seventeenth United States 
Infantry; three years; enlisted September 16, 
1861 ; appointed second lieutenant October 13, 
1862 ; brevetted captain July 2, 1863 ; appointed 
captain October 25,1865; slightly wounded in 
one of his feet at the battle of Chancellorsville, 
Va. ; died at Houston, Tex., September 18, 1867. 

Alonzo W. Wheeler, private. Company F, First New 
Hampshire Cavalry; one year; mustered in 
March 8, 1865 ; discharged July 15, 1865. 

Of the seventy-four men wlio.se names have 
Ijeen given above, none were killed in battle ; 
one died from the effects of a wound received 
in battle ; eleven were wounded and survived ; 
six died of disease. 

The amount of the bounties paid Ijv the town 
during the war was twenty-four thousand six 
iiundred dollars. 

Twelve persons were drafted and paid a com- 
mutation of three hundred dollars each, and 
twenty-.seven furnished substitutes at an expense 
of from one hundred to four hundred dollars 
each. 

Increase and Decrease of Popula- 
tion. — A census taken by order of the provin- 
cial government in the year 1767 shows that 
Chesterfield then had 365 inhabitants. In 1 77.3 
the number of inhabitants was 747, of whom 
400 were males. In kSeptember, 1775, the 
selectmen made an enumeration of the inhabit- 
ants of the town and found the number to be, 
including 36 men absent in the army, 874. 
Of this number, 462 were males. No slaves 
were returned in these early censuses. 

During the War of the Revolution many 



families came into the t()\\n from Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island and Connecticut. By the year 
1786 the number of inhabitants had reached 
1535, notwithstanding the unsettled state of 
affairs that existed in the town during the Revo- 
lutionary j)eriod. 

The number of inhabitants of the town in 
every tenth year since 1790 (inclusive) has been 
as follows : 

1790, 1905; 1800, 2161 ; 1810, 1839; 1820, 
2110; 1830,2046; 1840, 1765; 1850,1680; 
1860, 1434; 1870, 1289 ; 1880, 1173. 

The District Schools. — The schools are 
mentioned for the first time, in the records of 
the town, in the warrant for a town-meeting 
held the second Tuesday in June, 1767. At 
that time the town had not been divided into 
school-wards, or districts, and what few schools 
there were, were taught in private houses. The 
sum of money raised for school purposes in 
1767 (if any) was not recorded; but at the 
annual town-meeting in 1771 it was voted to 
raise fifteen pounds for the support of schools. 
From 1771 to 1779 the amount raised annually 
seems at no time to have exceeded fifty pounds. 
During the next five years the town was in a 
more or less disturbed condition, and little or 
no money appears to have been raised for the 
support of .schools. In 1776 the town was 
divided into several school-wards, and each 
ward allowed to employ an instructor ; but it 
was not till 1787 that the town was divided 
into any considerable number of wards, nine- 
teen of them having been established that year. 
Frequent changes were made in the lines of 
these wards previous to 1815, about which time 
the term " district " was adopted in the place of 
" ward." 

When or where the first school-house was 
built in Chesterfield has not been a.scertained. 
It is doubtful if one was Iniilt befi)re 1785. 
The oldest school-houses now standing appear 
to have been erected between 1800 and 1812. 
The one in District No. 7 is known to have 
been built about ISIO. Before the building of 



n 



150 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



sch(joI-houses the schools were taught, as already 
stated, ID private houses. At cue time, near 
the begiuniug of the present century, the school 
in District No. 7 (the Hardscrabble District) 
was kept in (iibson Willard's barn. Many of 
the schools were much larger in tlie first quarter 
of this century than at present ; some of them, 
it is said, had nearly one hundred scholars each. 
In the winter of 1816-17 the little school-house 
in the district last mentioned is said, on good 
authority, to have been occupied by at least 
eighty pupils. The number of scholars in the 
district is now about fifteen. The largest dis- 
trict in the town, N'o. 13 (which includes Ches- 
terfield Factory), has at present aliout sixty 
scholars ; the next largest, No. 1 (which in- 
cludes West Chesterfield ), has about thirty-five. 
The average number 'of scholars attending 
school each year jirevious to 1847 has not been 
ascertained. Since that date the nuinljer for 
each fifth year has been as follows : 

1847, 438 ; 1852, 342 (?) ; 1857, 430 ; 1862, 
355; 1867,300; 1872,265; 1877,225. The 
number of scholars enrolled in 1883 was 218. 
The amount of money raised yearly by tax- 
ation for the support of schools was, from 1785 
to 1798, usually one hundred pounds; from 
the latter date to 1805, four hundred dollars. 
From 1805 to 1847 the amount raised annually 
appears to have varied from four hundred antl 
forty dollars to eight hundred dollars; from 
1847 to the present time it has been from eight 
hundred dollars to fifteen hundred dollars. 
Since 1829 each district has received annually 
a portion of the " literary fund," this town's 
share of which, for a number of years, has aver- 
aged not far from one hundred dollars. The 
greatest number of districts in which schools 
have been maintained since 1817 has been, 
apparently, sixteen ; at present the number is 
thirteen or fourteen. 

Chesterfield Academy. — On the 12th 
day of January, 1790, the New Hampshire 
Legislature passed an act entitled " An Act to 
incorpoi'ate an Academy in the Town of Ches- 



terfield, by the name of the Chesterfield Acade- 
my." In the preamble of this act it is stated that 
" the education of youth has ever been con- 
sidered by the wise and good as an object of 
the highest consequence to the safety and happi- 
ness of a People;" also, that "Peter Stone, of 
Chesterfield, gentleman, and sundry other jjer- 
sous, have voluntarily contributed certain sums 
of money for the purpose of establishing and 
suj^i^orting a public school, or academy, in said 
Chesterfield." 

■ The first section of the act sets forth the 
object of the academy, namely, " the promoting 
piety and virtue, and the instruction of youth 
in such branches of useful Literature as the 
trustees hereby appointed shall think proper to 
direct." The same section also empowered 
Rev. Abraham Wood, Solomon Harvey, phy- 
sician, Moses Smith, Es(|., Silas Richai'dson, 
Zur Evans, Simon Willard and Abner John- 
son, gentlemen, all of Chesterfield, to act as 
trustees. The third section provided that 
" Abraham Wood and other trustees, as afore- 
said, and the longest livers and survivors of 
them, and their successors, be the true and sole 
visitors, trustees and governors of the said 
Academy, in perpetual succession forever." 
The foui'th section fixed the number of trustees 
at not less than seven, nor more than eleven, 
and provided that the major part of them should 
be "laymen and respectable freeholders." In 
the sixth section provisions were made for 
the holding, by the trustees, of real and personal 
estate, provided the annual income from tlie real 
estate should not exceed five hundred pounds, 
and that from the personal estate should not 
exceed two thousand pounds, " both sums to 
be valued in silver, at the rate of six shillings 
and eight-pence by the ounce." 

It was enacted by the eighth, and last, section 
that all estate, both personal and real, held within 
this State for the use of the academy, should be 
exempt from taxation ; and that students of the 
academy should also be exempt from paying 
poll-tax. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



151 



It has usually been stated tliat the academy 
was not opened till August 14, 1794, but the 
records of the institution show that this state- 
ment is, in all probability, incorrect. August 
31, 1791, the trustees voted to hire Sheldon Lo- 
gan " to instruct in the a<!ademy for the term of 
one year," and to give him eighty pounds for 
his services. July 4, 1792, they voted that the 
aflernoou of every Wednesday, for the rest of 
the year, should be " a vacation." There could 
be no reason for passing the latter vote if the 
school Avas not already in operation. 

The date of the erection of the academy 
building cannot be ascertained, but it is certain 
that the petitioners for the incorporation of the 
acadeni}', in their petition to the Legislature, 
stated that a sufficient sum of money had al- 
ready been raised " to erect a house of suffi- 
cient bigness in the town of Chesterfield, in 
which a Seminary may be kept, etc." The 
town also voted, May (3, 1790, to allow the 
trustees of the academy to \>\xi a building on 
the common for the use of the school. AMiether 
the academy building was completed before 
August, 1794 (the school, iu tiie mean time, 
being kept in some other house), cannot now 
be determined with certainty. 

For many years after its incfjrporation 
the academy had the reputation ctf being one of 
the best schools in the State, ranking second, it 
is said, to Phillips Academy, at Exeter. It 
was attended bv students from all the neierh- 

o 

boring towns, and some came from remoter 
places, even from the Southern States. Many 
of tiiose who sought instruction at this insti- 
tution became, later in life, eminent iu the var- 
ious trades and professions. 

It was a common practice, in the earlier 
years of the academy, for the trustees to grant 
the use of the academy building, and sometimes 
other property, to certain persons stykxl "adven- 
turers," on condition tiiat they should employ 
an instructor and keep the school in operation. 
•It seems that the property held by the trustees 
for the benefit of the academy never produced 



an income sufficient for its support ; and some- 
times this income and the tuition fees together 
amounted to less than the expenses. The prop- 
erty held by the trustees seems to have cvinsisted 
almost wholly of real estate. This included, 
about the year 1800, a part, if not all, of the 
glebe-land, in the southeastern quarter of the 
town. 

In 1808 the Legislature passed an act grant- 
ing to the trustees the privilege of raising 
money by lottery for the benefit of the school. 
Elijah Dunbar, Benjamin Cook, John Putnam 
and Phineas Handerson Mere chosen managers 
of this lottery ; but the records of the academy 
do not show how much money was obtained in 
this way. The sum allowed by the act of the 
Legislature to be raised was five thousand dol- 
lars ; but probably only a small part of this 
sura was ever actually obtained. Tlie act was 
extended, howevcu-, by tiie Legislature in 1S14. 

The number of '' adventurers " for the year 
last mentioned was odc hundred, and the defi- 
ciency to be madc^ up by them amounted to 
eighty-eight dollars and sixty-seven cents. 

September 11, 1818, the trustees voted "that 
Caj)tain Benjamin Cook sell to the highest bid- 
der the privilege of selling liquor on the com- 
mon on exhibition day, and that the money so 
raised be applied to building the stage and 
paying Mr. Hardy a balance of about nine dol- 
lars due him for arrearages of board for the 
last year." 

The exhibitions that wi^re given by the stu- 
dents of the academy during the pei'iod of its 
greatest prosperity were notable incidents in 
the history of the school, and even of the town. 
It was a part of the by-laws of the institution 
that no student should take part in these exhi- 
bitions until he had been a member of the 
school at least twelve weeks, unless he had had 
previous instrut'tion in the art of declaiming 
under a competent teacher ; and all students to 
whom parts M'ere assigned, in any public exhi- 
bition, were obliged to make careful preparation 
" in order to perform their parts accurately and 



152 



HISTORY OF CHESHIEE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



preserve the reputation of the Academy." 
The names of all the jjreceptors of the acad- 
emy from its incorporation till 1847 have not 
been obtained ; but some of them were as fol- 
lows : 

Sheldon Logan was, perhaps, preceptor 1791 
-94. It is certain that he was engaged by 
the trustees for one year, beginning August 14, 
1794, at a salary of one hundred pounds. 

John Noyes was preceptor two years, com- 
mencing his duties September 1, 1795. He was 
a graduate of Dartmouth C'ollege and at one 
time represented the Southern District of Ver- 
mont in the Congress of the United States. 

Broughton Wright (?) was preceptor one year 
from August or September, 1797. 

Levi Jackson, of Chesterfield, was preceptor 
1799-1805. (See Biographical Notices.) 

Daniel Hardy taught at least one year, begin- 
ning in the autumn of 1805. 

Isaac Fletcher, a student of Dartmouth Col- 
lege, was preceptor in 1808. He married, in 
1812, Abigail, daughter of Peter Stone, Sr., of 
this town, and afterwards practiced law at Lyn- 
don, Vt. 

Jonathan Hartwell ^vas preceptor in 1809. 

Asa Keyes was preceptor two years from 
April Ifi, 1810. He was a graduate of Dart- 
mouth College and became a distinguished law- 
yer. He died in Brattleborough, Vt., June 4, 
1 880, at the great age of ninety-three years. His 
wife was Sarah, daughter of Asa Britton, Esq., 
of Chesterfield. 

McConihe appears to have taught six 

months in 1812. 

Otis Hutchins, of Westmoreland, was pre- 
ceptor two years at least, commencing in the 
autumn of 1812. He was again eno-asred in 
the spring of 1820 for the term of three years. 
His salar)' was to be raised in part by subscrip- 
tions, which could be paid in cloth, provisions, 
wood, etc. He died in Westmoreland October 
6, 1866. 

Elisha S. Plumb was preceptor 1815-16. 

Thomas Hardy was jjreceptor 1817-19. He 



was again engaged to teach in 1834 for the 
term of ten years, and was to receive as salary 
all the tuition fees. He was also to have the 
privilege of selling books and stationery to the 
students. The trustees also agreed to provide 
twenty-five days' work each year for Mr. Har- 
dy's farm. He was released from his engage- 
ment, at his own request, February 6, 1838. 

Mr. Hardy was one of the most efficient and 
respected teachers ever connected with the acad- 
emy. He was a graduate of Dartmouth Col- 
lege and spent many years in teaching. The 
entire number of pei'sons under his instruction 
during his career a.s a teacher was six thousand 
seven hundred. He died March 3, 1864. 

George Freeman was ])receptor three months 
in 1822; Rev. John Walker, six months or 
more in 1823 ; John Chamberlain in 1824. 

Josiah W. Fairfield was preceirtor 1824-26. 
He was a native of New Boston, this State, and 
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1827. He 
married I^aura, daughter of Asa Britton, Esq. , 
of this town, in 1829, and settled in Hudson, 
N. Y., where he died, December 3, 1878. 

Edward P. Harris was preceptor 1827-28 ; 
Oliver M. Smith, 1830 ; James W. Eaiery, 
1831. 

Charles L. Strong was preceptor 1832-33, 
and again in 1841-44. Mr. Strong was a grad- 
uate of Amherst College and was a teacher by 
profession. He married, in 1843, Prusha, 
daughter of Ashl)el Wheeler, Sr., of Chester- 
field, and died in this town August 2, 1847. 

John E. Butler, of Jamaica, Vt., was an as- 
sistant teacher in 1833. He afterwards became 
a distinguished lawyer in the State of Vermont. 

Samuel H. Price was preceptor 1838-39 ; 
Nathan Kendall, 1845-47. 

Since 1850 the academy has not been in a 
flourishing condition and for several years has 
been closed. 

The original academy building stood on the 
southeastern part of the common, at the Centre 
village, a few rods from the old meeting-house. 

It was a two-story structure surmounted by 



CHESTERFIELD. 



153 



a belfry, iu whicli, liowever, there was no bell. 
April 9, 1859, it was burned to the ground. A 
new building was erected the same year, having 
nearly the same location, by School Di.strict No 
5 and the trustees of the academy, conjointly, 
on condition that the same should be used both 
for the district school and a High School or 
academy. 

The Churches. — The First Congregational 
Church of Chesterfield was probably organized 
in 1771, but it is evident that a site had been 
selected for a meeting-house, on the common, 
as early as 17()7 ; for, in tlie record of the ac- 
ceptance of a new road by the town that year, 
mention is made of the " meeting-house place." 
April 24, 1770, the town voted to raise one 
hundred pounds, to cover the meeting-house 
frame, that had already been erected. June 8, 
1772, it was voted by the town to take .seveuty- 
tivc pouiuls of the money appropriated for the 
highways and use it iu finishing the outside of 
the meeting-house. Thisliuilding stood on the 
common, at the Centre village, about thirty-five 
feet south of the site of the present town-house, 
and was about sixty feet long and forty-five 
feet wdde. It was two stories high, with two 
rows of windows, and originally had a porch 
on each end. 

The west porch, however, was removed in 
accordance with a vote passed by the town in 
1815, and a projecting bell-tower built in 
place of it. The bell in this tower was rung 
on week-days at noon and at nine o'clock iu 
the evening. All the town-meetings were 
held in this house from September, 1771, till it 
Wits bvirnetl down by an incendiary fire, March 
1, 1851. It was also used by the students of 
Chesterfield Academy for their public exhibi- 
tions. The present Congregational meeting- 
iiouse was occupied, for the first time, in No- 
vember, 1834. 

le first settled minister in Chesterfield was 
Abraham Wood (see Biographical Notices), who 
came from Sudbury, Mass., at the age of about 
twenty-four years, and was ordained pastor of 



the First Congregational Church December 31, 
1772. For half a century JNIr. Wood was the 
sole pastor of this church. Before i\Ir. Wood 
came to Chesterfield, John Eliot preached for 
a while " on probation ; " but, for reasons whic^h 
he did not see fit to make public, he declined an 
invitation to become the settled pastor of the 
Congregational Churcii in this town. After 
Mr. Eliot's declination the town voted (Octo- 
ber 12, 1772) to invite Mr. Wood to I)e their 
pastor, wliich invitation was accepted by him 
in a letter dated November 17, 1772. 

At a special town-meeting held the 7th day 
of the following Decend)er, preparations were 
made for the ordination of Mr. Wood. It was 
voted, — 

"1. That Thursday, the 31st day of the same 
month, sliould be the day on which the ordination 
was to take place. 

" 2. That Elisha Roekwood shoiUd liave £S for pro- 
viding and entertaining with victuals, drink, lodgings 
and horse-keeping the whole of the council of minis- 
ters, delegates and other gentlemen of di.stiuctiou. 

" 3. That the sum of £9 should be raised to defray 
any expenses arising from the ordination. 

" 4. That the town concur with the vote of the 
church, to send invitations to other churches to assist 
in the ordination. 

" 5. That the window-caps of the meeting-house 
should be of straight, solid wood, with cornice on the 
front. 

" 6. That two or three Sabbaths a year should be 
granted to Mr. Wood, to enable him to visit his 
friends, so long as he should be the pastor of the 
church." 

For the first nineteen years of his ministry Mr. 
Wood received an annual salary of sixty-five 
pounds, which sum was raised to eighty pounds 
in 1792. From 1800 to 1822 the average sum 
raised yearly by taxation, for the support of 
preaching, was about two hundred and seventy- 
five dollars. After the latter date no taxes were 
assessed for the support of religious instruction. 
In the year 1800 the names of forty -seven tax- 
payers were recorded in the town records as being 
persons who were meml)ers of the "Universal 
Restoration Society," and consequently ex- 



154 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



eniptecl (by tlie Bill of Rights) from paying min- 
ister rates. lu 1802 the names of thirty-one 
tax-payere were recorded as being members of 
the " Republican Society," and, therefore, " not 
holden by law to pay taxes for the support of 
Congregational ministers." 

ilr. Wood having become, a few months be- 
fore his death, unable to attend to his pastoral 
duties, Rev. John \\'alker was installed as col- 
league pastor April 30, 182;>. Mr. Wood re- 
tained his ministry, however, till he died, Octo- 
ber 18, 1823. During his pastorate three 
hundred and twenty-four pei-sous united with 
the church, either by profej^sion or by letter, 
including those who were members when he 
was ordained. The number of persons bap- 
tized was seven hundred and sixty-five. At 
the date of Mr. Walker's installation as col- 
league pastor the church had one hundred and 
thirteen membci-s, and eight more were admitted 
during the year. 

Besides Rev. Abraham AYood, this church 
has had the following pastors : Rev. John 
Walker, from April 30, 1823, to April 22, 
1829 ; Rev. Elihu Smith, May 23, 1832, to 
December 2, 183-t; Rev. Josiah Ballard, Au- 
gust 5, 1835, till the following spring ; Rev. 
Hosea Beckley, 183G-42 ; Rev. Benjamin E. 
Hale, August 31, 1842, to November 11, 1847 '> 
Rev. Ebenezer Xewhall, July 23, 1852, to July 
2, 1854; Rev. Jeffries Hall. April, 1858, to 
April, 1866; Rev. Albert E. Hall, November, 
1882, to the present time. 

The " Universal Bcstoration Society " was or- 
ganized as early as 1798, and perhaps e;u-lier. 
The annual meetings for the election of officers 
were regularly held tor many years before the 
societv was incorporatetl ; but services seem to 
liave been held only occasionally. In June, 
1818, fifty-five membere of the society peti- 
tioned the Legislature for an act of incorpora- 
tion. The petition was granted, and an act 
passed incorporating Oliver Baker, Stephen 
Streeter and Jonathan Cochran, with their as- 
sociates and successors, into a society- to be i 



known as the " Universal Restoration Societj'." 
Previous to 1830 the Universalists held tlieir 
meetings for worship, for the most part, in 
school-houses and private dwellings ; for the 
town would not vote to allow them the use of 
the meeting-house at the Centre village, for any 
purpose whatever, till 1816, when they were 
permitteil to hold a convention in it. January 
2, 1830, it was voted by the town to grant the 
use of the meeting-house to the Universalists, 
every alternate Sunday, for one year. The 
same year, however, the house now occupied by 
them, at the West village, was built. 

The names of very few of the Universalist 
preachers who preached in Chesterfield before 
1830 are now known. January 2, 1822, it 
was voted by the society to hire Robert Bart- 
lett, of Langdon, to preach on five Sundays 
during the year, provided he could be engaged 
for five dollai-s per Simday. 

In 1823-26 the society appears to have had 
preaching only four Sabbaths each year. 

In April, 1828, arrangements were made to 
engage Rev. TA'illiam S. Balch to preach eveiy 
fourth Sunday during the year ensuing, if he 
could be engaged for eighty dollars. Since 
1830 the Uuivei-salists of Chesterfield have 
usually held services in the meeting-house at 
the West village every alternate Sabbath, em- 
ploying a pastor in connection with societies in 
Winchester, Westmoreland, and Putney, Vt. 
The pastoi-s of the Uuivei-salist Society have 
been, since 1830, as nearly as can be ascertained, 
as follows : 

Rev. Philemon R. Russell, about two years, 
between 1830 and 1835; Rev. Stephen A. 
Barnard (Unitarian), 1835-37 ; Rev. Charles 
Woodhouse, 1838-41 and ag-ain in 1843; Rev. 
AA'illiam X. Barber, for a while between 1841 
and 1843 ; Rev. Josiah Marvin, 1844-45 ; Rev. 
Edwin H. Lake, from about 1851-54 ; Rev. 
Hymen B. Butler, 1854-56 ; Rev. Sullivan H. 
:M'Collester, 1857-62 ; Rev. Oliver G. AYood- 
bury, 1862-70 ; Rev. Joseph Barber, 1871-77 ; 
Rev. Hiram B. [Morgan, 1878-81 ; Rev. Ed- 



CHESTEKFIELD. 



155 



ward Smiley, 1882-84; Rev. Wiufiekl S. Wil- 
liams, 1884-5. 

Baptist Church. — No records of the Baptist 
Church of Chesterfield have been fduiid, but 
it is known that Nathan Worden, a preacher of 
this denomination, settled in the town as early 
as 1787, and in 1819 a society was incorporated 
under tiie name of the " First Baptist Church." 
Several persons of the Baptist persuasion had 
an interest in the church built by the Uuiver- 
salists in 1830, and for a few years held ser- 
vices in it. This society has been extinct for 
many years. 

3Iethodist Episcopal Church. — The organiza- 
tion of the present Metliodist EpiscojKil Society 
of Chesterfield dates from June 18, 1<S42. 

It is said that Jesse Lee visited the town as 
early as 1793, and from that time to the present 
it has been a " pi'eaching-place." In 179G the 
first circuit in New Hampshire was formed, 
called the " Chesterfield Circuit," and which 
had only sixty-eight members. 

The names of but few of the early Methodist 
preachers in this town are now known. 

Rev. Jonathan Nichols, of Thompson, Couii., 
preached here at an early period, and Rev. 
Martin Rutter is said to have preached his first 
sermon in James Robertson's house (now owned 
and occupied by his grandson, Timothy N. 
Robertson). One of the earliest Methodist 
preachers at Factory village is said to have 
been a Rev. Mr. House. 

In 1844 the Metliodists built a meeting- 
house at the Centre village. Before that time 
they worshiped in private houses, school- 
houses and sometimes in the old Congregational 
meeting-house. Since 1839 the pastors of this 
society, as far as ascertained, have been as fol- 
lows : Rev. C. L. McCurdy, 1839-40 ; Rev. 
Alonzo Webster, 1842-43 ; Rev. C. Holman, 
1848; Rev. D. P. Leavitt, 1852; Rev. E. 
Adams, 1853; Rev. J. Hayes, 1854-55 ; Rev. 
A. K. Howard, 1856-57 ; Rev. J. P. Stinch- 
field, 1858-59; Rev. N. Green, 1860; Rev. 
Thomas L. Fowler, 1861-67; Rev. W. H. 



Cummings, 1869 ; Rev. James H. Copp, 1870 ; 
Rev. N. Fisk, 1871; Rev. Andrew L. Ken- 
dall, 1872-75; Rev. Edward P. F. Dearborn, 
1875-77; Rev. John A. Parker, 1877; Rev. 
William W. Le Seur, 1878-81 ; Rev. Julius 
M. Buffum, 1881-82 ; Rev. Thomas L. Fow- 
ler, at the present time. 

A Unitarian ( 'hurch was organized in Ches- 
terfield about 1834, and existed a few years. It 
was composed, in part, of persons who had 
withdrawn from the Congregational Society. 
Rev. Stephen ^\.. Barnard was pastor of this 
church in 1835, '36 and '37, preaching every 
alternate Sunday in the old meeting-house at 
the Centre village. As already stated, he also 
[)reaclied for the Universalists at the West vil- 
lage during the same years. 

The meeting-house at Factorv villaire was 
erected in 1853. It is a " union " house (so- 
called), the expense of building whicii was de- 
I'rayed by tlie sale of pews, which were pur- 
chased by Congregationalists, Methodists and 
Universalists, on condition that each denomina- 
tion represented should have the privilege of 
using the house to a certain extent. For a 
number of years the Methodists have alter- 
nately held their services in this house and in 
tiieir church at the Centre village. 

Maxufactuues. — The manufacture of any 
kind of goods or wares has never been carried 
on very extensively in Chesterfield ; yet consi- 
derable manufacturing has Ijeen done in the 
eastern part of the town, and a less amount in 
the western. In December, 1805, Ebenezer 
Stearns, Closes Smith, Ebenezer Cheney and 
seventeen others were incorporated into a ctmi- 
pany called the Chesterfield Manufactory, for 
the purpose of manufacturing "cotton yarn, 
cloth and woolens." 

At the .lune session of the Legislature in 
1809 an additional act was passed empowering 
the corporation to raise the sum of fifty thou- 
sand dollars, to be employed as should be 
thought proi)er. It appears that the shares 
wore fixed at one hundred dollars each, and that 



156 



HISTOKY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Ebenezer kStearns held, in 1809, teu thousand 
dollars' worth of the stock ; the rest of the 
shareholders, of whom there were about twenty, 
held from five to fifty shares each. 

In 1810 the company erected a factory at 
the village, which has ever since been called 
" Factory Village," or " Chesterfield Factory," 
the latter being the correct po,st-office name. 
This building, which is one hundred feet long 
by thirty feet wide, and two stories high (ex- 
clusive of the basement), was built by Presson 
Farwell for seven hundred dollars. 

For a few years after the factory was built 
cotton yarn is said to have been made in it ; 
then it was closed for a while. In 1821, Cap- 
tain ^Yilliam S. Brooks, who settled in Ches- 
terfield that year, wa.s chosen agent of the cor- 
poration, and began the manufacture of cotton 
shirting. Captain Brooks continued to manage 
the affairs of the corporation, as agent, till 1839, 
when he removed to Brattleborough ; but he re- 
tained his connection with the factory till 
1850. 

The manufacture of shirting was afterwards 
continued in this factory for some time by 
Olney Goif and by Barton Skinner. 

The building was next converted into a 
manufactory of doors, window-sashes and blinds 
by 11. Henry Hopkins and Horace Howe. It 
is used for this purpose at present by George 
L. HamiltdU, who employs ten men. 

About 1820 the manufacture of "patent 
accelei'ating spinning-wheel heads" was begun 
at Factory village by Ezekiel P. Pierce, with 
whom wore associated Asahel Porter and 
George Metcalf. The manufacture of these 
articles has since been conducted at that village 
by Jonathan S. Hopkins, Elliot P. and Samuel 
F. Hopkins, Ezekiel P. Pierce, Jr., Richard 
Hopkins, Jr., Sidney S. Campbell, Benjamin 
Pierce and Frederick B. Pierce. At one time 
duringtheCivilWar Benjamin Pierce employed 
about seventy-five hands in this business. Spin- 
ning-wheel heads were also made at the West 
village for a while, many years ago, by John 



Pierce and his sou Alfred, and by Alanson and 
Alfred Chamberlain. 

In 1834 or 1835 the manufacture of augers, 
bits and gimlets was commenced, near the West 
village, by .Joshua Richardson and Oliver B. 
Huggins, with whom appears to have been as- 
sociated E. P. Pierce, Sr. After a year or 
two they were succeeded by E. P. Pierce, Jr., 
and Charles Cross. Subsequently the business 
was carried on for a while, at the same place, 
by Pierce, Cross and Alonzo Farr. 

In 1836 or 1837 the making of bits, augers, 
etc., was begun at Factory village by Richard- 
son & Huggins. Afterwards the same business 
was carried on by George Goodrich alone, 
and liy him and George Atherton for a few 
veal's. 

About 1853, Benjamin Pierce, who had pre- 
viously been employed by Richardson & Hug- 
gins, commenced the manufacture of bits, etc., 
in the same shop, having jiurchased it of Barton 
Skinner. For many years Mr. Pierce con- 
ducted the business alone, employing a consid- 
erable number of hands, and producing yearly 
a large number of bits, augers and other wood- 
boring tools. In 1870 his son, Frederick B. 
Pierce, began to manufacture the same kind of 
goods for his father (who conducted the sales 
of the same), having previously been in com- 
pany with R. Henry Hopkins for about two years. 

In July, 1882, F. B. Pierce was succeeded 
in this business by the Currier Brothers (Albert 
E. and F. Eugene), who give employment at 
present to twenty-three men. Their total pro- 
duction amounts to about one hundred and 
fifty thousand pieces per annum. 

F. B. Pierce is pretty extensively engaged in 
the manufacture of brush-handles at Factory 
village, employing at present about thirty 
hands. At the ^^^est village Olin R. Farr 
makes tables, and prepares stuff for boxes, 
brush-handles, etc. Other articles that have 
been made in Chesterfield, many years ago, 
but not to any great extent, are gunpowder, 
scythes, hoes, pegs, etc. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



157 



Charles S. Kendall made pegs a few years in 
the building in which E. P. Pierce, Jr., for- 
merly manufactured spinning-wheel heads, and 
which has been used since ISGGby Ira P. Bux- 
ton for the manufacture of pail-staves, shin- 
gles, etc. 

In 1863, Rev. T. L. Fowler purchased the 
building at Factory village which had for- 
merly been used many years by Joshua Graves 
for a blacksmith's shop, and fitted it up for the 
manufacture of clothes-pins, and used it for this 
purpose until November, 18G8, when he con- 
verted it into a saw-mill. 

In 1874, Mr. Fowler sold the mill to his son, 
Herschel J. Fowler, who engaged in the manu- 
facture of pail-staves. The latter afterwards 
erected a two-story building close to the old 
one, in which he manufactured packing-boxes. 
This building is now used by B. F. Pierce in 
the manufacture of paint and varnish brush 
handles. 

About 1815 (probably), David and William 
Arnold engaged in tanning hides at the Centre 
village. 

About 1817 their tannery was bought by 
Moses Dudley, who continued the business till 
about 1851. 

About 18."52 Lloyd Stearns and David 
Arnold began the same business in the present 
tanner}' building at Factory village. Stearns 
removed to Illinois al>out 18.i5, when the busi- 
ness was continued by Arnold, at first associated 
with Nathaniel Walton for a few years, and 
then alone. From 1844 to 1865 this tannery 
\vas owned by Sumner Warren, now of Keene, 
who carried on a pretty extensive business. 

The business w:is afterwards continued for a 
while by Earl Warren, of Westmoreland. 

At present there is no tannery in operation in 
Chesterfield. 

There are now only three grist-mills in the 
town, — Bradford C. Farr's, at Factory village, 
Prusha W. Strong's and Warren W. Farr's, at 
the West village. 

The laro-est saw-mill in Chesterfield was built 



by the Steam Mill Company, at the former vil- 
lage, in 1872. In 1878 this mill was burned, 
but was rebuilt the same year by James H. & 
George Goodrich. It has an engine of forty- 
five horse-power, and is now owned and run by 
James H. Goodrich. The Butlers' steam saw- 
mill is located on the upper part of Catsbane 
Brook ; O. R. Farr's and W. W. F;u-r's saw- 
mills are at the West village. 

Taverns and Hotels. — The earliest tav- 
erns were merely private houses situated near 
the principal highways, and whose owners 
availed themselves of the opportunity to add to 
the income derived from their farms by provid- 
ing food and lodging for hungry and weary 
travelers, and an abundance of sj)irituous and 
fermented drinks for the thirsty. 

After a while a law was passed compelling 
tavern-keepers and retailers of sjiirituous liquors 
to obtain a license from the selectmen. The 
first recorded licenses for this purpose were 
granted in 1792, in which year four persons were 
licensed as taverners and one to sell spirituous 
liquors. It is not at all probable, however, that 
one person enjoyed a monopoly of the trade in 
strong di-ink that year. 

In 1793 there were only two licensed tavern- 
ers, while five persons were licensed to retail 
spirits; and in 1794 the number of tavern-keep- 
ers was three, the number of retailers of spirits 
remaining the .same. In 1800 there were seven 
licensed tavern-keepers and only two licensed 
retailers of liquors. 

Among the etirliest tavern-keepers were Oli- 
ver Cobleigh, Nathaniel Stone, Andrew Hast- 
ings, Abraham Stearns, Nathaniel Bingham and 
Ebenezer Harvey, Sr. 

Ebeuezer Harvey's tavern stood on the site 
of the late Parker D. Cressey's residence at the 
Centre village, and was probably one of the old- 
est taverns in the town. 

In 1801, Levi Mead came to Chesterfield, 
from Lexington, Mass., and lived in the house 
now occupied by Roswell Butler, at the Centre 
village, which he kept as a tavern. In LSI 6 



158 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



he built at the same village what was known 
for many years as the Mead tavern, and \\liicli 
is now called the Chesterfield Hotel. Siure his 
death, in 1828, this tavern has had several dif- 
ferent owners, among them his sons, Bradley 
and Elias. From 1860 to 1868 it was owned 
and kept by Parker D. C'ressey, and since 1876 
it has been owned by Lucius Thatcher. 

The jiresent hotel at Factory village, known 
as the Sjiaffbrd House, was built in 1807 by 
Elnathan Gorham for a dwelling-house. It 
was first used as a tavern by Pressou Farwell. 
Afterwards it was owned and kept many yeiirs 
by Samuel Burt, who, in 1867, sold it to San- 
ford Guernsey. In 1880, it was purchased of 
Mr. Guernsey by ^Valtcr J. Wheeler. Its 
present proprietor is Alfred L. Proctor. 

In 1831, Ezekiel P. Pierce, Sr., built a large 
stone house on the old Pierce homestead, near 
the lake, which he kept as a tavern several yeai's. 

The tavern which Amos Smith kept near the 
river, in the northwestern (piartcr of the town, 
and which was afterwards kept by his son, 
George Smith, was frequented by boatmen and 
raftsmen in the days when merchandise was 
transported up and down the river by means of 
boats, and logs were conducted down in rafts. 
The same is true of the old Snow tavern, after- 
wards the town poor-house. 

The Pros2:)ect House, situated on an eminence 
near the southern shore of Spafford's Lake, of 
which it commands a fine view, was built in 
1873 by the late John W. Herrick, of Keene. 
Since its erection it has been enlarged aud other- 
wise improved. This hotel is kejit open only 
during the summer, and is now owned by Hon. 
Charles A. Rapallo, of New York City, one of 
the judges of the Court of Apj^eals for the State 
of New York. It has been managed, since 
1879, by A. R. Mason, of Keene. 

Post-Offices. — The post-office at the Centre 
village (Chesterfield) was established ^Vugust 1 2, 
1802. 

The following persons have been postmasters 
at this village : 



Ebenezer Harvey, commiasioned August 12, 1802. 

Asa Britton, commissioned November 10, 1810. 

Daniel Waldo, commissioned December 30, 1830. 

Warliam R. Platts, commissioned October 4, 1833. 

Nelson W. Herrick, commissioned August 6, 1841. 

Warham R. Platts, commissioned September 11, 
1843. 

Charles J. Amidon, commissioned May 29, 1849. 

Henry 0. Coolidge, commissioned April 2, 1851. 

Warham R. Platts, commissioned May 20, 1853. 

Henry O. Coolidge, commissioned August 10, 1861. 

James M. Herrick, commissioned February 27, 
1867. 

Romanzo C. Cressey, commissioned April 9, 1868. 

Murray Davis, commissioned October 24, 1873. 

James H. Goodrich (2d), commissioned October 0, 
1875. 

Sevvall F. Rugg, commissioned August 5, 1881.. 

The post-office at Factory village (Chester- 
field Factory) was established January 12, 1828. 

The postmasters at this village have been as 
follows : 

George S. Root, commissioned January 12, 1828. 

Horatio N. Chandler, commissioned December 14, 
1835. 

Samuel Burt, Jr., commissioned July 28, 1838. 

Bela Chase, commissioned August 6, 1841. 

Samuel Burt, commissioned December 30, 1844. 

David W. Beckley, commissioned April 26, 1850. 

Samuel Burt, commissioned September 11, 1854. 

David W. Beckley, commissioned July 20, 1861. 

James C. Farwell, commissioned January 15, 1866. 

The post-office at the West village (West 
Chesterfield) was established April 17, 1866, at 
which time James H. Ford was commissioned 
postmaster. He held the office till November, 
1870. Since December 19, 1870, Emory H. 
Colburn has been postmaster at this village. 

Physicians. — The following are the names 
of some of the physicians who have practiced 
their profession in Chesterfield for longer or 
shorter periods: Dr. Elkanah Day, 1767 (or 

eai'lier) till ; Dr. Moses Ellis, before 1787 

Dr. Samuel King, 1785 (or earlier) till 

Dr. Solomon Harvey, about 1775-1821 (or 

later) ; Dr. Barnard, about 1779 ; Dr 

Joshua Tyler, from between 1776 aud 1781 
till 1807; Dr. Oliver Atherton, from about 1787 
till 1812; Dr. Prescott Hall, about 1806; Dr. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



159 



James R. Grow, about 1812 ; Dr. Oliver Baker, 
1809-40; Dr. George Farrington, 1814-1(3; 

Dr. Joshua Converse, to 1833 ; Dr. Jason 

Farr, several years previous to 1825 ; Dr. Jerry 
Lyons, 1814-25; Dr. Philip Hall, a number 
of years previous to 1828 ; Dr. Harvey Car- 
penter, 1827 or 1828 till 1852; Dr. John P. 
Warren, 1842-44; Dr. Algernon Sidney Car- 
penter, 1841 ; Dr. John (). French, abtmt ten 
years, from 1844 or 1845 ; Dr. John F. But- 
ler, 1854 to the present time; Dr. Daniel F. 
Randall, 1855 to the present time ; Dr. Willie 
G. Cain, August, 1884, to the ])resent time. 

Dr. George Farrington died in Chesterfield 
July 29, 1816, aged forty-seven years. The fol- 
lowing epitaph is inscribed on his gravestone 
in the old town burying-ground at the Centre 
village : 

" Here lies beneath this monument 

The dear remains of one who spent 
His days and years in doing good ; 

Gave ease to those oppress'd with pain ; 

Restor'd the sick to Health again, 
And pnrifl'd their wasting blood. 

He was respected while on Earth 

By all who knew his real worth 
lu practice and superior skill. 

The means he us'd were truly blest — 

His wondrous cures do well attest. 
Who can his vacant mansion fill ? 

Borne on some shining cherub's wing 

To his grand master, God and King, 
To the grand lodge in Heaven above, 

Where angels smile to see him join 

His brethren in that lodge Divine, 
Where all is harmony and love." 
Dr. John F. Butler is the son of Jonathan and 
Martha (Russell) Butler, of Marlow, and was born 
June 14, 1831 ; graduated at the Harvard Med- 
ical School March, 1854, and came to Chester- 
field the next April. lu the spring of 1864 he 
joined the Thirty-ninth Regiment Massachusetts 
Volunteers as assistant surgeon, and served till 
the war closed, when he returned to Chesterfield. 
He married, in 1857, Julia, daughter of Rev. 
Silas Quimby, of Lebanon, and who died August 
19, 1861. In 1863 he married Celia A., daugh- 
ter of John L. Brewster, of Lowell, Mass. 



Dr. Daniel F. Randall has resided in Ches- 
terfield since 1855, engaged in the practice of 
his profession. He was born May 24, 1829, 
and is the sou of Menzias R. Randall, M.D., a 
veteran physician of Rehoboth, i\Iass. He 
graduated at the medical school in Woodstock, 
Vt., in 1852, and settled in this town in 1855, 
where he has ever since resided. He married 
Miss Amelia C. French, of Berkley, Mass. 

Lawyers. — Hon. Phineas Handci-son was 
probal)ly the first lawyer who practiced his pro- 
fession in Chesterfield. His (iffice was at the 
Centre village, where he resided from 1805 or 
1806 till 1833, when he removed to Keene. (See 
Biographical Notices.) 

Hou. Larkin G. Mead, who read law with 
j\Ir. Handersou, also practiced in this town till 
1839, \Ahen he removed to Brattleborough, Vt. 
(See Biographical Notices.) 

Charles C. Webster, Es(i., late of Keene, 
practiced law in Chesterfield from July, 1839, 
to January, 1846. 

Hon. Harvey Carlton, now <<{ AA'incliester, 
engaged in the practice of law in this town 
from 1841 to 1854. 

Allen P. Dudley, Es(p, now of San Fran- 
cisco, Cal., practiced law in Chesterfield a while 
previous to 1855, about whit'h time he removed 
to California. 

William L. Dudley, Es(j., connnenced the 
practice of law in this town in 1846, but re- 
moved to California in 1.S49, and resides at 
present in Stockton, engaged in the practice of 
his profession. 

Spaffoed's Lake as a Su.m.mer Resort. — 
A In-ief descrijition of Spafford's Lake has been 
given in another place. Though it had been 
for many years a favorite resort for local fisher- 
men and the students of the academy, and had 
occasionally been visitetl by pleasure-seekers 
from abroad, it was not till within the past 
twelve years that any measures were taken to 
establish a hotel, boat-house, cottages, etc., for 
the accommodation of persons who desire to with- 
draw from the noise and tumult of the "mad- 



160 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ding crowd," and spend a few weeks in the 
quietness of the country. 
It is true that 

" Old Captain Bulky, 'a sailor by trade. 
Who round the world many voyages had made," 

had a sail-boat on this lal'Ce many years ago ; as 
did afterwards Ezekiel P. Pierce, Sr., whose 
l)oat, sometimes manned hy an experienced sea- 
man, was used more or less by sailing-parties 
for several years. Pierce's Island, too, has been 
for a long time a resort for students and others 
who desire to enjoy camp-life for a few days at 
a time. Nevertheless, as stated above, it wai< 
not till within the past twelve years that people 
have resorted to the lake in large numbers 
(excepting, perhaps, a few instances) for recrea- 
tion and diversion, and for the holding of 
religious, and even political meetings. 

In 1873 the Prospect House, as mentioned 
in another place, was built by John W. Herrick, 
of Keeue, and was designed for the accommoda- 
tion of persons who might come to the lake 
seeking health or pleasure. 

The boat-house, on the southern shore of the 
lake, was finished in 1875. Near it are a skat- 
ing-rink, dining-hall, lodging-house, etc., now 
managed by Frank H. Farr, as is also the boat- 
house. 

On the southern and western shores are pretty 
extensive picnic-grounds. On the one west of 
the lake I^ucius Thatcher has a large stable for 
horses, a lodging-house, restaurant and skating- 
rink. 

A number of individuals have also erected 
private cottages near the lake, which are occu- 
pied most of the time during the hot season. 

The little steamer " Enterpri.se," the con- 
struction t)f which was mainly due to the efforts 
of John W. White, was finished in 1876. 
" Her model was drafted by D. J. Lawlor, of 
East Boston, Mass. Her length is 40 feet, 
breadth of beam 15 feet, depth of hold 4 feet. 



1 "Captain Bulky" was the sobriquet of Captain . 

who is said to have put the first sail-boat on the lake. 



draft 28 inches, diameter of propeller-wheel 32 
inches. Her engine is of 8 horse-power, boiler 
of 12 horse-power. Her carrying capacity is 
about 125 persons, though upon occasion as 
many as 150 have been on board at a single 
trip." 

No serious accident has occurred on or about 
the lake since it has become popidar as a resort, 
except the drowning of the musicians Conly 
and Eeitzel. 

In the afternoon of Friday, the 2Gth day of 
May, 1882, George A. Conly, basso, and Her- 
man Reitzel, pianist, of Clara Loui.se Kellogg's 
concert company, were drowned in the lake 
while rowing for pleasure. These gentlemen, 
with others, came over from Brattleborough, 
where the company had an engagement to give a 
concert in the evening of the next day. Having 
procured a boat at F. H. Farr's boat-house, 
Conly and Reitzel started out, leaving the rest 
of the party on land, and were last seen by the 
latter off the northern point of the island. Not 
having returned at the proper tinje, fears were 
entertained for their safety, as a strong southerly 
wind was blowing, and the waves were running 
j)retty high. Search \\'as conscipiently made 
for them, and their boat found bottom upwards ; 
but not till the next day was unmistakable evi- 
dence obtained that they had l)een drowned. 
Vigorous efforts were then made to recover the 
bodies of the unfortunate men, by dredging, liy 
firing a cannon, by exploding dynamite car- 
tridges in the lake anil by the employment of 
various other devices. 

The bodies were not found, however, till they 
rose, Reitzel's being discovered floating ^^\■d- 
nesday forenoon, the 7th day of the follow- 
ino- June, and Conly's Wednesday morning, the 
14th day of the same month. The latter was 
without coat or shoes, and had evidently made 
a desperate effort to save his own and, perhaps, 
his companion's life. The place of the disaster 
seems to have been about sixty rods northeast 
of the northern point of the island. 

Mr. Conly was a native of Southwark, now 



CHESTERFIELD. 



161 



part of Philadelpliia, and was thirty-seven 
years old ; Mr. Keitzel was a native of New 
York, and was only nineteen years old. 

A(;ed Persons. — The following is proba- 
bly an incomplete list of the persons who have 
died in Chesterfield at an age of ninety years or 
more : 

Mrs. Mary Hamilton, December 10, 1842, aged 
ninety. 

Mrs. Lydia Clieiiey, April 4, 1S")9, aged ninety. 

Mrs. Orpha Pre.sho, April 17, 185(j, aged ninety. 

Thomas Dunham, March 20, 1870, aged ninety. 

Mrs. Sarah Johnson, December 31, 1837, aged 
ninety. 

Mrs. Sally Hinds, August 24, 1864, aged ninety. 

Asa Fullam, December 14, 1870, aged ninety. 

Mrs. Persis Dudley, January 13, 1885, aged ninety. 

Mrs. Judith Tyler, August 11, 1854, aged ninety- 
one. 

Elisha Rockwood, February 13, 1832, aged ninety- 
one. 

Mrs. Betsey Smith, January 26, 1863, aged ninety- 
one. 

Mrs. Sophia Day, Xovemberll, 1883, aged ninety- 
one. 

Mrs. Grata Thomas, August 5, 1884, aged ninety- 
one. 

Samuel Hamilton, October 19, 1878, aged ninety- 
one. 

Jonathan Cressy, April 2(>, 1824, aged ninety- 
one. 

Mrs. Polly Spaulding, February 22, 1885, aged 
ninety-one (very nearly). 

Mrs. Mary Putnam, January 30, 1830, aged ninety- 
two. 

Stephen Sireeter, Sr., March 11, 1845, aged ninety- 
two. 

William Clark, Sr., February 19, 1849, aged ninety- 
two. 

Amos Crouch, August 18, 1861, aged ninety-two. 

Mrs. Submit Sanderson, June 27, 1822, aged ninety- 
three. 

Ebenezer Robertson, April 22, 1882, aged ninety- 
four. 

Nathaniel Bacon, September 10, 1828, aged ninety- 
five. 

Mrs. Mary Titus, May 7, 1845, aged ninety-five. 

Mrs. Clarissa Norcross, May 30, 1877, aged ninety- 
five. 

Mrs. Rachel Jackson, March 12, 1836, aged ninety- 
six. 

Timothy Ladd, August 30, 1834, aged ninety-six. 
11 



John Butler, Septemlicr 10, 1883, aged ninety- 
seven. 

Mrs. Esther Faulkner, November 29, 1876, aged 
one hundred and one years, one month, seven days. 

Mrs. Sarah Draper, December 19, 1863, aged one 
hundred and one years, live months, sixteen days. 

Mrs. Hannah Bailey, November, 1822, aged one hun- 
dred and lour years, three months. 

The olde.'^t per.son now living in the town is 
Mrs. Sophronia (Manu) Pierce, burn in Smith- 
field, R. I., June 14, 178.5. 

Civil List. — 

TOWN CLEElvS OF CHESTERFIELD (1770-1885). 

Ephraim Baldwin, 1770 to 1784. 

Jacob .\niidon, 1785 to 1799. 

Solomon Harvey, ISOO to 1817. 

Abraham Wood, Jr., 1818 to 1833. 

George H. Fitch, 1834 to 1835. 

Oscar Coolidge, 1836 to 1838. 

Nelson W. Herrick, 1839 to ls42. 

Warham R. Platts, 1843 to 1844. 

Sumner Warren, 1845. 

Harvey Carpenter, 1846 to 1848. 

John 0. French, 1849 to 1852. 

Henry O. Coolidge, 1853. 

Arza K. Clark, 1854. 

Henry O. Coolidge, 1855 to 1867. 

Hermon C. Harvey, 1868. 

Henry O. Coolidge, 1869. 

Hermon C. Harvey, 1870 to 1873. 

Murray Davis, 1874 to 1875. 

Edward P. F. Dearborn, 1876. 

Hermon C. Harvey, 1877 to 1882. 

James H. Goodrich (2d), 1883 to the present time. 

SELECTMEN OF CHESTEEFIELD (1767-1885). 

1767. — Simon Davis, John Snow, Jonathan Hil- 
dreth, Eleazer Cobleigh, Ebenezer Davison. 

1708-69.— No record. 

1770. — Jonathan Hildreth, Silas Thompson, Elka- 
nah Day, Thomas Emmous, Nathaniel Bingham. 

1771. — Moses Smith, David Stoddard, Timothy 
Ladd. 

1772. — Same as in 1771. 

1773. — Zerubbabel Snow, Ephraim Baldwin, Mar- 
tin Warner. 

1774. — Same as in 1773. 

1775. — Nathaniel Bingham, Ephraim Hubbard, 
Stephen Carter, Mose.s Smith, Jr., John Davison. 

1770. — Ephraim Baldwin, Michael Cressey, Sam- 
uel Hildreth, Moses Smith, ,Tr., Ephraim Hubbard. 



162 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1777. — Samuel Fairbanks, Elisha Rockwood, James 
Robertson, Nathaniel Bingham, Jonathan Fair (2d). 

1778. — Samuel Hildreth, Moses Smith, Abner 
Johnson, Kimball Carlton, Jacob Hinds. 

1779.— Jonathan Hildreth, Oliver Cobleigh, War- 
ren Snow. 

1780. — Michael Cressey, Elisha Rockwood, Andrew 
Hastings. 

1781. — Moses Smith, .Ir., Abner Johnson, Samuel 
King [Jr.]. 

1782. — Samuel King [Jr.], .Jonas Fairbanks, Ab- 
ner Johnson, Moses Smith, Eleazer Jackson. 

1783. — Ebenezer Harvey, Eleazer Ponieroy, Elea- 
zer Jackson, Captain Davis, Lieutenant 

Fletcher. 

1784. — Benjamin Haskell, Pelcr Stone, Amos Hub- 
bard. 

1785. — Paul Eager, Jacob Aniidoii, Reuben Graves. 

1786.— Martin Warner, William Hildreth, ICzra 
Day. 

1787. — Eleazer Jackson, Michael Cressey, Benja- 
min Haskell. 

1788. — Eleazer Jackson, Benjamin Haskell, Silas 
Richardson. 

1789. — Moses Smith, Abner Joluison, Solomon 
Harvey. 

1790.— Same as in 1789. 

1791.— Same as in 1789. 

1792. — Solomon Harvey, John Braley, .Tames 
Wheeler. 

1793.— Eleazer Jackson, Peter Stone, Silas Rich- 
ardson. 

1794. — Same as in 1793. 

1795. — Eleazer Jackson, Silas Richardson, Asahel 
Shurtleff. 

1796. — Eleazer Jackson, Silas Richardson, David 
Stoddard. 

1797. — Michael Cressey, .lacob .Vniidnii, Abraham 
Stearns. 

1798. — Joseph .Vthei'ton, Benjamin Haskell, Oliver 
Browu. 

1799.— Same as in 1798. 

1800. — Eleazer Jackson, James Wheeler, Asahel 
Shurtleft". 

1801.— James Wheeler, Asahel Shurtleir, Joseph 
Pattridge. 

1802. — Martin Pomeroy, Jose()h Pattridge, John 
Day. 

1803. — Joseph Pattridge, John Day, Ebenezer Har- 
vey. 

1804. — ,lohn Day, Ebenezer Harvey, Jr., Wilkes 
Richardson. 

1805.— Same as in 1804. 



1806. — John Kneeland, Abraham Stearns, Josiah 
Hastings, Jr. 

1807.— Same as in 1806. 

1808. — ^John Kneeland, John Putnam, Araasa 
Makepeace. 

1809. — John Putnam, Joseph Atherton, Benjamin 
Cook. 

1810. — John Kneeland, Amasa Makepeace, Josiah 
Hastings. 

1811. — Joseph Atherton, Oliver Brown, Phineas 
Handerson. 

1812. — John Kneeland, Oliver Brown, Levi Jack- 
son. 

1813.— Same as in 1812. 

1814.— Same as in 1812. 

1815. — .John Kneeland, Hlijali Scott, Asa Fullam. 

1816. — John Kneeland, Joseph Pattridge, Elijah 
Scott. 

1817. — .Joseph l^attridge, Benjamin Cook, ,Tohn 
Day. 

1818. — Benjamin Cook, John Day, Robert L. Hurd. 

1819.— .Same as in 1818. 

1820. — John Kneeland, .lohn I'ntiiiim, Robert L. 
Hurd. 

1821. — ,)olin Kneeland, .Idhn Putnam, Nathan 
Wild. 

1822.— John Kneeland, Nathan Wild, Nathaniel 
Walton. 

1823.— Same as in 1822. 

1824.— Same as in 1822. 

1825.— Same as in 1822. 

1826. — John Kneeland, John Putnam, Orlo Rich- 
ardson. 

1827. — Orlo Richardson, Ezekiel P. Pierce, Na- 
thaniel Walton. 

1828. — Orlo Richardson, Otis Aniidon, Xathaniel 
Walton. 

1829.— Nathaniel Wallcm, Otis Aniidon, Abishai 
Wetherbee. 

1830. — Otis Aniidon, Abishai Wetherbee, John 
Harris. 

1831. — John Harris, Otis Amidon, Joseph Holden. 

1832. — Joseph Holden, Moses Dudley, ,lohn Har- 
ris. 

1833.— Moses Dudley, .Joseph Holden, Charles Con- 
verse. 

1834. — Nathaniel Walton, Charles Ckmverse, Orlo 
Richardson. 

1835. — Orlo Ridiardsoii, Charles Converse, Moses 
Dudley. 

1836. — Ezra Titus, Asa Marsh, Samuel tioodricli. 

1837. — Samuel (ioodrich. Chandler A. Cressey, Al- 
pheus Snow. 



CHESTERFIELD. 



163 



1838.— Ara Hamilton, Chandler A. Cressey, Al- 
pheus Snow. 

1839. — Alpheus iSnow, Reulien Marsh, Ara Hamil- 
ton. 

1840. — Ara Hamilton, Oscar Coolidse, Mark Cook. 
1841.— Same as in 1840. 

1842. — Sam'l Goodrich, Reuben Marsh, N. Walton. 
1843. — Ara Hamilton, Reuben Marsh, Nathaniel 
Walton. 

1844. — Nathaniel Walton, Reuben Marsh, Samuel 
Burt, Jr. 

1845 — Ara Hamilton, Al]ihens Snow, Parker D. 
Cressey. 

1846.— Nathaniel Walton, Parker D. Cressey, Jo- 
seph C. Goodrich. 

1847. — Ezra Titus, Parker T>. Cressey, Richard 
Hopkins, .Tr. 

1848. — Samuel Burt, Jr., Warham R. Platts, Otis 
Wheeler. 

184!). — Alpheus Snow, Moses Dudley, A rad Fletcher. 
1850. — Chandler A. Cressey, Oscar Coolidge, Ben- 
jamin Pierce. 

1851.— Warham R. Platts, John M. Richardson, 
Sumner Albee. 

1852. — Joseph C. Goodrich, Arza K. ('lark, George 
Chamberlain. 

1853. — Arza K. Clark, Alpheus Snow, .Joseph C. 
Goodrich. 

1854. — James H. Goodrich, Reuben Porter, Asa 
Smith. 

1855.— Ebenezer P. Wetherell, OIney Goff, Ransom 
Farr. 

1856. — ,\rad Fletcher, .Fohn Heywood, John M. 
Richardson. 

1857. — Same as in 1856. 

1858.— Arad Fletcher, l^ichard H. Hopkins, Wil- 
liam Clark. 

1859.— Same as in 1858. 

I860.— Rodney Fletcher, Henry O. Coolidge, Tru- 
man A. Stoddard. 

1861.— Same as in 18G0. 

1862.— Rodney Fletcher, Charles C. P. Goodrich, 
George Goodrich. 

1863.— David W. Beckley, Arza K. Clark, Charles 
C. P. Goodrich. 

1864.— Same as in 1863. 

1865. — David W. Beckley, Henry O. Coolidge, Levi 
L. Colburn. 
1866.— Same as in 1865. 

1867.— Henry O. Coolidge, Eli R. Wellington, 
Frederick L. Stone. 

1868. — Samuel J. Pattridge, George Goodrich, John 
W. Davis. 



1869. — George Goodrich, John W. Davis, James 
H. Goodrich. 

1870. — James H. Goodrich, John B. Fisk, Murray 
Davis. 

1S71 — < ieorge Goodrich, .lames H. Goodrich, Mur- 
ray Davis. 

1872. — Murray Davis, James H. Goodrich, Amos 
R. Hubbard. 

1873. — Murray Davis, .\mo8 R. Hubbard. George 
S. Fletcher. 

1874. — James H. (ioodrich (2d), George S. Fletcher, 
John W. Davis. 

1.S75. — .lames H. Goodrich (2d), John L. Streeter, 
George S. Fletcher. 

1876.— John L. Streeter, Amos R. Hubbard. Wil- 
liam Atherton. 

1877. — William .\therton, John L. Streeter, George 
Goodrich. 

1878. — William Atherton, .Murray Davis, George 
Goodrich. 

1879. — Murray Davis, George Goodrich, David 
Holman. 

1S80.— Same as in 1879. 

1881. — Jlurray Davis, Larkin D. Farr, David Hol- 
man. 

1882.— Same as in 1881. 

1883.— Same as in 1881. 

1884.— Larkin D. Farr, Hazelton Rice, David Hol- 
man. 

1885.— Larkin D. Farr, Warren H. Butler, William 
Atherton. 



REPRESENTATIVES OF 
GENERAL COU 

1775. Archb. Robertson. 

1776. Michael Cressey. 

1777. Michael Cressey. 

1778. Michael Cressey. 

1779. Nath. Bingham. 

1780. None chosen. 

1781. No representative 
in the New Hampshire 
Legislature, but Saml. 
King, Jr., and Silas 
Thompson represented 
the town in the Ver- 
mont Assembly. 

1782. Samuel Kingf.lr.]. 

1783. Samuel King [Jr.]. 

1784. Samuel King [Jr.]. 

1785. Ebenezer Harvey. 

1786. Moses Smith. 

1787. Moses Smith. 

1788. Moses Smith. 

1789. Benjamin Haskell. 



CHESTERFIELD IN THE 

RT (1775-1885). 

1790. Moses Smith. 

1791. Moses Smith. 

1792. Eleazer Jackson. 

1793. Eleazer .Jackson. 

1794. Simon Willard. 

1795. Simon Willard. 

1796. Simon Willard. 

1797. Eleazer Jackson. 

1798. Simon Willard. 

1799. Benjamin Haskell. 

1800. Benjamin Ha.skell. 

1801. Simon Willard. 

1802. Simon Willard. 

1803. Simon Willard. 

1804. Simon Willard. 

1805. Simon AVillard. 

1806. Simon Willard. 

1807. Simon ^Villard. 

1808. Levi Jackson. 

1809. Levi Jackson. 

1810. Levi Jackson. 



164 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1811. Levi Jackson. 

1812. Phin. Handersou. 

1813. Phin. Hauderson. 

1814. Benjamin Cook. 

1815. Benjamin Cook. 
Phin. Handerson. 

181G. Benjamin Cook. 
John Putnam. 

1817. John Putnam. 
Joseph Atherton. 

1818. John Putnam. 
.Tohn Kneelaud. 

1819. John Kneeland. 
Benjamin Cook. 

1820. John Kneeland. 

1821. Levi Jackson. 

1822. .John Kneeland. 
1828. Ebenezer Stearns. 

1824. Ebenezer Stearns. 

1825. John Kneeland. 

1826. John Putnam. 

1827. Ezekiel P. Pierce. 

1828. Orlo Richardson. 

1829. Orlo Richardson. 

1830. None chosen. 

1831. Nathan Wild. 

1832. Nathan Wild. 

1833. Otis Amidon. 

1834. Otis Amidon. 

1835. Otis Amidon. 

1836. Charles Converse. 

1837. Charles Converse. 

1838. Otis Amidon. 

1839. Thomas Hardy. 

1840. Oscar Coolidge. 
Ara Hamilton. 

1841. Oscar Coolidge. 
Ara Hamilton. 

1842. Jay Jackson. 
Edwin Sargent. 

1843. Ara Hamilton. 

1844. Jay Jackson. 
Nathaniel Walton. 



1845. Ara Hamilton. 

John Pierce. 

1846. Nathaniel Walton. 
Saml. J. Pattridge. 

1847. None chosen. 

1848. Harvey Carpenter. 

1849. Alpheus Snow, 
.lohn Harris. 

1850. John Harris. 
David Hay. 

1851. David Day. 

1852. Harvey Carlton. 
Saml. J. Pattridge. 

1853. Jos. C. Goodrich. 

1854. Jos. C. Goodrich. 

1855. Ara Hamilton. 

1856. Otis Amidon. 

1857. Barton Skinner. 

1858. Barton Skinner. 

1859. Arad Fletcher. 

1860. Arad Fletcher. 

1861. J. M. Richardson. 

1862. J. M. Richardson. 

1863. C. C. P. Goodrich. 

1864. C. C. P. Goodrich. 

1865. Rich. H. Hopkins. 

1866. Rich. H. Hopkins. 

1867. Henry 0. Coolidge. 

1868. Jas. H. Goodrich. 

1869. Jas. H. Goodrich. 

1870. Warren Bingham. 

1871. George Goodrich. 

1872. C. C. P. Goodrich. 

1873. Gordis D. Harris. 

1874. John F. Butler. 

1875. John F. Butler. 

1876. John Harris. 

1877. John Harris. 

1878. Oran E. Randall. 

1879. Oran E. Randall. 
1881. Murray Davis. 
1883. John L. Streeter. 
1885. W. A. Pattridge. 



DELEGATE.? FROM CHESTERFIELD TO THE fONVEN- 
TIONS FOE REVISING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
STATE. 

In 1791, Eleazer Jackson ; in 1850, Ara Hamilton 
and Moses Dudley ; in 1876, Jay Jackson. 

Dr. Solomon Harvey was the delegate from Ches- 
terfield to the convention that ado[)ted the Federal 
Constitution in 1788. 

SITI'ERVISOKS OF THE CHECK-LIST. 

Eleazer Randall, James H. Goodrich, Russell H. 
Davis, chosen November, 1878. 

John L. Streeter, Richard A. Webber, William 
Atherton, chosen November, 1880. 



Rodney Fletcher, John L. Streeter, Richard A. 

Webber, chosen November, 1882. 

Charles C. P. Goodrich, Amos R. Hubbard, Her- 
schel J. Fowler, chosen November, 1884. 

MEMBERS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATE FROM 
CHESTERFIELD. 

Levi Jackson, 1812, '13, '14, '15. 
Phineas Handerson, 1816, '17, '25, '31, '32. 
Nathan Wild, 1833, '34. 
Murray Davis, 1885. 

Levi Jackson was also a member of the Council in 
1816, '17. 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

Jacob Amidon, born in Mciidon, Mass., in 
ITi")."^ or 1754, was in college at the time of" the 
comnieneement of the Revohition, bnt soon en- 
listed in the patriot army, and .served during the 
most of the war, with the exception of tvventv- 
eight mouths, during which time he was detained 
a prisoner on a British prison-ship. 

December 23, 1782, he purchased in Chester- 
field a portion of lot No. 5, in the eighth range, 
and probably settled in the to\\n soon after- 
wards. He resided near the Centre village, on 
the farm afterwards owned and occupied many 
years by his son Otis, and built the house now 
owned by the Methodist Society of Chesterfield, 
and used as a parsonage. He probably engaged 
in trade for a while after coming to Chesterfield, 
as he was styled, in the deed of the land he had 
purchased in this town, a " trader." In 17.S5 
he was chosen clerk of the town, and held the 
office, by successive electious, till ISOO. He 
was also selectman in 1785 and 1797. 

His wife was Esther, daughter of Timothy 
Ladd. She died March 26, 1852, in her 
ninetieth year. He died Feln-uary 11, 1839, 
aged eighty-five years. 

Otis Amidox, son of Jaci)b Amidon, born 
April 26, 1 794, settled in Chesterfield, after his 
marriage, on the old homestead, and continued 
to reside here as long as he lived, engaging to 
some extent in agriculture, and, for a while, in 
trade at the Centre village. For many years 
he took a prominent part in the affairs of the 



CHESTERFIELD. 



165 



town and cluircli, serving the former in the 
capacity of selectman in 1828, '29, '?,() and '31, 
and representing it in tiie (xeneral Court in 
1833, '34, '35, '38 and '.">(!. For a long time, 
also, he held the otHce of justice of tlie peace, 
the duties of which he was well ipialified to 
perform, and was one of the veteran " 'Scpiires " 
of the town. 

He married, in 182o, Nancy, daugiiter of 
Benjamin (^)oi^, and had only one son that 
lived to adult age — Hon. ( 'harles J. Amidon, 
now of Hinsdale. He died July 22, 18()6. 

Joseph Atherton, sonof Oliver Atherton, of 
Harvard, Mass., and a descendant of James 
Atherton, of Milton, INIass., was horn August 
15, 1750. He married, in 1771, Hannah 
Farnsworth, of Grotou, Mass. June 28, 1794, 
he purchased, in Chesterfield, lots Nos. 11 and 
12, in the fourth range, and soon after settled 
on one of them. The hill on which he lived, 
and on which he huilt a large dwelling, is now 
called " Atherton Hill." He was selectman in 
179S, ■; !», 1809, '11, and representative in 1817. 
He died .\pril 4, 183!t, " honored and respected 
by his neighbors and townsmen." 

Dr. ( )r>] VEf! Baker, son of Dr. Oliver Baker, 
born in Plainfield August Hi, 1788, studied 
medicine in the Medical Department of Dart- 
mouth C'ollege, under Dr. Nathan Smith. In 
1809 he settled in Chesterfield, where he prac- 
tised his profession till 1840. He then removed 
to West Hartford, Vt., where he remaineil about 
two years. He afterwards practiced in Plain- 
field, and in Windsor, Vt. He died at his 
daughter's home, in Plainfield, July 4, 1865. 

Ei'iiiiAiM Hai,[iwin was in Chesterfield in 
176.'>, in which year he bought land in this town. 
He was town clerk from 1770 to 1785, and 
selectman in 1773, '74, '76. He was also, for 
.some time, justice of the peace. His name ap- 
pears for the la.st time on the ta.\-lists for 1790. 
(For an account of his citation before the New 
Hampshire Assembly, for alleged Toryism, see 
under "^\^^•(lfth(• licvdlutiou). 

Nath.\niel Bix(;ham appears to have settled 



in Chestei-ficld as early as 1767. In the deed 
of the land purchased by him in this town he 
was styled a "cooper." He lived on Wetherliee 
Hill, a short distance north of the Centre 
village. He was selectman in 1770, '75 and 
'77 ; representative in 1779. (For an account 
of his arrest and imprisonment by Vermont 
officers, etc., see under " Controversy about the 
New Hampshire (Jrants "). He died April 26, 
1802, in his seventy seventh vear. 

Asa BmTT().\,born in Kaynham, ^lass., April 
30, 1763, settled in Chesterfield in 1790 or 1791, 
near Spafford's Lake. From tiiis fiirm ^fr. 
Britton removed to Ciiesterfield villa<ie about 
the year 18(_)5, where for manv vears he was an 
active, energetic iiusiness man, merchant, sheriff, 
farmer, postmaster and justice of the peace. 
His business career was a successful one, and 
he acquired what in the country, in those earlv 
days, was considered a large property, which he 
enjoyed, and bestowed freely ujion others, until 
past middle age. Soon after the year 1815 he 
met with l)usiness reverses, caused bv the ab- 
sconding of two successive partners. Old Mrs. 
Britton, in after-days, used to tell with much 
gusto a story connected with this iiict. Mr. 
Britton, or" Esquire Britton," as he was called, 
was a tall, large man, weighing, perhaps, two 
hundred pounds, and his success, of course, 
made him enemies as well as friends. On the 
occasion of the decamj)ing of the second of his 
partners, while the village was ringing with the 
news of the gutted store and money-box, a 
party of gamins, instigated by the enemy, .set 
the cluircli-bell ;dso ringing, and above the noise 
and confusion of the crowd, which the sound of 
the bell at that unusual hour had collected, was 
heard the cry, ever louder and louder, " Great 
Britton has fallen ! Great Britton has fidleu ! " 
Mr. Britton died in Chesterfield, June 30, 1849. 

Capt. Wii,li.\.m S. Brooks, born in Med- 
ford, Mass., March 5, 1781, went on a voyage 
at sea with his uncle at the age of nine years. 
lie was in France dtu'ing the French Kevoln- 
tion, and also at the time Napoleon the First 



166 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



was at the heigiit of his power. Once, when 
in tlie Cove of Cork, lie was pressed into 
the English navy, and served six months in the 
roval frigate " Diamond." At another time, 
while cruising in tlie English Channel, he was 
eaj)tured twice in one day — first by the Eng- 
lish and then l)y the French. By the latter he 
was retained in prison six months, a part of 
which time was occupied in making sails for 
French ships. On his return from France, 
President John Adams appointed him a lieuten- 
ant in the navy, which oflice he declined. He 
was engaged for some time in commerce, as com- 
miuiler of a merciiant-ves.sels at a jieriod when 
the American flag did not always command of 
foreign nations the respect that it now does, and 
many were tiie adventures and " hair-breadth 
'scapes " that he nsed to relate in tlie later 
years of his life. 

On retiring from the sea, he settled at Cam- [ 
bridge, Mass., where he was po.stmaster four 
years. In August, 1821, he came to Chester- 
field, and engaged in the manufacture of cotton 
goods at Factory village, in which business he | 
continued till 1<S.")(). In LS.'U), however, he 
removed to Brattleborough, but still retained his 
connection with the factory. He married, in 
1807, Eleanor Forman, of Middletown, N. J. 
He died in Brattleborough, Vt., April, 1865. 

Charles C^)NVERSE, sou of Joseph Converse, 
and a descendant of Deacon Edward Con- 
verse, of Charlestown, Mass., was born Decem- 
ber 30, 1788. He spent the most of his life in 
Chesterfield, engaged in farming. For many 
years he was a justice of the peace, and held 
the office of selectman in 1 833-35. He was 
also representative in the (n'ueral Court in 
1836-:57. He did September 18, 1858. 

Osc.\R Cooi.iiMfE, son of Abraham Ccjolidge, 
of Marlborough, b.)rn July 22, 1798, settled 
in Chesterfield aljout 1824. He married, in 
1824, liovina Rockwood, of Fitzwilliam. For 
a period of about eleven years (till 1835) he 
was engaged in trade at the West village. 
He then removed to the Centre village, where 



he continued in the same business till his death, 
with the exce])tion of one year, when he was in 
trade at Factory village. He also took an 
active part in the atlliirs of the town, and was 
selectman in 1840, 1841 and 1850 ; town clerk, 
1836-38; representative, 1840 and 1841. He 
died ISIarch 4, 1862, having survived his wife 
but a few hours. 

His son, Henry O. Coolidge, resided many 
years in Chesterfield, but removed to Keene in 
1869. He is cashier of the Ashuelot National 
Bank, of that city, and register of Probate for 
CJheshire County. 

Ajios Crot'ch, l>orn in 1769, son of John 
Crouch, of Boxborough, Mass., afterwards of 
Chesterfield, settled in this town in 1802 or 
1803. In his youth lie had no opportunity to 
attend school ; nevcrtiielcss, he learned to read 
and to write his name. In his early manhood 
he had to contend with poverty and adversity, 
but by liai'd lalior and extemc prudence suc- 
ceeded in gaining some property. lie was 
noted for his promptness in paying his debts, and 
with him " the ' first ' of the month was always 
the first day." A strict observer of the Sab- 
bath himself, he l)rought up his children to 
attend chiu-ch, and would not allow them to 
play or visit on that day. He was married 
three times. He died August 18, 1861. 

John Dahlixc;, from Winchcndon, Mass., 
appears to have settled in Chesterfield in 1778, 
in which year he bought land here. 

He was one of the ])arty that made the 
famous march to (Quebec in 1775, under com- 
mand of Benedict Arnold, through the wilder- 
ness of Maine. On this march the men suflPered 
extremely from cold and iituiger. flohn used to 
relate that, having; one dav found the les of a 
dog that had been killed for food, he scorched 
off the hair and ate every morsel of flesh and 
skin that he coulil get from it. He declared 
that he never ate anything in his life that tasted 
better! At one time, while in the army, he 
came near dying of small-pox. He probably 
settled in Chesterfield soon after buvinur his land 



CHESTERFIELD. 



167 



he and his wife (according to a tradition iu the 
family) coming from AVinchciidon on foot. His 
first wife (Sarah Blood, of ( Jroton, Mass.) died 
in 1804. He afterwards married twice. He 
was au active, enterprising man, and at one time 
owned an extensive tract of timber-land in the 
"Winchester woods," from which he cut large 
quantities of lumber, sawing it in a mill erected 
for that purpose, then drawing it to the Con- 
necticut and rafting it down to Hartford. He 
died Marcii 28, 1824, in his seventy-third year. 

Sa.miel Davis settled in Chesteriield as 
early as 1766. There are reasons for believing 
that he was the son of Samuel Davis, of Lunen- 
burgh, Mass., who was pmbably one of the 
grantees of Chesteriield. He owne<l much laud 
in Chesterfield at different times, having pos- 
session, at one time, of a part of the " Governor's 
farm." (For the part that he took in the con- 
troversy about the "New Hampshire Grants," 
and for au account of his attempt to break u|) 
tlie Inferior (Jourt at Keene, see under " Con- 
troversy about the New Hampshire Grants'). 

He appears to have removed from this town 
about 1790. 

Samuel Fairbanks was in Chesterfield in 

1776, which year he signed the "Association 
Test." 

He was one of the town Cotnmittee of Safety, 
and appears to have been one of the most zealous 
patriots in the town. He was also selectman in 

1777. In his will, made August 9, 1787, and 
proved June 16, 1790, he bequeathed all his 
property to his wife, for the support of his 
children, and named his son Zenas sole executor. 
He died April 14, 1790, in his seventy-first 
year. 

Marsiiai,e H. Fare, son of Ora Farr, born 
in Chesterfield January 16, 1817, was a car- 
penter by trade, and resided in Chesterfield till 
1854, when he removed to Canada West 
(Ontario), where he engaged extensively in the 
construction of railway and other buildinos. 
March 12, 1857, the train on which he was 
riding was precipitated into the Des Jardins 



Canal by the breaking of a bridge, near 
Hamilton, P. ()., and he received injuries that 
caused his death in a few hours. 

Denxie \V. Fakk, son of Worcester and 
Abial (Kueeland) Farr, born in Chesterfield 
January 7, 1840, was scrying as a clerk in a 
store in Brattleborough, Vt., when the Civil War 
broke out. He st)on enlisted in the Fourth 
Regiment of Vermont Volunteer Infantry, and 
was commissioned second lieutenant. August 
13, 1862, he was commissioned laptain of 
Company C, in the same regiment, in which 
capacity he served with honor. At the battle 
of the Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864, he was 
killed by a shot that struck him in the head. 

Thomas FisK, born 1774, son of John Fisk, 
of Framingham, Mass., and a descendant of 
Nathaniel Fisk, who came from England, came 
to Chesterfield in 1807, and settled on the farm 
now owned and occupied by his son, John B. 
Fisk, Esq., building the large house in which 
the latter now lives. When about two years 
old he had an attack of scarlet fever, which 
caused him to be deaf and, consequently, duml>. 
He learned, nevertheless, to read, and to cipher 
in the four fundamental rules of ai'ithmetic. At 
the age of fifty years he was admitted to the 
school for deaf-mutes, at Hartford, Conn., for 
the term of one year. He made rapid progress, 
and acquired knowledge that was of great use 
to him during the remaining years of his life. 
His wife was Lucinda Trowbridge, of Pomfrct, 
Conn. He died July 25, 1861. 

Samuel Goodrich, born in Fitchburg, Mass., 
September 6, 1788, .settled in Chesterfield 
in IS 1.3, on the farm now owned and oc- 
cupied by Willard Henry, and where he con- 
tinued to reside till his death. He was a man 
of great industry and perseverance, and his life 
was one of ceaseless activity. Though not an 
extensive farmer, in comparison with some, he 
was nevertheless a successful one ; and his suc- 
cess in this respect is a fine illustration of what 
intelligent and well-directed effort can accom- 
plish in overcoming natural obstacles. 



168 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



His wife was Hannah Cain, of Weymouth, 
Mass. lu 183G, ';j7 and '42 he held the ollice 
of selectman. He died Jaunary 1, 1877. 

David W. G( )oi )urcH, from Gill, Mass., settled 
in Chesterfield alxiut ISlO. He was a cloth- 
dresser by trade, and had n mill on Catsbane 
Brook, at the West village. After following 
his trade for some years, he engaged in farming. 
His wife was Salome, danghter of Benjamin 
Wheeler. He died at the"Kneeland place" 
(now owned and occupied by his son, Charles 
C. P. Goodrich, Esq.), March 22, 1 857. 

William Haile, son of John and Eunice 
(Henry) Haile, was born in I'utney, Vt., ATay, 
1807. At the age of alxiut fourteen years he 
came to this town witli his parents, but was 
soon afterwards taken into the family of Ezekiel 
P. Pierce, Sr., with whom he lived till he was 
about twenty-one years old. Having attended 
school about two years, he entered, in 1823, Mr. 
Pierce's store as a clerk. In 1827 or 1828 he 
borrowed a small sum of money and opened a 
store on his own account at the Centre village. 
With characteristic sagacity, he soon foresaw, 
however, that Hinsdale was destined to become 
a busy and thriving town on account of the 
abundance of power furnished by the Ashuelot 
River. He therefore, in 1S.'{4 or 1835, re- 
moved to that town , where he continued to en- 
gage in mercantile pursuits until 1846, when he 
became interested in the lumber business. In 
1849 he began, as a member of the firm of 
Haile & Todd, the manufacture of cashmercttes. 
Afterwards the name of tlie firm was changed to 
that of Haile, Frost & fV)., by which name 
it is known at present. 

Tiiough extensively engaged in business, Mr. 
Haile took a prominent part in political affairs. 
With the exception of two years, he represented 
Hinsdale in the General Court from 184G to 
1854; was elected to the New Hampshire Sen- 
ate in 1854 and 1855, of which body he was 
also president the latter year, and was again 
elected representative in 1850. The next year 
he was elected Governor, to which office he was 



re-elected in 1858. In 1873 he removed from 
Hinsdale to Keene, where he had built a fine 
residence. He did not cease, however, t(> take 
an active part in business till his death, which 
occurred July 22, 1876. Mr. Haile married, in 
182s, Sabrana S., daughter of Arza Walker, of 
Chesterfield. 

Phineas Handerhox, son of Gideon and Abi- 
gail (Church) Handerson, was born in Amherst, 
Mass., December 13, 1778. He was born in 
his grandfather's house, whicli was torn down, 
when it was more than a hundred years old, to 
make room for the Agricultural College. While 
he was yet an infant his parents removed to 
Claremont, this State, his mother making the 
journey on horseback and carrying him in her 
arms. Having obtained what education the 
common .schools of tiiat town afforded, he began 
the study of law in the office of Hon. George B. 
Upham. In 1805 or 1806 he settled in this 
town, in which he pracliced his profession till 
1833. While a resident of Chesterfield he fre- 
quently held town and State offices. In 1811 
he was selectman ; in 1X12, 181."> and 1.S15 he 
represented the town in the General Court ; in 
1816 he was elected State Senator, an office to 
which he was re-elected in 1817, 1825, 1831 
and 1832. He married, 1818, Hannah W., 
daughter of Rev. Samuel Mead, of ^^'alpole. 
She died December 30, 1863. In 1833 he re- 
moved to Keene, where he continued the prac- 
tice of law. At the time of his death, in March, 
1854, he was president of the Cheshire bar. 

The Harris Familv. — The founder of the 
Harris family in Chesterfield was Abner Harris, 
a probable descendant of Arthur Harris, who 
emigrated from England to America at an early 
period, and was living in Dnxbury, Mass., in 
1640. Abner Harris came from Woodstock, 
Conn., and appears to have settled in Chester- 
field in 1777. His will was proved August 23, 
1798. 

One of his sons was Jolui Harris, who lived 
and died in Chesterfield. John married, in 
1783, Hannah Colburn, of this town, and had a 



CHESTERFIELD. 



169 



family of eleven chiklreu, three of whom are 
now living, the youngest being more than eighty 
years old. The clilest of the three, Wilder Har- 
ris, l)orn ]\Iay 11, 17!)7, now resides in Brattle- 
borough, Vt., but was a resilient of this town 
till l,Sfj.5. 

Another son of John Harris and brother of 
Wilder Harris was John Harris, Jr. He was a 
farmer in Chestertield, and married, in 1808, 
Luna, daughter of Abel Fletcher, of this town. 
He was selectman in lS.3()-.'?2, and represented 
the town in the Legislature in 1849-50. He 
died Febi'uary 27, l.S5(!, aged seventy-one 
years. 

A third son of John Harris, Sr., was Norman 
Harris. He was engaffcd a number of vears in 
mercantile business and in "packing" in Cali- 
fornia. He died at Bellows Falls, Vt., July 22, 
1875, aged seventv-oue vears. 

Two other sons of John Harris, Sr., Ezekiel 
and P]rastus, were farmers in Chesterfield dur- 
ing the greater part of their lives. Both died 
in Brattleliorough in 185i). 

Cai'T. Ebkxkzek Hakvky wasof Northfield, 
Mass., in 1758, having come to that town from 
Sunderland. He appears to have removed from 
Northtield to Winchester, and from that town 
to Chesterfield. September 17, 1772, he pur- 
chased of Elkanah Day, of this town, a part of 
house-lots Nos. 5 and 5, in the tenth and 
eleventh ranges. This land was near the com- 
mon at the Centre village, which was mentioned 
in the deed as having been conveyed to the 
town. In June, 1777, he was sentenced by the 
''Court of inquiry " at Kcene to be confined to 
the limits of his farm and to pay a fine for al- 
leged hostility to the American cause. Pie 
appears also to have been a zealous partisan of 
Vermont in the controversy about the " New 
Hampshire Grants." He was selectman in 
1783 and 1803; representative in 1785. He 
was the first jiostmaster in Chesterfield com- 
missioned by the United States, holding the 
office from 1802 to 1810. He died in 1810. 
One of his sons, Rufus Harvey, Sr., lived and 



died in Che.sterfield. For many years he (Rufus) 
was a deputy sheriff for the county of Cheshire. 

Di!. Solomon Hakvey was in Dummerston, 
Vt., in 1778, of which town he was clerk sev- 
eral years. He appears to have settled in Ches- 
terfield in 1775 or 1776, and to have taken an 
active part in the affiiirs of the town during the 
War of the Revolution. In 1788 he repre- 
sented Chesterfield in the convention that 
adopted the Federal Constitution. He was se- 
lectman in 1789-92; town clerk, 1800-17. 
He probalJy died in Chesterfield after 1820. 

Ben.f. H.AsKELLwasin Chesterfield in 1784. 
He appears to have settled on lot No. 12 or 13, 
in the thirteenth range. Justice of the j)eace ; 
selectman, 1784, 1TS7, 1788, 1798, 1799; rep- 
resentative, 1789, 1799, 1800. Some of his de- 
scendants now live at Ascott, Lower (Canada ; 
but whether he himself removed to that town 
has not Ix'en ascertained. He removed from 
Chesterfield, however, between 1815 and 1819. 

Eleazek Jackson, supposed to have been 
a descendant of Edward Jackson, who came 
from London, ICiigland, and settled in what is 
now Newton, Mass, as early as 1643, was born 
May 12, 1736 In 1767 he was in Walpole, 
Mass., but afterwards removed to Wrentham, 
and thence, in 1771, to Dudley. He was 
originally a clothier by trade. October 6, 
1778, he took a deed of eighty-two acres of 
land in Chesterfield, upon which he settled. 
This laud is a part of the farm on which his 
grandson, Jay Jackson, now resides, and has 
always been, since I77S, owned by members of 
the Jackson family. He was selectman in 
1782, 'S3, '87, '88, '93-'9(i and 1800; repre- 
.sentative in '92, '93, '97. In 1791 he was the 
delegate from Chesterfield to the convention for 
revising the ( "onstitution of the State. He died 
Noveml)er 11, 1814. His wife was ]\achel 
Pond, who died March 12, 1S;J6, at the great 
age of ninety-six years. 

One of his sons, Enoch Jackson, married 
Martha, daughter of Andrew I'hillips, and 
lived on the paternal farm till 1837, when he 



170 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



removed to Winhall, Vt., where he died at the 
ag;e of nearly eighty-four years. He was a 
III it 0(1 )H'di'strian and seldom made use of a 
horse in performing long journeys. His soij, 
Jay Jackson, still resides on the ancestral farm, 
as mentioned above, and is a well-known farmer. 
Levi Jacksox, son of Eleazer Jackson, was 
one of the most intellectual men that Chester- 
field has ever produced. Of him his nephew, 
Jay Jackson, writes as follows : 

" III a history of the town of Chesterfield, justice to 
the memory of Hon. Levi Jackson seems to require 
something more tlian the Inire mention of his name; 
for probably no one ha.'* (lone more for the honor of 
the town, or to elevate the moral and intellectual 
standard of the community in which he moved. 

" The youthful years of Levi were principally spent 
in company with his father and brothers in clearing 
up and cultivating their new farm ; but he manifested 
a desire to obtain a better education than the common 
schools of that day were calculated to impart, and tfjld 
his father that he thought he might afford to send one 
of his numerous family of boys to college. Improving 
his meagre common-school privileges, and dividing 
the remainder of his time between his labors upon the 
fiirm and his fireside studies, with the benefit of a few 
months at the then infant institution of Chesterfield 
Academy, he cjualified himself for college, and entered 
Dartmouth in 1797, two years in advance. Graduat- 
ing in 1799, his services were immediately secured by 
the trustees of Chesterfield Academy as preceptor of 
that institution, which position he held for six con- 
secutive years. During this time the academy ac- 
quired an enviable reputation as a literary institution. 
P(jssessing a fine personal appearance, an una.ssumed 
dignity and firmness, yet easy and pleasant in his 
manners and conversation, it was said of him that he 
commanded both the love and the fear of his pupils 
and the respect of all. 

" On retiring from the preceptorshij) of the acad- 
emy, he engaged in trade at Chesterfield Centre, and 
continued in that business during the remainder of 
his life. He was a member of the N. H. House of 
Representatives in 1808, '09, '10 and 'II, and again in 
'21 ; a member of the State Senate in 1812, '13, '14, and 
'15, and of the Council in 181G and '17. Modest and 
unaspiring in his deportment (unlike many of our 
modern politicians), the ofiices of honor and trust that 
he lield were unbought and unsought by him, but be- 
stowed upon him by an appreciative constituency in 
consideration of his eminent qualifications for the same. 



" A man of temperate habits and strong constitu- 
tion, in the full strength and vigor of life and useful- 
ness, and with a pros[)ect liefore him amounting to 
nearly a certainty that, if his life was spared, he 
would soon be called to fill the highest ofiice in the 
gift of the State, his unexpected death, which occurred 
August 30, 1821, at the age of 49, was a severe loss to 
the toW'U, the State and the community, and brought 
deep mourning upon his family and friends; but his 
memory will be cherished while virtue, honesty and 
intelligence are justly appreciated." 

S.VMi'Ki. KiN(i, .son iif Dr. Samuel King, ap- 
pears to have settled in Ciie.stertield about 177."^. 
He probalily came from Petei'sham, Mass. He 
\va.s "lie of the most conspicuous characters in 
the history of the town. In 1776 he refused 
to sign the " A.ssociation Test,' and in June, 
1777, he was summoned before the "court of 
inquiry," at Keene, " as being inimical to the 
United Statt^K of America;" was tried and 
sentenced to pay a fine and to ])e ctmfined 
to the limits of his farm. \\ hen the contro- 
versv about the "Grants" was at its heisj-ht, 
lie espoused the cau.se of ^'erlllont, and la- 
bored strenuously to effect the tuiion of the 
disaffected towns with that State, and at one 
time held a commission as colonel in the 
Vermont militia. According to the rec- 
ords of the (Superior Court of Cheshire County, 
he was indicted at the .same time with Samuel 
Davis, for attempting to break up the Inferior 
Court in September, 17S2 ; luit this indictment 
was (juashed. In 17S1 he was chosen, to- 
gether with Deacon Silas Thompson, to repre- 
sent Chesterfield in the General Assembly of 
Vermont, and was .selectman the same and the 
following year. In I 7<s2, '8.3 ami '84 he repre- 
sented the town in the General C'ourt of New 
Hamp.shire. He died September 13, 1785, in 
his thirty-fourth year, and was buried in the 
old town grave-yard at the Centre village. In 
his will, which was made twelve days before 
his death, he devi.sed the use of his farm to his 
father and mother, and made certain provisions 
respecting his sisters and children. The ap- 
praised value of his estate was £2497 9s. 4d. 



CHESTKRFIKLU. 



171 



JoHX KxEEi^Axn, sou of Timothy Kneeland, 
and brother of the cclohrated Abiier Kiiee- 
laiiil, was born in Ganhier, Mass., in 1766 
or '67. He was a carjyontcr by trade, and 
helped build, in 17!Kl, the large si(uare house, 
near tlie West viUane, now owned and occupied 
by Ira D. Farr. He lived a few years after his 
marriage in Dmiimcrstoii, Vt., but returned 
to C'hesterfield about 17!I7. He resided many 
years on the farm now owned and occujiied by 
Charles C. P. (Joodrich, Escj., and whieh has 
long been known as the "'Squire Kneeland 
farm." He was a justice of the peace for many 
years, and held the office of selectman longer 
than it has ever been held by any other person 
since the town was ini-orporated, viz.: 1806, 
'OS, '10, '12-16, '20-26, or sixteen years in 
all. He was also representative lSlS-2(), '22 
and '25. He died February 9, 1850. 

Benjamix Li.oyd JNIaksh, son of Captain 
Reuben and Mary (Wetherbee) Marsh, was born 
in t'hesterfield November 8, 182;>. AViiile a 
young man he went to Boston, and became, in 
1851, a member of the great drv-ooods tirm of 
Jordan, Marsh A: Co., the senior partner of 
which is Eben I). Jordan. Mr. Marsh re- 
tained his connection with this firm till his 
death, which occurre(l .June 1."!, 1865, "having 
shared in all the struggles, vicissitudes and 
triumphs of the house." His brother, Charles 
Marsh, is si ill a member of the same iirm. 

Levi Mead, son of Matthew Mead, was 
ixrn in Lexington, Mass., October 14, 1751). 
Soon after the A\'ar of the Revolution began he 
enlisted in the American army, and served dur- 
ing the whole war. In 1 7S2 he married Betsey, 
daughter of Joseph Converse, who settled in 
Chesterfield about 1704. 

In October, 1800, he purchased of Asa Brit- 
ton, of this town, what is l<n<jwn as the " Mead 
farm," having a frontage on the main street, at 
the Centre village, extending from the old 
" back road " (leading westward, and now dis- 
used) to the "Dr. Tyler place." In the sjiring 
of 1801 became to Chesterfield with his fam- 



ily, and occu])ied the next house south of the 
Tyler place, which he kept as a tavern. In 
181 () he built the present hotel at the Centre 
village, long known as the " iVfead tavern." 
Jn 1802 he was appointed <leputy shcrilf Cor 
Cheshire ('otnity, and held this oflice many 
years. He died April 2!>, 1828. 

Lai!KIn(J. ^[^;A|), born in Lexington, Mass., 
October 2, 17!)5, was the son of Levi Mead. 
He was educated at the Chesterfield Academy 
and at Dartmouth College, and then read law 
with Hon. Phinens Handerson. For nianv 
years he was a prominent member of the Cheshire 
bar. He was a man of culture, and possessed 
rare business qualities. He was ever foremost in 
promoting the cause of edncatiim, and took 
great interest in the public schools. Jn 18;?!» 
he removed to Brattleborongh, where he resided 
the remainder of his life, and where he con- 
tinued to jiracticc his profession. He procured 
the chai'ter fiir the first savings-bank in Ver- 
mont, now called the ^'ermont Savings-Bank 
of Brattleborongh, and was treasurer of the 
institiitiiiM about twentv-five vears. In 1846 
he was a nicniln'i' of the A'erniont Senate. He 
died July 6, I. Si;!). 

His wife was Mary Jane, daughter of Hon. 
John \oyes, of Putney, \t. ( )ne of his sous 
is the well-known sculptor, Larkin G. Mead, 
Jr., who was born in Chest(>rfield January :i, 
1835, but removed to Brattleborongh with his 
]»arcnts in 1830. In 1S62 he went to Florence, 
Italy, where he has since re.sided the greater 
part of the time. Among the most ini]iortaiit 
of his works are the "Recording An«jel," the 
colossal statue " Vermont," " Ethan Allen," 
"The Returned Soldier," "(Jolumbus' Last 
Ap])eal to Isabella," " America," the bronze 
statue of Abraham Lincoln, "Venice, the Bride 
of the Sea," etc. 

John Pieuoe, came to Chesterfield from 
Groton, j\Iass., between 1770 and 1776. 

According to ti'adition, he .served in the last 
French and Indian Wnv. On coming to Ches- 
terfield, he a])pears to have located at what is 



172 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



now the Centre village, where he may have kept 
a small store. At the same time he owned a 
large (juantity of land in the town, much of 
which he is said to have sacrificed to the cause 
of liberty during the War of the Revolution. 
Together with others of this town, he also took 
jiart in tlie battle of Bennington, probably as 
an indcj)endent volunteer. April 19, 1782, he 
purchased of Samuel Davis Converse the 
western half (the other half lying iu iSpalfbrd's 
Lake) of lot No. 12, in the tenth range, on 
which he built a house. Here he passed the 
remaining years of his life, erecting, after a 
while, a larger and more commodious house 
near the highway that formerly led from the 
Centre village to Westmoreland. Me died July 
7, IS] 2, aged sixty-nine years. 

EzKKiEL P. PiERCT., son of Joiui and Tabi- 
tha (Porter) Pierce, was born Ajiril 20, 1785, 
and spent the most of his life in Ches- 
terfield. About 1821 he opened a store at 
the Centre village, where he also kept a tavern 
for some time. He afterwards engaged in trade 
for a while at Factory village, and in London- 
derry, Vt. The first " patent accelerating 
wheel-heads," for spinning wool, that were 
made in Chesterfield, were manufactured by 
him at Factory village, probably about 1820. 
He also engaged to some extent in the manu- 
facture of bits and augers. In 1827 he repre- 
sented the town in the (icneral Court. He died 
May 23, 18()5. 

Warham R. Pi.atts, son of Captain Joseph 
Platts, of Rindge, born July 18, 1792, married 
Syrah Harvey iu 1821, and settled in Chester- 
field. For about twenty-one years he was post- 
master at the Centre village. He was also, for 
many years, a de])uty sheriff' for Cheshire 
County, and for a while sheriff' of the county. 
He was always interested in the affairs of the 
town and in national polities. In 1848 and 
1S51 he held the office of selectman, and 
was town clerk in 184;)-41. He died February 
21, 1872. 

John Pctnam, born in Winchester May 10, 



1761, came to Chesterfield in his boyhood, and 
lived in the family of Ebeuezer Harvey, Sr. Iu 
1779 he enlisted in Colonel Hercules Mooney's 
fegin)ent,and served for a while. This regiment 
was ordered to march to Rhode Island. In 1801 
he married Mary, daughter of Joseph Con- 
verse, and lived many years at the ( 'entre vil- 
lage, in the large house that once stood near the 
south side of the common, and which was 
burned about 1 845. Though he commenced life 
in very humble circumstances, he succeeded, 
by his sagacity and perseverance, iu acquir- 
ing a considerable fortune, owning much tim- 
ber-land in the Winchester woods. For a 
number of years he was one of the trustees of 
the academy, and served the town in the ca- 
pacity of selectman in the years 1808, '09, '20, 
'21 , '26. He also rejiresented the town in the 
Legislature in 1816, '17. '18 and '26. He died 
November 17, 1849, at the age of eighty-eight 
years. 

Eleazer Randall, son of Eleazer and 
Clarissa (Wheeler) Randall, was born in Ches- 
terfield February 27, 1820. Having learned 
the carj^enter's trade when a young man, he en- 
gaged pretty extensively, from about 1850 till 
1860, in the construction of railway aud other 
Iniildings in Vermont, Western Canada aud 
Michigan, being associated, most of the time, 
with Marshall H. Farr and his own brothers, — 
Shubel H. and (teorge Randall. He married, 
in 1846, Elvira Rumrill, of Hillsborough 
Bridge. From 1860 till the time of his death 
he enwaoed in farming, iu Chesterfield, on the 
farm that lie had owned and managed since 1850, 
and which is now owned by his sons, Orau E. 
and Frederick R. Randall. He died .hdy .".0, 
1882. 

Silas Richardson, a descendant of John 
Richardson, who came to this country from 
England, appears to have settled in this town 
about 1776, having come from Mendon, Mass. 

He was one of the original trustees of Ches- 
terfield Academy, aud was selectman in 1788, 
1793-96. He died in 1803. His wife was 



CHESTERFIELD. 



173 



Silence Daniels, of Medway, Mass., and one of 
his sons Orlo Rifliardson, mai-ried Nancy Wild, 
of tiiis town, and settled here. In 1826-28, '34, 
'35, he (Orlo) also held the office of selectman, 
and represented the town in the Lcgislatnre in 
1828-29. lie died May 27, l,S.-)2. His son, 
.John i\Iilton Richardson, Ixirn November 25, 
1807, is a tarmei' and jnstirc of flie peace in 
Chesterfield. 

Ahciiihai.I) RoBKirrsDN, burn in Edinburgh, 
Scotland, in 170S, emigrated to America in 
1754, with his wife, Elizabeth (Wats(in), and 
children, James, William, John (?) and Anna (?). 
Archibald and his wife were dissenters from the 
old-established Church of Scotland, and joined 
with the "New Disciples." Their names ap- 
pear among tho.se of the subscribers for the 
new book of " Confession of Faith," a eoj)y of 
which is now in possession of their great-grand- 
son, Timothy N. Robertson. They came to 
Chesterfield (having lived a few years near 
Boston), after their son James had settled here, 
l)Ut just how long after has not been ascei'tained. 
December 14, 1775, .Vrchibald was chosen to 
represent Chesterfield and Hinsdale in the 
" Provincial Congress" that was to assemble at 
Exeter the 21st day of the same month, being 
tlie first person ever chosen by the town for 
such purpose. After living here a number of 
vears he removed to Brattleborongh, or Ver- 
non, Vt. He died in Rrattleborough in 1803. 

Jamks R()iiEr,Ts()X,son of Archibald Robert- 
son, born in Scotland March 8, 1741, came to 
this country with his father in 1754. For a 
few years after coming to this country he 
worked in old Dunstable and vicinity, and, 
jtrobably, also took part in the last French and 
Indian War. In the summer of 1762 he came 
to Chesterfield, and began to prepare a home 
for himself and future wife. The place where 
he built his cabin is about thirty rods west of 
tiie present residence of his grandson, T. N. 
Robertson. When the war broke out between 
the mother-country and the American colonies 
he ardently espoused the cause of the latter. 



though a Briton by birth. lu September, 1776, 
he enlisted in Captain Houghton's company of 
Colonel Nalium Baldwin's regiment. In 1777 
he was a lieutenant in Colonel Ashley's regi- 
ment, but the date of his commission lias not 
been ascertained. He was, also, at one time a 
member of the town "Committee of Safi^tv." 
During the I'ontroversy about the New Hamji- 
shire Grants he was firm in his opposition to 
the Vermont party, by some of whom he ap- 
pears to have been rather roughly treatetl. 
He died March li», 1830. His first wife was 
Sarah Bancroft, of Dun.stable (now Tyngsbor- 
ough), ilass. She died .lune 28, 17!)8, in her 
fifty -fiftli year. 

Elisha RocKwodi), born in (iroton, ]\Iass., 
November 20, 1740, purcha-sed in Chesterfield, 
in 1769, the larger part of housedots Nos. 7 
and 8, in the tenth range. In his deed he was 
styled " a clothier." He took a prominent j)art 
in the aftairs of the town during the War of 
the Revolution, being one of the town Com- 
mittee of Safety in 1777. He also was select- 
man the same year and in 1780. He died Feb- 
ruary 13, 1832. 

The Saho knt Family. — The founder of the 
Sargent family in Chesterfield was Erastus Sar- 
gent, a great-grandson of Digory Sargent, of 
Massachusetts, who was killed by the Indians 
about 1704, and whose wife and children were 
captured and taken to Canada. Erastus mar- 
ried Annas, daughter of Warren Snow, of 
Chesterfield, and lived many years here, fin- 
ally removing to Stukely, P. Q., where he 
died August 24, 1847, aged se\enty-five yeai's. 
One of his sons, Edwin Sargent, married Sally, 
daughter of David Stoddard, of this town, and 
lived here the most of his life. He represented 
the town in the General Court in 1842. One 
of his sons, Charles R. Sargent, engaged to a 
considerable extent, in his earlier years, in 
school-teaching ; l>nt at the time of his death, 
which occurred in Hinsdale April 2, 1880, he 
was one of the commissioners of Cheshire 
County, to which office he had been twice elected. 



174 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Wm. Shiirt[J-:ff came to Chesterfield from 
Ellington, Conn., in ITS?, and died here in 
1801. His wife was Hannah Cady, and one 
of his nine children was lloswell ShiirtlefF, 
horn Augu.st 29, 1773. At the age of about 
nineteen years Rosvvell entered (-hesterfield 
Academy, where he studied Latin, going 
tiirough Ho.ss's Grammar in just two weeks. 
One of his mates at the academy was Tjevi 
Jackson, who was afterwards his classmate and 
room-mate at I)artmoutli College. After a 
while he took up the study of Greek, and went 
through the " Westminstei' (ireok Grammar" 
in one week. In 1797 he and .laelcson 
entered Dartnniuth two years in advance, and 
graduated in 1799. From 1800 to 1804 he 
was tutor in that college; from 1804 to 1827, 
professor of divinity; from 1827 to 1838, 
professor of mora! jihilosiipiiy and pcilitical 
economy. For nearly twenty years he was 
also college jireacher, and pastor of the church 
on Hanover Plain. He was a man of great 
intellectual force, an exci'llent teacher and a 
devoted friend to all young men who were 
striving to obtain an education. He died at 
Hanover Fel)rnary 4, 18(il, in his eighty- 
eighth year. 

MttsEs SiriTH, the first settler of Chesterfield, 
was of Iveicester, Mass., in 1738, where he 
owned laud |)urchased of John Nobles, oi' 
Norwicli, ('i)nn. In 17(J1 he was of Hins- 
dale, as was stated in the deed of the land 
which he purchased in ('liestcrtield that year. 

His wife was Elizal)etii , who died July 2(), 

in hersixty-firslyear. He was selectman in 1777, 
1771-72. The inscription on his gravestone is 
as follows : " In memory of Ensio-n Moses 
Smith, the first settler in ( 'hesterfield, who de 
parted this life Dec. y" 30th, 1780, in y' 75th 
year of his age." He was buried in the town 
graveyard, situated near the " river road " and 
a short distance south of the residence of 
C!harles C. P. Goodrich, Esc^. 

Moses Smith, Jr., son of Mo.ses Smith, the 
first settler, married, in 17(j8, Phebe, daughter 



of John Snow, of Chesterfield. He M-as one of 
the first settlers in the eastern {)art of the town, 
having purchased, December 25, 17()4, lot No. 
12, in the sixth range. He was lientenant in 
1777, and justice of the ])eace for many years. 
He was also one of the original trnstees of the 
academy. During the controversy about the 
''New Hampshire (Ji-ants" he espoused the 
cause of Vermont, and at one time the New 
Hampshire government gave orders for his 
arrest. He held the office of selectman in 
1775, '7G, '7S, '81, '89-91, and was repre- 
sentative in 1786-88, '90, "91. About 1824 
he removed, \vith his son Moses, Jr., to Pike, 
Allegany County, N. Y., where he died about 
1830, aged eighty -seven years. 

John Snow appears to have settled in Ches- 
terfield in 17()2, which year he and Moses 
Smith built the first saw-mill erected in tlic 
towu. He probably lived on (ir near what 
was afterwards the town jtoor-tarm. He un- 
doubtedly came from some town in ]\Iassa- 
ehusetts. He was selectman in 17(17, and died 
May 12, 1777, in his seventy-second year. 
One of liis sons, Zerubbabel Snow, married 
Mary Trowbridge, of \\'orcester, Mass., and 
settled in ('hesterfield betVtre 177(1. He was 
one of the selectmen in 1773-74, and died 
April 12, 1795, in his fifty-fourth vear. 
Another son of John Snow, AVarren Snow, 
married Amy Harvey, and settled in this town 
in 1769 or 1770, having come from Princeton, 
Mass. In 1777 he was a member of the "Com- 
mittee of Inspection and Correspondence " of 
Chesterfield, and selectman in 1779. He died 
in 1824. 

Ali'hel'S Sxow, a grandson of Zerubbabel 
Snow, was born in Chesterfield May 10, 1791. 
He married, in 1815, Salome, daughter of 
Perley Harris, of this town. In his youth he 
attended school only a few weeks ; nevertheless, 
by private study, he afterwards succeeded in 
acquiring an ordinary etlncation. He had a 
special aptitude for arithmetic, and it is said 
that even persons who ought to have been his 



CHESTERFIELD. 



175 



.superiors in this brancli of mathematics some- 
time.s .sought his aid in tlie solution of difficult 
problems. When a yount;- man he learned the 
blaeksmitli's trade, which he followed tiir many 
years at the West village. He also engaged in 
farminu livino- a loni; time on the farm now 
owned and oeeujiied by Horace D. Snutii. He 
was selectman in IS;>7-39, '4o, '49, '')3, and 
represented the town in the (Tcneral Court in 
1849. He died May 28, 1869. 

Ehenezer Stkaens, l)orn in 177(), son of 
Ebenezer Stearns, of Milford, Ma.ss., appears to 
have come to Chesterfield about 1797. About 
1800 he opened the iirst store at Factory 
village. In ISO.") the Chesterfield Manu- 
facturing Com[)any was incorjjorated, of 
which he was agent and treasurer most of the 
time from 1809 to 1821. He was an active, 
enterprising man, and did much to promote the 
welfare and interests of the village in which he 
lived. In l.S2?)-24 he represented tlie town in 
the Legislature. He died October 11, 1825. 

David Stoddard may have come from Rut- 
land, Mass. He appears to have settled in 
Chesterfield about 1767, on the farm now 
owned and occupied by Truman A. Stoddard. 
Whether he was married more than once is not 
known ; but the name of the wife who came 

to Chesterfield with him was Joanna : 

He was selectman in 1771 and 1772, and in 
the .spring of 177o he enlisted in Captain 
Hind's company of the Third New Hampshire 
Regiment. According to tradition, he died 
while in the army. 

One of his son.s, David Stoddard, Jr., mar- 
ried Sarah French, and lived on the paternal 
farm in this town. 

Peter Stone, a descendant of Simon Stone, 
who came to this country from England in 
J6;j5, was l)orn in Groton, Mass., August 25, 
1741. In 1773 he married Abigail Fassett, of 
Westford, Mass. March 27, 1777, he pur- 
chased, in Chesterfield, of Silas Thompson, the 
farm on wiiich the latter settled (cou.sisting in 
part, at least, of k)t Xo 12, in the thirteenth 



range). He appears to have come to this town 
with his family in 1778 or 1779. He built, at 
an early period, the house owned and occupied 
by the late Charles N. Clark. In 1790 he 
helped establish the academy. In his efforts 
to aid others he became involved in debt, and 
was obliged to mortgage his farm, which he 
eventually lost. Though permitted to remain 
in the house which he formerly owned (lieing 
old and infirm), he chose not to do so, and 
passed his last days in the sehool-h(juse that 
stood on the site of the present one in School- 
District No. 10. He died about 1820 (as 
nearly as can be ascertained), having survived 
his wife a number of years. 

Wari{EX Stone, a grandson of Peter Stone, 
was born at St. Albans, A^t., in 1808, but came, 
at an early age, to Chesterfield, whence 
his father and mother had removed but 
a few years Ijefore. His early years were 
spent in manual labor, and in obtaining such 
education as the schools of the town afforded. 
As he approached manhood, however, the 
desire to pursue the study of medicine became 
so strong that he resolved to quit the rural 
scenes of his youth and devote his life to that 
calling for which he had an especial fitness. 
Accordingly, he went to Keene and studied a 
while with the distinguished Dr. Twitchell, 
afterwards attending the medical school iu 
Pittsfield, ]\Iass., from which he graduated 
with the degree of ^M.D. in 1831. The next 
thing to be done was to find a suitable location 
for practicing his pi-ofession. Endowed by 
nature with a bold and enterprising spirit, he 
at last decided to .seek his fortune in the far- 
distant regions of the South. He accordingly 
went to Boston, where, October 10, 1832, he 
took j>assage for New Orleans in the brig 
" Amelia." The brig was wrecked on Folly 
Island, near Charleston, S. C, but the 
]>asseugers were rescued, Dr. Stone especialK- 
displaying on this occasion the firmness and 
presence of mind lor which he \vas noted. 
Cholera also broke out among the passengers 



176 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



and crew, from which he, too, suffered with 
tlie rest. He finally arrived, however, in New- 
Orleans, late in Xoveniljer or early in Decem- 
Iht, in ])0()i- health and with insnffieient 
elothing. -Vfter a \vhile he sneceeded in 
getting employment, in a subordinate ea[)aeity, 
in ( 'harity Hospital, of which he afterwards 
became assistant surgeon. In January, 1S;')7, 
he was appointed professor of anatomy iu the 
Medical Department of the University of 
Louisiana, and soon afterwards professur of 
surgery — a position that he held till he 
resigned it, in the spring of 1872. In 1839 he 
established, in cdunection with I^r. William E. 
Fvcnnedv, a private hospital. In 1S41 he was 
unfortunate enough to lose one of his eyes from 
" a specific inflammation contracted from a 
child." When the war broke out in 1861, 
Dr. Stone was aj>i)ointed, l)y the Confederate 
authorities, surgeou-general of Louisiana, in 
which capacity he rendered very efficient 
service. After the occupation of New Orleans 
by the Federal forces he was imprisoned for a 
while by General Benjamin F. Butler. 

As a surgeon, Dr. Stone possessed remarkable 
skill, and successfully performed the most diffi- 
cult operations. He was, in fact, "the admit- 
ted head of the profession in the Southwest." 
He died in New Orleans December 6, 1872. 

Stephen Stkeetek, Jh., son of Stephen 
and Sarah (( 'liaud)erlain) Streeter, was born 
December 7, 1782, about which time his father 
and mother came from Oxford, Mass., to Ches- 
terfield. He was locally celebrated as a poet, 
being noted also fur his retentive memory. 
Some of his songs, epigrams and longer poems 
were very pofjular with his contemporaries, and 
he well merited the appellation of the " Bard 
of Streeter Hill." He died May 22, 1864, 
having never marrieil. 

Sii,As Tho^ii'son, of Dnnstai)le, Mass., pur- 
cha.sed iu ( 'lie.sterficld, March 12, 176(5, lot 
No. 12, in the thirteenth range, and i)robably 
settled on the .same soon after. This lot formed 
part, at least, of the farm which lie sold in 



1777 to Peter Stone, Sr. After selling this 
fiirm he lived on the one now owned by Henry 
J. Dunham. He took a prominent part iu the 
affairs of the town and the church, being one 
of the deacons of the latter. Together with 
Colonel Samuel King, he represented the town, 
after its union with Vci'mont, iu the Asscml>ly 
of that State. In 1770 he was .selectman, and 
in 1776 coroner for Cheshire ( 'onnty. His wife 
was Abigail Bancroft. He died April 25, 1S(I6, 
in his seventy-second year. 

E/,i!.\ Tins, son of Joseph and Mary (Bige- 
low) Titus, was born in Chesterfield January 
15, 178!). 

]>eing of a .studious turn of mind and fond 
of mathematical studies, he is .slid to have ap- 
plied himself so assiduously to these in his 
early years as to have seriously overtasked his 
brain — a circum.stance which caused him to 
change his course of life. He, nevertheless, fol- 
lowed .school-teaching to a considerable extent, 
and acquired the reputation of being one of the 
best teachers of his time. After his marriage 
he also engaged in farming in this town, and 
for a while held a colonel's commission in the 
New Hampshire militia. He also hel<l the 
office of .selectman in 1836 and '47. His wife 
was Electa, daughter of John Kneeland, Es(p 
He died Mdvch 25, 1869. One of his .sons, 
Herbert B. Titus, was an officer in the Federal 
army during the ('ivil War. 

Du. Josiir.v Tyi.kh came from Brookficld, 
Mass., and settled in Chesterfield, probably be- 
tween 1776 and '81. He located at the Centre 
village, where he built the large house in which 
his son, Rolston (i. Tyler, lived many years, 
and which is now occupied by Sewall F. Hugg. 
He })racticed his profession in this town many 
years, and died June 11, 1807, aged forty-nine 
years. His wife, Judith Ayres, died August 
11, 1854, aged ninety-one years. 

N.vniANiEE Walton, a .son of Lawrence 
Walton, one of the early settlers of Chester- 
field, married Mary, daughter of Eli Pattridge, 
of this town, and settled here. He was a black- 



CHESTERFIELD. 



177 



sinith by trade aud uoted for his extraordinary 
plivr^ical strength. It is said of him that he 
could pick up his anvil by the horn and earry it 
some distance. He was also a celebrated wrest- 
ler, aud is said to have rarely found his match. 
He died April 25, 1817, in his sixty-first year. 
One of his sons, Xathauiel Walton, Jr., was a 
farmer in Chesterfield, and served the town as 
a selectman twelve yeai-s, viz.: 1822—25, 1827- 
2!», 1834, 1842-44, 1846. He was also a rep- 
resentative in the General Court iu 1844 and 
'46. He died April 12, 1872. One of the 
sons of Nathaniel, Jr., ]\Iilo Walton, became a 
prominent citizen of Amity, Me., where he en- 
gaged extensively in fruit-culture. 

Peter Wheeler, born probably about 1733, 
served seven years with Captain Patch, of Lit- 
tleton, ilass., as an apprentice to the trade of 
carpenter and joiner. He married Olive Davis, 
and lived a while in Littleton. July 23, 1762, 
he purchased in Chesterfield lot Xo. !•, in the 
fifteenth range ; aud January 22, 17C6, house- 
lots Nos. 1 and 2, in the twelfth range. He 
settled where Russell H. Davis now lives, not 
far from the brook that bears his name. It is 
said thiit he helped build the " old meeting- 
house," and that he took an active part in pro- 
moting the welfare of the new town. He ap- 
pears to iiavo died about 1814. 

His great-grandson, Hon. Hoyt H. Wheeler, 
is judge of the LTnited States District Court for 
the district of Vermont. 

ASHBEL Wheei^er, SOU of Benjamin and 
Sarah (Hari-is) Wheeler, born in this town 
Xovember 26, 1785, married Diana, daughter 
of Eleazer Randall (1st), and settled here. 

For many years he was a well-known ujer- 
chant and distiller at the We.st village, being 
also engaged, a part of the time, in farming. 
Commencing business with little or no capital, 
save his own native tact and shrewdness, he suc- 
ceeded iu acijuiriug a considerable fortune. He 
was also a violin-player, and iu his early aud 
middle manhood was extensively employed to 

plav at balls and " kitchen-dances.'' The store \ 

I 

12 



which he established at the West village was 
extensively patronized, and was long one of 
the principal stores in the town. He died June 
20, 1866. 

Nathax AVied, son of Benjamin Wild, born 
in Xorton, Mass., June 14, 1787, came to Ches- 
terfield with his father in 1801. 

In his youth he had a fondness for mathe- 
matical studies, which he pursued at home, with 
the assistance of his brother David. Xathan 
applied himself assiduously to the study of sur- 
veying and astronomy, and soon became one of the 
most skillful surveyors in the State, and an 
asti'onomer of considerable proficiency. After his 
marriao-e he settled on a farm situated near the 
present stage-road leading from Factory vil- 
lage to Keene, about one mile from the former 
place. 

This farm is at present owned by Rev. 
T. Ii. Fowler. He now eniraged not onlv in 
practical farming and surveying, but iu the 
publication of an almanac, known for a while 
as " The Improved New England Almanack 
and Ejjhemeris," and afterwards as " The Far- 
mer's, Mechanic's and Gentleman's Almanack." 
He appeal's to have begun the publiciition of 
his almanacs about 1819, aud they were gener- 
ally, though not always, printed by John 
Prentiss, at Keene. 

Not only was Mr. Wild a practical farmer, 
surveyor, astronomer and almanac-maker, but 
he also held several important civil offices. He 
was selectman from 1820 to 1825, and repre- 
sentative in the General Court in 1831 and 
1832. In 1833 and 1834 be was a member of 
the New Hampshire Senate. 

His wife, whom he married in 1814, was 
Rachel Newcombe. She died in Greene County, 
Ind., in 1840. He died in Chesterfield March 
5, 1838, aud his botly was interred in the vil- 
lage cemetery at Factoiy village. His son, 
Nathan R. Wild, was also a surveyor and civil 
engineer. He married, in 1838, Maria E. 
Wood, a granddauirhter of Rev. Abraham 
Wood, and removed to Greene County, Ind., 



178 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



in 1840, where he died April 7, 1851, in his 
tliirty-sixth year. 

Captain Simon Wii.t^akd, probably fnnu 
Winchester, appears to have settled in Chester- 
field about 1788. He married, about the same 
time, Molly King, the widow of Colonel Samuel 
King. He lived in this town till about 1813, 
when he removed to Winchester, where he died 
at a great age. He represented Chesterfield in 
the General Court in 1794-9G, 1801-7, or 
ten years in all. 

Eev. Abraham Wood, a descendant of Wil- 
liam Wood, who came to this country from 
England in 1G38 was the first settled minister 
of the Cono-reg-ational Church in Chesterfield. 
His ancestor, William Wood, was the author of 
a book entitled " New England's Prospects." 
The following extracts are from a sketch of the 
life of Rev. Abraham Wood, written by his 
grandson, Professor Alphonso Wood, the bot- 
anist. 

" Eev. Abraham Wood was born in Sudbury, Mass., 
A.D. 1748 (Sept. 26); was educated iu Harvard Uni- 
versity and graduated witli the class of 1767. June 
4, 1771, he was married to Sarah Loring, of Hiugham, 
Mass., granddaughter of the Rev. Israel Loring, and 
both were soon on their way, by a perilous journey, 
into the then all-pervading wilderness of New Hamp- 
shire. Here, in the township of Chesterfield, a.d. 
1772, he began a ministry which was to continue 
without interruption unto the end of his days. His 
annual salary was fixed at £80,' and assumed as a 
town charge, and paid, like other municipal expenses, 
from the public treasury. His parish was co-exten- 
sive witli the township, and throughout he was rev- 
erenced and beloved almost without exception. His 
advice or approbation was sought in all public affairs, 
alike in civil, military, educational and religious. He 
not only ministered iu the church, but solemnized 
their marriages, baptized their children, buried their 
dead, inspected their schools, addressed their martial 
parades, and in their family gatherings was a welcome, 
nay, an indispensable guest. 

" His sermons were generally written out, and ever 
true to the orthodoxy of the Pilgrim Fathers, not- 
withstanding the tide of Arianism which began to 



1 His salary was first fixed at £05, but was raised in 
1792 to £80. 



sweep the churches of New England in the latter part 
of his ministry. 

"In speech he was anini.ated and inspiring, with a 
clear and ringing voice, and a style that ajipealed to 
the reason and conscience, rather than to the imagi- 
nation of his hearers. 

" The last five years of his life were subject to much 
infirmity, so that, at his own request, the Rev. John 
Walker was called and installed by the church as 
colleague pastor. To facilitate this measure, he gen- 
erously declined his salary' in favor of his colleague, 
accepting for himself thereafter only the voluntary 
offerings of his people. 

" During this period he continued to preach only 
occasionally. On the great occasion of the fifty-first 
anniversary of his ministry in Chesterfield he was 
once more in his pulpit, and preached to a crowded 
assembly, reviewing the events of his long and happy 
connection with that people as their spiritual guide. 
This was his last public effort. 

" In person Mr. Wood was of medium height, with 
a full habit, smooth face, florid complexion and an 
attractive face, as shown iu a life-size portrait painted 
by Belknap." 

He died October 18, 1823. His widow sur- 
vived him twenty years, and died in Indiana at 
the age of ninety-three years. 

One of his sons, Abraham Wood, Jr., lived 
many years in Chesterfield, on tlie jwternal 
farm, and was town clerk from 1818 to 1833. 
In 1839 he removed to Greene County, Ind., 
where he died September 24, 184G. His wife 
was Patty, daughter of Asa Button, of Dum- 
merston, Vt. 

Professor Alphonso Wood, son of Abra- 
ham Wood, Jr., was born September 17, 1810. 
His first fifteen years were spent at liome in 
the old manse, dividing his time between rural 
occupations and study in the village school and 
the academy. After this his winters were 
employed in teaching village schools in other 
towns, — notably in Keene, Walpole, Clare- 
mont, Fitzwilliam, Vernon, Newburyport, — 
until the date of his graduation at Dartmouth 
College, a.d. 1834. Immediately after this 
event he was called to Kimball Union Acad- 
emy, at Meriden, as teacher of natural science 
and Latin, where, M'ith an interruption of one 



CHESTERFIELD. 



179 



year only, he remained during the next fifteen 
years. This one year he spent at Audover, 
Mass., in the study of theology, endeavoring 
to fulfill the long-cherished purpose of his 
parents. But his theological training was cut 
short by a peremptory summons to return to 
Meriden. Soon after this, Mr. Wood was 
licensed, after examination, by the Sullivan 
CV)unty Assoc-iation as a preacher of the gospel, 
but his ministry was confined to the army of 
students that filled the academy (from two hun- 
dred to three hundred) and occasional services 
in the neighboring churches. 

It was during his residence in Meriden that 
he first conceived the purpose of preparing a 
class-book of botany. The purpose arose very 
naturally, — first, from his excessive fondness 
for the science, and secondly, from his felt 
necessities as a teacher of natural history. 

Devoting his leisure hours and vacations 
largely to botanical excui-sions and studies, 
seven years passed, till 1<S45, when the "Class- 
Jjook " was first issued. The work was not 
stereotyped, being with the publishers a mere 
experiment, and only fifteen hundred copies 
were printed. 

A demand unexjiectcdly great soon ex- 
hausted this edition. 

In preparing for a new issue, Mr. Wood 
passed the spring and summer of 1846 in the 
Western States, whither his parents had then 
removed, botanizing in the prairies and barrens, 
in order to extend the limits of his flora as far 
west as the ISIississippi River. He was ac- 
companied by his wife, Lucy, and son, Frank 
Alphonso, then two years old. 

In the spring of 1849, on account of ira- 
]iaired health, he resigned his connection with 
the Kimball Union Academy, and entered the 
more active service of civil engineer in the 
construction of a I'ailway from Rutland, Vt., 
to Albany, N. Y. 

From 1852 to 1858 he was engaged in 
teaching in Cleveland, Ohio, and at College 



Hill, near Cincinnati. In 1858 he established, 
in connection with Mr. Covert, the Tcrre 
Haute (Ind.) Female College ; but in 1860 
removed to Brooklyn, N. Y. The " Class 
Book " was now an important interest. To 
extend the area of its flora. Professor Wood 
had made an ex})loration of the Southern 
States, lasting six months of the year 1857. 
In 1861 he opened the Brooklyn Female 
Academy, but was again induced by love of his 
favorite science to resume his investigations. 
Accordingly, he embarked for California in 
October, 1865. 

In the Pacific States he sojourned one year 
in constant travel, surveying the mountains, 
the mines, the rocks, the peoples, and especially 
the plants of that glorious laud, from San 
Diego to Puget's Sound, and returning, by the 
way of the Isthmus, in November, 1866. 

In the spring of 1867, having transferred 
his interests in Brooklyn, he once more col- 
lected his family into a new home in the 
village of West Farms, a suburb of the city 
of New York (and now annexed to it), on the 
north. Here he sufilired affliction in the death 
of his wife, Lucy. 

While he resided at West Farms, Professor 
Wood was employed in revising and rejiublisli- 
ing his botanical works, and in performing the 
duties connected with the chair of Ijotany in 
the New York College of Pharmacy. He 
sometimes also preached, as openings in the 
churches occurred. 

He was the authw- of the following works, 
which are all published at present by A. S. 
Barnes & Co.: 

The "Class-Book of Botany," "Object- 
Lessons in Botany," " The Botanist and Flor- 
ist," "Monograph of the Liliaceie of the 
United States," "The Plant Record," "Flora 
Atlantica," " How to Study Plants " (written 
conjointly with Professor Steele). 

Professor Wood died at his home at West 
Farms, after a short illness, January 4, 1881. 



HISTORY OF DUBLIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

Geograpliical — Original Grant — Names of Grantees — Divi- 
sion of Grant — Provisions of Grant — Tlie First Settlements 
— Names of Pioneers — Incorporation of Town — First 
Town-Meeting — Secoml Town-Meeting — Voters in 1770 
— Tax-List of 1771 — Prices of Commodities in 1777. 

The town of Duhlin lies in the Eastern jxirt 
of the county, and is bounded as follows: 

Noith, by Harrisville ; East, by Hillsbor- 
ough County ; South, by JafFrey ; West, by 
Marlborough. 

This town, originally known as Monadnock, 
No. 3, was granted November '.i, ] 749, by the 
Masonian proprietors, to " Matthew Thornton, 
Sampson Stoddard, "William Spaulding, Joseph 
French, Zachariah Stearnes, Peter Powers, Rob- 
ert Fletcher, Junier, Eleaz' Blanchard, Foster 
Wentworth, Josiah Swan, Isaac Riudge, John 
Rindge, Ezekiel Carpenter, Benjam" Bellows, 
John Combs, Stephen Powers, Henry Wallis, 
Samuel Kenny, EbenezerGillson, Jeremiah Nor- 
cross, Isaiah Lewis, Ezra Ctirpentcr, Enos Law- 
rence, William Cummings, Mark Hunkin, Joseph 
Jackson, Thomas Wibird, Jeremiah Lawrence, 
John Usher, Nathan' Page David Page, Samuel 
Farley, Daniel Emerson, Josejih Blancliard 
Jun', Thomas Parker Jun", Anthony Wibird, 
Francis Worster, .Jonathan Cummings, David 
Wilson and Clement March Esq'." 

The deed of grant (says ]\Ir. Charles Mason, 
in his address) was given by Colonel Joseph 
Blanchard, of Dunstable, pursuant, as the reci- 
tal states, to the power vested in him by the 
proprietors, by a vote passed at a meeting lield 
180 



at Portsmouth, in .June preceding. This grant, 
embracing a territory of thirty-five stpiare miles, 
— being seven miles in length and five in breadth, 
— was made upon certain conditions, of which 
the most intportant were that — 

The whole tract of land was to be divided 
into seventy-one equal shares, each share to con- 
tain three lots, e(juital)ly coujiled together, and 
to be drawn for, at Dunstable, on or before the 
1st day of July, 1750. 

Three shares were to be appropriated, free of 
all charge, "one for the first settled minister in 
the town, one for the support of the ministry, 
and one for the school there^ forever ;" and 
one lot of each of these tin-ee shares was to be 
first laid out near the middle of the town, in the 
most convenient place, and lots coupled to them, 
so as not to be drawn for. 

The lots were to be laid out at the expense of 
the grantees, and within four years from the 
date of the grant forty of the shares, or rights, 
as they were called, were to be entered upon, 
and three acres of land, at the least, cleared, in- 
closed and fitted up for mowing or tillage ; and, 
within six months then next, there was to be, 
on each of these forty settling shares, a house 
built, the room sixteen feet square, at the least, 
fitted and furnished for comfortable dwelling, 
and some person resident in it, and to continue 
inhabitancy there for three years, with the ad- 
ditional imjirovemcnt of two acres a year for 
each settler. 

A good, convenient meeting-house was to be 
built, as near the centre of the town as might be 



DUBLIN. 



181 



with convenieuce, within six years from the date 
of the grant, and ten acres reserved there for 
public use. 

All white-pine trees, fit for masting His Maj- 
esty's Royal navy, were granted to him and his 
heirs and successors forever. 

There was a proviso that, in case of any In- 
dian war happening within any (if the terms 
and limitations for doing the duty conditioned 
in the grant, the same time should be allowed 
for the respective matters after such impedi- 
ment should be removed. 

The township was accordingly divided into 
lots, making ten ranges running through it from 
east to west, with twenty-two lots iii each range, 
or two hundred and twenty lots in all. The 
lots varied considerably, especially in length. 
They were drawn for on the first Tuesday of 
June, 1750. The seventy-one shares, of three 
lots each, would, of course, leave seven lots un- 
drawn. Some of these, thougli not all, were 
upon the Monadnock. 

The terms of settlement and the like, imposed 
by the grant, cannot have been complied with, 
to the extent specified, till certaiidy more than 
ten years later than the times prescribed. 
Whether the grantors dispensed with the condi- 
tions as to time, on the score of Indian wars ap- 
prehended, or for any other cause tacitly waived 
those conditions, or whetiier they granted an ex- 
tension of the times, does not appear. 

Of the first settlement of the town but little 
is known with accuracy or certiiinty. The first 
settler was William Thornton, jirobably in the 
year 1852. His daughter, Molly Thornton, it 
is said, was the first child born in the township. 
He remained but a few years, — it is not knowu 
how long, — when he abandoned his .settlement, 
it is supposed through fear of the Indians, and 
never returned. He was a brother of ]\Iatthew 
Thornton, who was the first named, as he was 
by far the most distinguished, of the proprietors 
of the township, and was much the largest land- 
owner in it, having, at one time, it would ap- 
pear, twenty-eight shares, or eighty-four lots. 



The settlers who next came into the township 
were Scotch-Irish, as they were called, being 
the descendants of Scotch people who had settled 
in the north of Ireland, whence they came 
to this country, and established themselves at 
Londonderry and elsewhere, and, at a later 
date, settled in Peterl)orougli and numerous 
other towns. As early as 17G0, or thereabouts, 
there were in the town, of this description of 
persons, John Alexander, William McNee, 
Alexander Scott, and William Scott, his son; 
James Taggart, and his son, William Taggart ; 
and perhaps others. They came mostly from 
Peterborough. Henry Strongman came at a 
later day. With the exception of him, none of 
tliis class of settlers became permanent inhabit- 
ants of the townshiji. They left probably at 
different times, but all prior to the year 1771, 
as none of them are found upon the tax-list of 
that year. Most or all of them returned to 
Peterborongli. This William Scott is the same 
Captain William Scott, of Peterborough, who, in 
his youth, served in the French W^ar, and who 
signalized himself by gallant achievements dur- 
insc the W^ar of the Revolution, and bv ho less 
heroic deeds in scenes of danger afterwards. 

As early as 1762 several of the settlers from 
Sherborn, Mass., were in the township, and 
worked upon the roads. Probably none of 
them established themselves here that year. 
During the next two years several became per- 
manent inhabitants. Among the earliest settlers 
were Thomas INIorse, Levi Partridge, William 
Greenwood, Samuel Twitchell, Joseph Twit- 
chell, Jr., Ivory Perry, Benjamin Mason, Moses 
Adams, Silas Stone and Eli Morse. 

Of the first settlers. Captain Thomas INIorse 
appears to have been the leading man. He was 
doubtless the oldest person in the settlement, 
being sixty-three or sixty-four years of age 
when he came to reside here. He was a man of 
stability and force of character, and, it is said, 
of remarkable shrewdness. Withal, he was 
ardently attached to the cause of liberty. He 
was the first captain of the earliest military 



182 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



company in the town. His commission bore 
date June 2, 1774. 

From 1763 the population of the township 
increased with considerable rapidity. New 
settlers came in from various places, — Sherborn? 
Natick, Medfield, HoUiston, Framingham, 
Temple, Amherst and elsewhere. Of the ear- 
lier settlers, by far the greater number came 
from Sherborn. There is no means of ascer- 
taining what was the population of the town at 
any date prior to 1775, when it was three hun- 
dred and five. A census of New Hamp- 
shire was taken in 1767 by the selectmen of 
each town and place ; but there is no return 
from this township. There was probably no 
formal organization existing at that time, and 
conscipiently no officers to take the census. 

A political organization of the inhabitants 
was effected in 1768, as appears by a record 
among the old papers of the town, which 
recites that, "at a meeting of the inhabitants 
of Monadnock, No. 3, by order of the General 
Court," held November 16, 1768, John GoflPe, 
Esq., moderator, the following officers were 
chosen : Moses Adams, Eli jNIorse, John Muz- 
zey, assessors ; Joseph Greenwood, clerk ; Henry 
Strongman, collector; Moses Adams, commis- 
sioner of assessment. Aj)pended, of the same 
date, is a certificate of the justice that the above 
officers were legally chosen, according to an act 
of the General Court, and were sworn to the 
faithful discharge of their respective offices. 
This John Gotfe is presumed to have been 
Colonel John Goffe, of Bedford. The organi- 
zation thus established was preserved, and like 
officers were chosen aiuuially, in March, till the 
town was incorjiorated. 

The incorporation of the town took place in 
March, 1771. The petition tor the purpose, to 
the Governor of the province, ai)2iears to have 
been signed by Josiah Willard, Jr., as " the 
aaent for and in behalf of the inhabitants and 
settlers." It sets forth, as the main ground of 
the application, that Dublin is rated among the 
towns and parishes in the province for the 



province tax, and that the place " is not legally 
qualified to raise and collect said taxes, whereby 
they may be construed delinquents if the same 
should be omitted." The petitioner also begs 
leave to suggest to His Excellency "that the 
said Dublin is presumed to be sufficiently in- 
habited and convenient for incorporation." 
The petition was dated March 25th, and a char- 
ter was forthwith granted, bearing date the 29th 
of the same month. 

For his services in this behalf Mr. Willard 
received from the town thirty-two dollars, as 
appears by his receipt, dated Keene, October 
10, 1771. To meet this expenditure, the town, 
at the second town-meeting, held May 29, 
1771, made a specific appropriation, though it 
seems they had not got their ideas up fully to 
the exigency of the case, as the sum they appro- 
priated was less by two dollars and a half than 
the amount of the bill. Jk'sides the money 
paid him by the town, he received, as is shown 
by his receipt, seven shillings ami six-pence, 
" in full satisfaction for services done the pro- 
prietors of Dublin in obtaining a charter." 

The charter thus granted was, doubtless, sub- 
stantially the same as was usually granted to 
towns in those times. It issues in the name of 
" George the Third, by the grace of God, of 
Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, De- 
fender of the Faith, and so forth." It contains 
a reservation of all white-pine trees upon the 
land " fit for the use of our Eoyal Navy." 
This reservation of pine ship-timber was in 
])ursuauce of acts of Parliament relating to the 
preservation of His Majesty's woods in America. 
We do not, however, learn that any re(|uisition 
for the article was ever made upon the town- 
ship, either prior or subsequent to the act of 
incorporation. 

The town was incorporated by the name of 
Dublin. In the petition for incorporation it is 
described as a tract of land "commonly called 
and known by the name of Dublin (or ]Monad- 
nock. No. 3)." When or how long it had been 
commonly known by the name of Dublin does 



DUBLIN. 



183 



uot appear. Up to that time the name does 
not occur, so far as I have seen, in any of the 
papers of the proprietors or of the township. 
It is commonly understood that the town was 
named from Dublin, Ireland. Why it should 
have been is not obvious, as it is pretty mani- 
fest that, before the incorporation of the town, 
all the Scotch-Irish who had ever been resident 
in it had removed, with the exception of one, — 
Henry Strongman. But he, it is said, was born 
in Dul)lin, and that circumstance may have set- 
tled the ])oint. At all events, it is just as hard 
to tell why it should not have been so named, 
since it must necessarily have some name, and 
it might as well be called Dublin as anything 
else. 

In the deed of grant from the proprietors 
the township w-as described as " Xorth Monad- 
nock, or Number Thi-ee," the names being in 
the alternative. In the papers of the original 
proj)rietor's clerk, Joseph Blanchard, Jr., and 
others emanating from non-residents, it is styled, 
pretty uniformly, " The Xorth jNIonadnock 
Township." By the residents it appears to 
have been called, commonly, " ]\Ionadnock, No. 
.'5." Sometimes the two designations were run 
together, making it " North Monadnock, No. 3." 

To understand why either the " North " or 
tlie "Number" should have been ajiplied, it is 
to be borne in mind that "Monadnock" was a 
name of pretty extensive use in these regions. 
Thus, Rindge, otherwise called Rowley Canada, 
was Monadnock, No. 1 ; Jaflfrey, called Middle 
Monadnock, or sometimes Middletown, was 
Monadnock, No. 2 ; Dublin, or North Monad- 
nock, was Monadnock, No. 3 ; Fitzwilliam, 
Monadnock, No. 4 ; ^Marlborough, called orig- 
inally New Marlborough, was jNIonadnock, No. 
5 ; Nelson, formerly Packersfield, was Monad- 
nock, No. 6 ; Stoddard, which was Limerick, 
was, it is presumed, Monadnock, No. 7 ; and 
Washington, formerly Camden, was Monad- 
nock, No. 8. 

The meeting for the organization of the 
town, under the charter, was called, as provided 



in the instrument, by Thomas Morse, and was 
held May (5, 1771. Mr. Morse was moderator. 
The first Board of Selectmen, then chosen, were 
Thomas Morse, Henry Strongman and ISenja- 
min Mason. Joseph Greenwood was chosen 
town clerk. 

Mr. Greenwood, for twenty years or more 
next after this time, was by far the most prom- 
inent business man in the town. He was town 
clerk in 1771, and from 1776 for seventeen 
years successively, during which time lie was 
also selectman ten years and town tre^isurer some 
part of the time. He represented Dublin in 
the convention of delegates which met at Ex- 
eter, May 17, 1775. He was likewise a noted 
schoolmaster. Furthermore, he was the first 
justice of the j)eace in the town. For some 
years they had been obliged to send for a jus- 
tice of the peace from a distani'C when one was 
re([uired. In the ti-easurer's account, settled in 
1776, is fiMuid an item : " Paid Esq. Hale, for 
swearing town officers, two years, twelve shil- 
lings." Precisely when ]\Ir. Greenwood was 
appointed does not ap[>car ; but it was before 
May, 1777. 

At the second town-meeting, held I\Iay 29, 
1771, the town granted fifteen pounds for 
preaching. The money appears to have been ex- 
pended in the course of the summer, as, in Sej)- 
tember of the same year, they voted to have a 
month's preaching that fall and granted nine 
pounds for the purpose. 

The whole number of voters in Dublin in 
1770 was only twenty-three. A list of these 
voters, certified by Joseph Twitchell and John 
Muzzey, two of the assessors of that year, con- 
tains the ibllowing names : Levi I'artridge, 
Thomas Morse, Eli Morse, William Green- 
wood, Joseph Greenwood, Joseph Adams, Asa 
Norcross, Henry Strongman, Silas Stone, Ivory 
Perry, Samuel Twitchell, Moses Mason, .ftiel 
Wight, Joseph Twitchell, Ebeuezer Twitchell, 
Reuben Morse, Daniel Morse, Benjamin Mason, 
Moses Adams, John Muzzey, Eleazer Twitch- 
ell, Joshua Lealaud, Edward West Perry. 



184 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The (jualificatioo for a voter at that period 

was " twenty pounds estate to one single rate, 

beside the poU." Following is tax -list for 1771 : 

£ s. d. 

" Levi Partridge 2 6 

Tliomas Morse 3 10 G 

Eli Morse 3 1 6 

Joshua Lealand 12 6 

William Greenwood 3 7 

Joseph Adams 2 6 (3 

Asa Norcross 1 15 

Joseph Greenwood 2 2 

Josiah Greenwood 14 6 

CalebHill 11 6 

Henry Strongman 2 6 

Silas Stone 1 14 

Ivory Perry I 18 

Isaac Bond 3 

Samuel Twitchell 2 6 

Moses Mason 19 

Simeon Ballard 15 

Joseph Twitchell 1 12 6 

Benjamin Learned 110 

Simeon Johnson 16 

Moses Johnson 13 6 

Ebenezer Twitchell 1 15 

Joseph Morse 14 

Eleazer Twitchell 13 

Reuben Morse 1 18 6 

Thaddeus Mason 1 14 

John Eanstead 18 

Daniel Morse 1 16 

Benjamin Mason 2 11 6 

Daniel Morse 1 10 6 

Moses Adams 4 8 

William Beal 1 1 

John Wight 19 6 

John Muzzey 1 17 

Elias Knowlton 1 6 

John Knowlton 12 6 

Robert Muzzey 1 8 

Ezra Twitchell 1 15 6 

Joseph Mason 10 

David Johnson IS 

Daniel Greenwood 18 

Jonathan Knowlton 18 

Samuel Ames, jun 4 

Daniel Wood..'. IS 3 

Rufus Huntley 18 

Nathaniel Bates 18 

Gershora Twitchell 18 

Joseph Turner , 3 

Joseph Drury 4 

Benoni Death 1 6 

John Swan 4 

Caleb Greenwood 2 ,0 

Thomas Muzzey 18 

John Morrison 16 

"Sum total £72 18 6 

" Or $246.42." 



The following is a list of priees in 1771 : 

" Dublin, July 10, 1777. — We, the suliscribers, being 
appointed by the town of Dublin to state the ]irices 
of sundry commodities, transferrable from one person 

to another, having met and considered the matter, 
have resolved that the prices hereafter annexed shall 
be the prices for all such articles within our town, 
viz : — 

£ s. d. 

" Wheat, per bushel 6 

Rye and malt, per bushel 4 

Indian corn, per bushel 3 

Oats, per bushel 1 8 

Peas, per bushel 6 

Beans, per bushel 6 

Cheese, per pound 6 

Butter, per pound 9 

Carriage of salt, for every ten miles land 

carriage, per bushel 10 

Flax, per pound 10 

Sheep's wool, per pound 2 2 

Yarn stockings, per pair 6 

Men's all-wool cloth, well-dressed, per 

yard 8 

Men's farming labor, July and August, per 

month 3 

And by the day 3 

May, June and September, per month... 2 10 

And by the day 2 6 

April and October, per month 1 15 

And by the day 2 3 

February, March and November, per 

month 14 

And by the day 2 

December and January, per month 18 

Carpenters and house-joiners, per day 4 

Mill-wright and mason, per day 4 6 

Hay in the field, per ton 1 10 

Hay after secured, per ton 2 

Making men's shoes, per pair 3 

And others in proportion. 

Pasturing a horse, per week 2 

I'asturing oxen, per week 2 6 

Pasturing a cow, per week 10 

A yoke of oxen, per day's work 1 6 

Pasturing a horse, per night 8 

Keeping a horse by hay, per night 1 

Oxen a night by grass 1 

Oxen a night by hay 1 6 

Two quarts of oats 3 

A meal of victuals 10 

Ijodging, per night 3 

Boarding a man, per week 6 

Good flax-seed, per bushel 6 



" Henry Strongman, ] 
" William Greenwood, i 



Committee.'' 



Reuben Morse and Moses Adaius, members 
of the above committee, did not sign the report. 



DUBLIN. 



185 



CHAPTER II. 

D\J BLIN—{CoHiiiiue<l). 

MILITARY HISTORY. 

Warof tlie Kevolntion — Resolutions of the Town — The Asso- 
ciation Test — Names of Signers — List of Soldiers — AV'ar 
of the Kehellion — Names of Soliliers. 

War op the Revolution. — Tlie first refer- 
ence in the old town records to the War of the 
Revolution is under date of Novemher 28, 
1774, when twelve pounds was voted for town 
stock of ammunition. 

In March, 1775, the town chose a Coiuinittee 
of Inspection, who were to see that the resolves 
of the Continental Congress were enforced. 

" Dublin, July 25, 1775. — Whereas the Committee 
of Inspection in this town have this day met to con- 
sider of the complaint made by Ebeuezer Hill against 
Willard Hunt, wherein said Hill complains that said 
Hunt hath in an unjust manner seized his property 
in taking possession of some hay which he had on a 
meadow belonging to Samuel Ames, Jr.; and it aji- 
pears to us by evidence that the hay is Hill's property, 
and that Hunt h.ath seized on it in an unjust and vio- 
lent manner : 

'' Therefore, Voted that said Hunt immediately de- 
sist and let said Hill enjoy his property, or he shall 
be treated as a disorderly person and an enemy to the 
peace and good order of society. 

" Voted that the above pass as a resolve of this com- 
mittee. 

" Benja Mason, Chairman." 

In March, 1776, the Continental Congress 
passed a resolve recommending to the several 
assemblies, conventions and councils, or Com- 
mittees of Safety, of the United Colonies, 
immediately to cause all persons to be dis- 
araied, within their respective colonies, wlio 
were notoriously disaffected to the cause of 
America, or who refused to associate to defend, 
by arms, the colonies against the hostile at- 
tempts of Great Britain. A copy of this reso- 
lution was transmitted to the selectmen of the 
several towns by the Committee of Safety for 
the colony of New Hampshire, with a circular 
from them bearing date April 12, 1770, of the 
following: tenor : 



"In order to carry the unwritten Resolve of the 
honorable Continental Congress into execution, you 
are requested to desire all males al)Ove twenty-one 
years of age (lun.atics, idiots and Negroes excepted), 
to sign the Declartition on this paper ; and, when so 
done, to make return thereof, together with the name 
or names of all who shall reftise to sign the same, to 
the General Assembly, or Committee of Safety of this 
Colony. 

"M. Weare, Chairman." 

The declaration referred to was as follows : 

" In consequence of the above Resolution of the 
Continental Congress, and to show our determination 
in joining our American brethren in defending the 
lives, liberties and properties of the inh.abitants of the 
United Colonies : 

" We, the subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage 
and promise, that we will, to the utmost of our power, 
at the risk of our lives and fortunes, with .arms, oppose 
the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and armies 
against the united American Colonies. 

" John Swan. Silas Stone, juu. 

Richard Gilchrest. Ezra Morse. 

Thomas Morse. Isaac Morse. 

Eli Morse. Isaac Bond. 

Joseph Greenwood. Silas Stone. 

Moses Adams. Thomas Alden. 

Daniel Morse. Josiah Greenwood. 

Joseph Twitchel. Moses Greenwood. 

Ebeuezer Twitchel. James Rollins. 

Samuel Twitchel. James Chamberlain. 

Stephen Twitchel. Thomas Lewis. 

Simeon Johnson. Samuel Williams. 

Ivory Perry. Ebeuezer Hill. 

Benjamin Learned. Abijah Twitchel. 

John Morse. Nathaniel Bate. 

Henry Strongman. Willi.am Strongmau. 

Joseph Adams. William Yardley. 

Benjamin Mason. John Wight. 

William Greenwood. Thomas Muzzey. 

Levi Partridge. Moses Pratt. 

Timothy Adams. Gershom Twitchel. 

Eli Greenwood. Caleb Stanford. 

John Knowlton. Jabez Pufler. 

Simeon Bullard. Phinehas Stanford. 

John Muzzey. Nathan Burnap. 

Moses Johnson. Gershom Twitchel, jun. 

Reuben Morse. Gardner Town. 

Richard Strongman. Oliver Wright." 

Ithamer Johnson. 

Dublin had four men, at least, at Bunker 
Hill, namely : Jonathan Morse, Richard Gil- 



186 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



christ, Thomas Green and John Swan. The 
last-named of these, it is said by Mr. Dun- 
bar, in his " History of Peterborougli," was on 
duty but not in tlie l)attle. Mr. Gilchrist prob- 
ably stived the life of his friend Green, who was 
severely wounded, bearing him off upon his 
back, in a fainting and almost expiring state, 
from the field of battle to IMedford. Mr. Dun- 
bar puts down Gilchrist, Green and Swan as 
belonging to Peterborough. But they were all 
three taxed for a poll-tax in Dublin in 1775, 
and must, therefore, have resided here on the 
1st of April of that year. Mr. Gilchrist, it 
is presumed, never lived in Peterborough. 

Jolin Swan was one of the most patriotic citi- 
zens of the town. 

Jonathan Morse must have been out duiing 
the greater part of the war. The author of the 
" Memorial of the Morses " represents him to 
have been in the battles of Bunker Hill, Ben- 
nington, Ticonderoga and Monmouth, and to 
have signalized himself bv deeds of dariuy; and 
acts of magnanimity, some of which he re- 
counts, and concludes with saying, " In short, 
Jonathan was so humane and honest, so rousrh 
and ready, that, had he lived to this time, he 
might have been President of the United 
States." 

Thomas Hardy was in the service for some 
time. There is a note given to him by the se- 
lectmen, on behalf of the town, dated April 17, 
1778, for sixty pounds, payable within ten 
months ; and one of like amount, date and tenor, 
to Jonathan Morse. 

In April, 1777, the town voted '• to give one 
hundred dollars to each man sent for to this 
town to join the three battalions now raisinof in 
this State." 

In August of the same year they made a con- 
tribution of " material aid " to the cause, which, 
though not of great magnitude, was of a kind 
to make some noise in the camp. The receipt 
shows what it was : 

" Dublin, August 3, 1777. Received of the Com- 
mittee of this town, two tin kittles, for the yuse of 



Genral Starks Briggade, Prised 14 shillings. Re- 
ceived by me, 

" Samsox Powers." 

At the March meeting, in 1779, a committee 
was chosen to hire three soldiers for the Con- 
tinental battalions during the war. The sol- 
diers were not forthcoming, it would seem. In 
February, 1781, a committee was chosen to hire 
the town's (|uota of men, to serve in the Con- 
tinental army for three years, or during the 
war, and empowered to engage, on behalf of tlie 
town, for payment of their hire. 

The three soldiers appear to have been found, 
eventually. One was Jonathan INIorse ; one 
was John Stone. The terms on which the lat- 
ter was hired appear, in part, from a receipt 
given by him to the committee. It is dated 
March 19, 1781, and sets forth that whereas he 
had received from the committee three notes (the 
amount of them is not stated), for which he was 
to serve three years in the Continental army, 
unless sooner dischargal, he promises that, if he 
does not serve above six months, he will have 
the contents of but one note ; if not above eigh- 
teen months, the contents of but two notes ; and 
if he is gone two years, he will have but two 
notes. iSIr. Stone probably died in the war or 
soon after its close, as in December, 1788, 
the toM-n passed a vote, " that the selectmen 
make such consideration to the widow Stone as 
they may think reasonable, on account of the 
advantage the town had of the depreciation of 
her late husband's wages," — a very proper and 
honorable vote, certainly. 

The other soldier was probably Hart Balch, 
as we find that in November, 1787, the town 
voted him five dollars for the damage he had 
sustained by not having the land cleared ac- 
cording to bargain, which the town was to clear 
for him for his service done in the army. There 
is also a receipt of his, dated April 26, 1784, 
acknowledging the receipt from the town of 
keeping for a cow, fire-wood and house-room 
for one year. 

It was a part of the arrangement, that the 
soldiers' work upon their land, and the like. 



DUBLIN. 



187 



should be carried on in their absence by the 
town. In April, 1781, a committee was chosen 
to appraise tlie labor to be done for the soldiei-s 
for the year, and to divide the town into classes, 
*' so that each man may know what he is to do 
and where to do it," — a very practical, common- 
sense reason. The same course was pursued in 
subsequent years. In 17S3 the town voted to 
receive rye, at five shillings a bushel, for pay- 
ing the soldiers' hire. Rye, by the way, was 
common currency in those days. Not only did 
private individuals make their contracts payable 
in that article, but the town trejisurer frequently 
gave and received, on behalf of the t(_)wn, notes 
and obligations payable in the same way. 

To provide the means of supporting its sol- 
diers in the army, it became necessary for the 
State to levy taxes upon the towns. Some- 
times the taxation was in the nature of raising 
a stated amount of specific articles, instead 
of money. Thus, they had a " beef-tax ; " 
and in August, 1781, an act was passed 
for supplying the Continental army with ten 
thousand gallons of West India rum, — of which 
the share assessed upon Dublin was forty-six 
and a half gallons. Any town neglecting sea- 
sonably to furnish its proportion was to for- 
feit " one Spanish milled dollar or other silver 
or gold equivalent, for each gallon in arrears." 
Instead of the West India, " good New Eng- 
land rum, in the proportion of six quarts of 
the latter to one gallon of the former," might 
be furnished as a substitute. It appears that 
Dublin, for some cause, failed to furnish its 
proportion of the article, — as the receipt of a 
deputy sheriif shows the payment, at a subse- 
quent time, by one of the selectmen, of the 
amount of the town's " rum-tax and cost," 
upon an extent, or execution. We can hardly, 
in view of the prevailing sentiments and 
customs of the times, pay our ancestors the 
compliment of supposing that their omission 
to provide the article, in specie, arose from any 
conscientious scruples on their part, as to the 
propriety of the use of it. 



Tlie following is a list of Revolutionary sol- 
diers from this town : 



John Swan. 
Richard Gilchrest. 
Thomas Green. 
Thomas Morse. 
John Morse. 
Henry Strongman. 
William Greenwood. 
Eli Greenwood. 
Reuben Morse. 
Richard Strongman. 
Ithamer Johnson. 
Ezra Morse. 
James Chamberlain. 



Nathaniel Bates. 
Samuel Twitchell. 
Lieut. Robert Muzzey. 
Hart Baleh. 
James Mills. 
Joshua Greenwood ( I). 
Jonathan Morse. 
Micah Morse. 
Micah Morse (1) 
Jabez Puffer. 
Thomas Hardy. 
John Stone. 
Benjamin Maaon. 



CHAPTER III. 

T)VBLll:f— {Continued). 
KCCLBSIASTICAL HISTOKY. 

Unitarian Church — Congregational Church — Physicians — 
Masonic — Post-Oifice — Social Library — Civil History — 
Town Clerks from 1771 to 1886— Representatives from 
1790 to 1886. 

The First Congregatioxal Society 
(Unitarian). — The first meeting-house was 
built by the proprietors by taxes assessed upon 
their shares. At their first meeeting held in 
the township, in September, 17(34, they fixed 
the place where the meeting-house should stand 
" by marking a tree and cutting down sevei'al 
small trees, near the east line of the eleventh 
lot in the sixth range, Avliere the land is to be 
set oif for the purpose, as also for a burying- 
place and training-field." The spot thus selected, 
and on which the meeting-house was eventually 
built, is upon the high ground, across the old 
road, northerly from the burying-ground. 
Notliing appears to have been done about the 
matter the next year, and nothing the year suc- 
ceeding, beyond choosing a committee to measiu'e 
off the ten acres and put up bounds. 

A meeting of the projirietors in May, 1767, 
is stated to have been " warned by Reuben 
Kidder, Esq., a justice of the peace, according 



188 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



to law." He lived in New Ipswich, and at- 
tended and presided at the meeting, at an ex- 
pense to the proprietors of eight shillings, as 
appears by his receipt. Probably the import- 
ance of the business to be transacted induced 
them to take this precaution in order to pre- 
vent all chance for calling in question the 
validity of their doings. At this meeting they 
voted to build a meeting-house " fifty feet long, 
thirty-eight feet wide, and proportionable as to 
the height, " and chose Moses Adams, Henry 
Strongman and William Greenwood a com- 
mittee " to take care to effect the work." 
They also voted to raise four dollars by tax 
on each right, to build the meeting-house. 

They were not jirecipitate in entering upon 
the work, however, it would seem ; since, at 
their next meeting, which was in December, 
1768, more than a year and a half afterwards, 
they tried a vote to see if the proi)rietors would 
reconsider their former vote relating to the 
dimensions of the meeting-house. But they re- 
fused to reconsider, and voted to build the 
house of the former dimensions, and also raised 
three dollars moi'e on each share towards build- 
ing it. 

In February, 1771, they granted five dollars 
on each right to carry on the building of 
the meeting-house. These three assessments, 
amounting to twelve dollars on a share, or six 
hundred dollars in the whole, are all the money 
ever raised by the proprietors for the purpose. 

The proprietors of the township had expended 
about six hundred dollars upon the meeting- 
house by the year 1773. In April of that year 
they voted not to raise any more money at pres- 
ent for that purpose. This was the last meeting 
held by the proprietors, until, ten years later, 
September 11, 1783, a meeting was called " to 
see if the proprietors would finish Iniilding the 
meeting-house, or give it to the town ; " and it 
was voted to give it to the town as their prop- 
erty. 

At a town-meeting, held October 13th of the 
same year, it was voted to accept of the meet- 



ing-house as a donation from the proprietors. 
At the same time they voted to finish the house 
and sell the pew-ground in it, except one pew on 
the right hand of the pulpit. Precisely how 
much had been done to the meeting-house uj) to 
that time is not known. Doubtless it was only 
rough-boarded upon the outside. The pew- 
ground M'as planned out in 1773 ; but it is pre- 
sumed that no pews Mere built, and probably 
no pulpit till after the house came into the 
possession of the town. It had then been used 
for a meeting-house some twelve years, and Mr. 
Sprague had been settled six years. 

The pew-ground, as it was termed, which was 
the space upon the floor on which the pews were 
to be built, was sold, in separate lots, to the 
highest bidder, with the restrictions that no 
man be allowed to purchase a pew-lot but an 
inhabitant of the town ; that the purchasers 
build the pews uniform, with handsome panel- 
work and a handsome banister on the top ; that 
pews on the walls of the house the owners 
should ceil up as high as the bottom of the 
windows; and that the floor of the pews should 
not be raised above eight inches from the floor 
of the house. The purchaser was required to 
build his pew when called on by the committee 
appointed to finish the meeting-house, or he 
forfeited his lot. There was a further provision 
in these words : " Every person that owns a 
pew shall occujiy no other seat in the meeting- 
house until his pew be as full seated as is com- 
fortable for those that seat it ; and, if any per- 
son owns more than one jiew, he shall not shut 
it up and keep people from sitting in it. 

The amount expended at this time appears, 
from a paper entitled " The Account of what 
the Committee have laid out toward finishing 
the Meetiug-House," to have been about six 
hundred dollars, — about the same sum that was 
originally laid out upon it. But this seems no 
to have fully satisfied everybody, since, in 
1788, we. find, in the town-meeting warrant, an 
article, " to see what method the town will 
take to finish the meeting-house." The article 



DUBLIN. 



189 



was, however, passed over " to some future 
naeeting," and it is a grave question, — if, indeed, 
tliere be any question al)out it, — wlietiier, in foot, 
the meeting-house was ever finished at all. 

The meeting-house was occupied in tlic win- 
ter of 1771. 

In 1808 it was voted " to build a new meet- 
ing-liouse," and a committee of nine were cho- 
sen " to pitch upon a place to set the meeting- 
house." This committee consisted of Samuel 
Twitchell, Esq., Asa Fisk, Jr., Eli Greenwood, 
Phinehas Gleason, David Townsend, Isaac Ap- 
pleton, Thaddeus Morse, Esq., John Morse and 
Aaron Appleton. They were required to make 
their report in August. No report was made 
in August, but in March, 1809, an article was 
inserted in the warrant " to see what method 
the town will take to agree where the new 
meeting-house shall be built, or act anything 
relating thereto." The article was dismissed. 
In March, 1810, the article was " to see if the 
town will build a new meeting-house, or repair 
the old one." This article met the same fate as 
that of 1809; but in August, ISIO, the town 
chose " Esq. Griffin, of Packersfield ; Esq. 
Farrar, of Marlborough; Esq. Gates, of Han- 
cock ; Lieut. Buss, of Jatfrey ; and Mr. Oliver 
Carter, of Peterborough, to pitch upon a spot 
for the meeting-house to stand upon in this 
town." This committee reported November 
26th, same year, and their report was accepted ; 
but the record does not say what spot they 
pitched upon for said meeting-house ; but it is 
supposed to have been north of Jose])h Apple- 
ton's blacksmith-shop. At an adjourned meet- 
ing, November 28th, the town voted " to do 
something relative to building a new meeting- 
house." What was meant by " something" in 
the foregoing vote is manifest from the succeed- 
ing votes : " Voted to choose a committee to let 
out the putting-up of a frame for a meeting- 
house. Eichard Gilchrest, Thaddeus Morse 
and Aaron Appleton were chosen for said com- 
mittee Voted that the frame should be raised 
one year from next June. Voted that the said 



committee provide suitable underpinning stones 
and door-steps ; likewise materials suitable to 
cover the outside of the frame, and to have it 
done the same season that the frame is put up. 
Voted that the committee have liberty to get 
timber on the town's lands. Voled that the 
selectmen procure a deed of the meeting-house 
spot." 

From this time until 1817 the town was in 
a constant turmoil in relation to the site for the 
new meeting-house. It was finally located on 
School-House Hill, and was completed in 1S18. 
This was used until 1852, when the present 
church was erected. 

The first pastor of the churcii was Rev. Jo- 
seph Farrar, who was ordained June 10, 1772, 
and remained until June 7, 177(5. He was 
su(;ceeded by Rev. Edward Sprague, November 
12, 1777, who remained until his death, in 1817. 
Rev. Levi Leonard was ordained September 6, 
1820. (He was author of the "History of 
Dublin," an excellent work of over four hun- 
dred pages, published in 1855.) He was suc- 
ceeded, in 1855, by Rev. William F. Bridge, 
who remained until 18(J5. Rev. George M. 
Rice was pastor from 186(3 to 1881. Rev. 
H. D. Catlin was settled in 1881 and is the 
present pastor. 

Congregational Church. — In conse- 
quence of a disagreement of a number of the 
members of the First Church with the doctrines 
of Rev. Mr. Leonard, they requested, in 1827, 
letters of dismission, which were granted, and 
November 21, 1827, the present Congregational 
Church was organized with the following mem- 
bers : Stephen J. Woods, Abijah Richardson, 
Thomas Hay, Luke Richardson, Martha 
Woods, Lucy Hardy, llebekah Hay and 
Elizabeth Richardson. 

While the Second Congregational Society oc- 
cupied the meeting-house their proportion of the 
year, the town refused to grant them the use of 
the town ball ; but, in 1829, the town " Voted that 
the Second Congregational Society have leave 
to occupy the Town Hall twelve Sabbaths, and 



190 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



that the First Congregational Society have the 
same privilege." 

In March, 1830, the vote of the town was, 
" that the Trinitarian Congregational Society in 
Dublin have leave to occupy the Town Hall 
for purposes of religious M'orship the ensuing 
year, on condition that they relinquish their 
privilege of occupying the new meeting-house 
on Sabbath-days, and insure the Town-House 
from injury by reason of their occupying the 
same." The society took the hall with the 
above condition, and occupied it till their brick 
church was completed, in 1836. In the mean 
time diiferent preachers were employed. The 
Rev. Samuel Harris remained as the hired pas- 
tor two years. The church was dedicated in 
1836, and the sermon on the occasion w;is 
preached by the Eev. Dr. Bouton, of Concord, 
N. H. Rev. James Tisdale, who graduated at 
Brown University, Rhode Island, was engaged 
in the summer of 1 836, and remained three years. 
The pastors since that time have been as fol- 
lows; Henry A. Kimball, 1840-50; Alonzo 
Hayes, 1851-53; E. F. Abbott, 1855-61; 
Nathan Sheldon, 1861 ; O.scar Bissell, 1862- 
63; Andrew J. Fosdick, 1867-69; Amos Hol- 
brook, 1872-73; John Bassett, 1875; Richard 
M. Burr, 1877-78; George B. Cutler, June 1, 
1884, — present incumbent. 

Physicians. — The first physician in Dublin 
wa.s Nathan Burnap, in 1776. Others have 
been, — Ward Eddy, A. INIaynard, Benjamin 
Hills, Samuel Hamilton, Moses Kidder, S. H. 
Spalding, Asa Heald, Daniel Carter, J. H. 
Foster, S. S. Stickney, Dr. Eaton, R. N. Porter, 
J. G. Parker. 

Masonic. — AUeviont Lodge No. 26 was char- 
tered June 14, 1815, with the following mem- 
bers : Amos Heald, Stephen Harrington, Rich- 
ard Strong, Adam Johnson, Levi Fisk, Joseph 
Hayward, Jr., Asa Fisk, Benjamin Hills and 
Alexander Millikin. A disjiensation from the 
Grand Lodge of New Hampshire " empowered 
the said Amos Heald and others to assemble at 
Dublin as a Lodge of Masons, to perfect them- 



selves in the several duties of Masourj', to make 
choice of officers, to make regulations and by- 
laws, and to admit candidates in the first degree 
of Masonry, all according to ancient customs of 
Masonry, and to be called Altemont Lodge." 
This warrant of dispensation was to continue in 
full force and authority till the second Wednes- 
day of June, Anno I^ucis 5816, unless the lodge 
was sooner installed. The first meeting, by 
virtue of this dispensation, was held at Free- 
masons' Hall in Dublin, July 3, A.L. 5815. 

The first officers were Amos Heald, Mas- 
ter ; Stephen Harrington, Senior Warden ; 
Richard Strong, Junior Warden ; Asa Fisk, 
Treasurer ; Peter Tuttle, Secretary ; Levi Fisk, 
Senior Deacon; William Warren, Junior Dea- 
con ; Aaron Lawrence, Josepli Gowing, Stew- 
ards ; David Ames, Jr., Tiler. 

May 7, a.l. 5816, it was " Voted to exclude 
the use of ardent spirit in this lodge, and substi- 
tute therefor crackers, cheese and cider." 

The lodge was subsequently removed to Peter- 
borough. The post-office in Dublin was estab- 
lished 1810 or 1814, with Cyrus Chamberlain, 
postmaster. 

The Dublin Social Lilirary was established 
in 1793. 

Schools were held in the town at an early 
day, but the first school-houses were not erected 
until 1778, when it'was voted to build two. 

Civil History. — The following is a list of 
town clerks from 1771 to 1886 : 

Joseph Greenwood, 1771, 72, 76, 77, 78, 79, '80, 
'81, '82, '83, '84, '85, '8G, '87, '88, '89, '90, '91, '92. 

Eli Morse, 1773, '74, '75. 

James Ernes, 1793. 

Andrew Allison, 1794, '95, '96,J97. 

Cyrus Chamberlain,' 1798 to 1820 and 1834. 

Joseph Appleton, 1826, '27, '28, '29, '30, '31. 

Thomas Fiske, 1832, '33. 

Dexter Mason, 1835, '36, '37, '38, '39, '40, '41, '42. 

Asa Heald, 1843, '44, '45. 

Ebenezer Greenwood, 1846 to 1859. 

James A. Mason, 1859. 

Warren L. Fiske, 1860, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, 
'67, '69, '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, 
'83, '84, '85. 




^AsM £, ci^^iA/^T. 




DUBLIN. 



191 



Thomas Fisk, 1X(58, 71, 72. 
Walter Harris, 1S70. 

The following is a list of ivpresentatives 
from 1790 to 1886: 

Keuben Morse, 1790. 

Samuel Twitchell, 1792, '98, '04, '95, '90, '97. 

Thiiddeus Mason, 1795, '9(i, '97, ISOO. 

John Morse, 1798, '99, 1809. 

Isaac Appleton, 1801, '02, '03, '04, '05, '00, '07, 
'12, '16, '17. 

Andrew Allison, 1808, '18. 

Samuel Hamilton, 1810, '11, '13, '14, '15. 

Moses Marshall, 1819. 

John Taggart, 1820. 

Joseph Appleton, 1822, '23, '24, '25, '20. 

Samuel Adams, 1827, '28. 

Rufus Piper, 1829, '30, '31, '38, '40. 

John K. Smith, 1832, '33, '34, '39. 

Richard Strong, 1835, '36, '37. 

Calvin Mason, 1841, '42. 

Moses Marshall, 1843, '44, '45, '46. 

Thomas Fisk, 1847, '57, '58. 

Cyrus Frost, 1848, '49. 

Jacob Gleason, 1850, '51. 

Lovell Harris, 1852. 

Thaddeus Morse, 1853, '54. 

Dexter Mason, 1855, '50. 

Aaron Smith, 1859, '00, '64, '65, '06, '69, '70. 

Calvin Mason, 1861. 

Milan W. Harris, 1862, '63. 

Henry C. Piper, 1867, '68. 

Jesse R. Appleton, 1871, '72. 

James Allison, 1873, '74. 

Walter J. Greenwood, 1875, '70. 

Henry D. Learned, 1877, 78, '83, '84. 

Charles W. Gowing, 1879, '80. 

Warren L. Fiske, 1881, '82. 

1885, not entitled to send a representative, — pro rata 
town. 

Dublin as a Summer Resort. — The higli 
altitude, the invigorating atmosphere and the 
delighttul scenery have cau.sed Dublin to be- 
come quite noted as a summer resort. Many 
literary people find it a healthful place in which 
to rest, and several residents of New Yoi'k 
City and Boston have erected elegant summer 
residences under the shadow of Mount INIonad- 
nock, upon the shores of the beautiful pond 
and in the village, from which is presented a 



charming view of the Lyndeborough Moun- 
tains and the intervening distance. The at- 
tractions are appreciated l)y luuiierous visitants, 
whose numbers are increasing annually. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



JESSE R. AI'PLETON. 

The Appleton family is well known in New 
England and elsewhere, and many of its mem- 
bers are successful men in law, letters and lu- 
cre. Their names stand side by side with those 
of Lawrence, Adams and others prominent in 
Massachusetts. 

Jesse Ripley Appleton is a descendant in the 
seventh generation from Samuel Appleton, who 
came from England in 16.3(3. Samuel (2), his 
son, was eleven years old at the time. Isaac 
(3), fifth child of Samuel (2), was born in 1664, 
at Ipswich, Mass. Isaac (4), his third child, 
was born in 1704, at Ipswich ; he married Eliz- 
abeth Sawyer. His .son, Francis (5), married, 
had children, among them Francis, born May 
28, 1759, at Ipswich, and Jesse, who became 
president of Bowdoin College. Francis (6), 
when about twelve years of age, I'cmoved to 
New Ipswicli with his parents, but, in 1786, he 
settled in Dublin, N. H,, and after three years 
he married, June 2, 1789, Mary Ripley, a de- 
scendant (if William Ripley, the English emi- 
grant, who came to America and settled in 
Hingham, Mass., in 1635, and died in 1656. 
He had children, — .lolin and Abraham. The 
line to Mrs. Appleton is William (1), John (2), 
Peter (3), Peter (4), Noah (5), who married 
Lydia Kent. (She had nineteen children, of 
whom seventeen lived to maturity. Mi-s. I.,y- 
dia Ripley died in 1816, aged ninety-one, 
leaving thirteen children, one hundred and five 
grandchildren and ninety-six great-grandchil- 
dren). Mary was the fifteenth child ; she was born 
September 3, ]76(), and died Augu.st 2, 1840. 



192 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Francis Appleton made a home for himself 
and his wife on a lot of land worth about sev- 
enty dollars, given him by his father. He 
felled the trees and cleared the land by pei-sist- 
eut and laborious exertions, and brought good, 
cultivated fields out of the tangled wilderues.s, 
and became a farmer, as agriculture was the 
principal occupation of the people of the last 
century, — steady, industrious, solid citizens. Jlr. 
Appleton and his wife, soon after their marriage, 
became members of the Fii-st Congregational 
Church, and, in 1795, Mr. Appleton was chosen 
deacon, which office he held thirty-six years 
consecutively. The following from the church 
records is worthy of place : " November 6, 
1831. At a meeting of the church, after divine 
service. Deacon Francis Appleton tendered his 
resignation, upon which the following re.solu- 
tiou, offered by J. K. Smith, was passed unani- 
mously : h'esolred, That in consideration of the 
long and faithful services rendered this church 
by Francis Appleton, in the office of deacon, 
his request to tender his resignation be accepted, 
and that, wliile we express to him our regret for 
his determination, we also express our gratitude 
and tliankfulness for the fidelity with whicli he 
has discharged the duties pertaining to his office." 
Deacon Appleton was a quiet, unostentatious 
man, temperate, posses-sed of good common 
sense and eminent for his piety. His death 
occurred July l(i, 1849. The children of Fran- 
cis and ^lary (Ripley) Api)leton were Mary, 
born September 22, 1792, marrietl, February 16, 
1813, Jonathan ^^'arren ; Betsey, born Febru- 
ary 12, 179.5, dial September 11, 1798; Ash- 
ley, born Deceuiber 23, 179(3, married, January 
27, 1823, Nancy, daughter of Captain Tliad- 
deus Metcalf, of Kecne ; Francis Gilrnan, born 
February 24, 1799, marrie<l, September 29, 
182.5, Mary Hay ward ; Eliza, born May 28, 
1801, married John Gould, of New Ipswich 
(tiiey both died in 1840) ; Serena, born June 1, 
1804, married, June 28, 1 823, Thaddeus Morse, 
Jr.; Sophia, born November 15, 1806, mar- 
ried, April 13, 1841, Thomas Fi.sk ; Jesse Rip- 



ley Appleton, youngest child, wa.* born April 
25, 1809, in Dublin, and married, April 13, 
1841, Louisa, daughter of Thaddeus and Ia- 
dia (Perry) Mason. She died November 3, 
1844. He married, second, March 11, 1852, 
Abbie Sophia, daughter of Calvin and Rebecca 
(Kendall) Ma.son. (The Mason family is an 
old and highly respected one in New England.) 
Their children were Ellen R., born November 
30, 1853, died September 14, 1859, and Charles 
F., born April 6, 1856, married Lillian G., 
daughter of Corvdon and Abbie G. (Piper) 
Jones. They have two surviving children, — 
Ellen E. and Arthur T. 

Jesse Appleton was an apt and diligent schol- 
ar, and was making good progress in his studies 
when they were interrupted by a temporary 
loss of his voice, and out-of-door work seemed 
the best remedy. He left school, became a 
farmer, and succeeded to his father's estate in 
1834, and has occupied the old homestead since, 
making many changes and improvements. Mr. 
Appleton became a member of the church be- 
fore he was twenty-five years old, and has been 
closely identified with it for many years and is 
known as an earnest and efficient Sunday-school 
worker. He was chosen deacon in 1852, which 
office he still holds. He contributes liberally to 
religious and benevolent objects. He h;ts been 
a life member of the Unitarian Association, of Bos- 
ton, for many years, and is one of its generous 
contributors. He was a delegate to the Associa- 
tion at New York, where was organized the 
National Unitarian Conference ; his col!e;igues 
were Rev. Mr. Bridge and Colouel Jonathan 
K. Smith. From the inception of the Abolition 
movement !Mr. Appleton was in close accoi'd 
with it, as he believed the holding of human 
beings in bondage a grievous national sin, and 
consequently he has been a devoted Republican 
from the advent of that party into power, and 
as such was representative for the town of 
Dublin in the State Legislature for the term of 
1871-72. 

Mr. Appleton is a quiet, retiring man, of un- 




WlE' 



- /-:? 






DUBLIN. 



193 



assumiug; manners, in accord with the better 
class of the CDmniunitv in all matters tending 
to advance or improve the interests of liis 
native town. Intelligent, thoughtful, fond of 
investigation, he keeps himself informed on all 
matters of public moment, and ever gives his 
support and assistance to those movements his 
careful proving shows to be for the public weal. 
It is from such and through such men that the 
perpetuity of republican institutions is assured 
in this country. No idea of personal advance- 
ment or striving for notoriety swerves them 
from following the right, and it is a satisfaction 
to record that the class of which he is a good 
type is not a small one, but embraces the truly 
patriotic and thinking men all over our land. 
Mr. Appleton is especially happy in his domes- 
tic relations, with an amiable and Christian 
wife as his co-worker and assistant in all sood 
works. 



LEVI W. LEONARD, D.D.* 

Of all those born in Dublin, the man of the 
most original and largely endowed mind was 
Amos Twitchell. His native faculties, his deep 
intuitions, his keen and quick perceptions and 
his wonderful fertility of resources would have 
given him anywhere in the world a foremost 
place among the most distinguished men of his 
profession. But down to the present period, the 
most valuable citizen of Dublin, the man of the 
most varied and important practical attainments, 
the man of the widest and truest culture, the man 
who has done more than any other for the intel- 
lectual, moral and religious advancement and 
elevation of the people, was Levi W. Leonard. 
He M'as born in Bridgewater (South Parish), 
Mass., June 1, 1790, and died in Exeter, X. H., 
the 12th day of December, 1864. His eai-ly 
years were spent on his father's farm, but an 
accident unfitting him for the severe labors of 
the farm, he engaged iu the, to him, more con- 



MVith an introduction by Rev. John H. Moiison, D.D. 
13 



genial pursuits of a student. He was graduated 
at Harvard University in 1815, having held a 
high position in a class greatly distinguished 
for intellectual ability and scholarship. He was 
graduated at the Cambridge Divinity School in 
1818, and was two years the preceptor of Bridge- 
water Academy. Early in the spring of 1820 
he was asked to supply the pulpit in Dublin a 
few weeks. Considering the position he already 
held as a young man of uncommon ability and 
promise, it was said to him, " You will not wish 
to stay long, much less to settle." His reply indi- 
cated the deeper and more sterling qualities of 
his nature, in the leading idea of service, by 
which his life was governed. 

" I will go," he said. " Moreover, if I can 
.serve them, if I can do good, .should they give 
me a call, I will settle." The call was given, 
and on the 6th day of September, 1820, he be- 
came the minister of the First Congregational 
Church and Society in Dublin, and continued 
in the office more than a third of a century. 

In the pulpit, in the homes of his people, in 
the fields and by the waysides, as well as in his 
home, he pursued his manifold studies, and dis- 
pensed his rich and varied instructions. He 
wrote iu a clear, compact style, using no super- 
fluous words, and never wearying his people by 
the undue length of his services. His appear- 
ance in the pulpit was that of one too deeply 
impressed by the responsibility of his position, 
and too much absorbed in his sulyect, to care or 
think about anything else. There was evidently 
no thought of himself, — the sweet token of hu- 
mility, — or if any such thought did occur, his 
manner would indicate an almost painful sense 
of his own inefficiency. Yet there was evidence 
of a thorough knowledge of his subject, and a 
decided conviction of the truth and importance 
of what he was saying. His intellectual and 
moral faculties and attainments were of them- 
selves such that he could not speak otherwise 
than with authority, though without the least 
tincture of dogtnatism. 

His devotion to his people, his all-absorbing 



194 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



intei'esfc in them and whatever related to their 
well-being, and his constant efforts to do them 
good ill every walk of life, especially his intelli- 
gent and loving interconrse with the young, and 
his labors for them and with them, gave him 
an iutlnencc and made him " a power working 
for righteousness," such as it is tlic privilege of 
very few men to attain to. The only instance 
corresponding to this of Dr. Leonard, that I 
have ever known, is that of Dr. Joseph Allen, 
of Northborough, Mass. From 1822 to 1853 — 
thirty-one years — Dr. Leonard's name appears 
in the town records at the head of the school 
committee. And it is not too much to say that 
during the whole pi'riod he was the guiding 
mind and ruling spirit in whatever was done to 
jiroduce the extraordinary advancement then 
made by the common schools of Dublin. In the 
report of 1850-51 he says, " The reading of this 
re[)ort closes the thirtieth year in wliich the 
cliairnian of your committee has been engaged 
in superintending the schools in this town. He 
iins made to them more than a thousand visits. 
It has been a labor which he loved, and it will 
ever remain a source of gratifying recollection. 
He has not labored alone and unaided. . . 
Let tlie same liarnKinious action and the same 
spirit of improvement continue for another thirty 
years, and your schools will be so perfected that 
the period just closed will seem like a day of 
small things." 

IIow he labored among his people, doing for 
them tile work wiiich he loved to do, endearing 
himself to them, and inducing them to join him 
in his work of moral and intellectual improve- 
ment, till it had become to them also a labor of 
love, we may best learn from one who was 
born under his ministry, and who preached his 
funeral sermon. That sermon, by the Rev. J. 
C. Learned, then of Exeter, now of St. Louis, 
Mo., lets one into the secret of his influence, 
showing us the man and his work. Indeed, the 
man and his worlv Mere one. What he taught, 
that he did and that he was. " I prefer to 
speak of the man, less as the preacher of sermons. 



or as the author of educational works, or of 
contributions to natural science, or as the mover 
of benevolent associations, more as he appeared 
in his daily life. 

" The good man — as lie lived and still lives in 
the hearts of his people ; the Christian man — 
whose irraces made iiim honored by all who 
knew him, whose very presence seemed a regen- 
erating atmosphere, whose example was so spot- 
less that he seemed conformed to the image of 
the Master. 

"In this town Dr. Leonard has been pre-emi- 
nently one of the people. He was interested in 
their pursuits. Not neglecting his own profes- 
sion, he knew something of all others. The 
lawyer thought he must have studied jurispru- 
dence. He knew more of teaching than the 
teachers. He knew more of mechanism than the 
mechanics. And it was not long before the farm- 
ers found out that he knew more of agriculture 
and horticulture tiian they. So they were glad 
to seek his counsel. And no one came away 
without valuable suggestions; for, aside from 
his own accurate observations, the best periodi- 
cals and the latest books on science found their 
way into his library. There was no austerity in 
his manner to repel the humblest from approach- 
ing him ; there was no obtrusiveness to make 
any one feel that his advice must be acted upon, 
however freely given. ]\Ien ^vere not slow to 
learn the value of his caution and sagacity. 

"Measures concerning the public interests of 
the town, if he did not originate them, were 
brouarht to him for his indorsement. Before 
they were set on foot they were talked over and 
modified in his study. And when there arose 
causes of dispute between neighbors, or of 
alienation in families, to whom could they more 
confidentially appeal than to him ? Each felt him 
so much a personal friend that there was no fear 
of favoritism. All believed in his kindness and 
uprightness and impartiality. He seemed a 
physician for their private griefs, and many 
times, more times than any of us can ever know, 
did this faith make them whole. 



DUBLIN. 



195 



"He was a most ardent and true lover of chil- 
dren. You may infer from this what power he 
would obtain over the young in so long a miuLs- 
trv. It was a natural instinct with him. His 
heart could not help reaching out after the little 
ones; and when once he had known them he 
never forgot them. Last summer he told me — 
and no one who knew him here, where he labor- 
ed so long, will doubt me — that wiien he went 
away from you tiiere was no child of fiiur years 
old in all the town whom he could not have 
cailwl l)v name. And well do you know how 
greatly he won both their love and their respect. 
Never have I heard a young person who was 
a native of this town sjieak of him but with 
reverence. How could it Ik^ otherwise where his 
name had been a household word for more than 
a generation ? For more than thirty years, alike 
in summer's heat and winter's cold, he saw these 
children in their several schools. He knew 
what they studied ; he watched their progress ; 
he cared for them with a parental solicitude, as 
tiiough in some sense they were a household eu- 
ti'usted to his influence. Every child knew him 
and was glad to see him, for he never went away 
without leaving some word of encouragement. 

"I^iatterl}', as I have seen him often and talked 
with him, I have thought there were no children 
to him like Dublin children. Enfeebled in body 
as he had been foi" some time, his mind corre- 
spondingly lessened in its activity, he seemed to 
dwell much with the past. And the young men 
and the young women of this town — where they 
were and what they were doing — furnished a 
theme which never failed to arouse his interest 
and call forth his emotion. As I said before, 
he never forgot them. Often and oflen, have I 
l)een surprised to find how fiu' out into the world 
he had traced them. Not unfrequently has he 
been able to tell me the fortunes or the fate of my 
own school-mates whom I had almost forgotten. 
And when a boy or a girl had done well, or 
their characters blossomed out with promise, it 
made the eye of the feeble old man grow bright, 
there came an honest pride to his heart — it was 



as though he shared the honor. And, my 
friends, it does not seem to me too much to say, 
that if any youth who has gone out from this 
community has won /or himself a noble name 
or a lof^y character, he is a debtor in no mean 
degree to the influence of that spirit which has 
so recently freed itself from the bondage of this 
mortal clay. 

"About a year and a half ago, after an absence 
of considerable time from these scenes of his life- 
work, he I'l'visited them, you remember, for the 
last time. Almost worn out with exjiaustion 
from the long stage-ride over the hills, unable 
to descend the coach-steps without help, he spied a 
little l)oy standing upontiie thresliold of the house 
near by wliei'e we stopped, when, forgetful of 
his weakness, away he tottered, his face all i"a- 
diant with his accustomed smile, to take him by 
the hand and ask him who he was, for the mo- 
ment less mindful of older persons standing by. 
And in the room where he lived for several 
months, and where he died, I have seen, for 
weeks and weeks together, an open miniature 
lying upon his table; and many times I have 
found him bending over it. It was the minia- 
ture of a little girl, now a woman grown. And 
when I have spoken to him of her : ' It looks 
as she (lid once,' he said. ' We thought it a 
good picture,' and tears ran down his cheeks — 
and they were tears of warmest affection. 

"Again, as showing the resthetic side of his 
nature, he had more than an ordinary love for 
and appreciation of the beautiful. Fond as he 
was of the exact sciences, and little imagination 
as his sermons ever exhibited, he had an exqui- 
site taste for poetiy. I^et any one look over 
the files of the Exeter News-Letter, for the eight 
years he was editor, and the selections will be 
ample proof of that. Then the collection of 
' Christian Hymns,' which not long ago was 
used in more churches of our denomination than 
any other, of whose committee of compilation he 
was chairman, was in no small measure a testi- 
mony to the excellence of his taste in lyric verse. 
Moreover, I ha\'e been told that several hymns 



196 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



in the collection are from his own pen, butcliar- 
acteri.stic of his modesty, his name never appears 
with tiicm ; they are only ' Anonymous." 

" He was a great lover of flowers, and culti- 
vated them with rare success. His garden was 
tastefully laid out and kept, and contained the 
most cherished varieties. Hon. John Prentiss, 
of Keene, writes me that he well remembers 
Dr. Leonard's 'display of dahlias when first 
introduced in the town hall at our county agri- 
cultural fair,' and adds, ' he doubtless obtained 
a premium.' Well do I remember what a 
marvel of beauty we school children thought 
that flower garden was, and lingered by the 
white railings that inclosed it with no indefinite 
longings. Our eyes had seen nothing like the 
minister's garden in splendor, and we thought 
its supplies must be inexhaustible. True, there 
were hundreds of flowers for which we knew 
no name, but the most unskilled of all could ask 
for and knew the value of roses and popjiies 
and pinks and lark-spurs ; and no one who 
asked was turned away empty-handed. But 
there was another means of obtaining a nose- 
gay more delicate than asking outright. 

"' There is a country town,' says the author 
of ' The District School as it AVas,' in a late 
work, ' one of the roughest in New England, 
xN'iiich was favored with a clergyman M-ho well 
understood the true methods of education. 



^ For convenience a list of Dr. Leonard's published works 
is subjoined, — 

1826, "Literary and Scientific Class-Book ; " 1829, 
"Sequel to Easy Lessons;'' 1835, "North American 
Spelling-Book ; " 1844, " Remarks on Modes of Instruc- 
tion ; " 1844-53, " Reports of Schools in Dublin;" 1845, 
one of the compilers of the Hymn-13ook entitled " Christian 
Hymns ;" 1845, " Sermon on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary 
of his Ordination :" 1848, " The Natural and the Spiritual 
Man" (being No. 247 of the Unitarian Association Tracts); 
1848, "Analysis of the Elementary Sounds of the English 
Language, with a Chan, Etc.;" 1851, "A Lecture delivered 
before the American Institute of Instruction at Keene, N. 
H. (in a volume with other lectures delivered on the same 
occasion);" 1853, " Sermon at the Dedication of the New 
Meetiug-House in Dublin ; " 1855, Editor of the " History 
of Dublin." 



Among other investigations, he devoted some of 
his leisure to entomology. Somehow, he in- 
spired the people of the whole town, more or 
less, with his spirit, and esi^ecially the young. 
All eyes were opened and sharpened to discover 
some new bug, or worm, or butterfly ; and hap- 
py was the boy or girl that could run with some 
pi'ize of the kind to the minister, receive his 
thanks and get a peep through the microscope 
at the wonders.' " Besides the rewards named 
by this writer, he who brought a perfect 
beetle or butterfly received also a bouquet of 
flowers, and we always thought the floxvers 
that came from that garden a badge of honor. 
With them came a kind word and a benignant 
smile, that lived many days in the child's 
heart. 

"Dr. Leonard was a thorough proficient in the 
natural history of insects. Most of you remem- 
ber tiers of glass cases or cabinets, disposed 
about his study, filled with flies, queer and com- 
mon, with bright beetles and enormous butter- 
flies. The late Chancellor Hoyt, of Washing- 
ton University, St. Louis, speaks of him as 
having ' contributed to the late Dr. Harris, his 
class-mate, not a few of the most important facts 
in his published works, and as being undoubt- 
edly at this time (1859) the best entomologist 
in the State.' ^ So, in like manner, mineral, 
bird and sttir, as well as insect and blo.ssom, 
taught him Divine lessons, and served his pur- 
pose of doing good. 

" Last summer I called upon him one morn- 
ing, and he showed me a beautiful pond lily, 
one of the first of the season, which some one, 
thoughtful of his love of flowers, had given him. 
Nothing could have pletiscd him more, and as 
he spoke of it and perceived its perfume, he 
contemplated it with all the delighted interest of 
a child. He was not well that day, and I called 
agaiir toward evening. He had lain down for 
the night, but he still held that same white lily 

'' " Helps to Education." by Warren Burton, p. 177. 
' " Addresses, Lectures and Reviews," p. 140. 



DUBLIN. 



197 



in his hand, wilted, indeed, but its fragrance 
was not yet spent. To me, my friends, that 
flower seemed no unfit emblem of his life. 

" Dr. Leonard was a lover of goodness, and, 
therefore, a Christian. He gave himself to 
Christian work. And, if reports be true, few 
towns stood more in need of moral regeneration 
than Dublin at the commencement of his min- 
istry. It has grown into a proverb that minis- 
ters have little or no knowledge of human 
nature. Those wlio knew Dr. Leonard will 
need no further proof that the rule has had its 
exception. In that matter few had clearer 
vision than he. His acute observation was not 
limited to inanimate nature. He knew his man, 
and, therefore, when a work that required co- 
operation was to be accomplished, his confidence 
was not mis^^laced. When he came here, in- 
temperance, with its kindred evils, alarmingly 
prevailed. But gradually there came a change. 
A new power was felt among the people. It was 
an influence very quiet, liut very j)ersistent. 
Soon it became known that the study of the 
pastor was the centre from whic'h it radiated. 
Afterwards he lectured upon iempcrance in all 
the school districts. Some men, in consequence, 
withdrew from the society. For about ten years 
he reduced his salary in proportion to the amount 
these paid him, that others might not be embar- 
rassed l)y a heavier assessment, and urged the 
cause more industriously than ever. In these 
latter days, my friends, you have a just pride 
in the result. I am not old, yet I have seen 
something of many towns, both small and great, 
and, comparing any that I have known or heard 
of with this, I have never had occasion to be 
ashamed of the moral character of the town in 
which I was born. 

" In the published correspondence of Theodore 
Parker occur tliese words of tribute, in a letter 
to Dr. Francis, in 1855: 'Here I am,' says 
Mr. Parker, 'rusticating in one of the nicest lit- 
tle towns in New Hampshire or New England. 
Good Dr. Leonard has written his natural piety 
all over the town and in all the people. How 



much a noble minister may do for mankind in 
such a town as this ! There are twenty-three 
copies of the New York Tribune, and nearlv as 
many of the National Era, taken here. No rum 
in town, excellent schools, not eleven hundred 
inhabitants and twelve hundred dollars devoted 
every year to schools. I often mention Lincoln, 
Dr. Stearns' old parish for so many years, to 
show what a minister may do. Concord is also 
a good example; but Dublin, I think, will bear 
the palm from all the rest. But why is it that 
such cases are so rare ? There is not a town in 
New England but would rejoice to have such a 
minister as Dr. L. Why is it that we don't 
7-aise that sort of minister"? ' ' 

" It matters little, perhaps, what the the- 
ology of such a man may be; for his life passes 
all theologies. No denomination can monopo- 
lize its benefits; so we may be sure he was no 
sectarian or dogmatist. Yet his theological 
views were well-defined. He was educated in 
and l)elonged to the older school of Unitarians. 
But he ' believed with Robinson, the teacher of 
the pilgrims, that God had more trutli to break 
forth from His holy word.' He was the friend 
of a liberal and progressive faith, for he was the 
friend of independent thought. His words ded- 
icated this edifice in which we are assembled to 
religious uses. Many of you will remember 
when he said : ' Preaching, in order to be effec- 
tive or profitable, must be free. That which 
gives it life and energy, and without which it is 
but a vain parade, is this: that preachers be al- 
lowed to form principles of their own, and that 
what tliey say be the fruit of their own thought. 
Command a man to utter the thoughts and 
views of others, as they have been contained in 
confessions of faith, and threaten him at the 
same time with some temporal deprivation or 
spiritual denunciation if he ventures to follow 
his own conclusions and to proclaim his senti- 
ments, and you pass upon all he says a sentence 



' Weiss' " Life and Correspondence of Tlieodore Parker,' 
vol. i., p. o62. 



198 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of death. You come to the sanctuary for in- 
struction, not merely to hear your own opinions 
declared and confirmed.' ' 

" His theology excluded no sincere and de- 
vout and striving soul from Christian fellow 
ship. Ah, my friends, his faith was a good one 
to live l)y, if it jjroduce so beautiful a life; sure- 
Iv a good one to die hy, if a well-spent life can 
make death pleasant. Whatever value he 
placed upon any articles of belief, he did not 
forget to dedicate this house of God, with 
special words, to the kive of charity, to the 
spirit of progress and liberty. He said, 'All 
mankind are brethren. When one is oppressed, 
all are implicated in danger. . If one human 
being may suffer wrong with impunity to the 
wrong-doer, then all are exposed to the like 
fate. . . . Every church, therefore, every house 
consecrated to God and to Christ, should be 
open to the defen.se of human freedom and 
human rights.' What another has written of 
him is indeed eminently true: 'He was the 
friend of his race — yea, the friend of every 
race made in the image of God.' 

" Dr. Leonard was a benevolent man. Yon 
would know that from his very face. Without 
wealth, with only a competency, no one in need, 
no needy enterprise, made calls upon him in 
vain. 

When first he came here there were few 
juvenile books published. But he saw what a 
power for good they might be made to be. He 
obtained what he could from time to time, and 
when he made pastoral visits was seldom with- 
out some in ids pockets for the children. There 
grew such an interest in the minister's collec- 
tion, and constantly, that a regular system of 
borrowing and lending was adopted, so that ail 
might share alike. In three or four vears there 
were as many as a hundred volumes in the min- 
ister's collection, and constantly visited by the 
children at the minister's house. Tims was 
formed iclud is supposed to have been (he first 

' Discourse : Delivered Mnrcli 2, 1853, p. 7. 



Sunday-school library in New Englandr It is 
true, however, that any children in the town 
who wished to enjoy its privileges were free to 
do so. There was no spirit of exclusiveness in 
the pastor's heart ; every child was alike wel- 
come. 

" ' He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.' 

"For many years he furnislied all the text- 
books for the Sunday-school and gave each 
child a story-book when it closed for tlie winter. 
He gave hymn-books for the choir ; and in tlie 
common schools, for the sake of securing uni- 
formity of text-books, if any poor family was 
to suffer by the change, the required school- 
books were often sujiplied by him. Since he 
left Dublin, instance after instance of his private 
charities have come to light, unknown before. 
Said a famih', which had suffered great adver- 
sity, not of his own parish, ' There has been 
no such friend to us ; we do not see what we 
shall do when he goes from us.' 

"Seldom wasa man more richly endowed with 

2 In a private letter to the son of Dr. Leonard, the Hon.Thos. 
Fisk, of Dublin, who was a co-laborer with the latter in the 
cause of education and other good works in that town, and, 
although in his eighty-third ye.ir, still retains his mental 
vigor in a remarkable degi-ee, after stating in substance 
that he thinks Rev. Mr. Learned has fallen into an error in 
calling this library the tnrst Snndai/se/wol lihrari/ in New 
JSnifland, snys "that the historian of Peterboro' is mis- 
taken when he states in his work that, ' giving all due 
credilfor previous attempts to establish free publiclibraries, 
we think the claim of Peterboro' to be the first to have suc- 
ceeded in it is indisputable.' " Mr. Fisk 'goes on to say 
"that the first meeting held in Peterboro', in relation to it, 
was .-Vpril 9, 1833. Your father (Dr. Leonard) instituted 
in Dublin the Juvenile Library, in 1822, eleven years before 
the Peterboro' library was organized, and it was, to all in- 
tents and purposes, a free public library throughout the 
town, and has been in successful operation ever since. To 
your father is due the honor of instituting the ftmtfree, 
public circuliiiintj library within my knoivledge, and he ex- 
pended some three hundred dollars of his private means 
for books before others contributed to the expense. The 
Dublin Juvenile Librarj- was founded in 182-5, and since 
that time has been replenished annually by the voluntary 
contributions of its members." 



DUBLIN. 



199 



patieuce and Christian resignation. With health 
never firm, seldom would those about liim have 
discovered it from any word of his. Latterly, the 
premature infirmities of age bowed and par- 
alyzed him. In general, I do not think there 
was that acuteuess of suffering which is often 
witnessed. But there was a greater or less de- 
gree of consciousness to the very last. For 
many months, from slight paralysis, it had been 
difficult for him to converse. He could not 
longer mingle in company, as he was wont, and 
it had inclined him to sit much by himself in 
his chamber. Yet no murmur was ever known 
to escape his lips. Yea, even when, towards 
the last, soreness and racking pains came upon 
him, those who stood by were astonished at his 
fortitude. There was not even a complaining- 
look ; \\'hile, for the slightest efforts for his re- 
lief, his face lighted up with gratitude and af- 
fection. 

"There is a heroism that unflinchingly fronts 
the cannon's mouth and the deadly charge of 
battle. But to me that is a grander heroism 
that, with a sweet religious faith, utters no mur- 
mur in the face of lingering death." 

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- 
ferred upon Dr. Leonard by the corpciration of 
Harvard University in 1849, and President 
Jared Sparks, in his letter announcing the 
honor, says : " I am happy to be the medium of 
communicating this testimony of the high esteem 
in which we hold your distinguished services in 
the cause of religion and education." 

It remains only to add that Dr. Leonard was 
twice married. His first wife was Elizabeth 



Morison Smith, daughter of Hon. Samuel 
Smith, the founder of Peterborough village. 
She died September 1.3, 1848. Two children 
were the fruit of this marriage, — William Smith, 
born October 13, 1832, a graduate at Dart- 
mouth College in the class of 185G, :»nd for the 
last twenty-five years a practicing physician in 
Hinsdale, N. H.; also Ellen Elizabeth, born 
June 25, 1846, who married Joseph H. Hough- 
ton, and has resided for many years in New 
Tacoma, Washington Territor}'. 

He married for his second wife ]\Irs. Eliza- 
beth Dow Smith, of Exeter, N. H., widow of 
Samuel G. Smith, and soon after removed to 
Exeter, where he passed the declining years of 
his life, assuming, for a time, the editorship of 
the Exeter News-Letter, and interesting himself 
in the schools and all other things pertaining to 
the public welfare. Yet Exeter was never a 
congenial abiding-place to him ; like a tree 
transplanted ;ifter it had reached maturity, he 
could not take root and thrive in a new soil, 
and as the evening shadows gathered around 
him, he yearned more and more for his old 
home, and so at last he was laid at rest in the 
ancient graveyard at Dublin, by the side of the 
wife of his best years and the mother of his 
children ; all around him tiie graves of his 
parishioners, for whom he had so many years 
broken the bread of life. In the shadow of the 
grand Monadnock, by the shore of the crystal 
lake he loved so well, a plain granite monument 
emblematical of his character, marks the last 
resting-place of this pure, noble and devoted 
minister of God. 



HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM 



CHAPTER I. 

The township was granted by the Masonian 
proprietors, January 15, 1752, to Rohind Cot- 
ton and forty-one others, and was Icnown by the 
name of Monadnoek, No. 4. The conditions of 
the grant not being complied with, a re-grant 
was made to Colonel Sampson Stoddard and 
twenty-two associates, and it was sometimes 
called Stoddard's town until May 19, 1773, 
when it was incorporated by the Governor and 
Council by the name of Fitz William, in honor 
of an English earl. In 1760 settlements were 
commenced by James Reed (who afterwards 
commanded one of the New Hampshire regi- 
ments in Bunker Hill), John Fassett and Ben- 
jamin Bigelow. 

When the town of Troy was formed, June 23, 
1815, about four thousand acres of Fitzwilliam 
territory was taken from the north part of the 
town and now constitutes a part of Troy. The 
line between this town and Riudge was estab- 
lished by an act approved June 17, 1847. 

Petition of Colonel Stoddard Relative 
TO Incorporation. 

" To His Excellency John Wentworth Esqe 
Captain General Governor & Commander in 
Chief in & Over his Majestys Province of 
New Hamp°, the Hon"'" his iNIajestys Council 
for Said Province — 

" The Memorial of Sampson Stoddard of 
Chelmsford in the County of Middlesex & in 

200 



the Province of the Massachusetts Bay Shews — 
" That there is a Tract of Land in the Prov- 
ince of New Hamp° of the Contents of about six 
Miles Square Granted by the Purchasors of the 
Right of John Tufton Mason Esq" to your 
Memorialists & Others Called the Township of 
Monadnoek N" 4 — That the Greater part there- 
of is finally Vested in him, that he has at a 
Great Expeuce Settled a Very Considerable 
Number of Inhabitants thereon 

" Wherefore your Memorialist humbly prays 
that the Lands afores** may not be Incorporated 
into a Town & the Inhabitants there Infran- 
chised with all Town priviledges without their 
first Giving Notice to him of their Design of 
applying to y'' Excell'' & honors and your 
Memorialist Shall (as in duty bound) Ever 
pray— 

" Sampson Stoddard 

" Portsm'' July 11, 1768—" 

Incorporation of Town. — The following 
is a copy of the petition for incorporation : 

" To Hia Excellency John Wentworth Esquire 
Captain General, Governor and Commander 
in Chief in and over his Majestys Province of 
New Hampshire and Vice Admiral of the 
Same in Council. 

" The Petition of James Reed of jNIonadnock 
N° 4 in the County of Cheshire in the Province 
aforesaid Esq" and Clerk of the Proprietry of 
said Monadnoek N° 4 unto your Excellency & 
Honors humbly Shews 



FITZWILLIAM. 



201 



" That your Petitioner togetlier with Joseph 
Hemmenway and John Millins at a legal Meet- 
ing of s'' Proprietors held in s'' IMonadnock N° 
4 on the 31^' of ]\Iarch last were chosen a Com- 
mittee to petition this Honorable Court to in- 
corporate the said Monad uock N° 4 into a Town- 
ship with the usual Priviledges and Franchises 
of other corporate Towns in the said Province 
for the following Reasons Viz' 

" That the Inhabitants of said Monadnock 
have settled a Minister & built a Meeting House 
and have a large Number residing there, besides 
others daily coming to settle there That they 
humbly conceive their Number intitles them to 
the Indulgence of this Hon'"'" Court as in the 
present Mode of Provincial Taxation, they are 
subject to the controul of the Selectmen of 
Neighbouring Towns, and they would humbly 
wish to have the Priviley-e of chusine; Selectmen 
and otiier Town Officers of their own which 
would quiet the INIinds of the Inhabitants and 
promote the Interests & good Government of s'' 
Monadnock N" 4 — That being destitute of Town 
Privileges the Petitioners cannot legally warn 
out any vagrants that may come there, and 
many other Inconveniences Wherefore Your 
Petitioner in behalf of s"* Proprietors humblv 
jiray that this Hon*''" Court would grant their 
Petition & as in Duty bound he & they shall 
e%'er jjray — 

"James Reed 
" Committee man and Proprietors Clark " 

The town was incorporated May 19, 1773. 

Documentary History. — The following is 
a copy of the petition of Mrs. Clayes : 
" The Hon° Counsel aud House of Representa- 
tives of the State of New Hampshire in 

General Court assembled — 

" The Humble petition of Abigail Clayes 
widow to the late Captain Elijah Clayes deceased 
of the 2d regiment of the New Hampshire Line 
— Urged by her distressed situation ; begs your 
attention ; as she is left with a famley of small 
Children without any other means of subsistance 
but her own Industry for there support. Im- 



pelled by these Circumstances and the Horrid 
Idea of want, being fully impressed that the 
Honorable Body before this her petition will be 
laid, supported by there natural feelings as well 
as Justice aud Humanity towards those in dis- 
tress ; will exert every nerve for so desirable an 
end ; as to soften as far as in their power the 
distress incident to the widows and Fatherless ; 
and Consequently extend their generosity to- 
wards her by a grant of half pay agreeable to 
an act of Congress of the 15"' of May 1778 in 
such Cases made and provided and renewed and 
extended the 24 August 1780 which will enable 
her to bring up her Children in some degree of 
decency and live above contempt, resting assured 
of your strict attention to this her Petition — 
Your Petitioner as in duty bound shall forever 

pray 

" Abigal Clayes" 

Elijah Clayes was captain of the Seventh 
Company of the Second Regiment in 1777 : 
Joseph Potter, of Fitzwilliam, was second lieu- 
tenant of the same company. 

GENERAL JAMES REED's PETITION. 

"Keene Decem'" 18'" 1780 
" To The Hon"' Council & House of Repre- 
sentatives Convened att Exeter this twentieth 
Day of Decern''' for the State of New Hamp- 
shire — 

" The Petition of James Reed of Keene in 
the County of Cheshire Esq^ Humbly Sheweth 
your Petitioner ingaged in the Sarvis of the 
united states in the year 1775 — Tho Exposed 
to many Dangers & hardships did continue in 
an intiar state of helth till after the Retreat 
from Canady — at the head of Lake George 
was voielently seazed with the Narves feavor 
that intiarly Deprived him of his Eye sight & 
allmost of his hearing & exceeding weeke — 
which continued for a Number of munths aitho 
no Pains nor cost was spaired for Recovery of 
sight or helth tho to no avail as to the sight — 
tho yom- Petitioner was Hon"" with a Commi- 
tion of Rank under Sarting Limetations of 



202 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Established Pay fiiuliug the Depreciation of 
the Currency so greate & his Expences so high 
that he very erly in the year 1778 Laid his 
case before the Hon^" Continental! Congress & 
having no Returne depreciation of the currency 
still increasing his helples Surcumstances by 
Reson of total blindness, — tho in sum meashure 
Recovered, as to helth and hearing — his Ex- 
pencive Surcumstances obliged him to Parte 
with a considerable Parte of his Real Estate 
(Viz) Half of the towushijj of Errol in this 
State & six wrights in the township of Cam- 
bridge Purchased of RP Nath' Rogers which 
money was laid in his chest which by an act of 
this state he was obliged to give in to the 
assers to be Rated s*" Rats Runing so high & 
the Depreciation so grate almost consumed the 
whole sum — whereupon your Humble Peti- 
tioner Petitionetl this Hon*"'* Corte for sum 
Relief l)y way of the avacuated Farms for 
which he had hazarded His Life & fur the 
convenens of Exercise and sum oather Reasons 
mentioned to this Hon^'" Corte Docf Josiah 
Pomroyes of Keene as he was an absentee the 
Hon'''° Corte was gratiously Pleased to make 
him a grantc of a Parte of s"* Farme in No- 
vember (1779) under sarting Limetations but 
as your Petitioner could not enter by vartue (if 
s'' grante he was obliged to pay 350 £ h : M : 
[lawful money] for the use of s'' Farme untill 
the first Day of may (1781) s** Farme being 
now the Property of this State is to be inven- 
toreyed & sold att vandue — your Petitioner 
hath made inquiarey & finds that the s'' Docf 
Pomroyes Purches was sum moar than Seven 
hundred Pounds & that the s"* Estate owes 
Sum moar than Five hundred Pounds — the 
Proseser of one not of moar than Four hun- 
dred Pounds against s'^ Estate will not give up 
the obligation shorte of the value in Silver 
money or att the common Exchange altho 
your Pettitioner has never Rec'' any alowence 
from the Continent for the Depreciation in his 
established Pay altho he was obliged to pay the 
above 350 £ for the use of s'' Farme one year 



out of the nomenal sura of Established Wages 

your Humble Pettitioner Prays this hon''" Corte 

to take all the above surcumstances under your 

wise consideration & grante your Pettitioner 

the Priviledge of Purchasing the whole of s^ 

Farme without its being Exposed to Public 

vandue — or oatherwayes Relive as in Dute 

bound Shall Ever Pray, 

" James Reed B. G. 

" Attest Hinds Reed " 

General James Read was one of the early 
settlers of Fitzwilliam, and proprietors' clerk 
for some years. When news reached him of 
the battle of Lexington, he raised a company 
of volunteers and marched them to Medford ; 
was commissioned as colonel by the govern- 
ment of INLassachusetts, and raised four com- 
panies of troops ; but, failing to obtain enough 
for a regiment, he went to Exeter, was com- 
missioned by the government of New Hamp- 
shire, had two companies of Stark's men 
turned over to him, and bravely commanded 
his regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill. He 
became totally blind, resulting from a fever 
contracted in the campaign of the following 
year in Canada, and thus the American cause 
lost the .services of an ardent patriot, and a 
brave and determined officer. It will be 
understood that the foregoing petition is not 
his production, as he was blind at the time ; 
documents in his handwriting of an earlier 
date show that he was a man of good education 
for his time. After becoming blind, he occu- 
pied for a while the confiscated estate of Dr. 
Pomeroy of Keene, which was leased to him 
by the State. In March, 1782, Daniel Kings- 
bury and Thomas Baker M'ere ajipointeil to 
appraise the rental, and the following is their 
report (Hammond) : 

"Keene April 18"" 1782. 

"We the subscribers being under oath to 
appraise the value of the Rent of the within 
mentioned Premises for the Term of one year 
have appraised the same at the sum of fourteen 
pounds, and it is our opinion that General 



FITZWILLIAM. 



203 



Read had expended the sum of six pounds in 
repairing the said Premises since he hath had 
the use & Improvemeut thereof — wliieh sum of 
six pounds ought to be deducted out of the 
above mentioned fourteen pounds. 

" Tho' Baker 

" Dan' Kiisgsbi^ry 

"Sworn to before Calvin Fkink [of 
Swanzey]." 

Soldiers' Orders. 

" To the Honoural)le .John Taylor Gibiian Esq" 

Treasurer & Receiver General of the State of 

New Hampshire — 

"Sir Please to pay to the Bearer what 
money is due to me as Wages & Clothing for 
twelve months service Done in the Continental 
army beginning June A. D. 1779 Col' George 
Reids Regiment Capt Rowels Company & this 
Shall be your Discharge for the same 

" Joseph Muzzey. 

" Test "Anna Wilder 

"Abel Wilder" 

[Acknowledged before Abel Wilder. — Ed.] 

Stephen Richardson was in First Regiment 
from February 23, 1781, to September 1, 1781, 
and in 1782 as corporal. Stephen White was 
in the same from February, 1781, to December, 
1781, and again in 1782. 

Relative to General Read. 

" This may certify all whome it may con- 
searn that I was called to visit Brigadier Gen- 
eral Reed of Fitzwilliam in Felnniary A. D. 
1777 and found him Intirely Blind and 
Labouring under many other Bodyly Infirm- 
aties at the same time wich Rendered him 
Incapable of taking care of himeselfe and he 
remaines Blind and in my opinion ever will. 

" Royalston January 19"^ 1786. 

" Stephen Batcheller, Physition" 

Sylvanus Read's Petition. 
" To the General Assembly of the State of 
New Hampshire now sitting at Ports- 
mouth — 
" Humbly Shews — Sylvanus Read of Fitz- 



william in the s'' State — That he served as 
adiutaut of a Battallion of Troops raised in 
this state for the defense of the New England 
states &c and Commanded by Lieut Col" 
Stephen Peabody Esq. as appears by the 
Commission herewith presented — That your 
Petitioner is informed some allowance had 
been mad those officers on acc't of the De- 
preciating of the money they were paid in 
— Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays 
that your Honors will oi'der such Depreciation 
to be paid to your Petitioner as is Customary 
in Such Cases — and as in duty Bound shall 
ever pray &c 

" Dated Fely y' 2'' 1786 

" Sam' Kendall 
in behalf of the Petitioner " 

The foregoing petition was granted Feb. 21, 
1786. 

Instructions to their Representative, 
1783. 

" At a Legal Meeting of the Inhabitants of 
the Town of Fitz William, held upon adjourn- 
ment august 14"' 1783 ; Voted, To give their 
Representative for the ensuing Year, the fol- 
lowing Instructions — 

" To Major Efisha Whitcomh — 

" S' You being Chosen to Represent the 
Towns of Swansey and Fitz William for the 
present Year, in the general assembly of the 
State of New Hampshire ; The Town of Fitz 
William, a jjart of your Constituents, in Com- 
plyance with the request of said assembly, and 
from a Sense of Duty at this Critictal period, do 
now openly, candidly & Sincerely Speak, & 
instruct you, not only with respect to the 
article Recomended, but other things mc con- 
ceive necessary to the well being of the Com- 
munity — 

"We shall begin with the Recommendation 
of the Honorable Congress, relative to an 
alteration proposed in the Eighth Article of 
the Confederation & perpetual union between 
the thirteen united States of America — 



204 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Congress, we find, View it Exjiedient, & 
even Necessary that such an alteration, as they 
have Eecomniended, be made ; and the general 
assembly of this state appear to be of the same 
mind ; for they say, ' they are fully convinced 
of the Expediency & utility of the Measure ' 
— with all Due Defference to the collected 
Wisdom of the Continent, & of this State ; as 
we are called upon to shew our minds, we 
would say, that we have taken this matter into 
deliberate & mature consideration ; and are of 
opinion that the jJroposed alteration is neither 
Expedient or necessary — 

" We conceive that it cannot be so just & 
equitable a mode of Proportioning Taxes, by 
the Number of Inhabitants of every age, Sex 
& condition, as by the Value of Land &c, 
which each State is possessed of, & which 
enables each State to pay the proportion — we 
aj)prehend, that, according to the present pro- 
posed method of Proportioning Taxes, there is 
a Door opened for some States to be eased & 
others burdened — but Reason Justice and 
Revelation Demand an Equality, that each State 
pay in proportion to what it is worth, and no 
more — 

" And as the Number of inhabitants accord- 
ing to the proposed alteration, is to be taken 
triennially — and as it is found necessy for i)ro- 
portiouing taxes within each State to take the 
Valuation of all Lands &c, we conceive that 
by the proposed alteration much needless Cost 
must arise to the good people of these States, 
already Loaded with Taxes; and know not 
which way to discharge them — nor can we 
think that the Numbering of Souls is a Justi- 
fiable method ; witness the couduct of David, 
& dismal consequences thereof ; left no doubt 
iqxm Sacre^l Record for national admonition — 

" We think it advisable, that one mode of 
Valuation, both as to poles & possession, 
should be adopted throughout the united 
States ; as this appears to us the most Rational 
& equitable plan that can be devised ; altho we 
are Sensible there can be no mode fixed upon, 



but that Some objections may be raised against 
it — 

" We do therefore recommend it to you, Sir 
to use your influence to prevent any alteration 
being made in the above mentioned Eighth 
article of the Confederatiou — 

" We Shall now take the Liberty to address 
you upon some other subjects, which wo con- 
ceive important & necessary ; in our present 
Situation of affairs — 

" By a Resolution of Congress of the 21 of 
October 1780, we find they have promised the 
officers of the american army, half pay during 
life — & by a Resolve of said congress, bearing 
date INIarch the 22 1783, they have engaged 
them five years full pay instead of the half pay 
promised before — upon which we would ob- 
serve, that we have ever been, and still are 
ready to Exert ourselves in Supporting our 
army; and to Reward those who have jeoparded 
their lives for us in the high Places of the field, 
fought our Battles, Bled in our Cause, antl 
under God Iiave been our defence — we are will- 
ing, we say, amply to reward them — 'none de- 
serve more highly than our Brave army; none 
shall have our Money more freely, So far as is 
Justly Due ; and if there has been any failure 
on the part of government in fulfilling their 
contracts, let the injury and all their Just De- 
mands be made uj) to them as soon as may be ' 
— yea So cheerful & ready are we, to have them 
fully compensated for their services, y' we are 
willing if it cannot be otherwise effected, To 
allow Both officers & Soldiers, over and aliove 
their Stipulated wages, one years full pay — -far 
be it from us to wrong our soldiers ; — we are 
desirous to settle honorably with them ; & sea- 
sonal^ly & fully to discharge all our jjublic & 
foreign Debts — 

"But we cannot see the reasonableness & Jus- 
tice of giving the officers of our army half pay 
during life, or full pay for the term of five 
years, after they are Discharged from the ser- 
vice — we think the soldiers who have born the 
Burden and heat of the day as well as the offi- 



FITZWILLIAM. 



205 



cers, have an equal Right to claim a share, iu 
proportion to their pay — ■ 

" We doubt not, but that Both officers and sol- 
diei"s have suffered mucli in tluir Countries Cause 
— and the temporal Interests of many have herby 
been diminished ; an has not this been the 
case with thousands that have generally 
l)een at Home ? — they liave many a time 
lieen called oif fi-om their employments, 
l)een obliged to gird on the harness & take 
the field, for a time, in the common defence ; 
& why ought they not to be rewarded over 
<.t above their Stipulated ])ay, in proportion 
to the time they were gone & Services which 
they Performed ? — it api)ears to be as reasonable 
as that the officers of our army should thus he 
re\\'arded — 

" Besides do not the officers of our army hope 
& expect, to share in the Blessings of Peace & 
independence? we are willing they should; why 
then are they not to Suffer with us, & lend a 
helping hand to support us under our Burdens? 
— we think they ought to be — & not make gov- 
ernment, instead of Being a Blessing, an un- 
supportable Burden to the people — 

" We cannot see, if they have a reasonable 
recompence for their services, why they do not 
stand upon an equal footing with their Brethren 
— we therefore request you, Sir, to use your in- 
fluence to prevent this pay being given to the 
officers of our army, as we cannot consent to it, 
or any thing that is so subversive of the Prin- 
ciples of american Revolution — 

" Further, we must Depend upon your Ex- 
ertions, and if need be that you Strain every 
nerve, to prevent the return of those persons 
called Tories, or absentees, who have withdrawn 
themselves from us, gone over to the Enemy & 
either virtually or actually taken up arms 
against us — & many of them shed the Blood of 
their Brethren — in the judgment of charity we 
can't but View them in an odious light — they 
deserve censure — yea many of them have long 
since, forfeited their heads as well as their es- 
tates to their countries Justice — we doubt not 



but their situation is disagreeable, & that things 
have turned out (juite con trary to their wish 
& Expectation ; but are we to B lame for that ? 
— had they chose it, they might have continued 
twith us, & enjfiyed their estates, which we view 
hey have now forfeited, & all the priveledges 
& immunities of free citizens; & Shared in the 
Blessings of independence — but they have chosen 
their side, & we desire that they would abide 
their choice, & not Presume to trouble us any 
more — Friendship to them, & Safety to our- 
selves & dear Country, forljid them to be any 
more incorporated with us — we have sufficiently 
Proved them, & understand their temper & dis- 
position, by their inhuman & savage conduct 
towards us — we are convinced that we cannot 
put any confidence in them ; they have proved 
themselves traitors to their country ; can we 
then receive you into our Bosoms again ? by no 
means — let them therefore Depart, & repair to 
the frozen Regions of acadia, the Place Destined 
for them by their Royal Master, and Spend the 
rest of their days in deep Repentance for their 
Past follies — 

"And as Religion is much Decayed in our 
Land, the Lords Day shamefully profaned, the 
holy name of God abused, and all manner of 
Vice prevalent & Barefaced, we Expect that 
you will use your Best endeavors, to liave such 
Laws enacted & put in Execution, as shall tend 
to suppress Vice, secure the honor of Gods holy 
name, & the Sanctificatiou of the Sabbath, and 
to Promote Religion A' useful Literature among 
us — 

"and that you give your constant & season- 
able attendance at Court, iu the time of its Ses- 
sions, that neither your Constitutents, nor the 
Public may be come Sufferers by your neglect — 
but a word to the wise is sufficient — 

"At a Legal Meeting of the Inhabitants of 
the Town of Fitzwilliam on the 14 Day of this 
Instant, August — Voted that These Instructions' 
Should be Deliver to you Sir by the Hand of 
Ens" Samuel Kendall at your hous in Swansey 

" Fitzwilliam August 16'" 1783 

"Atest Samuel Patrick Town Clerk " 



206 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Petition of General James Read. 

" To the Hon"* the Senate and house of Rep- 
resentatives convened at Concord — 

" The petitition of James Read most humbly 
sheweth — 

" That your petitioner, during the late pros- 
2)erous and glorious contest for liberty, in whieh 
he was conscientiously engaged, was unfortu- 
nately and totally deprived of the use of his 
eyes, a greater loss than which no mortal can 
sustain : That by painful circumstance he is al- 
together deprived of his usefulness to his Coun- 
try, and of every opportunity of procuring sus- 
tenance for himself and family, and the only 
consolation he receives, is, that America is be- 
come free, in part, through his struggles : That 
in this most deplorable situation of himself and 
family, your petitioner has heretofore frequently 
applied to the General Court, whom he con- 
ceives to be the guardians, the fathers of 
the iieople for assistance ; but has hitherto 
most unfortunately failetl in his just applica- 
tions : That he has in this unutterable distress, 
and frightful indigence, been constrained to put 
liis dependence on the Constables for several 
years past, for succour and support, both for 
himself and family ; still looking forward with 
full hope and expectations that you, who are 
rightly stiled the redressers of grievances, would 
have concerted some efiectual means for his 
livelihood, agreeable to resolves of Congress for 
that benevolent purpose — Wherefore your sup- 
pliant j)etitioner most humbly prays, that this 
Hon'" Court wou'd give him orders on said 
Constables which may fully answer for the Con- 
tinental tax due from said Constables and that 
the same be charged to the Continent agreeable 
to said Resolves — or otherwise relieve your pe- 
titioner's pitiful situation, as in your great wis- 
dom you may think best — 



"And your petitioner as in duty bound will 
ever pray — 

" James Read " 

Petition for Incorporation of Library. 

" To the General Court of the State of New 
Hampshire now Conven'd at Portsmouth hum- 
bly Sheweth Nahum Parker that he with a 
number of others Inhabitants of Fitzwilliam 
purchased a Collection of Books for a Social 
Library but find it necessary to be incorporated 
in order to realize the advantages Contemjilated 
Therefore pray that they may be incorporated 
with such privileges as are usually Granted in 
such Cases, and as in duty bound will pray 

"Nov'^27"' 1797 

" Nahum Parker, /or the jmrchasers " 

The petition was granted November 29, 
1797. 

The Congregational Church in this 
town was organized March 27, 1771, with the 
following members : Benjamin Brigham, Ben- 
jamin Bigelow, John Fassitt, Nathaniel Wilder, 
Caleb Minch and James Reed. 

The first pastor was Rev. Benjamin Brigham. 
The present pastor is Rev. John Colby. 

The Unitarians have a society in the vil- 
lage, but no house of worship nor regular p;is- 
tor. 

The First Baptist Church was organ- 
ized in 1815. The first pastor was Rev. Arnot 
Allen. Rev. Andrew Dunn is the present pas- 
tor. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church was 
organized in 1867 by Rev. W. Morrill, the 
present pastor. There are two churches on this 
charge — one located at Howeville and the other 
at the Depot. 



HISTORY OF GILSUM. 



CHAPTER I. 

The town of Gilsum lies north of the cen- 
tre of the county, and is bounded as follows : 
north by jMarlow and Alstead, east by Stod- 
dard and Sullivan, south by Keene, and west 
by Surry. 

This town was originally granted to Joseph 
Osgood and seventy-one others, under the name 
of Boyle. None of these grantees, however, 
settled in the town and the grant was forfeited. 
The following is a copy of the petition for in- 
corporation : 

"To His Excellency Banning Wentwortli, Esq., 
Gov' of the Province of New Hanip.shire &c. 
" Humbly Shews — • 

" The Petition of William Lawrence of Groton & 
Thomas Read of Westford in the Province of the 
Massa'" That they together With fifty Six more of 
their Neighbours Are desireous of Selling a township 
in the Province of New Hampshire many of them 
not Having a Sufficiency of Lands in the Massachu- 
setts to Employ them Selves in Husbandry And have- 
ing Account of a tract of Land Yet ungranted by 
Your Excellency, that we Apprehend is Capable of 
Setlement (which Lyes Northerly of the Upper Ash- 
uelot and Westmoreland and Easterly from Walepool 
Adjoyning to those towns, and Extends Eastward to 
make the Contents of Six miles Square) and in case 
we may Obtain the favour of your Excellency in 
making us a grant on y'^ Conditions, Other of his 
Majestys Lands thereare Granted, Shall make a Spedy 
& Eflectuall Setlement there. 

"Wherefore we pray that y' Excellency would See 
meet to favour us with Liberty to Survey the Same 
Under your directions. And that we may Obtain a 
Grant Accordingly And as in Duty bound Shall pray 

&c. 

" William Lawrence. 
" Thomas Read. 
" Groton March 1(5 : 1752." 



Recharter of the Town. — The town was 
rechartered July 13, 1763, under the name of 
Gilsum.' The petition was as follows : 

"To His Excellency Benning Wentwortli Esq' 
Gov' & Commander in Chief in and Over his 
Majesty's Province of New Hamp° and to the 
hou'''° his Majesty's Council for Said Province. 

" The memorial of Thomas Sumner in Behalf of 
himself & Others Prop" in the Town of Boyle in Said 
Province, Shews. 

" That in the Year 1752 Your ExcelK & Honors 
Granted the Township of Boyle upon the Conditions 
& under the restrictions as Per Charter Declar'd — 

"That by the Intervention of the Late War your 
Memorialist" Constituents have been (till Very Lately ) 
Prevented from Doing the Duty, but Notwithstanding 
they have Sever'd & Drawn by Lotts the Said Tract 
of Land to & among all the Prop" that Many of 
Your Memorialists Constituents are now Actually 
Living with their familys on S'' Tract of Land & 
Many More Going Early in the Spring & there are 
Now Many Acres of Wheat Sowd there & In all 
Probability the Township Will be Intirely Settled 
According to the True & Intent & Meaning of the 
Grant by Next Summer But as the Time Prefix'd in 
the Grant Was Elaps'd & that Before it Was Possible 
(for the reason afores'*) for 'em To Enter & Improve, 
they Conceive it Absolutely Necessary that Your Ex- 
cell'' & Honors (if you think fit) Sho''Granta suspen- 
sion of the forfeiture «& further indulge 'em with Such 
a Term of time as they may be Enabled to fulfill the 
Duty aforesaid & are Encouraged to Ask the fav' Be- 
cause your Exc>' & honors are Wonted To Endulge 
Prop" in the Like Circumstances & Your Memorial- 
ist Shall Ever pray — 



' Jan^ 24 1763.'= 



" Tho» Sumner. 



' The name originated as follows: Samuel Gilbert and 
Thomas Sumner were prominent in procuring tlie grant. 
Their families were connected by marriage, and the town 
was named by taking the first syllable of each name and 
coining the word Gilsum (7. IC Hammond). 

207 



208 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



This grant was made to Samuel Gilbert, 
Thomas Sumuer and others. 

At the first meeting of the proprietors 
Thomas Pitken, Jr., was chosen moderator; 
Clement Sumner, proprietors' clerk ; and Sam- 
uel Gilbert, treasurer. 

The first settlers of the town were Jonathan 
Bliss and Josiah Kilburn, in 1762. 

March 9, 1769, the west part of the town 
was set off, and, with a portion of Westmore- 
land, incorporated into the town of Surry. 

September 27, 1787, the southeast part of 
the town was set off, joined with portions of 
Keene, Stoddard and Packersfield (Nelson), and 
incorporated into the town of Sullivan. 

A dispute relative to the boundary line be- 
tween this town and Stoddard was settled by 
an act passed June 27, 1797, by which the 
"curve line of Mason's Patent " was made the 
dividing line of the two towns, and Gilsum lost 
another tract of land. 

In 1873 a few acres of land was taken from 
Sullivan and annexed to this town. 

War of the Revolution. — Gilsum did 
its full share in the War of the Revolution. 

In 1775 the town had a population of forty- 
nine males above sixteen years of age, and 
during the war furnished twenty men, as fol- 
lows : 



Isaac Griswold. 
Brooks Hudson. 
Zadoc Hurd. 
Ebenezer Kilburn. 
Captain Elisha Mack. 
Thomas Morse. 
Jesse Smith. 
Ananias Tubbs. 
Frederick Tubbs. 
Samuel White. 



David Abraham. 
David Adams. 
Peter Beebe. 
David Bill. 
Stephen Bond. 
Iddo Church. 
Thomas Church. 
Josiah Comstock, 
Samuel Crame. 
Joseph French. 

War of 1812.— In the War of 1812 seven 
men from Gilsum were in the service : — 



Eoswell Borden. 
Iddo Kilburn. 
John Raynioud. 
David Bill. 



Jonas Brown. 
David Dort. 
Ira Ellis. 



26, 1776, with Joseph Spencer, moderator, and 
Obadiah Willcox, clerk. Prior to 1789 the 
records of the town are missing. Timothy De- 
wey was clerk in 1787. 

The following is a list of clerks from 1789 
to 1885 : 

Zadok Hurd, 1789. 

Robert Lane Hurd, 1790, '91, 1801, '02, '03, '04, '05, 
'11, '12. 

David Blish, 1792, '93, '94, '95, '90, '97, '98, '99, 
1800. 

Josiah Hammond, 1806, '07, '08, '09, '10, '15, '10, '24, 
'25, '26, '27, '28, '29, '30, '31. 

Elisha Fisk, 1813. 

Obadiah Pease, 1814, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, 
'22 '23. 

Luther Abbott, 1832, '33. 

David Brigham, 1834, '35. 

Israel B. Loveland, 1836, '37, '38, '39, '40, '41, '42, 
'43, '44, '46, '47, '48, '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56, 
'57, '58. 

Allen Buster, 1845. 

M. L. Goddard, elected in 1856, but removed. 

Henry E. Rawson, 1859, '65, '66. 

Ezra Webster, 1860, '61, '62, '63, '64; died in 
office. 

Calvin Chandler, 1864. 

George Henry McCoy, 1867, '68, '69, '70, '72, '73, 
'74, '75, '70, '77. 

John Gould, 1871. 

John A. Smith, 1878. 

Benjamin H. Horton, 1879. 

L. W. F. Mark, 1880, '81, '82, '83, '84, '85. 

Representives. — From 1789 to 1793 Gilsum 
Surry and Sullivan formed a representative dis- 
trict. Previous to this Gilsum had been classed 
with Various towns. From 1795 to 1827 it was 
classed with Surry. Since 1825 the town lias 
been entitled to one representative ; the list is as 
follows : 



Civil History. — The first town-meeting of 
which we have any account was held August 



Luther Whitney, 1827. 
Aaron Day, 1828, '29, '31. 
Josiah Hammond, 1830. 
Jehiel Day, 1832, '34. 
Allen Butler, 1833, '35. 
John Horton, 1836, '37. 
David Bell, 1838, '39, '41. 
David M. Smith, 1840. 
William Kingsbury, 1842. 

E. K. Webster, 1843, '44. 

F. W. Day, 1845, '46. 
John Hammond, 1847, 

'48. 



Samuel Isham, Jr., 1819, 

'50, '56, '57. 
Amasa May, 1851, '52. 
David Ware, 1853. 
John Livermore, 1854. 
Ebenezer Jones, 1855. 
F. A. Howard, 1858. 
Ezra Webster, 1859, '60. 
D. W. Bill, 1861, '62, '74, 

'76. 
J. M. Chapin, 1863, '64, 

'67. 
H. E. Rawson, 1865, '66. 



GILSUM. 



209 



A. D. Hammond, 1868, 

'69. 
Allen Hayward, 1870, 71. 
J. S. Collins, 1872, '73. 



William L. Isham, 1875, 

'77. 
J. J. Isham, 1878. 



lu November, 1878, Gil.sum was classed with 
Sullivan, and Francis C. ]Minor was representa- 
tive. In 1880 Gilsum was classed with Sul- 
livan, and the representative was from the 
latter town. L. R. Guillow, 1882-83 ; George 
J5. Rawsou, 1884-85. 

Ecclesiastical.- T/ie Congregational Church 
was organized October 27, 1772; the first 
church building was erected and dedicated in 
1794, and the first pastor was Rev. Elisha 
risk, installed May 29, 1794. Other pastors 
have been Revs. E. Chase, S. S. Arnold, Wil- 
liam Hutchinson, Henry White, George Lang- 
don, J. Tisdale, Ezra Adams, E. E. Ba.ssett, 
Horace Wood, Silvanus Hayward and George 
W. Rogers, present pastor. 

The Methodist Church. — A Methodist Church 
was organized here, in 1843, by Rev. Samuel 
S. Dudley, and in 1848 a house of worship 
was erected at a cost of fourteen hundred 
and fifty dollars. The church was disbanded 
in about 1874, and the house sold to the town. 
Rev. John Gove was probably the first preacher 
of this faith here in 1801. The late Bishop 
Elijah Hedding preached here in about 1806. 

The Baptists also held services here for some 
time, but the church is now extinct. A Chris- 
tian Church also once existed in Gilsum, and 
also a branch of the Mormon Church, or " Lat- 
ter-Day Saints," both extinct. 

Physicians. — The first physician in Gilsum 
was Abner Bliss. Among other physicians 
were Benjamin Hosmer, Henry Kendrick, 
1-1 



Obadiah Wilcox, J. E. Davis, B. Palmer, Isaac 
Hatch, Dudley Smith, T. S. Lane, G. W. 
Hammond (he was one of the prominent men 
of the town and an eminent physician ; he 
was a member of the Constitutional Convention 
of 1850, member of the State Senate in 1855-56, 
and died January 30, 1872, at the age of 
seventy years), K. D. Webster, C. C. Bingham, 
C. F. Kingsbury, A. H. Livermore, M. E. 
Loveland, A. R. Gleason and I. A. Loveland. 

Military Record, 1861-65. — The follow- 
ing were in the service from this town : 



Thomas W. Bingall. 
Joseph Collins. 
S. H. Howard. 
H. H. Nash. 
John A. Blake. 
S. W. Bridge. 
J. L. Davis. 
J. W. Everdon. 
A. R. Gleason. 
G. J. Guillow. 
Isaac W. Hammond. 
C. H. Harris. 
Franklin Nash. 
S. D. Nash. 



Drafted. 



Temple Baker. 
G. W. Bancroft. 
L. White. 



C. H. Wilcox. 
G. C. H. Deets. 
A. E. Howe. 
John Howard. 
M. J. Howard. 
E. G. McCoy. 
A. A. Morse. 
H. H. Nash. 
O. Nash. 

E. E. Roundy. 

F. W. Roundy. 
H. E. Wilcox. 
Lucius Davis. 



Jotham Bates. 
C. W. Spooner. 
A. H. Waldrou. 



The fii-st three secured substitutes ; the fourth 
paid commutation of three hundred dollars. 
The followino; were also drafted : 



H. L. Bates. 
Joel Cowee. 
J. Guillow. 



G. H. McCoy. 
C. E. Crouch. 



All but the last-named secured substitutes. 
There were also, in addition to the above twenty- 
one substitutes furnished. 



HISTORT OF HARRTSVILLE. 



BY S. 11. BEMIS. 



CHAPITER I. 

TiiK town of Harrisville was formerly a part 
of the towns of Dublin anil Xtlson, and inuor- 
poi-atwl by an act of the Legislature in the year 
1870. The followiug- i.s that portion of the 
act defining its territorial limits : 

" An act to constitute tlie town of Harrisville from 
a part of the towns of Dublin and Nelson. 

"Section 1. That all that part of Dublin and all that 
part of Nelson lying within the following lines and 
boundaries to wit : Beginning at a stake marked ' D. 
M.,' standing in the line of Marlborough and Dub- 
lin at the southwest corner of lot No. 22, in the 
eiglith range in said Dublin : thence north the length 
of three degrees in the lines of Marlborough and 
Roxbury, to the northwest corner of Dublin at a 
stake marked ' D. K.;' thence south, seventy-nine 
degrees and forty-five minutes east, seven rods to the 
southwest corner of the town of Nelson at a stake i 
marked ' D. N.,' 1S64; thence north, eleven degrees i 
east, the length of one lot to a stake marked ' N. R., 
18t)4 ' ; thence south, seventy-nine degrees and forty- > 
five minutes east, to a stake standing on the east shore 
of Breed Pond, so called ; thence northerly on the 
east shore of said pond the length of one lot to a 
stake and stones ; thence south, seventy-nine degrees 
and forty-five minutes east, on the northerly line of 
lots in the third range in said town of Nelson from 
the north line of Dublin to a stake and stones stand- 
ing in the westerly line of the town of Hancock marked 
' N. H. ;■ thence south, twelve degrees and thirty 
minutes west, . to the southwest corner of Hancock 
and the southeast corner of Nelson to a stake stand- 
ing in the wall ; thence south, seventy-nine degrees 
east in the line of said Hancock and Dublin eight 
hundred and seventy-nine rods to a stake and stones ; 
thence south on the line of Hancock and Dublin and 
Peterborough and Dublin to the southeast corner of 
No. 1, in the eighth range of lots in said Dublin, at a 
stake and stones ; thence westerly on the south range- , 
210 



line of range eight in said Dublin to the place of 
beginning: be and the same is hereby severed from 
the towns of Dublin and Nelson and juade a body 
politic and corporate by the name of Harrisville." 

Section 7 of said act authonized Milan Harris. 
Darius Farwell, Milan W. Harris, or any two of them 
to call the first meeting of the town. Agreeably to 
the authority here given them they proceeded to 
call the first meeting of the town by posting the fol- 
lowing warrant : 

"(L. S.) The State of New Hampshire to the in- 
habitants of the town of Harrisville, as constituted 
by an act of the Legislature passed July 2, 1870, 
qualified to vote in town atlairs : You are hereby 
notified to meet at Eagle Hall, in said town, on Satur- 
day, the thirteenth day of August next, at one of the 
clock in the afternoon, to act upon the following sub- 
jects : 

'■ 1. To choose a moderator to preside in said meet- 
ing. 

" 2. To choose all necessary officers and agents for 
the present year. 

" 3. To see if the town will authorize the selectmen 
to borrow such sums of money as may be necessary 
to defray the expense-* of the town. 

"Given under our hands and seals this twenty-ninth 
day of July. 1S70. 

•Mii^AX Hakris, ) Authorized 
"Darius Fakwell, I to call 
"Mii.AX AV. Harris, j said meeting." 

Ou tiic 13th day of August, 1870, 
agreeably to the above call, was holdeu the first 
town-meeting ever held in Harrisville. It was 
a bright, snuny day of the latter pait of the 
summer, wheu nearly every voter in this new 
town assembled to take part in this, their first 
town-meeting. S;imuel T>. Bemis was chosen 
moderator : Stephen L. Randall, clerk ; and Par- 
tus Farwell, Samuel D. Bemis and (teorge 
Wooil were chosen selectmen ; and Hon. Milan 



HARRISVILLE. 



211 



Harris was I'hosen agent of the town to act with 
tiie selectmen in the settlement of affairs with 
the towns of Dnl)lin and Nelson. 

At the auiiual town-meeting in 1871 the 
following were tlie town officers : 

Samuel D. Bemis, moderator ; Stephen L. Randall, 
clerk ; Darius Farwell, Samuel D. Bemis, selectmen ; 
Hon. Milan Harris, representative to Legislature. 

1872. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator ; Frank P. 
Ward, clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, George AVood, 
George F. Tufts, selectmen; Samuel D. Bemis, rep- 
resentative to Legislature. 

1873. — Darius Farwell, moderator; Stephen L. 
Randall, clerk ; Darius Farwell, Zophar Willard, 
Luther P. Eaton, selectmen ; Hon. Milan Harris, 
representative to Legislature. 

1874. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator ; Stephen 
L. Randall, clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, Zophar Wil- 
lard, Luther P. Eaton, selectmen ; Aber S. Hutch- 
inson, representative to Legislature. 

1875. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator; Charles C. 
P. Harris, clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, Orlando Fogg, 
Joel F. Mason, selectmen ; Abner S. Hutchinson, 
representative to Legislature. 

1876. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator; Charles C. 
P. Harris, clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, Francis Strat- 
ton, Daniel W. Barker, selectmen ; Luke Tarbox, 
representative to Legislature. 

1877. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator; Fred. Colony, 
clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, George T. Tufts, Winslow 
Royce, selectmen ; Sylvester T. Symonds, represen- 
tative to Legislature. 

1878. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator ; Fred. Colony, 
clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, George F. Tufts, Winslow 
Royce, selectmen ; Sylvester T. Symonds, representa- 
tive to Legislature. 

1879. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator ; Fred. Col- 
ony, clerk ; Darius I'arwell, George Davis, George 
Wood, selectmen. 

1880. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator; George F. 
Tufts, clerk ; George Davis, Joel F. Mason, Aaron 
Smith, selectmen. 

1881. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator; George 
Davis, clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, Charles C. Farwell, 
Everard C. Willard, selectmen ; George F. Tufts, 
representative to Legislature. 

1882. — Francis Stratton, moderator ; George Davis, 
clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, Charles C. Farwell, Ever- 
ai'd C. Willard, selectmen. 

1883. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator ; George 
Davis, clerk ; Samuel D. Bemis, Charles C. Farwell, 



Everard C. Willard, selectmen ; George F. Tufts, 
representative to Legislature. 

1884. — Francis Stratton, moderator; George Davis, 
clerk ; Charles C. Farwell, Everard C. Willard, se- 
lectmen. 

1885. — Samuel D. Bemis, moderator ; George Da- 
vis, clerk ; Aaron Smith, Francis Stratton, Jacob G. 
Lakin, selectmen. 

In 1876, Samuel D. Bemis was chosen dele- 
gote to the convention to revise the Constitution. 
The number of votes cast for I'residcut have 
been as follows : 

1872.— Horace Greeley, 6G ; U. S. Grant, 95. 

1876.— .Samuel J. Tilden, 101 ; R. B. Hayes, 93. 

1880.— Winfield S. Hancock, 89 ; James A. Gar- 
field, 82. 

1884. — Grover Cleveland, 73 ; James G. Blaine, 
68 ; scattering, 4. 

Manufacturing of Wooden-warE .vnd 
Lumber.— The mannficture of wooden-ware was 
first commenced in what is now Harrisville by 
George Handy and Nathaniel Greely, in 1838. 
Mr. Greely soon sold out to IMr. Handy, who 
continued the business many years. Handv did 
a business of about ten thousand dollars a year. 
About 18o0 these mills were sold to Asa Fair- 
banks, who run them five years. Samuel W. 
Hale, now ex-Governor Hale, came in posses- 
sion of them. In 1860 he sold them to El- 
bridge G. Bemis, by whom they were rebuilt and 
much enlarged and improved. He owned them 
about five years. They are now owned by 
Charles C. & Henry J. Farwell, by whom 
they have been further improved and the busi- 
ness greatly enlarged. Just below the factories, 
and near the Centre village, A. E. & M. K. 
Perry, in 1845, built a saw-mill and box-shop, 
and for a number of years did an extensive bus- 
iness in the manufacture of shoe-boxes. In 18")5 
this mill was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. 
It is now owned by Zophar Willard, who does 
a large business in the manufacture of clothes- 
pins, cloth-cases and dimension lumber. At 
this mill, when owmed by the Messrs. Perry, a 
terrible accident occurred. Charles K. Mason, 
Esq., now one of the leading citizens of Marl- 
borough, while attempting to adjust a belt upon 



212 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



a grindstone, had his left arm torn from his 
shoulder. In 1849, EibridgeG. Bemis, George 
W. Bemis and kSylvester T. Symonds erected a 
large wooden-ware shop just below the "Great 
Meadows," on the stream that takes its rise 
in Breed Pond, now called Silver Lake. The 
year following they built a saw-mill upon the 
opposite side of the stream. Quite an exten- 
sive business was carried on here in the manu- 
facture of wooden- ware and lumber for a good 
many years, but the business is now so depressed 
that but little is done. These mills are now 
owned by S. T. Symonds, one of the original 
owners, and his son, Dana T. Symonds. In 
1 8(59 a new dam was built just above these mills, 
by the Breed Pond Company, which converts 
the " Great Meadows" into a reservoir. The 
first saw-mill in the west part of the town 
was built by Moses Adams, on lot eighteen, 
ranse ten. The second was erected bv Eli Green- 
wood, and stood where the grist and saw-mill 
built by Lambert L. Howe, now stands. This 
mill was destroyed by fire in 1878. It has 
been rebuilt several times. In August, 1826, 
it was carried oif by a cloud burst upon Monad- 
nock Mountain. This was the same night as 
the slide upon the White Mountains, which 
caused the destruction of the Willey family ; 
the mill was carried to the meadows below, 
almost intact, and from there Mp the stream 
from Breed Pond, which here intersects with it, 
opposite where the railroad depot now stands. 
There was no perceptible rise of water in the lat- 
ter stream except from the water which ran 
up from the overflow of the stream below. In 
1834 a saw-mill was Ijuilt by Robert Worsly 
and Lyman Russell, on land of A\ orsly, about 
one-fourth of a mile above the mill just de- 
scribed. It afterwards passed into the hands of 
Nathan & Heath, who added a clothes-pin shop. 
This mill has been demolished a number of 
years. 

Railroad. — For a great many years the 
project of a railroad from some point on the 
line of railroad running through the eastern and 



central part of the State, through tliis town to 
Keene, thereby connecting the eastern and 
western parts by rail, was from time to time 
considerably agitated. Several surveys previous 
to the year 1870 had been made, and the pro- 
ject was found to be entirely feasible. A com- 
pany was soon formed which offered to build 
the road, provided a gratuity of two hundred 
thousand dollars could be raised to assist them 
in its construction. With the exception of the 
town of Dul)lin, all the towns and the city of 
Keene upon the line of the road voted gratui- 
ties varying from two and one- half to five per 
cent, on their valuations. In Dublin several 
town-meetings were held, and while a majority 
of the voters voted for the gratuity, the rccpii- 
site two-thirds required by law could not be ob- 
tained. The people of the manufacturing por- 
tion of the town, which is now Harrisville, 
were unanimously in favor of the proposed 
gratuity, while those in the exclusively farming 
portion of Dublin, thinking that they might 
not receive quite as much benefit from a rail- 
road as their neighbors in the manufacturing 
part of the town, — a rather narrow view to take 
as a general rule — steadfastly refused to vote the 
gratuity. In consequence of this refusal, a peti- 
tion was presented to the Legislature of 1870 
to sever that part of Dublin and Nelson de- 
scribed in this chapter, and have the same con- 
stitute a new town, to be called Harrisville, in 
compliment to the Alessrs. Harris, who had 
been so largely instrumental in building up the 
manufacturing at the village ; this petition was 
favorably considered and a charter granted in 
accordance, which was received by great demon- 
strations of joy l)v almost every person within 
the limits of the new town On the 10th day 
of August, 1872, a town-meeting was held and 
a gratuity of five per cent, was voted almost 
unanimously. Owing to the great business de- 
pression which followed soon after, the matter 
WHS allowed to rest until 1876, when a perma- 
nent survey was completed and the work of 
g-radino' commenced in August of the same 



( 



HAKRISVILLE. 



213 



year; before its completion, however, the lunds 
of the company became exhausted, and the en- 
terprise remained at a standstill until 1878, 
when the road was completed, and trains com- 
menced to run. There are now four passenger- 
trains daily over the road, and a heavy business 
is done in the carrying of freight, with tlie bus- 
iness constantly increasing. There are three 
depots in town, — one at the east part, one at the 
Centi'c villay-e and one at West Harrisville. 
The old towns run mail stages to Harrisville, 
and the benefit to this and the adjoining towns 
can best be estimated after we consider that we 
were formerly twelve miles from any railroad 
facilities. Harrisville would not part witii her 
railroad for ten times five per cent. 

BusiXES.s Statistics.' — Bethuel Harris, son 
of Erastus Harris, of Medway, Mass., came to 
this place a.d. 178G, destitute of pecuniary 
ability. He having bought his time of his 
father when eighteen years old, having learned 
Ihe carpenter's trade, worked at that business 
about five years, when he purchased two hundred 
and eighty acres of land lying partly in the 
town of Nelson and partly in Dublin, mostly 
woodland, which, in addition to his trade, he 
improved for five years. His wife was daugh- 
ter of Al)el Twitchell, of Dublin, who was the 
first inhabitant of tiiis place. Bethuel Harris 
had ten children, — six sons and four daughter.?. 
He continued his carpentering and agricultural 
business until 1813, when his health failed, 
being much troubled witii sciatica. At this 
time he purchased water-power and a small 
building, and commenced, in a very limited de- 
gree, the business of mamifacturing wooleu 
goods, which, to a con.siderable extent, was done 
by hand, as power-looms and spinning were not 
known at that time ; but, in 1817, he increased 
the building and added machinery, putting his 
sons, as fast as old enough, at work in that l)usi- 
ness. In 1821 he built a large, three-story 
brick house, and moved from his farm down 
near his mill. This was the second dwelling 

' Bj Charles C. V. Harris, Esq. 



built near this water-power. In 1825, Bethuel, 
in company with his oldest son, Cyrus, built a 
commodious brick mill and filled it with im- 
proved machinery, increasing the business of 
manufacturing four-fold. They continued the 
business for six years, when his son Cyrus 
retired from the company ; Bethuel contin- 
ued alone for two years ; when his .sou 
Cyrus returned and purchased a lialf-interest 
and continued the business for five years; 
Cyrus then retired and built a large brick 
store building, also a large stone mill on 
the water-power next below that of Bethuel 
Harris', in 1840-47, when, on the completion 
of the building, his health failed. Accordingly, 
he did not fill the buihling with machinery. 
On the 14th of April, 1848, said Cyrus Harris 
deceased. The mill which he built went into 
the possession of Colony & Sons. It has been 
successfully operated by them imtil the present 
time, they having improved and greatly in- 
creased the property. The present corporate 
name of the company is Cheshire Mills Com- 
pany. 

Bethuel Harris was born at Medway, Ma.ss., 
August 14, 1769; he came to this place when 
but seventeen years old. After working with 
his father for some years, he commenced busi- 
ness on his own account at his trade. He was 
a man of much energy and decision of charac- 
ter, a just man and much respected among all 
his acquaintance. He persevered in whatever 
he engaged in, and, for the most part, was 
moderately successful. Although striving under 
many discouragements, yet he overcame many 
obstacles. He not only succeeded in carpen- 
tering and agricultural business, but he was the 
chief in.strument in establishing the manufac- 
turing business, which has proved to be the 
business of the place, and has been continued 
by him, his sons and the Messrs. Colony up to 
the present time, in a great degree very success- 
fully. Bethuel Harris was not only a just, up- 
right and straightforward man, but, for a man 
of his pecuniary ability, which was very limited 



214 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



at the first, he was very charitable and liberal, 
always showing his Christian faith by his 
works of generosity and liberality in every good 
cause, having in view the good of his fellow- 
beings both in this present and the future 
world, believing that faith without works is 
dead, being alone. He not only con- 
tributed about three thousand dollars for the 
erection of church buildings, but live years be- 
fore his decease gave the church, for a perma- 
nent fund, twelve hundred dollars; he also pre- 
sented each of his children (ten in number) with 
a valuable slip, or pew, in the church ; also, he 
provided a family cemetery on what is called 
the Harrisvillc Island, presenting each of his 
children a nice and beautiful lot for their use 
and for their families', amounting, for slips and 
cemetery grounds, to nearly twelve hundred 
dollars. Therefore, we have a living evidence 
of the fruits of a devoted and just life of a hum- 
ble man. Very much more could be said of 
his private character and life, both pul)lic and 
private, but the writer, being a direct descendant 
from the said Bethuel Harris, refrains from 
saying anything further, hoping and trusting 
that his memory may long be revered by gen- 
erations yet to come in his lineage and descent. 
Milan Harris, second son of Bethuel Harris, 
at the age of thirty years, in the year 1829, pur- 
chased the old Twitchell water-power, at the 
Twitchell Pond (so called), on which was a 
saw and grist-mill, which he ran for one year, 
when he, in connection with Henry Melville, 
of Nelson, built a commodious brick mill, three 
stories high, in 1833 ; but, before the building 
was filled with machinery, his partner, Henry 
Melville, deceased. Said Harris continued in 
the completion of the mill, and put in one set of 
machinery f jr manufacturing woolen goods, and 
commenced manufacturing, and carried on the 
business for some three or four years, after 
which Almon Harris, the third son of Bethuel 
Harris, connected himself with Milan Harris in 
said business, when the com]xiuy was known 
by the name of M. & A. Harris, who contin- 



ued the business successfully until 1846, when 
Almon Harris retired from the company and 
went to Fishersville, N. H., and built a large 
mill at that place and carried on the manufac- 
turing business very successfully during his 
life, some thirty years. After Almon Harris 
retired from the company of M. & A. Harris, 
Milan Harris continued the manufacturing 
business until 1858, when his oldest sou, 
Milan W. Harris, became associated with him. 
The company was then known by name of I\I. 
Harris & Co. until alwut 1872, when it was 
incorporated under the name of M. Harris' 
Woolen Manufacturing Company, and contin- 
ued until the corporation was dissolved, about 
1882. 

Baptist Church.' — So fiir as it can be as- 
certained, several families of the Baptist faith 
and order lived in the northwest part of the 
town, and in neighboring towns, at an early 
period. The first mention of the Baptist Society 
in the town records is found in the following 
article for a town-meeting, to be held April 29, 
1784: "To hear the plea of those who call 
themselves the Baptist Society, for being ex- 
cused from paying Mr. Sprague's salary, and 
to act anything relating thereto, as the town 
may see proper." Rev. Edward Sprague 
was the Congregational minister in the town at 
that time. In the petition presented to the 
town it was stated that the selectmen had rated 
them to Mr. Sprague for the year 1784, and 
they beg leave to tell them that they look upon 
it as an unjust and real grievance. At the 
town-meeting it was voted to excuse all those 
from paying Mr. Sprague's salary for the last 
year who had made a profession of the Baptist 
persuasion in this town, provided they bring a 
certificate from the clerk of their society that 
they were in comnmniou with them before Mr. 
Sprague's salary was assessed, and they were 
excused for the present year. The Baptists in 
town at this time were a branch of the Baptist 

• Prepared by Rev. J. P. Chapin, of Pottersville, N. H. 



t 



HAllRISVILLE. 



215 



Church in Richmoud, under the pastoral care of 
Elder Maturin Ballon (tlic 2:randfather of the 
late President J. A. Garfield), the first Baptist 
minister who preached in town. He preached 
his first sermon in the house of John Muzzy. 
He preached in town occasionally till the close 
of the year 17<S5. 

December 7, 1785, the Baptists in this town 
were set off from the church in Richmond, and 
l»)rmed into an independent church, composed 
of thirty members. The churcli, (U'cvious to 
1797, held tiieir meetings during summer in a 
barn ; in the winter around in private houses. 
After the formation of the church Rev. Isaiah 
Stone was emjiloyed as a minister for a season. 
Rev. Moses Kinney came next, August 23, 
1787, and remained till 1794. He was highly 
esteemed by the jieople, and ten were added to 
the church. The next minister was Rev. Elijah 
Willard, who came into this region from Fitch- 
burg, Mass., to keep school, and also preached 
for the Baptists. They invited him to become 
their pastor, and he was ordained May 11, 1794, 
l)eing forty-three years of age, and he re- 
mained their pastor till 1829, thirty-five years. 
His was the longest and most successful jias- 
torate the church ever enjoyed. He was iiighly 
esteemed and dearly beloved by tlie church anil 
by the people generally till the day of his 
death, which occurred August 19, 1839, in the 
eighty-ninth year of his age. During his pas- 
torate ninety-eight were added to the church. 
In the third year of his pastorate the church 
built their first house of worship after the usual 
style of those days, — 1797. 

After the close of Elder Willard's pastorate 
Rev. Eiias McGregory was sent to labor with 
the church by the State Convention, the church 
being in a very low state. Being well fitted 
for the work by his faithful and well-directed 
efforts, with the blessing of God, the cliurch 
was revived. A Sabbath-school was started for 
the first time in the place, and has continued 
to the present time, and eighteen were added to 
the church. 



Rev. Mr. McGregory was succeeded by Rev. 
Clark Sibley, who was ordained June 2, 1831, 
and he remained about two years, adding 
fifteen to the churcli. He was succeeded by 
Rev. Harrison W. Strong, of whom there is no 
record. 

In 1837 fifteen members were dismissed to 
form a Baptist Churcli in Marlborough, which 
has since become extinct. Daring the period 
extending from 1833 to 1839 forty joined the 
church. February 23, 1839, James P.Apple- 
ton was ordained pastor, and he took nine into 
the church, and left May 1, 184(). D. P. 
French then supplied the church for a siiort 
time. On February 27, 1842, Rev. Henry 
Tonkin l)ecame the pastor of the ciiurcii, and 
resigned March 29, 1843, twenty-six uniting 
with the church while he was pastor. In 1844 
the old lu)usc of worship was talcen down and 
erected on the corner opposite District No. 2 
school-house. Rev. E. D. Farr and Milton W. 
Ball supplied the church during this year and 
the following year, seven imiting with the 
churcli. Rev. Warren Cooper settled as pastor 
in August, 1845, and resigned in 1848, receiv- 
ing sixteen into the church. He was followed 
by Rev. Charles Cummings, who labored with 
ranch efficiency to build up the church. The 
church voted, December 15, 1849, to reorganize 
for the sake of a closer walk with each other 
and Mith their Ijord, but the initiatory steps for 
this measure were scarcely taken before their 
beloved pastor was suddenly taken from them 
by death. This sudden bereavement seemed to 
the smitten flock like a personal affliction, and 
probably quickened their movements in reor- 
ganizing the church on a plan he suggested as 
more efficient in promoting their spiritual en- 
joyment and growth in grace. Sixty members 
renewed their covenant obligations at this time, 
February 2, 1850. 

Henry Archibald commenced his labors with 
the church August 4, 1850, and remained 
about two years, taking two into the cliureh. 
Then Lyman Culver was settled as pastor, 



216 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



July, 1852, and cdiitinued with them until the 
spriug of 185(3, receiving ten into the church. 

In the fall of 1855, Brother T. P. Briggs, 
a licentiate from the Baptist Church in Hins- 
dale, supplied the church for about six months. 
Although but twenty years of age, yet he was 
an earnest and faithful servant of Christ, and 
ten were added to the church. 

In May, 1856, Rev. W. W. Lovejoy began 
to supply the church one-ludf of the time for 
that year as pastor, and the next year he 
preached for them all the time, and remained 
with them till he died, in March, 1862. During 
his pastorate a parsonage was built (in 1857) 
and eighteen joined the church. 

In September, 1862, Rev. John Hunt became 
pastor of the church. In May, 1866, the 
church held a protracted meeting, and the pas- 
tor was assisted by Rev. W. W. Clark, of 
Keene. Nine united with the church while 
Brother Hunt was pastor. 

At the annual meeting of the society in 
March, 1867, they voted to remove their house 
of worship to its present locality and remodel 
it, and also to disjx'use with the services of the 
pastor while repairing the house ; therefore 
Rev. J. Hunt left, having been with them four 
years and a half. The house was removed and 
the alterations completed at the close of the 
year 18()8, at the cost of nearly three thousand 
dollars. 

In March, 1869, Rev. G. 8. Smith settled as 
pastor of the church, and remained until Feb- 
ruary 23, 1873, and nine were added to the 
ohui'ch. 

In May, 1873, Rev. Charles Xewhall became 
pastor of the church, and resigned in Septem- 
ber, 1877, but, by the request of the church, he 
continued to supply them till the close of the 
year. During the winter of 1874 the church 
enjoyed a gracious I'evival of religion, in which 
the pastor was assisted by Rev. E. A. Whittier, 
an evangelist from Lawrence, Mass. Thirty 
were added to the church while Brother New- 
hall was with them. From August 1, 1878, to 



February 15, 1880, J. W. Merrill supplied the 
pulpit. 

In December, 1880, the church invited Rev. 
J. T. Chapin, of Sutton, Mass., to become their 
pastor. He was in poor health during his 
term of service, and in May, 1884, he was 
oljliged to resign, having received six into the 
church. September 7, 1884, Rev. J. R. Has- 
kins, the Baptist State Missionary, supplied 
the church for several Sabbaths, baptizing two. 

On December 7, 1885, this church was one 
hundred years old. During that time it has 
been served by twenty-thi-ee ministers, — fifteen 
pastors and eight stated supplies. 

The names of the deacons are John Knowl- 
ton, Elias Hemmenway, Charles Cummings, 
John Sprague, Joel Hart, Amos Sargeant and 
Micah Howe. Since the death of the two last, 
which occurred in 1871 and 1883, the church 
has not chosen any regular deacons. 

The whole number who have united with the 
church (including the thirty who formed the 
church) from December 7, 1785, to March 1, 
1885, is four hundred and ninety-four; present 
number, seventy. 

Library. — By a vote of the town at its an- 
nual meeting, in March, 1877, a public library 
was established and the sum of two hundred 
and fifty dollars was appropriated for the pur- 
chase of books; this, with two hundred dollars 
donated by individuals, was taken by the com- 
mittee chosen by the town, consisting of Aaron 
Smith, Cyrus H. Hay ward and Edwin P. Hunt, 
and four hundred and forty-five volumes were 
purchased ; since this about one hundred dol- 
lars annually has been voted by the town, which, 
with the sums given by individuals, has enabled 
the committee to purchase new books until the 
whole number of volumes in libraiy now num- 
bers ten hundred and fifty-six. For the first 
three years a room in the house of John T. 
Fai-well was occupied for a library, and Mrs. 
M. J. Farwell appointed librarian. In 1880, 
Henry Colony, Esq., of Keene, a former resi- 
dent of the town, gave a piece of land in the 



HAERISVILLE. 



217 



most central part of the village for a site upon 
which to erect a building; soon after a building 
owned by the town in a remote part of the vil- 
lage was moved to this spot and fitted up. The 
present librarian is Miss Bell Hutchinson. The 
library is open to all citizens of the town on 
every Satuixlay afternoon and evening, and is 
patronized by nearly eveiy individual in it, es- 
pecially by the young, to whom it is of inesti- 
mable benefit. 

rOTTERSVILI.E, OR WEST HARRISVII-LE. 

This village is situated in the northwest cor- 
ner of the town of Harrisville, and takes its 
name from the manufactory of brown earthen- 
ware, of which a large Imsiness was formerly 
done. Some five or six shops, employing a 
large number of hands, were at one time en- 
gaged in this industry. No business of this 
kind now exists. Thecheapuess of English white- 
ware and the low price of tin-ware has driven 
it almost entirely from the market. Sixty years 
ago brown earthen-ware was a kind of currency. 
Farmers in the vicinity of the potteries wei'e 
glad to exchange their surplus products for 
it. They carried the ware to various parts 
of this and adjoining States and exchanged it 
for cash or such articles as were needed in their 
families. The first person to engage in the 
business was one by the name of Felton, from 
Danvers, Mass., and the last was John Clark, 
of East Cambridge, Mass. This village is now 
better known as AYest Harrisville, since the 
building of the !Manch ester and Keene Rail- 
road through the town, in 1S78, and the naming 
of the station by the latter name. 

There are two saw-mills at this village and 
also two shops where wooden-ware has been 
manufactured to a considerable extent-. 

Hai:risville Congregational Church.' 
— In 1838 the population became more numer- 
ous, and Bethuel Harris proposed to his children 
that, as he was the first and mo.st prominent 
cause of increase of citizenship, he did not feel it 

1 By Charles C. P. Harris, Esq. 



to be right for us to bring so many young peo- 
ple together without making an effort to give 
them some moral advantages and privileges, 
there being no church services within four 
miles ; therefore, the subject of furnishing a 
suitable place to accommodate occasional reli- 
gious services was proposed, and arrangements 
were made for building a house to accommo- 
date private schools and religious meetings. 
The building was completed in 1840, said 
Bethuel Harris contributing over two-thirds of 
the total expense, which was about one thousand 
dollars. At the time this vestry was built no 
one had supposed that a church would be organ- 
ized in this place for years. Bethuel Harris 
and his family belonged to tlie church at Nel- 
son. August 28, 1840, on account of existing 
circumstances, it was th(jught expedient and 
necessary by this community that, for the good 
and advancement of the cause of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Ciirist, a new church should be 
organized. Therefore, Bethuel Harris and cer- 
tain individuals, members of the church at 
Nelson, nineteen males and twelve females, pe- 
titioned .said church for a distnission for the ob- 
ject of being organized into a new church at 
this 2'liice ; also for the churcli at Nelson to 
unite with them in calling an ecclesiastical coun- 
cil for the purpose of organizing them into a 
Second Orthodox Congregational Church ; said 
chui'ch voted to grant said petitionei's' request 
September 1, 1840, and chose a committee to 
unite with them (said petitioners) in calling said 
council. Said committees voted to invite the 
following churches to act by their pastors and 
delegates on said council, viz. : Church at Swan- 
zey, N. H. ; church at Troy, N. H. ; church at 
Antrim, N . H. ; church at Warwick, Mass. ; 
and church at New Ipswich, N. H. 

Said council convened at Harrisville (so- 
called) September 22, 1840. Organized by 
chosing Rev. Elisha Rockwood moderator and 
Rev. Samuel Lee scribe. After hearing re- 
marks and statements from all interested, the 
council voted to hold a private session. In 



218 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



private session the said council voted unani- 
mously that it is expedient to organize said pe- 
titioners as a distinct church, and that tlie coun- 
cil is now ready to proceed to the jiublic services 
of organization, which services were held at 
this date, September 22, 1840. The church 
chose Cyrus Harris moderator. September 27, 
1840, Eev. R. C. Hatch, of Norwicli, Mass., 
acted as pastor, when tliirteen were added, — four 
males and nine females, — making in all forty- 
four members. The desk was supplied by dif- 
ferent neighboring pastors from September 27 th 
until December 11, 1840, when the Rev. Jo- 
siah Ballard was employed as pastor for an in- 
definite time ; lie continued his pastoral services 
until February 4, 1841, when he resigned. 
Rev. Mr. Tisdale supplied until April 15, 1841. 
April 18, 1841, Rev. O. C. Whiton commenced 
his labors as pastor for an indefinite time. At 
this time the subject of building a church edi- 
fice was proposed to the church by Bethuel 
Harris, with certain propositions, viz. : The 
church was to raise what they could to defray 
the expenses, and he, said Bethuel, would sup- 
ply what might be lacking. The church edifice 
was erected, a brick structure of good size, and 
finished by August 11, 1842, and it was dedi- 
cated at that date. The expense of said liouse 
was about thirty-five hundred dollars, Bethuel 
Harris paying about three-fifths of it. At the 
dedication of the church edifice the Rev. O. C. 
Whiton was installed over the church, to the 
great satisfaction of all interested, both church 
and people. 

When the church gave him a call to settle with 
this church and people as pastor, his definite an- 
swer was, after niucii consideration and prayer for 
divine direction : " I have decided to live and 
labor with you, die with you and lay my bones 
with yours." October 17, 1845, Rev. O. C. 
M'hitou died, greatly beloved by all who knew 
him ; liis remains lay buried in the Island 
Cemetery, at Harrisville. His pastorate was 
about four and a half years ; thirty-one new 
members were added to the church under his 



pastorate. November 1, 1845, Rev. Jeremiah 
Pomeroy commenced his labors as acting pastor 
for an indefinite time; continued as such, giving 
good satisfaction to church and jjeople for about 
three years and nine months, when he resigned. 
Twenty-three new members were added to the 
church under his ministration. 

Rev. Daniel Babcock commenced his pastor- 
ate January 6, 1850, under contract for one 
year ; he closed his pastoral labors January 5, 
1851 ; one uew member was added durius his 
pastorate. Rev. William G. Tuttle commenced 
preaching under license February 20, 1851 ; 
was ordained as pastor over church and society 
April IG, 1851, which position he filled to the 
entire satisfaction of all classes until August 
22, 1860, about nine years, when, on account of 
failing health, he resigned his pastorate, and 
was, by council, dismissed, August 22, 1860. 
There were twenty-five new members added to 
the church under Mr. Tuttle's pastoral labors. 
Rev. A. Rawson, of Thompson, Conn., supj)lied 
the desk mostly to May 1, 1861. 

Rev. J. K. Bragg commenced as acting pas- 
tor for one year from June 1st, and closed his 
labors June 1, 1862. One was admitted under 
his pastorate. Rev. Mr. Marshall supplied the 
de.sk as acting pastor from August, 1862, to 
August, 1863, according to contract. Rev. Mr. 
Cochrane supplied the desk from Sejitember, 
1863, to September, 1864. Rev. Mr. Dexter 
(Methodist clergyman), of Marlborough, N. H., 
supplied the desk from September, 1864, to Jan- 
uary, 1865, to the satisfaction of all interested. 

Rev. Charles M. Palmer commenced jireach- 
ing January 1, 1865, and continued preaching 
under license from Andover Seminaiy until 
December 8, 1868, when he was ordained pas- 
tor over the church and society ; he continued 
his pastorate until May 7, 1871, when, by his 
request, he was dismissed by council. There 
were twenty-three new members added to the 
church under his pastorate. Rev. Mr. Palmer 
was much beloved by the church and people of 
his charge. 



HARRISVILLE. 



219 



Rev. Amos Holbrook commenced as perma- 
nent pastor November 19, 1871 ; he was elected 
moderator January 1, 1872. 

Rev. Mr. Holbrook's pastorate was very ae- 
eej)tal)le to churcli and soeiety ; he continued 
liis hibors as pastor in a most faithful manner 
until July 2, 1876, four years and ten nKmths, 
when, on account of the circumstances of his 
family, he resigned July 26, 1876. There were 
added to the church under his pastorate fifty- 
eight new members. The desk was supplied 
from July 7, 1870, mostly, to March 20th by 
Rev. Mr. Coolidge, of Hancot'k, X. 11., to the 
entire satisfaction of the church and people. 
Rev. William Thurston commenced his services 
as acting pastor April 1, 1877, and con- 
tinue<l until June 29, 1879, at which date 
he resigneil his ]iastorate. There were six new 
members added to the church during his pastor- 
ate. Rev. George Beckwith commenced his 
services as acting jjastor October ."31 , 1879, and 
continued his services until April 1, 1881, when 
he resigned. There were five new members 
added to the church under Mr. Beckwith's pas- 



torate. Rev. George H. Dunlap, formerly of 
Charlestown, N. H., commenced his pastoral 
labors with this church May 1, 1881. There be- 
ing a union formed between this church and the 
Congregational Gliurch at Nelson, Mr. Dunlap 
became acting pastor over the church at Nelson, 
the same as this church, performing all the pas- 
toral duties in both churches to the full satis- 
faction of both churches and peoples. Tavo new 
members have been added to the church at 
FTarrisville since Mr. Dunlap became pastor. 
Total membership since organization is 220, of 
whom 10;> have been dismissed by letter to 
other churches, 55 have died, and 11 have been 
excommunicated, leaving, at this date, (Ajjril 1, 
1885) 61 members in regular standing, of which 
20 are non-resident members, leavins 41 resi- 
dent members. Virtually, this church has been 
a missionary church, many having come here 
to labor in the mills, and, after being here for a 
time, united with the church ; afterwards, mak- 
ing their residences at other places, they asked 
and received letters of dismission and recom- 
mendation to other sister-churches. 



HISTORY OF JAFFREY 



CHAPTER I. 

Geographical — Original Grant — Early Settlements — Names 
of Pioneers — Incorporation of Town — First Town-Meet- 
ing — Officers Elected — Town Clerks — Representatives 
— Ecclesiastical History — Congregational Church — Con" 
gregational Church, East Jaffrey — Baptist Church — Uni" 
versalist Church — Schools — Lawyers — Physicians — War 
of the Revolution — War of 1812— War of the Rebellion 
— Post Offices — Banks — Population — Railroads. 

The town of JafFrey lies in the southeastern 
part of the county, aud is bounded as follows : 
North, by Marll)orough and Dublin ; east, by 
Peterborough aud Sharon ; south, by Rindge 
and rit2rwilliam ; west, by Fitzwilliam, Troy 
and Marlborough. It is fifteen miles from 
Keene, the shire-town of the county ; forty-five 
from Concord, the capital of the State ; and 
sixty-two from Boston, — seventy-eight by rail- 
road. 

The area is about twenty-two thousand acres ; 
about one thousand is covered with water, and 
the uninhabitable area of the mountain in Jaf- 
frey is about three thousand two huudred acres. 
The surface of the town is hilly and moun- 
tainous. 

The Grand Monadnock is situated in the 
northwest part of the town aud south part of 
Dublin. Its highest peak is a little south of 
the line of Dublin, and has an altitude of 3186 
feet above the level of the sea and 2029 feet 
above the centre of the town. The motuitaiu is 
celebrated as a summer resort. 

•Condensed mainly from "History of Jaffrey," a work 
of six hundred and fifty pages, by Daniel B. Cutter, pub- 
lished in 1880. 
220 



The town was granted by the IMasonian pro- 
prietors, under the name of Middle Monad- 
nock, No. 2, November 30, 1749, to Jona- 
than Hubbard and thirty- nine others, resi- 
dents of Hollis, Lunenbiu'g and Dunstable. 
The Masouian prof)rietors were residents of 
Portsmouth and vicinity, twelve iu uutuber, 
who j^urchased of John Tufton Mason, great- 
grandson of Captain John Mtisou, for fifteen 
hundred pounds, his right and title to a tract of 
land lying iu New Hampshire, granted to said 
Captain John Mason by the Coiuicil of Plym- 
outh in 1629. The purchase was divided into 
fifteen shares, of which Theodore Atkinson had 
three shares, Mark H. Wentworth two shares, 
and Richard Wibbard, John Wentworth, John 
Moifat, Samuel Moore, Jotiiam Odiorue, George 
JafFrey, Joshua Pierce, Nathaniel Meserve, 
Thomas Wallingford and Thomas Packer, one 
share each. Nine additional members were af- 
terwards admitted, aud the shares increased 
to eighteen. The new members were John 
Rindge, Joseph Blanchard, Daniel Pierce, John 
Tufton Mason, John Thomliusou, Mathew Liv- 
ermore, AVilliam Parker, Samuel Solly and 
Clement March. The territory is described as 
" extending from the middle of the Piscataqua 
river, up the same to the fartherest head thereof, 
aud from thence northwestward uutil sixty 
miles from the mouth of the harbor were fin- 
ished ; also, through Merrimack river to the 
fartherest head thereof, and so forward up into 
the laud westward until sixty miles were fin- 
ished, aud from thence overland to the end of 



JAPPREY. 



221 



sixty miles accounted from the Piscataqua river, 
together witli all lands within five leagues of 
the coast." 

Immediately after the purchase the above- 
described tract of land was divided by the pro- 
prietors into townships. Those around the 
Mouadnock Hills, as the mouutaiu was then 
called, were named Monaduocks, designated 
by numbers. 

After the survey of the townshij) and the 
division of it among the proprietors, to en- 
courage settlement a bounty of one hundred 
and forty-two pounds was offered to the 
first five men who, with their families, should 
settle within one year from this date (June, 
1750) and remain one year, and in the same 
projJortion to one or more fiimilies complying 
\\ith the above condition. Whether any 
settlement was made does not appear from 
any known i-ecord. A traditionary report 
makes it appear that a family by the 
name of Russell (Joel Russell) did attempt a 
settlement in the south part of the town, 
and while there had a son l)orn, who was the 
first white child born in the township. AVhe- 
ther he settled soon enough and remained long 
enough to receive the bounty does not appear. 
lu 1752 we have a reliable account of a settle- 
ment by Moses Stickney, Richard Peabody and 
seven othei-s, and that while there Simon Stick- 
ney, sou of jSIoses, was born December i), 1753, 
making- him the first white child born in 
Jaffrey, aside from the Russell tradition. This 
settlement of Stickney and others proved a fail- 
ure, through fear of Indians, and they all left 
except a man known as Captain Platts, probably 
the pioneer of Rindge. 

The first permanent settlement was made 
about 1758 by John Grout and John Davidson. 
Grout settled on lot 20, range 10, and David- 
son on lot 21, range 3. Grout was a prominent 
man. He made, with Gilmore, an early report 
of the settlement of the town to the proprietors. 
He died in 1771. There is a tradition that he 
was buried where the meeting-house was after- 



wards built. John DavitL'^on remained a per- 
manent settler, and died in ISH. It is also re- 
[jorted as true that his eldest daughter, Betsey, 
was the first wliite child born in Jaffrey. 

List of the pioneers of Jaffrey, per report of 
Gilmore, Grout and Hale : 



John Borland. 
JosejA Caldwell. 
James Caldwell. 
James Caldwell, Jr. 
Thomas Caldwell. 

Chrysty. 

Daniel Davis. 
Joseph Dun lap.' 
John Davidson.' 
Thomas Davidson. 
Thomas Emery. 

Fiteh. 

Koger Gilmore.' 
John Gilmore.' 
■Tohn Gront.' 
Glover- 
Enoch Hale. 

Hale. 

John Harper.' 
Wid. Henderson. 
Joseph Hogg.' 
William Hogg.' 
Robert Holmes. 
Jona. Hopkinson. 



David Hunter. 
Ephraini Hunt. 
John Little. 
Andrew McAlister. 
Alex. McNeil. 
William Mitchel. 

Munroe. 

James Nichols. 

Organ. 

Jona. Parker. 

Kussel. 

.John Swan. 
William Smiley.' 
Joseph Turner.' 
William Turner.' 
Thomas Turner. 
Solomon Turner. 

Taggot. 

George Wallace. 
Thomas Walker. 
Robert Weir. 
Mathew Wright.' 
Leranus Wright. 



The settlement of many of the first inhabitants 
was of short duration. They seemed to be a 
log cabin population, fond of living in a forest. 
Most of them were Scotch-Irish from London- 
derry. Of those who became permanent set- 
tlers of that race, were John and Roger (xil- 
more, William Smiley, Joseph Turner, Joseph 
Hodtje, William Turner and William Hodge. 
After the incorporation of the town a large emi- 
gration from Massachusetts purchased their 
lands, with all of the improvements, and became 
the permanent settlers of the town. 

Of the history of the settlers reported b)- 
Grout, Gilmore and Hale, but little is known. 
Alphabetically arranged, we find the first on the 
list to be John Borland. He was the first set- 

' Permanent settlers. 



222 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIR,E. 



tier in what is now East Jaffrey, and liuilt the 
first mills in that place. In 1778 he sold his 
place to Deacon Eleazer Spofford, of Dauvers, 
and left town. 

Four taniilies hy the name of Caldwell — 
James, James, Jr., Joseph and Thomas — were 
among the first settlei-s. When the town was 
incorporated, the name of James Caldwell ap- 
pears on a committee chosen to procure preach- 
ing, and Thomas Caldwell is represented in 
Hale's report as the owner of a saw-mill on lot 
No. 22, range 5. Nothing more is known 
of the family of Caldwell. 

The name of Thomas Emery is found in 
Hale's report as the owner of the right of 
Nathaniel Pierce, which included the lot on 
which was built the Millikeu tavern, afterwards 
the farm of John Felt, and now (1873) of 
Levi Briffham, and also the farm of Clarence 
S. Bailey. 

Solomon Grout settled on lot 13, range 0, — 
the Isaac Bailey farm, — and was road surveyor 
in 1774 and selectman in 1776. 

A Widow Henderson, by Grout and Gil- 
more's report, settled on lot 17, range 3, now 
the farm of S. Garfield. 

Jonathan Hopkinsou's place of settlement is 
unknown. 

Robert Holmes was from Londonderry ; his 
brother Abram settled in Peterborough. He 
settled on lot 12, range 3, afterwards the farm 
of Joseph Thorudike, John Conant and Frank 
H. Cutter. The first frame house in Jafli-ey is 
reported to have been built on that farm, per 
report of Grout and Gilmore. 

David Hunter settled on lot -5, i-ange 6, after- 
wards the farm of David Gilmore, Esq., now 
(187G) the fiirm of Mai-shal C. Adams. When 
the first militai-y company was organized he was 
chosen ensign. 

John Little settled on lot 15, range 4, now 
the farm of John Quin. He was highway 
surveyor in 1774. His successor appears to 
have been Simpson Stuart. 

Alexander McNeil settled on lot 12, range 5, 



and was, by tradition, the first inn-keeper in 
Jatfrey. From the town records, he appears to 
have been quite a prominent man. In 1774 he 
was chosen one of a committee to i>rocurc preach- 
ing, one of a committee to examine the accounts 
of the selectman and constable, and one of the 
committee to build the meeting-house. In 1775 
he was one of tlie Board of Selectmen, and 
moderator of the annual town-meeting in 1776. 
In 1779, at the annual town-meeting, the town 
voted that Alexander McNeil should not keep 
tavern. He prol)ably left town soon after. 

William Mitchel settled on lot 12, rano;e 4, 
afterwards the farm of James Gage and his son, 
Jonathan Gage. Present owner, Michael D. 
Fitzgerald. In 1774 he was chosen auditor of 
accotmts and deer-reeve; in 1775, surveyor of 
roads and sealer of leather; 1776, surveyor of 
roads. He probably left town in 1777 or 1778. 

Andrew McAlister settled on lot 14, range 4, 
afterwards tlie farm of John Briaut, now owned 
by Samuel D. Jewell. 

James Nichols settled on lot 17, range 1, 
afterwards owne<:l by Benjamin Cutter, Benjamin 
Frost, John Frost and John Frost, Jr. ; now 
uninhabited. 

John Swan was owner of lot 6, range 4 ; lot 
5, range 5 ; and lot 21, range 6. On which lots 
he settled is not known. 

Thomas Walker was owner of lot 16, range 2 ; 
lot 7, range 6 ; lot 11, range 1. On which he 
settled is not known. 

George Wallace, settlement unknown. 

Robert Weir settled on lot 6, range 5. In 
1 773, when the to\Am was incorporated, he was 
chosen one of the auditors of accounts and high- 
way surveyor; in 1776 he was chosen town 
clerk and first selectman. 

Leranus Wright settled on lot 14, range 8. 
His successor was Francis Wright, inn-keeper. 
When the town was incorporated, in 1773, the 
town-meeting was held at his place. The fai-m 
is now owned by Dana S. Jaquith. 

Most of the early settlers were born in the 
State of Massachusetts, some in Londonderry, 



JAFFEEY. 



223 



N. H., some in England and some in Ireland. 
David Bailey was born in England ; Jolin 
Davidson and William Smiley in Ireland. 
They were a race of hardy adventnrers, inured 
to toil and hardship, fit inhabitants for a new 
townshi|i. They were mostly young men, un- 
married, in r^eareli of a future home. They made 
a purchase of land, cleared a few acres, 'Imilt 
thereon a cabin or log house, returned ti) theii' 
original home, aud there married and took with 
them their wives, with their household furniture, 
to the home in the forest, — a bridal tdur full of 
hope and expectation of a rich future reward ; 
not only a reward of gold and silver, but one of 
a large progeny. In that they were not often 
disappointed, as the emigration from Jatfi'ey, iu 
after-years, to the States of Vermont, New York, 
Ohio and most of the Western States, will 
abundantly verify. The sons and daughters of 
JaiFrey and their descendants may l>e found not 
only in town, but in most of the cities East aud 
West, holding positions of wealth, honor and 
trust. 

Incoepoi;ation of Towx. — The to\\n was 
known by the names of Monadnock, No. 2, 
Middle Monadnock and Middletown, until it 
was incorporated by the Governor and Council, 
August 17, 1773, and named in honor of Hon. 
George Jaffrey, a member of the Council. The 
first meeting of the projH'ietors was held in the 
house of Joseph French, of Dunstable, January 
16, 1750. 

The first town-meeting was held September 
11, 1773, as follows : 

" Jaffrey Sept. 14, 1773. 

"Then the Freeholders and Inhabitance ofs'' town 
being meet agreeable to the foregoing Warrant, 

" I''"'' Choose Capt. Jonathan Stanley moderator to 
Govern s'' meeting. 

" 2'y Choose mr W" Smiley Town Clerk. 

"Choose Capt. Jonathan Stanley, First Selectman. 

" mr. W" Smiley Sec'' Selectman. 

" mr. Phineas Spaulding third Selectman. 

" Choose Mr. Roger Gilmore, Tythingman. 

" Choose Hugh Dunlap and John Harper, Field- 
Drivers. 

"Choose John Davidson, Constable. 



" Choose Koger Gilmore, Robert Wire and Samuel 
Sherwin a Committee to Count with the Selectmen 
and Constable. 

" Choose David Allen, W"> McAlister, Robert Wire, 
Ephraim Hunt, W" Turner and John Gilmore, Soy- 
vors. 

" Choose i\Ir. W°' Hogg and Mr Joseph Wright 
Fence Vewers." 

" Jafirey Sep' 28. Then the Freeholders and In- 
habitance of s'' town being mett agreeable to the Fore- 
going Warrant, 

" !'■'' Choose Capt. Jonathan Stanley moderator to 
govern s'' meeting. 

" 2'>' Voted Eighty Pounds L : M : to be worked out 
on the Rods. 

"3'J Voted that Capt. Jona. Stanley, Alexander 
Mc-Neill and Jeames Caldwell be a Committee to 
Provide supplies of Preaching for s'* town. 

" 4''' Voted six Pounds Lawful Money to support 
the Gospel in said town. 

" The second Town Meeting held in s'' Town Sept. 
28, 1773." 

The f illowing persons appear to have been 
voters at the time of the organization of the 
town : 



' David Allen. 
John T. Anderson. 
Stephen Adams. 
Thomas Adams. 
Jethro Bailey. 
Isaac Baldwin. 
John Borland. 
John ]?riant. 
Kendall Briant. 
Alpheas Brigham. 
Jona. Blodgett. 
George Clark. 
Jeames Caldwell. 
Henry Coffren. 
Joseph Cutter. 
Daniel Davis. 
John Davidson. 
Robert Dunlap. 
Hugh Dunlap. 
Thomas Emory. 
Wm. Fisher. 
John Gilmore. 
Roger Oiilmore. 
Robert Gilmore. 
Hiram Greene. 
Oliver Hale. 
John Harper. 



Ebn' Ingals. 
Jona. Jewett. 
John Little. 
Alex' Mc-Neal. 
W'» Mc-Alistcr. 
Peter Mc-Alister. 
W" Mitchell. 
Samuel Milliken. 
W'" Miliken. 
Dennis Orgon. 
Samuel Pierce. 
Jacob Pierce. 
Oliver Proctor. 
Jona. Priest. 
Daniel Priest. 
Daniel Priest (2''). 
W" Smiley. 
Jona. Stanley. 
David Stanley. 
Phineas Spaulding. 
Sam' Sherwin. 
Joseph Thorndike. 
Joshua Thorndike. 
W'» Turner. 
Joseph Turner. 
Nathaniel Turner. 
Simon Warren. 



224 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



John Hanley. 
Elias Hathorn. 
Eben' Hathorn. 
Elred Hetrech. 
.Jason Hemingway. 
W" Hogg. 
Joseph Hogg. 
David Hunter. 
Ephraim Hunt. 



Peter Warren. 
Isaac Wesson. 
Eph" Whitcomb. 
Robert Wier. 
Matthew Wallace. 
Sam' Woodbury. 
Mathevv AVright. 
Francis Wright. 
Joseph Wright." 



TOWN C'I.EIiKS. 

Wm. Smiley, 1773, '74, '75, '77, '83. 

Robert Weir, 1776. 

Roger Gilmore, 1778, '79, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, 1800, 
'01. 

Adonijah Howe, 1780, '81, '82, '91, '92, '93, '94, 
1802, '04, '06, '07, '08. 

Jedediah Sanger, 1785. 

Abel Parker, 1789. 

Alex. Milliken, 1790. 

David Smiley, 1803, '04. 

David Page, 1805. 

Samuel Dakin, 1806, '07, 'OS, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, 
'14, '15. 

Oliver Prescott, 1816. 

Wm. Ainsworth, 1817, '18, '19, '20, '21. 

Henry Payson, 1822, '23, '24. 

Thomas Adams, 1825, '26, '27, '28, '29, '30, '31, '32. 

Benj. Cutter, 1823, '24, '25, '26, '27, '28, '29, '42, '43, 
'44, '45, '46, '47. 

Jonas M. Mellville, 1840, '41. 

John Fox, 1848, '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '66, 
57, '58, '59, '60, '61, '62, '63. 

Joseph P. Frost, 1864, '65, '66, '67, '68, '69, '70, '71, 
'72, '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83, '84, 
'85. 

EEPRESENTATIVES. 
Those marked (*) were born in JaftVey. 

Henry Coffeen, May 11, 1775, to third Provincial 
Congress at Exeter. 

William Smiley, 1784. 

John Gilmore, .1785, '86. 

Abel Parker, 1787, '91, '92, '93, '97, '99. 

Benjamin Prescott, 1790, '96, 1809, '10, '11, '12, '13, 
'14, '15, '16, '17. 

Joseph Thorndike, 1794, '95, '98, 1800, '01, '02, '03. 

Adonijah Howe, 1804, '05, '18, '19, '20, '21. 

David Page, 1806, '07. 

Labau Ainsworth, 1808. 

Oliver Prescott,* 1822, '23, '24, '25, '26. 

William Ainsworth,* 1828, '29, 30. 

Levi Fisk, 1831,* '32, '33. 

John Conant, 1834, '35, '36. 



Edward Spaulding,* 1837, 38, '39. 
• Samuel Patrick,* 1840. 

John Felt, 1841, '42, '43, '44, '45, '47. 

Laban Rice, 1846. 

Peter Upton, 1848, '49, '50. 

John Fox,* 1851, '62, '63, '64. 

David C. Chamberlin,* 1856, '57. 

John A. Prescott,* 1858, '59. 

Charles H. Powers, 1860, '61, '78. 

Samuel Ryan, 1862, '63. 

Frederick W. Bailey,* 1864, '65, '68, '69. 

Addison Prescott,* 1866, '67. 

Benjamin Pierce,* 1870, '71. 

Frank H. Cutter,* 1872, '73. 

Alfred Sawyer,* 1874, '75. 

Joseph W. Fassett, 1876, '77. 

Thomas Annett, 1879, '80. 

John H. Fox, present representative. 

STATE SENATORS, NATIVES OF JAFFREY. 

Asa Parker, 1826, '27. Levi Fisk, 1835, '36. 
EcCLESiASTiCAi. — Congregational Cli urcli . — 
The provisions of the Ma.souian grant required 
tliat a ffoofl, convenient meeting;-hoiise be built 
within six years from the date of the charter, 
and made provision for that purpose by a gift 
of three hundred acres of land. No meeting- 
house appears to have been built «hen the town 
was organized. The ne.xt year after, on the 
26th day of April, the matter of Ijuilding a 
meeting-house was brought before the town. 
The town votwd " to build one on the common, 
near the senter this and the ensuing year." 

" Voted, s"" house is to be forty feet wide, Fifty-five 
in Lenth. Posts twenty seven feet in Lenth. Roger 
Gilmore, William Turner Alex' Mc-Neill a Commit- 
tee to see the same affected, the above Committee to 
Vendue s"* house to the last bider." 

At a meeting in July following, the town 

" Voted, to Reconsider their vote in Building a 
meeting-house also their vote in Chose of Committee, 
then Voted s** meeting-house Sixty feet in Lenth, 
Forty five wide, the Posts twenty seven leet in Lenth 
also Voted to have a Porch at each end of s'' hous. 

" Voted Mr. Roger Gilmore, Mr. Will-^ Turner, Mr. 
Mathew Wallace be a Committee to see the work af- 
fected in Building s** house. 

" Voted that the Com"'' shall Expose s"" house to sail 
at Public 'Vendue by the first Wednesday of Sept next, 
also Voted that the Great timber of s'' house be hewed 
by the first day of Decem"^ next, also Voted Fifteen 



JAFFREY. 



225 



Pounds L. M. towards building s'' house, to be Paid 
by the first day of December Next, also Voted that s'* 
house shall be Raised by the Middle of June Next at 
the towns Cost. Vokd sixty Pounds to be Paid by 
the middle of June next towards building s'' house. 
Also Voted that the whole cost shall be Paid by the 
first of June in the year 1776 as the afors'd house shall 
be Finished. That the Fraim be well under Pined 
with good stone and lime, and the outside all well 
Corapleated, and Collored like Rindge meting-house, 
and lower floor lead Duble, and Pulpit like that in 
Rindge meting-house all the above work compleated 
by the middle of June 1776." 

The house was completed in 1799, and in the 
following year the warrant for town-meeting had 
following article : 

"To see if the town will make any allowance to 
Capt. Henry Cofleen for the Barrel of Rum that he 
paid for, which was expended at the Raising of the 
nieeling-house. 

" Voted that the Selectmen settle with Capt. Cof- 
feen in behalf of the town." 

The church was organized May 18, 1780, 
with the following members: 

Kendal Briant and wife Mary, (Martin). 

John Briant. 

Daniel Emery and wife, Jane. 

Eleazer Spofford and wife, Mary (Flint). 

John Combs and wife, Bathsheba. 

James Gage and wife, Sarah (Lamson). 

Oliver Proctor and wife, Elizabeth. 

Isaac Bailey and wife, Susanna. 

Isaac Baldwin and wife. 

John Wood and wife. 

Nehemiah Greene and wife. 

James Haywood and wife, Keziah Haywood. 

Jonathan Priest and wife. 

Ephraim Whitcomb and wife, Elizabeth. 

Jerome Underwood and wife, Lucy (Wheat). 

John Eaton. 

William Slack. 

The first regular pastor of the church was 
Rev. Laban Ainsworth, who continued in service 
nearly fifty years. 

In 1831, Rev. Giles Lyman was ordained as 
a colleague, and preached in town till 1837, 
when, on account of ill health, he received his 
dismission. He married, December 14, 1835, 
Louisa Whitney, of Winchendon. 
15 



Josiah D. Crosby was settled in 1838, and 
dismissed in 1850. 

Leonard Tenney, settled 1845 ; dismissed 
1857. 

John S. Batchelder, settled 1858; dismissed 
1865. 

Rufus Case, settled 1868 ; removed 1875. 

The church has had no settled pastor since 
Mr. Case. The desk is at present supplied by 
Rev. W. W. Livingstone. 

Tlie Congregational Church at Ead Jaffrey 
was organized in 1850 with twenty-three 
members. The pastors have been as follows : 
Rev. J. E. B. Jewett, George A. Adams, F. D. 
Austin, Silas W. Allen, D. N. Goodrich, Wil- 
liam H. Dowden, J. C. Staples and E. J. Riggs. 

Baptist Church. — The Baptist Society in 
Jafirey was formed in April, 1820, and on 
April 6, 1829, the following notice was pub- 
lished in the Keene Sentinel, viz. : 

" We, Benjamin Prescott, Alpheas Crosby, Paul 
Hunt and others, have formed ourselves into a Reli- 
gious Society, by the name of the First Baptist 
Church and Society in Jaffrey, and are hereby known 
by that name. 

" Joseph Joslin, Clerk." 

The church was formed May 28, 1814. 

pastors. 
John Parkhurst, 1818. 
Elder Cummings, 1825. 
Calvin Greenleaf, 1831-35. 
Appleton Belknap, 183.5-46. 
E. H. Bailey, 1846-61 ; died January 4, 1868. 
Franklin Merriam, 1862-65. 
A. E. Reynolds, 1866-69. 
E. J. Emery, 1869-71 ; settled in Swanzey. 
J. S. Haradon, 1873 ; died August 4, 1875. 
Leonard J. Dean, 1875 ; a graduate of Newton 
Theological Seminary. 

T. C. Gleason, present pastor. 

The meetings of the Baptist Cliurch and 
Society were held, as voted, in the .school-house 
in District No. 1 till 1822. In 1819 the Baj^- 
tists were no longer taxed for the support of 
the minister settled by the town, but had the 
privilege of using the same for the support of 
the one of their choice. The use of the meet- 



226 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ing-house for public preaching was, in 1822, 
also divided by the town among the diiFerent 
denominations of Christians according to the 
valuation of their projierty. From this time 
the Baptists occupied the house their propor- 
tion as assigned till 1839. 

On the 5th of February, 1829, the church 
voted to build a meeting-house near the house 
of Mr. Mellville, and chose Benjamin Prescott, 
Joseph Joslin and David Chadwick a commit- 
tee for that purpose. The house was completed 
and ready for use June 12, 1830, and dedicated 
June 30th. 

In 1873 the house was repaired, with the 
addition of a vestry, and such other improve- 
ments as were deemed necessary. 

Universalid Church. — The First Universalist 
Society, Jaffrey, N. H., was organized Novem- 
ber 16, 1822. Captain John Stone was chosen 
moderator ; Caleb Searle, clerk ; John Cutter, 
treasurer ; Mr. John Cutter and Colonel Oliver 
Prescott, committee. 



PASTORS. 

N. R. AVright and Andrew 
O. Warren. 

E. W. Coffin. 
J. P. McCleur. 
W. J. Crosby. 
James H. Little. 

F. W. Bailey, present pas- 
tor. 



Delphus Skinner. 
Warren Skiuner. 
J. D. Williamson. 
Robert Bartlet. 
J. V. Wilson. 
Stillman Clark. 
S. W. Squires. 
C. C. Clark. 

A church was formed in 1858. 

The present meeting-house was built in 1844. 

Schools. — In 1775, two years after the in- 
corporation of the town, eight pounds were 
raised for a school, to be divided into five parts. 
In December of that year the town voted to 
sell one of the school lots and to use the inter- 
est on tlie proceeds of the sale for the support 
of a school. In 1777 the town voted to pay 
the interest of £100 for two years for the use of 
a school ; in 1778, £12 ; in 1779, £200 (depre- 
ciated currency); in 1781, £1000; in 1783, 
£50 ; in 1785, £50; in 1786, £30; in 1787, 
£40; in 1788, £40; in 1789, £50 ; in 1790, 
£40; in 1791, £60; in 1792, £65; in 1793, 



£80; in 1794, £80; in 1795, |200 Federal 
money ; afterwards the town raised what the 
law required. 

A school was taught here by Josiah Forsaith 
from 1807 to 1809, inclusive. 

In 1832 Mellville Academy was incorpora- 
ted. The grantees were Asa Parker, Luke 
Howe and John Fox. It was named in honor of 
Jonas M. Mellville, who made a very liberal do- 
nation in aid of the enterprise. In 1 833 a suit- 
able building was erected, which is now used for 
a school-house. 

The school was opened in the fall of 1833 
under the instruction of Horace Herrick, prin- 
cipal, and Miss Aurelia Townsend, assistant. 
He remained till 1836. 

The following individuals were afterwards 
employed as teachers : Roswell D. Hitchcock, 
William Eaton, Harry Brickett, Charles Cut- 
ter, David C. Chamberlain, Sarah French. 
The academy continued in operation till the es- 
tablishment of the Conant High School. 

In 1868, John Conant, Esq., of Jaffrey, gave 
the town the sum of seven thousand dollars, 
the interest of which is to be used for the sup- 
port of a High School in said town. The town- 
house in the centre of the town was altered and 
repaired to meet the wants of the town. The 
lower story is used for the school and the upper 
one for a town hall. In 1872 the school was 
opened for instruction. The present principal 
is A. S. Annis. 

Lawyers. — David Smiley, Samuel Dakin, 
William Ainsworth, Albert S. Scott, Clarence 
A. Parks and J. B. Twiss. 

Physicians. — Adonijah Howe, Willis John- 
son, Abner Howe, M.D., Adonijah Howe, Jr., 
Luke Howe, D. C. Perry, Amasa Kennie, 
S. L. Richardson, R. R. Perkins, A. J. Gibson, 
G. A. Phelps and O. H. Bradley. 

Wae of the Revolution. — The follow- 
ing is a list of soldiers from Jaffrey in the 
Revolution : 



Ephraim Adams. 
Samuel Adams. 



Samuel Ober. 
William Osgood. 



JAFFREY. 



227 



Thomas Adams. 

George Atridge. 

Daniel Avery. 

Joseph Bates. 

Jonathan Blodgett. 

John Brian t. 

Alpheas Brigham. 

Asaph Brigham. 

Joseph Brooks. 

Simeon Burt. 

Joseph Cutter. 

Moses Cutter. 

Nathan Cutter. 

James Cutter. 

John Davidson. 

Matliew Davis. 

Jonatlian Dean. 

Benjamin Dole. 

Jolin Dole. 

Hugh Dunlap. 

Daniel Emery. 

Daniel Emery, Jr. 
James French, Jr. 
Robert Gilmore. 
John Gilmore. 
Dudley Griffin. 
Jacob Gould, Jr. 
John Hale. 

Lieutenant John Harper. 
Daniel Harper. 
Ebenezer Hathorn. 
James Haywood. 
Ebenezer Ingals. 
Benjamin Jacquith. 
John Mathews. 
William McAlister. 



Benjamin Prescott. 

Moses Peabody. 

Joseph Perkins. 

Jacob Pierce. 

Kendall Pierson. 

William Pope. 

Jonathan Priest. 

Asa Priest. 

Oliver Proctor. 

James Reed. 

Abraham Ross. 

Bezaleel Sawyer. 

Jesse Snow. 

Mifchael Silk. 

William Smiley, Jr., died 

' in service, at Ticondero- 
ga, 1776. 

Phineas Spaulding. 

Benjamin Spaulding. 

Jonathan Stanley. 
Samuel Stanley. 
James Stevens. 
John Stone. 
Benjamin Stone. 
John Taggart. 
Jonathan Taylor. 
Peter Tower. 

Lieutenant William Tur- 
ner. 
Samuel Wier. 
Joseph Wilder. 
Ezra Wilder. 
Ephraim Whitcomb. 
Elias Whitney. 
Cotton Whiton. 



Francis Wright. 
The following is a list of soldiers of the 
Revolution, not included in the above list, who 
settled in town during or after the war : 

Stephen Adams. Francis Mason. 
Lieutenant Oliver Bacon. Lieutenant Abel Parker. 

Isaac Bailey. Whitcomb Powers. 

Isaac Bailey, Jr. William Redfield. 

Hart Balch. Joseph Robbins. 

Jacob Baldwin. Moses Stickney. 
Lieutenant Samuel Buss. Moses Stickney (2d). 

John Cox. David Stratton. 

Thomas Dutton. James Turner. 

William Emery. Henry Thompson. 

Samuel Emery. Lieutenant Jerome Under- 
Nathan Fish. wood. 

Jonas Gerry. Isaac Wesson. 



Thomas Goff. 
Nathan Hunt. 
John Lake. 
Lieutenant Benj. Law- 
rence. 

War of 1812.— 



Silas Wilder. 
Abel Winship. 
Ithamer Wheelock. 
Thomas Wheelock. 
Joseph Wright. 

The following soldiers from 



the town served in the War of 1812 : 

Oliver Warren, captain 

Daniel Adams, received $11.20 

Thomas Chadwick, received 10.69 

David Chaplin, received 11.20 

Ethan Cutter, received 4.50 

Isaac Cutter, received 20.78 

Samuel Dutton, received 11.00 

James Eaton, received 11.20 

Walter Eaton, received 11.20 

Austin George, received lO.-ll 

Robert GofF, received 9.33 

Henry Hapgood, received 16.12 

Stacy Hodskins, received 16.12 

Moses Hunt, received 16.12 

Abel Nutting, received 16.12 

Philip Peak, received 11.29 

Moses Pierce, received 11.20 

David Sawtell, received 11.20 

Samuel Stratton, received 13.43 

War with Mexico, 1846.— David Cutter 
and George F. Cutter from this town served in 
the Mexican War. 

War of the Rebellion.— Number of men 
who enlisted and were in service was 151 ; 
number killed in battle, 5 ; number who died 
in the service, 23. 

Charles W. Webster, quartermaster. Fourteenth Regi- 
ment. 

C. Frederick Webster, first lieutenant. Fourteenth 
Regiment ; promoted to quartermaster. 

Charles W. Adams, Second Regiment, Company A> 

Lysander A. Adams, Sixth Regiment, Company F. 

John Q. Adams, a marine ; died at Portsmouth. 

Benj. Abanton, Ninth Regiment, Company I. 

Warren F. Allen, Sixth Regiment, Comjiany F. 

Henry A. Atherton, Sixth Regiment, Company E. 

Calvin Bailey, Sixth Regiment, Company F. 

Spencer L. Bailey, second lieutenant. Fourteenth 
Regiment. 

Alraon W. Bailey, Sixteenth Regiment; died. 

Harvey N. Bailey, Troop D. 

Charles Baker. 

John F. Berry. 



228 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Christopher Bartenbach, Fourteenth Eegiment, Com- 
pany (,T. 

Hiram Bennet, Troop B. 

John F. Briant, Second Eegiment, Company A. 

Edmund Brady, Ninth Regiment, Company B. 

James T. Brown, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Samuel L. Bolles, Troop C. 

Alonzo Butteriield. 

Henry Buekwoukl, Sixteenth Eegiment, Company F. 

Jacob Buckwould, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Cliiirles A. Carter, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Oscar Eugene Carter, died. 

John Caldwell, Eighth Eegiment; died. 

Daniel M. Colburn, Ninth Eegiment, Company I. 

Lysander J. Coudray, Sixteenth Eegiment, Company 

F. 
Edwin E. Cutter, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 
Edward E. Cutter, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 
Gustavus A. Cutter, Fourteenth Eegiment. 
John C. Cummings, Sixteenth Regiment; died. 
John W. Darling, died. 
Frank DeWier. 
Frederick Donaldson, Troop C. 

Charles W. Diamond, Second Eegiment, Company C. 
James Dadwell, Sixth Eegiment, Company E. 
Morty Downs, Tenth Regiment, Company K. 
James E. Douglass, Troop D. 

Charles D. Emery, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 
Charles Farouch, Eleventh Regiment, Company C. 
Luther W. Fassett, Sixteenth Regiment, Company E. 
Danvers C. Fassett, Heavy Artillery. 
Joel E. Fassett, Fourteenth Regiment, Company E. 
John Flynn, Eleventh Regiment, Company C. 
John Frost, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G. 
George Gilmore, Ninth Regiment. 
William T. Gleason, Sixth Regiment, Company I. 
William H. Goodrich, Fifth Regiment, Comjiany H. 
Theodore Hanscomb, Sixth Regiment, Company H ; 

promoted to captain. 
John S. Hartwell, Fourteenth Regiment. 
John H. Hartwell, Second Regiment, Company A. 
John Hecker. 

Horace J. Hill, Third Regiment, Company I. 
Peter Hogan. 

William Hoyt, Eleventh Regiment, Company I. 
Andrew Johnson, Ninth Regiment, Company K. 
Robert Jones, Troop. 

Joshua R. Joslin, Second Regiment, Company H. 
Henry H. Joslin, Second Regiment, Company H. 
Joseph H. Joslin, Second Regiment, Company A. 
Albert N. Joslin, Fifth Regiment, Company F. 
John F. Kidder, Sixth Regiment, Company E. 
Charles D. Kimball, Sixteenth Regiment, Company F. 



Elisha A. Kingsbury, Sixth Regiment, Company E. 

Dexter B. Knowlton, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Joseph S. Lucy, Sixth Regiment, Company F ; died. 

David W. Lacy, Sixteenth Regiment, Company I. 

Charles D. Law, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G. 

John Leathers, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

George L. Lowe, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Andrew Lindsay, Sixteenth Eegiment, Company F. 

George H. Long, Troop D. 

Jerome W. Leighton, Fift.h Eegiment, Company F. 

Alvin H. Martin, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Chas. B. Merrifield, Fourteenth Eegiment, CompanyG. 

John McCuun, Troop B. 

Lawrence Montgomery" Troop H. 

Henry F. Morse, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Nahum W. Mower, Fourteenth Eegiment, CompanyG. 

ThomasS. Mower, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Barnard Mulligan, Troop A. 

Charles H. Nutting, Fourteenth Eegiment. 

Edward N. Nutting, Sixteenth Eegiment, Company F. 

Jacob Newell, Jr., Sixteenth Eegiment Company F. 

Henry C. Osburn, Fourteenth Eegiment, CompanyG. 

James E. Petts, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Samuel Paine, Eleventh Eegiment, Company C. 

Albert S. Pierce, Fourteenth Eegiment. 

Henry Pierce. 

Gurley A. Phelps, Fourteenth Eegiment. 

Joel H. Poole, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

John W. Poole, Fourteenth Eegiment. 

Ivers E. Pollard, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

Levi Pollard, Second Eegiment, Company A. 

Oren D. Prescott, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

George P. Preston, Sixth Regiment, Company K. 

Leonard Rand, Fourteenth Regiment, Company C. 

Jonas C. Rice, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G. 

Herbert C. Richardson, Fourteenth Regiment, Com- 
pany G. 

George W. Richardson, Fourteenth Regiment, Com- 
pany G. 

Darius P. Richardson, Fourteenth Regiment, Com- 
pany G. 

Ednumd F. Ritchie, Second Eegiment, Company A ; 
died. 

Henry Eitchie, Sixth Eegiment, Company E; died. 

Darius Eitchie, Sixteenth Eegiment, Company I. 

George C. Eitchie, Sixteenth Eegiment, Company I. 

Abram Eobins. 

William B. Eobbins, Ninth Eegiment, Company G. 

Alfred Eobbins, Fourteenth Eegiment, Company G. 

William H. Wolf, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G. 

Benjamin Sanford, Sixth Regiment, Company D. 

Charles A. Sargent, Eleventh Regiment, Company C. 

Grenville Shedd, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G. 



JAFFREY. 



229 



Leonard E. Spaulding, Fourteenth Regiment, Com- 
pany G. 

Austin A. Spaulding, Fourteenth Regiment, Com- 
pany G. 

Leander Spaulding. 

Alfred Spaulding. 

Daniel W. Stevens, Sixth Regiment, Company F. 

Henry A. Smith, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G ; 
died. 

Charles M. Smith, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G. 

Samuel A. Stratton, Sixth Regiment, Company F. 

Ira Smith, Sixteenth Regiment, Company I. 

Aaron Smith, Eighth Regiment. 

Henry Steven.s, Sixth Regiment, Company C. 

Josiali Stebbins, Sixteenth Regiment, Company F. 

George Steele, Sixth Regiment, Company F. 

Philip Stedman, Sixth Regiment, Company D. 

Levi E. Stedman, Eleventh Regiment, Company D. 

Elbridge G. Tarbox, Fourth Regiment, Company I. 

Jackson Taggart, died in prison. 

Martin Tehu, Troop C. 

Henry A. Thompson, wounded. 

Joseph S. Thompson, Fifth Regiment, Company K. 

Francis Thompson, Sixth Regiment, Company F. 

Henry A. Turner, Fourteenth Regiment, Company G. 

Albert S. Verder, Sixth Regiment, Company E. 

Charles W. Verder, Fourteenth Regiment. 

Sylvanus W. Waters, Sixth Regiment, Comjiany K. 

Charles Wilson, Seventh Regiment, Company D. 

John Wilson, Eleventh Regiment, Company C. 

Frank Wetherbee, sharpshooters. 

(xeorge F. Wilbur, Troop B. 

Edwin F. Wheeler, Sixteenth Regiment, Company F. 

John F. Wheeler, Sixteenth Regiment, Company F. 

SOLDIERS IX SERVICE FOE OTHER STATES. 

Clarence S. Bailey, captain Massachusetts Cavalry. 

Henry H. Cragin, Ohio Volunteers. 

AVilliam L. Cutter, Iowa Cavalry. 

Benjamin F. Lawrence, Massachusetts Battery. 

Lucius Upton, Massachusetts Battery ; died. 

John R. Verder, Connecticut Volunteers. 

Whole number of soldiers iu service, one 
hundred and fifty-one. 

SOLDIERS KILLED IX BATTLE. 

Luther W. Fassett, Second Regiment, at Evansport, 
Va., April 2, 18G2. 

Sylvanus C. Waters, Sixth Regiment, at Antietam, 
September 17, 1864. 

Frank Weatherbee, sharpshooters, at Antietam, Sep- 
tember 17, 1864. 

Henry Ritchie, Second Regiment, at Pegram House, 
Va., September 30, 1864. 



Charles Carter, Fourteenth Regiment, at Cedar Creek, 
October 19, 1864. 

Whole number killed in battle, five. 

SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN THE .SERVICE. 

Joseph Caldwell, Eighth Regiment, at Thibodeaux, 
La., 1862. 

Joel E. Fassett, Second Regiment, at Jaftrey. 

Edmund Ritchie, Second Regiment, at Philadelphia, 
October 2, 1862. 

Charles D. Emery, Fourteenth Regiment, at Wash- 
ington, November 14, 1863. 

Henry A. Smith, Fourteenth Regiment, at Poolsville, 
Md., January 7, 1863. 

Charles M. Smith, Fourteenth Regiment, at Pools- 
ville, Md., January 12, 1863. 

Almond W. Bailey, Sixteenth Regiment, at New Or- 
leans, June 7, 1863. 

John C. Cummings, Sixteenth Regiment, at Mound 
City, October 23, 1863. 

John W. Darling, Sixteenth Regiment, at Butte la 
Rose, La., May 17, 1863. 

Jacob Newell, Jr.. Sixteenth Regiment, at Baton 
Rouge, La., April 15. 1863. 

Hiram Benuet, cavalry, at Point Lookout, Md., Sep- 
tember 11, 1864. 

Daniel M. Colburn, Ninth Regiment, Virginia, No- 
vember 29, 1864. 

Charles A. Sargent, Ninth Regiment, at Salisbury, 
N. C, October 23, 1864. 

Leonard Rand, Fourteenth Regiment, at Camp Para- 
pet, May 28, 1864. 

Henry H. Cragin, 1864; an Ohio volunteer. 

Jackson Taggart, cavalry, at Andersonville, Ga., Sep- 
tember 21, 1864; grave No. 9460. 

John Q. Adams, at the Marine Hospital, 186-. 

Lucius Upton, August 7, 1864 ; Massachusetts Bat- 
tery. 

Albert N. Joslin, Fifth Regiment. 

John F. Kidder, Sixth Regiment, at Alexandria, Va., 
November 11, 1862 ; grave No. 425. 

Harvey N. Bailey, cavalry, at Westford, Mass., March 
8, 1865. 

Joseph S. Lacy, Fifth Regiment, at Yorktown, Va., 
May 11, 1862. 

Oscar Eugene Carter, died. 

Whole number died of disease, twenty-three. 

Po.st-Office. — Peter Lawrence was the first 
postmaster. The office was probably established 
during the winter of 1801. 

April 1, 1846, the name of the office was 



230 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



changed to Factory village, and located in that 
, place. 

On the 8th of December, Factory village was 
changed to East Jaffrey. 

The office at Jaffrey was re-established No- 
vember 6, 1846. 

Banks. — The Monadnock State Bank was in- 
corporated in 1850; capital, $50,000. John 
Conant was chosen president and Peter Upton 
cashier. Directors, John Conant, Benjamin 
Cntter, Jonas M. Mellville, James Scott, Rnfus 
Haywood, Samuel Ryan, Jr., Solomon Allen. 
In 1855, John Fox was chesen president, and in 
1857, James Scott, of Peterborough. In 1865 
the Monadnock National Bank wa.s incorpo- 
rated ; capital, $100,000. James Scott was 
chosen president ; Peter Upton, cashier. Beu- 
janiin Cutter was chosen president in 1870; 
cashier, Peter Upton. Peter Upton is the 
present president, and H. D. Upton, cashier. 

The present directors are Peter Upton, 



A. S. Coffin, B. D. Whitney, O. H. Bradley, 
Benjamin Pierce, Julius Cutter and John H. 
Cutter. 

Monadnock Savings-Bank was incorpo- 
rated in 1869. President, Oscar H. Bradley ; 
treasurer, Peter Upton ; the present trustees are 
O. H. Bradley (president), Benjamin Pierce, 
James S. Long, George A. Underwood, J. B. 
Stedd, J. T. Bigelow, Dexter Derby, C. B. 
Perry, John H. Fox, A. Sawyer, D. P. Emory, 
Julius Cutter and R. H. Kitredge. 

Population. — In 1775, at the beginning of 
the war, the number of inhabitants was 351. 
In 1783, 1033; in 1790,1235; 1800, 1341; 
1810, 1336; 1820, 1339; 1830, 1354; 1840, 
1411; 1850, 1497; 1830,1452; 1870,1256; 
1873, 1288 ; 1880, 1267. 

The Monadnock Railroad was completed 
and opened in June, 1871. The first trip, from 
Wiuchendon to Jaffrey, was made November 
22, 1870. 



HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 



BY REV. S. H. MCCOLLESTER. 



CHAPTER I. 

The early liistoiy of Marlborough, like that 
of the surrounding towns, is somewhat obscure 
and traditional. However, it is known that in 
the reign of Xing James I. Europeans came 
to this country and explored along the Merri- 
mack River, and that, as early as 1623, a settle- 
ment was made at Strawberry Bank (now 
Portsmouth). The settlers were few and mostly 
fishermen. Though the waters and lands in 
this region were inviting, immigration was slow 
because of the wildness of the country and the 
opposition of the Indians. In 1635 the Plym- 
outh Company, in order to promote settlements, 
divided up their property in New England 
among themselves before they surrendered their 
charter to the King, and the whole of what 
now constitutes New Hampshire fell to the lot 
of Captain John Mason, who was one of their 
number. He at once took steps to forward 
settlements and opened the way for them into 
different parts of the State. At his death, No- 
vember 16, 1635, his grandson, Robert Tufton, 
assuming the name Mason, carried on the work 
and was permitted to witness many new settle- 
ments along the streams and on the hills. At 
his departure he left his estate to his two sons, 
John and Thomas, who became of age about 
1738. The entire State had now been surveyed 
and divided into townships. They at length ef- 
fected a sale of the unsettled parts to a company 
in the eastern division of the State, who be- 
came known as the " Masonian Proprietors." 
They soou directed their attention to lauds about 
the Monadnock Mountain. No doubt, the 



ease with which these could be cleared, on ac- 
count of their elevation and the richness of the 
soil, attracted their attention, and so the way was 
opened for the settlement of eight townships 
around this grand old mountain. They were 
known as Monadnock No. 1, No. 2, etc. Marl- 
borough was Monadnock No. 5, and afterwards 
its name was changed to Marlborough by set- 
tlers who came from Marlborough, Mass. 

This brings us to the first settlement in 
town, which was by William Barker, a native 
of Westborough, Mass. He was one of the 
"original proprietors," and had drawn several 
lots in this division. Perhaps because of his 
financial interest, he was first led to explore the 
region in 1761, and select a lot on West Hill, 
on what is now a part of Troy. The next year 
he returned to the same place, with tools and 
provisions, to make a clearing for a future home. 
It is supposed he felled the first trees and con- 
structed the first camp in this then wild land. 
This must have been a lonely experience, by 
day and night. Still, he was ready to endure 
and persevere because of hope and promise. As 
his supply of provision was consumed, he 
turned his steps homeward, having made the 
beginning of a permanent settlement. In tiie 
spring of 1764 he returned and resumed his 
work of clearing, and built a log house, and so 
prepared the way for the removal of his family. 
Early in the ensuing fall, with his wife and 
three small children, they bid adieu to many 
kind friends and neighbors, and started on the 
long and trying journey to their new home. 
Their means of conveyance was an ox-team. 
This was a first-class mode of traveling at that 

231 



232 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



time. They found a passable road from West- 
borough to Winchendon, Mass., but from the 
latter place they were obliged to select their 
own way and get on as best they could througli 
the extended forests. Just how long it took 
them to make this distance of less than twenty 
miles, without any beaten track, no record 
shows. We can but surmise they must have 
been thankful when their destiny was i-eached, 
17th of September, with no disposition to re- 
trace their steps for the present. Now, see 
them in their rude home, really the first home 
in Marlborough. Their neighbors now are the 
bear and the bison, the wolf and the panther, 
the hawk and the partridge. Still it was home. 
Fancy could have but pictured to them better 
days and fairer scenes. They could have but 
felt they were sowing for others to reap. Noble 
adventurers they were, building better than 
they knew ! 

Isaac McAllister, not long after this first set- 
tlement, came hither to seek a spot for another 
home. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Barker, 
and so there were kindred attractions to draw 
these families near together. Mr. McAlli.ster 
chose the lot which is known as the Deacon 
Farrar place. Here he made a log house, and 
before the winter set in it was occupied by his 
family, consisting of a wife and four children. 
This was the first settlement within the present 
limits of the town, and some four miles distant 
from Mr. Barker's. So, no doubt, during the 
winter of 1764—65 these two families comprised 
all the inhabitants of Monadnock No. 5. How 
little we can know of the hardships and strange 
experiences of these early pioneers! There 
must have been some other motives than those 
of the mere adventurer prompting them in their 
risks and severe undertakings. It would seem 
they desired to do so that others might enter 
into their labors and become greatly blest. It 
was even thus. From that feeble beginning 
what an outcome ! Generations have come and 
gone, but that simple, sweet home-life in the 
wild forest has been preserved and multiplied. 



The two homes have been supplanted by the 
many. Thus it is, — ^the log hut first, the 
cottage afterwards ; the rude first, the cultured 
last. 

The first-born in town was Dolly, tlie daugh- 
ter of Isaac and Hannah (Goddard) McAllister, 
during the first winter they passed in INIarlbor- 
ougli. Their family continued to increase till 
it numbered five girls and six boys. We can 
little guess how and where these children 
played, when and how much they went to 
school, or how they spent their Sundays. But 
this we know : that, in spite of wilderness and 
unfavoring fortune, they blossomed out into 
noble manhood and womanhood. How true it 
is, that " necessity is the mother of invention " 
and character as well ! 

1765. — If no Horace Greeley, as yet, had 
said, " Young man, go West," still it was 
"westward, ho!" with the young men even at 
this early date of our country's history. So 
one Silas Fife, a young man, in this year hav- 
ing heard of Monadnock No. 5, with gun in 
hand and a well-filled knapsack on his back, 
bade adieu to his old home in Bolton, ]\Iass., 
and alone set out for what seemed an Eldorado 
to hiiti. No doubt, he had experienced fairest 
visions in sleep and wakefulness of an enchanted 
land, whither his adventurous spirit was bound 
to lead him. At length he pitched his camp at 
the foot of the Monadnock Mountain, on what 
was afterwards known as the Deacon Baker 
place. Here he began at once to make for him- 
self a future home, having obtained a title of 
tliis section of land. The fish of the brooks 
and the game of the woods furnished him 
mostly with food. In the course of a few sum- 
mers he had converted a portion of the wilder- 
ness into a farm, where he was raising corn and 
potatoes; and, more than this, he had built a 
good log house, which was too large for himself 
to occupy alone. The cage and the food were 
ready for some fairy bird. Accordingly, he re- 
turned to his native town, — probably to his first 
love, whose wooing had captured his heart long 



MARLBOROUGH. 



233 



ago, — and took for his bride Abigail Houghton. 
They were married in Boston, and then made 
their wedding tour to tlieir new home under the 
shadows of the Old IMouaduock. Just how 
tliey traveled and how long it took them to 
reach their destiuatiou no record states. It is 
certain they were not drawn by any iron steed 
with lungs of fire and breath of steam, uor 
whirled over a macadamized road in a coach- 
and-f(iur at the rate of two-forty. But " where 
there is a will, tliere is a way," and so in due 
time they found themselves settlers in the new 
town, united in hand and heart, to serve the 
race and forward civilization. 

In 1765, Benjamin Tucker and wife, with 
five sons and two daughters, came from Leices- 
ter, Mass., and settled not far soutli of tlie spot 
where the old meeting-house stood. They were 
well suited to pioneering service. They seemed 
to be abundantly supplied with good common 
sense. Tliough deprived of school advantages, 
they made the most possible out of present op- 
portunities. It is impossible to decide whether 
fate or fortune led Mr. Tucker to select the spot 
for his liome ; however, it turned out to be very 
fortuitous, for the great highway from Boston 
to Keene passed directly by it ; so the log house 
of small ([uarters w;is supplanted at length by a 
more imjjosing structure, which was used as a 
tavern. lis proprietor, by tact, integrity and 
congeniality, became popular as a public enter- 
tainer. This house was the place where the 
" Proprietors " delighted to meet for the trans- 
action of their business. No doubt, they were 
wont to have jolly experiences in their gather- 
ings, as well as discouraging adventures and 
almost insurmountable obstacles. It is fortunate 
they could laugh and weep, hope and fear, trust- 
ing all the while in an overruling Providence 
and willing for the right. Mr. Tucker acted 
an important part in the early public meetings, 
being often chosen as clerk, assessor or treasurer. 

This same year Daniel Goodnow, of noble 
stock, came from Marlborough, Mass., and took 
up his abode iiere. Just where he first resided 



is not known, but probably in that part of the 
town which was afterwards set off to Troy. 
He brought with him a wife and several eliil- 
dren. If their history is somewhat deficient, 
we know they bequeathed good blood to after 
generations. 

During this year Abel Woodward and his 
family settled in town on what has been known 
as the Joslin place in later times. For some 
reason he thus early sought the valley for his 
home, while other settlers had pitched their 
camps or built their log huts on high grounds. 
It is difficult for us to guess the motives that 
prompted these early adventurers. Great dis- 
parit}"^ of tastes and desires have always existed 
among men. Our forefiithers could have been 
no exception to this law ; accordingly, they 
sought the hill and the vale; they loved the 
mountain and the valley; they delighted in 
having homes on highland and lowland ; they 
were fond of the novel, the picturesque and the 
sublime ; so they were ready to dare and do for 
rising generations. We now can dimly sur- 
mise the trials they experienced and the hard- 
ships they endured for the s;ike of those who 
should come after them. But they nobly 
wrought, and their names should l)e forever 
blessed. 

In 17(36 the first town-meeting was held by 
the proprietors now settled in Monadnock No. 
5. It convened at the house of Isaac IMcAllis- 
ter. The object was to take steps towards lay- 
ing out roads through the township from Keene 
to Dublin, from Keene to Rindge and from 
Swanzey to Fitzwilliam. They eyideptly were 
conscious of the fact that jjublic roads are a 
necessity for civilization and progress. Indian 
trails and spotted trees may answer the turn of 
wild men, but they can never satisfy the wants 
of advanced humanity. Roads must be built 
before the school- house or the church can exist. 
As soon as highways were made to the feudal 
castles, or to pass near them, they gave place to 
Gothic cathedrals. The Orients built pyramids 
for the dead ; the Occidents built roads for the 



234 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



living. As our forefathers opened up the first 
liighways the straggling wigwams disappeared, 
aud smiling cottages soon fringed the roads, 
thereby giving free coui-se to commerce and the 
trains of wisdom and spiritual activity. How 
clieering it is that God works with men aud 
crowds into their hearts \aster jnirposes and 
broader truths than, in their childish thoughts, 
they are wont to undei"stand or appreciate ! 

In 1767 the first saw-mill was erected. AA'e 
can hardly tell by whom or just when, but tra- 
dition says it was built at the confluence of the 
brooks near the school-house in District Xo. 4, 
and that Daniel Harrington controUetl it. Dur- 
ing tliis year, it is said, Jedediah Maynard put 
up a frame house on what is kno^^^^ as the 
Artis Collins place, and which, in fact, con- 
stitutes a part of the house ownetl by his de- 
scendants at the present time. Another was 
built on the site of the Congregational Church 
by Abijah Tucker. These houses must have 
been quite a wonder in those days of log cabins, 
with their rude chimneys, thatched roofs and 
slassless wiuchiws. During this vear the immi- 
grations to tliis town were much larger than they 
had been heretofore in the same period. Near 
the close of this year the Provincial Legislature 
required a census to be taken of the town, and 
the returns show that the population consisted of 

Unmarried men from 16 to 60 years of age 9 
Married men from 16 to 60 years of age.... 16 

Boys of 16 years and under 25 

Men 60 years and above 1 

Females unmarried 26 

Females married 16 

Total 93 

This, we see, is quite a settlement to have 
been made in some three years in the wilds and 
woods of Xew England. During this or the 
following year a grist-mill and another s;iw-mill 
were built in the noitli part of the township, on 
what was afterwards known as the Richardson 
Brook. This was the fii-st grain-mill in this 
resrion. Previously, the settlers had been 
obliged to go six and more miles to get their 



grain ground, following trails and roughest 
tracks. They must have learned what it was 
to earn their bread by the sweat of the brow. 
Stone relics of this old mill are to be seen at the 
present day. Its rudeness would bear a strik- 
ing contrast to the little machine which thumps 
away day and night in pumping and throwing 
water from the brook near where the old mill 
must have stood to buildings high on the hill. 
The last is better than the first ; the new than 
the old ; the cultivated garden than the Avild 
morass. 

In 1769 the proprietors felt the time had 
come to direct their hands and hearts towards 
building a meeting-house. They made it bind- 
ing on every owner of land to bear his share of 
the expense in accomplishing this noble work. 
It apjiears that there was general interest felt in 
this enterprise. Their experience and self-sac- 
rifices tendetl to excite their religious natures, 
and make them feel dependent on God and de- 
sirous to obey his commandments. We imag- 
ine when they came together for worship, it was 
in sincerity and truth. So their united hearts 
must have stimulatetl each individual soul in 
those trying times, causing them to feel " how 
good and how pleasiint it is for brethren to 
dwell together in unity." 

The In-corpor.\tiox of the Town. — 
From 1770 to 1774 there was a large in- 
crease to the population ; so much so, that it was 
felt an application should be made to the Pro- 
vincial Congress for the right of incorporating 
the township into a town. A committee 
accordingly was chosen to this end, and in 1775 
a charter, or grant, was obtained. Henceforth 
they chose town offices and raised means ac- 
cording to the laws of the State to meet the de- 
mands of the town. Now they were soon en- 
abled to complete their meeting-house, provide 
for preaching and support one or more schools. 

In naming the town, some desired it to be 
called Oxford, others Salisbury, others Worces- 
ter and still others Marlborough. But, no 
doubt, the last name was decided upon because 



MARLBOROUGH. 



235 



so many liad emigrated to it from Marlborough, 
Mass , and that old town was dear to their 
liearts, and for this reason they delighted to 
honor and commemorate it. 

The records show the new town was presided 
over from its inception with a good show 
of dignity and honesty. The majority seemed 
bound to have things about right. They were 
forced to have some ofBcers for their protection 
wliicii have become obsolete, and we nowadays 
cannot see why there was ever a demand for 
them, such as tithingmen, deer-reeves and hog- 
reeves. The office of tithingmen was brought 
from England here. Even in parts of Great 
Britain the office is still kept up. Its design 
is to preserve the Lord's day holy. So the duty 
of the tithingmen was to keep order in the 
house of worship, to prevent all unnecessary 
labor and travel on Sunday. They were 
honored with a badge of the office, and occupied 
a conspicuous place in the church, that they 
miglit discover any improprieties during the 
service. It was their privilege to speak out in 
meeting if they saw any laughing, swearing or 
roguery. They frequently thought they had 
sufficient cause to exercise their authority, or, 
at least, it was no uncommon thing for them to 
rebuke and chastise right in sermon-time. Only 
think of men, women and children sitting on 
hard boards for two or three hours during the 
forenoon service, and as long in the afternoon, 
listening oftentimes to prosy preaching and 
harsh singing ! Who could blame the old folks 
for nodding and the children for playing? If 
such were the order of Sunday service at the 
present day, we judge tithingmen would still be 
a necessity. Possibly, we are going to the 
other extreme, often preferring fifteen-minute 
essays for sermons which hit nowhere, and 
operatic music which pleases the head, but 
touches not the heart. Perhaps, in our haste, 
we give the French, even, a chance to say of us, 
" How the Americans rush out of their churches 
and their cars ! " 

The duty of the deer-reeves was to protect 



the deer so that they should not be destroyed at 
unseasonable periods, or be cruelly treated at 
any time. Would it not be well if we could 
have officers appointed in this age to protect the 
harmless birds and quadrupeds ? Certainly, 
there is a demand for leagues to be formed to 
guard laml and water, preventing cruelty to 
animals. 

The hog-reeves were of special importance 
when our town was new, for the swine were 
allowed to run at large, and wex'c as much given 
to rooting then as now. However, the law 
was that they should be yoked and their noses 
wrung. This was frequently neglected ; so much 
damage would be done by their roving and root- 
ing. The duty of the hog-reeve was to see that 
these creatures were properly equipped for their 
liberty. For some reason it becmne the custom 
to elect the recently married to this office. If 
it were not esteemed very honorable, at times 
it was very onerous. This office was regarded 
as most essential for many years, and still stands 
on our statute books. But jjublic opinion, if it 
does not always create the laws, does execute 
them, if they are executed at all. For this rea- 
son we want pul)lic sentiment right, and then 
we will have good laws that can be put in force. 

The more we study and learn the facts of the 
first inhabitants of our town, the more we must 
Ije convinced that they wei'c men of heroism 
and moral strength. They laid a good founda- 
tion ; they wrought grandly ; their example is 
worthy of imitation. As they felled the forest 
and dug up the soil, they sowed good seed, 
which is still yielding manifold. Their lives, 
as from some pure spring bursting from Mo- 
nadnock's lofty brow, have floated down to us 
on the currents of time, like the little boats, 
adorned with flowers and lighted with starry 
flames, which the South Sea Islanders set afloat 
on the seas to be borne to their descendants 
dwelling in fairer realms. So the flowers and 
lights of our ancestral past have filled our gar- 
dens with countless charms, and gilded our 
ways with brightest hopes. 



236 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



CHAPTER II. 

MARLBOROUGH— (Co««J««e(J). 
THE BEVCLUTIONAKY PEKIOD. 

At the )ircaking cat of the Revolutionaiy 
War Marlhorongh was but sparsely settled. 
The census that was taken in 1775 gave three 
hundred and twenty-four inhabitants ; of this 
number, one luindred and forty-eight were fe- 
males and one hundred and four were boys 
under sixteen years of age ; so there could not 
have been more than sixty men qualified for 
military service. As British invasion was made 
on the 19th of April, 1775, the red-coats 
marched upon Lexington and Concord, and con- 
sternation and terrible anxiety spread through 
the whole land. Then we had no independent 
government ; at best, were only under colonial 
instructions. The total population of the coun- 
try then did not exceed three millions. But the 
first crack of British muskets and roar of 
British cannon, within our borders, startled our 
brave yeomanry throughout the land. Axes 
were dropped in the forests, plows were left in 
the fields, drums were beaten, bells were rung, 
muskets were snatched from over mantel-pieces, 
powder-horns and ball-pouches were slung over 
the shoulders, blankets were tied to the backs, 
men with determined minds and patriotic hearts 
were rushing to the fields of strife. Devoted 
wives and tender mothers could but weep bit- 
terest tears; still, they bid their noble husbands 
and brave sons go forth doing valiantly for 
God and country. Yes, a Stark quickly fled 
from his saw-mill at Londonderry, Putnam 
quit his farm at Pomfret without stopping to 
change his dress. All were bound to drive the 
enemy from our soil ; they were ready to tear 
down King George's statue and melt it into 
bullets to shoot down British invaders. If 
from earliest time tiiere had been a tendency to 
reverence the King, and trace one's pedigree 
to a kingly source ; if the heroes of Homer de- 
lighted to call Olympus father ; if the historic 
families of Sparti and Macedon clung to the 



all-seeing Zeus as their progenitor ; if the great 
Julius Cfesar fancied that he was the son of the 
beautiful Aphrodite ; if the old Teutonic tribes 
believed that there was a sacredness in being the 
subjects of kingly rule, — Americans were not to 
submit to any such delusion. They had suffered 
wrongs under the King as long as they could. 
Somehow they felt they must and would be free. 

At this sudden burst of martial flames the 
thirteen colonies were remarkably free from 
Toryism. The Pilgrims and the Virginian 
adventurers had been here long enough to real- 
ize that America was bound to have a govern- 
ment of her own. Her lands, her waters, her 
climates and her skies were truly American, and 
why should not this be true of her political 
administration? It was soon made evident, as 
her l)rave men sprung to arms and marched 
with quick step to fields of carnage and death, 
that it was to be a reality. 

Marlborough, with other towns of the Granite 
State, was not slack»in assuming its share of hard- 
ships in the pending Revolution. If our town 
did not have any soldiers in the battles of Lex- 
ington and Concord, on account of being so re- 
mote from the seat of war, it did send forth Moses 
Tucker, Timothy Rodgers, Robert Worseley, 
Daniel Collins, Lieutenant James Brown and 
Pearson Newell, who were in the memorable 
battle of Bunker Hill, the 17th of June, 1775. 

At the close of this year, it is said, there were 
in the array in the vicinity of Boston from our 
town, sixteen men. 

After the evacuation of Boston by the Brit- 
ish a thousand soldiers left this post, under the 
leadership of Benedict Arnold, pressing their 
way towards Quebec through the dense woods 
of Maine. They advanced to the Kennebec 
River and then embarked in boats, forcing their 
way with the greatest difficulty up the current to 
its head-waters ; thence they bore their boats, 
heavily burdened, across to the river Chaudiere 
and passed down to the St. Lawrence, six miles 
above Quebec. In this perilous experience 
the sufferings must have been beyond descrip- 



MARLBOROUGH. 



237 



tion. Several of our soldiers were among the 
number. Robert Worseley was one of them, 
who says they were terribly harassed by the 
Indians, and became so reduced in rations that 
they were forced to eat the leather of their 
shoes and cartridge-boxes. At one time, as they 
emerged from the woods a dog saluted them 
and they shot it. Mr. Worseley relates that " it 
fell to his lot to dress it, and as he was taking 
out the entrails, the famishing men snatched 
away the flesh, having for himself only what 
he could clutch in his hands." Although they 
ate the flesh raw, Mr. Worseley asserts that " it 
was the sweetest meat he ever tasted." In 
another company of this expedition, Mr. 
A\'orseley says, " some of the men came across 
the carcass of a hog, which was eaten quicker 
than he could tell a lie." Truly, those were 
times tliat tried men's bodies as well as souls. 

In July, 1776, a regiment of New Hamp- 
shire militia was raised to increase our army in 
Canada ; but a change was made, so that it was 
sent to Ticonderoga to aid in defending that 
part of our country. On the roll of this regi- 
ment we find the names of Benjamin Goodenow, 
Abel "W^oodward and Peter Tozer, who enlisted 
from Marlborough. In September of the same 
year another force was called for from New 
Hampshire to reinforce the army in New York, 
and in the following December it came under 
the immediate command of General Washing- 
ton. Among the names from our State we find 
those of Daniel Goodnow and Jonah Har- 
rington. 

In the spring of 1777 England decided to in- 
vade the States from the north with seven 
thousand troops besides a large artillery train 
and several tribes of Indians, all under the 
command of General Burgoyne. Accordingly, 
steps were at once taken by the colonists to en- 
list men for three years, or during the war. 
Our State was called upon to furnish one hundred 
and nineteen men ; the quota for JNIarlborough 
was six. Colvin Goodenow, Frederick Free- 
man and Reuben McAlisterenlisted immediately 



and the town offered a county which soon in- 
duced Adino Goodenow, Timothy Rogers and 
Jabez McBride to give in their names, thus 
meeting the demand made upon our town at 
this call. Peter Tozer joined the army not long 
after. These men were mustered into service 
and put into Colonel Scaramel's regiment, in 
which Andrew Colburn, of this town, was lieu- 
tenant-colonel. This force was engaged in the 
battle of Stillwater and the men proved them- 
selves daring and loyal. Though they were in 
the thickest of the battle, they faltered not, but 
seemed bound to live or die for their coimtry. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Colburn and Frederick 
Freeman were killed in this battle. 

All this while the British had been making 
ready to invade our land from the north ; and 
in the spring of this year, unexpectedly, they 
advanced towards Lake Champlain. As this 
became known it created groat alarm and excite- 
ment ; and soon from all <juarters of our land 
brave men were marching to confront and over- 
power the enemy. Twenty-three enlisted from 
Marlborough. As our forces advanced the enemy 
were induced to withdraw from Fort Ticon- 
deroga and along the shores of Lake Champlain, 
and so our soldiers were relieved for a time. 
But it was soon ascertained that General Bur- 
goyne had changed his plans somewhat and had 
resolved to march into Vermont, and on into 
New Hampshire, subduing New England, if 
possible. This startled and aroused the people 
again. The Legislature of our State was at once ♦ 
called together, and divided its militia into bri- 
gades, to be under the command of General John 
Stark and Colonel William Whipple to march 
forthwith into Vermont to co-operate with the 
forces from other States in driving the enemy 
beyond our borders. At this call Marlborough 
sent Isaac McAlister as sergeant, William Ten- 
ney as corporal, and John Tozer. These men 
participated in the battle at Bennington and in 
the surrender of Burgoyne. 

In September more soldiers were called for 
and our town supplied six more, who joined the 



238 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



army at Saratoga, and were also preseut at the 
capitulation and the relinquishment of Bur- 
goyne's army. A fter this the base of action was 
changed on the part of our troops to that of 
Rhode Island, which was in the possession of the 
British. Arrangements had been made for a 
French fleet to allure and attract the attention 
of the English troops there towards the coast, 
while at the same time General Sullivan, in the 
summer of 1778, was to attack them on the 
land side. New Hampshire supplied a brigade 
to assist in this undertaking and our town fur- 
nished eleven of that number of soldiers. The 
next year the State ciilled for five hundred men 
to fill up the three Continental battalions from 
the State. Captain James Lewis and Russell 
Oliver are the only names mentioned as going 
from Marlborough. The succeeding year no 
enlistments were called for, but in 1781 special 
efforts were put forth by the town to fill the quota 
assigned it. After overcoming some special 
difficulties, arising from the depreciation of the 
currency and the scarcity of hard money, the 
town was successful in complying with the State 
requirements, furnishing their full number 
of soldiers all through the Revolution. After 
the close of the war there were thirty-nine new 
settlers to the town, all of whom had served their 
country more or less, at different points and in 
different engagements, during the struggle with 
England. So, when this martial strife was 
over, Marlborough could count nearly a hundred 
names of Ijrave citizens who had fought and 
bled for the freedom of our land. In camj) and 
field, for the most part, they had proved them- 
selves patriotic and loyal soldiers All the way 
from Lexington and Concord, through the seven 
long, bloody, weary years, to tlie surrender of 
Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, our State and 
town did their full share to hasten peace and es- 
tablish one form of government. It was some- 
thing new under the sun. It is true there had 
been republics before. Athens was so re- 
garded when Phidias chiseled and Pericles 
declaimed, but she was really sustained by slaves. 



Rome was once proclaimed a republic, but 
serfdom reduced it to an empire. Florence and 
Genoa were pronounced rejtublics, but aristoc- 
racy made them tyrants over adjacent cities 
and at length wrought their downfall. There 
were republics in Holland, whence came our 
free schools, but they crumbled away because 
founded on classes. It was reserved for our 
fathers to establish a republic on the basis of the 
equal rights of all men, and so construct a 
government as broad as humanity itself. This 
is what was really achieved by the hardships 
and triumphs of the Revolutionary War. We 
gladly acknowledge our Revolutionary heroes 
had inherited good blood and noble princijjles. 
Before Washington and Fi^auklin were Moses, 
Socrates, Tell, Luther and Milton. Before 
Boston and Philadelphia were Jerusalem, Sparta, 
Venice, Genoa and Leyden. But it is right 
we should recognize the fact and rejoice that our 
fathers improved upon their patrimony, and ex- 
pressed for the first time faith in the right 
of self-government, in the government of the 
whole people. This was worth fighting for and 
dying for ! Bl&ssed bestowments have we re- 
ceived from our pristine townsmen ! All honor 
to the Revolutionary heroes of Marlborough ! 



CHAPTER IIL 

MARLBOROUGH.— (Con«t««erf.) 

THE STATE ADOPTING ITS CONSTITUTION. 

In the infancy of the colonies the fear of 
the Indians and the trouble with Great Britain 
often called the people together in convention. 
From these small gatherings at length arose the 
Continental Congress, and from this last body 
sprung the Articles of Confederation, and out 
of these articles came our present Constitution 
of the United States. So this is an instrument 
of no hasty growth, but the outcome of neces- 
sity and trying experience. 

The Articles of Confederation were 



^ 



MARLBOllOUGH. 



239 



not binding till they were approved and adopted 
by each of the States separately. This work 
was not completed and the new government put 
into operation till the 2."}d of March, 1781. 

This course of the States, together with many 
defeats, led England to become weary of the 
war, and, accordingly, Parliament decided upon 
closing it, and commissioners were chosen by 
both governments to make the terms of peace. 
The provisional articles were signed on the last 
day of November, 1782, and the final treaty 
was signed September 3, 1 783. The last of the 
British forces were withdrawn from our borders 
on the 25th of November, 1783 ; and on the 
23d of December, Washington appeared in the 
Hall of Congress, at Annapolis, and resigned 
his commission as commander-in-chief of our 
army. 

As apparent })eace had now come to our peo- 
ple, the diflTerent States began to examine with 
care the Articles of Confederation, with the 
view of forming State Constitutions that would 
l)e in harmony with the same and equal to the 
demands of the different States. These Consti- 
tutions were to be brought before the citizens 
in the various towns of a State and cautiously 
considered before their adoption. We see plain- 
ly the intention was to have the people make 
the laws by which they were to be governed. 
The few were not to rule the many any longer. 

New Hampshire took necessary steps to have 
these Articles of Confederation brought before 
its people as soon as practicable, and in June, 
1784, its new plan of government was accepted 
and its Constitution publicly declared. So our 
State was still sovereign as to all its local in- 
terests. 

Although greater power was granted to the 
Confederation by the co-operation of these 
State-movements, still its power was too lim- 
ited to meet all the demands of a national gov- 
ernment. Its bonds of union were not suffi- 
ciently strong and close. For this reason the 
States found it essential to improve upon the 
Confederation by creating and adopting a Uni- 



ted States Constitution. This was not com- 
pleted and accepted by all the States 
till the 4th of March, 1789, on which 
day Geoi'ge Washington was elected the first 
President. 

The Constitution is truly one of the most 
remarkable papers ever produced. It is enough 
to immortalize the names of Jefferson, Frank- 
lin, Adams, Washington and others that were 
chief in bringing it forth. It is the outcome 
of the profoundest thought and the devoutest 
endeavors. 

Though it was felt and hoped that our coun- 
try would now be permitted to enjoy jieace and 
prosperity, still our people soon learned to the 
contrary and found their rights were being tres- 
passed upon by foreign nations. They were 
particularly harassed along their borders and 
on the seas. Then, too, internal troubles 
sprang up because of diffl^rences of opinion 
in reference to State and national affairs. They 
were harassed in quarters by the Indians. But 
in spite of trials and struggles, the States, un- 
der the administration of Washington, exper- 
ienced striking growth. As he completed his 
second term as chief ruler the masses were glad 
to declare him " first in war, first in peace and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen." During 
the Presidency of Adams and Madison internal 
and external storms of war threatened them, 
and in June, 1812, our country declared war the 
second time against Great Britian. Now meas- 
ures were at once taken to increase the army. 
Each State was called upon to furnish a certain 
number of men. New Hampshire's quota was 
three thousand five hundred. 

The forces of the States were divided into 
three divisions : The Army of the West, col- 
lected near Lake Erie ; the Army of the Cen- 
tre, brought together on the Niagara frontier ; 
and the Army of the North, centred on the 
shores of Lake Champlain. 

Marlborough was called upon to furnish eight 
soldiers. These atonce enlisted without any draft 
being made, but they were so fortunate as not 



240 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



to be called into the field. But in 1814 our 
Governor asked for troops to gai'risou the forts 
at Portsmouth, as British war-vessels were 
threatening our coasts. Accordingly, a draft 
was made and it fell to the lot of Etheel Par- 
raenter, Benjamin Fife, Henry H. Cutler, Na- 
tlian D. Parker and Abner Fairbanks to ful- 
fill the demand, and they immediately complied 
and went to Portsmouth, serving three months. 
Soon after this another call was made, and the 
town, ofifering a bounty, raised the following as 
volunteers : Moses Perkins, Stephen White, 
Ezekiel White, Darius Williams, Aaron Hodg- 
kms and Levi Gates, Jr. These men served 
six months and were honorably discharged. 
During this time thickening gloom seemed to 
be settling down upon our land, and active meas- 
ures were taken to have strong forces ready for 
marching orders at any moment. For this rea- 
son, all through the States, old and young, who 
were fitted to do military service, were being 
drilled and trained for the army. Marlborough 
was not behind in this work. Her sons were 
patriotic and daring. They laid in store pow- 
der and l)alls in large quantities, that they might 
be prepared for an emergency. During this 
year the battles of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, 
Plattsburg, Lake Champlain, Fort McHenry 
and New Orleans were fought. The signal 
victory gained at the last place closed the sec- 
ond war with Great Britain. New Hampshire 
had performed well its part, and Marlborough 
had fulfilled her duty in defending and preser- 
ving our republic. The spirit of liberty, some- 
how, •was sure to blow aside the weeds of dis- 
cord in their pathway, and thereby open u]» to 
them the violets of peace. It was as water 
thrown upon Mosaic pavements, develojjing 
brilliant colors, gilding their track with the ra- 
diance of heaven. It was the mystic lyre that 
played sweetest music by their rustic hearths in 
sjjite of the din of war or the howl of wild 
beasts. Their course was difficulty, struggle, 
progress. 

The Rebellion. — Who of us that remember 



the spring of 1861 can refrain from expressing 
heai'tfelt gratitude to the braves dead and the 
braves living? As the echoes of Fort Sumter 
reached our ears, how men sprang to their arms ! 
Reared in peace, we coveted peace. But our 
country was threatened, our flag insulted and 
our Union likely to become dissevered. It 
seemed but a day before countless flags were 
floating from our house-tops, and almost every 
village and city in our State and northern land 
had become a rendezvous for the enlistment of 
volunteers. How soon camp-fires were seen 
blazing upon our hillsides and our fields were 
spotted with army tents ! Men went forth in 
earnest to drill on campus and make ready in 
haste for the war. Some could not stop to prac- 
tice with the sword and gun, but rushed to the 
field of strife with rusty bayonet and unbur 
nished blade. They were bound to stand by 
the old flag in its first and last tribulation. As 
soon as the sense of duty bid the braves go 
forth in defen.se of our country, what scenes 
followed ! Do we not witness the pallid face of 
the weeping wife? Do we not still witness the 
mother's arms about the neck of her son and 
the shake of the father's hand, as they bid their 
beloved " away to your country's call?" No- 
ble men, have you forgotten the wail of cliil- 
dren as you kissed them, you knew not but for 
the last time, and hurried off to tlie perils of 
war and the din of the battle-field ? Young 
men, do you not recall the plighted vows made, 
or renewed, to some fair lover, or dear friend 
whom you were leaving, perchance, never to 
meet again this side of the dark river? Quick- 
ly the first call of our now sainted Lincoln was 
filled. With no small degree of jiride, it is our 
privilege to record the fact that Marlborough was 
the first town of Cheshire County to respond to 
this call. One of her sons, Thomas L. White, 
led the roll of enlistments to the First New 
Hampshire Regiment from our county. Two 
others soon followed, doing likewise, — James 
and John Totten. 

In the course of a few weeks a company was 



MARLBOROUGH. 



241 



i-aised at Keeue for the Second New Hamp- 
shire Regiment. The Darae« below show wlio 
were iu this regiment from our town a part or 
the whole of tlie time during the war : 

Levi N. Converse. Rhodoliilnis L White. 

Daniel B. Woorhvard. Lucins F. Hunt. 

William H. Tcnny. Amos L. (Jorey. 

James Newell. Mark Tens Greenwood. 

Merrick H. Ross. Cyrus E. Hardy. 

Amaziali Sawtelle. Augustus C. White. 

John Totten. Milton G. Razey. 
Asa U. AVhite. 

This regiment was engaged in more than 
twenty battles and lost in action more than eight 
liundred men. Most of the men from our 
town proved themselves valiant soldiers. Among 
otlicrs should be specially mentioned Levi N. 
Converse. He enlisted as a ^Ji'ivate, but was 
soon promoted, because of merit, to the rank of 
serp-eant and then to that of lieutenant-colonel. 
In the ordeal at Gettvsbui'g he lost his right 
arm, and at the battle of Chapin's Farm n 
minie-ball went through the roof of his mouth, 
badly disfiguring his face. But from these 
wounds he remained in the liospital no longer 
than he was obliged to, before he was in the active 
service again, and continued with his regiment 
until it was mustered out of service in Concord 
at the close of the war. 

When the Sixtli Regiment was raised, in th • 
autumn of 1861, eighteen men from our town 
joined it, consisting of 
Nelson Converse. Oscar W. Farnuiu. 

Calvin Stone. Charles A. Field. 

F. H. Castone. John H. Priest. 

Edward F. Adams. Henry H. Atherton. 

William A. Russell. George H. Smith. 

Thomas L. White. Charles W. Pike. 

George V. R. F^arnum. Francis M. Farrar. 
Arculus Vicar. Everett F. Gates. 

Charles L. Clarke. George Tildeu. 

Nelson Converse, the father of Levi Con- 
verse, .served as colonel of this regiment till he 
was forced to resign from ill health. Edward 
F. Adams was promoted from the ranks to 
captain. Tin's regiment experienced much 
hard service in cam[) and on field. It per- 
IG 



formed its part well in helping crush the Rebel- 
lion. When its complete history shall be writ- 
ten out, it will portray not a few heroic charac- 
ters and patriotic deeds. 

In 1862, at the i-aising of the Fourteenth 
Regiment of three years' men, the citizens of 
Marlborough supplied eighteen more soldiers, 
whose names are as follows : 



James Totten. 
Christopher Totten. 
William Collins. 
Enoch Foster. 
George H. Stone. 
George H. Stockwell. 
Alplionso A. Adams. 
Perley E. Collins. 
DelevanC. Richardson. 



Nathaniel P. Rust. 
Theodore Pope. 
Sumner L. McCollester. 
William H. Pierce. 
Luke Knowlton, Jr. 
Charles A. Mason. 
Edwin B. jMatthews. 
Ebenezer T. Greenwood. 
Charles Knowlton. 



This ^vas a marlsod regiment all through the 
wai', and the "boys" in it from Marlborough 
w^on lasting honors by their heroism and faith- 
ful service. Some of them were killed on the 
field of battle, most of tlicm were wonn<]ed, 
several died in hosjiitals and others were mus- 
tered out of service at the end of the war and 
are still living. 

Marlborough sujjplied in all for the war 
ninety-eight men. Of course, some of these 
were substitutes. But she was loyal to the calls 
made upon her and shed freely her share of 
blood to wipe out the stains of slavery from our 
soil and give fullest freedom to all dwelling 
witliin our borders. Can we not now rejoice in 
this ? "Would we have it otherwise ? It is not 
a small thing that our devoted townsmen heljjcd 
settle the (juestion — we trust, for all time — ^that 
a republican government has permanency. Ah ! 
did our brave soldiers know for whom and ibr 
what they were making their great sacrifices as 
they were marching upon fields of carnage ? 
Nay, verily, not any more than Moses could 
have calculated the outcome of his leading the 
Israelites tiirough the wilderness for so many 
years ; or the three hundred Spartans aaild 
have foreseen for what they climbed in the pass 
of Tiiermopylfe to perish ; or why the brave 
six hundred rushed into tlie jaws of deatj] at 



242 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Balaklava. Our noble heroes did infinitely 
more and better in living and dying for the pre- 
servation of our republic than they could have 
anticipated. Our country is now free from 
human slavery ; and what is this fact not 
worth ? It is worth all your hard-fought bat- 
tles, O American republic ! It is worth all 
your prayers and anxieties, O sainted Lin- 
coln ! It is worth all your graves, O Gettys- 
burg ! O Arlington Heights ! O Chattanooga ! 
O Northern cities of the dead ! for it enables 
every citizen of our Union to cast his own 
vote, nurture a free school in his brain and 
cherish the Declaration uf Independence in 
his heart. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

MARI,IiOROU(!H— ((7on(i,Mifrf). 
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

No one can question but that physical environ- 
ments have much to do in the formation of 
character ; but still more have mental and re- 
ligious forces. Accordingly, as our early an- 
cestors came from the Highlands of Scotland 
and the cultivated lands of England, having 
been long trained to religious thought and feel- 
ing, they were naturally disposed to worship 
God. As plants depend on light, air, heat, 
moisture and soil for growth, so they seemed 
to feel these were essential to their outward de- 
velopment, but the consciousness of a superin- 
tending Providence was still more demanded 
by their .spiritual natures. This explains why, 
as the Pilgrims stejjped upon Plymouth Rock, 
they bowed in sincerest worship ; why, as our 
State was first settled, provisions were made for 
the M'orship of God ; why, as towns were char- 
tered, I'cquirenients were laid upon the people 
to build churches and provide for the sujjport 
of the ministry. 

In our town measures were taken before its 
incorporation towards l)uilding a meeting-house. 



The people felt the necessity of having a Sab- 
bath home where they could assemble to wor- 
ship Go<l unitedly. Scattered settlers in a 
wilderness, as well as voyagers far out upon 
the ocean, can but feel dependent and desirous 
of expressing their religious emotions at proper 
times and in suitable places to Him who holds 
them in His loving embrace. So, as early as 
1770, a spot was selected as near the centre of 
the town as possible, and the first church edifice 
in Marlborough was raised. It was fifty by 
forty feet on the grountl, and high posted. At 
that raising there must have been a jolly time, 
for more than a barrel of the over-joyful was 
drunk. Then it was thought men could not 
build nor preach well without their "toddy." 
About this period a grant of land was set apart 
for the suj^port of the ministry, and another 
grant for the fii'st settled minister ; but these 
were in an unimproved state, and situated nearthe 
meetiug-house. This house was simply raised 
the first year, and roofed the next ; and before 
anything further was done to it, a I'cligious ser- 
vice was held in it. The outside was not 
boarded till 1774, and it was not furnished with 
glass windows and hinged doors till 1790, when 
it was regarded complete, though at this time 
it had no chimney nor .steeple. To accomplish 
this work many severe struggles and much self- 
sacrifice had been retpiired. They evidently, 
however, felt richly compensated as they assem- 
bled in that sacred place, offering up prayer and 
praise to God. It was not sujjplied with stoves 
till 1823. Its belfry was added in 1834, 
and the first bell of the town pealed out from 
its lofty tower its strong; clear tones, for many 
years marking thehour of noon, callingthe people 
to the seasons of worshijj, tolling the departure 
of those having "crossed the river" and the 
march tt> the tomb. 

The old meeting-house, if it has di.sappeared, 
still lives in the memories of many. It was 
truly the first meeting-hou.se of our native town. 
Do you not .see it in imagination, on the hill, 
with its broad, open common, its long row of 



MARLBOROUGH. 



243 



horse-sheds and its thickly-crowded city of the 
dead? It was well li.tthted within. How the 
pulpit, standing- on the north side, towered 
above flooi- and even gallery ! The old sound- 
ins-lward hung; from the oeiline above it, and 
close underneath was the deacon's pew, with the 
communiontable. Those box-jxnvs, with their 
movable seats and high nartitions, furnished 
with open work at the top toward the aisles, 
were quaint indeed, and would be curiosities 
to-day. Theu those long front-gallery seats on 
three sides, backed by those elevated pews, 
would look strange to the young of the present 
age. But that church used to be crowded with 
worshippers. The staid people occupied the 
seats below, the large choir those in front above ; 
the single men those on the west, and the un- 
married women on the east ; and the boys and 
girls took possession of the highest pews when 
they could, for in tjiose they were mostly out 
of sight of minister aud all the worshippers 
below. What loug and forcible sermons were 
wont to be preached from the pulpit ! and what 
tremendous singing came down and went up 
from that gallery ! How the young folks often 
sported in those pews, and the hard-working 
and aged nodded as the minister ]>reached au 
hour or an hour and ;r iialf long I The people 
demanded tliese protracted services morning 
and afternoon ; and for years they endui-ecl 
tiiem, even in the winter, without any artificial 
heat save what might come from a few foot- 
stoves. During the time between the services 
the men would converse in squads by the horse- 
sheds, and the women would assemble in parties 
among the pews, and then politics, religion and 
business matters would be discussed ! But the 
memories of that old church are sacred, and 
should always I'emain so. No doubt the pros- 
jjerity of our town is largely indebted to the 
early worship in that sacred place. 

However, so long as the people of the town 
wei-e taxed for the support of preaching, the 
I'eligious progress was disturbed every now and 
then. They wanted liberty of conscience in 



spiritual as well as in civil affairs. They nat- 
urally differed as to doctriues. Some were 
Calvinists, some Armiuiaus and others Arians ; 
and the ministers strongly felt, at times, it 
would be no more than right that their views 
should be preached — -occasioually, at least — in 
the old church. 

Now in 1819 a State law was enacted which 
met the demands, giving to the legal voters the 
privilege to decide how and when their ministe- 
rial tax should be paid. This encouraged the 
different sects in town to assert their rights, aud 
for each to claim the old meeting-house a por- 
tion of the Sabbaths for religious worship. 
Accordingly, a division was made, in keeping 
with the wishes of the people, aud, in 1835, 
the proportion stood as follows for the year : 
Unitarians, one and two-third days ; Baptists, 
six and two-third days ; Methodists, ten and 
oue-third ; Cougregationalists, thirteen ; Uni- 
versalists, twenty aud one-half. This method 
did not work well, for it tended to defeat tiie 
permanent settlement of a minister, and oc- 
casionally resulted in having no service in the 
church on Sunday. 

In 1778 the first minister. Rev. Joseph Cum- 
mings, of Topsfield, Mass., was settled in town. 
He was a graduate from Harvard University, 
and came well recommended. Still, at his iu- 
stallment, some of the brethren chose to conse- 
crate him to the Gospel work here, hesitated 
aud questioned the propriety of so doing from 
certain discoveries brought out during his ex- 
amination. Still, he was settled on a salary of 
S133..33 annually. But before the end of the 
first year some disturbances arose ; however, a 
few members were added to the church, and 
saveral children were baptized. But people and 
pastor were dissatisfied with each other, and 
December 1, 1780, Mr. Cummings was for- 
mallv dismissed. But after this he brought an 
action against the town for certain damages, 
and recovered some two hundred dollars. This 
controversy proved a great injury to religious 
growth in town, and for a few years the people 



244 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



did not seem disposed to settle another minister. 
However, during this period, supplies were fur- 
nished by Revs. J. Dammon, John Ramming- 
ton, Elijah Leonard, Caleb Blake, Ebeuezer 
Hill and Solomon Adams. Either of the last 
two the town and church would have been glad 
to settle. 

In 1792 Rev. Holloway Fish, of Upton, 
Mass., preached on trial, was called, and .settled 
the same year as a Calvinist-Congregational 
minister. Mr. Fish was a native of Upton, a 
graduate from Dartmouth College iu 1790. He 
was a fair scholar, of a serious turn of mind, 
and exemplary in his daily walk. He was 
plain and positive in his preaching. He enjoyed 
the confidence of his people generally. Dur- 
ing his pastorate of some thirty years, one hun- 
dred and seventy-eight were added to the 
church, and three hundred and three children 
were baptized. Mr. Fish died in town Septem- 
ber 1, 1824, aged sixty-two years, and was 
buried in the cemetery by the old meeting- 
house. 

At his deatli a separation took place between 
the town and church, and a new organization 
was made and denominated " The First Evan- 
gelical Congregational Society of JIarlborough." 
At its inception thirty-.seven men affixed their 
names to the con.-<titution. 

In 182.3 this new church gave a call to Rev. 
Salmon Bennett to settle with them, which was 
accepted on a .salary of three hundred dollars a 
ye;ir. He was soon installed, and continued 
a^ their pastor for five yeai-s, and increased the 
church by twenty-five new members. 

After the dismi.ssion of Mr. Bennett, Rev. 
Era.-^tus Curtis mini.stered to this church for 
one year, and it was without any pastor 
till 1835. But during this interim their organi- 
zation was changed, and, dispensing with the 
previous name, they assumed that of the Trini- 
tarian Congregational Society of Marlborough. 

In 1833 this organization voted to build a 
meetina;-house exclusivelv for their own u.se. 
The money was raised by subscription. It was 



with some difficulty that a site for the building 
was decided upon ; but the one was selected 
where it now stands, and the new church edifice 
\vas completed and dedicated October 29, 1834. 
At this time there were but few houses in the 
village, and the members of the church in the 
south part of the town found it hard to become 
reconciled to its present location. Nevertheless, 
this prejudice gradually wore away, and all at 
length were led to Icel it w;is pleasantly and for- 
tunately situated. 

In 1835, Rev. Moses G. Grovenor was set- 
tled over this church. He was a man of ability 
and o-reat will-force. He was a grailuate from 
Dartmouth College and Andover Theological 
Seminaiy. His sermons exhibited study and 
originality. In delivery he wa.s animated and 
at times elo([uent. His pastorate lasted five 
years ; during this time thirty-two members 
were added to the church. He was a good- 
looking and appearing minister. His very 
presence implied that he was master of the sit- 
uation, whether in or out of the pulpit. He 
married, for his .second wife, Miss Hannah D. 
Jones, a native of this town, and a graduate 
from Mount Holyoke Seminary. He died in 
Boston in 1879. 

In 1840, Rev. Giles Lyman was installed as 
pastor over this church. He was graduated 
from Amherst College in 1827, and from An- 
dover Theological Seminary in 1831. He 
ranked high in his academic and professional 
studies. By nature he was reserved and diffi- 
dent; not robust physically, but regular and 
abstemious in his habits, so that he enjoyed 
such a degree of health as to enable him to ful- 
fill his duties. As a sermonizer, he was system- 
atic and careful in his thouglits and expression. 
His rhetoric was superior to his oratory. As a 
pa.stor, he was true and faithful, doing all in his 
power to bless his people. As a citizen, he was 
much respected and deeply interested in the 
schools and the general welfare of the town. For 
years he served on the School Board. He con- 
tinued his ministry here for tweuty-eiglit years, 



MARLBOROUGH. 



245 



iiiKlduring this time liisdmroli washiest with an 
increase of one hundred and thirty-eigiit mem- 
Ijers. Of course, many in his church and in 
tile town passed away during his h)ng pastorate. 
But he was a true friend to the sick and the 
afflicted. He was loyal to his church and 
creed, doing his best to render the world wiser 
and better. His chief concern was, as he ex- 
j>ressed it, to save souls. He was remarkably 
favored in his married relations, haviuo- a oifted 
and devoted helpmate in his Christian work. 
Mrs. Lyman was really a brilliant MM:)nian, in- 
fusing good cheer into the hearts of all with 
whom she wrought. The memory of INIr. and 
Mrs. Lyman will always remain sacred in the 
town of Marlborough. He departed this life in 
\S7-2. 

His immediate successor here was Rev. 
Henry H. Underwood, but he ministered to 
this people only some seven months. 

In 1869, Rev. Silas P. Cook preached on 
trial for a short period, and then was settled 
with a tfreat unanimitv of feeling on the i)artof 
the society, but at his own request he was dis- 
missed the following year. He was regarded 
as a young man of ability and promise. 

In 1870, Rev. John L. ^Merrill was called to 
this church and installed as its pastor the fol- 
lowing year. He is a native of Haverhill, this 
State. He was graduated from Dartmouth Col- 
lege in 1856, at the age of twenty-three, and 
afterwards went through a divinity course in 
Princeton Theological Seminary. He made a 
good record in both of these institutions. Soon 
after leaving the seminary he was settled in 
Chauceford, Pa., where he continued his labors 
successfully for five years. Then for a year he 
was principal of the combined High Schools of 
Lancaster City, Pa. In 1866 he accepted a call 
to settle over the Congregational Church of Ac- 
worth, N. H., where he labored for four years with 
great success, till he was settled in Marlborough, 
where he is still endeavoring to do faithful ser- 
vice to his church. He believes in progress; 
however, he would not be classed with the new 



school of theology. He is strictly evangelical 
and thoroughly Presbyterian in his views. He 
so writes, preaches and lives as to be highly re- 
spected by his followers. 

]Mr. Merrill has shown himself a real friend to 
the cause of education, having given consider- 
able time to the schools in town, and been a 
prominent factor in making improvements in 
methods and management. 

He has been an earnest advocate of temper- 
ance and other reforms. He has largely iden- 
tified himself with the interests of the town for 
the past fifteen years. During his ministry 
here extensive improvements have been made in 
his own church edifice, and a chapel vestry has 
been secured. His church has seemed to pros- 
per under his leadership. 

The Congnwational is the strongest church 
in town, representing the largest membership 
and the most w^ealth. They liave a good brick 
church edifice, and a convenient and jile^'^ant 
})arsonage. 

The Methodist Church. — The first 
IMethodist preaching in town was at the house 
of Daniel Emerson, in 1793, by the Rev. John 
Hill. Mr. Emerson was a ISIethodist by nature, 
and could not be satisfied with any other doc- 
trine or mode of worship. So he was ready to 
make self-sacrifices and do all iu his power to 
introduce what to him seemed the best expres- 
si(m of Christianity. History implies that the 
first Methodist preaching in the State was in 
this town. It is said that after that first meet- 
ing it was not long before there were several of 
the most respectable familes in Marlborough and 
adjoining towns formed them.selves into a class 
and quite a number soon became members of 
this church, constituting the First jNIethodist 
Episcopal Church of Marlborough. At this 
time the Emersons, the Herricks, theRussells, 
the Richardsons, the Wakefields, Metcalfs and 
Whites were among the most active workers. 
The meetings were held in private houses for 
some time. They had frequent revivals, and 
their numbers were greatly increased. As they 



240 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIEE. 



Inul not a luinUter settlevi among them, they 
ap|x>inteil one of their own raembt^rs for a given 
time 10 leai.1 them. Alfivil Meti-alf, Ebenezer 
Horriek. EK^uezer Walliugtonl. Abner Kus?ell 
and others sorveii in this capsicifr. 

In 1S42 a meeting-hous^ \ras bnilt at Pot- 
tersville i^now West Harrisvilleli, Wing eonsid- 
en-il the most central place, as the Methodists 
then were situated. This was a decidetl 
aolue\-ement, tor hitheno thev had been obligeil 
to hold their Qnanerly Meetings in kirns and 
gr«:>ves. Regular Sunday services were now 
held in this churvh. and the Methodist cause 
ad\-;mceil rapidly. Meerings coniinuevl to 
be held her* till 1 859, when Rev. Thomas L. 
Fowler wsis supplying this j>eople with preach- 
ing; it w;v? decideil to hold the meetings on the 
Sjibbath half of the time in the Baptist 
Church at the village, which was then nnoccu- 
pitil. This prvned to be a fonunate movement, 
for the population had concentnitetl largely >nt" 
the village, diminishing the number of 
tants in the vicinity of Potters\-ille, and crta;ii;g 
a demand for Methoilist meetings where m<.n~t of 
the jieople retsided. Accorviiugly, steps were 
so«.>n taken to purchase the Baptist Churdi, and 
with success : s«^» that the meetings were held 
all the time in the village. The meeting-house 
at P<.»tteisville was sold and a parsonage ^vas built 
::; "he village, gi ving this dmreh superior ad van- 
tages to what it had heretofore enjoyed. Thence- 
forth it experienced a gradual grv>wTh. It 
has siistaint\l regular services on the Sabbath, 
ainl become a power among the other ehurdies 
for good. Its preachers, ftnr the moist part, have 

be«a effic" " -"•;- rs, doing excellent work 

tlur the . the people geaaerally. 

Among s«.une of its earlier itinerant preacher? 
were the famous Lorenzo Dow, Bishop Hed- 
i:..^ - ' Manin Renter, who became a college 
. - : and among those assigned to this 

i-harge, laboring for a year or more, whcee 
namesare esj»ecially cherished.are Revs. Samoel 

S. Dudley. Ira Carter, Thomas L. Fowler, 

Cole anil IWkeiell. With searcelv an ex- 



ception, the many pastors over this chun^h have 
lx!en loyal to tlie tempenmce «iuse. and truly 
interested in the public schools and the common 
interests of the town. 

Every Christian Church seems to have a di- 
vine apjwintment and a special mission to ful- 
fill. Thus it is with the Metliodists. By its 
ze:tl, devotion and perseverance, it has taken 
marvelons strides, and accomplisheil in a given 
time what no other church has ever achieved. 
In little more than a century it has come tosur- 
jwss any other Protestant sect in its number of 
communicants and Sunday-school scholars It 
consecrates some two new chnrch edilices every 
day in the year. AMiile all Christians cannot 
he Methodists, any more than all the stars 
can beci>rae planets, or all the flowers dahlias, 
still ~t rejoice at the grand Christian 

work liitv are achieving and wish them a hearty 
"Cto.1 speed!'* 

The Baptist Chtrch. — Among the earliest 
settlers of the town there were those who were 
of the Bjiprist persu:ision, and previous to its 
incorporation Btiptist meetings were occasionally 
held at private houses. It was not popular 
then to be a Baptist, and only thoge who were 
strv>ng in the taith could endure the contumely 
that WTiis oftesi b -"^-^ "Txin them. But the 
sincere aini thou_ heart and mind are 

quite certain to succeed in the end. Thus it 
was with" these Christians. Their early leader 
was Elder Joseph Ciimmings, who was a man 
of moral fortitude and mental strength. like 
Mckses leading the «Aildr«i of laaeL he bid 
his tollowers "'gt* forward." and they were 
obedient to the command. They ware zealous 
in trying to have the town release them nom 
helping support that form of wvs^p whi«ji 
was not most cor . ;irts. They 

pe.'si^ed in this, ■-,... .;„ .^. :... uiey gained 
their olgect. After the meeting-house was 
built then they felt it vonld be no more than 
right that they should have the privilege of 
•xvupying it a portioo of the time. They were 
aiu.'Ufir the first to move in this direction, and 



MARLBOROUGH. 



247 



(lid not desist from their piirjwse until succl'SS 
crowned tiieir efforts. But after this, perhaps 
on account of location, several of the leading 
famlies went to Pottersville to worship, because 
a strong Baptist society — for those times — had 
been established there. For years Elder Charles 
Cumniings and the venerated Elder Willard 
proclaimed the (ilospel to the ho.-<ts that used to 
assemble from Sabbath to Sabbath in the old 
vellow m(-e(ing'-house, which .stood on the hill 
in Pottersville. These nnnisters preached as 
they were moved by the Spirit. Certainly it 
was with power and demonstration. They 
seldom failed to pound their Bibles sufficiently 
to keep their hcarci-s wide-awake. In this old 
church was started one of the first Sunday- 
.schools in Xcw Hampshire. The text-book 
used in all the classes was the Bible. Then 
what an occasion it was to go forth to tlic river, 
not far off, to witness and experience a bap- 
tismal scene ! It was usually made solemn and 
expressive of joy. They thoroughly believed 
that in thus doing they wci'c being baptiztnl as 
was their Lord and Master. 

But after the Old Harbor had become quite 
a village, and the number of this faith had 
largely increased in town, in 184;>, a Baptist 
edifice was built in the village. At this period 
and afterwards this church was very prosperous. 
T^hongh its members did not represent great 
wealth, still they were earnest in their religions 
work. They preached and they sang with the 
Spirit. Among their ministers we forget not 
the Elder Charles Cummings, who was ad- 
\auced iu years at that time. How venerable 
he looketl as he stood in the pulpit ! His voice 
was expressive of a good heart, and his thoughts 
of a strong mind. He preached because he had 
something to say. The old and young loved 
Elder Cumming-s beaiuse he loved them. He 
went home rich to heaven, having laid up great 
treasures while on the earth. Another gifted 
l)reacher ^\•as Rev. A. L. Danforth. He was 
.settled in the town some four years. As a 
writei', he was free and ea.sy, strdiig and original 



in thought, forcil)le and |)leasiug in deliverv. 
He was graduated from Jliddleburg College 
and Newton Theological Seminary. He de- 
parted tills life a few years after leaving Marl- 
biirongh. Still another minister wlm won the 
hearts of his people was Ivev. Charles Clarke. 
He was a close student and more than an 
average preacher. He was thoroughly inter- 
ested in every good cause and lent hi.-^ inllnencc 
for the right, fearless of con.se(|uences. His 
example is worthy to be followed and his 
name to be always cherished. Other al)li' and 
efficient ministers .served this people. .\t 
length reverses came to them through deaths an<l 
removals, .•^o that they were unable to sn|)[)ort 
stated preaching and finally were reduced to 
such a degree that their church-doors were per- 
manently closed. Possibly this chnrch had 
fulfilled its mission. At least, it had accom- 
jdished a good work. JTany of its w<ir.-;hippers 
had been among the best pc()])le. If some of 
the earliest Separatists, or -Baptists, iu town, 
were opposed and persecuted, the latest ha\-e 
been respected and honored. 

The UxiVKiisAi.isr Church. — Among the 
early settlers of Marlborough there were a few 
who believed in the final restitution of all souls ; 
and near the beginning of the present century 
there was occasional preaching of this faith, but 
a record of the society reaches no farther back 
than l<SOo, at which time a constitution was 
framed. Previous to this period the laws of 
the State had not recognized Univer.salists as 
Christians, or allowed them the privileges of 
other religious bodies. To be a Universalist 
in those days reijuired not a little moral forti- 
tude. But those true to conviction never go 
back on themselves. They feel to be on the 
Lord's side and are steadfast, — if men do cen- 
sure and ridicule, — following the call bidding 
them "come up higher." Of course there were 
and arc .-;ome in this communion, as well as in 
all others, who profess to believe the faith, but 
fail to live it, thereby proving that they are not 
its disciples and should never be regarded as 



248 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



its representatives. There is no other Chris- 
tian test than the one that the Master gav^e, 
" By their fruits ye sliall know them.'' 

In 1816 tiie first constitution was revised. 
The meetings previous to tliis had been lield in 
private buildings, and mostly in the house of 
Lieutenant Oliver Wright, near the old meet- 
ing-house. Among the earliest preachers of 
this faith in town were Revs. E. Paine, Elhanan 
Winchester, Zebulon and Adam Streeter. When 
this society came to share with others in oc- 
cupying the meeting-house, it had more 
fre([ucnt and stated services. Among the 
noted men who preached here about this time 
were Hosea Ballon, Sr., Thomas ^A'hitteniore, 
D.D., I D. Williamson, D.D., Kevs. Sebastian 
and Russell Streeter. 

In 183-5, Rev. J. V. Wilson reorganized the 
society, and it numbered forty members, and 
this was but a small proportion of those who 
were wont to worship with this people. Their 
first Sunday-school was started at this time, 
and thev also secured a library of some seventy 
volumes, treating of moral, historical and re- 
ligious themes. 

The tendency of the town now was towards 
the village. This was true of religious as well 
as secular affairs. .Vccordingly, this society 
began to hold meetings in the school-house in 
the village. This continued for some years, 
but the members so increased that more room was 
demanded, and in 1851 a wooden church was 
built by Asa Greenwood and others. Mr. 
Greenwood was a leading factor in this enter- 
prise. The house was dedicated the succeeding 
year. Rev. Lemuel Willis preaching the sermon 
of consecration. Most of the pews were at once 
sold to individuals, and the rest were given at 
length to the Ladies' Society, connected with 
the church. Thus the Univei'salists possessed a 
convenient and pleasant Sunday home, most 
favorably situated. From this time on they 
grew as never before. They were now able to 
hold services every Sal>i)atli. Their Sunday- 
school was revived. When there should chance 



to be a minister wanting, a lay-service would 
be held on the Sabbath. 

Rev. Edwin Davis, a native of Marlborough, 
was the first settled minister in the new church. 
He so worked that it could never be said of 
him, " A man is not without honor save in his 
own country." After him came Rev. Wan-en 
A. Bassett, a young man of sterling ((ualities as 
to head and heart. He was suffered to minis- 
ter to this people only about a year before a 
fatal disease caused his departure to the higher 
life, leaving the sweetest memories to all who 
had known him. Rev. Judson Fisher was his 
successor, who proved himself an able and 
worthy Christian teacher. After him. Rev. 
Truman \. Jackson supplied the pulpit for 
one year, who afterwards gave his life in behalf 
of his country. Then Rev. H. P. Osgood 
served this church as their leader for six years. 
He gave them good sermons and identified 
liimself with the general interests of the town. 

After he left for another field of labor his 
place was filled by Rev. L. L. Ricord, A.M., 
a devout Christian man and scholar ; but he 
was not physically strong, and before two years 
had passed he was obliged to give up his fav- 
orite calling and submit to the fatal disease that 
had been preying upon his system for years. 
In the midst of a sympathizing jieoplc the good 
man was translated, becpieathing to his family 
and the church a true Christian character and 
life. 

After the departure of Mr. Ricord, Rev. 
E. I. Swift ministered to this people for one 
year; and after this Rev. R. T. Sawyer, B.D., 
served them for another twelve montlis. His 
successor was Rev. H. W. Hand, B.D., remain- 
ing with theni for three years. Under his 
ministry the seeds ^''f^'ited by otliers, and 
especially by Mr. Ricord, were so ripened 
that a church was formed, consisting of twenty- 
nine members. Mr. Hand continued in this 
charge for three years, and on his leaving, Rev. 
E. B. Burgess took his place and ministered 
faithfullv to the welfare of the church till he 



MARLBOROUGH. 



249 



felt it his duty to resign, and he was followed 
by Rev. R. T. Polk, who coutiuued iu charge of 
this church for nearly five years. He gave his 
people excellent sermons and was a zealous 
worker in behalf of temperance and education. 
At the resignation of Mr. Polk, in the autumn of 
1864, this church numbered some sixty members. 
In 1878, by subscriptions, a parsonage was built 
near the church edifice. In 1883, Rev. Edwin 
Davis, in honor of his father and mother, who 
were very strong Universalists and who, so long 
as they lived, did all they could in word or deed 
for their faith, presented this church with a fine- 
toned bell, — a most generous and appropriate 
gift. Again the society raised quite a sum of 
money and put a new and comely tower and 
steeple upon the church, suitable for the new 
bell. A town-clock is now attached to the bell. 
All enjoy the sweet tones as they peal out the 
hours of the day and the night and the calls 
for worship. 

Thus this society, from a small beginning 
and in spite of difficulties, has attained to an 
lionorable position in town, and is represented 
Ijy a respectable number of good Christian men 
and women. 

The Catholics. — At the present time there 
ai-e some twenty Catholic families in town, aud 
the initiatory steps have been taken towards 
building a church edifice for them. At least, a 
site has been secured for such a purpose. It 
can but be hojjed that this may be consummated 
soon, if the Catholics are to remain in town ; 
for it would be much better for them to have a 
place where they could worship on the Sabbath, 
and so be more under the influence of the 
priest than they now are. This would make it 
better for the people generally, relieving them 
oftentimes of much anxiety. It is unfortunate 
for any not to have a place of worship, because 
such are likely to become lawless and immoral ; 
especially is this true of the Catholics, since 
they are so dependent on their religious leaders 
for direction and instruction. 



CHAPTER V. 

MARLBOROUGH— (C(»i«t«w«Z). 
EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS. 

The early settlers of New England felt a 
deep interest in the cause of education. Their 
religion taught them that it is a duty to culti- 
vate mind and heart. They had realized the 
effects of ignorance and slavery of conscience 
in the mother-country. It would seem that 
they aimed to take advantage of the successes 
and failures of the past. Certainly, they would 
shun all (jbstacles possible. They did not be- 
lieve in aristocracy, but commonalty ; therefore 
they were not iij favor of educating the few to 
the neglect of the many. They soon found 
there was somethino; here in the new land, in 
the very air, light, soil and climate, congenial 
to their purpose. So they early built, not only 
the church, but the school-house ; they not only 
secured the minister, but the teacher. Here 
they opened the first public school of the world. 
It is true, classic Greece had produced eminent 
poets and philosophers ; sunny Italy had boasted 
of her arts and culture ; Spain had been noted 
for her institutions and libraries ; France had 
gloried in her arms and military exploits; Eng- 
land had established her Oxford and Cambridge 
Universities ; but it had been left for America 
to surpass them all in founding the common 
school. This means, educate the whole people. 
Accordingly, laws were made in the first legis- 
latures of our laud that every well child, after 
such an age, must be in school for so many 
months of each year, until he should become 
sixteen or eighteen yeai-s old. As our State was 
incorporated, this was one of its leading regu- 
lations, being extended to each town aud re- 
quiring the same, as it should become settled, 
to allot a portion of land to school purposes. 
This was true of Marlborough. However, it is 
not supposed there was any public school in town 
for the first few years of its settlement. The 
inhabitants were then too scattered for the chil- 
dren to assemble in one place for instruction ; 



250 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



but tradition assures us that they were taught 
privately in their homes. 

In 1770 the record shows that William 
Barker, Isaac McAllister and Riciiard Rob- 
berts were ciioseu a committee to expend the 
money accruing from the school land ; and 
it would seem several schools wer'e in operation 
the following winter in different parts of the 
town. These must have been kept in private 
houses, as no school-houses had then been built. 

In 1777 the town was divided into four dis- 
tricts, and the succeeding year it raised five 
hundred dollars for the support of schools ; 
and the same year, because of the increase of 
population, another division was made as to 
districts, and measures were taken for building 
a school-house iu each squadron, as it was 
called. Provision was made in case that any 
district should neglect its duty in this regard, 
the selectmen were to see that the work was 
done. 

In 1 794 tlie conditions of the town had so 
changed that it was found necessary to redis- 
trict the town again, making eight in all. 
Three of these afterwards were set off to Troy 
when it was incorporated. Some of these 
schools were now large. The northeast district 
numbered sixty and more scholars, whose 
brick school-house stood close by the Cofran 
place. It would be a curiosity now to look 
upon school-houses like those first ones in town. 
As our fathers described them, with the great, 
big fire-places, the long, flat benches, the awk- 
ward desks, when they had any, were they not 
quaint, indeed ? Their only ornamentations 
were those gashes and grotesque figures, the 
carvings of tiie boys, made when the master's 
back was towards them. What a striking con- 
trast these would make placed beside some of 
the elegant school buildings of the present day ! 
Then, those teachers, too, — men for the most 
part ; and they were men in avoirdupois 
surely, — with their ponderous rulers, moving 
about the school-rooms or going round the 
districts to board. There were as many classes 



as there were different students. How the 
boys would rush out of doors at recess and 
loiter back as the call was given by thumping 
ou the window ! But we may criticise those 
schools as much as we please; still, the scholars, 
for the most part, did learn to think, and did 
become noble men and women. 

From time to time the districts have been 
changed from necessity. After a portion of 
the town was set off to Troy and Roxbury 
there was a demand for eight districts, and for 
many years they were well supplied with chil- 
dren, and some of the rooms would be crowiled 
in tiie winter. But several of them now are 
left almost destitute of scholars. It would 
seem the district system has had its day, and 
that some new method is demanded to meet 
the wants of our people. As the money raised 
for the support of the schools is being expended, 
it is not accomplishing the good it should. 
The districts must be abandoned and the 
sciiools supported in the centres where tiie 
scholars are ; and those liviug at a distance 
must be provided with means by the town, so 
that such scholars can enjoy the same educa- 
tional advantages that others do. It is not so 
now. In the small districts, where there are 
onlv from four to ten children, thev cannot 
have good schools. In such there caunot be 
life enough to stimulate teacher and scholars. 

In the village the schools have been full, 
and often crowded, so that the seating capacity 
has frequently been increased. The old red 
school-house that stood near the Abner Boyden 
store used to be filled to overflowing some 
terms ; and when it was left for the new house, 
with its two rooms, which has been converted 
into the Congregational chapel, many felt that 
it was larger than what was demanded. But, 
at length, its rooms were crowded, and in 1874 
this house was left for a new and commodious 
one, which was built the same year costing, with 
the modern improvements, some eight thou- 
sand dollars. This school has aimed tti keep 
abreast of the times. Its present conveniences 



MARLBOROUGH. 



251 



affonl the means for classifying and grading 
from the primary to the high grammar school. 
As the district system shall be given up in town, 
the demand for a High School, which is some- 
wliat jjressing now, will be increased, and will 
be established, it is hoped, and right speedily, 
too. 

The town has received three legacies for the 
support of the schools, — one in 1828 from 
Abijah Tucker, of eighty dollars; another from 
Lydia AV. Wyman, in 1863, of five hundred 
dollars ; and another from Asahel Collins, in 
1883, of ten thousand dollars. 

Select schools have been taught in the village 
in the fall, until recently, for many years. 
These have been of a high order for the most 
j)art. They have been under the direction of ex- 
perienced teachers. \yho of his old scholars does 
not recall with pleasure the name of Luther 
Norris, who was so tall and so scholarly, and 
who departed this life so unexpectedly ? Who 
that was so fortunate as to be under the tuition 
of Samuel Blanchard, A.B., does not think of 
him with grateful feelings? Then there were 
James B. Lane, A.B., Ransom N. Porter, M.D., 
S. H. McCollester, A.M., Charles F. Kings- 
bury, A.M., Rev. C. E. Houghton, B.D., and 
others, who excelled as teachers. These schools 
were well attended. They numbered all the 
way from forty to a hundred scholars, many of 
whom have since become eminent in profes- 
sional life. Perhaps the most noted is Professor 
A. E. Dolbeare, of Tufts College, who ranks 
among the first scientists of Ameri(a. Then 
there are Andrew C. Stone, B.L., a successful 
lawyer ; Joseph C. Shattuck, a superintendent 
of schools in Colorado ; Daniel Woodward, 
M.D., and J. Q. A. McCollester, A.M., M.D., 
prosperous physicians. Ellen and Eliza Stone, 
Maria and Julia N. Wakefield, Harriet Hol- 
man and others, became famous teachers. 

The teachers who were natives of IVIarl- 
borough are many. Could they all be mar- 
shaled together, they would form quite an 
army — not to move onward with the pride and 



pomp of war, banners flying, martial strains 
resounding, guns cracking, cannon roaring, the 
victors shouting aloud and the conquered cry- 
ing for mercy. Not thus with this force. Their 
progress could not be compared to the march 
of warriors, but to an advance far more bril- 
liant in its triumphs, and to laurels more im- 
perishable. They would struggle mostly to 
develop thought, inspire joy and grow love for 
order and improvement. The ancient Persians, 
in educating the young, aimed at a fondness for 
valor ; the Athenians, at a love for the fine 
arts; the Spartans, at physical endurance; but 
these would aim at an education vastlv more 
comprehensive — the development of the whole 
being. Their calling would be one of con- 
tinuous sacrifice. They would not be moved 
by a love of ease, nor of wealth, for their 
chosen calling proffers no such rewards. The 
best teachers have never been remunerated as 
are the cashiers in our banks, or the leadinar 
clerks in our mercantile establishments. Now, 
none can feel for a moment that a higher order 
of talent and culture is required to manage 
trade and stocks than is demanded to educate 
the young. The true teacher's vocation is high 
and holy. His fame is worthy to go down 
through the ages. His \vork will be beautiful 
when the statues of Phidias and the pictures of 
Raphael shall have passed into dust. 

It would be pleasant to hold up to view 
each one of all this host, were it possible. But 
for want of space and time we can at most 
scan but a few. One of the vetei-ans is Colonel 
Cyrus Frost, who is still living, but has passed 
somewhat beyond four-score years. In his 
day he was classed among the best teachers. 
He taught a portion of the time for twenty 
years. Though he lived in the age of the 
birch and the ferule, still he was not wont to 
use them ; yet, he was successful in teaching 
the most difficult schools. The secret is, he 
was master of himself and loved teaching, and 
the unruly boys soon discovered this, and there- 
fore feared to " cut up," but became inspired 



252 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



with his spirit. Such a teacher works for im- 
mortality. 

Jairus Collins, Esq., ranked among the best. 
He began to teach in 1835, and taught nearly 
fifty terms. He was a stirring teacher, that 
found no time to sit in the school-room. He 
was apt to teach and to govern. He kept his 
scIkwIs too busy in study and thinking to have 
much time for play. It is a question if his 
scholars ever doubted for a moment, while un- 
der his charge that he was master, or even 
dreamed of carrying him out of doors, as was 
frequently the custom to do with some teachers. 
He was verily the master of the situation when 
in the school, and bound to fulfill his duty. 

Henry Clay Tenney, Esq., made himself 
prominent as a teacher. He was winning in 
his manners and gifted in imparting his thought, 
and natural to control. He was no repeater or 
machine in the school-room, but was truly a 
conveyer of luiowledge. He taught, not only 
in our common but higher schools, with great 
.success. 

John Q. A. McCollester, M.D., taught school 
for several years in i)ublic schools and in 
academies, proving that he was a teacher of 
" the manor born." His schools, like freighted 
cars, run still. He did not practice rushing the 
precocious and neglecting the dull scholars. 
He seemed to be aware that Bristol dia- 
monds are bright and pointed by nature, and 
yet are liable to be soft and worthless ; while 
those of India are naturally rough and hard, 
but become brilliants by abrading and polish- 
ing. Somewhat so he appeared to look upon 
his scholars, and treated them impartially. 

Joseph C. Mason, Esq., has devoted himself 
mostly to the work of education. The West 
has been his field of labor, where he has won 
bright laurels as a teacher. He has served as 
superintendent of public schools in Missouri 
for several terms. 

Professor Joseph C. Shattuck has won his 
way to eminence as a pedagogue in C'ulorado. 
From the school-room he has advanced to a 



popular and efficient superintendent of public 
schools in his adopted State. He evidently 
has come to understand teaching and teachers, 
judging from his addresses before institutes 
and from his annual reports. 

Hannah Jones, a graduate from Mount Hol- 
yoke Seminary, followed teaching in this town 
and afterwards in Ohio for years. She strove 
to fit herself thoroughly for her work, and so 
long as she taught, it is said, she did not allow 
herself to go before her classes without special 
preparation. She reminds us of the • gifted 
Arnold, who was asked why he always looked 
over those branches that he had taught for 
years before going into recitation. He replied 
that " he wanted his pupils to draw from a 
running stream and not from a stagnant pool." 

Miss Ellen Herrick taught for years in dif- 
ferent parts of the West, developing tact and 
fitness for instructing the young. She was 
quiet in her work, but her teaching told. It 
cannot be explained just how the sunlight 
colors the rose and paints the star, but it is 
done, and quietly too; thus it is with some 
teachers: they are still in their operations, but 
they accomplish great results. Miss Herrick 
comes under this class. 

]\Iiss Maria Wakefield has honored the 
teacher's profession with years of faithful ser- 
vice in the school-room. She believed in ren- 
dering her school sunny and pleasant ; so 
she, like Speusippus of old, adorned it with 
the pictures of joy and hope, niakir.g it attrac- 
tive and beautiful. To her, education embraced 
a sreat deal : so she wanted to do all she could 
to allure the young onward and upward in the 
paths of knowledge She would have the 
school-room, if she could have her way, the 
pleasantest place possible. 

Miss Harriet C. Holman was truly successful 
as a teacher of primary scholars. Somehow 
she was drawn to children and they to her. It 
was interesting: to witness her in the midst of 
fifty or sixty bright-eyed boys and girls. If in 
school-hours, they would be busy on their seats 






MARLBOROUGH. 



253 



or active on the floor ; or if at recess, or wlien 
the school was not keeping, tliey were sure to 
be about her, having a happy time. The chil- 
dren were certain to love their school and make 
good progress in tlieir studies. 

Miss Ellen R. Stone has been devoting her 
whole time to teaching for a quarter of a cen- 
tury in different parts of New England. She 
lias taught fourteen years in one school in 
Boston, where she is now teaching She is a 
born teacher. As the sculptor can see his beau- 
ideal in the rough block of marble, so she be- 
holds in every child an immortal mind to be 
developed, and is skilled in bringing it out 
on the part of all who come under her 
charge. She is acquainted with the elementary 
and higher branches of learning ; so she has 
resources for illustrating and making plain 
her instruction. She has not sought schools, 
but they have sought her. She does not 
become rusty because she studies to keep up 
with the times; yea, ahead of them. Such 
teachers do not grow old, at least in feel- 
ing. She never uses the scholars' minds as 
mere mills in which to grind out so many books 
each term, but is sure to teach her pupils to 
think. She can never be accused of sticking to 
the text-book in recitation, or of asking leading- 
questions. She may be now classed as a model 
teacher. 

Miss Eliza A. Stone wrought in the teacher's 
vocation for several years with striking success. 
She became an adept in the school-room. She 
strove to follow nature, realizing that while she 
has supplied the world with but a bushel of 
diamonds, she has furnished whole mountains 
of iron ; so she would give most abundantly of 
those things which the young need and can use. 

Really, there is no higher calling than that of 
the teacher. All honor to all who have served 
our town in this capacity ! May their names be 
so enshrined in hearts as to live when the 
granite of our hills shall have passed away ! 

Now, if we would have our town prosper, we 
must cherish our schools. If we would show 



ourselves Christians and patriots, we must sus- 
tain and bless them. If they are not what we 
would have them, we must not find fault with 
them and then remain inactive, but we should 
set ourselves to work to remove the evils. The 
prosperity of our schools depends upon indi- 
vidual and united efforts. If we would sup- 
plant the failures with successes ; if we would 
have moral, mental and physical culture char- 
acteristic of every school-room, and the dis- 
tinguishing features of every scholar in our 
schools, we nuist foster and improve them. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MARLBOROUGH— (C'jn<tHHfd.) 
PHYSICIAKS. 

The first physician to settle within the limits 
of Marlborough was Dr. Justus Perry. Of 
the early life of Dr. Perry but little is 
known beyond the fact that he was a native of 
Barre, Mass., and studied medicine with Dr. 
Stephen Batchcller, Sr., of Royalston. He 
settled in Marlborough in 1786 ; and, possess- 
ing rare natural and acquired ability, he soon 
gained the reputation of a skillful physician, 
and for a few years did an extensive business. 
Unfortunately, however, he acquired the habit 
of using ardent spirits, which so increased as to 
disqualify him for the practice of his profes- 
sion. In 1796 he removed to the south part of 
the town and located in what is now the village 
of Troy. That his usefulness might not be 
lost to his fellow-men, an effort was made to re- 
claim him. He was induced to sign a temper- 
ance pledge and obligated himself to abstain 
from the use of all intoxicating drinks for one 
year. This pledge he faithfully kept ; but, at 
the expiration of that time, he relapsed into his 
former dissipated habits, and, losing his prac- 
tice, returned the following jearto the centre of 
the town, where he died in 1800. 

Dr. Kendall Bruce was a native of 
Marlborough, Mass. He was in this town as 



254 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



a practicing physician as early as 1793. He 
remained liere hut a few years, and then re- 
moved to Washington, tliis State, where lie con- 
tinued his profession for several years; then went 
to Peterborough, and from thence to Calais, Vt., 
where he died January 12, 1832. 

Dr. David Caijter was the next physician. 
He was a pupil of the celebrated Dr. Carter, of 
Lancaster, and came to Marlborough soon after 
the completion of his studies, in 17*J5. He was 
contemporary with the late Dr. Amos Twitchell, 
of Keene, and always remained on intimate 
terms with him. It was in this town, and in 
company witii Dr. Carter, that Dr. Twitchell 
first commenced the practice of medicine. In 
his )>rofession Dr. Carter reached no inconsid- 
erable eminence ; his practice extended much 
into' adjacent towns and somewhat into places 
more remote. He removed to Peterborough in 
1812, and from there to Dublin in 1820, where 
he died January 9, 1828. 

Dr. Carter was succeeded by Dr. Epln-aim 
K. Frost, who commenced practice here soon 
after the removal of Carter from the town, in 
1812. Dr. Frost was a native of Jaffrey. His 
early education was obtained in a school of 
three months each year ; later, from a cour.se in 
Dartmouth C-ollege. He studied medicine with 
Dr. Carter, paying his way by teaching school. 
He remained in practice here some six years and 
then removed to Swanzey. He afterwards em- 
igrated to Lincoln, Neb., where he died in 
1871. 

Dr. James Batcheller was born in Roy- 
alston, Mass., June 5, 1791. He was the son 
of Dr. Stephen Batcheller, the first physician of 
that town, who established himself there in 
1768, and continued in practice until his death, 
in 1829, at the age of eighty-three. Dr. James 
Batcheller spent his youthful days in his native 
town ; attended schools and academies ; then 
taught school two years in Pennsylvania. On 
his return he studied his profession with an elder 
brother. Dr. Stephen Batcheller, Jr., and after- 
ward attended medical lectures at Dartmouth, and 



took his degree of M.D. In May, 1818, he 
came to Marlborough by invitation from Rev. 
Halloway Fish, and established himself as a 
practicing physician. He was very social and 
was generally liked by the people as a man and 
physician ; was possessed of moi-e than ordinary 
ability and was frequently called out of town 
for consultation. So extensive was his prac- 
tice that it required the services of three horses 
to enable him to visit his numerous patients. 
As a physician he ranked high, as is evident 
fi-om tlie fact that he was honored for some 
time with the presidency of the New Hampshire 
Medical Society. 

Dr. Batcheller was widely known as a poli- 
tician. He was chosen Representative and 
Senator to the General Court of New Hamp- 
shire ; was also elected counselor, and performed 
the duties of each with honor to himself and 
benefit to his constituents. He was also a dele- 
gate to the convention to revise the Constitution 
of New Hampshire in 1850-51. He was no 
timid advocate of the cause of emancipation of 
the slave, and this, too, when it required strong 
nerves to stem the large majorities against him. 

At a meeting in Concord, for the purpose of 
discussing the anti-slavery- question. Dr. Batch- 
eller and Genei'al Franklin Pierce (afterwards 
President of the United States) were pitted 
again.st each other. So well did the doctor ar- 
gue his side of the question, that he convinced 
his opponent, and, as they came out of the 
meeting. Pierce slapped him on the shoulder 
and said, "Doctor, you are right; but the time 
has not come yet." 

He was also a zealous advocate of the cause 
of temjjcrance, and was one of the first to pro- 
claim the doctrine of total abstinence. 

After a residence of some thirty -seven years 
in Marlborough he removed to Fitzwilliam, to 
be near his sons, who had previously established 
themselves in business there. He obeyed some 
calls for about a year, when, his health suddenly 
failing, he gave up practice altogether. From 
that time he continued to become more and 



MARLBOROUGH. 



255 



more feeble in body aud mind, and at length, 
helpless as an infant, gave up life without a 
struggle. Although he was not a college gradu- 
ate, he was well educated. He was quick in 
motion, rapid in speech and of untiring energy. 
He read much, thought much and continued 
to gain as well as impart knowledge. He 
was a man in the noblest sense of the term, a 
pleasant companion, true friend, good neigh- 
bor ; and it may be truly said of him that the 
world was better for his having lived in it. 

Samuel A. Richardson was born in Dub- 
lin December 2.'5, 1830. He was the youngest 
of four children, and the only son of Abijah 
and j\Iary (Hay) Richardson. His parents 
were of the old Dublin stock,— a little austere 
in manner, perhaps, as was the fashion of the 
time, but good types of those sturdy virtues, 
such as honesty, piety, industry and thrift, 
which characterized a former generation in that 
mountain-town. His early life was spent on 
his father's farm, assisting in its duties and la- 
bor, as was usual with farmers' boys of the 
period. The common schools of Dublin at that 
time were equal, if not superior, to any in 
Cheshire County, and the early education and 
training of the son were mostly gained in the 
somewhat famous School District No. 2, which 
h;is produced many young men who have made 
their mark in the various walks of life. The 
Rev. Dr. Leonard, who was singularly uner- 
ring in his estimates of young men, early 
marked him as a boy of promise, and one who 
would some day be heard from in the battle of 
life. The good doctor was wont, in his old 
age, to enumerate the scores of Dublin young 
men who had fulfilled the promise of their 
youth and his own prophecy of success, and 
" Dr. Sam" was always mentioned among the 
number. 

As young Richardson approadhed manhood 
he supplemented his common-school education 
with such higher advantages as could be ob- 
tained at the Hancock Literary and Scientific 
Institute, an institution quite flourishing in 



those days, and the Normal Institute, at 
Reed's Ferry. Beyond this, we are not aware 
that he enjoyed the benefit of any special school 
training before commencing the study of that 
profession to which he has devoted his life. He 
early conceived the idea of a medical education, 
and in the intervals of fiirm-work bent his mind 
and studies in this direction. He was obliged 
to rely almost entirely upon his own resources 
and earnings ; and we find him making the first 
decided move in this direction by attending a 
course of medical lectures at Philadelphia, in 
]852. The following spring (1853) ho entered 
his name as a student in the office of Albert 
Smith, M.D., LL.D., of Peterborough, at that 
time among the most eminent professors and 
medical teachers in the State. He attended a 
course of medical lectures at the Woodstock 
(Vt.) Medical College in 1855. In July, 1855, 
he located as a physician in Marlborough, 
taking the place of Dr. James Batcheller. He 
quickly gained the esteem and confidence of the 
people and a fair share of the business. Not 
content, however, with his medical acquire- 
ments, in the spring of 1856, Dr. Richardson 
secured another physician to till his place tem- 
porarily, and attended still another course of 
lectures at Aliiany, N. Y., receiving from that 
college the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He 
also spent some time as resident physician at the 
Albany County Almshouse Hospital. The six 
following years were busy ones to him. Having 
returned to Marlborough, he entered upon the 
full tide of a very extensive and successful prac- 
tice. His skill and good judgment were early 
recognized, and he was soon called to [)ractice 
more or less in all the adjoining towns. In ad- 
dition to the arduous duties of his profession, 
he identified himself to a considerable extent 
with the manufacturing interests of the town. 

In 1862, when the cloud of civil war dark- 
ened our horizon. Dr. Richardson offered his 
services to his country, and, in September of 
that year, was appointed assistant surgeon of the 
Thirteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volun- 



256 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



teers, of which Aaron F. Stevens (afterwards 
general) was colonel, and George B. Twitchell, 
M.D., of Keene, was surgeon. Under date of 
September 9, 1878, General Stevens says: "I 
desire to reaffirm now whatever you may find 
in my army reports favorable to Dr. Richard- 
son, or in appreciation of his talents, industry 
and professional accomplishments, his kindness 
of heart, and ever prompt discharge of his du- 
ties in camp, field or hospital. He was a man 
of superior talent and extraordinary resources, 
admirably adapted to public professional ser- 
vice, as well by his force of character and 
power of organization as from his professional 
knowledge and accomplishments." 

Samuel J. Martin, son of Jefferson and 
Rhoda (Davis) Martin, was born in Weston, 
Windham County, Vt., September 9, 1830. 
When three years of age his parents removed to 
Mount Holly, Rutland County, Vt., where he 
received his early education, dividing his time 
between his studies and farm-work. Previous 
to his seventeenth year his help was much need- 
ed at home, and he consequently had limited ad- 
vantages for study. At this time, however, he 
entered Black River Academy, at Ludlow, Vt., 
and spent two terms each year during two years, 
and for the next four years studied at the same 
place during one term of each. His studies 
during this time were confined to the English 
bninches ; but he afterwards spent two terms 
at Chester Academy, and there pursued the 
study of Latin with other higher branches, 
earning money to defray his expenses by teach- 
ing penmanship and day-school. After leaving 
school he eno-aged in teachino;, and continued it 
with the exception of one year — when he was 
in poor health — until his twenty-eighth year. 

He early developed a taste for the medical 
profession, but in his desire to enter it was op- 
posed by his father, who jJreferred that he 
should become a farmer. Accordingly, at the 
age of twenty-eight, he yielded to his father's 
wishes and purchased a farm with money a part 
of which he had earned by teaching. At the 



end of one year, becoming dissatisfied with farm- 
ing, he began the study of medicine at home 
under the direction of A. E. Horton, M.D., of 
Mount Holly. One year later he sold his farm 
and gave his entire attention to his studies, and, 
after three years' study and taking two full 
courses of lectures, graduated from the Eclectic 
Medical College of Philadelphia. He began 
his practice in February, 18(33, at Marlborough, 
and remained there until April, 1866, doing a 
successful practice, and at that time removed to 
Walpole, N. H., and there, in addition to his 
practice, opened a drug-store with another gen- 
tleman, who managed the latter business, while 
he devoted himself chiefly to his profession. 
At the end of eighteen months, having lost 
everything, he closed out his interest in the 
drug-store and gave himself unremittingly to 
his studies and practice. 

The force of circumstances induced him to 
investigate the suljject of homoeopathy, and, at 
the end of one year's observation and careful 
thought, he embraced the principles of that 
school. Not having recovered from his failure 
in the drug business, and desiring a larger field 
of action, he removed to the West in 1869. 
After spending four months looking for a place 
to settle, he established himself nt Racine. Wis., 
where he has since resided, building up an ex- 
tensive practice and making for himself a most 
worthy reputation as a skillful practitioner. 

During iiis residence in Marlborough he was 
elected superintendent of public schools. He 
has filled the office two terms as vice-president 
and one term as president of the Homoeopathic 
Medical Society of the State of Wisconsin. 
He is also a member of the American Institute 
of Homoeopathy and the Illinois Homoeopathic 
Medical Association. 

Dr. Martin has given much attention to self- 
culture and by extensive reading and observa- 
tioH has acquired that knowledge of men and 
things which, with his excellent conversational 
powers, renders him a most agreeable and so- 
cial companion. This is but a brief outline of 



MARLBOROUGH. 



257 



the life aud history of one who, though having 
many experiences In common witli others, has 
yet given an example of continued effort and 
will-power that entitles him to an honorable 
mention in these pages. 

Dr. GEoRfiE L. Haerixgtox, son of Leon- 
ard B. and Eunice G. Harrington, wa.s born in 
Winchcndon, Mass., November 11, 1844. In 
his childhood and youth he was quiet and un- 
assuming, yet always thoughtful, fond of his 
books and anxious to gain knowledge. Hav- 
ing made the most possible out of his public- 
school and academic privileges, he became a 
medical student in the ofBce of Professor AVal- 
ter Carpenter, of Burlington, Vt. Here he 
enjoyed peculiar advantages under the instruc- 
tion of a wise and experienced teacher. Indue 
time he entered the Medical Department of the 
Vermont University and graduated iu course 
M.D. 

In the winter of 1872 he settled in Marl- 
borough as a physician. Naturally enough, for 
the first two years he did not have a great run 
of practice. However, it became evident to 
those who early employed him that he was no 
quack, but one determined to establish himself 
in the confidence of the people by his works; 
and so gi-adually he grew into public favor, all 
the while extending his professional work. 
Long since it became extensively known that, 
if he is not a mau of many words, he is a man 
of second thought, keen discernment and sound 
judgment. He never has been known to praise 
himself or tell of wonderful cures and almost 
miraculous deeds wrought by his skill. Per- 
haps he has been too reserved and reticent at 
times for his own good and highest success. 
In the long run, no doubt, he will lose nothing 
from such a constitutional habit. The wise Soc- 
rates said he never had regretted keeping si- 
lence, but had often sorrowed for much speak- 
ing. From the fact he is an M.D., it is plain 
he does not think he knows it all, for he spends 
much time among his books and finds it a neces- 
sity to acquaint himself with the latest journals 



and modern works of his profession. In the 
sick-room he is affable and naturally adapts 
himself at once to the situation of things. He 
seems to possess a ready faculty of reading dis- 
ease, and a willingness, in case he fails of its 
diagnosis in any particular instance, to acknowl- 
edge his lack of comprehending it. Such frank- 
ness is a virtue, and most commendable, espe- 
cially in a physician. So the sick under his 
charge can scarcely fail of trusting and confid- 
ing iu him as a medical adviser. In not a few 
cases he has proved himself a skillful and cul- 
tured physician. Already he has won a good 
field of practice, and certainly his future is 
more promising than the present or the past. 
He has proved himself a useful citizen and a 
Christian gentleman. With truth it may be 
said of him that he is a true friend to the sick 
and a well-wisher to all in health. 

Dr. Nathaniel H. Merriam was born in 
Chelsea, Mass., October 24, 1854, but his 
father's family soou removed to Lexington, 
Mass., whore they now reside. He graduated 
at Philips Academy, Andover, in 1874, and 
entered Amherst College in the class of 1878. 
His college course was interrupted by sickness, 
which became so persistent that he was obliged 
to abandon his graduation and remain at home 
for a considerable period. At the famous cele- 
bration of the centennial of the battle of Lex- 
ington, in 1875, he was on the staff of Colonel 
W. A. Tower, chief marshal of escort for Pres- 
ident U. S. Grant. At an early age he chose 
the profession of his late uncle. Dr. Nathaniel 
W. INIcrriam, of IMaryland, and began his studies 
with the late Dr. Currier, a physician of note 
in Lexington. In 187(5 he traveled in Great 
Britain and the Continent, returning with im- 
proved health ; attended lectures at Massachu- 
setts General Hospital, Harvard University. 
In 1878 he entered Dartmouth ]\Iedieal Col- 
lege, where his abilities attracted attention, and 
he was appointed assistant to the chair of sur- 
gery, then occupied by Professor P. S. Conner, 
of Cincinnati, graduating in 1880. He married 



258 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Miss E. L. Cottrell, daughter of Asa Cottrell, 
Esq., of Ijexington, and entered into active 
practice in Marlborough, N. H., in 1880. He 
is a member of tlie New Hampshire State Medi- 
cal Association, and served as delegate from 
that society to the American Medical Associa- 
tion, at Washington, in 1884, and is a member 
of that l)()dy. He enjoys a large and successful 
practice in Marlborough, especially in surgery, 
to which he is enthusiastically devoted. 



CHAPTER VII. 

M AELnOROUG H— ( CotHiuued). 
INDUSTRIES OF THE TOWN. 

For many years after the settlement of the 
towuship the excellent water-power afforded 
by the numerous streams running through the 
town was considered of little value, beyijnd 
what was used for the sawing of lumber and 
the grinding of grain. In Chapter II. allusion 
M'as made to the first saw-mill, built by Daniel 
Harrington, and the first two grist-mills, built 
by Joseph Collins and Abijah Tucker. Both 
of these had a saw-mill connected with them, 
thus rendering it comparatively ea.sy for the 
settlers to obtain lumber for building purposes. 
The one built by Joseph Collins was sold by 
him, in 1771, to his brother-in-law, James 
Lewis, after which we hear no more of this 
mill, and it probably remained in existence 
only a few years. Mr. Tucker continued to 
carry on his mill until the infirmities of age 
compelled him to give up labor, after wdiich 
he let the mill for several years to different 
parties. His mill-dam was the first obstruction 
placed across the river ; and at that time it was 
no unusual sight, in the spring of the year, to 
see shad below the dam, which had run up 
from the Connecticut River. 

About 1826 this mill came into the posses- 
sion of Charles Holman, who for many years 
carried on an extensive lumber business. In 



1837, Mr. Holman erected the stone mill, 
which he continued to occupy until old age 
rendered him unfit for labor, and the mill then 
came into the possession of his sons-in-law, 
Messrs. Thurston & AVilkinson. In 18 — they 
built an addition to the mill, and put in ma- 
chinery for the manufacture of nailed and dove- 
tailed boxes and trunk-cleats. 

There was also a saw-mill built at an early 
date by Benjamin Tucker and his sons, a little 
below the outlet of Meeting-House Pond, on 
the site of the Whitney & Tarbell Mill, so 
called. A native poet of that day, whose rhym- 
ing gives evidence of considerable inventive 
genius, notices this mill in the following verse : 

"Tucker's boys built a mill, 
Half the time it did stand still ; 
When it went it made a noise ; 
Because it was built by Tucker's boys." 

The present mill was erected by William C. 
Mason and Nathaniel Tottenham in 1840, who 
intended to saw out chaiixstock; but, failing in 
their design, the mill was left in an unfinished 
state till 1845, when it was purchased by Amos 
A. Mason and Charles R. Bemis, who finished 
the mill and commenced the manufacture of 
cane-seat chair-frames. In 184(3, Mr. Bemis 
sold his interest in the business to Mr. ISIason, 
who carried it on for several years. He was 
succeeded by diilerent parties, each of whom 
remained but a short time, and about the year 
1850 it came into the possession of Charles D. 
Tarbell and Jared I. Whitney, who for several 
years carried on an extensive lumber business 
in connection with the manufacture of chair-seat 
frames. In 1866, Mr. Tarbell sold his intere.st 
in the mill to Mr. Whitney, who continued the 
business some two or three years, and then sold 
to Mortimer M. Stowe. The mill is now in 
the possession of Amos A. Mason, and occupied 
by Miles Cudworth as a stave-mill. 

William Tenney, Sr., built a saw-mill, prob- 
ably about 1780, on the Baker Brook, about 
half-way between the bridge and the saw-mill 
since owned by Miles Cudworth. The latter 



MARLBOROUGH. 



259 



mill was Ijiiilt hy Riifus Brooks some twenty 
years since. In 1867 he sold to Francis L. 
Mason, who nsed it as a saw-mill and also for 
tlie manufacture of clothes-pins. After the 
death of Mr. Mason, Miles Cud worth purchased 
the mill, and used it for the purpose of getting 
out pail-staves until it was hurned, December 
3, 1877. 

There was a saw-mill on the Roaring Brook, 
in Roxhury, which is supposed to have been 
built by Bart Grimes. We have no account of 
the building of this mill ; but it must have been 
previous to 1800. This was afterwards owned 
by Esq. Holman. 

A saw-mill was erected by Jesse Hunting at 
the outlet of Cummings' Pond about 1800. It 
is said, when Mr. Hunting was building this 
mill, that old Mr. Tayntor (father of Jedediah), 
passing near the spot on his way through the 
woods, remarked to Mr. Hunting, " This is an 
excellent plase to build a mill, but where is 
your water?" This meaning will be readily 
understood by all who are acquainted with the 
surroundings. 

About 1805, John Wiswall, Sr., built a saw- 
mill on the river, near what is now called the 
" Day Bridge." This, however, was washed 
away in a few years, and never rebuilt. 

About this time a mill was erected on the 
Marlborough Brook, upon the site of the old 
Harrington mill. This was owned by Jonathan 
Whipple, who probably sold it to Joseph Wel- 
lington. When the latter left town it came into 
the j)ossession of Captain John Lane, who con- 
tinued to own and occupy it until the great 
freshet of 182G, when it was carried away. 

Samuel Collins built a mill (probably a saw 
and grist-mill) at an early date on the site of 
the lower mill of the Marlborough Manufactur- 
ing Company. In 1803 this was owned by 
Daniel Fisk, who converted a part of it into a 
fulling-mill. In 1807 it was purchased by 
Ebenezer Hill, who did considerable business 
at dressing cloth. He remained here eight 
years, and then sold to John B. Farrar, who 



continued the business for several years, and 
then sold to Gilmau & Nelson Converse, who 
used it as a lumber-mill. They also engaged 
in the manufacture of powder-kegs. In 1834 
the building was destroyed by fire, and some 
time after the privilege passed into the hands of 
Asa Greenwood, who erected the main building, 
now standing, and engaged in the lumber busi- 
ness. 

Of the mills erected in the south part of the 
town, now within the limits of Troy, we can say 
but little beyond the fact that there was a grist- 
mill built by Phinehas Farrar, in 1784, a few 
rods above the Forestall mill. This was after- 
wards owned by Daniel Gould. Alexander 
Parkman also built a fulling-mill iu that part 
of the town about 1778. 

Jacob Osborne is believed to have been the 
first to erect a saw-mill on the privilege now oc- 
cupied by Levi A. Fuller. As this was a part 
of the tavern property, it was bought and sold 
in rajiid succession for many years. Mr. Fuller, 
the present owner, purchased it of his father in 
November, 1863. In the spring of 1872 thig 
mill was destroyed by fire. Mr. Fuller imme 
diatcly erected a neat and substantial liuilding, 
and is at present engaged in the manufacture of 
bail-boxes, pail-staves and coarse lumber. 

Some years since a mill was erecteil on the 
stream, a few rods below the above-mentioneil 
Fuller mill, by Isaac Fuller, and was used for 
the manufacture of various kinds of wooden- 
ware. Osgood J. Bemis succeeded Mr. Fuller, 
and for several years manufactured pail-handles 
to some extent. In the fall of 1871 he lost the 
mill by fire, and built the present structure, 
which is now occupied by Levi A. Fuller, in 
connection with his other mill. 

In 1837, James Hobart built a saw and stave- 
mill on the Baker Brook, which was the one 
since owned by Aaron Mason. Hobart car- 
ried on the business for a short time ; but, not 
making it profitable, it passed into the hands of 
Mr. Masou, who retained possession of it until 
the destruction of the dam by the freshet of 



260 



HISTOEY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1869. The dam was never rebuilt, and the 
property soon passed into other hands. A part 
of the mill was taken down and the remainder 
converted into a barn. 

Some time previous to 1800, Samuel Collins 
built a grist-mill at what is now called " Marl- 
borough Glen." This was in use by Mr. Col- 
lins and his sons until 1830, at which time, 
being somewhat out of repair, it M'as deserted, 
and the same year Joseph Collins built the mill 
now owned by Osgood R. Wiswall, which he 
used as a grist-mill for a few years, and then, 
selling to George Harvey, removed farther 
down the river, and about the year 1840 com- 
menced to erect the one now owned by the late 
Barton Blodgett. Before it was completed Mr. 
Collins died, and the mill soon after came into 
the possession of Still man Buss, under whose 
skillful management it soon won the name of 
being the best flouring-mill in Cheshire County, 
and was extensively patronized, not only by the 
people of the adjoining towns, but by those 
from a distance of more than twenty miles 
around, and so famous did this mill become 
that Mr. Buss was obliged, during a part of the 
time, to run it night and day. In 1861, Jede- 
diah T. Collins purchased an interest in the 
mill, which was carried on under the firm-name 
of Buss & Collins. After the death of Mr. 
Buss, Barton Blodgett bought one-half of the 
mill, and continued in company with Mr. Col- 
lins for several years, when he purchased of 
Mr. Collins his share, and continued to run it 
until his death. It is now owned by D. R. & 
F. A. Cole. 

Eliphalet Stone erected a fulling-mill at the 
outlet of Stone Pond, on the site of the present 
saw-mill, at an early date. This was jJi'obably 
the first mill for dressing cloth within the limits 
of this town. Mr. Stone divided his time be- 
tween the farm and mill for many years, 
until, meeting with some reverses, he tlivided 
his property between his sons, Calvin 
and Shubael ; and Calvin, taking the mill, 
resumed the business of dressing cloth. He 



removed the old fulling-mill to the oppo- 
site side of the road and converted it into a 
dwelling-house for his father ; Ijuilt a saw-mill 
in place of it, and also a new fulling-mill a few 
rods below. Calvin Stone, Jr., with his brother 
Solon, succeeded their father in the business, 
and during their occupancy the fulling-mill was 
burned, and the present building erected. Sev- 
eral different kinds of wooden-ware have been 
manufactured here by different parties, such as 
clothes-pins, pail-handles, staves, etc., but at 
present little business is done. 

Josiah Fish Iniilt the mill now owned by 
James Townsend in 1813. This was used by 
him for a fulling-mill. He was succeeded by 
Calvin Page, who carried on the business suc- 
cessfully for several years. He also had a ma- 
chine for carding wool into rolls for the accom- 
modation of those who could spin. In 1837, 
James Townsend purchased the mill and com- 
menced the manufacture of woolen yarn, which 
business he has prosecuted with success to the 
present time. He also makes hose, knit-jackets, 
sheep's-gray cloth, etc., and his goods are some 
of the best found in market. 

Pails. — Pails were first made in this town 
by Robert Carpenter, who commenced the busi- 
ness in the mill now owned bv Osgood R. Wis- 
wall. The pail-lathe used by Mr. Carpenter 
was but a rude affair, compared with those in 
use at present. It would now be considered a 
slow and tedious job to match the staves by 
hand and drive the hoops with a hand-driver ; 
but, thanks to the inventive genius of the 
Yankee, these obstacles have been overcome 
and the facilities for manufacturing pails greatly 
increased. Mr. Car^jenter remained here but a 
short time, and then, in company with Charles 
Cooledge, commenced pail-making where N. 
Winche's pail-shop now stands a building hav- 
ing been erected for that purpose by Calvin 
Page, who then owned the privilege. Jedediah 
T. Collins and others continued the pail busi- 
ness at the Collins mill till 1836, when it came 
into the possession of George Harvey, who car- 



MARLBOROUGH. 



261 



rit'il oil the business for seven years. During 
tliis time he built the house now owned by the 
lieirs of Luther Smitii. In 1843 he traded the 
house and mill to his brother James, taking in 
exchange the farm on whioii he now resides. 
The business was continued by James Harvey 
some two years ; but uot being successful, and 
becoming somewhat involved in debt, the prop- 
erty passed into other hands. Car]3enter & 
C'ooledge carried on tlie business at the Page 
mill until 18.32, when the firm was dissolved, 
Mr. Carpenter going to Orange, Mass., where 
he again entered into the pail business on a 
more extensive scale. Mr. Cooledge returned 
to Troy and set up the same business, which he 
carried on for several years. Joseph Cum- 
niings now hired the Page mill and manufac- 
tured ]iails until April, 1834, when it was 
burned. The shop now owned by Nathan Wiuch 
was erected by Charles Gilbert and Cyrus 
Frost, who manufactured chairs there for sev- 
eral years. In 1837, Frost sold his share of 
the mill to George Holman. About this time 
they commenced the manufacture of pails. 
Silas Collester and Simeon Whitcomb soon 
after purchased an interest in the business, and 
Mr. Gilbert retired. Mr. Holman soon sold to 
his partners, who continued the business until 
1852, when they sold to Nathan Winch, who 
is still the proprietor. In 1837, Asa Bemis 
built a saw-mill on the South Branch, in con- 
nection with which the following year he com- 
menced to make pails. He continued in this busi- 
ness until the infirmities of age rendered him 
unfit for labor, when he sold his business to 
Amasa Fuller, Jr., who is the present owner. 
Pails were quite extensively manufactured at 
the brick mill now owned by the Marlborough 
Manufacturing Company. This was built in 
1835, by G. & N. Converse, for a pail-factory. 
It soon passed into the hands of Asa Green- 
wood. He, in a short time, sold to Robert 
Carpenter, who, in a few years, was succeeded 
by Nelson Howe ; and the business was success- 
fully conducted by him until 1859, when it was 



purchased by George Thacher, who continued the 
manufacture of pails till 1806, when he sold to 
Croodhue Tenney and Chai-les O. Whitney, who, 
in a short time, in connection with others, organ- 
ized as the IMarlborough Manufaeturino; Com- 
pany. William Tenney commenced the pail and 
tub business in this town in 1 853, at the lower mill 
of the Alarlltorough Manufacturing Companv. 
He had previously had considerable experience 
in this branch of business, having prosecuted 
it with success in Swanzey, also in Winchen- 
don, Westminster and Ashburnham, Mass. In 
1864, having acquired a competency, he retired 
from the business, and was succeeded by D. W. 
& W. ]M. Tenney, who enlarged the factory, 
and by putting in more machinery increased 
their facilities for manufacturing both tubs and 
pails. They also did considerable at the lum- 
ber business. At the time of the decline in 
M'ooden-ware, in 1870, the Messrs. Tenney sold 
the mill to the Manufacturing Company, who 
converted it into a woolen-mill. In 1868, J. & 
L. Knowlton commenced pail-making in con- 
nection with their clothes-pin business, at first 
putting in only one lathe. Afterwards, giving 
up the manufacture of pins, they from time to 
time added more pail machinery, until they 
now have facilities for making from one hun- 
dred to one hundred and fifty thousand pails 
annually. In 1870 they erected a saw-mill on 
the opposite side of the river, which is used 
mainly for getting out their stock. 

Blanket-Mills. — The most important 
branch of industry, and that which has added 
most to the prosperity and growth of the town, 
is the manufacture of horse-blankets. 

The Monadnock Blanket Company was in- 
corporated in 1868, at which time they 
purchased the Holman Mill, and commenced 
the manufacture of horse-blankets. They have 
a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars, em- 
ploy forty or fifty hands aud produce from 
seventy-five to eighty thousand blankets yearly. 
The amount of their pay-roll is from thirteen 
to fifteen hundred dollars per month. 



262 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Charles O. Whitney and Warren H. Clark 
commenced business in 1873, and formed what 
is now known as the Cheshire Blanket Com- 
pany. Their place of business is the mill which 
was erected by Mr. Whitney in 1869, and used 
by him as a chair-shop until, in company with 
Mr. Clark, it was fitted up for the manufacture 
of blankets. These enterprising men have 
added to their business from time to time, until 
they now have an investment of not less than 
twenty thousand dollars, and facilities for pro- 
ducing fifty thousand blankets annually. They 
have fifty employes, and their pay-roll amounts 
to eleven hundred and fifty dollars per month. 

Thus it will be seen that in this little village 
there are annually manufactured no less than 
one Inuidred and seventy-five thousand horse- 
blankets, giving employment to one hundred 
and fifty hands. 

Breed Poxd Company. — The facilities for 
manufacturing in the village have been greatly 
increased by the Breed Pond Company, which 
was incorporated in 1851. The object was to flow 
the Breed Pond, so called, in Nelson, in order 
to form a reservoir. This company consisted of 
Charles Holman, Stillman Buss, Nelson Howe, 
Whitcomb & Collester, James Townsend, F. R. 
Thurston, George Handy and Fay & Joslin. 
These enterprising gentlemen immediately went 
forward and constructed a dam at an expense of 
about four hundred and fifty dollars, making a 
])ond which covers about six hundred acres. 

In the fall of 1861, Stillman Buss and Jede- 
diah T. Collins constructed, attheir own expense, 
what is now called the " Little Reservoir," 
near the Marlborough and Harrisville line. 
This was intended to save what water would 
otherwise be wasted at night. This came into the 
possession of the Breed Pond Company in 1 864. 
As manufacturing increased, it was found that 
these two ponds were not sufiicieut to supply 
the demand for water, and another reservoir was 
builtatBemisville, in the autumn of 1868, which 
flows about one hundre<l and fifty acres. The 
construction of these ponds improved to a great 



degree the water power, and was the prime 
cause of the rapid growth of the village for the 
last ten years. 

In the autumn of 1877 the water-power was 
still further improved by building the reservoir 
at Marlborough Glen. James Knowlton super- 
intended the building of the dam, which is one 
of the largest and best constructed in this 
section. The whole length of this dam is two 
hundred and fifty-five feet ; length of roll-way, 
ninety-four feet ; extreme height, thirty-five 
feet; height of roll-way, thirty-two feet. The 
material used in building was some thirty- 
five hundred tons of granite and other stone, 
and fifty-seven thousand feet of lumber, with 
three thousand pounds of iron ; the whole 
costing about three thousand dollars. The 
gate being closed at night, this reservoir 
receives all the water which would otherwise 
run to waste, and, being opened in the morning, 
enables the water to reach the mills at an earlier 
hour than formerly. 

The rapid descent of the stream at this point 
renders it one of the best water privileges in 
Cheshire County, and it is a surprise to many 
that this has remained so long unimproved ; 
but it is fondly hoped that the time is not far 
distant when some one will be enterprising 
enough to make the necessary improvements. 

Machinists. — Charles Buss commenced the 
machinist business in this town in 1847. The 
building he at first erected was but a small 
affair, and poorly adapted to the purpose. lu 
the spring of 1852 his business had so in- 
ci'cased tiiat he was compelled to enlarge his 
shop ; but, before this was completed, it sud- 
denly took fire, and was entirely destroyed. 
Not disheartened, he immediately rebuilt, and 
enlarged his business, subsequently adding a 
foundry, thus enabling him to make his own 
castings, and turn off more work, and to better 
advantage than previously. But soon shop and 
foundry became too small for his rapidly-in- 
creasing business. A new foundry was set up ; 
and later he ei'ected a neat and substantial 



MARLBOROUGH. 



263 



l)rick building in front of tiie old shop, which 
he filled with niachiueiy, and commenced doing 
business on a larger scale. Here he manufac- 
tured nearly all kinds of wood-working ma- 
chinery, which merited the highest commenda- 
tion, and more than once won for the proprietor 
the proudest distinctions from various exhi- 
bitions. His rotary-bed planer, and Daniel's 
planing-raachines, clothes-pin, tub and pail 
machinery, gauge and stretcher lathes, were all 
marvels of perfection, and always combined the 
latest improvements. These machines were 
shipped to all parts of the United States, and 
to several countries of the Old World. Not- 
withstanding his hard work and extensive 
trade, he was not altogether successful in busi- 
ness, and, when the " hard times " came on, he 
was unable to stem the current that set in 
against him, and, leaving his property in the 
hands of his creditors, he removed his machin- 
ery and tools to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he 
is now doing an extensive business. 

Christopher Hodgkins commenced the ma- 
chinist business in this town in 1854, in 
the second story of Franklin R. Thurston's 
blacksmith-sliop. After continuing here a short 
time he removed to Keene, where, in company 
with John Knowlton, he manufactured the 
circular vent water-wheel, which was one of 
his own inventions. In 1857 he returned to 
Marlborough, and soon commenced the manu- 
facture of sewing-machines. Mr. Hodgkins is a 
man of more than ordinary mechanical ingenuity, 
and was soon able to make many improvements 
in sewing-machines, taking out no less than five 
different patents. After a few years he gave 
up tliat business, and turned his attention to 
manufacturing various kinds of wood-working 
machinery, some of which he has greatly im- 
jjroved. Several years since, he obtained a 
patent on improvements on \vater-ranis ; a large 
numberof these he has built, and has them in suc- 
cessful operation. In the fall of 1878 he pur- 
chased the shops formerly owned by Charles 
Buss, where he is now doing a good business. 



His last invention is that of a mowing-ma- 
chine. 

Knob Screws. — The patent knob screw is 
the invention of Mr. Charles H. Thurston, who 
is a natural mechanic. His tastes from a child 
have always run in this direction ; he could 
never see anything new in the mechanical line 
without trying to imitate it ; and his grand- 
father, Charles Holman, and his father, did 
everything in their power to encourage him, the 
former by furnisiiing him with lumber and the 
latter providing him with tools. The water- 
wheels and saw-mills which he and his constant 
companion, Asa C. Dort, constructed were not 
a few, as many can testify who knew them. 
When twelve years old, his father purchased 
for him a nice turning-lathe, allowing him to 
run it as he ])leasecl, and on this he used to earn 
his own spending-money. He afterward learned 
the blacksmith's trade of his father in the " Old 
Stone Shop." For some time during the war 
he worked at the United States Armory at 
Springfield, Mass. From that place he re- 
turned to Marlborough, and, in company with 
Solon S. Wilkinson, engaged in the manufac- 
ture of boxes, trunk-cleats, etc., at the old 
Holman mill. It was while engaged in this 
business that he, in 1868, took out his first 
patent for a double gimlet pointed screw, 
with a slot in one end for a key, by which the 
slotted end could be firmly keyed in whatever 
article it was placed. 

The business of Messrs. Thurston & Wil- 
kinson not proving what they desired, the mill 
was sold by them to the Monadnock Blanket 
Company, in 1868. Mr. Thurston remained 
with the Blanket Companj' for some time ; but 
not liking the business, nor the confinement, he 
left, with the intention of developing the screw 
business. But about this time he made the 
acquaintance of James H. Fowler, then the suc- 
cessful manager of the Weed Sewing-Machine 
Company's business in Boston, who hired him 
for three and one-half years as a traveling 
salesman. He therefore had no opportunity to 



264 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



do anything personally, more than to furnish 
plans for others with which to build a machine 
for making his patent screws ; but all attempts 
at constructing such a machine proved a failure, 
and every one who tried it said the screws 
could not be made that way. jNIr. Thurston, 
feeling certain they could, obtained leave of 
absence for two weeks, and, with but one man 
to help him (Mr. C. W. Healy), soon had the 
satisfaction of seeing his machine turn out 
perfect screws, and in a way he had been re- 
peatedly told it could not be done. The ma- 
chine is self-acting, and only requires to have 
the cutters kept in order, and a forty-foot piece 
of wire placed in it from time to time, which it 
rapidly converts into perfect screws. 

Mr. Fowler and Mr. Thurston became much 
attached to each other, and the former, seeing 
the screws, machines and other inventions 
growing out of the original patent, desired to 
take an interest in them, to which Mr. Thurs- 
ton finally consented. In the fall of 1873 
they bought the building now occupied by Mr. 
Thurston, and commenced to manufacture the 
screws and also various articles in which they 
are inserted, such as hat and closet-pins, drawer 
and picture-knobs, door-stops, etc. They carried 
on the business xmtil October 12, 1877, when 
Mr. Fowler suddenly died. Since that time, 
Mr. Thurston has continued it alone. 

He is now engjaofed also in manufacturing; the 
Comjianion Sewing-Machine, which is one of 
his own invention, and is not only one of the 
best, but is the simplest in the market. 

Saddle and Harness-Makers. — David 
Wilkinson, Sr., was the earliest workman at this 
trade in town. He was a success at the bus- 
iness. At length his son, David, being brought 
up to it, took his father's place, and carried it 
on. He removed the shop from the north part 
of the town to the village, where he worked for 
many years, educating his three sons to the bus- 
iness. They all excelled in workmanship. 
Their harness and saddles became known far 
and near. The two sons now living are still 



interested in the business, and deserve to be 
classed among the foremost. Walter H. Bruce 
is the harness-maker now, working in the Odd- 
Fellows' Block. 

Carpenters and Builders. — Marlborough 
has always had its share of hewers of timber, 
framers and finishers of buildings. Perhaps 
Chas. Gilbert stood in the front rank in former 
days. At least he was an expert with the saw 
and plane. John Buss bore the name of a fin- 
ished carpenter ; Ziba Nason could turn out a 
large amount of work in a day, and it was not 
slighted. Silas Collin could construct most 
anything he was asked to make. George Hol- 
man was skilled in remodeling, moving build- 
ings or completing them. Among the active 
carpenters of to-day is Alphouso A. Adams. For 
years he has led the van as a contractor. He 
sustains a high reputation of turning off work 
rapidly and in good style. Albert D. Sawyer 
has tact and quickness in his work. Andrew 
J. Emerson is excellent in using the smoothing- 
plane and putting on the finishing touches. 
Mowry A. Thompson is true to his word in all 
he promises, and intends to give as much as he 
receives. Curtis W. C'apron does good work. 
Alvin K. Martin is bound to understand all 
about the work he is to do. There are others 
who are skilled as builders in wood. Because 
of such carpenters, we can account for tlie many 
good, substantial and inviting buildings in 
Marlborough. 

Blacksmiths. — The first blacksmith in town 
was probably Jonatlian Capron. His sons, 
Jonathan and Walter, learned the trade of their 
father, and follo\\'ed it. Others who followed 
it were Levi Whitcomb, Captain Luther He- 
menway, Ezekiel Cudworth, George Stanley, 
Aaron Lembard, Ebenezer B. Wallingford, Jo- 
seph Cummings, Elijah Fitch, Williard Con- 
verse, Ambrose White. But the one who did 
the most business was Franklin R. Thurston. 
He built the stone shop now occupied by the 
Monaduock Blanket Company, which was well 
fiu'nished foi- doing all kinds of blacksmithing. 



MARLBOROUGH. 



265 



Mr. Tlitirston made liis business pay, and be- 
came well off in the course of some twenty years. 
He was a good smith and is a reliable man. A 
few years since J. Clemens came to the village, 
and opened a shop, where he is doing successful 
business. MeRoy & Jones Lave another shop 
in active operation. 

Shoemakers. — Jonah Davis, among the 
early shoemakers, deserves to be classed among 
the best. He owned and worked in what 
has long been known as the Little Red Shop, 
close by the Abner Boyden store. Early and 
late he used to drive the pegs and draw the wax- 
ends. He was one that used to attend strictly to 
his own business. He was well-informed and 
social ; still, no loiterer was allowed to hang 
about his shop. The young that came in were 
wont to receive the best of advice and encourag:ed 
to be faithful in school and dutiful at home. 

Christopher Tilden, Charles McCollester, 
Gilbert Russell, Asahel Collins were devoted to 
this business for years. Charles Stay is the 
leading shoemaker now. In connection with 
his shop he has a store, in which he keeps a 
good assortment of various kinds of leather goods' 

The Granite Quarry. — A little west of 
the centre of the town is a ledge of fine and 
beautifnl granite, which, for building purposes, 
is unequaled by any in the State. This was 
worked quite extensively for several years by 
Asa Greenwood, who erected all the granite 
buildings in the village, except the library, 
which was built of granite by Jonathan Jones, 
taken from the same place. Mr. Jones purchased 
the quarry in 1850, and, in company with J. T. 
Collins, worked it more or less for eighteen 
years. Mr. A. G. Mann, of Worcester, Mass., 
the present owner, purchased it in May, 1868, 
and that year shipped to Worcester from three 
to four thousand tons, besides what was sent to 
other places. In 1873 he shipped to ^Vorces- 
ter six thousand and five tons ; to Lowell, one 
hundred and thirty-five tons; to Boston, three 
hundred and sixty tons, besides small lots to 
other places. Add to the above figures the 



amount of wall-stone from the quarry, and it 
would amount to nearly ten thousand tons dur- 
ing that year. 

The most prominent buildings constructed of 
this granite are the Union Passenger Depot of ' 
Worcester, and the Plymouth Congregational 
Cnurc^h of Worcester, which is one of the most 
substantial buildings in the city. The beauty of 
this granite is that it retains itscohir the best of 
any light-colnred granite known, and is well 
adapted for either fine or rough work, and also 
peculiarly so for block paving and wide flagging 
or flat stones. 

Mr. Mann has recently sold his quarry to 
Webb & Baeheller, who are doing more upon it 
than has been done before. 

Another quarry has been opened within the 
last year, not far from the high railroad bridge, 
where paving-stones are being got out in large 
quantities. 

Stores. — Marlborough has had its share of 
stores and trade. The supply has been equal to 
the demand. Formerly, in the north part of 
the town James Nason had a store ; within a 
mile of the old meeting-house, at different times, 
there were several. In one of these Joseph 
Sweetser commenced to trade as early as 1792. 
In the southern part of the town Samuel and 
Silas Fife carried on mercantile business for a 
time. But of all the early traders, Abner 
Boyden takes the lead. He was a superior man, 
to begin with, and went into business with the 
view of getting an honest living. He would 
deal as justly with children as with adults. By 
his life he made himself known as a I'eliable 
and useful man. He was regarded as one ac- 
curate in thought and sound in judgment. 
From a small beginning he advanced gradually 
to an extensive trade in dry-goods and groceries, 
and became a wealthy man for his time. At his 
death, in 1837, AVilliam and Elijah Boyden, 
his brothers, succeeded him in the then famous 
Boyden store. They did honor to their ]iro- 
fession, and were very popular as merchants. 
They were both called to accept various offices in 



266 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the town, because of their capability, aud of tiie 
faith tlie people had in them. In 1840 they 
built the stoue store, where they continued in 
trade till 1852, when they sold out to G. D. 
Richardson, having been truly successful finan- 
cially, aud especially in being universally re- 
spected as strictly honest and efficient business 
men. 

At present D. O. Woodward and W. M. 
Nason are carrying on the trade in the same 
store. They have done, aud are doing, a good 
business in the way of dry-goods. 

George G. Davis has a well-filled grocery- 
store in the Town Hall building. Fred. Adams 
has recently opened another grocery-store where 
Clinton Collins formerly did a large business in 
the same line. B. F. Merriam is a dealer in 
stoves, tinware, furnaces, etc., manufactur- 
ing many of his goods and doing plumbing- 
work. Charles Stay has a shoe-store. Miss 
Ellen A. Kuowlton deals in millinery and 
fancy goods. T. H. Mahon keeps a variety- 
store in the Odd- Fellows' Block. 

Farms and Farmers. — Agriculture in this 
town ranks, on an average, with that al>out the 
old Monadnock. Perhaps a third of the peo- 
ple are devoted to cultivating the soil. Many 
of these are good livers and some of them have 
become forehanded. It is true, the land is not 
wanting of stones, nor of a great diversity of 
surface ; nevertheless, it can mostly be appro- 
priated to cultivation and pasturage. It is sad 
that some farms which were among the best, 
should have become neglected, buildings rotted 
down or removed, and the fields allowed to 
grow up to brush and woods. As an excuse 
for this, it has been said the land is worn out, 
but science and modern developments are 
clearly showing this to be a mistake. Really, 
the resources of our land have scarcely begun 
to be developed to their fullest extent. Tlie 
plea that our climate and .soil rannot be used so 
as to make it pay is false. It is wrong to talk 
thus, especially to our young men, saying " You 
must go West, if you are to get a good living 



by tilling the land." Now, there is something 
about our light, air, water and soil favorable to 
producing the best men and women. Just com- 
pare those who remain here and are industrious 
and faithful with those who emigrate to the 
West, and we are confident that in the end the 
former will be better oif than the latter. This 
is the rule ; of course there are exceptions. 
We ought to realize that there are physical 
blessings among these hills and valleys which 
are uot to be found in Ohio, Illinois or Califor- 
nia. Then, when we add to these the mental and 
moral advantages, we should cling to our native 
State and town, resolved that we will make the 
most possible out of these natural bestowments. 
In this way our lands would be utilized to a 
greater extent than they are, and made to pro- 
duce two blades where but one grows now. 
The wasted fields would be redeemed, the hills 
and back farms would no longer be deserted, 
men would not be standing idle at the corners 
of the streets in our villages and cities because 
spindles and looms had been stopped from over- 
production. Let our lands be improved as 
they should be, and this would do nuich to ward 
ofl' hard times and level up society, so that capi- 
tal and labor would be more evenly balanced. 
No other investments in this world are so sure 
as those made in improved lands, and the more 
owners of the soil, the better for the country. 
So, really, the highest hope for the prosperity of 
our town, as well as others, is based in no small 
degree upon the improvement of our farms. 
Therefore, let the stones be cleared fi-om our 
mowings and built into walls, for they make 
enduring fences; let the muck be taken from 
our swamps aud scattered upon our fields ; let 
some of our sand-hills be spread over the low- 
lands ; let the fertilizers be freely used with 
other manures and enrichments, and what pro- 
gress would be made in farming, and what 
harvests would be gleaned from our fields ! 

Foremost among our farms is that of George 
Thatcher. The mowings, pastures aud wood- 
laud are well proportioned. The soil is uatur- 



MARLBOROUGH. 



267 



ally rieh and is under a good state of cultiva- 
tion. In favorable seasons he lias taken there 
crops of jjrass from the same land. All the 
j;;rains, roots and fruit common to this climate 
tlourisli on this soil. 

Mr. Thatcher is a born fixrmer, though he 
has been successfully engaged in various kinds 
of business at different times. Ho is a native 
of Keene, born in 1815, but has long been an 
inhabitant of Marlborough and has come to be 
regarded as one of its old settlers. He is a man 
of good judgment and keen perception. Let 
him examine a farm, a wood-lot, a horse or an 
ox, and he can tell you all about it. It is safe 
for him to deal in lauds or stock. No doubt 
at times he often wonders why others do not 
see as he sees ; but he sees because he cannot 
help it. By industry and economy he has be- 
come one of the wealthiest men in town. He has 
done much towards its improvements, and par- 
ticularly its highways. In fact, he is the in- 
ventor of one of the best road-scrapers now in 
use. He is a man that tends to his own busi- 
ness, and so plans that his work is all the while 
advancing. Besides his pet farm, he is the 
owner of much real estate. He is the laud- 
king in Marlborough, and a good one. Under 
his ruling the town will be greatly benetited 
and advanced. 

The Richardson farm is known as oue of the 
best. Its acres are many and favorably situated. 
The cultivated portion occupies a handsome 
ridge sloping to the south. This is just suited 
to growing corn, grass and fruit. Then 
there is a fine intervale, or meadow, with good 
pasturage. Besides these, it has a large ap]>le 
orchard in an excellent state, and an extensive 
sugar-lot. 

This farm is now owned by Stilraan Rich- 
ardson, who was born on it December 25, 1820. 
However, he left it after he became of age, and 
for a long while resided in Maine, but some 
years since he returned to the place of his birth, 
purchasing the old home, that he might im- 
prove it and spend the rest of his days upon it. 



And what a change he has jiroduced ! The old 
l)uildings of his father have lieen supplied with 
new ones throughout. The wasted fields have 
been vastly more than redeemed. AVhile Mr. 
Thatcher's is situated in the extreme southern, 
Mr. Richardson's is in the northern part of the 
town. The latter has illustrated that our soil 
may be made to produce thirty and sixty-fold. 
The intervale on the Connecticut River and the 
prairies of the West do not do any better than 
this, on an average. Mr. Richardson is a lover 
of good stock, and has his farm well supplied 
with it. He makes farming pay. 

Another attractive farm is that of Almon C. 
Mason. Though considerably elevated, still, 
it inclines for the most part to the south, and is 
warm land. It is a farm consistins: of one 
hunilred and sixty acres, well wooded, and the 
cultivated portions are free from stone, and 
smooth, so that the mower will run over the 
whole of it. Mr. Mason has been on it lint a 
few years, and, though he came out of the store 
upon it, still, he is .showing that it is natural 
for him to cultivate the soil, and that the true 
farmer can be as much of a man as the mer- 
chant. In short, who is so independent as the 
well-to-do farmer? Mr. Mason is a young man, 
born in Sullivan, N. H., February 27, 1849. 
He appears, really, to enjoy his calling. Why 
should he uot? It is one of the noblest aniontr 
men. 

J. Kilburn Southwick also has a good farm, 
one of the warmest in town, and has long been 
noted for its fruits. Who has not heard of the 
pears, raw-ripes and grapes of Uncle Enoch 
White, who long lived on this place? ]\Ir. 
Southwick and his father have made great 
changes for the better since it came into their 
possession, and are still improving it. It is 
now stocked with milch cows, which furnish a 
large portion of the village with milk. 

Mr. Southwick is interested in farming more 
from the fact, than any other, that he discovers 
so much in his work to illustrate geology, chem- 
istry, zoology, etc. Were it not that he could 



268 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



fiud, while farming, some time for reading and 
study, he would not be likely to continue it 
very long ; but he so manages as to keep him- 
self posted in the affairs of the day, and to have 
the opportunity of pursuing, more or less, some 
course of history or branch of science. Thus, 
while the hands are at work, the mind has some- 
thing to do. This renders the employment 
pleasant, for there is consciousness of mental 
growth. By saving the odd moments, Mr. 
Southwick has become one of the best-informed 
men. He has had considerable to do in town 
matters. He is showing how the farmer can 
become a scholar while tilling the soil. He 
was born November 8, 1847 ; so he -is in the 
prime of life, — religious, intelligent, honest, do- 
ing honor to his vocation. 

Among the many other good farms which 
deserve special mention, and would receive it if 
space would permit, are those of Charles Ryan, 
Wilbur F. Wallace, Cyrus F. Greeley, Daniel 
Town, Rufus S. Frost, George A. Robinson 
and George L. Fairbanks. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MARLBOROUGH— (CyH(i'»»c'/). 
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES. 

Rev. Charles Cummings, son of Rev. 
Joseph and Anna Cummings, was born in Sea- 
brook, N. H., September 23, 1777. At the age 
of two years his parents removed to Marlbor- 
ough, where he passed his childhood. He was 
married in 1798, and settled in Sullivan, and 
became the father of several children, who were 
an honor to their parents, — -among whom is 
Mrs. Elijah Boyden, one of the most amiable, 
talented and highly-esteemed women in Marl- 
borough. 

It wais about this time, or a little later, that 
he felt impressed that it was his duty to preach 
the gospel, as he understood it. He struggled 
with his convictions for several years, feeling 



deeply his incompetency for the work, having 
but a limited education, such as was furnished 
by the common schools of those early days ; but 
finding no rest for the body or peace for the 
mind, his strong convictions of duty prevailed. 
In 1805 he was licensed to preach by the Bap- 
tist board of ministers, and received ordination 
in 1810, in Sullivan, where he formed a church 
and labored for many years, all or a part of the 
time. He was also instrumental in organizing 
churches in Keene, Swanzey, Marlborough, 
Peterborough, Hillsborough, Lyndeborough and 
Anti'im, and preached more or less in other 
towns in Sullivan, Hillsborough and Merrimack 
Counties. 

In 1820 he was called to the domestic mis- 
sionary work. He was truly one of the pio- 
neers in the ministry. A man of great energy 
and earnestness, not shrinking from any per- 
sonal sacrifice for the good of the cause he 
loved so well and labored so faithfully to sus- 
tain, nothing but utter inability could deter 
him from meeting his appointments, many 
times traveling until late in the night, and 
throucrh the scorchins heats and drenchins: 
rains of summer. He had a strong physic^xl 
constitution, which enabled him to endure the 
arduous labors through which he passed. 

The following was copied from the Chn'stian 
Watchman and Reflector some time after liis 
decease. It is from the pen of Rev. G. Rob- 
bins, who officiated at his funeral, being at that 
time pastor of the Baptist Church in Keene. 
Speaking of his succesful labors in the ministry, 
he says : " He was a man of a kind, concilia- 
tory spirit, humble, prayerful and zealous in 
every good work, and he belonged to a class of 
men that ought never to be forgotten, — that 
class which performed the labors and endured 
the privations of the pioneers of our cause in 
this State " After his decease, which occurred 
in 1849, the Dublin Association, as an expres- 
sion of regard to his memory, passed the fol- 
lowing : 

" Resolved, That his faithful and arduous labors in 



MARLBOROUGH. 



269 



planting new churches in fields before unoccupied, 
and breasting the force of opposition commonly inci- 
dent to such a work, claims from us not only a 
tribute of high respect, but of affectionate and Chris- 
tian remembrance ; and, as life is still spared to us, 
may a sense of our increased obligations stimulate 
us to renewed devotion in the service of our di- 
vine Master." 

He never wrote his sermons ; but, in the 
early years of iiis ministry, he would select a 
text of Scripture before going to the field (for at 
that time he tilled the soil), and while laboring 
with his hands he mentally studied and wrought 
out his sermons. He had a strong, sympathetic 
nature, and possessed the power to move and 
sway his audience to a remarkable degree. It 
was no unusual thing to see the congregation 
bathed in tears. The last few years of his life 
he labored in Pottersville, and preached up to 
the last Sabbath but one before his death, 
which occurred in Roxbury, N. H., December 
27, ] 849, aged seventy-two years. 

Rev. Osgood Herrick, son of Ebenezer 
and Ivydia (Eaton) Herrick, was born in Marl- 
Itorough, November 19, 1799. He worked upon 
his father's farm until the age offifteen, when 
he was placed in a store iu Keene, where he 
remained until he was twenty-one, giving entire 
satisfaction to his employers. 

In the year 1818, at a time of great religious 
declension, Mr. Herrick and two others became 
subjects of the renewing influences of the Holy 
Spirit, and in the month of July of the same 
year united with the Congregational Church iu 
Keene, under the pastoral care of Rev. L. 
S. Bastow. ' 

Soon after, he felt an ardent desire to become 
more extensively useful than he could iu the 
business in which he was engaged. Accordingly, 
he resolved, as soon as t^ircumstanees would al- 
low, to prepare himself for the ministry. In 
the spring of 1821 he commenced the study ot 
Latin, and in the fall of 1822 was admitted 
a member of Dartmouth College. As he al- 
lowed himself but little time for preparation, he 
entered college under many disadvantages, and 



conseqently severe study became necessary during 
his first collegiate j-ear. It was during this 
year that his constitution was impaired and the 
foundation of that disease laid which resulted in 
his death. 

In the autumn of 182() he graduated at 
Dartmouth College, being regarded as one of 
the most distinguished of his class. The fol- 
lowing year he was engaged in teaching in the 
State of Virginia. In 1827 he became a mem- 
ber of Andover Theological Seminary, where he 
remained the usual term of three years. 

On leaving the seminary he received a unan- 
imous call to become the pastor of the Congre- 
gational Church in Milbury, and on the 9th of 
December, 1830, was ordained and installed 
over that church and society. 

Ten days subsequent he was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Emily Wilder, of Keene. 

Mr. Herrick was a self-made man. By 
his own perseverance he overcame difficulties 
from which most young men would have 
shrunk. By his industry and economy, he de- 
frayed nearly the whole expense of his educa- 
tion. Diligence and perseverance were among 
the most distinguishing traits in his character. 
He was never idle. He felt the work of the 
ministry was too great and too important to 
admit indolence, and he felt too great an inter- 
est iu the salvation of men and the honor of his 
Di\'ine Master to be discouraged by any diffi- 
culties that were surmotintable. 

Mr. Herrick's talents were more useful than 
splendid. He excelled rather in a clearness of 
mind than brilliancy of imagination. His 
views were .seldom confused or his conceptions 
feeble on any subject to which he directed his 
atteution. He was a man of sound, practicable 
wisdom. He formed his opinions on subjects 
after taking a comprehensive view of their va- 
rious bearings, and generally with such preci- 
sion as not to have occasion to change. He was 
also a man of firmness of purpose, — did not 
form any plan of action without careful exami- 
nation and a conviction of dutv ; but, when his 



270 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



conclusions were formed, he was not waver- 
ing, aQtl only on the presentation of weighty 
reasons did he desire to change. Cautious to 
resolve, convinced he was right, he firmly, and 
with all the energies of his soul, executed his res- 
olutions. 

His mind was well balanced ; and his facul- 
ties were not only well proportioned, but culti- 
vated in due symmetry. As a preacher of 
Divine truth, Mr, Merrick was clear, instruc- 
tive, energetic and expressive. He never aimed, 
in the solemn work of preaching the gospel, 
merely to amuse the fancy or gratify a fastidi- 
ous taste, but to enlighten the mind, arouse the 
conscience, affect the heart and save the soul. 
His manner of delivery was earnest and impres- 
sive; his eloquence, that of clear thought, .sound 
argument and ardent feeling. As a pastor, he 
was devoted and laborious, ever ready to coun- 
sel the afflicted, to instruct the inquirer, to en- 
courage and edify the saints ; as a fi-iend, frank, 
affectionate and obliging. 

He died at Milbury, Mass., March 16, 1837. 

Asa Geeexwood. — Should it be asked to 
whom is Marlborough most indebted for its 
imj)ortaut internal improvements, without hesi- 
tatancy the reply must be, Asa Greenwood. 
Though not a native of the town, still, as soon 
as he took up his abode here, which was in 
1836, he began to put up stone structures. 
Nearly all the granite buildings and bridges in 
this vicinity were erected by him. He was a 
genius, and greatly given to mechanical inven- 
tion. He was remarkable for planning, and 
executing as well. He became skilletl in work- 
ing on wood and stone. He aimed at thor- 
oughness ; no work of his was slighted. 
Really, he builded for the ages. For centuries 
the generations to come will have the oppor- 
tunity of looking upon what he conceived and 
what he builded. In 1853 he removed to Illi- 
nois, where he resided till 1877, when he came 
to Dummcrstou, Vt., to visit his son, Colonel 
\V. H. Greenwood, and so, with him. he was 
permitted to visit Marlborough once more and 



Dublin, his native town ; and, on his return to 
his son's, he sickened and passed away at the 
ripe age of four-score years. His remains were 
brought to Marlborough, and his funeral service 
was held in the church he built, and he was in- 
terred in the cemetery which originated with 
him. So his ashes rest as he longed to have 
them, — in Graniteville Cemetery, in the lot he 
selected and marked with a granite monument, 
bearing the name Greenwood ; but his epitaph 
is written in the hearts of all who knew him 
in lasting characters, telling of a generous and 
honest man, who thought for himself and lived 
for others, building better than he knew, by 
loving God and man. 

Cyrus Wakefield, son of James and 
Hannah (Hemenway) Wakefield, was born in 
Marlborough February 14, 1811. His father's 
ftirm was included in that territory which, the 
following year, was set oft' to make the town of 
Roxbury ; hence the report that he was a 
native of Roxbury. The following condensed 
sketch of his life and character is taken from 
Eaton's " History of Wakefield and Reading," 
Mass. : 

" His father's occupation was that of a 
farmer, and thus his early associations were 
connected with the rugged discipline of a New 
England farm. 

" The executive and administrative qualities 
of his mind began to develop very early in 
life. There were numberless projects in his 
busy child-brain, to the accomplishment of 
which he bent, not only his own, but also the 
abilities of his brothers. 

"At an early age he grew restive. Some of 
his relatives had gone to othef States, and, at 
times, would return to tell what they had seen 
and done in the great cities. His father's farm 
would seem now too small for his growing 
ambition. The successes of his friends kindled 
in his own bosom a generous emulation. He, 
too, would try his fortune in the great world 
outside. He had heard of the fame of Mr. 
Appleton, of Dublin, who bad emerged from 



MARLBOROUGH. 



271 



obscurity like his own, Init who was then 
widely known as a successful and an honorable 
merchant. What others had done he could do ; 
and he incessantly urged his views upon his 
father, who as constantly presented the other 
and darker side, showing how many who went 
to the city lost health, time and even chai'acter 
in their pursuit of wealth, and were ultimately 
ol)liged to return in disgrace to their native 
towns. But at the age of fifteen years, with 
his parents' consent, he went to Boston, declar- 
ing that he would achieve success and make a 
name of which his friends would be proud. 

"Arriving in Boston, he at first entered a 
small retail grocery-store of Messrs. Wheeler 
& Bassett, on Washington Street, but soon after 
secured a clerkship with Messrs. Stearns, Cobb 
ct Winslow, on India Street. While in their 
employ he conceived the jjlan of doing busi- 
ness on his own account, since he had some 
time at his command not required by his em- 
ployers. His employers gave him the liberty 
to buy and sell empty barrels and casks. He 
attended evening schools, both of an academic 
and mercantile nature; visited the various de- 
bating societies and churches; observed care- 
fully the habits of the people ; listened, so far 
as his time would allow, to the various courses 
of scientific lectures, for which his mind had a 
keen relish, and thus laid the foundation of 
what general knowledge he possessed. 

" In 1 8.38 he formed a copartnership with 
his younger brother, Enoch H. Wakefield, 
whicii lasted until 1844. In the latter part of 
this partnership the fortunate sale of some rat- 
tan, thrown out as refuse from a ship, led to 
the foundation of the business which has since 
made his name famous all over the world. 

"In the year 1 8 5«, ]\Ir. Wakefield resolved 
to begin the manufacture of cane in this coun- 
try, and to utilize, so far as possible, the whole 
of the material. 

" Commencing with a few machines, the in- 
crease of business soon compelled his removal 
to Wakefield, where his manufactories and 



store-houses now contain flooring of fifteen 
acres. 

"Among the many gifts to the town bearing 
his name, the Memorial Hall, costing one hun- 
dred thousand dollars, stands pre-eminent. 

" Mr. Wakefield was a man of iron will and 
resolute purpose, combined with great physical 
endurance. Energy, perseverance and an in- 
domitable courage in the face of almost in- 
su])ei'able obstacles were his prominent charac- 
teristics. He had a keen perception, and re- 
sults that other men reached by hard thought 
seemed to intuitively come to him. He knew 
human nature thoroughly, and could read a 
man at a glance. To those who knew him 
best he revealed at times a warm, genial and 
tender nature, though to a stranger he might 
seem distant. He \vas charital)le, giving not 
only in large sums to public enterprises, but 
cheering the hearts of the poor with his gener- 
ous gifts. Many students struggling for an 
education remember with gratitude his timely 
aid. As a merchant, he was shrewd, industri- 
ous, persistent and careful in the details of his 
business. His character and deeds are thus 
epitomized in the resolutions adojrted by his 
fellow-citizens on the evening after his death: 

" ' The valuable citizen, the prosperous merchant, 
the progressive leader in ornamental and architectural 
improvements, the friend and helper of education, 
the chief promoter of our local industrial pursuits, 
our munificent namesake, whose numerous and gen- 
erous benefactions will remain his enduring mem- 
orials.' 

" Mr. Wakefield died very suddenly on Sab- 
bath morning, October 26, 1873, at the age of 
sixty-two years and eight months." 

Rev. Cyrus Stone, son of Shubael and 
Polly (Rogers) Stone, was born in Marlborough 
June 9, 1793. Became a professing Christian 
at nineteen years of age, and remained a far- 
mer up to the age of tw^enty four years. His 
attention being then turned to the condition of 
the pagan world, he determined, after mature 
deliberation, to devote himself to the preaching 
of the gospel among the heathen. 



272 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



He speut a year and a half at the Kimball 
Union Academy, Meriden, after wliicli he en- 
tered Dartmouth in 1818, graduating in the 
class of 1822. 

I*ossessed tif little means and receiving but 
slight help from othei"s, he mainly supported 
himself, botli in his preparatory and through 
his collegiate course, by his own exertions, 
laboring on the farm in summer, and in winter 
teaching in Fitzwilliam, Westminster, Vt., 
and other places. 

His influence in college and in all these places 
of temporary labor was decidedly felt as a 
Christian M'orker. After graduating at Dart- 
mouth he at once entered Andover Theolog-ical 
Seminary, graduating thence in the class of 1825. 

It being deemed l)y the American Board 
desirable that their male missionaries to India 
at that time should be possessed of some med- 
ical knowledge, he spent the autumn of the 
same year at Hanover, N. H., in attendance on 
medical lectures. Early in 1826 he continued his 
medical studies at the Harvard Medical School, 
spending the year in their prosecution as well 
as in the performance of a large amount of re- 
ligious work in Boston and vicinity. During 
this year he was united in marriage to Miss 
Atossa Frost, daughter of Col. Joseph and 
Zilpha (Roberts) Frost, of his native town, and 
with her sailed from Boston for Bombay in the 
ship " Emerald " — Captain Heard — on the 7th 
of May, 1827, arriving safely in India in Sep- 
tember of the same year. In 1841, after four- 
teen years' service, he was compelled, by the 
state of his own as well as his wife's health, to 
return to America. He preached at various 
times in Bingham, Me., Harwich, Saugus, and 
East Bridgewater, Mass., and then located 
for several years in Melrose, Mass., seven miles 
from Boston, and engaged in the publication of 
the Iloihcr's Assistant and Happy Home, 
monthly magazines of a religious character, 
and of books of a similar kind for families. 

His final work, however, was in the ministry. 
He was instrumental in founding and provid- 



ing with a permanent house a church in 
Beechwood, a portion of Cohasset, Mass.; and 
he was called to be the pastor of the flock he had 
gathered. 

Here he died on the 19th of July, 1867. 

Jairus B. Collins, M.D., son of Samuel 
and Lydia (Mathews) Collins, was born in 
Marlborough April 21, 1794. He studied 
medicine with Dr. Ephraim K. Frost, of this 
town, and at the completion of his studies, in 
1822, he removed to Londonderry, Vt., where 
he was a successful physician up to the time of 
his death, which occurred February 3, 1851. 

Jeremiah Stone, ]\I.D., son of Shubel and 
Polly (Rogers) Stone, was born in Marlborough 
November 2, 1798. He graduated at t)art- 
mouth Medical College December, 1825. He 
commenced the practice of medicine in Tops- 
field, Mass., January 6, 1826, and remained 
there eleven years. Finding a country prac- 
tice, with its long and tiresome rides, was im- 
pairing his health, he removed to New Bedford, 
and thence to Provincetown, Mass., in 1864, 
where he remained until his death, with the ex- 
ception of two years spent in Chatham. 

In town affairs he ever took an active inter- 
est, endeavoring to build up the place and ren- 
der it truly prosperous. Foremost in all good 
movements, he cordially espoused the cause of 
anti-slavery in its earliest days, when it was 
unpopular to be an Abolitionist. He was an ar- 
dent supporter of temperance, and an earnest 
worker in the Congregational Church, of which 
he had been a member since 1814. He was an 
honorary member of the Massachusetts Medi- 
cal Society. He was intolerant of quackery in 
every form and strict in his views of profes- 
sional etiquette. Prompt in decision, self-reli- 
ant in the emergencies of his profession, he in- 
spired and retained confidence in his skill. 

Though often abrupt in his manners, yet be- 
neath was a warm heart that beat in sympathy 
with the needy and oppressed. Earnest in his 
convictions, decided in his opinions and cheer- 
ful in his disposition, he carried the elasticity of 



MARLBOROUGH. 



273 



youth into the last years of his advanced life. 
Tall and erect, of powerful presence, he in- 
spired with hope the sick who sought his aid. 

To a naturally buoyant spirit was added the 
sustaining power of a strong and earnest religious 
faith, that made belief to him a bright and clear 
reality. He died April 23, 1875. 

Timothy L. Laxe, M.D., son of John and 
Mary (Livingstone) Lane, was born in Marl- 
borough September 1, 1800. He studied med- 
icine with Dr. Batcheller. Attended school 
first at Groton, Mass., afterwards at Hanover, 
N. H., where he graduated in medicine in 1824. 
He located first at Sullivan, in 1825; removed 
to Lunenberg, Vt., in 1832 ; remained there 
until 1834, when he went to Gilsum, N. H., 
where he lived until 1838 ; from thence to 
Daysville, 111. ; practiced medicine there till 
1841, and then removed to Fillmore, 111., and 
continued the practice of his profession until 
his death, September 4, 1849. 

Rev. William C. Whitcomb, son of Dea- 
con Simeon and Sally (Lincoln) Whitcomb, was 
l)orn in Marlborough February 9, 1820. He 
was in his childhood singularly dutiful to his 
parents, nev^er requiring discipline to enforce 
their commands ; and in mature years was 
ever anxious, according to his means, to pro- 
mote their welfare. He received from them a 
religious training, and in 1837 united with the 
Congregational Church in this town. 

He pursued his literary and classical course 
at the academies in Jaffrey, Troy and Ashby. 
He earned his money to attend them by teach- 
ing, always living in the most economical 
way. 

He studied theology at Gilmauton Theo- 
logical Seminary, completing his course in 
1847, at which time he was licensed to preach. 
He received several calls to settle in New 
Hampshire, but declined, as he wished to ob- 
tain further help for his work by attending the 
lectures of Professor Park, in Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary. He remained at Andover 
two years as a licentiate student. 
18 



May 1, 1851, he was ordained pastor of the 
church in Stoneham, Mass. May 1, 1852, he 
was married to Miss Harriet L. Wheeler, of 
Concord, Mass. In August, 1855, he was dis- 
missed from the church in Stoneham, after 
which he labored with the churches in Globe 
village (South bridge), in North Carver and in 
Lynnfield Centre, all in Massachusetts. 

He received a commission as chaplain of the 
United States Hospital at Newbern, N. C, 
which bears the signature of Abraham Lincoln 
and Edward M. Stanton, dated July 5, .1862, 
which he held to the time of his death. His 
labors in Newbern, Portsmouth and Morehead 
City, N. C, were very abundant and interest- 
ing, and continued two and one-fourtli years. 

In the summer of 1864 he came home on a 
furlough of some length. In September he 
returned to meet the sad effects of the yellow 
fever, brought treacherously by the enemy to 
our soldiers. Soon after his return he was 
attacked with malarial fever, and, before he 
had fully recovered, was taken with acute 
bronchitis, from the efifects of which he died at 
the hospital in Morehead City, October 29, 
1864. 

Mr. Whitcomb's character was strong-lv 
marked, and he possessed many excellencies. 
He had an untiring activity, always doing with 
his might what Km hands found to do. He 
was in a remarkable degree frank and out- 
spoken, being incapable of disguise and know- 
ing little of concealment. But for nothing was 
he more distinguished than for a warm, lovins: 

CD ' c 

heart. He set a value on friends, and was true 
in his friendships. That he had a devoted 
attachment to his family is seen in the fact 
that, when absent on his chaplaincy, his general 
practice was to write to tliem daily. He was a 
decided Congregationalist, but loved all Christ's 
disciples of every name — union among Chris- 
tians being a favorite theme. He cherished an 
affectionate remembrance of his native town, in 
evidence of which may be mentioned the gift 
of a bell for the school-house in the village a 



274 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



short time before his death. He loved the 
slave and the colored race, and from an early 
age was ever ready, according to his ability, to 
aid the cause of emancipation. 

From the outbreak of the slaveholders' re- 
bellion he took a lively interest in the struggle ; 
and that he was able with so much cheerfulness 
to sejjarate himself from a family he loved so 
well may be taken as evidence of true patri- 
otism . 

Mr. Whitcomb had qualities of mind and 
heart which could not fail to render him popu- 
lar and useful as a pastor. Much good, we are 
assured, was accomplished by his labors in 
connection with the churches to which he min- 
istered. But his active temperament and 
habits, his self-forgetfulness in his zeal to do 
good, his sympathy with the suifering, his 
cheerfulness, and readiness with thoughts and 
words for every occasion, seemed to fit him 
especially for the labors to which he was devoted, 
as hospital chaplain; and much was he loved 
by those who were the objects of his beneficent 
labors. 

Mr. Whitcomb was a pleasant newspaper 
correspondent. As an author, he published two 
volumes of original and selected matter in prose 
and poetry to comfort the bereaved. Although 
he fell in his prime, still he has left a full and 
useful life. 

DuNX'AN Abel Baker was born April 8, 
1797. Like most lads in this town at that 
early day, he was brought up on a farm. He 
possessed a good constitution, was athletic and 
energetic and seldom failed to accomplish the 
object of his desire. His educational advan- 
tages were mainly limited to the district school, 
which at that period was much less efficient 
than now. These advantages, however, were 
well improved, and he became one of the best 
and most advanced scholars in his district. 
Having mastered the branches taught in the 
district school, he was sent to an academy in 
New Salem, Mass., where he studied one term 
and then commenced teaching. For several 



years he taught school in the winter, and as- 
sisted his father on the farm in the summer. 
As a teacher, he was very successful, and his 
service.= were sought by the best and most de- 
sirable school districts. 

He married April 18, 1821, and located upon 
a farm in the adjoining town of Troy, and de- 
voted his attention to agriculture. His admir- 
able qualities of head and heart were soon recog- 
nized by his fellow-citizens, and he became one 
of the leading men of the town. His sound 
judgment, practical wisdom and general intelli- 
gence fitted him for any position in the com- 
munity, and he was consequently elected at dif- 
ferent times to almost all the civil offices in the 
town. He served the town some fifteen years 
as selectman, — the most of the time as chairman 
of the board, — and represented it in the Legis- 
lature of the State in the years 1840-42. 

In all the public positions he was called to 
fill he was faithful and honest, and none of his 
constituents ever had reason to feel that they 
had misplaced their confidence. 

He did a large amount of business in the set- 
tlement of estates. His ability and familiarity 
with the law fitted him for civil practice. After 
a long and useful life he died, September 26, 
1878, calmly, and in the full assurance of a 
glorious immortality. 

Osgood Collester opened his eyes upon 
life in this town February 12, 1815. He was 
born a singer and musician. He was the 
youngest of twelve children of Samuel and Si- 
lence Collester. He spent his boyhood on his 
father's farm and his youth in his brother 
Charles' shoe-shop. Becoming of age, he still 
worked at the shoe-bench, having become a 
skilled craftsman. It should be stated that he 
enjoyed fair advantages at the common schools, 
but, from his childhood, he exhibited remark- 
able musical talent. It was as natural for him 
to sing as for the lark. His voice was as melo- 
dious as the nishtino-ale's ; his ear was correct 
as to time, pitch and harmony. He began 
early to play the violin. At about the age of 



MARLBOROUGH. 



275 



twenty-five he commenced to give instruction 
in vocal music in his native town, and to lead 
the choir in the old church on the hill. Step 
l)v step lie continued to advance, till demands 
were made upon him to teach singing-schools 
in and out of town. He was gifted with re- 
markable aptness and ability to instruct. As 
soon as he was financially able, he put himself 
under the tuition of Lowell Mason and other 
distinguished teachers and composers of music. 
After this he devoted himself entirely to teach- 
ing and the study of music. He became an 
efficient pianist as well as violinist. He sung 
for a series of years, on the Sabbath, in churches 
at Winchendon, Worcester and Fitchburg, 
Mass. He composed many popular pieces of 
music and compiled several singing-books. He, 
by his own efforts, deservedly won the title 
Professor of Music. He was truly popular 
as an instructor in Teachers' Institutes in 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He died 
in 1873, with the high reputation of being 
Marlborough's foremost son in the divine art of 
music. 

Rev. Luther Wiswall was born in Marl- 
borough, January 9,1801. He early developefl 
a thirst for knowledge, but had only limited 
educational privileges, having simply the ad- 
vantages of common schools till he was seven- 
teen years of age, after which time he attended 
two terms at an academy, and pursued his 
studies at home as he had opportunity. 

In 1822, Mr. Wiswall united with the 
Congregational Church. His activity in the 
church led to his election as deacon, and he 
also superintended the Sabbath-school for 
several years. In studying the Scriptures, to 
qualify himself for the duties of his office, 
he liecame interested in study for its own sake, 
and the thought often arose that he would like 
to preach the gospel. 

In 1829 he purchased a small farm, and the 
following year married and settled down in life 
as a farmer. But his mind was not at ease, 
and four vears later he sold his farm and 



stock, removed to Maine and entered the serai- 
nary at Bangor, where he was graduated in 
1836. 

The following year he was settled as pastor 
of the churches in Brooks and Jackson, Me. 
Here he labored very acceptably for four years, 
when he removed to Windham, in the same 
Stiite, where he spent the remainder of liLs days. 

Mr. Wiswall's intellectual structure was of a 
marked character. He had great mental 
acuteness, was profoundly logical and of 
sound judgment. He was also a sound theolo- 
gian, and an able defender of the " faith once 
delivered to the saints. " Nor did he belong to 
that class of preachers who think it unprofit- 
able to preach the doctrines, the great vital 
truths of the gospel. He regarded them as 
the teachings of Infinite wisdom, fitted to the 
spiritual wants of men of all ages, countries 
and climes, and as the power of God unto 
salvation to all who conlially receive them. 
Socially, Mr. Wiswall was one of the most 
genial and companionable of men. A quiet 
wit, guided by strong common sense, added 
much to the pleasure of social intercourse with 
him. 

On the first Sabbath in March, 1885, he 
preached his last sermon and administerefl the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and during 
that service informed the people that he felt 
that it was the last time he should ever be with 
them on such an occasion, as he was growing 
more weak and feeble every day. And in this 
he was not mistaken, for only two weeks from 
that day he entered into that rest which re- 
mains for the people of God. Though late in 
entering the ministry, he lived to preach the 
gospel forty-seven years. 

Jairi's Collins. — New Hampshire would 
not be the Switzerland of America were it not 
for her granite hills, lofty heights, deep dells 
and hard soil. If she has not been remarkable 
for growing corn, she has been for producing 
men. There is something favorable in her 
climate and atmosphere to yielding full harvests 



276 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of rugged human characters. If they arc 
likc'lv to be somewhat liard and rough, it is in 
a good sense, showing power of endurance and 
of overcoming tlic greatest difficulties. The 
subject before us is a good illustration of the 
granite stock. He was of hardy origin and 
good blood. He was brought np to push for 
himself ; and he did push, whether sawing 
wood, or laying stone wall, or studying 
Colburn's arithmetic, or mastering Murray's 
grammar. He had a mind of his own and was 
bound to use it. He made the most he could 
out of his early school advantages, which were 
derived from the district school and from a 
short time in the academy. He seemed resolved 
upon becoming a teacher in the public schools ; 
and before he was of age he made his first trial, 
and with success, which was the beginning of a 
long series of terms in town and out of town. 
He soon earned the reputation of being a 
" thorough teacher." It appeai-s as though 
more than half of the active men and women 
in town now were once his scholars. 

He has been and is still a thorough Marl- 
boroughite. He has been connectetl, more or less, 
witli jiulilic affairs for the la.st forty yeai-s; per- 
haps, no other man more so. He is now sixty- 
eight yeai"s of age, his birth having occurred 
April 13, 1816. He has been called to fill all 
the leadinsi officers in town from tliat of mod- 
erator to that of legislator. For many years he 
has served on the School Board. He has held 
the office of justice of the peace since 1852. He, 
no doubt, lias written more wills, settled more 
estates and done more probate business than any 
other one in town. 

He has been a workman at almost any craft ; 
80 he has been one of the most useful men in 
the village and town to do little and great jobs 
when peculiar tact and skill were required. He 
is noted for being accommodating. He has 
served as sexton for many years. 

He has strong religious convictions and has 
been ready to make sacrifices in their behalf. 
He was the prime mover and donor in building 



the parsonage and improving the church edifice 
of the Universalist Society. He long acted as 
Sunday-school superintendent and is still most 
loyal to his church. He is a stanch temper- 
ance worker and tobacco hater. He is a man 
that wants his way, because he feels it is right ; 
still, he is kind, obliging and evidently desirous 
to help all. It can be said of him, he is a use- 
ful man. 

Nelson Conveese, born October 10, 1810, 
married Sally M. Jones, September 10, 1829. 
His mother dying when he was but four years 
of age, he was placed in the family of a sister, 
where he remained until grown to manhood. 
Soon after his marriage he removed to Newport, 
Vt., and loaited on a farm. Two years later 
he returned to Marlborough and engaged in the 
mill business in company with his brother Gil- 
man. Losing their mill by fire soon after 
commencing business, he then turned his atten- 
tion to book-making for a short time; but, find- 
ing the business not sufficiently remunerative, 
he gave it up, and became interested in the man- 
ufacture and sale of trusses and supporters, 
which business he continued until the comple- 
tion of the Cheshire Railroad, wlien he was ap- 
pointetl station-agent at the Marlborough station. 
Subsequently he was transferred to the station 
at Bellows Falls ; but, finding the position an 
undesirable one to occupy, he gave it up and 
returned to Marlborough, and purchased the 
residence in the village which he still occupies. 
He then engaged in the stone-quanying busi- 
ness, which he continued on his o\vn account, 
and as agent for othere, for many years, in the 
mean time purchasing and improving consid- 
erable real estate. 

His first wife dying in 1872, in 1873 he 
married, for his second, Mrs. Fannie M. Ever- 
ett, of Fitzwilliam ; for the last ten years he 
h;is kept a public-house for the accommcxlation 
of travelers, but has sold no intoxicating liq- 
uors. 

Being a person of an active and sanguine 
te.nperament in early life, he naturally took the 



MARLBOROUGH. 



277 



lead in all enterprises of a public character. 
Hi.s military career commenced at the age of 
sixteen. In 1838, through liis instrumentality 
probably more than that of any other individ- 
ual, the Marlborough Cadet Company was or- 
ganized, uniformed and equipped. He soon 
became its commander, antl from thence rose to 
the command of tlie Twelfth Regiment of the 
New Hampsiiire militia Re-entering the ranks 
again, he attained the position of major-general 
of the Third Division of the New Hampshire 
State Militia. Soon after the breaking out of 
the Rebellion, in the spring of 1861, he com- 
menced a weekly drill of all citizens of the 
town wlio chose to assemble for that purpose, 
thus preparing them for the duties of actual 
service, in case they were called for. In the 
autumn of that year he was appointed colonel 
of the Sixth Regiment of New Hampshire 
Volunteers. The regiment was organized at 
Keene, and left there in December for Wash- 
ington, and from there was sent to Cajie Hat- 
teras. In consequence of severe and chronic 
indisposition, he was obliged to relinquish the 
active duties of the field, and, instead of asking 
for a furlough and continuing under pay from 
the government, he adopted the less selfish 
course, and resigned his commission at once. 

He has officiated as moderator in town-meet- 
ings for many years ; has held the office of se- 
lectman for three years, declining to serve again 
when elected ; he represented the town two 
years in the Legislature, was county commis- 
sioner for three years, and one of the building 
committee for erecting the present court-house 
at Keene. He has also held the office of deputy- 
sheriff for six years, and was twice unanimously 
nominated by the county delegation for the 
office of sheriff of the county, but declined ac- 
cepting it, and has held the coiiiniission of jus- 
tice of the peace for thirty years. In all these 
]30sitions his rect)rd has been an honorable one 
to himself and creditable to the town. 

As a citizen and neighbor, his sympathies are 
always with those in trouble, and, conse- 



quently, his counsel and advice are oftcner so- 
licited, perhaps, than those of any other indi- 
vidual in town. 

Edwix Davis, son of Jonah and Sarah 
(AVilkinson) Davis, was born May 8, 1821, 
under favorable circumstances. His ancestry 
reaches back to the first settlers of New Eng- 
land. His father was a man of mental 
strength, good judgment, and emulous to do 
good as he had opportunity. His mother wa.s 
a woman of remarkably good common sense 
and generous feeling. They were both desir- 
ous to make the most possible of their only 
child. So Edwin was fortunately cared for in 
his early childhood, and at a suitable age was 
sent to the district school. Being of a genial 
disposition and full of fun, he was very much 
of a favorite among his school-mates. He 
always stood well in his classes. Having mas- 
tered to some extent the common branches, he 
left home at the age of fourteen, to attend Mel- 
ville Aiademy, in Jaffrey. Now, for several 
years, he spent most of his time in academies, 
pursuing the sciences, mathematics, English and 
classical literature. At the age of seventeen 
he taught his first school, in Swanzey, N. H. 
Though a mere boy, he proved himself able to 
instruct and govern young men and women who 
were his seniors. For a numl)er of successive 
winters he taught with commendable success. 
After this he decided to study for the ministry, 
and entered upon his theological course under the 
direction of Rev. William N. Barber, and after- 
wards continued it under the tuition of Rev. 
C. Woodhouse. He was ordained to the work 
of the gospel ministry at the annual s&ssion of 
the New Hampshire Convention of Univcrsal- 
ists at Winchester, June 19, 1845. His first 
stated engagement to preach was in his native 
town, where his labors were crowned with suc- 
cess. In 1845 he removed to Richmond, N. 11., 
where he remained some five ye<irs, living in 
sight of the birth-place of Hosea Ballou, and 
preaching in the meeting-house in which that 
gifted one had proclaimed the gospel of glad 



278 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tidings. In 1850 he changed his location to 
Hinsdale, N. H., taking charge of the Universal- 
ist society there, and preaching some part of the 
time in West Brattleborough and Vernon, Vt., 
in Northfield, Mass., and West Swanzey, N. H. 
During his settlement here he taught several 
select schools and devoted considerable time to 
ovei-seeing the public schools. On account of 
the death of his father, which occurred on the 
24th of March, 1856, he went to Marlborough 
that same year to reside, for the purpose of aid- 
ing his bereaved mother and settling his father's 
estate. Being earnestly solicited, he made an en- 
gagement with the society there for the second 
time to su])ply them with preaching for the year. 

In the spring of 1857 he settled in Paper- 
Mill village, Alstead, N. H., where he re- 
mained four years, having a very successful 
ministry, still proving himself a most devoted 
friend to the cause of education. 

In 1861 he had a call to settle in Methuen, 
Mass., which he accepted. He had already- 
spent some twenty years in the ministry, living 
all the while in his native county. In this new 
field of labor he made many warm friends, and 
served well the society as a faithful, religious 
teacher. After laboring three years in Methuen, 
he located in West Acton, ]\Iass., where he or- 
ganized two societies, one in West and the other 
in South Acton. He faithfully ministered to 
these societies for seven j'ears, being instrumen- 
tal in having a good church edifice built in the 
West village, and preparing the way for an- 
other to be built in the South village. 

During the centenary year of Universalism 
in America he was employed by the New 
Hampshire State Convention to take the lead 
in raising her quota of money for the ^Murray 
fund. In this enterprise he accomplished all 
that could rightfully be expected. In Decem- 
ber of 1870 he accepted a call, and settled in 
Canton, Mass., where he has continued for 
nearly nine yeai"s. During this charge, he has 
been employed a portion of two years by the 
Massachusetts Universalist Convention as finan- 



cial agent of that body to raise money, and has 
been successful in securing more than ten 
thousand dollars. Few men are better adapted 
to solicit money for a good cause than Mr. 
Davis. The people feel at once, as he makes 
an appeal, that he is strictly honest and believes 
heartily in his cause. 

As a writer, Mr. Davis' style is direct, 
smooth, and somewhat florid. His sermons are 
quite methodical, and so illustrated as to render 
them plain and interesting. His published 
articles have been full of good thought, clearly 
and tastefully expressed. 

He seldom speaks publicly without special 
preparation, and so he speaks because he has 
something to say. In manner, he is affable, 
without the least ostentation or affectation. His 
voice is expressive of a good head and heart. 
As a reformer, his trumjiet has given no un- 
certain sound. He has always been a bold ad- 
vocate of freedom and temperance. 

Mr. Davis is very much devoted to his fam- 
ily, consisting of a wife, a daughter and two 
sons, one of whom graduated in 1878 from the 
Medical School of Boston University, is now a 
practicing physician in Quincy, Mass., and the 
other is a graduate from Tufts College and 
Boston Dental College, and is now a successful 
dentist in Boston. 

Mr. Davis never repels, but draws others to- 
ward him ; so he is a welcome servant of the 
Lord at the bridal altar, in tiie sick-room or in 
the place of deepest sorrow. Marlborough is 
the better for his being one of her native sons, 
and the world is better because he is livino; in it. 

Hexry p. Tenxey was born in this town 
December 26, 1830. He was next to the young- 
est of five children — one daughter and four 
sous — of Calvin and Tabitha Baker Tenney. 
His father was a man of ability, and his mother 
a woman of sterling character. So, with good 
blood coursing his veins, and with an almost 
perfect physique, he started out on life's pil- 
grimage under favorable auspices. His early 
home was close by the foot of the old Monadnock. 



MARLBOROUGH. 



279 



So, beauty, picturesqueness and sublimity en- 
compassed liim. Gifted witli a sunny tempera- 
ment and a fondness for the beautiful, he revel- 
ed in his boyhood with delight in the varied 
scenery about him. The hills and vales and 
streams and lakes enchanted him. He had not 
lived long before he knew what hard work 
meant, for his father was a farmer and tavern- 
keeper, and was not troubled to find enough ftjr 
the boys to do. However, he wanted to have 
them in school when it kept, and was willing 
they should have seasons of recreation. Now, 
with Henry, when it was work, it was work, 
and when it was play, it was play ; he was not 
wont to do things by halves. When the stint 
was done or the time for recreation was at hand, 
how he would hie away to the brooks, the ponds 
or mountains, bound to have a good time and 
sure to do his part in bringing it about! His 
dark eyes would seem to scan everything, and 
his eager mind would take it all in. Ah ! how 
he enjoyed fun ! How he would joke and laugh, 
and yet was tender of the feelings of others ! 
He developed into a noble-looking youtli, with 
a prominent forehead, a large, dark eye, and 
rosy cheeks. He was full of vigor and good 
cheer. Whether acting the soldier, hoeing corn, 
fishing for pickerel or spelling in school, he was 
ambitious to excel. He early exhibited a fond- 
ness for learning, making the most of his oppor- 
tunities. As Henry advanced into his teens his 
parents plainly saw that he was not to be kept 
on the farm for a life employment. By the 
time he had seen a decade and a half of years he 
had exhausted the means of gaining instruction 
in his own district school. Soon after this he 
went from home to attend academies, where he 
became thoroughly fitted for college ; but now 
his eye-sight failed, and he was forced, much to 
his regret, to give up his college course. He 
then devoted himself for some years to teaching 
in Mettowee Academy, Pawlet, Vt., then in 
Peterborough Academy, N. H., and afterwards 
taught the select school in Marlborough. In 
all these schools he was eminently successful. 



Withdrawing from teaching, he visited the 
far West, and on his return he remained in town 
for awhile, filling various offices of trust. In 
1862 he settled in East Jaffrey, N. H., as 
clerk in the office of the cotton manufactory of A. 
Baseom & Co., where he continued for six years, 
managing the business for the most part. In 1868 
he went to Orange, where he entered into mer- 
cantile trade, and continued up to the time of 
his death. However, he did not confine liimsclf 
altogether to his store ; for he still took a deep 
interest in the cause of education, and served as 
a most valuable member on the School Board 
for some ten vears. Besides this, he was one of 
the founders of Orange National Bank and of 
the Savings Bank, and has been a trustee of the 
former from its inception, and president of the 
latter for some years. In all these offices he 
proved himself a careful, discerning, trusty and 
strictly reliable man. He was a Mason of high 
degree, having passed through the different 
chairs up to the highest, with honor to himself 
and credit to the order. It can be said of him 
that he loved the craft and lived its virtues. 

As a citizen, he ranked among the foremost, 
being always desirous to improve and advance 
the highest interests of his adopted town. He 
so wrought in its behalf as to leave enduring 
testimonials behind him. 

In 1858 he was married to Julia Caroline 
Stibbins, of Hinsdale, N. H., a worthy and tal- 
ented woman. Their home has been an ideal 
one, blessing and being blessed. They have 
reared two sons, — one a graduate from Brown 
University, and the other a clerk in his father's 
store. 

Mr. Tenney, by pneumonia, departed this life 
April 24,1885, fifty-four yeiu-s old, lamented 
by all who knew him. Townsmen, school chil- 
dren, Masonic brethren in throngs all united in 
his funeral obsequies, to bury respectfully the 
manly form of the noble one whose life proved 
that he loved God, home and humanity. It must 
be comforting to kin and friends, standing so 
close to his transformation, to look back upon 



280 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the way that has been made so bright by him 
who now reflects only the light of immortality. 

John Quincy Adams McCollester, M.D., 
is the son of Silas and Aehsah (Holman) 
McCollester. He first saw light in the easterly 
part of Marlborough, near the Eoxbury line, 
May 3, 1831. In March, 1836, the family re- 
moved to the village. From the age of four 
years to that of ten he attended the district 
school, which was usually kept two terms a 
year, of eleven weeks each. Intelligent and ac- 
tive in mind and body, at the age of ten years 
he commenced to work in his father's pail 
manufactory, and soon exhibited his capability 
by performing the usual labor of a skilled ar- 
tisan. His schooling was now limited to the 
winter term. 

In the autumn of 1846 he attended a select 
school in his own village, taught by two broth- 
ers. Ransom N. and Royal H. Porter, and sub- 
sequently received further instruction in the 
schools and academies in Fitzwilliam, Walpole, 
Saxton's River and South Woodstock. He 
Avas often associated with his brother, Rev. Sul- 
livan H. McCollester, as an assistant teacher, 
and it was under his supervision, mainly, that 
he effected his preparation for college. In the 
winter of 1818-49, he taught school in the 
" Fay Hill " District, in Walpole, and enjoyed 
the New England experience of " boarding 
round." The doctor frequently alludes to this 
portion of his life with pleasure. The intelli- 
gence, application and interest of the scholars in 
their school-work, he represents as unequaled 
in any school with which he has been acquaint- 
ed. During the two subsequent winters he 
taught school in the same district. In 1851, he 
passed an examination and was admitted to the 
class that graduated in 1853 from the Norwich 
Univei-sity, at Norwich, Vt. In 1856 he re- 
ceived the degree of A.M. from this institution. 

After completing his academical course he 
entered the office of Dr. James Batcheller, of 
his native town, as a student of medicine. He 
attended one coui'se of medical lectures at the 



Dartmouth Medical School, and for five months 
in 1855 he was employed as an assistant in the 
hospital at Deer Island, Boston Harbor. He 
went to Philadelphia in October, 1855, attended 
the course of lectures deliveretl at the Jefferson 
Medical College during the winter of 1855—56 
and received the degree of M.D. from this in- 
stitution in March, 1856. 

Industrious and apt as a student, he received 
high markings in all his studies, but preferred 
mathematics and the exact sciences to literary 
and classical branches. He has often remarked 
that the great latitude, uncertainty and want 
of precision in the meaning and use of words 
in literature and the classics have rendered them 
less congenial to his taste than the study of the 
sciences. 

In May, 1856, he married Miss Sarah E. 
Hazen, of Shirley, Mass., and duriiig the same 
month settled in South Deerfield. During his 
short stay in this place he gained the confidence 
of the people ; but, concluding that the field was 
too contracted, in November of the same year 
he moved to the village of Groton Junction, 
now known as Ayer. On the 28th of August, 
1857, his daughter Anna was born, and on the 
5th of May, 1858, his happy home was made 
desolate by the death of his wife. August 9, 
1859, occurred his marriage to Georgianna L. 
Hunt, who has borne hira six children, three of 
whom now survive. 

In May, 1862, he volunteered his services as 
a mediail officer, and was employed as a surgeon 
in the field and in the hospital during and sub- 
sequent to the disastrous campaign of McClel- 
lan on the Peninsula. In November, 1862, he 
was commissioned surgeon of the Fifty-third 
Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, and was 
on duty with the regiment during its active 
service in Louisiana. 

He was mustered out at the expiration of the 
term of service of the regiment, September 2, 
1863. As a medical officer he gained the con- 
fidence of his superiors in rank and was re- 
garded as able and efficient. 



MARLBOROUGH. 



281 



At the conclusion of his military service he 
resumed his practice at Groton Junction. He 
was appointed examining surgeon for United 
States invalid pensioners in 1864, which office 
he held till 1876, when pressure of j^rofessional 
duties obliged him to retire from his j^osi- 
tion. 

Dr. McCollester has never been a political 
aspirant ; nevertheless, he has always been alive 
to all matters of social interest. He served 
seven years on the board of school committee 
of Groton, and two years in the same capacity 
in Harvard, in which town he has resided 
since April, 1869. He is a charter member of 
Caleb Butler Lodge of A. F. and A. Masons, 
and is one of its Past Masters. 

As a physician, giftsd with senses remarka- 
bly acute, delicate of touch, quick and keen in 
observation, taking in the physiognomy of dis- 
ease, reading understandingly books, men and 
things, his judgment, correct and rapid, appears 
as if produced by intuition. 

Probably the most reliable guage of a phy- 
sician's ability is his reputation with his profes- 
sional brethren. Many who stand high in pub- 
lic esteem as medical men speak very highly of 
Dr. McCollester's professional abilities ; and 
were it not for his attachment to his friends, 
which has confined him to a laborious but not 
very remunerative practice, he might easily 
have found a larger field for his talents, better 
compensation, less jihysical and mental wear, 
and time for scientific study. 

As a man, his social nature is largely de- 
veloped ; and the repeated afflictions he has sus- 
tained in the death of his children have been 
very heavy blows to him. He is aifable and cour- 
teous to all, and treats the indigent sufferer with 
the same kind consideration which he extends 
to the affluent. He is not wanting in ambition, 
and desires and appreciates the good-will and 
approbation of the public. Love of money 
forms no part of his composition, and, were it 
not for the large extent of his practice, he 
would be constantly impecunious. 



" I cannot explain anything about it," said 
a sick old lady whom he attended. " I cer- 
tainly thought I should die ; but when he came 
into the room, it was like a flood of sunlight. 
I could not feel discouraged if I wanted to be." 
To this power of awakening hope and inspiring 
courage, in the sick and sufiering, Dr. McCol- 
lester owes no small part of his success. 

Luther Fakrar, son of Phinehas and 
Lovina (Warren) Farrar, was born in Marl- 
borough, January 11, 1778. Of his early life, 
or where he obtained his education, we have 
not been informed ; but, having completed his 
education, he chose the law as his profession, 
and settled in Maine. 

He was eminently possessed of all those 
amiable and useful endowments which render 
man an ornament and a blessing to society. In 
the discharge of all the relative duties of life, 
he was governed by a fixed determination to do 
what his conscience should dictate to be right. 
In his family, mildness, discretion and pru- 
dence marked his deportment. As a neighbor, 
he was urbane and benevolent. 

The predominant traits of his professional 
character were honesty and capability. The 
effects of religious principle and a correct life 
were exemplified by a remarkable composure 
and patience during a tedious and distressing 
sickness, and a perfect resignation in death. 

Early called off from active professional 
duties to pine on a bed of sickness and pain, he 
found support for several years in the kind at- 
tentions of his numerous friends and in the con- 
solations of religion, until he cheerfully re- 
signed his spirit to God, in humble hope of a 
blessed immortality. He died at Norway, Me., 
April 28, 1812. 

Joseph C. Mason, son of Clark and Almi- 
ra (Towns) Mason, was born at the old home- 
stead March 13, 1837. He received a common- 
school and aaideraic education, and began his 
career as an educator at quite an early age. 
Later in life he devoted considerable time to 
the study of languages, sciences and advanced 



282 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



mathematics. He received a legal education 
at the Law College in Albany, N. Y., and in 
the office of Dearborn & Scott, distinguished 
attorneys of Peterborough, N. H. He was 
admitted to the bar in September, 1864, at 
Nashua, N. H., at a session of the Supreme Ju- 
dicial Court. He practiced his profession at 
Mason village (now Greenville), N. H., nearly 
three years, and then removed to Missouri, 
where he has for the most part since resided, 
and devoted his time mainly to educational 
work, though still maintaining his connection 
with the bar. 

He held the office of superintending school 
committee at Mason village, and in 1866 was 
appointed by the Governor of New Hampshire 
to the office of common school commissioner 
of Hillsborough County, and was ex officio 
member of the State Board of Education. 

During the war he was an earnest advocate 
of the Union cause, and contributed to swell the 
Union army by delivering patriotic speeches in 
various parts of New England. 

After his removal to Missouri, he held the 
office of principal of the Washington Public 
School, St. Louis; superintendent of public 
schools at Boonville, Carthage and Joplin, 
which last-named position he still holds. He 
has been a frequent (contributor to educational 
and other journals, and has published several 
quite extended reports growing out of his offi- 
cial relations. 

His work as an educator for several years 
past has been largely that of an organizer. It 
may be added that a large number of teachers 
have been specially prepared for this work 
under his supervision in the normal depart, 
meut of the schools above mentioned. 

Sumner A. Mason, M.D., fifth son of Clark 
and Almira (Towns) Mason, was born at the 
old homestead May 23, 1838, where he continued 
to reside until twenty-one years of age, receiving 
the limited common-school education granted 
to the residents of the farming districts of Marl- 
borough. He subsequently became a student of 



Sullivan H. INIcCollester, in Westmoreland 
Valley Seminary, until the breaking out of the 
Rebellion. 

He says : " Here allow me to pay a tribute of 
respect to my quondam friend and preceptor ; 
for whatever I may owe to other instructors for 
their efforts, or to parents for their moral and 
religious training, who, without doubt, laid the 
foundation of character, it was he who first in- 
spired me with the hope of a professional 
future, — that something more than the busy 
humdrum of life might be evolved from it. And 
whatever success I may gain in my profession, 
whatever fresh laurels I may win from new ef- 
forts, I shall look back upon his counsel and his 
teachings as upon ' apples of gold in pictures 
of silver.'" 

He enlisted with the first three months' 
troops sent from New Hampshire, as a private 
in Company A, Cheshire Liglit Guards, as 
named by Captain Barker, which afterward be- 
came a part of the " Fighting Second." He went 
from Keene to Portsmouth, where the regiment 
rendezvoused for some weeks, and encamped 
upon the ground. The exposure, together with 
a severe attack of confluent measles, broke up 
his health for a long time, and confined him to 
the hospital. While there, suffering from the 
second stage of this disease, the only thing 
he can recollect is that he was aroused by an 
unusual commotion, the sounding of bugles and 
the rolling of drums; and when he asked, 
"What is that?" Colonel H. B. Titus, who had 
called to bid him adieu, replied, " That is your 
regiment going to Washington. Good-bye, old 
boy." After a partial convalescence, he re- 
turned home ; and his brother Charles took his 
place, he assuming his. 

It was after this that he commenced his pro- 
fessional studies in his native town, and pur- 
sued them under difficulties for upwards of one 
year, having charge at that time of the home- 
stead and his widowed mother. The most of 
his time during the day was devoted to them, 
and his nights to study. He then imagined he 



MARLBOROUGH. 



283 



could rob nature with impunity, and never 
lieeded the old clock as it rang out " forever 
more" its midnight peal upon the silent air. 
The winter of 18(J4-(35 he spent in Philadel- 
phia, for the purpose of attending medical lec- 
tures. During the two years and upwards he 
spent in that city he studied medicine in the 
office of Henry T. Child, M.D., 634 Race 
Street, a Quaker gentleman of great worth and 
intelligence, who.se large library was gratuitously 
open to him at all times, and whose uniform 
kindness he will never forget. 

In the spring of 18G5 he found himself in 
need of rest, and resolved to seek recreation in 
the camp of our soldiers, where at least he could 
have a little relaxation from mental toil, and at 
the same render efficient service to the unfor- 
nate wounded. For that purpose he visited 
Washington and Alexandria under the auspices 
of the Christian Commission, where he was de- 
tailed to visit the various camps and hospitals 
in and about those cities. He remained here 
until the 3d of July, when he was ordered to 
City Point, Va. Here again he visited the 
large government hospitals ; and while engaged 
distributing store-s, tracts, religious literature, 
etc., he had a rare opportunity of observing the 
diffijrent phases of disease, as manifested in a 
large number of patients. 

City Point was one of the places designated 
by the government for the discharge of our sol- 
diers, hence was one of the last abandoned by 
the Christian Commission. As long as there 
was a sufferer, its beneficient hand was stretched 
forth to alleviate. 

" Let me not," he says, " attempt to describe 
to vou my feelings when the last footfall of the 
brave defenders of our Union ceased to re-echo 
upon my ears; when I watched the last steamer, 
until its form grew spectral, gently gliding 
from those historic shores, bearing upon its 
bosom the household joys of far-oif homes, leav- 
ing thousands to slumber where erst they walked 
in all the pride of manhood's bearing." Soon 
after the departure of the soldiers from the 



Point the Commission was closed up, and its 
effects turned over to the Freedmen's Bureau. 

After this relapse from constant toil, he spent 
some time in visiting the battle-field of Peters- 
burg, and the line of breastworks between it 
and City Point. It was while residing here 
that he made the acquaintance of his wife, who 
had been a nurse in the hospitals, and who, in 
turn, nursed him. She was the only child of 
Lurad C. Heath, a lineal descendant of General 
Heath, of New Hampshire ; and as they jour- 
neyed together on horseback, the only means of 
locomotion over those bloody fields, they con- 
cluded that the journey of life would be incom- 
plete unless they traveled together. Miss 
Heath was seven years his junior, and a gradu- 
ate of Rockland Female Institute. This was a 
romantic meeting of a descendant of his native 
State in old Virginia. After a few months' 
residence on the beautiful banks of the James 
River, he returned to Philadelphia, where, 
under the tuition of Dr. Child, he graduated in 
1868, an allopathic physician. 

He practiced only a few months in Philadel- 
phia, when he removed to New York City, 
where he achieved considerable success during 
the ensuing years, and where he still resides. 

Hon. Andrew C. Stone was born in INIarl- 
borough May 16, 1839. He is a son of the 
late Aaron Stone. He was educated in the 
schools of Marlborough and at Appleton 
Academy, at New Ipswich, and Phillips Acad- 
emy, at Exeter. When a young man he taught 
school in Walpole, Keene, New Ipswich and 
Peterborough. In 1860 he commenced reading 
law at Lawrence, Mass., and continued his studies 
until August, 1862, when he enlisted in the 
Thirty-third Massachusetts Volunteers, and 
served three years in the army. 

In 1865 he went to Ashtabula, O., and com- 
pleted his law studies with Judge Sherman, 
being admitted to the bar in the spring of 1867. 
He at once commenced the practice of law in 
Lawrence, Mass., where he has continued to 
reside and practice his profession until the 



284 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



present time. lu 1869 lie married Mary F- 
Hulbert, daughter of Joseph T>. Hulbert, Esq., 
of Ashtabula, O. He has taken great interest 
in the Grand Army of the Republic, having 
attended as a delegate the National Encamp- 
ments at Indianapolis, Baltimore and Denver. 
He is Past Commander of Post 39, Department 
of Massachusetts. He is a Knight Templar 
and Scottish Rite Mason, and Past Master of 
Phoenician Lodge, in Lawrence. He has been 
twice a member of the Common Council of 
Lawrence, and was one year president of that 
boily. He has served as a member of the 
Massachusetts Republican State Central Com- 
mittee. For the years 1880 and 1882 he was 
a member of the Massachusetts Senate, serving 
upon the committees on the judiciary and rail- 
roads. He Mas a delegate from his district to 
the Republican National Convention in Chicago 
in 1884, and favored the renomination of Presi- 
dent Arthur at that time. He has been an 
extensive traveler, having been largely through 
the United States and twice to Europe. He is 
at present city solicitor of Lawrence, ilass. 

Daniel B. Woodavard, M.D , eldest son of 
Stilman and Eunice (Buttrick) Woodward, was 
born in Marlborough, N. H., October 1, 1835. 
He- was the eldest of six children, — four sons 
and two daughters, — all of whom but one, the 
youngest son, are married and still living. 

Mr. Woodward was early instructed to caie 
for and cultivate his father's farm, and thereby 
at an early age was inured to solid physical 
labor. He was emphatically a worker in his 
boyhood. His early education was limited to 
the brief terms of the district and select schools 
of his native town. He early imbibed an ener- 
getic inclination to think and study for himself, 
being encouraged by his judicious and strong- 
minded mother, who had had experience in 
teaching in the district schools of her native 
town and vicinity. His youthful mind waxed 
stronger and stronger, while laboring on his 
father's farm and in the wooden-ware shops 
near his home, till he arrived at his majority. 



when he spent two brief terms at Westminster 
Seminary, Vermont. He was unpretending, 
studious and methodical in his attainments, — 
progressive, persevering, hopeful and bound to 
succeed. 

He commenced his professional studies under 
the efficient instructions of Dr. Samuel A. 
Richardson, of Marlborough. While pursuing 
his studies, not being unmindful of his duty 
when his country called, he enlisted in her 
servnce, and spent three successive years in a 
cause that lay near to his heart, — his country's 
freedom. 

During this time he suffered the hardships 
and privations incident to the field, the camp 
and the hospital ; ever efficient, faithful and 
true on the field of battle, as elsewhere. He 
continued his professional studies in the hos- 
pitals of the LTnited States army, and subse- 
quently entered Harvard Medical College, of 
Boston, Mass., where he graduated March 8, 
1865, and receival the degree of M.D., and 
immediately began the practice of his profes- 
sion in Troy, N. H., in plain view of his old 
homestead, where he remained actively and 
efficiently pursuing the profession of his choice. 

The 17tli of May, 1865, found the doctor 
uniting his interests with the lady of his choice, 
Miss Ellen A. Burt, of Plymouth, Vt. 

In 1868, Dr. Woodward decided to leave 
the early field of his profession, and removed 
to Ellenburg, Clinton Counts', N. Y., where he 
continues to practice his profession. 

The doctor's early temperate habits, invig- 
orating out-door exercises and methodical studi- 
ousness, have developed a sound mind in a 
strong body, enabling him to perform the suc- 
cessive duties of each returning day almost 
unmolested by sickness or pain. In Dr. AVood- 
ward we see that the child and youth was 
father of the man. 

John Wilxje Conveijse, son of Nelson and 
Sallie JI. (Jones) Converse, was born in Marl- 
borough, July 3, 1848. Though a farmer's 
boy, and always obliged to labor at the farm- 



MARLBOROUGH. 



285 



work, he was regarded as being of a thoughtful 
an<l studious turn of mind, and was encouraged 
in tliis by his parents, they allowing him the 
full l)enefit of such school advantages as the 
town then aiforded, and afterwards sending him 
to various seminaries in Vermont, Maine and 
New Hampshire. 

When about twenty years of age he com- 
menced ' the study of law at home, under the 
direction of the late law-firm of Wheeler & 
Faulkner, of Keene, N. H. ; and, when he 
became of age, removed to Springfield, Mass., 
where he continued his studies for two years in 
the office of Augustus L. Soule, — now judge of 
Supreme Court of Massachusetts, — and in 1872 
was admitted to the bar of that State. 

The following year he became engaged to 
and married Miss Clara A. Wheeler, a woman 
of uncommon merit and ability ; but she died 
in May, 1875. 

Feeling' that he wante<1 a larger field of 
action, in 1876 he traveled through the West, 
and visited the principal cities there for this 
reason, but finally settled in Boston, where he 
is now practicing his profession. When in 
Springfield he became interested in politics, 1 
taking an active part in campaign work, and ( 
earned quite a reputation as a political speaker. 
He has always been a Republican. Like all 
others in hLs profession, he has been obliged to 
work liard and earnestly for the position he 
holds, but is now in the enjoyment of a moder- 
ate practice and the full confidence of the bar. 
A clear thinker and close reasoner, his judg- 
ment is always to be relied on, as he never 
gives an opinion hastily. He is fast growing 
into prominence, and his success seems assured. 

Ei.isHA O. WfMjDWAED. — He entered upon 
this life August 15, 1828; so, he has just 
passed over the summit towards the sunset 
of his human existence. Still, hLs sky, bur- 
nished with gold, opal and vermilion, seems to l>e 
far to the westward yet. Nature has been, indeed, 
propitious to him, giving but slightest hints of 
approaching age. It is true, his locks are 



frosted ; but his step is quick and firm, and his 
general appearance implies that he is right in 
the vigor of lite. Mentally, he is stronger tlian 
ever. It could not well be otherwise, for he 
has thought and felt and been truly interested 
in the works of God and man. His mind has 
ruled the body, making it sui)missive to prin- 
ciple. He has been no radical, rushing to the 
north or south in pursuit of the enchanted cave 
of the magnet; nor a conservative, with knees 
smiting together like Belsha/zar's, declaring 
there is nothing gootl but in the past. He has 
been fortunate in making a safe voyage, thus 
far, between Scylla and Charybdis. 

He is a native of Swanzey, N. H., and came 
to Marlborough in 1851, as a clerk in the Pro- 
tective Store ; but at l(?ngth he bought out the 
stockholders and continued in trade for him- 
self, at Lowellville, for some three years, when he 
purchased and removed into the store now 
owned by him and Mr. William Xason. Be- 
coming somewhat worn and weary of store con- 
finement, in 1 874 he sold out and removed to 
Grafton, Mass., having purchased a good farm 
there. But his hands had been to<j long skillwl 
in handling the yard-stick and the ta[K;-meas- 
sure to yield readily to holding the plow and 
swinging the scythe. Accordingly, two years' 
experience was sufficient to induce him to re- 
turn to Marllx)rough, making it his permanent 
home and entering into trade again, for this ha<l 
become second nature to him, if it were not his 
first. 

He is a man of good talent and culture. 
Had he devoted himself to the study of law or 
theology he would have been sure of success ; 
but, as it is, he has made much out of this life, in 
the way of helping others and improving him- 
self. He is looked ujx)n as a reliable and very 
efficient basiness man ; he is well versed in 
town matters, having held the office of clerk for 
seventeen years, and that of treasurer sixteen ; 
he has been .sent to the Legislature two years, 
been postmaster fifteen years, and served on 
the School Board for several terms. 



286 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



He has made his home attractive, been gen- 
erous in the support of the Christian Church, 
and has so identified liimself with all good en- 
terprises as to be held in highest esteem. 

Hon. George G. Davis. — When the tocsin 
sounded the alarm of the Rebellion, a youth that 
had been reared among the rocks and hills of 
Roxbury, N. H., heard the call and felt he 
must obey ; and he soon hastened to the field of 
strife, ready to dare and do his best to save the 
Union, and still keep the old flag waving, from 
the Atlantic to tlie Pacific, from the Great 
Lakes to the heaving Gulf. In the battle of 
Williamsburg he was severely wounded, and, 
because of this, he was obliged to be discharged 
from the army. After recovering somewhat 
from his physical injury he aime to Marlbor- 
ough and married Miss Maria L. Collins, and 
settled here. Because of his reliability and fit- 
ness he was called to serve the town in various 
offices of trust, such as town clerk, treasurer, 
etc. As an opportunity presented itself, he 
went into trade. It was soon made evident 
that nature fashioned him for the business. He 
seemed to have foresight in buying and selling. 
He has been popular with his patrons and 
made his mercantile experience a decided suc- 
cess. Though an adopted son of Marlborough, 
he has been faithful to her highest behests. 

Mr. Davis was born August 28, 1842, and 
so now is in the prime of life and active in 
business. He is one of the foremost men in 
town in speaking and working for its interests. 
He believes in improvements and progress, and 
so fails not to encourage all enterprises at home 
and abroad which tend to ennoble. In the 
finish of his own home he shows that he not 
only has a love for comfort, but for the beautiful. 

He has represented the town in the liegis- 
lature, been a State Senator from his district 
and at the present time is an officer on the 
Governor's staff. He has filled all the offices 
that he has held with credit to himself and 
his constituency. 

Mr. Davis is no flashing meteor nor fixed 



star, but a moving body that gives forth light 
and warmth throughout his circuit. In religion 
he is a Congregationalist, in politics a Republi- 
can, in society a genial and social man. 

William M. Nason. — Entering a woods, 
what a diversity of trees we discover, all spring- 
ing from the same soil and growing as far into the 
light as possible! This, we say, is natural. Is 
it any more so than that there should be a great 
variety of human life in a town or state ? Mo- 
notony is not the order of creation. Perfect 
similarity is nowhere to be met with in nature, 
and certainly not among men ; so, as examina- 
tion takes place, something peculiar and original 
is to be found in every human character. Thus 
with the subject under consideration. William 
M. Nason was born August 7, 18.32, the only 
son among four children of Ziba and Eunice Buss 
Nason. He was blest with excellent parentage. 
His early home was pleasant and beautifully 
situated. It is fortunate to be bred where the 
air is bracing, the light is clear, the birds sing, 
the trees thrive, the hills are high and the valleys 
deep. He was brought up on a farm where he 
had stones to pick as well as potatoes to plant; 
where the summers were warm and the winters 
seldom wanting of snow. 

He enjoyed the usual privileges of the district 
school. He was regarded by his mates rather 
as a sober boy, especially in the school-room ; but 
out of doors at times he was sure to make a 
deal of fun. He always ranked well in his 
studies. In his later youth he attended, for 
several terms, the select schools in our village, 
so that at his majority he had a good business 
education. As he started for himself in life he 
did not feel, as many do, that it is necessary for 
a young man to go West to meet with success. 
Accordingly he went into business for himself at 
Swanzey Factory, manufacturing pails. But he 
was not pleased with the place, and, after a 
year's experience there, he sold out and returned 
to Marlborough, entering a store as a clerk. 
Here he soon proved himself well adapted to 
the mercantile calling, showing that he is faith- 



MARLBOROUGH. 



287 



fill and one to be trusted. At lengtli lie went 
into partnei'ship, and lias continued in mercan- 
tile business up to the present time, being es 
teemed as reliable and a man of good judgment. 
For twelve years and more he has been the 
j)ostmaster of the town. He has represented 
Marlborough in the Legislature for two terms. 

He was chosen a deacon of the Congregation- 
al Church in 1870, which office he still holds. 
He was married in 1855 to Caroline E. Knowl- 
ton with whom he happily lived till she died, 
in 1862, leaving a daughter, that survived her 
but a few months ; and afterwards he married 
Sarah A. Knowlton, sister of his first wife, with 
whom he is now living, having a pleasant home 
within and without. Thus, in the prime of 
life, Mr. Nason stands as a successful and 
worthy Christian man. He seems bound, in 
his quiet, persistent and unostentatious way, to 
do what he can for his native town and the 
world. 

Levi A. Fuij.er is a descendant from good 
ancestry. It is natural for him to think and 
act. From boyhood he has been all astir. 
His aspirations and endeavors have pointed up- 
ward. His ambition in no small degree has 
seemed to be to help others. In thus doing 
he has come to be popular and influential. As 
a business man he is regarded shrewd and just; 
as a citizen, well-informed and loyal, and as a 
Christian, devoted and faithful to his convic- 
tions. 

Ho was born May 4, 1836, and is in the full 
strength of life. He is engaged in manufactur- 
ing wooden-ware and dealing in lumber. He 
has served the town as selectman. Representa- 
tive to the Legislature and been a county com- 
missioner, and is still a growing man. He is a 
member of the Congregational Church, in 
which he has held the office of deacon since 
1874. 

James Knowltox is one of Marlborough's 
most busy men. He was born in Dublin De- 
cember 28, 1885. For years in the winter he 
taught in our public schools ; was liked by 



his scholars and respected by their parents. For 
more than a (juarter of a century he has done 
business in town, though his dwelling is on the 
boundary between Marlborough and Keene, so 
that he sleeps in the latter place and votes there, 
but lives in the former. He is a thorough me- 
chanic, able to turn his hand to most any busi- 
ness, doing it in the b&st manner. He has by 
his deeds identified himself with man}' import- 
ant works in town. He is now engaged in get- 
ting out lumber and manufacturing pails, giving 
employment to quite a number of workmen. It 
is said he always deals with his help fairly and 
kindly. 

Lee Suei,ivan McCoei,e.ster — He is the 
son of Rev. Dr. S. H. and Sophia F. McCollester 
and was born in Westmoreland, N. H. June 
5, 1859. Before he was three years old his 
parents removed to Westbrook, Me., where 
they resided till he was ten years old ; then he 
lived in Nashua, N. H., more than three years, 
where he attended his first school, and became 
fitted for the High-School. As his father was 
called to the presidency of Buchtel College, 
and his family removed to Akron, Ohio, Lee 
entered the preparatory department of the 
college in 1873 and became fitted for college 
and was matriculated into the freshman class 
in 1876, where he remained till he had com- 
pleted the sophomore year, when, accompanying 
his parents, he visited Europe, where he ])ass- 
ed a year in London University and in travel. 
On his return home he entered Tufts College, 
as a junior, 1879, and was graduated Bachelor 
of Arts in 1881 having taken two prizes in 
his course. In the fall of 1881 he began his 
theologiad studies at Tufts Divinity School, 
and was graduated Bachelor of Divinity, hav- 
ing won two prizes in this course. Immedi- 
ately on leaving college, in 1884, he was settled 
as pastor over the Universalist Church of 
Claremont, N. H. In August of the same year 
he was married to Miss Lillian Adelle, daugh- 
ter of Dr. Samuel G. and Louisa B. Wright, a 
young woman of rare qualities of mind and 



288 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



heart. For a year they have been settled, 
greatly loved and respected by their people and 
by all knowing them. August 26, 1885, he 
became sorely afflicted through the death of his 
devoted and accomplished wife. All hearts 
having known them felt severely this great 
sorrow, tendering their fullest condolence to the 
young minister of ability and promise. 

Charles R. Mason. — When a young man 
Mr. Mason had the misfortune to lose an arm, 
but it would seem this had been made up to 
him, from the fact that he has done so far as 
much as ordinarily falls to the lot of one man 
to do. He is a native of Dublin and was educa- 
ted in her schools. He taught with success for 
several terms. Naturally gifted as to art, after 
his loss he devoted special attentiou to penman- 
ship and drawing, so that he excelled in both 
and has taught writing for years. He is a fine 
accountant and book-keeper. He has filled 
many important offices in town, with credit to 
all. He is now justice of peace, and was 
United States assistant assessor for six years. 
He was born July 27, 1830. He is one tiiat 
thinks more tlian he says, and does as he agrees. 
By his life he is writing out a record that will 
be always pleasing for kindred and friends to 
read. 

Cyrus SiDXEY Moors. — He was born July 
5, 1832, in Jaftrey, N. H. He was a relial)le 
and industrious boy, making the most he could 
out of his meagre school advantages. While 
a mere youth his father was accidentally killed 
and so left the care and responsibility of a farm 
upon him and his brother, Loren L. He was 
faithful to tliis charge and true to his noble 
mother. They so managed that Sidney was 
enabled to attend several select schools in the 
village ; and so, as he became of age, he had a 
fair education, and entered upon his life-work 
with good aims. He followed the carpenter 
business for a while ; then went into trade for a 
time ; and at length became station-agent at 
the Marlborough Depot, on the Chesiiire 
R. R. Here he has done faithful service to 



the road -and the patrons for many years. He 
has so wrought, that he has the fullest confi- 
dence of his employers and the people at large, 
and no doubt will be retained in his present po- 
sition so long as he shall be able to fill it. 
He was postmaster for the south part of the 
town, is an express agent, and is mail and 
passage carrier from the Marlborough Cheshire 
Depot to the village. Verily, he is one of the 
useful and substantial men in town, a preserver 
of good order, interested in the Christian 
Church, a temperance reformer and a peace-lov- 
ing citizen. 

Leonard Ellsworth Tilden, only son of 
George and Betsey L. Tilden, was born at 
Marlborough, N. H., March 28, 1861, one of 
the most eventful years in the nation's history, 
when a great political crisis terminated in civil 
war, when the telegraph wires trembled 
throughout the land witii the messages of re- 
bellion, and men sought the daily news more 
eagerly than they sought their daily food. 

The father, a stanch Republican, was one of 
tiie first to enroll his name as a volunteer in the 
Union array. Born into such circumstances, 
how naturally the mind of the young son was 
stimulated to political thought and action ! He 
very early evinced a strong literai'v taste and 
markal ability in writing and arranging articles 
for the press, many of which were published by 
the amateur press while he was a mere child. 
Pennies which the ordinary boy spent for toys 
and confectionery were treasured up by young 
Tilden, and invested in books and .writing- 
material. 

He attended the village school, making fair 
use of his time ; his quick, comprehensive miud 
interpreting the lesson with little study ; thus he 
was generally well up with his class. Jumping 
at conclusions, as he often did, he made many 
mistakes, which won for him the laugh and 
ridicule of his companions ; but his proud, sen- 
sitive nature was well balanced with courage 
and perseverance, which moved him steadily 
forward, making stepping-stones of his errors 



MARLBOROUGH. 



289 



upon which to climb, thus living out the senti- 
ment of J. G. Holland : " We build the ladder 
by which we rise." 

In 1875 he became identified with amateur 
journalism (thought by ex-Speaker Randall to 
be the noblest work ever engaged in by the 
American youth), and commenced the publica- 
tion of the Cheshire Star, which he enlarged to 
twice its former size in 1878, and changed the 
name to the Granite State Courier. He was 
jionored by the members of the New England 
fraternity by being elected official editor of their 
organ, the New England Amateur, in 1879 ; at 
this time he was American editor of the Season, 
an amateur magazine, published at Bradford, 
England. 

He has written several plays, which have 
been published, showing a good degree of dra- 
matic talent. In 1875, when fourteen years 
of age, he was engaged as reporter for the 
Cheshire Republicau, of Keene, which place he 
filled very acceptably until the fall of 1882, 
when he went to Boston to attend French's 
Business College. While there he became a 
meral)er of the reportorial staff of the Boston 
Daily Globe, and is at the present time under 
engagement to work for the paper whenever 
possible. 

He has been twice elected sergeant-at-arms 
in the New Hampshire Senate, first in 1883, 
for a term of two years, and re-elected in 1885, 
being the youngest man ever elected to that 
office, and the only one ever re-elected. He wfis 
elected president of the Republican Senatorial 
Convention for Cheshire District in 1884, and 
during the campaign of that year served accept- 
ably as clerk and stenographer of the Republi- 
can State Committee. He was appointed a 
delegate from the State of New Hampshire to 
attend the funeral of General Gijint, at New 
York, August, 1885. 

Though young in years, he has acceptably 

filled many places of trust and responsibility. 

In his home relations he has always been loyal ; 

dutiful as a son, working with his father as 

19 



stable-keeper, though often chafing under the 
employment, which was always distiisteful to 
him ; confiding in the mother, who always en- 
couraged his literary work, making many wil- 
ling sacrifices, that he might have advantages ; 
an affectionate brother, a kind and- generous- 
hearted friend. In religious thought he is 
Christian and liberal, seeking to bring the 
golden rule into practical life, thus calling 
around him many pleasant acquaintances, yet 
ever turning to home and home friends with 
the same fi-esh, boyish spirit that has character- 
ized his whole life. 

Congressman Gallinger, speaking of Mr. 
Tilden, says : " Those who know him best, 
prophesy that he is destined to secure a leading 
place among the prominent and influential men 
of the State." 

Charles A. Bemis. — Life is full of sur- 
prises. We read an author and we imagine 
him of such dimensions and appearance ; but 
when we chance to meet him, how unlike the 
man we sujiposed in size, mien and tempera- 
ment! Thus it is in- our experience. The 
great man does not enter the gate at which we 
are watching. The common man makes him- 
self unexpectedly equal to some great emer- 
gency, and we wonder how it was possible. 
Thus it is ; we know not what the day or hour 
will bring forth ; we must wait and be sur- 
prised. 

In one of our humble homes, January 2i), 
1848, a child made its appearance that was 
very weIcom"e, for he was the second born and 
first son. His early opportunities were not 
flattering ; his school advantages were slight ; 
for after he was fourteen he went to only four 
short terms of school. He learned to read, 
write and spell tolerably well, but he wiis a 
stranger to grammar, as his schooling was 
finished. But he early become fascinated with 
biography and hi.story ; and it is said that when 
he was but ten years old he read the history of 
the town of Dublin, and from that time he felt 
he would write the hi-story of his native town. 



290 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Henceforth he was gathering up facts and inci- 
dents for years unknown to others until 
about the time the town of Marlborougli cele- 
brated the hundredth anniversary of its incor- 
poration, in 1876. Then tlie question was asked, 
Who shair write the history of our town ? And 
those who had been apprised of what young 
Bemis had already achieved in collecting statis- 
tics and dates answered, Charles A. Bemis ; 
and so he was encouraged to go on in his 
arduous undertaking until, by some assistance, 
he brought out one of the best town histories. 
We are greatly indebted to it for many of the 
facts and not a few of the pages in this volume 
devoted to Marlborough. As his volume came 
out, the people were, for the most part, happily 
surprised at the important work compiled by 
the young man, who had been forced to day- 
labor for support all the while he was collect- 
ing material for his history. The world was 
surprised when Napoleon scaled the Alps, M-hen 
Dr. Kane explored the Arctic Seas and brought 
back so much coveted knowledge, and when 
Grant captured Vicksburg and put down the 
Rebellion ; so our people were surprised as 
they read the history of our town by the 
wooden-ware worker and box-maker. They 
received more than they had bargained for. 
This shows what may be accomplished by sav- 
ing the spare moments. Mr. Bemis is a young 
man now, industrious, interested in religious, 
social and civil affairs. He loves his home; 
he loves to read ; he loves to talk ; he loves to 
have his own way if he feels it is right. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MARLBOROUGH— ( Coniinuerl). 
MISCELLANEOUS. 

Odd-Fellowship. — In the year 1868, Pa- 
quaig Lodge, No. 50, I. O. O. F., was estab- 
lished in Marlborough. It started with twelve 
charter members, and has continued to increase 



till it now numbers some seventy members. It 
has accumulated quite a property and built a 
fine block, renting a portion for stores. It 
has been instrumental in doing much good in 
behalf of the sick and aiding the bereaved. 

Paupers. — This town has been very fortu- 
nate in having but few poor people to be sup- 
ported. It has always, however, provided with 
care for its indigent. At the present time the 
number is small that receive any pecuniary 
assistance whatever. 

Cemeteries. — The people of Marlborough 
have not been uumindiul of the dead. From 
the beginning of the town they have been ready 
to make ample provision for suitable resting- 
places of the departed. The yard by the old 
meeting-house is the oldest one in town. This 
contains the ashes of the first minister that 
died in town and the first physician. Its acre 
is thickh' sown with the dead. Two other ceme- 
teries were early set apart — one in the north 
portion of the town and the other on the hill- 
side, south of the village — as sacred places. In 
1852, Asa Greenwood anticipated the need of a 
new cemetery, and so took a section of his own 
laud and fenced it off with taste and caused it 
to be solemnly dedicated ; and it is now known 
as Graniteville Cemetery. It is beautifully 
situated on the hill overlooking the village, and 
is becoming so thickly sown with graves. that a 
new one in close proximity has been secured, 
fenced and divided into lots. As we walk 
these sacred places and scan the graves, we can 
but feel " how quick man runs his mortal race." 
It is well that these spots should be made in- 
viting and expressive of beauty and trust in 
God. Cemeteries are quite reliable indices of 
the condition of a people. So, if they are truly 
Christian, they will secure pleasant grounds for 
receiving the ashes of their beloved, and will 
render them attractive with stone, flower, slirub 
and tree. "Beautiful" will be written over 
their gateway and epitaphs will point to heaven. 

Temperance.— As a town Marlborough has 
always stood firm on the side of temperance. 



MARLB'JKOUGH. 



291 



Acting upon the principle that it is better to 
turn moral streams at their sources than to at- 
tempt to change the currents that have taken 
on a river's resistless force, thus Marlborough 
has always had its temperance workers, and its 
temperance organizations as an educating in- 
fluence in the community. 

Far back in the past was that great move- 
ment of moral and religious forces known 
as Washingtonianism ; it did a grand and noble 
work in its time, but, like all reform move- 
ments, it had its rise and its decline ; but not 
until its purpose was accomplished, a strong 
public sentiment was created, and lines of tem- 
perance work were traced which other organi- 
zations took up and carried forward. There 
were the License Party, the Prohibitory Party, 
the Sons of Temperance, the Good Templars 
and the Reform Club, each and all doing 
good and effectual work in its proper time, and 
in its own peculiar way. Beside all this, tliere 
was individual work done ; men of sterling prin- 
ciple sacrificed time and money, let their pro- 
perty depreciate on their hands, closing the only 
hotel in the town, and converting it into stores 
and tenements rather than have intoxicating 
drinks sold in their midst. Thus, brave, patient 
hearts labored on through the years, and by 
constant vigilance, kept the foe from their own 
doors. Yet all the while this giant evil was 
growing in the world, and the call came for 
stronger effort, for more united work. Then 
it was that woman's heart was stirred, and one 
cold December morning in 1873, a band of 
women went forth from a little church in 
Southern Ohio with the call to their Christian 
sisters throughout the land to take up this 
temperance M'ork, in the name of "God and 
home and native land." The cry ran along 
the electric wires that connect human hearts, 
until many a town and village in the State was 
engaged in the work ; nor did it stop here ; its 
vibrations were felt in every State in the Union ; 
nor have they ceased, and to-day the hearts of 
all Christian women in this land, and over the 



sea, beat as one in this great endeavor to crush 
out the evil of intemperance. 

Out of this movement grew the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union. When the call 
came to Marlborough, in July, 1882, a few 
conscientious women were ready to meet it, and 
say " God has placed this responsibility upon us, 
and we have no right to cast it aside, we will 
take up the work and do all and the best we 
can." And thus for three years they have 
labored, having at all times the sympathy and 
support of the people. Much has been 
done, and much remains to be done, but the 
word of God abideth forever, and tlie declara- 
tion is, " The earth shall be filled with the 
knowledge of the glory of the Loixl as the 
waters cover the sea." 

The officers of the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union at the present time are as fol- 
lows : Mrs. L. E. Blodgett, president; Mrs. 
Edna Richardson, vice-president ; Mrs. Charles 
Mason, secretary ; Mrs. Mary L. Hemeuway, 
treasurer; Mrs. J. L. Merrell, Mrs. Whitney 
Lawrence, Mrs. Charles Mason, executive com- 
mittee. 

Miss Effie Chase, their first secretary, wiio 
served faithfully until declining health forbade 
her doing more, a young lady of great moral 
worth and lovely Christian character, has passed 
" over the river," but her memory, like the 
fragrance of some sweet flower, still lingers 
with them. Another estimable worker has 
been Mrs. Julia Polk, wife of Rev. R. T. Polk, 
who has now gone to reside in another State. 
Her active, earnest spirit aud her willing hands 
have been greatly missed in the organization. 

All feel, who have knowledge of the Wom- 
an's Christian Temperance Union, that it has 
achieved in this town grand results. Indeed, 
it is a beneficent, moral force that is sure to 
bless. The president, Mrs. L. E. Blodgett, has 
proved herself in many ways a woman of high 
order of talent ; but especially in this work, she 
has been efficient and philanthropic, proving 
hereself a reformer, an excellent presiding of- 



292 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ficer, and one desirous of making the world 
wiser and better. 

The Frost Free Library. — Wiien Tam- 
erlane had finished building his pyramid out of 
seventy thousand skulls of victims tliat he had 
destroyed, and he stood glittering in burnished 
steel at the gate of Damascus, and the sun of 
the race seemed to be setting in goi-e, tlicn might 
have been seen a youth in the streets, or in an 
obscure room, of Mentz, making experiments 
and being resolved upon giving to the world 
movable types, that books might l)e greatly 
multijilied. The bloody foot-prints of Tamer- 
lane have vanished, but those of John Faust 
remain as in solid rock, and the loftiest pyramid 
which has been piled up out of printed books, 
is to stand, immortalizing his name. 

When caliph Omar was causing the Alexan- 
drian Library to be burned, Alfreil, of Eng- 
land, was opening a highway for the general 
distribution of literature ; so the one was cov- 
eting ignorance and the other wisdom. The 
former has become lost to the world ; the latter 
is living in the hearts of humanity. 

When Dr. Franklin moved, in 1731, in the 
establishment of that first public library of our 
country, located at Philadelphia, started and 
supported by private subscriptions, he was do- 
ing a grand work for our nation, — one that was 
to improve the thought, the conversation and 
the character of our people. Out of that small 
beginning have issued the Boston Athenaeum, 
the Society Library of New York, and many 
others of a private nature. 

But that was another step in advance when 
Dr. Francis Way land, in 1847, founded in the 
town bearing his own name the first free public 
library. This was heeding the demands of the 
poor as well as of the rich. From this slight root 
has sprung the Astor of New York, the Logan 
of Philadelphia, the Public Library of Boston, 
and hosts of minor ones throughout our land. 
And among the many, with no little pride do we 
now make mention of the Frost Free Library 
of our town. Through the blessed memories 



and the great generosity of Hon. Rufus Frost, 
it was a gift to Marlborough. He desired to 
do lasting service to the town of his birth. How 
could he in any other way have done so much for 
the past, the present and future welfare of our 
people, as by placing in our thriving village 
such a valuable library, free to all our citizens'? 
It is more than the most splendid mausoleum, 
for it is the treasury of the best words and 
thoughts. Books are the urns of treasured life. 
Temples waste away ; pictures and statues fade 
and crumble ; but good books survive. The 
only effect time has upon them is to sift the 
wheat from the chaff, that the former may yield 
abundantly and the latter die. Books introduce 
us to the best society, making us well acquainted 
with the long-since departed. They cause the 
inspired intellects and loving hearts of the past 
to liecome our teachers and associates. They 
bring to our side Moses, Homer, Plato, Paul, 
Shakespeare and Longfellow, that they may 
abide with us forever. What a blessing came 
to our town, then, through the Frost Free 
Library ! 

Its building is a fire-proof, handsome granite 
structure, pleasantly situated. It was completed 
and dedicated in 1867, and supplied with two 
thousand volumes of good books, which went 
into circulation at once. Since that time some 
two thousand volumes more have been added, 
together with many botanical and geological 
specimens from Marlborough and in] mediate 
vicinity ; all of which, with a fund of five 
thousand dollars, have been presented to the 
town by Mr. Frost. The library is so deeded 
that it must always remain free to the people, 
and in no case increase of necessity the taxation 
of a single individual. Its board of trustees 
is composed of the selectmen of tiie town, the 
settled clergymen and three others chosen with- 
out rea-ard to residence. This board controls 
the library, electing its secretary and librarian, 
and decides as to the books which shall be put 
into it. During its years of existence its books 
have been in active circulation. It has accom- 



MARLBOROUGH. 



293 



plished and is producing an indescribable 
amount of good. It is as a beacon set on a 
hill to siied glory all around. It is as a halo 
from heaven to make radiant the morning path- 
way of the young, to gild the noonday track of 
the mature, and render the evening circuit of 
the aged peaceful. 

He who causes a free library to be established 
in the midst of a people builds a monument to 
his memory that will be beautiful and enduring 
in the eternal light. 

Situation and Boundary. — The town of 
Marlborough, in Cheshire County, N. H., is 
situated in latitude 42° 54', and longitude 4° 
49'. It is bounded on the north by Roxbury, 
east by Harrisville, Dublin and Jaffrey, south 
by Troy, and west by Troy, Swanzey and 
Keene. Its distance from Keene is five miles, 
from Concord fifty miles, and from Boston 
ninety-three miles. Its population is one thous- 
and four hundred. 

SiTRFACE AND Geolouy. — The Surface of 
Marlborough is greatly diversified with hills and 
valleys. Some portions of it are truly romantic 
and picturesque. It is almost surprising that 
within an area of thirteen thousand square acres 
there should be such a diversity of highland 
and lowland, woofls and clearings. With truth 
we cjm say that Nature has smiled propitiously 
upon this town, filling it with her choicest 
charms and attractions, beauties and sublimities. 

Its geological formation is made up mostly 
of the primitive rock. The outcropping ledges, 
being nijnierous, are comjiosed of granite. Ge- 
ology would call ours the "everlasting hills," 
having existed from the very beginning of the 
world's histoiy. The drift, or loose formation, 
is composed largely of silicates. The deposits 
give evidence of glacial, aqueous and iceberg 
action. The grooves cut into the highest ledges, 
and holes worn into the granite, show the re- 
sults of long-continued water-action. The 
minerals consist mainly of granite, gneiss, 
granular and rose quartz, feldspar, mica, beryl, 
garnets and plumbago. The gneiss has been 



quarried extensively for building purposes. 
The granite ledges upon the Stone Hill are of 
great value. 

The sedimentary rocks are made up of sand, 
clay and peat. The soil is best adapted to 
grazing. The farms, under good cultivation, 
yield fair crops of Indian corn, oats, potatoes, 
rye and barley. Those .who are tilling their 
farms after modern methods, guided by the 
science of agriculture, are proving that system- 
atic farming is no humbug, but is certain to re- 
sult in good buildings, rich fields, fine stock 
and independence of living. 

Climate. — The air of this town is usually 
pure, and possessed of tonic properties. The 
elevation is such that even in the hottest days 
in July and August it is seldom sultry. Of 
course the winters are long, and the snows are 
frequently deep and drifted. The extensive 
growth of forests, no doubt, has much to do in 
moderating the air during summer and winter. 

Trees and Fruits. — Some of the principal 
forest trees are the oak, beech, birch, sugar- 
maple, elm, cherry, hemlock, pine, larch and 
spruce. 

Orchards are quite abundant in Marlborough. 
The apple and pear-trees are sure to yield here, 
if they do anywhere in this vitnnity. The 
orchardists count largely on the income from 
their fruit-trees. 

The peach, cherry and grape do well here in 
certain localities. This town is highly favored 
with wild fruits. The blueberry, huckleberry, 
blackberry, raspberry and strawberry are 
usually plenty in their season. Some years 
large quantities are shipped to distant markets. 
It is seldom a season passes without a supply 
of wild fruit sufficient to meet all home 
demands. 

The flora here is very full. The botanist 
finds a great variety of plants, all the way 
from the delicate mo.sses and ferns in the deep 
dells to the Alpine flowers upon the highest 
elevations. 

Pond.*^. — ^The Stone Pond, situated in the 



294 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



east part of Marlborough, is its largest body of 
water ; it is about three-fourths of a mile iu 
length and one-third of a mile in width ; its 
elevation is some two thousand feet above the level 
of the sea. Its water is clear and sparkling. 
Its native fish were trout ; seventy-five years 
ago large quantities of them were caught from 
it weighing from three to four pounds each. At 
length the pond was stocked with pickerel, and 
the trout since that have nearly disappeared. 
The pickerel grow to a large size. The yellow 
perch are now its most abundant fish. 

The scenery just around this pond and in the 
distance can scarcely be surpassed. Were it 
situated in Italy or Switzerland, it surely 
would have been famous iu song and story ; it 
would have been possessed of as many charms 
and beauties as Luzerne or Como. 

The Cummings Pond, in the north part of 
the town, is about three-fourths of a mile long 
and one-fourth wide. No doubt it was former- 
ly much larger than at the present. Trout 
were once common in this pond, but now pick- 
erel, pouts and shiners monopolize its watei-s. 
Through the ice hundreds of pickerel have 
been caught from it in a single day. 

The Clapp Pond is in the northeast part of 
the town. It is not as large as the Cummings 
Pond, but more depressed. Its waters are not 
so clear as those of the Stone Pond. Its fish 
consist mainly of pickerel and pouts. 

The Meeting-House Pond, near where the old 
meeting-house stood, occupies an area of one hun- 
dred square acres, including the open water and 
what is grown over with bog. This pond has 
long been a favorite resort for fishing. Its 
waters have been pi-olific of pickerel and cat- 
fish. 

Streams and Brooks. — The largest stream 
is the Minni-wawa. Its head-waters are iu 
Nelson and Dublin. Flowing through a very 
broken country, it is subject to sudden 
rise and fall of water; still, by the means of 
reservoirs and ponds, it is supplied with power 
sufficient for extensive manufactories of woolen 



goods, wooden-wares and for grinding grain. 
With propriety it may be called the mother of 
our present thriving village. It has been faith- 
ful in driving saws, spindles and millstones, so 
as to supply work for many active minds and 
busy hands. 

Its falls and basin, a short distance above the 
village, are natural curiosities, of special inter- 
est to lovers of the grand and beautiful. 

Another stream is known as the South 
Branch, which is about the size of the Minni- 
wawa. Its current is rapid and its bed very 
stony. Its waters have beeu utilized to some 
extent in propelling lathes and saws. 

There are several brooks iu town which are 
supplied with pure, cold water, furnishing count- 
less haunts for finny tribes. 

Zoological History. — Though in the 
early history of this town, bears, wolves, pan- 
thei-s and deer were numerous, still these all dis- 
appeared long ago, leaving only traditions of 
their feats and cruelty. Within the remem- 
brance of some who are living, beavers and 
minks were common, but now it is seldom one 
is seen or caught. Foxes are numerous ; they 
seem strongly attached to our hills and dales. 
They appear to lose none of their sagacity or 
cunning as civilization presses upon them. 
They evidently enjoy turkeys and chickens 
with as good relish as they did pheasants and 
conies. The woodchucks hold in their posses- 
sion at present as much real estate as they did 
fifty or a hundred years since. In spite of 
guns, dogs and traps, they have kept tjjeir stock 
unimpaired and undiminished. Rabbits fre- 
quent our glades and thickets. Red, gray and 
chippering squirrels inhabit our wotxis and 
forests. We are all apprized now and then 
that skunks are around, and are free to lend 
their influence to friend or foe. Rats and mice 
cling to our houses with fondest attachment, 
assuring us that their race is not yet run. 

Hawks whistle and crows caw as they did 
when the whoop of the Indian and the bark 
of the wolf echoed among the hills and val- 




^^^€^^^^=5^^^.-^^^^^^:^:^ 



11 



MARLBOROUGH. 



295 



leys. During some seasons, wild pigeons flock 
to our fields and woods in large numbers. 
Ducks swim our ponds, partridges beat our logs 
and whir through the leafy boughs, and the 
owls hoot as they did when the axe of the early 
settlers first rang from our highlands and our 
■streams. The robin, the oriole, the bluebird, 
the phebe, the wren, the lark, the bobolink, the 
nightingale, the thrush, the ground-bird, the 
hair-bird, the king-bird and the humming-i)ird 
are with us every year to supply change and 
enchantment. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



REV. S. H. MCCOLLESTER, D.D. 

The history of the town of IMarlborousrh 
would not be complete without a sketch 
and representation of one of her sons, who 
has honored the place of his nativity, and 
among those who have had charffc of re- 
ligious and educational interests in this 
and in other States of the Union, there 
has beeu none worthier than the Rev. S. 
H. McCollester, who is a descendant of a 
good old Scotch family. His ancestors were 
among the sturdy pioneers of New Hamp- 
shire. Isaac (1), the first of the family in Marl- 
borough, was born in 1736. He was one 
of the proprietors of Monadnock, and took 
an active part in the affairs of the town, 
and was paid in land for his services in 
the survey of the township. He was the 
second settler in Marlborough, removing here 
in the winter of 1764-65, and was a resi- 
dent until his death, June 8, 1809. Sam- 
uel (2) his son, married Silence Belknap, and 
settled on the homestead. Silas (3) married, 
Achsah Holman, and resided for many years 
on the farm (now owned by Dr. McCollester) 
where he died, December 26, 1873. 

Rev. Sullivan Holman McCollester, D.D., 
son of Silas aud Achsah (Holman) McColles- 



ter, was born in Marlborough, X. H., De- 
cember 18, 1826. His youth was passed, like 
that of many New England boys, working 
on a farm or at some mechanical employ- 
ment. Durino; the winter he availed him- 
self of the good school privileges of his na- 
tive town. His tastes, early in life, were for 
study and the pursuit of knowledge, and at 
the age of fifteen he attended a select school, 
and afterwards received a thorough academi- 
cal etlucatiou in the seminaries and acade- 
mies at Swanzey, Dublin, Jaffrey, Winchen- 
don, Mass., and Brattleborough, Vt., aud was 
well fitted for college. He was a pleasant, 
genial and social companion, a scholar eager 
to learn and concerned in all that pertained to 
the interests of the schools. He was a general 
favorite, exerted a good influence upon the 
students, and by his kindness and sympathy 
aided the teachers in their arduous labors. At 
the age of eighteen he commenced teaching 
at Richmond, where he receivetl nine dollars 
per month ; afterwards he taught four success- 
ive winters in \^alpole. In the winter of 1847 
he entered Norwich, (Vt.) University, and grad- 
uated iu the summer of 1851, having completed 
the classical course. He was a fine scholar, 
quick, retentive, and with a determination to 
thoroughly master all tasks set before him. 
He then became a student at Cambridge 
Divinity School, with the intention of enter- 
ing the Christian ministry. At the expiration 
of two years, he left Cambridge, and took 
charge of the Walpole, (N. H.) Academy. Prior 
to this, he had married, November 23, 1852, 
Sophia F. Knight, daughter of Joel Knight, 
of Dummerston, Vt., of an early and notable 
family. Mrs. McCollester was a good scholai', 
and sucessful teacher at jNIelrose Academy, Vt., 
and was of great assistance to her husband in 
his school-work. 

In 1853, Dr. McCollester began his long 
career as a preacher of love to God and men in 
Swanzey, N. H., taking charge of the Mount 
Csesar Seminary there, and labored for five 



296 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



years, almost incessantly doing double duty, 
teaching and preaching. He started a new 
society and church in the middle of the town, 
and another in the west part, where a church 
edifice was built. These societies prospered 
under his care, and he left them in a hopeful 
state. He is held in grateful remembrance 
there for his successful efforts in behalf of ed- 
ucation, morality and religion. From Swanzey 
lie removed to Westmoreland, and was pastor 
of the Universal ist Society, and of the one in 
West Chesterfield, preaching part of the time 
in each town, and taught a select school a por- 
tion of the time. His meetings were largely 
attended, especially l)y the young, who were 
influeuced to activity in the Sunday-school. 
He continued his work with these societies 
for four years, and during his pastorate the 
number of Sabbath worshippers had more than 
doubled ; real religious life was expressed 
among the people ; their interest in the affairs 
of the church was awakened, and they renova- 
ted and greatly improved both of their church 
edifices. While here he was elected to the 
responsible office of school commissioner for 
Cheshire County, which he lield until 1859. 
He was also appointed president of tiie State 
Board of Commissioners, and in the winter 
visited schools and lectured on education, 
and in the spring held Teachers' Institutes, 
and thus made his influence felt exten- 
sively among the teachers and the people. 
His reputation soon reached beyond his own 
State. He was called to the .seiuinary at M'est- 
brook, now Deering, Me., (a suburb of Port- 
land), and commenced his work April, 1861. 
Here Dr. McCollester, a faithful worker as 
ever in the vineyard of the Lord, held a relig- 
ious service Sundays in the seminary chapel, 
where the students and families in the 
vicinity could worship. A society was soon 
organized, and, in the course of four years, it 
had assumed such proportions, outside of the 
school, that the chapel (with a seating capacity 
of over three hundred) could not accommodate 



all desiring to worship there. Measure were 
soon taken towards the erection of a church 
building on the grounds, and in the course of 
two years a beautiful and counnodious house of 
worship supplanted the chapel. On its comple- 
tion Dr. McCollester was obliged from fail- 
ing healtli, caused by overwork, to leave his 
cares for a time. 

In the summer of 1866, in company with 
his wife, he visited Europe, and remained until 
the spring of 1867. In their travels they 
visited Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, 
France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The 
varied and sublime scenery of the Alps, the 
pure air of the mountains in the summer, the 
mild climate on the shores of the Swiss and 
Italian lakes in the winter, were delightful, 
invigorating and recreating. Remaining in 
London, "Paris and Rome for some time, he 
studie<l their history, antiquities, social insti- 
tutions and the topography of the surrounding 
country. He wrote frequent and instructive 
letters to the Portland Transcript, New Eng- 
land Journal of Education, Boston Transcript, 
Gospel Banner and other papers, which were 
read with eagerness by many. He returned to 
his school with his mind refreshed and enlarged 
by his studies and travels, but did not feel 
able to preside over the seminary and also per- 
form ministerial labor on Sunday. He con- 
tinued for a year and a half longer iu charge 
of the school, when lie found that the severity 
of the climate would not permit him to remain 
on the coast without endangering his health, 
and he resigned. 

Dr. McCollester was at the head of this insti- 
tution nearly eight years, and raised it into a 
flourishing condition. His first term, with 
thirty scholars, was the hardest he ever taught. 
He sought to put the school upon a firm basis 
of discipline and systematic study, and finally 
succeeded in infusing a healthful, moral and 
intellectual tone among the students, and awak- 
ening a noble ambition in their hearts. The 
school became very popular, numbering from 



MARLBOROUGH. 



297 



175 to 240 members. lu 1864 he obtained 
from the State Legislature a charter for a " Fe- 
male College," the first oue of the Universalist 
denomiuatioii in New England. From this 
college he graduated annually a class of young 
women, who, by their scholai-ship and moral 
influence, gave tone and vigor to the society in 
«liich they moved, and reflected honor and 
credit upon their principal. 

"When he left Westbrook the school was the 
largest it ha.s ever been, and also in the best 
financial condition, and the church had grown 
to a large and respectable religious body. Dur- 
ing these yeai-s Dr. McCollester had wrought 
with fidelity, perseverance and faithfulness in 
this field, and it was with the profouudest re- 
grets of the trustees and friends of the semi- 
nary that his resignation was accepted. 

In the summer of 18<J8 he made a second 
tour of Europe, with his friend, Rev. John S. 
Ijee, D.D., of St. Lawrence University, Can- 
ton, N. Y. who thus writes of it: "We em- 
barked on board one of the jNIontreal and 
Quebec steamers at Quebec, and passed around 
the north of Ireland. Dr. McCollester revis- 
ited the scenes of his former tour, and extended 
his travels to Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and 
Greece. It was a memorable journey. We 
j)assed a month in the Holy Land, and it left 
a vivid and lasting impression. We went up 
the Nile, ascended the pyramids, landed at 
Jaffii, passed nearly two weeks in and around 
Jerusalem, stood before the tombs of the pa- 
triarchs, bathed in the Jordan, walked along 
the shores of the Sea of Galilee, supped and 
slept in the birth-place of Jesus, rode along the 
sandy shores of the Mediterranean, stopping 
over-night in the old dilapidated cities of Tyre 
and Sidon, also riding over the Lebanon 
Mountains, visiting Baal bee and the Cedars of 
Lebanon. Then, taking a steamer at Beyrout, 
we passed among the Greek and Turkish Isles 
of the Archipelago, spent a Sunday at Smyrna, 
and thence alongside the plain of Old Troy, 
through the Dardanelles to Constantinople, 



thence to Athens, whence we made excursions 
to Pentelicus and other parts of Greece, to 
Corinth, Corfu and Brindisi, in Italy. We 
visited the ' Lands of the Bible.' " Dr. McCol- 
lester returned from this voyage in February, 
1869, his social and professional life greatly 
enriched by the oflerings he gathered. He 
lectured extensively, and wrote much describ- 
ing the countries he had visited. 

On the day that he resigned his principalship 
of Westbrook Seminary, he received a call to 
the Universalist Church in Nashua, N. H., 
which he accepted, and commenced his pastorate 
there in the fallof 1869, and devoted himself en- 
tirely to the ministry. He brought new vigor to 
this church. The Sunday-school soon more than 
doubled. He had a Bible-class of some forty 
membei's. His church raised §800 towards the 
Centenary Fund in 1870. A "Ballon Associa- 
tion " was started under his administration, 
consisting of young people in the parish, which 
has since been a strong working force in be- 
half of the church. The parish also purchased 
a fine parsonage, paying more than $4000 to- 
wards it, while he was with them. He started 
conference meetings, which were largely attended. 
Under his charge the society in all its depart- 
ments of work was most active. He was re- 
spected iu the pulpit and out of it. He so 
preached in word and deed that he was beloved 
and esteemed by all in the city. He so identi- 
fied himself w^ith the cause of education, the 
temperance work, and the establishment of the 
Natural History Society and other city cnter- 
j)rises, that all felt to accord to him the highest 
meed of honor for Christian energy, ability antl 
moral worth. After an exceedingly happy and 
prosperous settlement of three years in Nashua, he 
was induced, by the urgency of friends of his de- 
nominational schools, to resign his charge, against 
the wishes of the whole church, to assume the 
presidency of Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio. 
He was so regarded by his own church and 
others, that at an historical celebration in 
Nashua, in speaking of the clergy, it was said : 



298 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" The Univerealist Church and the community 
lost a most excellent man, and Ruchtel College 
gained an efficient president, when Rev. Mr. 
McCollester left this church." 

He entered on his new duties in the autumn 
of 1872. His scholarsiiip, peculiar gifts for 
organizing, ability to teach and govern, and 
power to incite the young with truest aims, 
fitted him in a high degree to open and carry on 
this most important undertaking with eminent 
success. As the college went into operation it 
seemed advisable and necessary that there 
should be a Universalist Church established in 
the thriving city of Akron, where the students 
and others could attend. Accordingly, this duty 
fell upon the president, who at once began to 
hold religious services in the capacious chapel 
of the college. The meetings were well at- 
tended in the inception. Then he organized a 
church, Sunday-school and weekly conference 
meetings, M'hich prospered beyond the expecta- 
tions of the most sanguine. His pulpit eiforts 
were thoroughly Christian, persuasive and elo- 
Cjuent, and he soon became known as a more 
than ordinary preacher. His naturally strong 
descriptive powers, vivid imagination and clear 
statements made him popular as a public 
speaker, and he was called upon often to plead 
in the cause of temperance, and held a con- 
spicuous place as a powerful advocate. After 
having built up a firm society in connection with 
the college, he realized that his duties were too 
onerous, and he was instrumental in having a 
pa.stor settled over the society, thus relieving 
him of his double charge. Having served as 
president of the college for six years, he re- 
signed his office on account of failing health, 
aud weut abroad with his family for a year. At 
the close of his labors in this connection. Judge 
Tibbets, in behalf of the trustees and college, 
said on commencement' day : " Six years ago, 
when we had completed this structure, grand in 
its proportions, strong in its foundations, and 
beautiful in its appearance as it was, we well 
knew that Me had only begun the work of es- 



tablishing a college. It needed to be presided 
over by a man of learning, of experience, of 
character, and of devotion to the great cause of 
education ; not one to take charge of an old-es- 
tablished institution, whose character and repu- 
tation were already made and known, but to 
create and make a new name and character 
among the colleges of the land. 

" We sought you, and, after the most earnest 
entreaties, you accepted the position and you 
have not been found wanting. But, successful 
as have been your labors in the college, and as 
enduring as will be their results, I would 
speak of other fields where you are known, aud 
where in your absence you will be missed. I 
see here to-day, and have seen elsewhere, the 
fruits of your labors for the downfallen and the 
poor. A\'ith others, you have sought to save 
the victims of the wine-cup from ruin, and the 
poor from suffering. You have extended to 
them the hand of fellowship. You have left 
the quiet of your home on week-days and on 
the Sabbath to bless them. These have found 
a friend in you, whose heart was warm, and 
whose purse was open to relieve their necessities. 
In all these characteristics and works you have 
shown yourself an accomplished educator, a high- 
minded, faithful man, a gemiine Christian." 
In June, 1874, St. Lawrence University gave 
him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

On Dr. McCollester's return to America, he 
was not much improved in health, and thought 
he would settle on his farm in his native town, 
where his honored parents had lived and died. 
But he was not allowed to continue there long. 
He was made to feel it was his duty to take 
hold of a new movement to establish aUnivcr- 
.salist Church in the wide-awake village of Bel- 
lows Falls. 

He commenced laboring there in November, 
1879, holding religious services on Sunday in 
a hall. AJter working \\-ith this people for six 
months, he started a subscription to raise money 
for a church edifice, and, although a kvf months 
previously, it was not known that there were 



MARLBOROUGH. 



299 



a dozen families in the place that sympathized 
with Uuivcrsalism, yet in the course of a 
year there was quite a strong society, which rep- 
resented much financial ability, and money was 
readily raised to bnild a house of worship, and 
in less than two years from the time Dr. Mc- 
Collester engaged in this work, a strong and 
united parish ^vas worshipping in a new, com- 
modious and fine edifice, free from debt. He 
continued his work for three years with a 
most successful pastorate, and served the 
town of Rockingham as superintendent of 
schools for two years with great acceptance. At 
the close of his third yeai', having accomplished 
the special work which called him there, he re- 
signed his charge against the wishes of the peo- 
ple, and returned to Marlborough. But he did 
not remain there long, as tliere was work for 
liim in another field, Dover, N. H., to revive 
Uuiversalism. A uew church edifice was just 
being completed, having been built by the late 
Hon. T. W. Pierce in memory of his revered 
and sainted parents. It is a unique religious 
edifice and bears the name of " Pierce Memo- 
rial Church." The doctor began his labors 
here January 11, 1883, when the church was 
dedicated. The spiritual building now com- 
menced. Only a few in Dover were known as 
Universalists, but as the meetings were opened 
large numbers were in attendance, and in a 
short time eighty families were identified with 
the society as pew-holders. New organizations 
were made in all the diiFerent branches of church- 
work, and in a few months the " Pierce Memo- 
rial Church" was felt to be a working force in 
the city. 

As a man and a preacher, Dr. McCollester 
was poiiular and highly esteemed. He took 
hold of this enterprise with the view of start- 
ing a strong society, so as to call another pastor 
into a promising field, and at the end of his 
second year he desired to give up his charge, 
but the parish urged him to continue another 
year. More than a hundred families are now 
represented in his society. Since he began this 



work a parish, church, Sunday-school, "Ladies' 
Dorcas Society," " Young Folks' Brooks Asso- 
ciation " have been organized and systematized, 
so that they are now doing excellent religions 
labors. He tendered his resignation of this 
pastorate October, 1885, feeling that he had by 
his efforts placed the church on a strong footing, 
and that it would go on and prosper. 

Dr. McCollester in his ministerial service 
has enjoyed a marke<l degree of success. 
Wherever he has wrought in this direction he 
has left rich fruits of consecrated efforts. It has 
seemed to be his lot to start uew religious enter- 
prises, to organize new elements and stimulate 
them with love to God and man. As a 
preacher he is earnest, clear and persuasive. 
His hearers feel his honesty and sincerity. He 
leaves no uncertainty as to his convictions and 
belief, which is in the widest Christian liberty. 
He is ready to give the " God-speed " to every 
follower of the Divine Master. His style of 
rhetoric is rhythmical, fervid and illustrative. 
His manner of delivery is sure to quicken the 
thought and captivate the feelings. He pos- 
sesses a remarkable power of making others see 
what he sees, and feel what he feels, and es- 
pecially is this true of his descriptions of places, 
men and things. Of late years he has laid 
aside his notes or maiuiscript in the pulpit, but 
never goes upon the platform without special 
preparation, so that he displays discipline of 
mind, power of language and oratorial ability. 
He is a student of nature, and exceedingly fond 
of the natural sciences as well as of the classics, 
and his discourses abound in illustrations from 
these sources, as also from history and his 
travels and experience in different countries. 
His temperament is poetical, his memory good, 
his intellect active, and his religious element 
highly developed. His qualities of voice are 
such as to please and move the heart and head. 
It is baritone in ordinary discourse, running into 
orotund in prayer. As he a]ipears in the j)ul- 
pit he is free from cjint, and evidently con- 
secrated to the work before him. In his prayer 



300 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



there is adoration, fear, trust, petition, confession 
and those marks of earnest devotion which are 
the elements of true Christianity. In person, 
Dr. McCollester is of medium height, full- 
chested, with a well-proportioned body. His 
head is large and forehead {prominent. His 
complexion is light, eyes blue, and hair 
brown. His face expresses honesty and firm- 
ness for the right. He is young mentally, as 
well as physically, and one would not think 
him to be over fifty. We can hardly under- 
stand how he could have worked and accom- 
plished so much, and yet be so well preserved, 
but it is the result of a pure heart, pure morals 
and a pure life. . With all his other work, he is 
a writer of note, a frequent contributor to re- 
ligious and educational journals, and his vol- 
ume entitled " After-Thoughts of Foreign 
Travels " has passed through several editions, 
and received the highest encomiums from the 
pressand such prominent men as Hiram Orcutt, 
LL.D., T. W. Bicknell, LL.D., Rev. J. G. 
Adams, D.D., and others. He is a graphic, enter- 
taining, suggestive and instructive writer. 

Dr. McCollester is an able man, strong in 
mind, strong in self control, strong in will, 
and strong in sympathy, true to all, without de- 
ceit or hypocrisy, and is loved most by those 
wlio kno\V him best. In college and church 
he has jjroved himself a successful organizer 
and builder in mental and spiritual things. 
He has been, and is now, a power in the Uni- 
versalist denomination. " Men may come and 
men may go," but the work they do lives after 
them, and the institutions they plant, or aid in 
advancing, go on after they are gathered to their 
fathers, and generation after generation will 
have just reason to bless him as their bene- 
factor. 

Mrs. McCollester, a woman adorned with 
genial social qualities, quick sympathies, and 
all the graces of the true woman, has been a 
companion, helper, and comforter to her hus- 
band through all the labors and trials of their 
life. Of their five children, only one survives, 



Rev. S. Lee McCollester, who is also a Univer- 
salist clergyman, now settled over the church 
of that denomination in Claremont. He is 
much esteemed and beloved by his people, 
who find in him an earnest, faithful worker in 
the vineyard of the Lord. He has inherited 
qualities from his parents which promise for 
him success in his chosen field of labor. 



HON. RUFUS S. FROST. 

Hon. Rufus 8. Frost, son of Joseph and 
Lucy (Wheeler) Frost, was born in Marl- 
borough July 18, 1826. His father passed 
away when he was but four years of age, and, 
in 18.33, his mother, with her family, moved 
to Boston, where he was placed in school, 
making rapid progress in the different branches 
pursued. At length, that he might have better 
advantages, he entered the Newton Academy, 
where he ranked high in scholarship for one of 
his years. His perception was keen, his reflec- 
tion active, his temperament hopeful and poet- 
ical. As a boy, he was ambitious to do for 
himself, and, when but twelve years old, he 
went, as clerk, into the dry-goods store of 
Messrs. J. H. & J. Osgood, remaining with 
them until he was twenty-one, when he became 
a partner of J. H. Osgood, with whom he con- 
tinued in the most pleasant relations for five 
years. Subsequently he enjoyed partnership 
with other firms, but, in 1866, he became the 
head of his own business-house, taking younger 
associates into his firm, as the exigencies of the 
times demanded, and thus has continued to 
do to the present time, gradually increasing his 
business in manufacturing and selling woolen 
goods. 

Mr. Frost has depth and breadth of cliar- 
acter sufficient to do business on an extensive 
scale. His mind and heart are too large to do 
things by the halves. His conceptions and in- 
tuitions are clear and strong, enabling him to 
deal with men fairly and acceptably. It has 
always been his good fortune to be associated in 





MetrijpoliKnItoli5UiiJs^F,juiiimi{CiilrTOTort 



MARLBOROUGH. 



301 



business with noble men ; and during nearly 
forty years that he has been in trade for him- 
self, thoug-li there have been strikinn; ebbs and 
floods in the world of traffic, still he has moved 
on successfully, without failure or compromise, 
sustaining a high reputation for strict honesty 
and reliability. 

Mr. Frost now resides in Chelsea, Mass., 
where he has lived since he was fourteen years 
old, seeing a small village develop into a 
large city. He has always been active in its 
welfare, and was twice elected, with great unan- 
imity, as mayor, in 1867 and 186.S, and was 
strenuously urged to hold the office longer. In 
1871 and 1872 he served as State Senator. In 
1873 and 1874 he was a member of the Gov- 
ernor's Council. In the fall of 1874 he was 
nominated and elected by the Republican party 
in the Fourth Congressional District to the 
Forty-fourth Congress. While in Congress he 
served in committee on railroads and likewise 
on frecdiiien's affairs. In all these civic rela- 
tions he did great honor to himself and his con- 
stituency. (For twenty-two years he has been 
director in one of the largest Ijanks in Boston.) 
In 1877 Mr. Frost was unaimously elected as 
lircsident of the National Association of Wool 
Manufacturers, and was thus chosen for seven 
successive years. 

"Successful manufacturers are public benefac- 
tors, and merit the gratitude and praise of their 
countrymen. The nation that produces the 
most in proportion to its numbers will be the 
most prosperous and powerful. Protectionists 
seek to impress this truth upon the popular 
mind, to secure its adoption, as an axiom, by 
our national government. The United States 
possess all the natural advantages nee<led for 
the attainment of a result so desirable. It is 
the part of patriotism to turn these advantages 
to the best account, to differentiate the indus- 
tries of the people and to give employment to 
all classes of mind and capacity. Unfavoraljle 
disparities must be relieved by corrective cus- 
tom duties. Such views as these have actuated 



Mr. Frost and his honorable associates in their 
praiseworthy efforts to place our country in a 
position among the nations in which it will be 
second to none either in manufactures, arts or 
arms." 

Mr. Frost was nurtured in a Christian home, 
and in early life became a member of the Salem 
Church, Boston. When the First Congrega- 
tional C'hurch of Chelsea was organized he was 
one of the original members. He at once 
identified himself with all the various activities 
of this society ; for years he led its choir and 
played the organ. He is an active worker in 
its Sunday-school, and was its superintendent 
so long as his health would permit of his serv- 
ing in that office. Though consecrated to his 
church, yet he is not bigoted. He is always 
clothed with a broad mantle of charity. He 
claims the privilege of thinking for himself, 
and is ready to grant this right to others. He 
is so constituted that the .spiritual and material 
in his nature are nicely balanced, blending the 
ideal and practical in his life-work. 

Mr. Frost raay be justly classed as a Christian 
reformer, ever ready to lift up the down-trodden 
and preach deliverance to the enslaved. His 
voice has been wont to be heard on public 
occasions in liehalf of temperance, universal 
education, republiam institutions and the 
spread of the gospel to the uttermost parts of 
the earth. He is a pleasing speaker, being 
favored with a good voice and graceful mien, 
never being so material as to be cloddish, nor 
so aerial as to be vapory, but speaking out 
words and thoughts that are solid, nutritious 
and encouraging. 

Mr. Frost loves his native town and the 
home of his birth, delighting to clierish the 
spots made sacred Ijy ancestral footstei)s. Con- 
sequently, as soon as he could, he secural the 
old family homestead for a summer residence. 
It is beautifully situated, commanding an ex- 
tensive outlook in all directions. The old 
Monadnock, on the one hand, and the Green 
Mountains, on the other, stand out in bold 



302 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



relief, while from its verandah is to be enjoyed 
the loveliest of rural landscajjes. Below, and 
in the centre of all, is the neat, white vil- 
lage of Marlborough, with the Minniwawa 
winding; throuirh it, remindino- one of the fair- 
est corals in richest emerald settings. Surely 
nature has been propitious to the Frost home ; 
and the deeds of true men and women have 
made it forever memorable. 

While Mr. Frost has a pleasant and inviting 
home at Chelsea, still it is apparent that he ex- 
periences the greatest delight whenever he visits 
the old family home, surrounded with its broad 
acres and its beautiful scenery. Certainly he is 
gladly welcomed by the citizens of Marlbor- 
ough whenever he goes there, for they realize 
that he loves and reveres the place of his 
nativity. This he has proved in various ways 
by worthy and generous deeds. He has kindly 
remembered its Congregational Cliurch by fur- 
nishing it with a fine organ, and iu liberally 
assisting its society and other religious bodies 
of the town. But his crowning work in behalf 
of Marlborough hius been in presenting it with a 
most valuable library, including a fire-proof 
granite building, several thoasand volumes of 
good books and a generous fund with which to 
replenish it annually. What a munificent gift! 
W^hat an educational power I It is the highest 
charity, for it serves to quicken minds and 
strengthen hearts to help themselves. 

He who provides a town with a good library 
is doing a more lasting and grander work than 
those who builded the pyramids of the Nile or 
the Parthenon of Athens or the monument of 
Washington, at our nation's capitol. Such an 
one is buildino; for the ages. His name will 
live and be cherished when stone and brass 
shall have wasted into dust, for it is being in- 
scribed on the Eternal walls, — 
" He lives iu deeds, not years ; in thouglits, not breatlis ; 

In feelings, not in figures on a dial." 



ELIJAH BOVDEN. 

Among the families which have iieeu identified 



with the town of Marlborough for many years 
that of Boyden is especially worthy of record. 
The Boydeus are of English origin, and 
Thomas, of Ipswich, England, came to America 
in the " Francis," in 1634, and settled in Water- 
town, Mass. He had just attained his majority 
and was admitted as freeman, at Ipswich, in 
1647, and later removed to Medfield, where he 
died. Of his descendants, Elijah, of Walpole, 
Mass., came to Marlborough, N. H., in the 
spring of 1806, purchased the place known as 
the Aaron Stone farm. Tradition says he 
brought with him thirty-seven hundred dollars 
in silver, which he paid for the place. He was 
an inn-keeper and, in 1812, owned the first 
one-horse wagon seen in the town. He was a 
genial man, a good citizen and interested in 
whatever pertained to the welfare of the town 
and village. His wife was Amity Fisher, also 
of Walpole, Mass. Tiieir children were Aimer, 
George, Hannah, Oliver, Addison, William and 
Elijah. Mr. Boyden died July 22, 181-4, aged 
fifty-two years. His wife survived him, dying 
October 29, 1841, at the age of seventy-six. 

Elijah Boyden, youngest child of Elijah and 
Amity (Fisher) Boyden, was born in Marl- 
borough, N. H., August 15, 1814, a few weeks 
after his father's death. Although never hav- 
ing the guiding care of a father, he had what 
is almost indispensable to the making of a good 
man — a good mother ; and Elijah's early child- 
hood was passed in the environment of her 
sweet iind pure influence. 

At the age of fourteen he entered the store 
of his brother Abncr, and remained there as 
clerk for about six years. During this time he 
formed correct business habits, and the ex- 
perience and training which he then received 
were of great practical use to him in after-life. 
His diligence and industry, combined with 
pleasant social manners, gained the confidence 
and good-will of the citizens of the town, and 
he was recommended for postmaster, to which 
office he was appointed when he was about 
eighteen. The duties of this position he dis- 



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m:rt 




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^ly "^ j>y /i. H BJi«'«« 



C^^i^r**^ ^c^**^ 




1 



MARLBOROUGH. 



303 



cliargetl satisfactorily for nearly three years, 
when he resigned, being desirous of extending 
his business interests, and went to Boston, and, 
in company with Josiali L. Crosby, engaged in 
merchandising on Court Street. This firm car- 
ried on business successfully for two years and 
a half, when Mr. Boyden, on account of the 
death of his brother Abner, sold out his inter- 
est in Boston and returned to ]\Iarlborough. 
After settling his brother's estate Elijah, in 
company with his brother William, took the 
stock of goods and store of his deceased brother 
and commenced trade under firm-name of W. 
tt E. Boyden. In 1840 they erected and occu- 
pied their new store. In 1845, Mr. Boyden 
was again appointed postmaster, and held the 
office until 1852, when he resigned, and about 
the same time G. D. Richardson & Co. pur- 
chased the stock in trade of the Boyden 
brothers. In 1854, Mr. Boyden was appointed 
route mail-agent between Boston and Burlinu;- 
ton, which office he continued to hold until 
1860, when he resigned, and has since not been 
in active business life. 

Mr. Boyden married, April 5, 1838, Anna 
G., daughter of Rev. Charles and Mary (Hem- 
enway) Cummiugs. "Rev. Charles Cummings 
was born in Seabrook in 1777 and passed his 
childhood in Marlborougli ; was married in 
1798 and settled in Sullivan. He was licensed 
to preach, in 1805, by the Baptist Board of 
Ministers, and ordained, in 1810, in Sullivan. 
He was instrumental in organizing churches in 
Keene, Swanzey, Marlborough, Hillsborough, 
Lyndeborough and Antrim. In 1820 he was 
called to the domestic missionary work. He 
was a man of great energy and earnestness, not 
shrinking from any sacrifice for the good of the 
cause he loved so well and labored so faithfully 
to sustain. He was a man of a kind, concilia- 
tory spirit ; humble, prayerful and zealous in 
every good work, and he belonged to a class 
that ought never to be forgotten — that class 
which performed the labors and endured the 
privations of the pioneers of the c^iuse of re- 



ligion. He never wrote his sermons ; but, in 
the early work of his ministry, he would select 
a text of Scripture before going to the field 
(for at that time he tilled the soil), and while 
laboring with his hands he mentally studied 
and wrought out his sermons. The last few 
years of his life he labored in Pottersville, and 
preached up to the last Sabbath but one before 
his death, which occurred in Roxbury, N. H., 
December 27, 1849." Mr. and Mrs. Boyden 
have an adopted daughter, Emelia, born No- 
vember 6, 1849, who married, September 27, 
1872, Clark N. Chandler, of Keene, of the 
firm of Dort tt Chandler, druggists. They 
have one child, Carl Boyden, born November 
10, 1877. 

Mr. Boyden is a Democrat politically, and as 
such, in 1865 and 1866, he received the highest 
vote of his party for State Senator. He has 
always taken a deep interest in political mat- 
ters, and by extensive reading has kept himself 
thoroughly conversant with the politics of the 
country, though in no sense has he been an 
office-seeker ; and no jiolitical or other influence 
can move him which does not first convince his 
sense of right. Careful and conservative, his 
keen foresight and delii)erate judgment make 
his advice and counsel of peculiar value. He 
is one of the vice-presidents of the Five-Cents 
Savings-Bank of Keene, and a director of the 
Citizens' National Bank of the same city. 

In town aifairs he has taken an active part, 
and held many responsible offices of trust. He 
has held the office of justice of the peace for 
nearly thirty years. 

Universalist in his religious belief, he has 
contributed liberally of his time and means 
toward the establishment of the church of his 
chosen faith, and his wife, a lady of marked 
superiority, has been an active worker in the 
Sabbath -school. 

A ready and fluent speaker, Mr. Boyden is 
often called upon on public occasions, and offici- 
ated as president of the day at Marlborough's 
Centennial celebration. 



304 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Mr. and Mrs. Boyden have had the advan- 
tages of intercourse with other countries. In 
August, 1878, they started on a voyage to 
Europe, and, after sojourning for a time in 
England and France, they wintered under 
Italia's sunny skies and completed their home- 
ward voyage in the iSIay following. Soon after 
their i-eturn to Marlborough Mr. Boyden, at 
the urgent solicitation of his many friends and 
townsmen, gave an interesting account of their 
travels, in his social, pleasing and attractive 
style, and subsequently repeated the account in 
a large number of the towns in the county. 

Possessing an ability for the discharge of 
public duties, a well-balanced judgment, almost 
uniformly correct in its results, and an integrity 
of character that was never touched by whisper 
or reflection, Mr. Boyden was fitted to assume 
and administer all the duties to which he has 
been called. He is a good neighbor, a warm 
and welcome friend, a genial companion, a wise 
counselor and a worthv citizen. 



COLONEL WILLIAM HENRY GREENWOOD. 

William Henry Greenwood, the youngest sou 
of Asa and Lucy Greenwood, was born in 
Dublin, N. H., March 27, 1832, but his parents 
removing to Marlborough when he was but a 
few years old, his childhood was passed there. 
He was more than an ordinary boy, quiet in his 
manners, kind in disposition, persevering in 
effort and possessed of a strong will. He early 
showed a fondness for machinery and a skill 
with tools, and constructed many pieces of 
curious handicraft in his boyhood. He inherited 
his mechanical tastes from his father, who was 
remarkable for his inventive faculties, and did 
much to promote the improvement of Marl- 
borough during his residence there, and was a 
strong man, mentally and morally — all of which 
characteristics his children largely inherited. 
William H. remained at Marlborough until he 
was eighteen years old, attending the public 
schools and assisting his father in the various 



public works upon which the latter was en- j 
gaged, when he entered the Norwich Univer- I 
sity, Vermont, graduating in 1852. While at 
the university he easily mastered the highei 
mathematics, and the professor in that depart- 
ment, a gifted mathematician, was surprised al 
the original solutions and developments which 
Mr. Greenwood would bring before the classes. 
In 1852 he went to Illinois, and was employed 
in the construction of the Central Military 
Tract Railroad, now the Burlington and Quincy. 
Upon the completion of that road he engaged 
upon what was then known at the American 
Central Railroad, and was with that interest 
when the great Civil War broke out. He en- 
listed in the fifty-first regiment Illinois Vol- 
unteers January 17, 1862, and was commissioned 
first lieutenant of company H from enlistment, 
and captain of the same company and regiment 
from May 9, 1863. 

But it was not as a line officer that Col. Green- 
wood made his mark. Soon after the battle of 
Stone River, General Rosecrans made inquiry for 
competent engineer officers to organize a topo- 
graphical service, and he was selected for this 
duty, and, for better facilities for seeing the coun- 
try, he was ordered to report to General Stanley, 
at that time chief of cavalry for the Army of 
the Cumberland. The relation then established 
continued to the end of the war. Colonel Green- 
wood remaining a part of this commander's 
military family until the fall of 1865. No of- 
ficer served in the Army of the Cumberland 
who was present at and participated in more 
battles, actions, aifairs, skirmishes than Colonel 
Greenwood. The great battles in which he 
was an active participant embrace such names 
as Perryville, Stone River, Hoover's Gap, 
Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, three months 
of Atlanta campaign (an almost continous 
fight, including Peach-Tree Creek, the assault 
on Kenesaw) ; finally, in the last great service of 
the Fourth Corps, the action at Spring Hill, the 
next day the battle of Franklin, and very soon 
the battle of Nashville, which ended the mission 





.^-^'7 -Z^/^i^'C/^-^^ 



Marlborough:. 



305 



oC tlie Army of the Cumberland in the destrue- 
tiou of Hood's army. 

It would be impossible to describe the value of 
such services as those rendered by Colonel Green- 
wood. Tlie importance of having a staff officer 
who can not only carry out the orders of his 
commander, but, in a ease of emergency, orig- 
inate and execute plans, can be best appreciated 
by those having such an officer as Colonel Green- 
wood. His education and experience made him 
a master t)f topography. His coolness and dar- 
ing fitted him to carry out orders in the face of 
danger. He thoroughly understood field forti- 
fications and many times his commander retired 
safely to rest because he knew Colonel Greenwood 
had charge of the work.. In July, 1864, wlien 
General Stanley was appointed to the command of 
the Fourth Corps, Colonel (ireensvood was com- 
missioned by the President lieutenant-colonel 
and inspector, to date from July, 1864. In this 
position he rendered important service in find- 
ing out the movements of the enemy, the dis- 
positions of his lines, the positions of his bat- 
teries. These were his constant employments, 
and his active, enterprising nature thrived in 
iiard work, and detested ease and idleness. His 
faults, happily, were t'ew, and were those of a 
man fearless and careless of danger. Many a 
time he rode miles thi'ough woods and thickets 
to communicate between detacheil portions of the 
troops, sometimes alone, or only with an orderly. 
Care for himself was the last thing to which to 
give thought. In July, 1S65, the Fourth Corps 
landed in Texas, taking post at Victoria, 
Lavacca and San Antonio. Colonel Greenwood 
was put in charge of the Gulf and San Antonio 
Railroad, which had been destroyed by the rebel 
jjeneral John Magruder. With the burned 
and bended railroad iron, and such timber as 
could be gathered out of the Guadaloupe bot- 
toms, he soon had the cars running to Victoria, 
saving immense expense and labor. After com- 
pleting his work in Texas he was employed 
upon the Kansas Pacific Hailroad. He was 
appointed chief engineer of this road, and while 
20 



liolding this position he made surveys on the 
thirty-second and thirty-fifth parallels through 
to San Fraucisco. During his service for the 
company, he constructed one hundred and fii^y 
miles of railroad in one hundred working days, 
and the last (kn- laid ten and a quarter miles of 
track in 10 hours, — a feat, perhaps, never 
equaled in railroad construction. In 1870 lie 
made the first general report in favor of nar- 
row gauge — three feet, i. e., — railroads, and was 
appointed general manager of construction of 
the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Upon 
completion of the first division of tliis railroad 
he was appointed general superintendent, and 
remainetl until the road was finished to Canon 
City. He next went to ^Mexico, in company 
with General W. S. Rosecrans and General W. J. 
Palmer, with a view of constructing a national 
railroad in that country. ^Yhile eng-aged in 
this service he visited England and the Con- 
tinent in the interest of this road, but failina: to 
get the concessions asked for from the Jlexican 
government, he returned to New York, and 
established himself as a civil engineer. In 
May, 1878, he took charge of the construction 
of the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley Railroad, 
for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Com- 
pany, and in March, 187!), took charge of the 
Marion and ]McPherson Railroad. 

During his numerous surveys he had several 
encounters with the Indians, in which his war 
experience came well to hand. The hardships 
from cold, from hunger and exposure duriun' 
this pioneer service in the railways of the great 
plains, were such as few men have experienced. 
As an engineer. Colonel Greenwood had few peers 
in his profession. No obstacle that nature had 
interposed, as it were, in frolicsome mood, in the 
canons and mountains of the West, deterred this 
engineer of science, of skill and daring, and 
railroad trains now run securely where before 
the wild mountain sheep feared to climb. The 
skillful capitalists who built these wonderful 
railroads of Colorado well appreciated his 
worth, and when the Sullivan and Palmer 



306 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Companies undertook the International and 
Interoceanic Railroads from the City of Mexico 
to the Pacific coast, Colonel Greenwood was 
called as the most reliable man to locate the great 
work. It was while engaged in his work in 
Mexico that he was murdered near the public 
highway, at Rio Hondo, Mexico, on Sunday, 
August 29, 1880. 

The following letter received by General 
Stanley gives the details : " Colonel Greenwood 
was on his way to the capitol from his camj) near 
Toluca, accompanied by Mr. Miller, engineer, 
and a servant, to pass the Sabbath with his 
family. About nine miles from Mexico, near 
Rio Hondo, he stopped at an inn. Here there 
were a number of men, who, seeing his horse, 
laid a plot to obtain possession of it. They rode 
ahead some distance, where they remained am- 
bushed ; anil when Col. Green\TOod approached 
alone, having ridden on ahead of his compan- 
ion and servant, they rushed out upon him, 
hoping that the frightened horse would throw 
his rider, and, in that way, they might obtain 
possession of the animal. This plot failed, and 
their only way to obtain the horse was to 
murder its master. His body was found on 
tiie roadside by Mr. Miller, a ball having 
pierced the right hand and body, leaving the 
impression that he had been shot while in the 
act of drawing his revolver. His horse, carbine 
and revolver were taken, but his watch and 
money were found upon his person. The assas- 
sins were probably disturbed in their act of 
plunder. His body was brought to the capitol 
and placed in the American Cemetery. The 
sad event was deeply deplored by every one 
here, where, by his many virtues, he had gained 
many warm friends. 

" P. H. MoRGAX, U. S. Legation. 

"Mexico, November 23, 1880." 

Thus perished all that was mortal of this 
earnest, good and brave man, who had seemed 
to have a charmed life, escajjing the bullets of 
his enemies in war, passing unharmed through 
numerous attacks of Indians, enduring hardships 



from cold and hunger from which few could 
have survived. In the spring of 18.S2 his 
remains were brought from Mexico, and placetl 
in the cemetery at Dummerston, Vermont. 

Colonel Greenwood was a member uf the 
American Society of Civil Engineers, and had 
surveyed and superintended the construction of 
over 3000 miles of railroad. This was a great 
work for one man to do, only forty-eight years 
and a few months old at the time of his death. 
This quiet man, almost bashful in his modesty, 
had realized the object of his youthful ambition, 
and made himself a great engineer. His works 
are a monument to his great worth as a soldier, 
and as a man of practical science he was among 
the first. 

But there must be something said concerniny; 
Colonel Greenwood's domestic life, which was 
especially felicitous. May 19th, 1857, he 
married Evaline, daughter of Joel Knight, Jr., 
and Fanny Duncan (daughter of Dr. Abel 
Duncan, of Dummerston, Vermont), the fam- 
ilies of Knight and Duncan being among the 
most prominent and respected families in the 
town. Mr. and Mrs. Gi'eenwood had no chil- 
dren, but adopted a beautiful little girl, who 
died some years ago. Her death was a great 
grief to them. In 1873 he purchased the farm 
which had been the property of the Knight 
family for several generations, and it is now the 
home of Mrs. Greenwood. 

Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood found in each other 
congeniality, sympathy and help. In war and 
in peace, wherever it was possible for her to 
reach him, l)y sea or by laud, she was always 
near to cheer and encourage him with the love 
and devotion of the true wife. 



LUTHER HEMENWAY. 

The records of the lives of many of our New 
England men may seem humble and unpretend- 
ing when compared with those more brilliant 
and world-renowned, but they are such 
only relatively. The farmer, the manu- 




"M/1 :r HiWtv: 




^^^^r^^^^^^^^-ZJ^ft^ 




MARLBOROUGH. 



307 



facturor and the mechanic eacli has his place 
in the structure of society, and it re(j[uires the 
dift'erent individualities to give beauty and finish 
to the whole. Fur more than a century the 
name of Hemenway lias been a familiar and 
respected one in the towu of Marlborough, and 
among the old and leading manufacturers, who 
deserve especial mention, is Luther Hemenway. 
The name is variously spelled on old records, as 
Hemingway, Heinmenway, Heninway, etc. The 
family was among the early settlers of Framing- 
ham, Mass., and was also of those wlio served 
their adopted country in her long and success- 
ful Revolutionary struggle with England. 
Ebenezer Hemenway, of Framingham, married 
Hannah Winch, ^lay 17, 1711. Samuel, born in 
Framingham, August 3, 1724, married Hannah 
Rice. Their son, El)enezer, born in Framing- 
ham, May 2(i, 1760, married, in 1786, Ruth, 
daughter of Amos and Mary (Trowbridge) 
Gates. She was born February 12, 1768. In 
1787, Ebenezer Hemenway removed with his 
young wife to commence a life of activity and 
establish a home in Marlborough, N. H., and 
settled on what is now known as the Franklin 
Smith place. He took an intelligent interest in 
all the public movements of the town, giving of 
his time and means to forward the prosperity 
and welfare of its citizens. Congregationalist in 
his religious belief, he .was a member of that 
church for more than forty years. He was a 
man of sound judgment, Christian integrity, 
and was universally respected. He died Octo- 
ber 27, 1839. His widow died October 18, 
185-1. Luther, son of Ebenezer and Ruth 
((lates) Hemenway, was born in Framingham 
January 2, 1787, and came to Marlborough 
with his jiareuts when but sis months old. He 
married, for his second wife, October 26, 1813, 
Eliza Cummiugs, of a family well-known and 
honored in New Hampshire. He was a black- 
smith by trade, and had a shop in Marlborough, 
and was familiarly known as Captain Hemen- 
way. He was a stanch man, an old-time Whig, 
interested in educational affairs, and was one of 



the number who formed the Social Library 
Association. He removed to Jaffrey, where he 
died February 13, 1872. 

Luther Hemenway, youngest son of Luther 
and Eliza (Cummings) Hemenway, was born 
in Marlborough January 15, 1827. He mar- 
ried, December 7, 1853, Mary C, daughter of 
Joshua and Eliza (Rice) Davis, of Roxbury. 
Their children were INTary Lizzie, born August 
0, 1859, died September 20, 1860; George A., 
born October 28, 1861, was drowned August 
21, 1864 ; Fred. D., born April 30, 1860 (he 
received the educational advantages of Cushing 
Academy, Ashburnhani, and Commercial Col- 
lege, Boston) ; and Katie M., born September 
27, 1871, died November 5, 1872. 

Ijuther Hemenway's education \vas acquired 
at the disti'ict schools, supplemented by two 
terms at Melville Academy, Jaffrey, to which 
place his father had removed. He improved 
his time and opportunities to the best of his 
ability, and remained with his parents until he 
was twenty-one years old, w'heu he left home 
to engage in business pursuits, and came to 
Marlborough March 1, 1S48, where he estab- 
lished himself with his brother Charles, and 
commenced making clothes-pins, having pre- 
viously invented a machine by which the man- 
ufacture was facilitated and cheapened. He 
remained with Iiis brother two years and was 
then employed by Mr. Snow in the manufacture 
of boxes and toys. After continuing with him 
for about two years Mr. Snow failed, and Mr. 
Hemenway, by his prudence, economy and fore- 
thouglit, having laid ujJ some money, he pur- 
chased the stock, and with a partner, E. JVC. 
Eveleth, under the firm-name of Evelcth & 
Hemenway, continued the business until 1861, 
some nine years, when Mr. Eveleth sold his 
interest to Mr. Hemenway, and he carried on 
the manufacture alone for four years. Geo G. 
Davis was associated w'ith him for a time, the 
firm-title being L. Hemenway & Co. Mr. 
Hemenway has also been engaged in other 
branches of manufacturing and is still tloing 



308 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



something in the line. He started life with a 
determination to accomplish something and to 
do honest work, and now he can feel that he 
has earned the right to rest, or at least to enjoy 
the success of his hard, unwearied labors of many 
years. 

Mr. Hemcnway is a member of the Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd-Fellows, and has been an 
active worker and officer of the order, his mem- 
bership dating back over thirty years. As to 
his politics, prior to our Civil War he was a 
Democrat, l)ut voted for James A. Grarfield, and 
may now be considered an Independent Repub- 
lican voter. He is versed in the business affairs 
of the town, having served its interests as select- 
man for several years, and held other minor 
offices. His religious faith is that of the Uni- 
versalists. 

Mr. Hemenway is characterized by modest 
and unassuming manners, strong attachments, 
great love for his friends, and is a good neighbor, 
loyal citizen and a worthy example of what 
perseverance, diligence and fidelity can accom- 
plish. He belongs to that class of New Eng- 
landers who, while unostentatious and unpretend- 
ing, are yet the true benefactors of the commu- 
nity in which they live, in that they add to the 
material prosperity of tlieir respective localities, 
and leave behind them tangible I'esults of their 
life's work. 



CHARLES (). WHITNEY. 

In the year of our Lord 1634, John Whit- 
ney embarked in the "Elizabeth and Ann" 
from England for the shores of New England. 
He settled in Watertown, Mass., and his sons 
were John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas and 
Jonathan. Many of their descendants settled 
in Framingham, Mass., and, about the middle 
of the eighteenth century, several families mi- 
grated from Framingham, Mass., to New Hamp- 
shire. 

In 1771, Joliu and Jonathan Whitney 
(brothers), of Framingiuim stock, came from 



Dunstable and located in that part of Fitzwil- 
liam now Troy. They lived for jiine years in 
a log house, purchased land and afterwards 
built a house which was constructed for a tav- 
ern and kept by them for eight years, during 
which time they did a good business and ac- 
cumulated considerable property. They closed 
their house to the public in 1788 and turned 
their attention to farming, and continued to- 
gether for a few years, then divided their farm 
and other business interests. Jonathan moved 
to Hartland, Vt., in 1810. John resided on 
the farm until his death, in 1820. He was a 
soldier in the Revolution, and was in the famous 
battle of Bunker Hill. His wife was Mary 
Jones, of Framingham. 

The children of John and Mary (Jones) 
Whitney wei-e Nathan, born in 1781, died in 
1811 ; Polly, born 1783, married Luke Harris, 
died 1813; Sophia, born 1795, married Eseck 
Dexter, settled in the West ; Lucy, born 
1785, died 1794; Sally, born 1787, married 
George Farrar ; John, born 1789, married 
Augusta Fish, went West; Betsey, born 1792, 
married Luke Harris, died in 1858; Luke, 
l)orn 1798, married Lovina White, settled on 
the Woodward farm, where he died in 1841, 
leaving three children, — Ann E., who married, 
November 27, 1862, Goodhue Tenuey, of Marl- 
borough ; Charles O. ; and Francis L., a soldier 
in the great Civil War, who died in Washing- 
ingtou, D. C, from effect of wounds received 
at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. 

Charles O. AVhitney was born May 4, 1838, 
in Troy, N. H. His father dying when he was 
but three years old, and the f\imily being in 
liuml)le circumstances, he went to live with liis 
uncle, Ira Godding, of Troy, N. H., where he 
remained until he was about twelve years old, 
when Mr. and ^Nlrs. Godding died and the young 
lad was thrown u})on his own resources. Now 
commenced his hard straggle with the world 
for a living, and for the next four or five 
years Charles made his home in any family 
where his labor would suffice for liis board and 




"'•'S ■ hyAH-BM->'* 




MARLBOROUGH. 



309 



clothing. Of course, witli all these adverse cir- 
cumstances, he had but little time or opportuu- 
itv for education, but contrivc(l to get a few 
weeks iu the winter at the district school when 
there was not much out-door labor. ^lauy a 
boy, situated in like manner, would have been 
disheartened and taken to evil wajs, l:>ut he 
plodded on with quiet, patient industry, and 
when seventeen years of age he went to worlc 
for Charles Carpenter, of Troy, \\ ho manufae 
tured rakes and also carried on a saw and 
grist-mill. He remained with him about two 
vears, and atterward went to Gardner, IMass., 
and worked two years for Haywood Brothers 
in their chair manufactory. All this time Mr. 
Whitney was working diligently and assiduously, 
endeavoring to improve his mechauical skill. At 
the breaking out of the war, when tlie demand 
for fire-arms was largely increased, he went to 
Springfield, ^Nlass., aud worked for the United 
States government making muskets, continu- 
iug in this em[)loyraent nearly two years. 
While in Springfield, November 27, 18(i2, he 
married Frances F., daughter of Hyman 
Bent, of Fitzwilliam, N. H. She was born 
October 27, 1838. In 186:! he returned to 
South Gardner, Mass., and was for a short time 
in the employ of INI. M^ right tt Co., manufac- 
turers. 

But Mr. Whitney had conceived tlie plan of 
furthering his business interests, and his early 
life of labor had taught him prudence and 
economy, and ho now determined to start in 
business on his own account, aud, taking Rod- 
eric L. Bent, his l)r()ther-in-law, into partner- 
ship, under the firm-title of Whitney ct Bent, 
lie besan chair manufacturino- and carried this 
(in for more than tiiree years, with a fair per- 
centage of profit on the capital invested. In 
18(i6, Mr. ^Miituey disposed of his interest in 
tiie business and moved to Marlboroug-h, N. H., 
of which place lie has since been a resident. 

In company with Mr. Goodhue Teiiuey, he 
bought the brick mill licjonging to (Jcorge 
Tiiatchcr, and they began manufacturing 



wooden pails, but, after three months' time, dis- 
posed of their stock and machinery, and, in con- 
nection with Dr. S. A. Richardson, D. A\'. 
Tenney aud Charles K. Mason, they formed a 
copartnersiiip under name of Marlborough 
Manufacturing Company, and in the spring of 
1867 they made the first horse-blankets manu- 
factured in Marlliorough. This manuiacture 
proved a most important branch of industry 
and added much to the prosperity and growth 
of the town. After three years INlr. Whitney 
withdrew from the company, purchased land, 
erected a building, and, creating a new water- 
power, resumed chair manufacturing, which he 
carried on for a few years. 

In 1873, Mr. Whitney, with Warren H. 
Clark, formed what is now known as the 
Cheshire Blanket Company, and fitted up tlie 
mill, in which Mr. Whitney formerly made 
chairs, for the manufacture of blankets, and 
conducted this industry. These enterprising 
men have added to their business from time to 
time, and in the spring of 1880 they greatly 
enlarged their manufacturing facilities by the 
erection of a new mill, ibrty by forty-five feet, 
two stories high, now making seven sets of 
machinery. They have a cajiital stock of !|?40,(X)fJ 
and can produce five hundred blankets a dav. 

This firm is also largely engaged in the manu- 
facture of satinets, produces as many as twenty- 
five thousand yards per mouth, and the annual 
production, when running on full time, is three 
thousand bales. 

The children of Charles O. and Frances 
(Beut) Whitney are Frank R., born in Gard- 
ner, INIass., August 29, 1866, died August 25, 
18.S5 ; Charles W., born August 4, 1877; aud 
Robert L., born September 10, LS80, in Marl- 
borough. 

PolitiaiUy, Mr. Wliitney has always been a 
Republican ; has served as selectmau and in 
various other offices. He is an attendant of the 
Universalist Churcii, and his son Frank had, 
at the time of his death, been assistant superin- 
tendent of the Sunday-school for two years. 



310 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Mr. Whitney has been aud is a man of great 
industry, perseverance and pluck, aud to him 
is due, in a large measure, the improvement of 
the water-power in Marlborough. 

He was one of twelve Odd-Fellows, mem- 
bers of Beaver Brook Lodge, of Keene, to form 
the Paquoig Lodge, which was instituted Janu- 
ary 13, 1869. He was also- one of a committee 
of five to build the present Odd-Fellows' build- 
ing, which was occupied April 1, 1875, and 
dedicated the June following. 

Mr. Whitney's early manhood was one of 
hard toil, but, by ])ersevering efforts, from hum- 
ble beginnings, unaided, he has acquired a com- 
petency and stands well in the esteem of his 
fellow-townsmen, and is a good type of the self- 
made men of the (Jnuiite State. 



NATHAX WIXCH. 

The Wincii famil}- was an old and much- 
respected on<> in the early days of tiie town of 
Framingham, Mass., and emigrants from tSuifoIk 
Co., England, bearing that name appear on old 
records as early as 1643. In 1673, February 11, 
Samuel (1 ) Winch, of Framingham, the progen- 
itor of the branch now residing in ^Marlljorough, 
N. H., married Hannah Gibbs. Samuel Winch 
was a useful and valued citizen. He was one 
of the original memlx'rs of the church in 
Framingham, which was formed in 17Ul; he 
served as selectman in 1709, tithiugman in 
1718, and died August 3, 1718, leaving a good 
name. His son Thomas (2), born in 169-1, mar- 
ried Deborah (jleason, October 23, 1718, settled 
in Framingham, where he died September 22, 
1761. Thomas (3), Jr., second sou of Thomas and 
Deborah ((jleason) Winch, was born June 2o, 
1723; married, December 20,1743, Elizabeth 
Drury. (Meb (4), son of Thomas, Jr., was born 
in Framingliam, September 26, 1744, married 
Mehitable Maynard, and in 1768 settled in 
that part of Fitzwilliam now Troy, N. H. He 
purchased land, on which he was obliged to fell 



the trees and otherwise clear the place in order 
to bring it into a state of cultivation, built a 
log house, and became a good fiirmer. He 
owned about two hundred acres at one time. 
The children of Caleb and Mehitable (Maynard) 
Winch were Joseph, Xabby, Betsey, Thomas, 
John, Hetty, Nathan, Caleb, Ebenezer and 
William. Caleb Winch was a man of untiring- 
energy and possessed great strength of character. I ] 
He was one of the first to respond to his coun- 
try's call, and was a brave and patriotic soldi(>r 
of the Revolution. He took part in the battle 
of Lexington, and was one of the attendants of 
the British in their inglorious retreat to Boston, 
and served his day and generation well. But 
unfortunately the memory of most of his ser- 
vices in defense of American liberty has per- 
ished with the generation of which he was an 
important factor. The historian of his adopted 
town thus writes of him : " He was an intel- 
ligent and useful citizen, and took a deep in- 
terest in all those enterprises which had for 
their object the improvement of his fellow-men. 
In nearly all of the public business of the town 
he acted a prominent part, thus showing the 
estimation in which he was held by those who 
had the best means of knowing his real merits. 
Although not lilcssed with a liberal education, 
he possessed talents of a high order, and he has 
certainly left conspicuous ' footprints upon the 
sands of time.'" He died January 12, 1826. 
Nathan (.5), born March 1, 1781, passed his early 
days with his parents on the fiirm, became a 
farmer and succeeded to tiie homestead. He 
married, first, Polly Davidson; she died in 1834, 
and he married Asenath, her sister. Some time 
after the death of his father he sold his tlu'm 
and purchased the situation long known in 
Trt)y as the " Winch Place." He resided there 
until his death in 18-51, aged 70 years. He 
wsis a Congregationalist in religious belief, and 
an active, worthy citizen. His children were 
Nathan, Mary (Mrs. Josei)h I'utney), Calvin, 
and Arethusa (^Irs. (Jeo. ]:5nt'klin). 

Nathan Winch, son of Nathan and Polly 




*v_-^^^^fe^ ^i^^^A. 





^^^■^"^-^^C^ 




2^-i^'Z'Z^i 



tf^i 



MARLBOllOUGrt. 



311 



(Davidson) Wiiidi, was born in Fitzwilliam, 
April '1, 1807. He improved liis limited educa- 
tional advant;iges to the utmost, taught school 
four winters, and worked on the farm summers. 
He remained on the old homestead with his 
parents, assisting in the farm labors, until he 
reached his majority ; then he engaged in work in 
a factory for making pails, iu Troy. Then, hav- 
ing the ambition that is characteristic of our 
New England boys to improve his circum- 
stances, he bought a water privilege in Swauzey, 
fitted up a building, and carried on pail manu- 
facturing for six years and then sold out his 
business. At this time, by his hard lalior, unre- 
mitting industry, and by rigid econom}', he had 
accumulated some money, and with the little lie 
received from his share of the old homestead he 
was able to purchase a farm, which he did in 
Troy, and for seven years was occupied in 
farming. He then resumed manufacturing, and 
came to Marlborough in 18o2, purchased a 
factory and continued until 1868, when he re- 
turned to Swanzey and was in the same busi- 
ness there, when his building was burned, and 
he removed to Marlborough and purchased an 
interest in his former business there, and after- 
wards became sole proprietor, continuing till 
May, 1881, when his son, George F., who is 
now in business, succeeded him. 

During his residence in Swanzey, Mr. Winch 
married, October 20, 183;'>, Abigail Bucklin, of 
Wallingford, Vt. Their children were Franklin 
B., died aged 15 years; Adelia, died aged 7 
years; Dorothea, died July 31, 1872; George 
B., died aged 7 years; and George F., born in 
1850, married, November 6, 1873, Laura I., 
daughter of Gilman and Harriet (Atwood) 
Griffin. (They have one child, Abbie Amelia, 
born June 12, 1877.) Mr. Winch's first wife 
died April 23, 1867, and he married, second, 
Nancy Winzell, of Ashland, Mass. ; she died 
January 28, 1872. His third wife was Mrs. 
Lucinda Scoville, daughter of Jesse and Lucy 
(Emery) Stone. They were married August 6, 
1872. 



Mr. Winch has been a man of persevering- 
energy. Starting from an humble beginning, he 
entered upon manufacturing, and through it, 
with the labor of his hands, he has acquired a 
competency. Republican in politics, he has 
never been a political aspirant, but has been alive 
to matters of public interest. He served as 
selectman in 1847, in Troy. His religious 
belief is that of the Orthodox Congregationalists, 
and both his wife and himself are members of 
the church. He is of social disposition, a good 
neighbor, liberal and pul)lic-spirited and a use- 
ful citizen, and, at the age of seventy-eight, iiis 
intellect is clear, his perception keen as tliat of 
many nnich younger men. In his life Mr. 
Winch illustrates what may be accomplished by 
energy, patience, pcrscvcranci' and industry. 



JAMES KNOWLTOX. 



The Knowlton family belongs to the early 
history of New England ; for not more than 
two decades subsetpient to the landing of tlu' 
" Mayflower" at Plymouth, Mass., and the 
settlement of that town by the Puritans, we 
find, on old records of Essex County, Mass., 
that John Knowlton, the progenitor of the 
family bearing the name, was a freeman of 
Ipswich, in 1641. He died iu 1054, leaving 
children bearing the names of John, Abraham 
and Elizabeth. His brother Thomas was also 
an inhabitant of Ipswich iu 1648, and married, 
November 24, 1668, Hannah Grew. He was 
a man well known and respected in the com- 
munity, a deacon of the ('hurch and a prison- 
keeper. He died April 3, 1692. John (2), son 
of Johu (1), was a resident of Wenham in 
1680. Among their descendants have been 
many prominent men in the law, ministry and 
other professions. Deacon John Knowlton, 
probably a lineal descendant of him whose 
name he bore, was born in Holliston, Mass., 
January 24, 1745. He married Martha Jen- 
nings, April 20, 1769, and migrated to that 
part of Dublin, N. H., now known as West 



312 



ItlSl^ORY OF CHESfilUE COUNTY, NEW HAMfSttlRE. 



Harrisville, and became a farmer, as was the 
custom of" most of the pioneers iu that section 
of the country. His wife died August 7, 1797, 
and he married, February 19, 1798, Elizabeth, 
daughter of John Wight. Their sou, Luke, 
who was born August 1, 1801, married Mercy 
Bemis, December 28, 1826. He succeeded to 
part of the old homestead, and remained in 
Dublin until 1849, when he came to Marl- 
borough. He was a stone-mason by tiade, and 
for many years worked with Asa Greenwood. 
He was a good and worthy citizen, and a 
member of the Universalist Church. He died 
December 6, 1882, in the eighty-second year of 
his age. He had sons, James and Luke. 
Luke enlisted, in 1862, in Company A, Four- 
t(!L'nth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, 
and served through the war, doing his duty 
like a brave and patriotic citizen. 

James Knowlton, oldest child of Luke 
and Mercy (Bemis) Knowlton, was born in 
Dublin, N. H., December 20, 1828. He mar- 
ried. May 2.3, 1854, Emily, daughter of Dexter 
and Abigail (Adams) Mason, of Dublin. She 
is a descendant of honorable New England 
families, is a lady of education and has been 
a successful school-teacher. Their daughter, 
Lilla M., was born April 16, 1857. 

James Knowltou had no other opportunities 
for obtaining an education than the common 
schools of his native town, but such time as 
could be giveu to that pur2:)ose was faithfully 
improved. He followed the trade of his father, 
that (if stone-masonry, Morking for him until 
he had attained his majority, when he com- 
menced business life for himself. He was em- 
ployed on the work of the Burlington and Rut- 
land Railroad, and for three 3'ears superin- 
tended ditferent gangs of workmen. He had a 
natural taste for mechanics, an ambition to im- 
prove his prospects and also add to his " stock 
ill trade" of acquirements. He became a ma- 
chinist, and was engaged by J. A. Fa}^ & Co. 
in setting up machinery, etc., remaining in their 
employ seven years. 



In 1862, Mr. Knowlton purchast'(l of (J. H. 
& S. W. Stone their manufactory of clothes- 
pins in Marlborough, and carried on this manu- 
facturing for six years. In 1868 he com- 
menced making wooden pails, which he has 
continued until the present time, taking his 
brother Luke into partnership iu 1865, under 
the firm-name of J. & L. Knowlton. The busi- 
ness has lai-gely increased, the number of pails 
manufiictured iu 1884 being one hundred and 
ninety-four thousand. 

Mr. Knowlton is also a contractor and 
l)uilder, and has been actively engaged in the 
erection of many of the houses in Marlborough 
of the present time. He sujjerintended the 
building of the dam at the reservoir at Marl- 
borough Glen, which is one of the largest and 
best constructed in this section antl is one of the 
best water privileges in Cheshire County. The 
whole length of the dam is 255 feet ; length of 
roll-way, 94 feet; extreme height, 35_feet; height 
of roll-way, 32 feet. Material used, 3500 tons 
of granite and other stone, 57,000 feet of lumber, 
with 3000 pounds of iron; costing about §3000. 

He superintended the building of the reser- 
voir dam at Bemisville iu 1868, and in 1881 
he built the dam for the so-called Dublin 
reservoir, on the Mount Monadnock Brook. 
This was the last reservoir constructed by the 
Breed Pond Company. It was built on a solid 
ledge, wholly of stone, is one-half mile at its 
widest point and flows back a mile and a half 
The length of the dam is 125 feet, height, 23 
feet, and width on the bottom, 40 feet. 

Mr. Knowlton was a charter member of the 
Odd-Fellows' lodge in Marlborough, and has 
held the office of Noble Grand. Politically, his 
affiliations are with the Republican party, but 
he has never sought or filled any office in its 
gift, being entirely devoted to his business. In 
his religious preferences he is a Universalist, 
and was among the principal movers and pro- 
moters of the church of " faith and love " in 
^Marlborough, and is a liberal contributor to its 
support. From childhood he has been strictly 



MAKLBOROUGH. 



313 



temperate, and has never bouglit a glass of liquor. 
He is a strong, enterprising, progressive man, 
such an one as is needed in every community, 
and whose energy and influence are potent for 
action and advance. As a manufacturer and 
business man, he is a persistent, industrious, 
practical worker, careful in the details of his 
business, and his efforts liave been rewarded 
with financial success. As a friend and neigh- 
bor, he is kind-hearted and social ; as an employ- 
er, considerate of the interests of his woi-kmeu ; 
as a citizen, he enjoys universal confidence and 
esteem, and is one of the representative men of 
Marlborouy;h. 



SOLON STONE WILKINSON. 

Solon Stone "\Vilkin.son, was born in Marl- 
borough, March 22, 1828. It was his good 
fortune to come into this world in a very pleas- 
ant home. His father was kind and judicious ; 
his mother was affectionate and decidedly gifled 
in heart and mind. His childhood was j^assed 
on a farm, where the air was invigorating and 
the scenery strikingly beautiful. In the dis- 
trict school he was quite a favorite among his 
mates, being large-hearted and full of good 
nature. The boys used to enjoy hearing Solon 
laugh. In his studies he aimed to be faithful 
and did rank well as a scholar, excelling in 
declamation. He early learned the harness 
and .saddler's trade of his father, who was emi- 
nently successful in this business for more than 
three-score years. Reaching his majority, he 
still continued working for his father, and 



going in company with him for si'veral years, 
being highly esteemed as a citizen and a Chris- 
tain. At length he left jNIaidborough and 
settled in Keene, that he might have a larger 
field in which to work a)id trade. Here, for 
twenty years and more, lie was at the head of 
an extensive business in manufacturing and 
selling harnesses, saddles, trunks, etc. Though 
closely confined to his calling, still he has found 
time to work in church, Sunday-school, the 
temperance cause and social ways, so as to 
make his influence felt for good, proving that 
he is living to render the world wiser and 
better. He was a popular adjutant-general on 
ex-Governor Hale's staff. He is naturally very 
social aud genial ; accordingly, he makes hosts 
of friends. 

Not hmg ago he found it necessary to leave 
his store and trade, that he might not be .so 
closely confined in-doors, and since the change 
he has been engaged with his brother, Warren 
S. Wilkinson, of Springfield, Mas.s., who has 
become a successful and wealthy gentleman, in 
manufacturing woolen goods in Marlborough. 
So he has come back to his native place to do 
business, but still resides in Keene, where he 
has a pleasant home within and without. His 
wife was the daughter of Charles and Polly 
Holman, who delights in making her home 
most inviting. They have one, son who has 
advanced into manhood and is proving himself 
a blessing to his parents and the world. Mr. 
Wilkinson is large and well-proportioned in 
body, mind and heart. He is a worthy son of 
his native town. 



HISTORY OF MARLOW. 



CHAPTER I. 

The town of Marlow lies iu the northern 
part of the county, and is bounded as follows : 
On tlie nortli, by Sullivan County ; ou the east, 
by Sullivan County and the town of Stoddard ; 
on the south, by Gilsum, and on the west, by 
Alstead. 

The townshi]) was granted October 7, 1761, 
to William Xoyes and sixty-three others, 
at which time it received its pi'esent name. 
The reservation of five hundred acres for 
Governor Wentworth was located in the south- 
west corner. The conditions of this grant 
were not wholly complied M-ith, and the in- 
habitants, on the 30tli of Decembei-, 1771, 
petitioned for an extension of the charter, which 
was granted January' 24, 1772, for a term of 
three years. In the petition they stated that 
twenty-eight families were resident in town, 
and that five more were to settle the following 
spring. 

The grantees were residents of Connecticut, 
principally in the vicinity of the towns of 
Lyme and Colchester. Among the first settlers 
were Thomas and Samuel Gustin, Elisha and 
Solomon Mack, Jasper and Nathan Huntley 
and Joseph Tubbs. 

By an act passed June 21, 1797, all that 
portion of the town, as originally granted, 
lying east of the curve-line of Mason's patent, 
containing some four thousand acres, was de- 
clared to be under the jurisdiction and a part 
of the town of Stoddard. 

An academy flourished here for some years, 
which was largely patronized by the inhab- 
314 



itants of the county and did a good work in 
the cause of education. 

The first town-meeting was held ]\Iarch 2, 
1766, at the house of Samuel Gustin. Joseph 
Tubbs was chosen moderator and Sanuiel Gus- 
tin, clerk. 

The first selectmen were chosen March ll!, 
1766, viz. : Joseph Tiibl)s, Samuel (iustin and 
Martin Lord. 

The earliest buildings were erected uear 
Baker's Corners, by John Gustin. Nathan 
Huntley settletl near Marlow Hill and Josejjh 
Tubbs in the south part of the town. 

The first meeting-house was erected iu 1798, 
ou Marlow Hill. It was taken down in 1845 
and removed to the village and used as a Union 
Church. The Methodist Church also originally 
stood on Marlow Hill, and Rev. Peter Jacobs 
was the first minister. 

The Uuiversalist Church here was organized 
in 1847, and the first pastor was Rev. N. R. 
Wright. There are now three cluirchcs in 
town, — Christian, Methodist and Uuiversalist. 

In the early days the people of the town 
were generally Baptist. A Congregational 
Church, \s'ith nine members, was formed here 
in 1823, but was long since discontinued. 

The first physician in the town was, proba- 
bly, Dr. Isaac Baker. Others have been 
Thomas J. Stevens, Lyman Brooks, Reuben 
Hatch, Dr. Richardson, R. G. Matlier and 
Marshall Perkins. 

In olden times, Baker's Corners was the cen- 
tre of business in the town, containing a store, 
potash manufactory and hotel. The first store 
was opened by a Mr. Lamphcre on the " Hill," 



MARLOW. 



315 



and the hotol of most not*; was Ivopt l)y ^Vliiion 
Smitli, familarly known as " Peg Smith." Thi; 
iirst hotel in the town was located at Baker's 
C'Orners, and Samuel Richardson was pro- 
prietor. 

The first store in South Marlow was opened 
bv Joel Tcnney. The first tannery in tlio town 
was built l>y Ward Ware. The first tannery at 
Marlow village was built by L. Iluntly in 
1S.35. This has been succeeded by the present 
large tanning establishment of Hon. James 
]5urnap. 

DOCUMENTARY HISTORY. 

Inventory of 1773. 
" A True Inventory of :ill the Poles and Ratable 
Kstate in the Township of Marlow Taken this twenty 
Sixth day of April 1773 by us the Subscribers Select- 
men of Said Marlow 

" Thirty four poles — twenty Eight o.\en — ^forty 
two Cows — fifteen three years old — Eight two year 
cdd — thirteen year old — two Horses — one hundred and 
forty four acers of Mowing IamiX — Seventy Nine 
acers of arable Land — Sixty four acers of iiuster 
Land — 
" A True List attest 

"NicoDEMES Miller 1 Selecimen of 
"Sam" Canfield J Marlow 

" i)rovince of New Iminpshire A])ril y"" 26"' 1773 
"County of Cheshire ss parsonally appeared Nico- 
denis Miller and Samuell Cantield Selectmen of Mar- 
low and made Soloom oath to the above Inventory 
by them Taken & Signed by them as above Is Just 
and True as there set down taken 
" Before me 

" B Bellows Justice Peace " 

Relative to the Election of Representative, 1776. 

"To the Honcrabel Counsel & assembeley of the 
Colony of New hami)shire to be Conveaned & as- 
sembled at Exeter on the third wensday of De- 
cember Instant. 

"The Petiteion of tlic Inhabetitants of the Towns 
of marlow Alsted and Surrey Humbeley Sheweth that 
where as it is the advice & Deriction of the Conte- 
nantel Congrace Reletve to the asumeiug Civel Gov- 
ernient in this Coloney have advised and Dericted 
I lie Provenslial Congras of this Colony Preveus to 
Ihfir asuiming a forme of Ceviel Government that 
they at their Convenshon Do Grant worants for a full 
and free Election of Representetves in this Coloney 
& where as veeres Cuppleingof veraes Towns toGether 



in the wesetern Parts of Coloney and allowing but 
one Representetve to a Cuppling and we being Defer- 
antly Treted from the Mager Parts of this Coloney 
who are allowed a Representetivc to Each Town and 
where as the Towns of marlow Alsted & Surrey are 
Towns InCorprated with all the Inverabel Privelig- 
eses & Eraunities that any other Town or Towns Do 
or may In Joy In this Coloney & being thus Cupplcd 
together as aforeSaid are abriged or Curtailed of the 
Privelig of Each EndeviDial Town Elec('ting a Rep- 
resentetivc which we Humbely Conceve Can not be 
Constred to be a full & free Election or Representa- 
tion of the Said Coloney agreabel to the advice of the 
Contenantal Congress above Resited we there fore 
your Humbel Petiteshers would be such the Honera- 
bel Counsel & House of Representetives that Preves 
to the further Preserving the Plan of Civel Govern- 
ment that there may worants be Granted for a full 
and free Election or Representation of Each of the 
Endvedial Towns above menchened Presewent to the 
advice of the Contenantal Congrace aforesaid thus 
Shall your ITumbel Petisonors as In Deuty B<iun<l 
Ever Pray. 

" Dated Coloney of Newhamsher Marlow Decem- 
ber IP" A :D 1776 

" Sam" Gustin " Come" for 

" Aksalom Kingsbery marlow 
" WooLSTON Brockway ( Alsted & 
" Jonathan Smith Surrey " 

Relative to the East Line of the Toion, \ni. 

" Marlow Feb^ y" 20* 1777— 

" As there is a Report prevails in the Town of Mar- 
low that one oliver Parker a Reputed mover of sedi- 
tion in the Town of Stoddard hath got a petition 
Signd by a party to have some part of the lilast side 
of the Town of marlow (l)y the general Cort) set to 
Stoddard. 

" We the Select men of marlow in thi^ Stat(i of 
Newhampshire. Beg Leve to Say Some thing in the 
Ears of the General Cort on this matter if y'' above 
Said petition is prefared — viz — that the incorporation 
of y" Town of marlow is older than y° incorporation 
of any Town adjoining to the said marlow — and we 
in y'' Name of y" inhabitants of y" Town of marlow 
humbly Pray that the General Cort would not by any 
incorporation infringeon the Town of marlow without 
Giving Notice to the Inhabitants of the said marlow 
some time before hand — 

" If the above s'' petition be for paying Taxes only 
— the General assembly did on the 12* Day of June 
1776 pass a resolve that all those Rateable persons 
who live within the original east Line of marlow and 
their Estates thir. pay there Taxes to marlow untill 



316 



HISTOllY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the Title of the Lands Disputable between the said 
Towns of marlow and Stoddard be Decided by Law or 
or by agreement between the said two Towns. 

" The Cause being So plain we shall not Trouble 
the Cort any Longer — Resting assured they will not 
act Contrary to this petition without first Notifying 
the Town of marlow and giving us a Day to Defend 
our Selves 

" Dated at marlow this 4"' of march AD 1777 — 

" pr us "NicoDEMUS Miller ) Select men 



" Abisha Tubs 



t 



ifmarloni " 



Relative to the Settlement nf the Ead Line of the 
Town, 1778. 

"State of Newhamshere Chesher County Marlow 
Feberay 3"» 1778 

"as there is Still Remaining a Deficalty about the 
Colecting of Taxes in our town on aCount of the 
Clames of woshenton and Stoder by their Corpora- 
tions — Laping on our Town and the Charter and 
Corporation there of and as the Easter most Line 
of Said marlow is Desputed by Said Washenton & 
Stodderd and that it may be Setteled with out Defi- 
calty in a Legal Methard 

" we the Subscribers Select men of Said Marlow 
Do Bring our Requst and Potition to the Honorabel 
Counsel and assembely of this State that they would 
Derict to Sum method whereby those unhapey Defi- 
caltys may be Removed and if your Honours Should 
Think it Proper : we Should be Glad that Sum So- 
veyor & Chainmen that are Dis Entrested and In- 
habtents of this County be apointed to Run the 
Loyus of Said marlow aCording to the Charter of 
Said Town and Esabilish the Lines and Bounds of 
Said Town that Such Desputes may be Removed for 
which we your Potishenors as In Deuty Bound would 
Humbely Pray 

" Eeer Lewis 1 Selectmen 

" William Nud > of viarlow 

" N : B as marlow is the oldest Charter of any 
Town that Joins on it we think it very improper that 
other Towns Should InCroach on our Rights & Priv- 
eliges &C 

" the within riten petetion is Excepted and by the 
town Voted to be Sent to the Honourable Counsil and 
Asemby 

" JosATH RoYCE toim Clark " 

Relative to Taxes, 1784. 

"State of Newhampshire 

" The Petition of the Town of Marlow humbly 
Sheweth That in the Proportion taken in 1777 the 
Town of Marlow Sent in their Inventory according 



to the best of their Knowledge Includeing all within 
the Original Limitts of Said Town — after which the 
General Court by their Special order Resolv'' that a 
certain part of the Land aforesaid with the Inhabit- 
ants thereon so far as the Masonian grant Extended 
Should pay their proportion another way whereby 
your Petitionei's where Deprived of a Considerable 
part of their Strength which they Expected in pay- 
ing the Quotas of Taxes Laid on them in conse- 
quence of their Proportion and also was Doom"* 
their Supose* proportion in 1780 Including the Land 
aforesaid Therefore your Petitioner humbly Pray* 
that So much of their Taxes As hath been So Laid 
on them may be abated that they may only pay their 
Just proportion of Taxes in Said State which they 
Ever Desire to do and no more and your Pctitionei'S 
as in Duty bound will Ever pray 

Nath" S Pkentice in behalf of Said Touni" 

Relative to East Line of the Toirn, 1798. 

" To the honarble Senate and hous of Representatives 
in .Icneral cort Convened at Concord on the thurd 
Wedingsday of this Instant November 

" your pertisherners humbley Shweth that whereas 
an act has Ben past Giving Juresdiction of a part of 
marlow to Stodderd to the grate deterament of said 
marlow and must unavoidable Ruen said town if 
Said act is not Reconsedered tharefore your portish- 
erners humbley prayeth that your honers will make 
thare Case your Case and then Consider wheather you 
would Be willing to have your towns Cut to peaces 
without the Concent of the inhabetents then your 
portisheners thinks they Shall be Abel By thare 
agent to Shew the unreasonable ness of that act 
which your jiortishoners thinks neaver would Ben 
past if the honerable Cort at that Time had farly un- 
derstod the situation of Both towns that Stoddard is 
Biger without that Strip than marlow is with it by 
Reason of Washington Exersising Juresdiction over a 
Considerable part of said marlow and your portish- 
eners humbley prayeth that they may not Be tore to 
peases to Set up thare nabering towns thow they are 
willing to sutler with other Towns But not to be tore 
to peaces to set them up tharefore your portisheners 
humbley Requestes that act may Be Reconsidered 
and your portisheners as in duty Bound Shall Ever 
Pray 

" Marlow November IG* 1798 

" Elisha Huntley ] Select 
" Abijah MArK ]■ Men of 

" Wells Way J marloto" 



MARLOW. 



317 



Remonstrance to the Establishment of the East Line 
(iii by the Act of 1797. 

"To the Honourable senate & house of Representa- 
tives to be convened at Concord on the third Wed- 
nesday of November — 

" The Petition of the Proprietors of the town of 
JIarlow humbley shews that the General court at their 
sessions in June 1797 sett off the southeast part of 
Marlow containing About four thousand acres of s'' 
JIarlow under tlie Jurisdiction of the town of Stod- 
dard haveing About twenty faniylies on the same 
which we concieve was obtained by A Very wrong 
Representation of the Matters of fact And we your 
Pctioner not thinking it necessary at that time to send 
in A written remonstrance against the town of Stod- 
dard petition fully believing that the honourable 
court would never take off from the lesser towns and to 
put to the Greater where the town taken off from the 
Inhabitants to be taken off had not Requested it but 
to their great Disappointment it was done, and we 
your Petioners being fully sensible that s'' Act being 
carried into effect according to the liberty the town of 
Stoddard have taken and mean to take by taxing our 



Lands under the Lay out of the Proprietors of s'' 
Stoddard which your Honours will be sensible lays 
a foundation for A continered multicipticity of Law- 
suits to the Great damage of the publick and to 
the total Destruction of Many of Your Petitioners 
Interest on both sides and whereas the Proprietors of 
s'' Stoddard as well as the town have taken the 
most unwearied paiues to Defraud us and Arrest 
our Lands from us by every strategem that Depraved 
human natnre could Invent and we are fully persuaded 
your honours when fully possest of the facts will not 
uphold them nor strengthen them in their inthusiasm 
but will Repeal s'' Act and let us peaceably enjoy our 
Land as other Citizens do which is the humble 
prayer of your petitioners as in duty bound sliall 
pray 

•'Marlow June 4'" 1798 ^ 

"ELlJjiH Frink In Behalf of the Petitioners " 

All that portion of Marlow lying cast of the 
curve-line of Ma.son's patent was decreed to 
belong to Stoddard by an act pa.ssed June 21 , 
1797. 



HISTORY OF NELSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

The town of Nelsou is located in tlie eastern 
part pf the county, and is bounded as follows : 
On the north by Stoddard ; east by Hillsborough 
County; south by Harrisville, and west by 
Sullivan and Roxbury. 

The township was granted l)y the Masonian 
proprietors, and went by the name of Monad- 
nock No. 6 until February 22, 1774, when it 
was incorporated and named Packersfield, in 
honor of Thomas Packer, of Portsmouth, one 
of the largest proprietors. 

In 1777 an attempt was made to have the 
name changed to Sullivan, which was unsuc- 
cessful. 

By an act passed September 27, 1787, a por- 
tion of the northwest part of the town, about 
two miles square, was combined with portions 
of Keene, Gilsum and Stoddard, and incorpor- 
ated into the town of Sullivan. 

The formation of the town of Roxbury, De- 
cember 9, 1812, took oif'thesoutiiwest corner of 
this town, and a portion of Keene and Marl- 
borough. 

The name of the town was changed to Nel- 
son, October 1, 1814, in accordance with a vote 
of the Legislature in .June previous. 

Tlie boundary line between this town and 
Roxbury was changed June 15, 1820, a small 
tract of land being severed from the former and 
annexed to the latter town. 

-Tune 25, 1835, the farm of Ebenezer Tarbox 
was severed from Stoddard, and annexed to 
Nelson. 
318 



Breed Batchelder, a Tory during the Revolu- 
tionar}' War, and Dr. Nathaniel Breed, com- 
menced settling the town in 1767-68. 

PETITION FOR AN INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN, 
1773. 

"Province of New Hampshire. 

"To his Excellency John wentworth Esq" Captain 
General-Govoner and Commander in Chief in and 
over Said Province and the Honourable his majes- 
tys Council for Said Province. 

" Humbly Shewes Breed Batcheller of monadnock, 
Number Six in the County of Cheshire and Province 
afore Said Gentleman, as agent for the Proprietors of 
Said monadnock, that the Said Proprietors & the 
Public Labour under many Disadvantages for want 
of the Said Proprietors being Incorperated into a 
Town, & Invested with Town Priviledges The Pro- 
prietors of Said monadnock this year are ordered to 
pay a Certain Sum, towards the Province Tax, which 
Cannot be assessed upon the Inhabitants of Said 
monadnock for want of Town officers to assess the 
Same 

"your Petitioner Conceives that an Incorporation 
of Said manadnock, would Greatly Encourage and 
faceletate the Settlement, & tend to the Good order 
thereof. — 

"Whereof he in there behalf, prays your Excellency 
& Honours, would incorjiorate Said Proprietors into 
a Town by the name of Packersfield and invest them 
with Town Privilidges, and your Petitioner as in 
Duty Bound will Ever pray 

" November 1"" 1773— 

"Breed Batcheller agren^" 

The town was incorporated by the Governor 
and Council, and named Packensfield, February 
22, 1774. 



NELSON. 



319 



PETITION FOR CHANGE OF THE NAME OF THE 

TOWN, 1777. 

"State of New-Hampshire. 

" To the Honourable Council & House of Represen- 
titives in General Court assembled. 

"The Petition of the Inhabitants of Packersfield 
Humbly Sheweth Whereas your Petitioners are by 
Charter obliged to hold their annual meeting in 
august which is a busy time of the year we desire 
your honours would order our annual meeting for the 
future to be in March, also that the name of our 
town may be altered to the name of guLlVAN — 
Likewise as our town is Liable to be Divided at the 
Governours pleasure we pray that we may not be 
Divided without the Consent of the Major part of the 
town. 

"and your Petitioners as in Duty bound Shall 
Ever Pray 

" Packerfield December 22°'' 1777 

" Nath" Breed in the Name and behalf 
of the Town " 

The Hou.se of Representatives granted leave 
to " bring in a bill," but it was finally ordered 
" to lay tor consideration." 

GEORGE BRINTNALL'S ORDER TO MARCH, 1778. 

" m' george Brintnall Sir 
"you are hei-eby ordered to march immedately to 
the Hon' Committee of Safty or muster master genral 
at Exeter there to Receive your Billiten and E.xpence 
money as one Engage'' in the Continental Servise for 
nine months according to the orders I Reciev'' from 
Co' Enoch Hale 

"Packerfield may-ye 5"' 1778. 

" James Bancroft, Capt 

RELATIVE to TAXES, TOWN RECORDS, ETC., 1778. 

" To the Honorable the Counsil and assembly of the 

Estate of Newhamshire — 

" We the Subscrib.ers Select Men of the Town of 
Packerfield in the Countie of Cheshire Humbly Re- 
quest Your Honours that You Would be Pleased to 
Grant them Some farther Time for Paying in the 
State tax for the Reasons following Viz — 

"first because We Receiv'' the act for Making the 
tax but about a Week Past & the time is too Short to 
Sell the Lands Seacondly because Maj' Breed Batchel- 
lor who is Proprietors Clerk has absconded and 
Joyned the Enemy (tho we have searched) we can- 
not find the Plan or Records of the Proprietors 
Rights or the Publick Lotts therefore as the Greater 
Part of the Township is Owned by Persons Living 



Out of Town and Unknown to us We Cannot Make 
the Rates according to Law Without a Plan of the 
Town We Shall Endeavour to Git One from the 
Lord Proprietors Records — 

"Likewise We Would Request Your Honours to 
acjuaint Us Whether the Late aditiou to an Act En- 
titled an act to assess Real and Personal Estates Viz 
all Other Real Estate Either Lands or Buildings Not 
Included in the first act is Likewise to be Rated in all 
Other Town and Parish Rates as Apprehend Was 
the Intent of the act but by a Clause in the act Seems 
Doubtful to Some what was Intended and Your Pe- 
titioners as in Duty Bound Shall Ever Pray 

" Packerfield Febv 9'" 1778. 



' Amos Skinn 



.N y 

NER j 



Packerfield " 



RELATIVE to ESTATE OF THOMAS PACKER, ETC., 

1780. 

"To The Honourable Council and House of Repre- 
sentatives, of the State of New Hampshire, In gen- 
eral Court assembled. May it please your 
Honors. 

"The Petition of the Select Men of the Town of 
Packerfield humbly Sheweth. — Whereas the last 
general Assembly of this State was pleased to pass an 
Act, to Suspend the payment of the Taxes of the 
Lands of mr Thomas Packer, until the Dispute with 
respect to the last Will and Testament of his late 
Father, Thomas Packer Esq', is determined Which 
Act or Order of the said general Assembly involves 
the Town in much Difiiculty, as by this Means We 
are prevented Settling with the Treasurer of this 
State, And receiving the Money oi'dered by Law to be 
paid by Sd Treasurer for the Beef which this Town 
has provided And sent to the Army. Therefore Y'^our 
Petitioners humbly pray That your Honours would 
be pleased, to pass an Act or Order, That the Sd 
Suspended Tax, Should Answer So much with the Sd 
Treasurer, that the Town may draw their Proportion 
of money for the Beef which the Town has provided. 
And your I'etitioners as in Duty bound Shall ever 
pray 

" Packerfield Decem"^ 30'" 1780. 

"William Barker ) Select Men of the 
"John Brown ) town of Packerfield'' 

return of ratable polls, 1783. 

" Pursuant to A Vote of the General assembly of 
the State of New Hampshire Directed to us we Re- 
turn Ninety Male poles paying a pole tax for them 
Selves within the Town of Packerfield 

"Packerfield November 10'" 1783 



320 



IirSTORY OF (JIIKSHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" To tlio (ioiicral assciiibly lor the State of New : 
Hainpshiri — 

"Samel Giiii'fiN, ) Sekct- 

"CONSIDKII O.S(ii)(>i), ] men." 

IIIOI.A TIVH TO A DIVISION Ol' THE TOWN I'olt THE 
KOUMATION OE SUI.MVAN, 178G. 

"To llie Honourable tlic Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives for the State of New Hampsliire in 
Cieneral (lourt Convean'' At I'ortsnioiilli I)eeenil>er 
A. 1). 178(1. 

"The petition in lieliulfof the Town of Paekersfeild 
Hnnilily Sheweth tliat your petitioners luive ben 
Serv' Witii a Copy of a petition and order of Court 
thereon signed by a number of the Inhabitants of the 
TowiLs of (lilsom Stoddard & Vi-(;\\ Sctiiig forth in S'' 
petition that tlie Situation ol'a iiund)cr of tlie Inhabi- 
tants of the Towns aforesaid Togather with Part of 
tlie inhabitants of the Town of Packerfeild is sueh 
that they Cannot be aecoinedaled with Privileges 
Ivinal to the other Inhabitants of their respective 
Towns, one Part of which Ascertion your Petitioners 
absolutely Deny IJecause there is not one Inhabitant 
on the Land in i)ackersfeild Praid for in Said Peti- 
tion — 

" Althoug at a meeting of (he Inhabitants of the 
Town of Packerlield in the month of March A. D. 
1784 There was a Petition Sign'' by a Number of the 
Inhabitants of the Towns of Oilsom Stoddard and 
Keen Prcferdin Said meeting praying that the Town 
of Packerfeild would Vote off a Certain part of 
Packerfeild to be Erected into a Town S'' part to 
Contain Two Miles East and west and Two miles and 
a half North and South which would Contain one 
Eighth Part of Said Packerfeild and from the reasons 
offered at that Time and through the inadvertency of 
the People the jiraycr of Said Petition waa granted 
upon Conditions that all the respective Towns Con- 
cern'' ware mutually agreed thereto (Senee AVMiich 
Period) not supposing that the petitioners referd to 
would obtain their request before the general Assem- 
bly) have proceeded to agree upon a Center for 
Erecting a meeting House and have made provision 
for the Same therefore if the Prayer to the Inhabi- 
tautsof the town of (iilsom and others Preferd to the 
(leneral Court Should be (Jranted it will be a means 
of removing the Present Center and frustrate our 
Design in Puilding a House for Public Worship and 
thro the Town into the uttermost Confusion imagin- 
able and as we look upon your Honours as Guardians 
of the State your Petitioners flatter themselves that 
your honours in your known Wisdom Will not Erect 
a New Town on the ruins of older imes : therefore 



your Petitioners pray that the prayer of the petition 
referd to may not be {^ranted 

"As in Duty Hound Shall ever pray 

" SoEOMON Waedwele "j Select men of 
"SoEoMON Inhales ^ the town of 
"Peeatiaii Day ) I'ackerfeild 

"Paekersfeild Decern' 1st 178<;" 

Tlie nortlnvest part of the town was severed, 
and, with [)ortionsoC ({ilsum and Ivecno, incor- 
porated info tliG town of Snllivaii. 

petition OE liUril liATCUICEl^ER, CONCEKNINII JIEK 

hushand's confiscated e.state, 1789. 

" State of New-Hampshire. — 
" To the Honorable Senate and House of Re|)re.senta- 

tivesln general Court assembled. — 

" May it please your Honors. The Petition of 
Ruth IJachellor of Packeislicld, humbly sheweth. 
That your Petitioner is the Widow relict of Breed 
Hatchellor Esq' late of S" Pack^rslieM— Deceased. 
Who in the Time of the Controversy with Britain, 
was dissatisfied with the Measures the States Adopted, 
in order to obtain their Liberties, and delivering 
themselves from the hands of the Britons, And there- 
fore Left his Wife, Children & Estate, and went to 
the British Army. Upon which the whole of his 
Estate, real & personal was Confiscated. And 
your Petitioner with her Children, was left in dis- 
tressing Circumstances, her Children being then 
Small, And unable to earn their Living, tho your 
Petitioner, by the Indulgence of the honorable Judge 
of Probates, has been for some Years past, indulged 
with the Improvements of the Home Farm, which 
when mr. Batehellor left it was new And ruff, the 
Fences made Chiefly of Timber, which now arc 
mostly rotten And Decayed. And the Buildings are 
greatly decayed & impaired. By which our Ilaltita- 
tioiis are rendered uncomfortable, And the profits of 
the Farm are greatly lessened and rendered insuffi- 
cient to afford the Family, with all their Labour & 
Industry a Comfortable Suppiut. Therefore your 
Petitioner humbly Prays that your Honors would 
take into your serious Consideration the Case of a 
poor widow And a Number of Fatherless Children, 
and grant the said Home Farm to your Petitioner 
& her Children And to their Heirs forever. That 
they may be encouraged to repair the Buildings & 
Fences, by which the Farm may be rendered Capable 
of alfording the Family a Support, And Your Peti- 
tioner as iu Duty bound, shall ever pray. — 

" Packersfield June 2d, 1789. 

"Ruth Batcheller" 



NELSON. 



321 



lu lluiise of RcprcsciiUitivcs, Jiuic \'2, 17(S'J, 
it was voted that Mrs. Iiat<"lieller have the use 
of the estate free of rent until the matter was 
finally settled. 

CERTIFICATE OF NUMBER OK RATAHLE I'OI,LS, 1794. 

"This Certifies that their is in the Town of I'ack- 
ersfield one Hundred and forty two MiUc Poles of 
twenty one Years of ago and upwards paying a pole 
tax for them-Selves — 

"Sam' Griffin 1 iSelcct Men 
"Amos Child Jo/ I'ackersfield 
•' Packersficld June y" 2" 1794 

"This Certifies that a legal Town Meeting held in 
the Town of Packersficld on the twenty eighth Day 
of April Last the Inhabitants Voted unanimously that 
the Selectmen of Said Town Petition the .General 
Court at their next Session for leave to send a Repre- 
sentative 

"Sam' Griffin 7'. 67er/t 

" Packersficld June y' 2d 1794—" 

relative to REPRESENTATIVE, 1794. 

" To His Excellency the Governer the Honorable 
Senate and House of Representatives of the State 
of New-Hampshire to be Convened at Amherst on 
the first Wednesday of June next — 
21 



"Humbly Shewcth your Potitinors Iniial)itants of 
the Town of Packersficld have for Some Years past 
been Classed with the Town of Dublin for Represen- 
tation that Said Dublin have now Come of age and 
Send a Representative for them Selves by which 
means your IVtitinors not having a SufBcicnt Number 
paying a pole Tax for them Selves are left Ilnrepre- 
sented — Therefore Pray your Honors to take our 
Case into your wise Consideration and grant us re- 
Icafe in the Premises Either by Classing or Granting 
us leave to Send a Representative by our Selves and 
your Petitinors as in Duty bound Shall ever pray 
&c — 

" Sam' Griffin "1 Select Men 

"Amos Child ) of Packer^eld 
" Packersficld June y" 2'' 1794—" 

The Conguegationai, Church was organ- 
ized January 31, 1781, with Jaeob Foste'r as 
pastor, who remained until November 23, 1791. 
His successors were Revs, (iad Newell, Josiah 
Ballard, Daniel French, W. P. Gale, A. H. 
Cutter, J. Ordway, E. Dow, J. Marsh, C. 
Willy, Mark Gould, T. W. Darling and G. H. 
Diinlap, oiu- present minister. The present 
cliurch clerk is V. C. Atwood. 



HISTORY OF RICHMOND. 



CHAPTER I. 

Geographical— Original Grant— First Settlements— Names 
of Pioneers— The First Town-Meeting— Officere Elected 
— List of Voters at First Town-Meeting- AVar of the 
Revolution— List of Soldiers — Votes of the Town— War 
of 1812— List of Soldiers— War of the Rebellion- 
Names of Soldiers — Ecclesiastical History— Post-Offices 
—Physicians— Civil History — Representatives — Town 
Clerks. 

The town of Riclimoud lies in the southern 
part of the county, and is bounded as follows : 
North by Swanzey; east by Troy and Fitz- 
william; south by Massachusetts and west by 
Winchester. 

The township was granted February 28, 
1752, to Joseph Blanchard and otliers, in sev- 
enty-one shares. 

In 17(jO, the grantees having represented 
tiiat in consequence of trouble witii the Indians 
they had been unable to comply with the con- 
ditions of the grant, an extension was granted 
" until His Majesty's Plenary Instructions shall 
be received." This extension was granted by 
the Governor and Council June 11, 1760. 

By the grant above mentioned, Richmond 
territory extended as far north as the northeast 
corner of Swanzey, there running to a peak. 
This triangular tract, with a base on Swanzey 
south line of three and one-half miles and forty 
rods, was severed from Richmond and annexed 
to Swanzey December 11, 1762. 

Another portion of the town was taken off 
June 23, 1815, combined with portions of 
Marlborough, Fitzwilliam and Swanzey, and 
incorporated into the town of Troy. 
322 



By an act api)roved July 2, 1850, tlie north- 
west corner of the town was annexed to Win- 
chester. 

The first permanent settlement of this town 
was pi'obably made in 1671 or 1672. Mr. Bas- 
set in his recently-published " History of Rich- 
mond," says : 

There is a tradition that one Sylvester Rog- 
ers or Rocherson, from Rhode Island, in 1750, 
made a clearing of about an acre, on which he 
erected a strongly-built log-house, for the dou- 
ble purpose of a shelter and a defense against 
the Indians ; that he abandoned the premises 
after a few months and returned to Rhode Is- 
land, in consequence of information received 
from a friendly Indian of an intended vjsit of 
hostile savages lurking somewhere, it may be 
supposed, in the vicinity, and that the place 
where his clearing was made was on the farm 
afterwards settled by Jonathan Gaskill and 
now owned by Jesse Bolles. This story may 
be substantially true, with the exception of tlie 
date of the occurrence, which we are inclined to 
believe should be some years later — say 1754 
or 1755 — when hostilities were resumed be- 
tween the French and English colonies, and 
this from the ftict that there was no grant or 
survey of the township made prior to 1752, 
and that no rights of pre-emption were secured 
to squatters at that time. However this may 
have been, it matters little, as no permanent 
settlement was made ; the real question at issue 
being. When, where, and by whom was the 
first permanent settlement made ? Most of the 



RICHMOND. 



323 



evideui-e at hand bearing on the matter of time 
of the first comers indicate qnite strongly that 
1762 was the year when the tide of emigration 
commenced in force. Now Lemuel Scott, if we 
may credit the inscription on his grave-stone, was 
born 17(>5, and Philadelphia Kempton, daugh- 
ter of Stephen Kempton, was born in 1763, and 
tliese are reputed to be the first male and female 
children, of white parents, born in the town ; 
hence it is presumable that not many families, 
prior to this date, could have been here for any 
great length of time. Again, when Jacob 
Eurap came to town there were but five fam- 
ilies in town, and he came after the birth of his 
eldest son, Stephen, who was born January 30, 
1761. This is the statement of Mr. Nathan 
Bowen, a grandson of Mr. Bump, and is prob- 
ably the most reliable testimony to be had from 
any person now living touching the question of 
time. This would seem to fix the time of Mr. 
Bump's advent in 1761 or 1762, as his second 
son, Asa, was born in Richmond, January 29, 
1763. 

Some deeds of the first settlers were record- 
ed in the Cheshire records, and among these the 
deed of Col. Josiah Willard to Thomas Wooley, 
who is sujiposed to be one of the very first in 
town, bears date of 1763, and the conveyance 
included the land on which he built his 
house ; but oral tradition says he was living on 
his place in 1758. He may have been the first 
permanent settler. Henry Ingalls bought in 
1763; in fact, no deed has been found back of 
that date, but from this it may not be infeiTed 
that no one was here before that time. 

Probably but very few families made tlieir 
advent here before 1762; and that the south- 
ern and western portions of the town were first 
occupied appears quite probable, as the towns 
adjoining on these sides had been to some extent 
settled, while on the eastern border what was 
called Monadnock, No. 4 and No. 5, remained 
an unbroken wilderness. Paths leading to 
Royalston, Warwick and Winchester were first 
made, by which the first immigrants came into 



town, and these were afterwards laid out and 
made into public roads, and portions of the 
same have so remained to the present time. We 
may safely assume that those who located on 
the old road leading from Winchester to Royal- 
ston were among the first that came, viz.: the 
two Casses, (John and Daniel), Azariah Cura- 
stock, John Dandley, Francis Norwood, Jacob 
Bump, Silas Gaskill, and Thomas Josslin, to- 
gether with some others that located away from 
this line, as John Martin, John Scott, Con- 
stant and David Barney, Thomas Wooley, 
Reuben Parker, Oliver Capron, Edward 
Ainsworth, Jonathan Gaskill, Jonathan Sweet, 
Jonathan Thurber, Ephraim Hix, Henry In- 
galls, Stephen Kempton, Jedediah and Jona- 
than BuflFum, and many others who were here 
before 1765. These came mostly from Smith- 
field and Cumberland, R. I., and from Reho- 
both and Attleborough, Mass., as did the others 
that followed. 

The first town-meeting was held March 27, 
1765, as follows : 

" At a Legal meeting of ye free Holders and other 
Inhabitants of the town of Richmond in the Prov- 
ince of New Hampshire Being Held at the house of 
John Cass Inuholder in ye Town on ye 27tli day of 
March A. D. 1765 Agreeable to the Charter of ye 
town Appointing the Last Wednesday of March to 
be the day for choosing town officers for the annual 
meeting. 

" Then voted and chose John Cass Moderator for 
this meeting. 

"Then voted that all free holders in ye town should 
have Liberty to vote in the choice of town officers. 
"Then voted and chose Daniel Cass town Clerk. 
" Then voted and chose John Cass, Di^niel Cass, 
John Martin, Selectmen and assessors for this present 
year. 

" Then voted and chose Timothy Thompson, Con- 
stable. 

"Then voted and chose John Cass, Town Treasurer. 
" Then voted and chose John Dandley, Tithingman. 
"Then voted and chose Jonathan Gaskill, Survey- 
or of highways. 

"Then voted and chose Joseph Cass Surveyor of 
highways. 

"Then voted to dismiss this meeting. 

" John Cass, Moderator. 



324 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Province of New Hampshire March ye 27th, 
A. D. 1765 tlie Persons Before named was sworn to 
the faithful discharge of their several offices Accord- 
ing to Custom. 

" JosiAH WiLLAED, Jus. Peace." 

LIST OF VOTERS AT THE FIRST TOWN-MEETING. 



Jonathan Atherton. 
Solomon Atherton. 
Moses Allen. 
Ezra Allen. 
Edward Ainsworth. 
Abraham Barrus. 
Jacob Bump. 
Constant Barney. 
David Barney. 
Joseph Barney. 
Jedediah Buflum. 
Jonathan Buffura. 
Daniel Cass. 
■ Deacon John Cass. 
Joseph Cass. 
Thomas Crane. 
Azariah Cumstock. 
Azariah Cumstock, Jr. 
Moses Cumstock. 
Aaron Cumstock. 
Abner Cumstock. 
John Dandley. 
Jonathan Gaskill. 
Silas Gaskill. 
Sylvanus Harris. 
Uriah Harris. 
Anthony Harris. 
Ephraim Hix. 
Peter Holbrook. 
Henry Ingalls. 



Edmund Ingalls. 
William Josslyn. 
Thomas Josslyn. 
James Kingsley. 
Stephen Kempton. 
John Martin. 
Gideon Man. 
Oliver Mason. 
Elijah Meader. 
Reuben Parker. 
Israel Phillips. 
David Russell. 
Abraham Randall. 
Joseph Razee. 
John Robinson. 
Timothy Robinson. 
Daniel Read. 
David Read. 
John Scott. 
Jonathan Sweet. 
John Sprague. 
Timothy Thompson. 
Jeremiah Thayer. 
AUes Thayer. 
Nehemiah Thayer. 
Nathaniel Taft. 
Silas Taft. 
Jonathan Thurbur. 
Thomas Wooley. 
John Wool e v. 



War of the Revolution. — The first ref- 
erence on the old town records in relation to the 
War of the Revolution was nnder date of 
April 6, 1775, — " Voted, To raise three pounds, 
eight shillings, which the Congress has sent for 
to this town." 

The first company from this town was under 
command of Capt. Oliver Capron, Juue 12, 
1775, as follows : 



Capt. Oliver Capron. 
Lieut. David Barney. 
Sergt. Henry Ingalls. 
Sergt. Rufus Whipple. 



Sergt. David Russell. 
Corp. H. Thurber. 
Corp. Jas. Westcoat. 



Privates. 



Solomon Aldrich. 
William Aldrich. 
Nathan Barrus. 
Jeremiah Barrus. 
William Barney. 
Samuel Carpenter. 
Azariali Cumstock. 
John Ellis. 
John Garnsey. 

The following were 
pany in 1776 : 

I. Whipple, 2d Lieut. 
Daniel Whipple, Corp. 



Abiel Knap. 
Eleazer Martin. 
Eli Page. 
Daniel Peters. 
Israel Peters. 
Timothy Robinson. 
David Shearman. 
Jeremiah Thayer. 
John Wooley. 

in a Winchester com- 

B. Ellis, Sergt. 

J. Wcoley, Drummer. 



Zebulon Streeter. 
Henry Ellis. 
Amos Hicks. 
Asa Hicks. 
Azariah Cumstock 
Oliver Garnsey. 
Amos Garnsey. 

The following 
pany, viz. : 

Daniel Shearman. 
Allis Thayer. 
James Cook. 
David Barney. 
Jonathan Kingsley. 



Privates. 

Simpson Hammond. 
Ebenezer Peters. 
James Tilson. 
John Garnsey, Jr. 
Jr. Moses Cumstock. 

Daniel Freeman. 



were in a Swanzey com- 

Abiel Knap. 
Barnard Hicks. 
James Westcoat. 
Caleb Ellis. 



Timothy Martin, Jesse Martin, Joseph Al- 
len and Beiij. Starkey were in the service. 

At the town-meeting held on May 16, 1777, 
it was 

" Voted, That eight months constitute a turn in the 
service, and that a bounty of twelve pounds be given 
for said service. 

" Voted, Also, that all who have done Turns or parts 
of Turns in the war to have credit in the rates. 

" Voted, To allow the men their expenses, and pay 
for their time, that went to Cambridge on the alarm 
at time of the Concord fight in the year 1775. 

" Voted, To raise money to hire men to go into 
the service for eight months, or a longer time. Chose 
Isaac Benson, CajJt. Capron and Constant Barney a 
committee to hire the men. 

" Dec. 3. Voted, to increase the bounty to soldiers 
to twenty-four pounds instead of twelve, for a Turn, 
or eight months, to be allowed in the rates." 

In Captain Davis Howlett's company, of 



KICHMOND. 



325 



Colonel Ashley's regiment, which marched from 
Keene May 4, 1777, to reinforce the Continen- 
tal army at Fort Tieonderoga, were Lieutenant 
Edmund Ingalls, Timothy Robinson, Ebenezer 
Barrus, Sylvanus Cook, John YlWs, Jonathan 
Kingsley, Israel Peters, Peletiah Razey, John 
Wooley, Jonathan Westcoat. These were prob- 
ably all from Richmond. 

The following company was enlisted in June, 
1777, for the northern frontier : 

A Muster Roll of Capt. Oliver Capron's company, in Col. 
Samuel Ashley's regiment of militia, whichmarched to 
the relief of Tieonderoga, 1777. 

Cajit. Oliver Capron. Sergt. Michael Barrus. 

Lieut. Henry Ingalls. Corporal John Ellis. 

Ens. Rufus Whi|)ple. Drummer J. Woolley. 
Sergt. Sol. Atherton. 

Privates. 

David Barney. Asel Harris. 

David Hix. Abner Aldrich. 

Samuel Hix. Samuel Carpenter. 

Simeon Hix. James Cook. 

Seth Ballou. Constant Barney. 

Reuben Parker. Oliver Barrus. 

Eliphalet Hix. Eli Page. 

Jeremiah Bullock. Daniel Thurber. 

Stephen Kemptou. Johp Barrus. 

Benjamin Ingalls. Othniel Day. 

Jefirey A. Barney. William Goddard. 

David Russell. James Shafter. 

Benjamin Thrasher. Hezekiah Thurber. 

Jonathan Bosworth. Samuel Hunting. 

Philip Aldrich. Israel Whipple. 
Peter Holbrook. 

The following were in a company in the 
battles of Bennington and Stillwater: 

Lieut. Henry Ingalls. Corp. Samuel Hicks. 

Sergeant John Ellis. 

Privates. 

Benjamin Ingalls. Joseph Ingalls. 

Eli Page. James Westcoat. 

Eliphalet Hicks. John Wooley. 

James Shafter. Nathan Bullock. 

Jeremiah Bosworth. Peletiah Razey. 

James Cook. Peter Starkey. 

Jonathan Kingsley. Simeon Hicks. 

Jeffrey Barney. Reuben Parker. 
Jeremiah Barrus. 

January 14, 1778, it was " Votedto raise men 



for the Continental Service for the duration of 
this present war with Great Britain, or three 
years." " Chose Rufus Whii)p]e, Edmond In- 
galls and Mr. Nicholas Cook a committee to 
hire said men." 

At the annual meeting it was " Voted That 
the Committee of Safety stand another year, or 
until another is chosen." 

June 15th it was " Voted Not to increase the 
bounty put on by the State." " Voted To raise 
three men to serve until the first of January 
next, unless soon discharged. Chose John Bar- 
rus, Daniel Head and James Westcoat a com- 
mittee to hire the men, and to pay the sum or 
sums the committee shall give for said men." 

" Walpole, February 13th, 1778. 
" This is to Sartifle the town of Richmond that 
Rufus Whipple hath got mustered Thirteen men for 
the town of Richmond to Sarve two years in the Co- 
nental Sarvis. 

"Peleg Williams, Lieut. Noah Porter. 

Jona. Willard, Esq. John Withy. 

Samuel Royes. Lewis Clisco. 

Asa Crasson. John Smith. 

Henry Carter. Jeams Wier. 

Joseph Powers. Thomas Hunt. 

Nathaniel Powers. Jeams Marrel. 

Abner Powers. William Taggart. " 
John Symonds. 

September 6th it was " Voted Not to allow 
the men credit that have done more than their 
proportion in the war with Great Britain." 

October 21st it was " Voted For the General 
Court to hire one man for said Richmond that 
is wanting for the Continental army for one 
year. 

June 4, 1781, it was " FofecZ To raise fourteen 
men under the State of Vermont. Chose Ed- 
mond Ingalls, Rufus \Vhipj)le ami Noah Curtis 
a committee to hire said men, and to proceed in 
that method they shall think most to the advan- 
tage of said town." 

May 6,1782, it was " lofed to proceed to 
raise twelve Continental men." 

The following is a summary of the service 
Richmond performed in men and money : 



326 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



£ s. 

" In 1777 — Continental men, 15, paid. ...465 

" 1778 " " 13, " ...555 12 

" 1779 " •' 5, " ...180 

" 1781— Frontiersmen 15, " ...102 10 

War of 1812. — The town wa.s represented 
in the War of 1812 by the following : 



Dan. C. Bryant, Lieut. 
Carlton Bryant. 
Chauncey Bryant. 
Samuel Bryant. 
William Buffum. 
Stephen Buffum. 



John Cass, Jr. 
Moses Garnsey. 
Amos Howe. 
Cromwell Kelton. 
Townseud Parker. 
Daniel Thornton. 



Jedediah Buffum (3d). Lewis Whipple.' 

Jared Ballou. Henry Whipple. 

Richard Boorn. James Whipple. 
Thomas Bryant. 

In other companies were: 

NoahBisbee, Jr., Esq.' Nathan Cass. 

Seth Bisbee.' Aaron Martin. 

Daniel Jlan. Daniel Buffum. 

Stephen Man. Olney Ballou. 

Chandler Man. Benoni Ballou. 

Arnold Man. Samuel Barrus. 

Mordica Cass. Moses Tyler. 

Laban Cass. Joseph Jessop. 

Jesse Bishop. Nathan Perry (died). 
Townsend Parker. 

The following were drafted : 



Jacob Whitcomb. 
Chandler Man. 
Thomas Goddard. 
Salmon Martin. 
Samuel Barrus. 
Martin Cass. 
Nahum Perry. 
Lewis Aldrlch. 



William Barrus. 
Ellis Thayer. 
Ellis Thayer (2d). 
Eli Page (2d) 
Jeremiah Bolles. 
Millens Barrus. 
Paul Jilson, Jr. 
Benjamin Newell. 

War of the Rebellion. — The town re- 
sponded nobly during the War of the Rebellion. 
The following is a list of the soldiers from 
the town : 
Arlon S. Atherton, second lieutenant Company I, 

Third Regiment. 
Andrew S. Arnold, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 
Moses Allen, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment; 

killed September 19, 1864. 



1 Noah Bisbee, Jr., and Lewis Whipple were killeil, and 
Seth Bisbee was wounJed, at the battle of Lundy's Lane, 
.Tilly 24, 1814. 



Frederick R. Bowen, Company A, Second Regi- 
ment. 

Edwin N. Bowen, first lieutenant Company I, Third 
Regiment. 

Henry R. Bowen, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Alfred R. Bowen, Company A, Second Regiment. 

William Brown. 

Charles Ball, Company F. Fourteenth Regiment. 

Abner S. Barden, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

Otis A. Barrus, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment ; 
killed at Winchester, Va., September 16, 1864. 

Alden F. Ballou, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment ; 
died September 2, 1863. 

E. Napoleon Buffum, Company F, Sixth Regiment; 
died of disease in Maryland, October 8, 1862. 

James H. Buffum, Company H, First Regiment. 

Albert Bolles, Second New Hampshire Cavalry. 

George A. Barrus, Company B, Eighteenth Regi- 
ment; died .Tune 16, 1863. 

Henry E. Ballou, Company B, Twenty-seventh Regi- 
ment, Massachusetts. 

Benjamin F. Barrus, Company I, Third Regiment ; 
died of wounds July 15, 1862. 

Henry R. Bolles, Company I. Third Regiment ; acci- 
dentally shot April 23, 1862. 

Albert E. Barrus, Company G, Eighteenth Regi- 
ment. 

Ira Marshall Barrus, Company I, Second Regiment, 
Massachusetts. 

John W. Barrus, Company I, Second Regiment ; Mas- 
sachusetts. 

John Bolles, Massachusetts Regiment ; died in Libby 
Prison. 

Artemas B. Colburn, Company F, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment ; died September 19, 1864. 

Roland M. Combs, Company C, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment. 

Reuben H. Combs, Company C, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment. 

Jarvis Cass, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment ; died 
at New Orleans June 20, 1863. 

Anson L. Cass, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 

Henry O. Curtis, Company H, First Regiment; 
Heavy Artillery. 

Harvey G. Cheney, Company D, Second Regiment, 
Massachusetts. 

John Dingman, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Rufus Freeman, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

John H. Hitchcock, second lieutenant Company I, 
Third Regiment. 

Lorenzo Harris, Jr., Company F, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment. 

Caleb Harris, Company H, Thirty-sixth Regiment, 
Massachusetts ; died October, 1864. 



KICHMOND. 



327 



Almoii L. Jillson, Company G, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment; ilietl at battle of Laurel Hill, Va. 

Anson R. Jillson, Company A, Second Regiment, 
Massachusetts ; died at battle of Laurel Hill, Va. 

Silas F. Jillson, Company A, Twenty-fifth Regiment, 
Massachusetts ; died. 

Nathan M. Jillson, Company B, Twenty-seventh 
Regiment, Massachusetts. 

Herman L. Lincoln, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 

Stephen W. Martin, Company I, Twenty-fifth Regi- 
ment, Massachusetts; died. 

George Martin, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

John A. Morse, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Ansel Macomber, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 

John E. Norwood, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

Benjamin Newell, Jr., Company F, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment ; died October 14, 18G4. 

Daniel H. Pelkey, Company I, Third Regiment. 

Dexter Palmer, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment ; 
died at Concord, N. H., August, 1863. 

Nahum Putney, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment ; 
died at Algiers, La., June 12, 1803. 

John A. Paine, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment ; 
mustered October 23, 1862 ; mustered out, Au- 
gust 20, 1863. 

Warren S. Pickering, Company A, Eighteenth Regi- 
ment. 

Volney Piper, sergeant-major Company E, Fourth 
Regiment. 

Denzil Rice, sergeant. Company E, Third Regiment. 

Amasa W. Perry, Eleventh United States Infantry. 

John Stark ey, Jr , first sergeant, Company F, Sixth 
Regiment; died August 29, 1862. 

Walter A. Scott, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment; 
killed at Winchester, Va., September 21), 1864. 

Henry E. Tolman, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Jonas I. Thompson, corporal Company C, Fourth 
Regiment. 

Samuel Thompson, second lieutenant. Company F, 
Sixth Regiment. 

L. Warren Wright, adjutant Fourteenth Regiment. 

Stephen W. Williams, Company I, Sixteenth Regi- 
ment. 

William Whipple, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Vibbert Whipple, Company A, Second Regiment. 

Alfred P. Whipple, Company F, Second Regiment, 
Massachusetts. 

Julius M. Whipple, Company A, Second Regiment. 

S. Wright Wood, Company E, Sixth Regiment. 

The First Baptist Church was organized 
in 1768. The present Baptist Cliiurh was or- 
ganized March 24, 1835, and the society No- 
vember 25, 1836. 



The Uxitariax Church was organized in 
1837. 

The Universalist Church was formed in 
April, 1837, and at dedication of their iinst liouse 
of worship, November 22, 1837, the sermon 
was preached by Rev. Hosea Ballon. 

INIethodist Church. — The first Methodist 
Church in this town was organized in 1840 and 
dissolved in 1870. A second organization was 
effected in Jnne, 1871. 

The Society of Friends also held meet- 
ings in this town. 

The first physician was Dr. Aaron Aldrich. 
Dr. Ebenczer Swan was here in 1776; died 
1820. He was followed by B. Harkness, Amos 
Howe, Martin Brittan, John Parkhnrst, George 
W. Hammond, Franklin Wallace, Lewis 
Ware, J. P. Willis, C. C. Wheaton, Alviu 
Ballon, L. Smith, S. P. French, C. J. Town, 
E. J. Duunell, John Heard, J. R. Hardy, 
Geo. F. Shore. 

The celebrated Hosea Ballou was born in 
this town April 30, 1771, and here was born 
also Elizabeth Ballou, mother of the lamented 
President Garfield. "The site of the birth- 
place of Hosea Ballou is now a most attractive 
place in a valley scooped out from the rough 
hills and mountains of the Granite State, and 
known as Ballou's Dale, surroimded by the 
most romantic scenery, the beauties of which 
he used to dwell upon in after-years, and to 
sing their praise in verse. The neighboring 
country is of a bold and rugged character, and 
is to this day but thinly settled." 

Post-Office. — The first post-office was es- 
tablished July 4, 1812, with Job Bisbee post- 
master. The following is the list from that 
time to the present : 

Job Bisbee July 4, 1812 

Ono. T.Cass July 24, 1829 

Stephen Wheeler Aprl. 24, 1832 

John Parkhurst Sept. 6,1837 

Danford Tyler Nov. 10, 1840 

Jarvis Weeks July 8, 1845 

Amos G. Bennett May 6, 1858 

Daniel R. Spaulding July 16, 1861 



328 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



L. W. Wright Dec. 19, 1870 

Charles H. Lyon May 10, 1871 

Amos Martin Mar. 7, 1873 

Andrew Dodge July 12, 1875 

Warren Kenop Aprl. 6, 1877 

John E. Norwood Dec. 18, 1877 

Charles Norwood May 7, 1883 

The North Richmond office was established 
September 15, 1853. The postmasters have 
been, — 

Harvey Martin Sept. 15, 1853 

Edson Starkey June 16, 1856 

Harvey Martin Oct. 30, 1856 

Discontinued June 17, 1879 

Ee-established July 3, 1879 

Orlow E. Parsons July 3, 1879 

Orlan H.Martin Aprl. 13, 1880 

Civil History. — The following is a list of 
representatives from 1776 to 1885: 
Oliver Capron, 1776 and 1783. 
Daniel Read, 1777. 
David Barney, 1778. 
Noah Curtis, 1779 and 1782. 
Jonathan Gaskill, 1787, 1789 and 1790. 
Nathaniel Aldrich, 1810. 
Jonathan Atherton, 1814 to 1817 and 1819. 
Benjamin Newell, 1817, 1818 and 1820. 
Joseph Newell, 1824 and 1825. 
Jonathan Rawson, 1827 to 1830. 
Russell Whipple, 1831. 
Nahum Aldrich, 1837 to 1840. 
Jarvis Weeks, 1840 and 1841. 
Nicholas Cook, 1842, 1845 and 1846. 
Kendall Fisher, 1843 and 1844. 
Stephen Randall, 1847 and 1848. 
William Wright, 1849 and 1850. 
Willard Randall, 1851 and 1852. 
D. B. Aldrich, 1853 and 1854. 
Moses Tyler, 1793, 1796 to 1802. 
Rufus Whipple, 1794 and 1795. 
James Cook, 1802 to 1807. 



Joseph Weeks, 1807 to 1810, 1811 to 1814, 1821 to 
1824, 1826, 1830, 1832 to 1835. 

Samuel P. French, 1855. 

John Starkey, 1856 and 1857. 

Abner Twitchell, 1858 and 1860. 

Asahel Kelton, 1859. 

Hosea B. Aldrich, 1861 and 1863. 

Asa H. Bullock, 1864. 

N. G. Woodbury, 1865 and 1866. 

Edson Starkey, 1867 and 1868. 

Asa H. Bullock, 1869 and 1870. 

Elbridge G. Bemis, 1871 and 1872. 

Andrew G. Willoby, 1873. 

Alnion Twitchell, 1874. 

Edwin N. Bowen, 1875 and 1876. 

Joseph B. Abbott, 1877. 

Hiram P. Sprague, 1878. 

John E. Norwood, 1883 and 1884. 

The following is a list of town clerks from 
1765 to 1885: 

Daniel Cass, 1766. 

Henry Ingalls, 1766 to 1792. 

Samuel Gaskill, 1792 to 1798, 1799 to 1802. 

David Ballou, 1798. 

Joseph Weeks, 1802 to 1822, 1823 and 1827. 

Jonathan Rawson, 1824 to 1827 and 1831. 

Benjamin Newell, 1828 and 1829. 

Ono. T. Cass, 1830. 

Jarvis Weeks, 1832 to 1836, 1837 to 1844, 1845, 
1853, 1854, 1856 and 1857. 

Stephen Wheeler, Jr., 1836. 

Amos W. Newell, 1844, 1846, 1847 and 1855. 

Henry B. Swan, 1848 and 1849. 

William Bassett, 1850 to 1853. 

N. G. Woodbury, 1858, 1800 to 1865. 

D. R. Spaulding, 1859. 

Jarvis Ingalls, 1865 to 1871, 1880 to 1884. 

Amos G. Bennett, 1871 to 1875. 

Edward F. P. Dearborn, 1875 (one month). 

George W. Newell, 1876 to 1880. 

Almon Twitchell, 1884 and 1885. 



HISTORY OF ROXBURY. 



CHAPTER I. 

This town lies near tlic centre of the coniitv 
and is bounded as follows : 

North by Sullivan ; east by Nelson and Ilar- 
risville ; south liy Marlborough and west by 
Keeuc. 

An attempt was made to form this town in 
179() from portions of Packersfield (Nelson), 
Dublin and Marlborough. A committee aj)- 
pointed to examine the premises reported favor- 
ably, but it met with opposition from the towns 
it was to be taken from, and the scheme was 
defeated. 

A petition froiu the inhabitants " of the 
southwest part of Packersfield, north part of 
Marlborough, and east part of Keeue," present- 
ed to the Legislature in 1812, asking to be 
incorporated into a town, was successful, the 
territory asked for being incorporated December 
9th, of that year, as a town by the name of 
]\oxbury. 

June 15, 1820, Samuel Griffin and his estate 
were severed from Nelson, and annexed to this 
town. 

By an act passed July 1, 1868, the entire 
town of Roxbury was annexed to Keene : 
I'riiridiiu/, said act should be adopted by a 
majority vote in each town. The act, how- 
ever, was not adopted, and Eoxbury remains as 
it was. 

I'ETITIOX FOR AX INCORPORATION, 1796. 

" Your Petitioners inhabiting the south west part 



of Packersfield, the North part ot Marlboro' — and 

North-west part of Dublin — 

" Humbly Shew 

" That they live very remote from the Center, but 
more so from the Meeting-Iiouses of their respective 
towns — 

"That the situation is such by reason of distance & 
bad Roads, that they cannot attend Public Worship 
&c. with any convenience — 

" That they are destitute of many Town preveliges. 
That some of their duties, as members of the several 
Towns are very burdensom — 

" That the town of Packersfield, has voted off a 
Tract of Land at the south west corner thereof and 
Marlboro' — has voted off a Tract at the North End 
therof for the purpose of making a Township — 

"That what has been voted off (in their opinion) is 
inadequate to make a Township — 

" That your Petitioners have Petitioned the several 
Towns for a small addition to said grants, Init without 
success — 

" That if the Tract of Land already voted off, with 
the addition of asmall piece of Packersfield, Marlboro, 
and Dublin, might be Incorporated a distinct Town- 
ship it would be highly advantageous to your Petition- 
ers and the Public Interest. — • 

" The prayer of this their humble Petition, therefore 
is, that your Honors would appoint a Committee to 
Examine the said Premises at the cost of your Peti- 
tioners — 

"And your Petitioners further pray, that the Com- 
mittee so appointed might be directed (if after due 
examination they Should think it reasonable to make 
a Township as afore said) to fix the Bounderies and 
make their report to the Honorable General Court, to 
be holden in June next — 

"And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever 
pray— 

" LoTT CooKE, in behalf of (he I'etiHoiurs. — 
"9th Dec, 1796— " 

329 



330 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



This petitition was referred to a committee, 
who reported as follows : 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

"your Committee appointed in December the 8, 
1796 to take into Consideration & vew the Situation 
of the SQuthwest part of Peclversfield and the North 
part of Marlborough & the Norwest part of Dublin as 
Set forth in the Petition of Lott Cooke and others. 
" Report as followeth, 

" Having Explored the above mentioned towns & the 
Situation of the premises pray'' for in the aforeS'' Pe- 
tition are of the opinion, that the prayer thereof be 
granted So far as that thay be incorperated as a town 
according to the Descriptions following 

" Begining at the Southesterly Corner of Sullivan 
then running Easterly till it Strikes the East line of 
Lot number Six in the fifth Range of Lots in the town 
of Peckersfild then running Southerly on S"* line till it 
Strikes the Norwest corner of Lot N° 7 in the 2'' 
Range of Lotts in Peckersfield, then running Easterd- 
ly on the North Line of the 2'' Range till it Strikes 
Breeds pond so called then Southerly till it Strikes 
Dublin line, then on the north line of Dublin East- 
erdly till it comes to the northeastly corner of Lot N° 
19 in the 10 Rang, thence Southerly on Sd line till it 
Strikes the Southesterly corner of Lot N" 19 in the 7 



Rang in S"* Dublin then Running Westerly on S"" line 
till it Strikes Marlborough East line, then taking thre 
ranges of Lotts of the north End of Marlborough in- 
cluding two gores of Land one on the north line and 
the other on the west line of S'* Marlborough against 
Sd Ranges, and from the norwest corner of Marlbor- 
ough on the west line of Peckersfield to Sullivan 
South Line then Easterly on Sullivan South Line to 
the first menctioned bounds. 
" Dublin Apreel 12, 1797. 
"all which is Submitted by your Committee — 

" Nath' Emerson 
"Ben.t" Prescott." 

The plan met with opposition, and was de- 
feated in June following. 

The Congregatioxai. Church in this 
town was organized August 15, 181 <>, with Rev. 
C. Page pastor. He was dismissed on INIarch 
2, 1819, and from that time until 1837 the 
church was without a pastor. 

Rev. Alanson Rawson became pastor in May, 
1837, and dismissed May 3, 1842. January 1, 
1843, Rev. Ezra Adams assumed the pastorate 
and continued about six years. Other ministers 
have been Revs. B. Smith and S. H. Tolman. 



HISTORY OF STODDARD. 



CHAPTER I. 

This town lies in the uortheastcrn part of 
the county, and is bounded as follows : On the 
north by Sullivan County, on the east by Hills- 
borough County, on the south by Nelson and 
Sullivan, and on the west by Sullivan, Gilsum 
and Marlow. 

The township was granted by the Masonian 
proprietors to Colonel Sampson Stoddard, of 
Chelnisfoi'd, Mass., and others, and went by 
the names of Monadnock No. 7 and Limerick, 
until it was incorporated, November 4, 1774, 
and named in honor of Colonel Stoddard. Set- 
tlements were made in 1769 by John Taggart 
and others, who, for a time, obtained bread- 
nieul in Peterborough and carried it to their 
homes on their backs. By an act passed Sep- 
tember 27, 1787, the southwest corner of the 
town was combined with portions of Gilsum, 
Keene and Nelson, and incorporated into the 
town of Sullivan. 

The lines of Gilsum and Marlow, as char- 
tered, extending some distance cast of the curve- 
line of Mason's patent, as surveyed by Joseph 
Blanchard, and the west side of Stoddard, being 
.said curve-line, caused a serious di-spute as to 
which should have jurisdiction over the terri- 
tory in question. This was settled in favor of 
Stoddard June 16, 1797. 

June 2-3, 1835, the farm of Ebenezer Tar- 
box was severed from Stoddard and annexed to 
Nelson. 

The following Stoddard men were in First 
New Hampshire Regiment : 

Samuel Morrison, enlisted January 1, 1777; dis- 
charged December, 1781. 



llirhard Richardson, enli.-iteil Ajiril 3, 1777 ; dis- 

cliarged April 5, 1780. 
Nathaniel Richardson, enlisted April 3, 1777; died 
.Tune 24, 1777. 

The manufacture of gla.ss-ware was carried 
on to same extent at South Stoddard for many 
years. 

WARRANT FOR TOWN-MEETING, 1776. 

"By Virtue of an order from the Select men of 
Stoddard to me I Warn all the Freeholders and 
oather inhabitants of the Town of Stoddard To meet 
att the Dwelling house of Ens" John Tenneys in 
Stoddard on Wednesday the twentieth Day of June 
next at Eleven oOlock forenoon then and there to act 
on the following articles if they see fit 
" 1"' To Chuse a moderator to govern Said meeting — 
"2''' To See if the Town will Chuse a Select man in 
the room of Isaac Kenney who was Chose that of- 
fice and refuses to Barve the Town — 
" 'A'-' To See if the Town will Chuse two Constables 
in the room of Ephraim Adams and Benoni Boyn- 
ton, who was Chose and refuse to Sarve y° Town 
" 4'-'' To See if the Town will a gree to hire any 
preaching this present Summer — and Chuse a Com- 
mittee for the Same — 
".')'? To raise Such Sum or Sums of money as Shall 
be thot proper — 

" G''' To See if the Town will Chuse a Commitee to 
open Such of the propriators roads that was Laid 
out in this town before it was incorporated as shall 
be thot necessary 

" 7''' To See What the Town will Do in respect to 

Isaac Kenueys Taken as alls oath 
" S'-'' To have the Town agree where the preaching 

Shall be if they hire any 

" 9'y To see if the Town will Chuse a Commi'tee 
to reckon with oliver Parker and to receive his ac- 
compts and give him recipts — and to Demand of 
him the Said parker the Town Book of records 

331 



332 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



With the incorporation and all the records that 

are past 

"Stoddard may y' 22'* 1776 

" Isaac Temple Town CIr " 

remonstraxf'e against the election of joseph 
eounseval. 

" Colony op Newhamp"^ 
" to the Hon"" Counciele and house of Representa- 
tives for s** Colony — 

"the Petition and prayer of the subscribers Inhabit- 
ants of Stoddard in S'' Colony humbly Sheweth that 
m' Joseph Rounsivile may not have a Seat in 
Court for Reasons here mentioned firstly because he 
is not worth the money Seccondly because he is not 
leagly Chousen the Town not being warned to Chuse 
a Representitive But to Chuse a Comt"' to Chuse one 
and accordingly he was Chosen by Comt'"'' 
"Stoddard August 2'' 1776 

" Jonathan Bennett Joel Gilson 
Oliver Parker William Dutton 

John Dutton Isaac Kenney 

Asa Adams Moses Kenny " 

Thomas Adams 

disorder at a town-meeting, 1776. 

"The Petition of a Number of the Inhabitants of 
Stoddard in the Colony afores'' humbly Sheweth That 
on the Last Thursday of the month of march Last 
past at Stoddard afores'' was held y" annual meeting, 
so called, for the Town afores'' when after Chusing by 
hand Vote The Town officers for the Ensuing Year 
(among which Officers were Two Constables Chosen) 
The Town Clerk and Selectmen then chosen utterly 
refused to permit the s'' Constables to take the Oath 
of office, declaring that y" former Selectmen should 
make y" assesment, and the former Constables col- 
lect the same, for the Ensuing year, after the Trans- 
acting of which it was requested of the moderator to 
Adjourn y'' s'' meeting, upon which he called a Vote 
to see if it was the mind of y* Inhabitants so to do 
who almost unanimously voted that s"* meeting be not 
adjourned, but the moderator notwithstanding did 
declare the same adjourned untill y"" Second day of 
may then next, at which Time a Number of your 
petitioners protested against y'" proceedings of s'' 
meeting for the Reasons afores'' your Petitioners fur- 
ther shew that on the Twelfth day of June Instant a 
small Number of the Inhabitants of y" s'' Town did 
meet Together at a place never before that Time 
used for that purpose in a Tumultuous manner to the 
Number of about Eight persons to vote upon Sundry 
Articles and things in the notification herewith Ex- 
hidited, mentioned, by means of all which proceed- 



ings the utmost disorder and Confussion is introduced 
into y" s"* Town, and the most unhappy Consequences 
are reasonably Expected to take place, wherefore 
your Petitioners (being a major Part of the Inhab- 
itants freeholders and others Legally Qualified to 
Vote in Town meetings) humbly pray your Honors 
to take this our Petition into your wise Consideration 
and to a point some Legal method for calling a meet- 
ing of y" Inhabitants of s'' Town as soon as may be 
in order to transact y" necessary business of y" Town 
and restore peace and Harmony amongst the Inhab- 
itants or otherways to Grant us releif as to your Hon- 
ors shall seem fit, and your Petitioners as in duty 
bound shall Ever pray 
"Stoddard June 18, 1776. 

" John Dutton Daniel Kenny 

Jonathan Bennett Moses Kenny 

Oliver Parker Samuel Parks 

Reuben Walton Ebeuezer Wright 

Asa Adams Ephraim Adams 

John Joyner John N mther 

Joel Gilson Timothy Jlather 

Moses Bennett Richard Emerson 

William Dutton Zach' Adams 

Joseph Dodge Thomas Adams 

Benoni Boynton Isaac Kenney " 

111 House of Representatives, September 19, 
a hearing was ordered for the next session. 

SUMMONS TO OLIVER PARKER, 1776. 

"Stoddard may y'' 22* 1776. 

" To Oliver Parker — you are hereby required to ap- 
pear att the Dwelling house of m' John Tennys in 
Stoddrad afore S** on Wednesday the fifth Day of June 
next at Ten oClock fore noon then and there to make 
answer to a Complant Brought to us against you 
wherein you appear inimical to america in a number 
of alegations fail not of apperence at your peril — as 
your neglect will be faithfully reported to the Coni- 
mitee of Safty for the Colony of New Hampshire 
given under our hands at Stoddrd afore Said — 

" Alexander Scott ^ Commitee 
" Nathaniel Emerson V of safty 
"Amos Butterfield ) for Stoddard" 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN COMMITTEE OF 
SAFETY, 1776. 

" Att a meeting of the Commitees of Safty for the 
Towns of Stoddard Camden and marlow met at the 
house of m' John Tenneys on the fifth Day of June 
1776 to hear and Examine into a Complaint Brought 
to us against one oliver Parker of Stoddard — setting 



STODDAKD. 



333 



forth the S'' paiker to be inimical to america and its 
Liberties Proceed and Chose m' Sam" Gustin Chair- 
man — 

" The inclosed Complaint is the same that was 
Brought to us, and has ben fully suported and prov"* — 

" upon which we Came to the following resolution 
viz — 

" 1*' it is the opinion of the Committees that y' s'' 
parker is notoriously Disafl'ected to the american 
Cause — 

"2^' it is the opinion of the Commitees that the S'' 
parker is so notoriously Disaffecf that he the S'' 
parker be Emedeately Disarmed from all instruments 
of war — 

" 3''' that tlie S'' parker be Coufin'' to the Lot of 
Land his house stands on on the penalty of being 
Sent to the Common goal of the County of Cheshire 
— or find good Bonds to the Sattisfactiou of the Com- 
mitee of Safty in the Town of Stoddard 

"4'y all persons are forbid to have any Deleaings 
with y" S'' parker on y' penalty of being Consider'' 
enimies to america — 

" And furthermore while we ware setting a Com- 
plaint was brought to us by m' Nathaniel Emerson of 
Stoddard against the s'' Parker setting forth that the 
s*" Parker tilloniously brock down his y'' s* Emersons 
fence and has continu"* to do it for some days and 
turns his Cattle into his improvements — and a Cita- 
tion was sent to the s'' Parker to appear and defend y'' 
same, but he pay"* no regard at all to the Summons 
but dities all authority to bring him to Justice (mean- 
ing y' Committee of Safety) — John Nois mather — 
Joel Gilson — Zach' adams — -Eli adams — and william 
Button all of Stoddard was Summon'' to appear as 
Evidences in the above Cause but refused to appear 
and seam"* to appear as abetters of the s'' Parker by 
their deniing the authority of the Committee — Treat- 
ing y" Committee with scurulous Language 

" By Order of the Several Committees 

" Attest " Sam" Gustin Chairman 

" Stoddard June y*^ 5'" 1776 " 

" Stoddard June y' 5'" 1776 
" Att a meeting of the Committees of Safety of 
Stoddard and marlow and Camden, met to try a cause 
depend* between oliver Parker a reputed Tore, and 
the Liberty of America — ^y" said Parker being sited 
to appear on this Day, but defyes y° authority of the 
Committee of Safety — and dos not appear — " 

A part of the evidence brouglit against said 
Parker was the following, which he acknowl- 
edged to have written to Mr. Boynton : 

"A Receipt to make a Whig — Take of conspiracy 



and the root of pride three handfulls two of ambition 
and vain glory, pound them in the mortar of faction 
and discord, boil it in 2 quarts of dissembling tears 
and a little New England Bum over the fire of Sedi- 
tion till you find the scum of folly wood to rise on the 
top, then strain it through the cloths of Rebillion, 
put it into the bottle of envy, stop it with the cork of 
malice, then make it into pills called Conspiracy of 
which take nine when going to bed say over your 
hypocritical prayer, and curse your honest neighbor 
in your bed chamber and then go to sleep if yon can, 
it will have so good an effect that all the next day 
you will be thinking how to cozzen cheat lie and get 
drunk abuse the ministers of the Gospel, cut the 
throats of all honest men and plunder the Nation." 

Parker was committed to jail in Exeter, Xov. 
■J, 1778, and was under bonds not to go out of 
("hesiiire County in 1 782. 

PETITION OF OLIVER PARKER : ADDRESSED TO 
THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, 1776. 

" Humbly sheweth Oliver Parker of Stoddard in 
the County of Cheshire in s'' Colooy that he was 
upon y" 5"" day of .lune Current by Order of Certain 
Committees directed to be disarmed, and not to go 
from his Lot of Land on which he Lives, upon y'^ 
penalty of being Committed to y'-' County Goal, and 
by s'' Committees deemed an Enemy to his Country, 
your petitoner avers and declares that s'' Committees 
had not y'" least proof of his being inimical to his 
Country, but that they proceeded to act as they did 
with regard to him merely upon malice, and that he 
openly Challenges any person or persons whomsoever 
to prove the least thing against him with respect to 
his being in any way or manner disaffected to the 
Cause of Liberty, wherefore he prays your Houers to 
point out some reasonable and just method for him to 
make his Innocence in y"" premises manefest, and to 
be Liberated from y'" unjust decree of s"* Committees — 

" June 18 1776 " Oliver Parker." 

SUNDRY INHABITANTS RELATIVE TO FOREGOING: AD- 
DRESSED TO THE Committee of Safety, 1776. 

'■ The Petition and Remonstrance of the Subscribers 
Inhabitants of Stoddard in s'' Colony sheweth, that 
We have for a Number of years been acquainted with 
Capt Oliver Parker of Stoddard afores'' and have Es- 
pecially since y'' Unhappy War commenced betwixt 
Great Britain and the Colonys been personally 
Knowing to his Good disposition In the Cause of 
Liberty and that he has done his part as an Individual 
towards y" support of y" War and on Every Occasion 
as a military officer obeyed orders and done what was 
required of him, notwithstanding which he was 



334 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Lately summoned to appear before Certain Commit- 
tees to answer a Complaint again him as an Enemy 
to America, and without letting him Know what y' 
Complaint was or to what he was to answer to they 
proceeded to confine him to that Lot of Land his 
house stands upon, and to order that no persons deal 
with him on pain of being deemed Enemies to their 
Country, now as your petitioners are certain that 
there was no grounds to found this resolution upon, 
but that mere malice and falshood directed y' whole 
proceedings, they ])ray that your Honors would re- 
verse y'^^ afores'' unjust degree or by some means let y" 
matter be fairly and impartially determined. 
"Stoddard June 18 1770 



' John Dutton 
Jonathan Bennett 
Reuben Walton 
Moses Keijney 
Benoni Boynton 
Thomas Adams 
Joel Gilson 
William Dutton 
John Joyner 
Asa Adams 
Moses Bennett 



.Toseph Dodge 
Isaac Kenney 
Daniel Kenney 
Samuel Parks 
Ebenezer Wright 
John N Mather 
Timothy mather 
Richard Emerson 
Zachariah Adams 
Isaac Barit." 



The following, relative to a disputed liue, 
was addressed to the General Assembly, 1776 : 

"The Humble prayer and petition of the Select 
men of Marlow and Stoddard, met to agree on some 
method to proceed in relating to a Contested Strip of 
Land claimed by both Towns — Came to the following 
agreement, viz: We humbly pray the General As- 
sembly would give us their advice in this Difficult 
matter and during the Dispute between Britain and 
the Colonies that is Wheather Stoddard shall Tax to 
their Western Bound called the patent or Curve Line 
— or Wheather marlow shall Tax to their Eastern 
Bound — or so far East as to in Clude all that first 
settled under their Charter for as we Expect to pay 
Taxes with the rest of our Breathern so Each Town 
claiming a right to Tax a few famileys will soon 
create Confutions and Divitions which we would by 
all means indevour to avoide, praying att the same 
time that the words (every person) might be Left out 
in their answer if they are pleased to give one^ — its 
was incerted in their former answer for as We appre- 
hend will give no Satisfaction — for this reason — one 
man will say he is under Stoddard when he is under 
marlow — and another will say he is under marlow 
when he is under Stoddard — so we pray that the ad- 
vice may Set some Bound for to gide us in this matter 
— that thereby we may Shun the Difficulty that hag 



subsisted between the said Towns for some years past 

— and as is Duty Bound Shall ever pray — 

" Dated att Stoddard may y' 24'" 177(!— 

"Stephen Gee 1 Select men 

" NicoDEMUs Miller '- of 

I 
" Abisha Tubs marlow 

" Alexander Scott i Select me» 
" Nathaniel Emersox ) of Stoddard." 

The folli)\viiig' is a petition of inhabitants 
living on the disputed land in 1776 : 

" To the Honourable Counsel and House of Repre- 
sentives for the State of New Hampshire — 

" We your Humble purticioners Beg Leave to In- 
form your Honours that we are in Great Dificulty by 
Reason of being taxed to two Towns Viz Stoddard 
and Marlow Altho we be Long to Stoddard and Live 
East of the Patten I^ine yet the Town of Marlow has 
taxed us a Considerable Number of years we Humbly 
beg your Honours to take the matter into Considera- 
tion and order where we shall pay our taxes for we 
are not able to pay to two Towns as we your Humble 
Purtitioners In Duty Bound Shall Ever Pray — 

" John N mather Dan Brockway 

Ebenezer Farley Timothy Mather 

Stephen Twitchel Isaac Barritt" 
Ephraim Brockway 

The following, relative to the disjiuted line, 
was addressed to the General Assembly in 
March, 1777 : 

'' Humbly Shew — 

"The Subscribers Freeholders & Inhabitants ot 
Stoddard in the County of Cheshire in said State — 

"That your petitioners with Others entered into & 
upon a Certain Tract or parcel of land bounded 
Westerly on the Patent Line, so called, Easterly on 
the Society land, so called, and northerly on Monad- 
nock Number Eight and southerly on Monadnock 
Number Six of the Contents of about Six Miles 
Square called Monadnock Number Seven — 

"That in November 1774, the said Inhabitants 
prefer'd a petition to the then Governor and Council 
of said province, setting forth 'among other things, 
their Situation, and praying that the said lands might 
be Erected into a Township, and the Inhabitants 
thereof Incorporated into a Body Politick, to have 
Continuance and succession forever — which petition 
was Granted, and Letters Patent in due Form ac- 
cordingly passed — 

" That in the Year last passed the Selectmen 
of the Towns of Marlow and Stoddard Unknown to 



STODDARD. 



335 



your Petitioners Applied to the General Assembly for 
Advice and Directions Touching tlie Taxation of a 
Number of your petitioners who they said were 
settled under the Late Kings Grant of Marlow — That 
the order made inconsequence thereof Very Sensibly 
Affects them and is lilcely to create Great uneasiness 
which is the Bane of New Settlements — 

" That as your petitioners are settled within the 
undoubted Limits of Stoddard aforesaid they are 
umvilliiig to be taxed Else wliere and the Application 
aforesaid to the Late General Assembly was prema- 
ture; — That the Right to the Soil your petitioners 
are Willing to Contest with any person at Common 
Law — 

" Wherefore your petitioners humbly pray that 
Your Honours would not hold them to pay taxes to 
the Town of Marlow where they do not belong — 
(and as they are within a Town Corporate are under 
the Regulations of Law). That your Honours would 
not Interfere in their Title nor do anything that may 
seem to Affect the same; ynur petitioners pray — 



" Oliver Parker 
John Button 
Jonathan Bennett 
Joel Gilson 
Daniel Kenney 
Moses Bennett 
Zachriah Adams 
Th"' Adams 
Reuben walton 
Moses Kenney 
John Joyner 
Samuel Parks 
William Button 
Isaac Kenney 



Richard Emerson 
Asa Adams 
Benoni Boynton 
Amos Taylor 
John N mather 
Timothy mather 
Salvenus Beckwith 

Benjamin 

Joseph Dodge Jr 
Joseph Dodge 
Elijah Morse 
Joseph O Taylor 
Isaac Barit 
Eph" Adams " 



ACTION OF THE LEfilSLATUKE. 

" In the House of Representatives March 21"' 
1777— 

"The Committee of both Houses on the petitions of 
Marlow and Stoddard made report that it is their 
Opinion that the Inhabitants living on the Lands in 
lispute between the Towns of Marlow and Stoddard 
lo abide by the Resolve made by the General Court 
jf this State on the 12 Day of June 1776, respecting 
Taxation until the matter in dispute be settled by 
Law or Agreement as therein mentioned — but that 
the said Inhabitants do Military duty in the Town (if 
Stoddard as has been usual, signed Nich° Gilman 
Chairman which Report lieing read and Considered, 
Voted that the same be received and accepted and 
that the said inhabitants govern themselves accord- 
ing. 



" Sent up for concurrence 

" John Dudley Speak' p temp' 
" In Council the Same Day read and concurred 
" E Thompson Secy " 

The result was in favor of Stoddard, their 
claim to all territory as far we.st as the curve- 
line of Mason's patent being allowed, thus tak- 
ing portions of the towns of Marlow and Gil- 
sum. 

RELATIVE TO AN ALLEGED ILLEGAL TOWN- 
MEETING. 

"We the Subscribers Inhabitants of the Town of 
Stoddard Being Desirous of peace and unity — att all 
Times. But more Especially in these Days of Trou- 
ble and rebuke — When not only those who formerly 
Stiled them Selves our Parents. But our own Domes- 
tics are Levying war against us — and using all means 
to Bring us into and keep us in Divitions — which we 
would use all Lawfull means to put a Stop to, and to 
Cultivate good order and harmony among us and as 
authority is allways the only means whereby any part 
of the Community, when Greav'' Can Lawfully have 
Redress — 

" We therefore Humbly pray the Hon*"'" General 
assembley for the Colony of New Hampshire, Would 
be Graciously pleased to Condecend to give us y'' 
inhabitants of poor pensive Stoddard their advice — 
in Regard to our annual march meeting — held in this 
Town the 28"' Day of march Last past — the people 
being Legally Warned and met — the Votes Ware 
Called for — for a moderator — a motion Was made — 
Wheather it would not be Best and Quicker to Chuse 
him by nominating and Lifting up y' hand — the 
Question was accordingly put by one of the former 
Select men — past in the afiermitive — and no objection 
made — after y" moderator was Chose — a nother motion 
was made to have all y'" oather Town officers Chose 
by nominating and Lifting up the hand — ye modera- 
tor accordingly put y" Question and it passed in the 
affermitive — and no objection made in y' Least — and 
if there is any Law how to Chuse Town officers We 
Look upon this way to be y" Law — and if there is no 
Law we think the Town has a right (and it is neces- 
sary) to Say how they will proceed for that year or 
for that meeting — but we went on and Chose all our 
Town officers in peace Without any objection and 
after y' Choice of all y" officers was made — there 
Came on a Despute about a publick meeting house 
Spot — now there has been a Divition about y'' meet- 
ing house ever Senee y° Town was Settled and when 
ever there was any thing to be acted upon Conccri - 



336 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ing a meeting house — -a Quaril insued — and So it 
was now. nothing Done but Disputing and hard 
words — a motion was made to have that article Dis- 
mised or y'^ meeting adjorned — but Could not be ob- 
tained — y' moderator Calling on them to proceed and 
Do business or he would .adjorn y' meeting — Which 
after a While more Spent in Talk and Nothing Done. 
y'' moderator Declair"" j" meeting Stand adjorn'^ to the 
Second Day of may next— and no Sort of objection 
made all rested in peace till S'' 2** Day of may — y"-' 
Select men being Sworn — and had Taken y" List or 
Valuation of the Town and now there is a party risen 
up against the meeting Saing it is invailed and on 
this reason that y' officers ware voted in by nomina- 
ting and Denies, all y'' authority of Town officers 
Oliver parker a Common Tore being y'" ring Leeder — 
and We Supose about fourteen or fifteen have Sent to 
y" General Cort to have y" Said meeting Disanul'' 
and Void — But we pray y" Sd meeting may Stand 
good for many reasons — as y° Town has proceed in 
their public Business in many instances — and it 
Would put y" Town into y'' utmost Confution to have 
ye meeting put by and as in Duty Bound Shall ever 
pray for your advice we are your Humble Cousti- 
tuants — 

" Alexander Scott Kobart Prockter 

Silas Wright Thoms Adams 

John Robbe Abel adaras 

Caleb Wright James Willson 

David Robbe John Farley 

John McDonald Amos Taylor 

Isaac Temple David Willson 

John Jackson Allan Speir 

AmosButterfild John Taggard 

Abram raorrison Ephraim Brockway 

David Scott Robert Blood 

Nathaniel Emerson Silvanus Bikwith 

James Scott John Tenny " 

Richard Richardson 

.JOHN ROBBE, WOUNDED SOLDIEE, 1778. 

" Peterborough Jan' 1, 1778. 
" May it please your Honors 

" Permit me address you in behalf of Sarg' John 
Robbe of Stoddard, in the County of Cheshire, and 
State Aforesaid, the said Robbe being in the Engage- 
ment at Benniugtown, under my Command, was there 
much Wounded & Disabled from Getting his Future 
Support beg Leave to Recommend the said Robbe to 
the Favour of the said state as your Honors in your 
Wisdom shall think iitt — am with due Respect 
" your Honors most Hum' Ser' 

" John Stark, B 1> G 
"To the Hon'ble Council & Assembly for the Stair 
of New Hampshire — " 



John Robbe appealed to the inhabitants of 
Stoddard January 28, 1778, to ask the Legisla- 
tore for assistance, which they voted to do at a 
meeting February 2, 1778. They al.so by vote 
recommended Mr. Robbe very higlily. In 
House of Representatives, May 23, 1778, voted 
that said Robbe was entitled to half pay and 
thirty pounds for extra expenses. 

"State of New Hampshire May 23'* 1778 

" To Gilman Esq' R. G. Pursuant to a Vote 

of Council & Assembly pay Joth° Blanchard for John 
Robb Six pounds towards s** Robb'' Expences in be- 
ing cured of a wound r'' at Bennington — 

" M. Weare Prest " 

Richard Richardson, Soldier, 1782.— In 
a petition dated Stoddard, November 5, 1782, 
Richard Richardson slated that he " was out in 
tiie .service of his country in the first three 
years' service in the present war." He further 
stated that he was paid in State notes, and held 
one for £43 18.s., and one for seventy-three 
dollars, which he wanted paid. 

soldier's order, 1784. 

"Stoddard May 25'" y' 1784 
" To the State Treasury of New Hampshire pleas 
to Pay Mr. Jacob Copling the ballance Due to me for 
the year 1781 and his Receipt on the back of this or- 
der Shall be your discharge from me you will tind my 
name in Capt Caleb Robinsons muster roles 

" JosiAH Hardy " 

RETURN OF RATABLE POLLS, 1783. 

" Stoddard December y" 3'' 1783 then apeerd Isreal 
towns Ephraim Adams and James Scott Selectman of 
Sd Stoddard and made Solem oath that att present 
there is in y' town of S* Stoddard one hundred and 
four Rattebel 

" Before me " J Rounsevel Just pece." 

RELATIVE TO THE FORMATION OF SULLIVAN, 1786. 

" Stoddard Dec' 4"' 1786 
" at a legal meeting this day 

" Voted not to oppose the southwest corner of this 
Town being set off Keen, Packertield, Gillsom &c 
" Attest : " Eleaz' Blake T : Clerk—" 

" Stoddard Novm' 10'" 1786 
" This may ceertify, to whom it may concern — that 
we the Subscribers — have receiv'd of M' Ezra Osg(jod 
a Petition Sent to the General Court by a number of 
the Inhabitants of the Sou west Part of Stoddard 
" Ward Eddy ) Select men 
GHT J of 



'Peter Wrk 



of Stoddard" 



STODDAKD. 



337 



The southwest part of the town was set off 
September 27, 1787, combined with jjortions of 
Keone, Gilsiim and Nelson, and incorporated 
into the town of Sullivan. 

PETITION^ FOR AUTHORITY TO LEVY A SPECIAL TAX 
TO BUILD A MEETING-HOUSE AND REPAIR ROADS, 

1787. 

"The Memorial of your Petitionees Humbly Shew- 
eth that : being Chosen a Committee by The Town 
of Stoddard, to Petition the General Court that a Tax 
of one penny p' Acre Annually to be laid on all the 
Lands in said Stoddard for three Years : to be Appro- 
priated Towards Building a Meeting House and re- 
pairing the Publick Roads Leading from Hancock 
to Marlow : likewise from John Taggards to Washing- 
ton line: Also from Israel Townses Esq', to Packer- 
field line, the leading Road to Keen — The first third 
part of Said tax to be Asses'd in the Year 1788 — 

" Your Humble Petitioners as in Duty Bound shall 
ever Pray — 

" May 21'" Anno Domini : 1787 

" Israel Towne \ 

" Ephriam Adams I Committee " 

" Jacob Copland ) 

Tliis petition was granted September 27, 

1787. 

COMMITTEE TO LOCATE A MEETING-HOUSE, 1787. 

" Your humble pertisiouers Beg leave to inform 
Your honours that the Town has Laboured under 
Dificalty for a Number of preceeding Years In re- 
guard to agreeing upon a Meeting house Spot, at a 
Leagal Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabi- 
tents of the Town of Stoddard Quallified to Vote in 
Town meeting Leagally warned and met for the fol- 
lowing purpose (Viz) 

" Voted to Chose a Committee finally to Determine 
where the Meeting house Shall be arected in this 
Town and for the same purpose Nominated Esq' 
Penniman of Washington and Sam' Grift'en Esq' of 
Packerfled. Likewise m' John Muzzey of Dublin we 
Your humble pertisiouers pray That the above said 
Committee may be appointed & Impowered accord- 
ing To the afour Said Vote and we Your humble 
pertisioners as in Duty bound Shall Every pray 
" Peter Wright 1 Stledmen in 
"Israel Towne > behalf of the Town 

"Stoddard, September 8th, 1787." 

THEIR REPORT. 

" We Your Committee .Within Named haveing 
Repaired to the Town of Stoddard, and Viewed the 
22 



Situation of said Town, & the Inhabitants thereof beg 
leave to report that it is our opinion that the Meeting- 
house there to be erected, be placed on the fifteenth 
Lot in the Ninth Range upon a Tract of land Given 
toy" Town of Stodard by John Tenney for a Meeting- 
house Spot burying Yard &c and We have Erected a 
Stake and Stones upon s'' Common for y" Bounds of 
Said Meetinghouse 

" p' Tho' Penniman, for y" Committe 
"octo'y'3P 1787" 

PETITION FOR AUTHORITY TO LEVY A TAX ON 
NON-RESIDENT LANDS, TO BUILD A ROAD, 1794. 

" A Petition in behalf of the Inhabitants of the 
Town of Stodard in said State Humbly Sheweth 

" That your Petitioners are Situate on the Hight of 
land Betwixt the great Rivers Connecticut and Mire- 
mac where the land is very Mountanious and Rocky: 
which Causes our Roads to be Extremely Deficualt to 
make & Repair the Same: And whereas the Commit- 
tee api^ointed to lay a Road from Hales Bridge in 
Walpole to Macgregores Bridge in Gofestown: Hath 
laid out anew Road through the Said Town of Stod- 
ard which will be of Ctreat Utility to the Public if 
opned and made Passable : But will lay an unsup- 
ortable Burthen on the Inhabitants in Said Town : as 
it passes through a large tract of unimproved land 
owned by Nonresidents and Remmote from the Set- 
tlement : which will Raise the Value of the land 
through which it Passes : and it appearing Reasona- 
ble that the owners of Said land Should assist in 
Oppening and Making passable the Same: and the 
like privildges Being granted to other Towns in Sem- 
meril Situation : We your Petitioners Humbly pray 
your Honnours to take our Case under your wise 
Consideration and grant that an Act may pass im- 
powering the Said Town of Stodard to lay a tax of 
two pence p' acre on all the land in Said town for the 
Sole Purpose of Making Passable the Roads and 
Bridges in said Stoddard: And your petitioner as in 
Duty Bound will Pray 

"Natha" Emerson 
"January 1 1794" 

Granted June 11,1 794. 

RELATIVE to THE DISPUTED LINE BETWEEN THIS 
TOWN AND MARLOW, 1798. 

" The Petition of us the subscribers Humbly shews 
that the General Court at their session in June A D 
1797 set off the south East Part of Marlow under the 
Jurisdiction of the Town of Stoddard, And we Your 
Petitioners living on s"* Land being fully pursuaded 
that thair Honours would not have subjected us to so 
unreasonable a burthen had thay known our situa- 



338 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tion & the true circumstances we are under the one 
part setling under Marlow have been at Great Ex- 
pence to defend our persons & Properties from the 
unjust demands made & Extorted from us by the 
Town of Stoddard and the other part being made to 
believe by the Unrighteous persuasions of Stoddard 
Proprietors that the Lands were theirs and thereupon 
we purchased of thera at A Very dear rate, which 
took at that time of many of us all our properties 
And after living many Years in this Rough wilder- 
ness have been at the expence of every thing but life, 
And now we find that marlow holds their right of 
soil it being decided by Law And those of us that 
Purchased of Stoddard have to Purchase our Lands 
over again at A great price & have been subjected to 
A Large bill of cost in Disputing the title & the Town 
of Stoddard Refusing to ])ay any Part of s'' expence 
and we being fully sensible that stoddard cannot have 
any Accurate survey or knowledge of those Lands 
Layed out under Marlow And that Stoddard and 
Marlow both Claim the Jurisdiction to part of s* 
Land on Account of their being two Curve Lines 
which will keep the Inhabitants in Vexetion & con- 
fusion. And being fully sensible that it will be for 
the Good & peace of us the Inhabitants to continue 
as we Really were within the Jurisdiction of Marlow 
And being fully sencible that stoddard left off two 
Ranges of their lots on their E.ast line to Extend to 
the west on Marlow as the Proprietors of stoddard by 
that Conduct thought to git about nine or ten of Mar- 
low setlers to count for Stoddard in order to fulfil 
their Charter which we flatter ourselves will not be 
Justified. And Stoddard will be a much larger Town 
without any part of Marlow than Marlow will be they 
holding the whole within their Charter, And there- 
fore on every principal of right, And for ourselves 
And offspring to injoy any degree of comfort we think 
it our duty to humbly pray your Honours to Repeal 
the foregoing Act And let us remain in and under 
the Jurisdiction of Marlow As your Petitioners in 
duty bound shall ever pray. 
•' November 7'" 1798 
" Aaron Matson Bani Henry 

Ebenezer Blake Nathen 

Sam' Messinger Ephraim Brockway 

John Henery J' Ephraim Brockway Jur 

Nathaniel Gilson Joseph Brockway 

Timothy Bailey Isaac Barritt 

Ziba Henry Jesse Farley " 

ANOTHER DOCUMENT RELATIVE TO THE DISPUTED 
LINE, 1796. 

"The Petition of the inhabitants of the Town 
of Stoddard states that in the year of our 



Lord seventeen hundred and fifty-Three the Town 
of Stoddard was Granted to Sampson Stoddard 
and others by the Masonian Proprietors and was 
bounded westward upon the head line of Maso- 
nian patent; that in the year Anno Domini 
1773 they received their Charter of incorporation 
from his excellency Penning Wentworth Esq' which 
gave the Town of Stoddard jurisdiction over a cer- 
tain tract of land seven miles square lying east of said 
Patent or head line — that in the year Anno Domini 
1762 the Town of Mario was granted and incorpora- 
ted which Grant intersected the Town of Stoddards 
Grant nearly Two miles whereby each Town had 
concurrent jurisdiction over the same territory — and 
thereupon application was made to the provincial 
assembly of New Hampshire to settle the Jurisdic- 
tional line between said Towns — And said assembly 
in the year A D 1776 resolved that said inhabitants 
should pay their taxes to the Town of Mario but 
should do military duty in the Town of Stoddard — 
That in the year A D 1777 application being made to 
the General assembly a second time to settle the 
aforesaid dispute they recommended by a special re- 
solve mentioning the Town of Washington and all 
other Towns in similar circumstances (of which 
Stoddard was one) that the inhabitants living on 
said strip or disputed Grant should pay their taxes 
to the Towns lying east of the head line of Masons 
patent untill the same should be further settled and 
established by law— That in the year A D 1784 The 
Town of Mario petitioned the General assembly for 
an abatement of their taxes in consequence of the re- 
solve of the General assembly which passed in the 
year 1777 — upon which petition the General assembly 
then resolved that the Town of Mario be abated one 
fourth part of all their taxes from the year A D 1777 
to the year 1784 — and the Town of Mario have ever 
since that period relinquished all jurisdiction to the 
same land and have ever since omitted and refused 
to make return of the same in their valuation — That 
the same has been uniformly since the year A D 1777 
returned by the Town of Stoddard and set to their 
valuation — That large sums of money have been as- 
sessed since that period upon the inh.abitants living 
thereon, and many lots of land there lying have been 
sold by the Collectors of Stoddard at publick vendue 
for the non-payment of taxes assessed thereon — In 
the year A D 1792 the Original Proprietors of Mario 
finding that the Masonian Proprietors had extended 
their bounds upwards of twenty miles farther west- 
ward than their original grant warranted — and in- 
tending to avail themselves if possible of the invalid- 
ity of the act which passed the General assembly in 
the year 1777— giving jurisdiction to Stoddard — 



STODDARD 



339 



Commenced Two actions of ejectment to recover pos- 
session of those lands wliich were sold at vendue by 
the collectors of Stoddard — and upon which lands the 
Proprietors of Mario had paid no taxes for upwards 
of twent3'-five years — In which actions the Original 
Proprietors of Mario recovered possession against the 
vendue purchasers under Stoddard in consequence of 
a defect in the act which passed in the year 1777 giv- 
ing jurisdiction to the Town of Stoddard — We there- 
fore pray this Honorable Court to take into their wise 
consideration the circumstances and situation of the 
Town of Stoddard and if legal and constitutional to 
establish and confirm the doings of the Selectmen of 
Stoddard and ratify the assessments which have 
hitherto been made — And also to settle the Jurisdic- 
tional line between said Two Towns and give the Ju- 
risdiction of the strip so-called to the Town of Stod- 
dard if tonsistent with the Interest and happiness of 
both Towns — And also to settle the Jurisdictional 
line between Gilsom and Stoddard^ 



" And your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever 
pray— 

" Stoddard Dec 6'" A D 1796 

" Jacob Copelasd Agent for Stoddard " 

The Hue was established in favor of Stod- 
dard June 16, 1797. 

CoNGEEGATtONAL Church. — This church 
was orgauized September 4, 1787, with seven 
members. The first settled pastor was Rev. 
A. Coltou, October loth, 1793, and re- 
mained until October 1, 1795. He was succeed- 
ed by Rev. Isaac Robinson, D.D., January 5, 
1803. He died in 1854 and was succeeded by 
Revs. Josiah S. Gay. S. L. Gerould, Savage, 
Ricket, Colburn, Southworth, and the present 
acting pastor, J. H. Thyng. 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN. 



CHAPTER r. 

This town lies north of the central j)art of 
the county and is bounded as follows : 

North by Gilsum and Stoddard ; east by 
Stoddard and Nelson ; south by Roxbury and 
Keene, and west by Gilsum and Keene. 

The town was incorporated September 27, 
1787, and comprised territory severed from 
Stoddart, Gilsum, Keene and Packersfield (now 
Nelson). It was named in honor of Gen. John 
Sullivan, who was at tiiat time President of the 
State. 

By an act approved January 10, 1794, the 
west line of the town was " lengthened out and 
continued south into the town of Keene 157 
rods further than by the act of incorporation." 

July 7, 1X74, a few acres of land were sev- 
ered from this town and annexed to Gilsum. 

The following is a copy of the petition for 
incorporation, addressed to the General Court 
in 1786: 

" Humbly shew your Petitioners, The Subscribers, 
Inhabitants of the Towns of Keene, Packersfield, Gil- 
som, and Stoddard. That they live remote from the 
centre of their respective Towns and by reason of dis- 
tance and bad roads are deprived of their town privi- 
leges — That they cannot enjoy these conveniences of 
public worship — That some of their duties as mem- 
bers of their several towns are by their situation very 
burdensom. — That if they might be incorporated into 
a seperate and distinct township it would be highly 
advantageous to them, and no detriment to the towns 
to which they now belong — That they are encouraged 
to hope that no objections will be made to their being 
thus incorporated unless by the town of Gilaom, and 
that those objections may be easily obviated. 

" The prayer of this their humble Petition therefore 
is — That the tract of land marked out upon the plan 
340 



herewith exhibited may be set off from the several 
Towns aforesaid into a distinct Township by the name 
of orringe and the Inhabitants of it incorporated as 
aforesaid — and Your Petitioners as in duty Bound 
shall ever pray. 
" August 22'' 1786. 

" Inhabitants of Keene 
" Roswell Hubbard Zadock Ninis 

Joshua Osgood Erastus Hubbard , 

"Inhabitants of Packerfield 
" Grindal Keith Oliver Carter 

"Inhabitants of Stoddard 

" ■ Burnam William Burnam 

Nathan Bolster Samuel Wyman 

Saml Seward Ezra Osgood 

Josiah Seward Elijah Carter 

" Inhabitants of Gilsom 



James Row 
Timothy Dimmock 
James Pratt 
Joseph Ellis 
William Cory 
Samuel Cory 
John Chapman 
Benjaman Chapman 
Benj" Ellis 
Simeon Ellis 
Nathan Ellis 
John Chapman Jun' 



Timothy Dewey 
Tho' Morse 
Jesse Wheeler 
Lockhart Willard 
Jonathan Baker 
John Dimick 
Joshua Cory 
Jonathan Heaton 
James Locke Jun' 
James Locke 
Ebenezer Birdit 
John Row" 



The following is the report of the committee 
on foregoing petition, 1787 : 

" We the Subscribers being a Committee Appointed 
by the General Court of this State to View the Cor- 
ners of Keene Packerfield Gilsom and Stoddard have- 
ing Viewed the primeces Beg Leave to Report, as 
their Opinion that the parts of Towns Petitioned for 
to be made into a Town lies Very Convenient for 
that purpose by Reason of being incorapassed all 
Round with Mountains and Broken Land that is al- 
most impassable Besides their Lying Very Remote 



SULLIVAN. 



341 



from the Towns to which they Now Belong to— but 
it must Consequently, if incorporated into a New 
Town Leaves Some of the Towns from which those 
parts of Towns were Taken Especially Gilsome in a 
Broken and inconvenant Shape as may be made to 
appear by the Plan of s" Town if S" Gilsome Could be 
acomedated by Being anexed to any other parts of 
Towns which Lies Joyning it is our opinion that it 
might be a Publick advantage and much for the ac- 
comedation and Benifit of the Petitioners 
" Alstead September y' 24, 1787 

" Lem" Holmes 

" Absalom Kingsbery" 

" The Petition of the select Men of the towns of 
Keene and Sullivan in said State Humbly Sheweth^ 

" That whereas in the year 1789 — an Act passed the 
General Court to Incorporate a town by the Name of 
Sullivan and in and by said Act the Bounds of Said 
town are Affixed and Determined — But as they will 
not Close agreeable to said Act^We your Humble 
Petitioners pray an Amendment may be made to Said 
Act, in the following manner (Viz) the West line of 
Said town to be lengthened South into Keene one 
Hundred fifty seaven Rods thence East twenty Eigth 
Degrees & 30 minutes South, to the East line of said 
Keene, thence North on said line to the Bounds from 
Which they set out from in said Act 

"and whereas by said Amendment the Lines will 
run as they ever were Expected to run by the town 
of Keene and likewise by said Petitioners for Sulli- 
van — It is the Humble Request of Said towns that 
said Amendment take Place — And your Petitioners as 
in Duty Bound Shall ever Pray 

'■ Keene Decem' 20'" 1793 

" Lock' Willard ) Select Men 
" David Willson j of Keene " 

" Erastus Hubbard I Select Men 
" Eliakim Nims I of Sullivan " 

This petition was granted January 10, 
1794. 

PETITION FOR THE GRANT OF A TOWNSHIP: AD- 
DRESSED TO THE GENERAL COURT, 1798. 

" The Petition of the subscribers, Inhabitents of 
the State of New Hampshire, Humbly Sheweth — 

'■ that your Petitioners being inform'* that there is 
within the limits of this State lands as yet unlocated ; 
and your Petitioners being desirous to lay a founda- 



tion for the settlement of our Children within the 
bounds of there Native State. 

"We therefore pray that a township may be 
granted to your Petitioners, for actual Settlement un- 
der such restrictions and limits as your Hon' body 
may think propper, that we may not have the dis- 
agreeable Sight of Seeing our Sons Emigrating to 
other States and prehaps, Kingdoms — 

" And as in Duty bound will ever pray. 

"Sullivan, Nov'. 10'\ 1798. 

"Roswell Hubbard. Thomas Powell, Jun. 

Elijah Carter. David Powell. 

W™ Muzzy. Joseph Powell. 

Elijah Osgood. Jonathan Powell, 

Dan' Wilson, Jun'. Samuel Seward, Junr. 

Josiah Seward. Junr. Paul Farnsworth. 

W". Munroe. Theophilus Row. 

Oliver Carter. Joseph Seward. 

Er.nstus Hubbard. James Row. 

Joseph Ellis, Junr. Daniel Farnsworth. 
Roswell Hubbard, Jun'. Thomas Seward. 

Wi" Bridge. Ichobad Keith. 

Daniel Willson. Elijah Rugg. 

John Willson. Josiah Seward, 

gorge Nims. James Comstick. 

James W. Osgood. Peter Barker. 

Charles Carter. Abijah Seward. 

James Willson. Nathan Bolster. 

Calvin Nims. Isiah Willson. 

Olover Brown. Sam' Willson. 

Phelander Nims. Frederick Nims. 

Ezra Osgood. Samuel Seward. 

Elsworth Hubbard. Abel Carter. 

George Hubbard. Samuel Clarke. 

Thorn* Morse. Henry Carter." 

In 1790 the town voted £5 for preaching. 
The services were held in a barn until 1791, 
when a small house was erected, and in the 
same year £6 was raised for church purposes 
and in the following year £15. The church 
was organized October 17th, and consisted of 
twenty-two members. Among the first preach- 
ers were Lawrence, Brown, Woolly, Cotton, 
Randall, Kendall, Stone, Clapp, Eaton, Wm. 
Muzzy, Josiah Peabody, Josiah Wright, Al- 
anson Alvord, Thos. S. Norton. 

There are now tliree churches in this town, 
two Congregational and a Union Church. 



HISTORY OF SURRY. 



CHAPTER I. 

This town was incorporated Marcli 9, 1769, 
and comprised territory severed from the towns 
of Westmoreland and Gilsum, largely from the 
latter. That portion taken from the former 
had been known as Westmoreland Leg. 

By the act of incorporation the first meeting 
was to be called by Peter Hayward, the firet 
settler in town, and Ebenezer Kilburn had 
liberty to " poll off" with his estate to Gilsum. 

Surry was one of the towns that voted to 
unite with Vermont, and, in 1781, the majority 
of the selectmen refused to call a meeting for 
the election of a member of the Legislature, in 
obedience to a precept from tliis State, " being 
under oath to the State of Vermont." 

Lead and silver were discovered on Surry 
Mountain many years ago, and attempts have 
been made from time to time to mine the ore. 
A mine on the east side of the mountain, which 
is being worked at the present time by the 
Granite State Mining Company, produces gold, 
silver, copper and lead in considerable quan- 
tities. 

The town derived its name from Surry, in 
England. The following Surry men were in the 
First New PLimpsliire Regiment in the war of 
the revolution : 

Joshua Church, enlisted March 18, 1777 ; discharged 
April 30, 1780. 

Anthony Gilman, enlisted July 1, 1777; taken pris- 
oner. 

Samuel Liscomb, enlisted May 8,1777; discharged 
December, 1779. 

Jacob Bonney, enlisted May 20, 1777 ; died July, 
1778. 
342 



PETITION OF LEMUEL HOLMES : ADDRESSED TO THE 
GENERAL COUET, FEBRUARY 10, 1780. 

" The Memorial of Lemuel Holmes, Captain of the 

Corps of Rangers— Humbly 

Sheweth, 

" That your Memorialist was captivated by the 
British Array on the le"" Day of November, A.D. 
1776, at Fort Washington (so called) and carried into 
New-York, where he was detained a Prisoner untill 
the 20"" D-iy of September, A.D. 1778 ;— That during 
this Period your Memorialist had scarce any Allow- 
ances from the Continent & none from this State, & 
your Memorialist is led to suppose that the Reason 
of his being neglected by said State was, that thro' 
Mistake he was never returned as belonging to the 
said State ; — That your Memorialist was detained in 
New-York five Weeks after he was exchanged, for 
Want of Money to discharge his Billet, having had 
no Remittances for that Purpose ; — That after your 
Memorialist was permitted to leave New-York, {hav- 
ing previously been obliged to hire the Money to dis- 
charge his Billet) he was under a Necessity of taking 
a Journey to Philadelphia to procure said Money to 
be granted & remitted by the Honorable Continental 
Congress, which Journey cost him much time & 
nearly all the Money he had before received, which 
was seven hundred Dollars on Accompt. — And your 
Memorialist would also humbly represent in Behalf 
of himself & Samuel Silsby, Daniel Griswold & Wil- 
liam Haywood, Soldiers from said State in the Corps 
commanded by your Memorialist, that your Mem- 
orialist & the aforesaid Soldiers were considerable 
Sufferers by loosing several things at the time of their 
Captivity & by Expences afterwards arising from 
Sickness, the necessary Charges of getting Home & 
loss of time afterwards, as will more fully appear 
from the Accompt herewith transmitted. — Wherefore, 
your Memorialist, in Behalf of himself & the afore- 
said Samuel Silsby, Daniel Griswold and William 
Haywood, humbly prays this honorable Court to take 



SURKY. 



343 



the foregoing Memorial & Representation, together 
with the Accompt herewith transmitted, into their 
wise Consideration and act thereon as they in their 
Wisdom shall see just & proper ; — and your Memor- 
ialist as in Duty bound, shall ever pray, &c. — 

" Lemuel Holmes, Captain." 

" PETITION OF THOMAS DODGE, SOLDIER, 1783." 

" Humbly Shews, 

"Thomas Dodge, in the year 1777, he inlisted into 
the continental service for three years, for the town 
of Surry, in the county of Cheshire, and received 
from Said Town a Bounty of one hundred Dollars ; 
that he served during the whole term ; and when he 
applied to the treasury of this State for his Wages, 
the receipt he had given the Town of Surry for said 
Bounty was lodged against him and redacted out of 
his Wages — Your Petitioner therefore prays, that this 
Assembly will take his case into consideration and 
make an order to The Town of Surry to refund said 
hundred Dollars, or grant such other relief in the 
premises as to this hou'''" Court shall seem expedient 
and proper — and your Petitioner as in Duty bound 
shall ever pray. 

" Charlestown N°. 4, Oct^ 24'", 1783— 

" Thomas Dodge." 

petition of lemuel holmes, soldier : addressed 
to the general assembly, 1782. 

"Humbly Sheweth, 

" The petition and memorial of Lemuel Holmes — 
of Surry in said State — that on the first day of Jan- 
uary, seventeen hundred seventy-six — your petitioner 
engaged as Lieutenant for the term of one year in 
the service of this and the United States — and on the 
sixteenth day of November following, was taken 
prisoner at Fort Washington — That previous to the 
captivity of your petitioner (viz) on the first of Sep- 
tember the same Year — I had an appointment by his 
Excellency Gen' Washinton to the office of Captain 
— That by being made prisoner, your petitioner was 
prevented receiving a commission agreable to such 
appointment — but was, however, returned and ex- 
changed as such — after having continued prisoner in 
Kew York almost two years — That when released, 
your petitioner immediately applied to the Congress 
for direction and settlement of my accounts — and there 
received asmall sum in Continental money on account — 
and was directed by Congress to apply to the state to 
which I belonged for a settlement of the whole — 
That your petitioner, in consequence, applied to the 
hon. Assembly of this State about two years since — 
but by a multiplicity of business or some other cause 
to me unknown — my said application was and has 



been since neglected — whereby asetlementof my ac- 
counts has never yet been effected, nor any sufficient 
payment or compensation rendered for the services 
and sufferings of your petitioner — That more over, 
your petitioner hath been informed that Congress 
ordered some allowance to be made to those super- 
numerary Officers who returned home — 

" Your petitioner therefore humbly prays that your 
honors will take tlie several matters herein liefore 
suggested, into serious consideration — and point out 
some eligible method for a speedy settlement of my 
accounts — and whereby I may obtain the balance in 
my favor without greater cost and trouble — .\.nd that 
in the mean time your honors would direct and order 
a reasonable sum for my present relief and support 
— Or, other wise grant such relief and direction in 
the premises — as to your honors in wisdom may 
seem best. — 

"And your Petitioner as in duty bound will ever 
pray 

" Lem" Holmes 

" Dated at Concord this 13"> June 1782—" 

111 House of Representatives, June 14,1782, 
lie was granted an allowance of thirty pounds, 
" hard money." 

The following is a petition of Lemuel 
Holmes, 1794 : 

"To the Honourable General Court of the State of 

New Hampshire convened at Amherst on the first 

Wednesday of June 1794 

" The petition of Lemuel Holmes for himself and 
Samuel Silsby Niles Beckwith, William Hayward & 
Daniel Griswold all of the State afforesaid and County 
of Cheshire who are yet Living who were taken 
prisoners at fort Washington in the Year 1776 with 
your petitioners that Belonged to the State of New- 
hampshire and who have Never had any Compensa- 
tion for the time they were prisoners nor the Loss of 
their Baggage and arms and what is infinitely wors 
the Loss of their health and Constitutions : altho 
their accompts with mine were Considered by our 
Committee and Sent forward to Congress but were 
with many other State accompts not Considered So 
that we your petitioners are without any Redress un- 
less your Honours will pleas to interpose in our Be- 
half and make a Grant of So much of the unlocated 
Lands in Said State as your Honours in Your Wis- 
dom may think Reasonable under Such Restrictions 
as to Selling as may Seem best for the State 

" and I Your humble petitioner will be under 
Such obligations to Survey and Settle Said Lands in 
Behalf of them as Shall be Reasonable as Your pe- 



344 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



titioner has a Number of Sons who would Settle Said 
Lands which might be of Some Servis to the State 
but would Satisfy your petitioner that the State for 
which he has undergon too many hardships to men- 
tion think that his friends feel for his Misfortunes and 
will Compensate for his I^osses 

" and your petitioner as in Duty bound will pray 

"Surry June y 2'' 1794. 

"Lemuel Holmes." 

Hon. Lemuel Holmes was lieutemint in a 
company of rangers from January 1, 1776, un- 
til the 1st of September following, when he 
was ajipointed captain by General Washington. 
On the lOtli of November next following he 
was taken prisoner at Fort Washington and 
carried to New York, where he remained in 
captivity until September 20, 1778. He was 
town clerk of Surry for some years, and repre- 
sented Gilsum and Surry in the House of 
Representatives in 1784-86, 1789-92. He 
was elected a member of the Governor's Coun- 
cil in 1790 and held the office four years; was 
a judge of the Court of Common Ple;is for the 
county of Cheshire until 1808, at which time 
he was debarred from holding the office any 
longer by reason of having arrived at the age 
of seventy years. He lived for some years at 
the foot of Bald Hill, in Surry, and is described 
as being an agreeable and courteous gentleman, 
of strict integrity and a prominent man in his 
day. Subsequently he removed to Vermont, 
and there died. 

The following is relative to the collection of 
beef for the army, 1786 : 

" M' Speaker Sir Whereas Co' Gideon of Exeter 
Was appointed a Collector of Beef for the year 1780 
and under him John Mellen Esq' Collector for the 
County of Cheshire S"* Mellen did in the year 1780 
Collect 739 lb of Beef more than he Excepted for to 
Co' Gideons and Because S* Returns do not agree 
with the Return on the Book the Treasurer Cant 
Credet the Town of Surry for any Part of the Beef 
which was Delivered to S"* Mellen therefore it is 
Motioned that the House Give orders that the 
Treasurer Receive Said Recepts and Credet the Town 
of Surry for the Same which the Treasurer is Ready 
to do upon Receiving the order 

"Lemuel Holmes 

" Portsmouth F'" y» 22 1786 

"Surry, Cap' Giddings returned 2600"' Beef" 



RETURN OF RATABLE POLLS, 1783. 

"A return of the Male inhabitants of the Town of 
Surry of Twenty one years of age and upwards pay 
each one for himself a Poll-Tax 
" Eighty two 

" By order of the Select men 

"Lemu" Holmes Town Clerk" 

The following, relative to date of annual 
meeting, was addressed to the Council and 
House of Representatives in 1784 : 

" Humbly sheweth your Petitioners Thomas Har- 
vey Joshua Fuller and William Barran Selectmen 
for the Town of Surry for the year 1783 That whereas 
the Holding of Annuel Meetings on the Last Tues- 
days of March is attended by many inconveniencies, 
in consequence of the new Constitution taking place 
and the inconveniency of Holding it by adjournment 
by reason of its being so late in the Month 

" Therefore, We your Petitioners pray that if your 
Honours see fit would appoint the Annual Meeting 
to be held earlier in the Month of March for the 
Future 

" As in Duty Bound will ever pray 

" Lem" Holmes Town Clerk 

" by order of the Selectmen 

"Surry March 24"" 1784" 

By an act passed April 13, 1784, the time 
for holding the annual meeting was changed 
from the last Tuesday of March to the first 
Monday in the same month. 

date of annual meeting changed, 1785. 
" State of New Hamp' 

" In the House of Representatives Feb" 23'' 178.5 

"Whereas in and by an Act passed the 18"' of April 
A. D. 1784 it is Enacted that the Annual Meeting in 
the Town of Surry shall be held on the first Monday 
in March annually, but as the Inhabitants have not 
had Notice thereof, and the said first Monday so nigh 
that Legal notice connot be given of the business 
necessary to be transacted at said Meeting — There- 
fore — 

" Resolved that the Meeting for the Present year be 
held on the fourth Tuesday of March next and that 
the present Select men give notice in the usual man- 
ner of the time place & Design of Said Meeting and 
the Officers chosen at said Meeting are to give notice 
that the annual meeting of said Town is to be held on 
the first monday in March annually in future — 

" Sent up for Concurrence 

"Geo: Atkinson, Speaker 

" In Senate the same day read & Concurred 

" E Thompson Sec" 



SURRY. 



345 



The following is a petition for authority to declare that whenever any or all of them shall have 

made a Publick Profession of Religion of any Denom- 
ination whatever contrary to our Denomination we 
will agreeably to the Constitution freely relinquish 
all Right of Taxing such Professors to the Support of 
our Minister 

•' Fourthly, We doubt in our minds whether the 
Motive of their thus petitioning is not more to an- 
swer sinister Views, such as forming a Center to ad- 
vance private property and continue small Disputes 
than to promote Harmony and good Order 
" Lemuel Holmes 



raise money by lottery to work a silver mine, 
178G: 

"The Petition of the Subscribers Humbly sheweth 
that they have Discovered a place in Surry in the 
county of Cheshire, where they Are persuaded there 
is a Valuable Silver Mine, that they Wish to make 
an Experiment of the worth and (Quantity of said 
Mine, that by the best computation they can make, it 
will cost three or four thousand Dollars, before they 
can reap any considerable advantage therefrom, that 
they conceive it would a very considerable advantage 
to the Publick, should they succede to their Reason- 
able expectation, in opening said Mine, that it will 
be extremely Difficult, if not impossible for them, to 
advance the necessary Expences for effecting the Same 
Experiment, that Encouraged by your Honours known 
Wisdom and Public Spirit ; the Prayer of your Pe- 
titioners is that they or others as your Honors shall 
see fit may be Authorised by the help of a Publick 
Lottery for that purpose, to raise the sum of two 
thousand Dollars, or any other Sum that your 
Honours shall see fit, to assist them in opening the 
same, and they as in Duty bound shall ever jjray. 
" FebJ 1" 1786 

"Jed'' Sanger ~v Committee in 

" Joseph Blake y behalf of the Oioners 
" W" Russell j of said Mine." 

REMONSTRANCE AGAINST THE INCORPORATION OF 
A BAPTIST SOCIETY, 1800. 

"We a Committee being appointed by the Inhabit- 
ants of the town of Surry at a legal Meeting October 
11, 180U, to remonstrate against the prayer of the 
Petition of a Number of the Inhabitants living in the 
southwest part of said Surry that they with others 
may be incorporated into a Religious Society to be 
called and known by the Name of the first Baptist 
Society in Westmoreland, beg leave to state 

" First, That the Town of Surry is but a very small 
Incorporation and have not one Inhabitant to spare 
without injuring said Town, there being not more 
than 80 Freeholders therein 

" Secondly, Those petitioning Inhabitants are not 
more than three and a half and some not more than 
two Miles from the Meetinghouse in said Surry 

"Thirdly, In their petition they have stil'd them- 
selves professors of Religion by the Denomination of 
Baptists, and to say the Truth, we are obliged to say, 
that not one of those petitioners belonging to Surry 
ever made any Profession of Religion of any Denom- 
ination that we know of, especially, Baptist — and we 



' John Stiles 
' JoNA' Robinson 
' Nathan Howard 



Committee'' 



CONSENT OF SUNDRY PERSONS TO FOREGOING. 

" We whose names are hereunto subscribed, Inhab- 
itants of the Town of Surry hereby give our Consent 
to the Remonstrance of a Committee appointed by 
said Town against the Petition of a Number of the 
Inhabitants thereof, with others praying to be incor- 
porated into a Baptist Society as in our minds we 
doubt the Sincerity of some of those Petitioners be- 
longing to said Surry and that they do not duly con- 
sider the Consequence of an Incorporation 



' Lemuel Holmes 
Nathan Howard 
Abia Crane 
Philip Monro 
Jonathan Smith 
Ichabod Smith 
Sylvester Skinner 
Abner Skinner 
Eldad Skinner 
Jonathan Skinner 
Obadiah Wilcox 
Moses Field 
Asa Wilcox 



Daniel Smith 
Asa Holmes 
Calvin Hayward 
Jn° McCurdy 
Levi Fuller 
Cushman Smith 
Asahel Harvey 
John Stiles 
thos Harvey 
Cyrus Harvey 
Eli Dort 
Jona' Robinson." 



The society mentioned in the foregoing was 
incorporated December 10, 1800, and com- 
prised persons from the towns of Surry, Wal- 
pole, Westmoreland and Keene. 

There was originally a Congregational 
Church in this town, formed January 12, 
1769, with Rev. Daniel Darling as pastor. 
Other pastors have been Rev. Perley Howe, 
Rev. G. S. Brown, Rev. Ezra Adams and vari- 
ous others. 

The Methodists now have a church in this 
town. 



HISTORY OF TROY. 



BY M. T. STONE, M.D. 



CHAPTER I. 

Troy comprises an afea of twelve square 
miles, four hundred and eighty-five acres and 
thirty-five rods, and had a population in 1880 
of seven hundred and ninety-five. 

The total valuation, April 1, 1885, was 
$376,892; number of polls, 203; horses, 117; 
value, $7639; oxen, 52; value, $3207; cows, 
201 ; value, $6208 ; other neat stock, 72 ; value, 
$1226; sheep, 34; value, $136; hogs, 5; value, 
$71; stock in trade, $28,540; bank stock, 
$1700; out of State, $700; interest money, 
$8722; mills and machinery, |15,000; real 
estate, $283,443. 

Our business is represented by one blanket- 
mill, one box-shop, one tannery, one chair-stock 
factory, two tub, pail and bucket manufactories, 
one wheelwright-shop and grist-mill, one livery- 
stable, one barber-shop, one shojJ for turning 
pail-handles, two general stores, one dealer in 
Yankee notions, two hotels, two churches and 
one semi-monthly newsjjaper. 

At what time the first settlement was made 
in this territory we have no authentic history. 

Dr. Caverly, in his history, published thirty 
years ago, says it was beyond the recollection of 
men then living. 

About 1746, or a little later, the territory in 
the vicinity of Monadnock Mountain was pur- 
chased from the proprietors of Mason's grant, 
and were divided into townships, which were 
given the common name of Monadnock, but 
distinguished by different numbers. 
346 



Monadnock No. 4 was called Marlborough, 
and No. 5 Fitzwilliam, and from these towns 
the larger part of the territory of Troy was 
taken. 

The first individual known to have settled 
within this territory was William Barker, a 
native of Wcstborough, Mass., who came here 
in the year 1761, and selected the location for 
liis future home, supposed to be the spot 
now known as the Joel Holt place, on West 
Hill. 

He did not move his family until nearly 
three years later, they arriving at their new 
home in September, 1764. 

In 1770, a road having been built by his 
residence, he opened a public-house, the first in 
town, and which he kept for many years. 
Here, on April 2, 1776, a daughter was born, 
— the first child born in the town. 

During the next fifty years the population 
increased more or less rapidly, until the town 
contained quite a village, which commanded 
the trade for quite a distance around. 

The surface being hill}^ and uneven, it was 
inconvenient for the inhabitants to reach the 
centres of their respective towns, and having 
become accustomed to do. much of their private 
business here, thought it would be for their con- 
venience to transact their pulilic business here 
also, and the village, having been built up on 
the borders of two towns, was under a divided 
jurisdiction, which was not conducive to its 
prosperity, and these were the reasons urged for 



TROY. 



347 



an act of incorporation, which was granted by 
the Legislature in June, 1815, the town being 
formed from the southerly part of Marlbor- 
ough, the northerly part of Fitzwilliam and 
easterly parts of Richmond and Swanzcy. 

The subject was first agitated in 1794, and 
for many years was opposed by the inhabit- 
ants of the different towns, the contest at times 
being exciting and interesting. 

The first town-meeting was held on the 
20th of the July following when officers 
were chosen to hold office until the annual 
meeting in March. 

Church History. — The first efforts of our 
early settlers, afler getting settled in their new 
homes, were directed to establishing and main- 
taining a Christian ministry. 

Most of them had been religiously educated, 
and placed a high estimate upon religious 
institutions, and even those who made no pre- 
tension to piety never thought of living with- 
out some one to officiate for them in the sacred 
office. 

Their first places of worship were rude, but 
their hearts were in their work, and their zeal, 
energy and personal sacrifices might be profita- 
lily studied by their descendants. The first 
meeting-house was built about 1815, and stood 
on what is now the North Park. The next year 
the proprietors, in consideration of the sum of 
twenty dollars, relinquished to the town all 
their interest in the same, excepting tlie pews 
wliich had been sold to individuals. Some 
years later this building was moved to its 
present situation, and fitted up for a town hall. 

September 16, 1815, the Congregational 
Church was organized, ten men and their wives 
subscribing to articles of faith and covenant. 

The organizing coancil consisted of Rev. H. 
Fisk, of Marlborough ; Rev. John Sabin, of 
Fitzwilliam ; and Rev. Ezekiel Rich, an evan- 
gelist, who became the first pastor. He gradu- 
ated at Brown University, 1808, and Andover 
Theological Seminary ; was installed Decem- 
ber 20, 1815, and remained j)a.stor until July 



18, 1818. He continued to reside in Troy 
until 1845. He died some years after at Deep 
River, Conn. 

November, 1819, a new religious society was 
formed by the name of the First Congregational 
Society of Troy, and was a party with the 
church in supplying the pulpit until 1824, 
when a new constitution was adopted, the 
society taking the name of the Congregational 
Society of Troy. 

Rev. Seth E. Winslow was employed as a 
stated supply three years, from 1820. After 
him Rev. Messrs. Peabody, Pitman and Erwin 
were employed for short periods. 

Rev. Stephen Morse, a graduate of Dart- 
mouth College, 1821, was installed second pas- 
tor, August 26, 1829, and was pastor until 
January 31, 1833. 

During this year preaching was maintained 
by supplies. 

On December ICth a new society was formed, 
called the Trinitarian Congregational Society of 
Troy. 

During the years 1834 and 1835 the present 
church was built. 

Previous to this time the church worshipped 
in the town hall with the Baptist society ; Rev. 
Jeremiah Pomeroy was installed third pastor 
and first of the new society, January 16, 
1836, and was dismissed February 27, 1844. 
He was a graduate of Amherst College and 
Auburn Theological Seminary. 

Rev. Luther Townsend was ordained and 
installed March 5, 1845, and dismissed May 
22, 1860. He graduated at Dartmouth Col- 
lege, 1839, and Andover Theological Seminary, 
1842. 

From this time until September, 1865, preach- 
ing was maintained by supplies, who were the 
Rev. Messrs. Easenon, Perry, Whitcomb, Jen- 
kins, Alexander, Miller, Brown, Spauldiug, 
Roberts and Beckwith. 

Rev. Daniel Goodhue came in the fall of 
1865, and remained until about April 1, 1868, 
Rev. Levi Brigham taking his place. He was 



348 



HISTORY OF CHESHIKE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



born in Marlborough, Mass., October 14, 
1806 ; graduated at Williams College, 1833, 
and Andover Theological Seminary, 1836 ; 
■ commenced preaching in Dunstable, Mass., 
September, 1836 ; left Dunstable and com- 
menced preaching in Saugus, May, 1850 ; left 
Saugus and commenced preaching here, 1868, 
and remained pastor until September 12, 1876, 
when he moved to Marlborough, Mass., where 
he now resides. The services of Rev. James 
Marshall were secured in February, 1877 ; he 
was pastor until his death, which occurred in 
April, 1878. Eev. David W. Goodale became 
pastor September, 1878. He was born in Doug- 
lass, Mass., December 28, 1847 ; graduated 
from Monson Academy, 1871 ; Amherst College, 
1875; Andover Theological Seminary, 1878. 
Was ordained and installed October 1, 1878. 
He resigned in September, 1883, and moved to 
South Sudbury, Mass., where he now resides. 
He was succeeded by Rev. Josiah Merrill, the 
present pastor. 

The Baptist Church was organized Novem- 
ber, 1789, with a membership of twenty-five, 
and was called the Fitzwillium Baptist Church. 
From this time until 1791 they were without 
regular preaching, being supplied by preachers 
of the neighboring towns. In 1791 Mr. Rufus 
Freeman was licensed to preach and did so for 
an indefinite time. Until 1836 they held their 
meetings in schools and dwelling-houses. This 
year they united with the First Congregational 
Society in meeting at the town-house under the 
labors of Rev. Obed Sperry, and continued to 
do so until 1848, when their present house of 
worship was erected, and dedicated January 17, 
1849. The following-named ministers have 
served as pastors for terms varying from one to 
fourteen years : Revs. Rufus Freeman, Aruna 
Allen, Darius Fisher, D. S. Jackson, Obed 
Sperry, John Woodbury, P. P. Sanderson, 
Phineas Howe, A. M. Piper, A. B. Egleston, 
April, 1854, to April, 1855 ; Joseph B. Mitchell, 
April, 1855, to April, 1856 ; Thos. Briggs, May, 
1856, to June, 1857 ; John Fairman, July, 1857, 



to February, 1859 ; C. D. Fuller, February, 

1859,to March, 1860; Bille, March, 1860, 

to July, 1861 ; W. H. Chamberlain, August, 
1861, to September, 1862. 

From this time until 1865 preaching was 
maintained by supplies, or by the individual 
members reading sermons. Rev. J. S. Herrick 
became p;istor in 1865, and acted as such until 
failing health compelled him to resign, Feb- 
ruary 23, 1879, and was succeeded by his son, 
D. F. R. Herrick, who was ordained March 18, 
1879. Failing health soon compelled him to 
resign, and preaching was again maintained by 
supplies ; Rev. Mr. Shaw supplying from 
August, 1880, until February, 1881 ; Rev. O. E. 
Brown was pastor from September, 1881, until 
November, 1884, and was succeeded by Rev. 
W. F. Grant, the present pastor. 

Educational History. — In the grant 
given these townships, one lot of one hundred 
acres was reserved in each for the benefit of the 
schools. These lots were disposed of at an 
early period, and the interest expended for 
schools. In 1778 the interest of the Fitzwil- 
liam lot was five pounds, two shillings. 

There is no record showing that any money 
in addition to the above had been expended 
previous to this time, when one hundred pounds 
was voted to be raised by tax, and it was dealt 
out very sparingly, for two years after only 
twenty-five pounds had been expended. 

The building of a meeting-house, the sup- 
port of the ministry and the war, so occupied 
the public mind that but little attention was 
paid to the support of schools. Twelve pounds 
were raised in 1782, twenty pounds in 1785 
and fifteen pounds in 1787, and probably ex- 
pended under the direction of the selectmen. 

In 1789 thirty pounds were raised. This 
year an efibrt was made to establish a grammar- 
school, but the article was " passed over " in 
town-meeting. 

In 1777 the town (Fitzwilliam) was divided 
into four equal squadrons for schooling ; re- 
districted in 1788, and, having become more 



TROY. 



349 



thickly settled, again re-districted in 1794. Up 
to this time there had been no school-houses, 
the schools having been kept in private rooms. 

The first scliool-house on land now in Troy 
was built by Fitzwilliam in 1790, and stood on 
tlie east side of the road near the present resi- 
dence of Willard Wliite. 

At the first meeting after the incorj)oration of 
the town a committee was chosen to regulate 
the school-districts, and they reported six. 

District No. 6 was so small that a school 
could be maintained but a few weeks in each 
year, and consequently little benefit was derived 
therefrom. It was united with No. 3 in 
1831. In 1838 the town was again re- 
districted. District No. 1, or the Village Dis- 
trict, was divided, the northern half being 
called No. 1, and the southern half No. 2. 
No 2 was changed to No. 3 ; No. 3 to No. 4 ; 
No. 4 to No. 5, and No. 5 to No. 6. 

In 1878 the selectmen and superintending 
school committee were instructed by the town 
to again reorganize the districts, which they 
did by making four districts of the six, consti- 
tuting a Village District and three out-districts; 
tile Village District to consist of Nos. 1 and 2, 
together with a larger part of Nos. 5 and 6, 
adding a part of No. 5 to No. 4, and part of 
No. 6 to No. 3, thus making four districts, as 
they are at present ; No. 1 to contain three 
schools — one grammar and two primary — the 
school-house in No. 1 to be used for the north 
primary, that in No. 2 for the south primary, 
the grammar school to be in the room under 
the town hall. 

The citizens have at all times used their best 
efforts to promote the cause of popular educa- 
tion. For several years after the incorporation 
of the town the amount annually raised for the 
support of schools was two hundred and fifty 
dollars, in addition to the interest of the literary 
fund. This amount has been gradually raised 
until the present time, when the whole amount 
of school money is twelve hundred dollars. 

The whole number of different scholars at- 



tending school the past year wius one hundred 
and sixty-two, — sixty-four boys, and ninety- 
eight girls, — with an average length of all 
schools for the year of twenty-one and nine- 
tenths weeks. 

MiiJTARY History. — In everything calling 
for an exhibition of pure patriotism, disinter- 
ested benevolence, or the characteristics of good 
citizens, the names of the first settlers stand 
conspicuous. The following are the names of 
those from this town known to have enlisted in 
the American army during the War of the 
Revolution : 



Benjamin Tolman. 
Jacob Newell, Jr. 
Ezekiel Mixer. 
Pearson Newell. 



James Brewer. 
Caleb Winch. 
John Farrar, Jr. 
Peter Starkey. 

At the time when the bugle sound was first 
heard upon the battle-field of Lexington there 
were not more than twenty-five male inhabit- 
ants over twenty-one years of age, within the 
limits of what is now Troy, capable of bearing 
arms. Most of them were heads of families, 
who had just settled upon this wild land, and, 
however much inclined, they could not have 
left their fields for the camp, only at the expense 
of bringing upon their ftimilies a great amount 
of suffering. 

No men were more ardently attached to 
liberty, or to the leading measures of tho.se 
days, than the early settlers of this town. The 
small number of enlistments should not be at- 
tributed to any want of patriotism, or indiffer- 
ence, for there can be no stronger claims upon 
man's services than those of his family, and 
next to this is his country, and justice and 
humanity forbid that the former should be 
sacrificed to the latter. 

In every instance where arrangements could 
be made to protect the families from extreme 
suffering, the opportunity was gladly accepted, 
and laying aside the implements of husbandry, 
the father hurried to the assistance of his coun- 
trymen. 

Some of them arrived at Lexington just in 



350 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



time to dispute the progress of tlie British 
forces. They were at Bunker Hill aud Ben- 
nington, at Stillwater and Ticonderoga. 

They all served honorably through the war, 
and fought nobly for the cause so dear to every 
heart. 

Benjamin Tolman, Ezekiel Mixer, Pearson 
Newell and John Farrar, Jr., took part in the 
battle of Bunker Hill. 

In the battle of Bunker Hill Tolman was in 
the thickest of the fight where, in a hand-to- 
hand conflict with a British soldier, his gun was 
wrenched from him ; l)ut he stood his ground, 
defending himself as best he could with the 
weapons nature furnished him, until his com- 
mander, seeing his condition, brought him an- 
other musket, with which he continued to fight 
until ordered to retreat. Mixer served in the 
same company with Tolman, and by his side 
for over two yeai'S, both sharing alike the same 
pleasure and suffering. At the battle of Ben- 
nington, August 16, 1777, when the troops 
under General Stark made that ever memor- 
able charge which crowned the American army 
with victory, Mixer was shot in the body and 
carried from the field to a rude shelter, linger- 
ing in great agony until morning, when he 
expired. 

Pearson Newell sustained the loss of his gun, 
powder-horn and cartridge-box, for which he 
was afterwards allowed by the State two pounds, 
fourteen shillings. 

Toryism became so rife in the colonies that 
Congress, in March, 1776, took measures to dis- 
arm all persons disaffected to the cause of Ameri- 
can liberty, and passed a resolution upon the 
subject and sent it to all the colonies. 

In this State the Committee of Safety had the 
resolutions printed in circular form, and sent to 
every town in the State ; it I'ead as follows : 

"Colony of New Hampshire, &c. 

" Committee of Safety, April 12, 1776. 

" To the sekelmen of Monadnock, No. fice : 

" In order to carry the underwritten Resolve of 
the Honorable Continental Congress into execution, 



you are requested to desire all Males above twenty- 
one years of age (lunatics, idiots, and negroes ex- 
cepted), to sign the Declaration on this paper, and 
when so done to make return thereof together with 
the name or names of all who shall refuse to sign the 
same, to the General Assembly, or Committee of 

Safety of this Colony. 

" M. Weare, Chairman." 

"In Congress, March 14th, 1776. 

"Resolved, That it be recommended to the several 
Assemblies, Conventions and Councils or Committees 
of Safety of the United States immediately to cause 
all persons to be disarmed within their respective 
Colonies, who are notoriously disaffected to the cause 
of America or who have not associated and refuse to 
associate to defend by Arms the United Colonies 
against the hostile attempts of the British Fleet and 
Armies. 

" E.vtract from the minutes. 

" Charles Thompson, Secretary." 

"In consequence of the above Resolution of the 
Continental Congress and to show our determination 
in joining our American brethren in defending the 
lives, liberties, and properties of the inhabitants of 
the United Colonies : 

" We the subscribers do hereby solemnly engage and 
promise, that we will, to the utmost of our power, at 
the risk of our lives and fortunes, with Arms, oppose 
the hostile proceedings of the British Fleets and 
Armies, against the United American Colonies." 

This was signed bv all the inhabitants in 
Troy except the following, and duly returned 
by the selectmen : William Barker, Jonathan 
Shaw, Icabard Shaw, Daniel Lawrence. 

The citizens of Troy were not behind their 
fellow-citizens in manifesting their patriotism 
when the hostile cannon boomed upon Fort 
Sumter, but, in common with the great majority 
of the people of the North, gave their support 
to the government. 

The following extracts taken from the records 
will show the action taken by the town : 

" May 8, 1861.— Fofed, That the town guarantee to 
those that have or may enlist from this town, that 
their wages shall be made up to them so that the 
amount will equal twenty dollars per month, and that 
we will pay them ten dollars in advance at time of 
enlisting, said sum of ten dollars to be taken from 
their wages." 

"October 21, 1861.— Fo^ed, To instruct the select- 



TROY. 



351 



men to use any money, not otherwise appropriateil, 
that may be in the treasury, or to borrow monies if 
necessary to carry out the provisions of the Act, in 
chapter 2480, Pamphlet Laws, 1S61, authorizing 
cities and towns to aid the families of volunteers and 
for other purposes." 

"July 20, 1862. — Number of citizens liable to mili- 
tary duty, as enrolled by the selectmen, eighty-two. 
Number who were or had been in the U. S. service, 
twenty-eight." 

"August 27, 1862. — Voted, That we pay each re- 
cruit or volunteer who is accepted and mustered into 
the service of the U. S. for the war, unless sooner 
discharged, the sura of one hundred dollars. 

" Voted, That we pay fifty dollars in addition to the 
one hundred dollars, providingthe town is called upon 
to furnish men to fill up the old regiments. 

" Voted, To limit the bounty to the number required 
to fill our quota and not to be paid until the men are 
mustered into the U. S. service. 

" Voted, That no bounty be paid to any man who 
receives a commission before leaving the state." 

The selectmen were autliorizcd to borrow a 
sum of money sufficient to meet these calls, not 
to exceed three thousand dollars. 

"September 21, 1863. — Voted, That the town ]iay 
the drafted men, who are,br may hereafter he drafted, 
for three years, or their substitutes, on or after being 
mustered into the U. S. service ten days, three hun- 
dred dollars, and the selectmen were instructed to 
borrow a sum not to exceed four thousand dollars for 
the purpose of carrying the foregoing vote into ef- 
fect. 

" Voted, That the selectman raised, if necessary, an 
additional sum not to exceed five thousand dollars 
for the same purpose." 

" December 5, 186'i.— Voted, That the selectmen 
pay the citizens of the town who shall enlist for three 
years (until the quota is filled), the sum of three hun- 
dred dollars, on being accepted and mustered into 
service. 

'^ Toted, That the town assume the responsibility 
of paying the United States and State bounties to citi- 
zens of the town who shall enlist, on being mustered 
into service, and the selectmen were instructed to 
borrow ten thousand dollars for the purpose. ' 

" Voted, That the selectman hire recruits out of 
town, if it can be done satisfactorily, to help make 
up the quota of the town." 

"May 7, 1864. — Voted, To pay the men that have 
already enlisted into the U. S. service under the 
present call for two hundred thousand men, three 
hundred dollars." 



" July 30, 1864.— Fo^-rf, That we pay volunteers, 
or enrolled men, or their substitutes, one hundred 
dollars for one year, and a corresponding sum for the 
number of years they may enlist, not exceeding 
three, if they are accepted and mustered into service, 
to fill up the quota of the town under the present call 
for five hundred thousand men, to be paid when 
mustered into service. 

"Voted, That we pay the drafted men or their 
substitutes, two hundred dollars, to be paid as soon 
as mustered into service. 

" Voted, That the selectmen borrow a sum not ex- 
ceeding six thousand five hundred dollars for the 
purpose. 

"Voted, To choose an agent to procure substitutes. 

"Choie Elmund Bemis as sai<l agent." 

"September 5, 1864. — Voted, To pay any that may 
volunteer from this town, to fill the quota under the 
late call for five hundred thousand men, the sum of 
three hundred d lUars in currency for one year." 

It is a matter of no little difficulty to obtain 
an accurate and authentic list of those who were 
citizens of the town who served during the four 
years' War of the Rebellion. 

The following record gives the names and 
history so fur as can be obtained : 

John Amadon, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment; 
enrolled at Keene, N. H., October 5, 1861 ; died 
at Hatteras Inlet January 15, 1862. 

Henry J. Amadon, Company F, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment ; enrolled October 7, 1861 ; served three 
years and was in twent)'-three battles ; discharged 
at Pegram House, Va., November 27, 1864 ; died 
at Troy July 27, 1867. 

James 0. Amadon, enlisted in Second Regiment, but 
was not accepted on reaching Portsmouth ; served 
all through the war in a private capacity. 

Frank Amadon, Company I, Eighteenth Regiment. 

Oren S. Adams, Second Regiment. 

Chas. H. Barrett, Company C, Fourteenth Regiment ; 
enlisted August 30, 1862; mustered out July 8, 
1865 ; killed at Stoddard. 

Lemuel W. Brown, Company F, Second United 
States Sharpshooters ; was transferred to Second 
Battalion, Veteran Reserve Corps, July 1, 1863 ; 
discharged at Washington, D. C, November 26, 
1864. 

William 0. Barns, Company C, Fourteenth Regiment; 
enlisted September 1, 1862 ; mustered out August 
18, 1865. 

Frank Barnes, Company C, Fourteenth Regiment ; 
enlisted August 25, 1862. 



352 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



George I. Capron. Company C, Fourteenth Regimetit; 
mustered in September 22, 1862; discharged at 
Savannah, Ga., July 8, 1865 ; died at Troy. 

Josepli F. Capron, Company A, Second Regiment; 
mustered in April 14, 1861 ; discharged October 
22, 1861; re-enlisted in December, 1863, into 
First Regiment Connecticut Cavalry. 

Frederick P. Cutler, Company D, Second Regiment ; 
recruit; discharged March 22, 1863. 

Albert Cobb, Fifth Company, Heavy Artillery : mus- 
tered in September 5, 1864. This company was 
mustered at Concord, N. H., by Captain W. H. 
Graham, U. S. A., for one year. 

Nathan C. Carter, Company F, First New Hamp- 
shire Cavalry ; died at Troy, N. H., April 5, 
1876. 

Robert Cosgrove, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 

George W. Clark, recruit, Second Regiment ; dis- 
charged September 22, 1863 ; died at Troy Jan- 
uary 1, 1864. 

Lewis Clement. 

George W. Derby, sergeant. Company F, Sixth Regi- 
ment; mustered in November 28, 1861 ; drowned 
at Aquia Creek. 

Lorenzo Dexter, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Luther W. Fassett, Company E, Second Regiment ; 
recruit; killed by a rebel guerrilla at Evansport, 
Va., April 2, 1862. Fassett, with others, had 
been engaged in digging for a gun that had been 
abandoned and buried by the rebels. He, with a 
companion, started back from where the men 
were engaged in digging to procure some shovels 
which were stored in a building about a mile 
away. They were met by three rebels in citizens' 
clothes, who had been skulking in the bushes, 
and who confronted them with loaded carbines. 
Fassett immediately surrendered, but, notwith- 
standing this, they sent a bullet through his 
body, while his comrade made good his escape, 
and the guerrillas eluded all efforts to capture 
them. 

Danvers C. Fassett, Fifth Company, Heavy Artillery. 

Daniel M. Fisk, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 

Asa B. Fisk, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 

Jonas R. Foster, Fifth Company, Heavy Artillery. 

Ezekiel Haskell, Company F, Sixth Regiment; mus- 
tered in November 28, 1861 ; was transferred to 
Company G, Seventh Regiment Veteran Reserve 
Corps; discharged at Washington, D. C, Novem- 
ber 28, 1864; re-enlisted into Company I, Third 
Regiment ; discharged at Goldsboro', N. C, July 
20, 1865; died at Troy, September 23, 1884. 

Nelson Haskell, Company F, Fifth Regiment ; en- 



rolled September 19, 1861 ; discharged at Conva- 
lescent Camp, Va., December 20, 1862. 

Edward Harvey, Second Regiment. 

Jesse Hiscock, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 

George H. Kinsman, Fifth Company, Heavy Artil- 
lery. 

James Kaven, Company D, Third Regiment. 

Houghton Lawrence, Company D, Second Regiment; 
enrolled September 6, 1861 ; discharged at Wash- 
ington, D. C, July 15, 1862 ; died at Troy April 
10, 1884. 

Center H. Lawrence, sergeant Company A, Second 
Regiment ; promoted to assistant adjutant-gene- 
ral. 

Alfred Lawrence, Company C, First New Hampshire 
Cavalry ; died at Andersonville, Ga., August 19, 
1864. 

Frederick Lang, Twentieth Indiana. 

John Lang, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

Frank Laraby, Company C, Fourteenth Regiment; 
enlisted August 25, 1862. 

Patrick McCaftrey, Company F, Second Regiment ; 
died July 8, 1862. 

Simeon Merrifield, Company A, Fourteenth Regiment; 
enlisted August 14, 1862 ; discharged May 17, 
1865. 

Charles W. Philbrook, Company C, Fourteenth Reg- 
ment; enlisted August 11, 1862; discharged July 
8, 1865. 

William L. Price, First Regiment. 

Albert Roby, Fifth Company, Heavy Artillery. 

Silas S. Stickney, recruit. Second Regiment ; died of 
wounds received July 2, 1863. 

Charles H. Struter, recruit, Second Regiment ; pro- 
moted to corporal ; re-enlisted. 

Charles Lyman Spooner, Company C, Fourteenth 
Regiment; enlisted December 29,1863; died at 
Savannah, Ga., July 7, 1865. 

Robert M. Silsby, Fifth Company, Heavy Artillery. 

Henry T. Smith, Fifth Regiment. 

Patrick Shehan, Company I, Sixteenth Regiment. 

George H. Stockwell, Company C, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment ; died at Troy July 20, 1863. 

Lorenzo B. Tolman, corporal Company F, Sixth 
Regiment. 

§amuel M. Thompson, first sergeant Company F, 
Sixth Regiment ; died at Troy. 

George W. Tupper, Fifth Company Heavy Artil- 
lery. 

Sidney E. Tolman, Company C, Fourteenth Regi- 
ment; enlisted August 15, 1862; discharged at 
Washington, D. C, July 20, 1863. 

Alonzo W. Tupper, Company A, Fourteenth Regi- 



TROY. 



353 



ment ; enlisted August 14, 1862 ; wounded at 
Cedar Creek October 19, lSi)4; disi.harged July 
8, 1805 ; died at IMiller's Fallls, Mass., June 2, 
1874. 
William H. Tenney, Company K, Second Regi- 
ment ; discharged October 8, 1862. 
Robert A. Wheeler, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 
Curtis A. \Miittemore, Company A, Fourteenth Reg- 
iment ; enlisted August 15, 1862 ; discharged 
July 8, 1865 ; died at Fitchburg, Mass., Septem- 
ber 11, 1867. 
Frank Shattuck, Comjiany C, Fourteenth Regiment; 
enlisted August 28, 1802 ; discharged July 8, 
1805. 
Phyhiciaxs. — Tlic first physician to settle 
liere was Dr. Justice Perry, who came in 179(3 
and practiced one year. He wa.s a man of in- 
temperate habits, and after he decided to locate 
liere he was persuaded to sign a temperance 
pledge, probably the fir.st ever signed in town. 
By this he ol)ligated himself to abstain from the 
use of all intoxicating drinks for one year, in con- 
sideration of which tlie citizens bound themselves 
tofurnisli liim witli a horse and all his medicines 
free of charge during tlie year. These condi- 
tions were faithfully fulfilled by both parties, 
Init at the end of the year the doctor relapsed 
into his former hal)its, losing the confidence 
of the peoj)le, and in the following year he 
moved to Marlborough, where he died in 1799. 
He was succeeded by Dr. Ebenezer Wright, 
who came from Fitzwilliam in 1811, at the 
request of a few individuals of the village. 
He was here during the excitement attending 
the efforts to obtain the charter of Troy, and 
took an active part in those measures which 
resulted in the organization of the new town. 

He resided here until 1814, when he went 
back to Fitzwilliam, where he died in 1829. 

Dr. Charles W. Whitney, the third physi- 
cian, was born in Rindge, November 15, 1791^ 
the son of Dr. Isaiah Whitney. In 1811 he 
commenced the study of medicine under the 
tutelage of Ids fatiier. In 1813 .spent six 
moutlis in study and practice at Boston, and 
in December of same year commenced practice 
in ilarlborough, Mass. Left ]\Iarlborough in 
23 



the spring of 181-"), and, in October, started for 
Vermont to look up a place among the Green 
Mountains; but not liking the appearance of the 
land or the people, he retraced his steps home- 
ward ; on arriving at the hotel here, he was 
invited by the proprietor to locate, which he 
decided to do after a few days' con><ideration 
He boarded three years at Colonel D. W. Far- 
rar's; built his house in 1818; married Mary, 
daughter of Samuel Griffin, of Fitzwilliam, 
and continued in active practice until feeble 
health and advanced years compelled him to 
relin<juish it. 

Dr. Luke Miller succeeded Dr. Whitney, 
locating here in 1847, and practiced about six 
years. After leaving Troy he practiced in 
Winchendon and Fitzwilliam, and afterwards 
moved West, where he died some few vears 
since. 

Dr. A. M. Caverly was the fifth physician. 
Born in London, November 28,1817; grad- 
uated at Philadelphia Cullege of Medicine, 
1845. Located here in 1853 and practiced 
until 1863, when he moved to Pittsford, Vt., 
where he died a few years ago. While here he 
compiled and published a history of Troy, up 
to 1855. 

Dr. Daniel Farrar, the sixth phvsician, -was 
born in Troy, May 29, IB.'KJ. He commenced 
practice in his native town some time in 1863. 
Not being physically strong, he could not endure 
the rides over thi.s hilly country and gave up 
the practice some time in 1S65. He after- 
wards practiced in Leominster, Mass., where 
he resided until his death. 

He was succeeded by Dr. Daniel B. Wood- 
ward, who practiced until about 1868, when he 
removed to EUenburgh, N. Y., where he now 
resides. 

The eighth physician was Dr. Benjamin H. 
Hartwell. Born in Acton, Mass., February 
27, 1845 ; graduated at Jefferson Medical 
College, Philadelj)liia, IMarch, 18()8. Com- 
menced j)ractice in Troy the May following 
and remained until March, 1869. He removed 



354 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



to Aver, Mass., where lie lias since resided, a 
highly-respected aud successful physician. 

Dr. John Dodge came next from Springfield, 
Vt., but remained only a few months. 

Dr. Carl G. Metcalf was tlie tentli physician. 
Born in East Unity, N. H., April 21, 1846 ; 
studied medicine with Dr. Butler, of Demp- 
ster, and Swett, of Newport, graduating at 
Albany Medical College in December, 1SG9. 
Commenced practiced in Troy in February, 
1870, remaining until April, 1872, when 
he removed to Middleton, Mass., where he 
was located three j'ears. Failing health re- 
quired a year's rest, aud in 1876 he located in 
Marlborough, Mass., where he resided until his 
death, November 1, 1884. He married, in 
August, 1872, Abbie A., daughter of Rev. 
Levi Brigham. 

The next physician to settle here was Dr. M. 
S. Ferguson, but he remained but a short time. 

The twelfth physician was Dr. Benjamin E. 
Harriman, son of ex-Governor Walter Harri- 
man. Born in (^oncord, October 20, 1854. 
He studied medicine with Dr. A. H. Crosby, of 
Concord; attended lectures at the University of 
Vermont and Bellevue Hospital College, New 
York, and graduated at Dartmouth ]\Iedical 
College in November, 1877. He ojjened an 
office in Manchester, in the December following. 
Broke down in health in June, 1878, aud passed 
the winter in Florida. He located in Troy in 
October, 1879, and once more attempted to prac- 
tice, but the labors of a eountiy pi-actice so 
wore upon him that he again succumbed 
and returned home the last of the following 
February, and passed peacefully away May 23, 
1880. In April, 1879, he married Jessie B., 
daughter of Isaac W. Farmer, of Manchester. 

Dr. M. T. Stone was born in AVest Bosea- 
wen, N. H., July 28, 1854 ; studied medicine 
with Dr. F. A. Stillings, of Concord, and 
graduated at Dartmouth Medical College in No- 
vember 1879. Located in Troy in Februarj', 
1880; married, January 26, 1882, Cora M., 
daughter of Charles W. Whitney. 



Manufactures. — The principal manufac- 
turing industry is the Troy Blauket-Mills. 

In 1836 Luke Harris built a factory for the 
manufacture of woolen cloth on the site of the 
present box-factory, and whicli lie ran until 
1841. 

In 1851 Thomas Goodall, a native of York- 
shire, England, came to Troy and engaged in 
the manufacture of woolen cloth in the same 
mill, and afterwards of horse-blankets. 

The present company of Troy Blanket-Mills 
was formed in November, 1865, by J. H. 
Elliot, R. H. Porter and B. Riphy, of Keene, 
who bought of Goodall the old mill, now used 
as a box-shop, and all the other real estate and 
privileges owned by him. 

The mill at that time contained two sets of 
cards, two hand-jacks, nine looms and but one or 
two sewing-machines, the blankt'ts being carried 
to the houses about town and made up 
there. 

The present brick mill was ei-ected in 1869, 
and contained three sets of cards, jacks and 
looms. It was enlarged in 1877, and the ma- 
chinery of the old mill moved to it and the old 
mill abandoned. The mill was further enlarged 
in 1880, and now contains ten .sets of cards, 
seven self- operating jacks, with fourteen hundred 
spindles aud sixty looms, besides printing 
machinery and sewiiiir-machines. 

About one hundred aud ten hands are regu- 
larly employed, with a fortnightly pay-roll of 
about twelve hundred dollars. 

The present average production is ten bales, 
or five hundred blankets daily. 

The manufacture of wooden-ware has beeu an 
important industry for more than one hundred 
years, as one Thomas Clark commenced the 
manufacture of mortars, spools, plates, bowls 
and trays in 1779. 

The business is carried on at the present time 
by E. Buttrick & Co. and C. D. Farrar. 

In 1845 Edwin Buttrick became a partner 
with S. Goddard, and built their present shop. 
They were in company until the death of the 



TROY. 



355 



latter, atter which ]\Ir. Buttrick conducted thu 
husiness alonu for a number of years. 

Tlie present firm consists of E. Buttrick and 
A. C. Dort, the latter becoming a partner in 
iSGfi. 

They give employment to twenty hands, and 
manufacture about twelve hiuidred cords of 
pine yearly into tubs and pails. Charles D. 
Furrar gives emjdoyment to eighteen men, and 
manufactures ab()Ut one thousand cords of j)ine 
yearly, makitig all kinds of pails and buckets, 
holding from five to seventy pounds. 

In 1801 Aldrich & Barnartl commenced 
the manufacture ofscytJies at the North End. 
In 1816 they were succeeded by Amos Sibley. 
In 1826 he built a new shop, the one now 
owned by Farrar. This shop was used as a 
peg-mill, and afterwards converted into a pail- 
shop. 

Mr. Sibley continued in business until 1844. 
In 1856 he sold his scythe-factory to Whit- 
comb & Forristall, who made it into a pail- 
siiop. This building was afterwards used as a 
pottery, and is now a store-house for the blanket- 
mills. The peg-mill became the property of 
I). W. Farrar, and for a number of years re- 
mained vacant. Mr. C. D. Farrar commenced 
manufacturing hei'e in 1873. 

The manufacture of all kinds of locked cor- 
ner packing-boxes is carried on by O. C. Whit- 
comb in the old building formerly occupied by 
Troy Blanket-Mills; he has done business here 
since 188'>, giving employment to about twenty 
hands, the value of the yearly production being 
about twenty thousand dollars. The tannery 
is owned and run by K. M. Silsby. 

In 1782 or 1783, Jason Winch came here from 
Framingham and built a tannery on the site 
now occupied, and carried on the business for a 
few years, but, being unfortunate in it, he closed 
up the business and left town. 

In 1815 Lyman Wright purchased the tan- 
nery. He soon built a new one, which stood 
nearly over the stream, and a little lower down 
thau the present one. Some years after he 



moved it iiirther up-stream and toward the 
north, putting an addition on the east end, 
which is the principal part of the tannery of 
the ])resent day. 

The business was afterwards carried on by 
Wright & Foster and Francis Foster. 

In 1869 the tannery passed into the hands 
of W. G. & R. M. Silsby. The former re- 
tired from the firm about two years ago. 

The capacity of tlie tannery is about fifteen 
hauds, but at present only seven are employed 
in the manufacture of wax upper leather. 
George S. Colburu, of West Gardner, iVIass., 
manufactures chair-stock, hubs, etc., on East 
Hill, employing from three to six hands. 

Webster Corey turns pail-handles at his shop 
on A\'est Hill. 

The wheelwright business is conducted by 
Winthroj) Knights at the North End. 

At <:liiferent times, various enterprises have 
been carried on, with varying degrees of success, 
f()r longer or shorter periods. 

In 1812 Constant Weaver built a pottery, 
the first in town, and for many years this was 
an imjjortant industry, and earthen-ware of 
different kinds has been made here until about 
three years ago, when, owing to the competition 
of large establishments, the Inisiness was aban- 
doned. 

In 18.")1 B. F. Grosvenor commenced making 
fur hats in the house now occupied by J. S. 
Bhss. 

The business was afterwards carried on by 
E. P. Kimball, who served an apprenticeship 
under Grosvenor. Mr. Kimball carried on the 
business of tinsmith in tlie same house for a 
number of years, and at one time had ten ped- 
lars on the road. 

Miscellaneous. — Troy is situated ten miles 
southeast of Keene, on the Cheshire Railroad. 

The surface is very hilly and uneven ; the 
highest point is Gap Mountain, situated in the 
easterly part, and separated from Monadnock 
by quite a deep ravine. 

The broken surface affords almost every va- 



356 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



riety of soil, and there are some well-cultivated 
and productive farms. 

There are some quite extensive meadows in 
the eastern, and also in the western, part. 

The South Branch of the Ashuelot passes 
through the centre of the town. This rises 
from Rock wood Pond, in Fitzwilliam, flowing 
north, and receives many tributaries. The 
principal is the Ward Brook, which drains the 
westerly slopes of jMonadnock and Gap Moun- 
tains. The greatest natural curiosity is, prob- 
ably, the falls in this brook. Within about 
one-half mile from the village the waters of 
this stream descend, within a few rods, from 
one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, so 
that in high water this cataract presents quite 
a sublime spectacle. 

The air is dry and pure, and the scenery is 
magnificent, and is the nearest point to the grand 
old Monadnock Mountain. 

We have two hotels, — the Monadnock, C. Vi'. 
Abbott, proprietor, and the Kimball House, 
Charles Haskell, proprietor. 

The two stores are kept by E. P. Kimball & 
Son, and C. W. Whitney, and II. C. Newton 
deals in Yankee notions. 

In 1872 Mr. Newton commenced the pub- 
lication of the Home Companion, which was 
issued (piarterly until 187<), monthly until 
July, 1885, and since, semi-monthly. 

Representatives. — The following gentle- 
men have served as Representatives for the 
years named : 



1816-17. Dauiel W. Farrar. 

1818. Sylvester P. Flint. 

1819. Daniel W. Farrar. 
1820-22. Daniel Cutting. 

1823. Daniel W. Farrar. 

1824. Daniel Cutting. 

1825. Daniel W. Farrar. 

1826. Kev. Ezelciel Rich. 
1827-28. Dauiel Cutting. 
1829-31. Daniel W. Farrar. 
1832-33. Lyman Wright. 
1834-35. Chester Lyman. 
1830-37. Daniel Cutting. 
1838-39. Jonathan Clark. 
1840-12. Abel Baker. 
1843-44. John W. Bellows. 
1845. Jeremiah Pomeroy. 
1846-17. Thomas Wright. 
1848-49. John W. Bellows. 
1850-51. Brown Nurse. 
1852-53. Jotham H. Holt. 
1854. Aldin Egleston. 
1855-56. Lyman Wright. 
1857-58. Joseph M. Forristall. 
1859-60. Edwin Buttrick. 
1861-62. A. M. Caverly. 
1863-64. David W. F.arrar. 
1865-66. Edmund Bemis. 
1867-68. Elisha H. Tolman. 
1869-70. Augustus Hodgkins. 
1870-71. Charles W. Whitney. 
1873-74. George W. Brown. 
1875-76. William N. Watson. 
1877-78. William G. Silsby. 
1879-81. Asa C. Dort. 

1883. Charles W. Brown. 
1885. Edwin Buttrick. 



HISTORY OF HINSDALE. 



BY HON. .1. M. STEBBINS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Geographical — The Squakheags — Initial Events — First Set- 
tlements — Charter of the Town — First Town-Meeting — 
Officers Elected — Injian Troubles — Captain Elienezer 
Hinsdale — Early Ecclesiastical History — Congregational 
Church — Univei'salist Church — Methodist Church— Bap- 
tist Church — St. Joseph's (Ionian Catholic Church. 

The town of Hinsdale lies in the sontli western 
part of Cheshire Connty, and is bounded as 
follows: On the north hy Ciiesterfield, on the 
ea.st by Winchester, on the south by Massachu- 
setts, and on the west by the Connecticut River, 
which separates it from Vermont. 

The Connecticut River, about midway 
between the north and south lines of Hinsdale, 
tibruptly changes its southerly coiu-se and for a 
mile or more runs to the northeast, passing 
around Cooper's Point and Clai-y's Island, 
when it again changes its course to the southeast, 
and runs a half a mile in that direction to the 
mouth of the Ashuelot, and at Poraeroy's Island 
resumes its southerly course. The waters in 
til is great bend of the Connecticut and at the 
mouth of the Ashuelot were known to the 
Indians as Squakhcag — the speariug-place, or a 
place for spearing salmon. The name was also 
applied to the territory in the towns of Hinsdale 
and Vernon, Vt. The Squakheags were a 
numerous and powerful tribe, whose principal 
villages were on the plains and bluffs near the 
great bend in the river. They fortified Coojtor's 
Point, the bluff sometimes called Fort Hill, to 
which place they resorted when pressed or 
tlireatened by enemies, and from this hill could 
be seen the meadows and streams for a long 
distance above and below, from which they 



gathered their supplies of corn and salmon. 
The remains of the fort, and of their villages and 
granaries still exist, and the relics of the tribe, 
with their tools and weapons, are often found. 

Nawellet, a chief of the tribe, in 1687, grante<l 
to the proprietors of the town of Northfield, 
Mass., a tract of land which includes the 
territory within the limits of Hinsdale. The 
title to all land in Hinsdale is derived from 
grants from Nawellet and the town or pro- 
prietors of Nortlificld. 

As early as 172.'> a highway two rods wide 
liad been laid from Northfield to the Ashuelot, 
and this had been extended before 1740 to 
Merry's Meadow. The travel and transportation 
between Northfield and Fort Dummer, on the 
east side of the Connecticut, crossing the river 
above the mouth of Broad Brook, had made a 
pa.<sable roadway which led to settlements 
earlier on the east than on the west side of 
the river. 

Merry's Meadow, at the north of Fort Hill, 
took its name from Cornelius Merry, to wliom 
the town of Northfield granted eleven acres of 
land at the south end of the meadow. The 
remainder of these meadow-lands was after- 
wards granted to eleven jiersons. Among 
these were Daniel Shattuck, Peter Evans and 
Robert Cooper, who afterwards built houses on 
their lands. The other grantees of these 
meadow-lands may have improved their lots, 
but are not known to have settled in the town. 
The first organization in the town was that of 
these proprietors, in 173(). 

Daniel Shattuck is supposed to have built, in 
1737, the first house in the town. This was a 

357 



358 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



large log house, heavily timbered, and stood by 
a brook in Merry's Meadow, on the farm lately 
of John Stearns. Another log house was soon 
built (in the other side of the brook and the two 
buildings were connected by a plank palisade 
and surrounded by pickets. The [)lace was 
long known as Fort yiiattuck. The same year 
llobert Cooper iniilt a log house just south of 
Merry's Meadow. In 1741, John Evans, of 
Northfield, built a house a mile south of the 
Ashuelot, near the burial-ground on the E. 
Stebbins farm. Evans' house was fortified and 
served as a place of refuge for the few settlers 
on the west side of the river, and in 1742, 
Colonel Ebenezer Hinsdale l)uilt a fort and 
grist-mill on Ash Swamp Brook, north of 
Merry's Meadow. At this time Josiali Sartwell 
and ()rlan<Io Bridgman were living in houses 
built by them on the west side of the river 
above Hinsdale Fort; and Joseph Stebbins and 
Benoui Wright, south of the great bend. In 
1745 all these settlers, except Colonel Hinsdale, 
had been driven from their homes by Indians; 
but in 1750 they had all returned to their farms 
and others came with them. Thomas Taylor 
had built a house a half a mile south of the 
Ashuelot, and Deacon Peter Evans, Jr., just 
below Merry's Meadow. 

Until 1740 Northfield claimed all the terri- 
tory of Hinsdale and Vernon as far north as 
Fort Hinsdale ; but a line between Massachusetts 
and New Hampshire was run in 1741, by 
which a tract of land four miles and one hun- 
dred and ninty-seven rods in width was cut off 
from Northfield. But this did not invalidate 
the title of the settlers or proprietors of the 
lauds. Grants afterwards made by Northfield 
of lands lying north of the Ashuelot, " above 
the line of the Massachusetts government," were 
held to be good. 

The charter of Hinsdale, including land on 
both sides of the Connecticut, was granted 
Septembers, 1753. 

The first meeting was held September 25th. 
Orlando Bridgman was appointed chairman by 



the charter ; Daniel Shattuck, John Evans and 
Benoni Wright were chosen selectmen ; Colonel 
Ebenezer Hinsdale, clerk ; John Evans, treas- 
urer; Caleb Howe, constable ; Joseph Stebbins, 
Jr., Thomas Taylor, surveyors ; Peter Evans, 
tythingman ; Josiah Willard, Hinsdale, Bridg- 
man, Howe and Stebbins I'ommittee to lot out 
land ; Aaron Cooper, field-driver. Of these, 
Bridgman, Howe, Stebbins, Wright and Wil- 
lard lived in Vernon, then a part of Hinsdale, 
subject to the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. 
The names above given were the founders of 
the town. Most, if not all, were early settlers 
of Northfield, whose ancestors had settled in 
Southern Massachusetts or in Connecticut a 
hundred years before. 

Most prominent of all the founders of the 
church and town was Colonel Eiienezer Hins- 
dale, from whom the town takes it name. In 
February, 1704, a baud of Indians and French- 
men fell upon the settlement at Deerfield, and 
after putting to death nearly fifty of the settlers, 
the remaining oue hundred and fifty were hur- 
ried off on a long march to Canada. Among 
the captives were the Rev. John Williams, the 
redeemed captive, and INIary Hinsdale, the 
mother of Colonel Ebenezer Hinsdale, who was 
l)orn in 170(), on her return from captivity. 
He was educated at Harvard College, ordained 
in Boston, but never settled in the ministry. 
At an eai'ly age he was appointed chaplain at 
Fort Dummer, and in 1742 he built the fort 
which bore his name, and a grist-mill on the 
east side of the river, where he lived the greater 
part of his life. He was the owner of large 
estates both in Hinsdale and Deerfield. It was 
to him the first settlers first applied for aid in 
the times of peril. It was through him they 
appealed to the authorities and to distant settle- 
ments for assistance. In 1775 he applied to 
Governor Weutworth for aid, hostile attacks by 
Indians having been frequent on his fort and 
upon the settlers around him, stating " that they 
were loath to tarry here merely to be killed," 
and the year following he called on the Gov- 



HINSDALE. 



359 



eriior of Massachusetts for help, as the New 
Hampshire force had been withdrawn, and 
eighteen of the small number of settlers had 
tliat season been killed— yet he remained at his 
post. 

He was a brave and kind-hearted officer, and 
active in the affairs of the church and town. 
His wife was a daughter of Rev. Jolin Wil- 
liams, of Deerfield, Mass., and they were both 
members of the church in that town. He con- 
fessed to that church in 1750, " to the siu of 
intemperate drinking," and the confession " was 
received without objection." He died .soon 
after the settlement of tiie first minister in 
Hinsdale, and was liuried at the old burial- 
ground above Fort Hill. The iu.scription on 
the tablet upon his grave is as follows : 

" Underneath Deposited is the body of Col. Eben- 
ezer Hinsdale, who, for his supernatural endowments, 
extensive learning and usefulness, not only in private 
life, but in various important public offices, he sus- 
tained, was far known and admired. After a long ill- 
ness he died Jan. 6, 1763, in the 57th year of his age. 
Here also lies buried the body of Mrs. Mary Beals, 
the mother to Col. Ebenezer Hinsdale, who was born 
on her Return from captivity in Canada, with whom 
she lived a widow at the time of his death, which is 
thought to have brought on hers, ye morning after, 
when she died. Anno .Etatis, '83; her husbands were 
Lieut. Mahuman Hinsdale and Mr. George Beals. 
By the first she had two sons, Samuel and John. 
After this [whose] only child, Mrs. Abigail Hinsdale, 
died at Hinsdale, Aug. 10, 1739, Anno J'2tatis [4], 
was interred at Deerfield. Her still surviving partner, 
Mrs. Abigail Hinsdale, daughter of the Rev. John Wil- 
liams, of Deerfield, and worthy relict of Col. Ebeuezer 
Hinsdale, now mourning the absence of these dear 
deceased relatives, has caused their names and des- 
tinies to be recorded together on this stone June 2, 
1764." 

His widow married Colonel Benjamin Hall, 
and Colonel Benjamin Silliman, of Fairfield, 
Conn., was her third husband. She survived 
them all, and was buried by the side of her first 
husband in 17<S7. 

At a town-meeting held March 12, 1704, it 
was voted that Daniel Shattuck's house be the 
place of meeting ou the Lord's day. The set^ 



tiers, or most of them, maintained their rela- 
tions to the church of Mr. Hubbard, in North- 
field, but held reliy-ious meetings at Hinsdale at 
the place above named, and afterwards at or 
near the homestead of the late Mr. Idc, south 
of Merry's Meadow, that location being conve- 
nient for the settlers on the west side of the 
Connecticut River. 

In 1754 the town voted to raise £46 4.<. 6(7. 
to defray the charges for preaching and other 
town expenses, and to tax lands to provide for 
the buildino; of a meeting-house and the settle- 
ment of a minister; and a committee, of which 
Colonel Hinsdale was a memljcr, was appointed 
to ,-;eiect a site for a meeting-house. But it was 
years before a minister was settled. Four years 
later the town voted " to complete the outside 
of a meeting-house and lay the under floor and 
hire preaching." 

In 1763, Orlando Bridgman, Peter Evans and 
Thomas Taylor were dismissed from the church 
in Northfield " to lie in tiic foundations of the 
church in Hinsdale." These men were fight- 
ing Christians ; each of them had more tiian 
once engao-ed in deadlv conflicts with the In- 
diaus. Captain Bridgman was a private in his 
youth in a company .^eut out from Northampton. 
He was afterwards a settler and soldier at Nortli- 
field ; then third officer at Fort Dummer, and 
subsequently built the fort which bore his name 
in the north part of Vernon. 

Taylor was a shoemaker and a captain. In 
1748, in passing from Northfield to Fort Dum- 
mer, wdien near Fort Hinsdale, he was sur- 
prised by a large band of French and Indians. 
After a desperate conflict he was captured and 
taken to Canada. On his release and return 
the General Court of Massachusetts awarded 
him fifty pounds for his bravery in that action. 
There are many legends of his daring adven- 
tures. 

Peter Evans wa.s also a soldier. When a 
mere boy we find he joined a scouting-pai'ty that 
went from Northfield in pursuit of Indians. 
He was chosen a tythiugman at the first town- 



360 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



meeting and was the first deacon of the church. 
It was probably at his log house that the first 
church was organized. At his fireside it was 
decided to call Rev. Bunker (iay to be the first 
pastor of the church ; and it was at or near his 
iiouse, which stood under the bluif on which that 
pastor lived for more than fifty years afterward, 
where the congregations used to meet for wor- 
shi]) before and for years after the church was 
organized. It was upon this Peter that the 
little church at first mainly depended. These four 
foundation-stones, of which this Peter was by 
no means the least, are now represented by four 
church organizations aud edifices in the town. 

In 1763, Mr. Gay, a graduate of Harvard in 
1760, became pastor of the church, at a salary 
of forty-five pounds a year and a yearly increase 
of t)ue pound a year till it amounted to fifty 
pounds a year, and one hundred pounds as a 
settlement and thirty cords of wood yearly. 

They settled a minister, but the Ijuilding of a 
house of worship made little progress, partly 
because the people were poor and partly because 
the settlei's on both sides of the river were liv- 
ing in the fear of again being driven away from 
their farms by the Indians as they had been be- 
fore. 

A young pastor of a congregation of frontier 
settlers threatened by savages, and struggling in 
peril and poverty for homes and subsistence in 
the wilderness, is not likely to succeed if he is 
merely a fine preacher or profound scholar. In 
that position something besides preaching is nec- 
essary for success. E\-en Jonathan Edwards 
failed in his ministry over a more promising 
congregation. The preaching of Mr. Gay is said 
to have been acceptaljle to his people. Some of 
his sermons were published, but he was more 
celebrated for the many quaint epitaphs attrib- 
uted to him than for his sermons. He was no- 
tablv social and hospitable and a welcome and 
frequent visitor among his people, who were 
widely scattered. He is described as a thrifty 
parson, '' passing rich on fifty pounds a year ;" 
but he could not have done so on his salary. 



Like his parishionei's, he had his house to build, 
and that he might support himself and family 
and keep open house for his people and friends, 
he was compelled to spend much time in tilling 
his farm and garden. After a few years his 
parishioners, some of whom were sharp men, 
found it not easy to pay the parish dues. A 
meeting-house had been raised, but the windows 
were not put in nor tiie pews sold, when, in 1 770, 
the town raised a committee to confer with ]Mr. 
Gay "and advise him to attend public worsliip 
more seasonably, and not employ so much of his 
time in secular employments, so as to hinder his 
studies and render him unfit and unable to per- 
form the ministerial function." It appears that the 
congregation or town was dilatory as well as the 
minister, as it was not until the November 
following that the town voted " to build pews 
in the meeting-house, "laze the hou.se and sell 
the jjews to the highest bidder." This was 
done. Among others were the following bids : 
Deacon Evans bid £"2 6,s. ; Mr. Gay, £4 ] 2.S-. ; 
Mr. Jones, £7 10s. ; Jonathan Hunt, £6 18.v. ; 
A. Hunt, £3 10s. ; O. Butler, £3 10s. ; Thomas 
Taylor, £4 lO.s. 

Thei-e was at times some dissatisfaction with 
the pastor, as was shown at a meeting when 
eighteen out of twenty-nine voted that he be 
continued in the ministry. In 1779 the salary 
\'oted was one thousand pounds in the depreci- 
ated currency of the time. Mr. Gay's connec- 
tion with the pai'ish was dissolved in 1801, but 
his ministry continued until about the time of 
his death, in 1 815, under some arrangement with 
the members of the church and congregation by 
which he was "to take what they might choose 
to give him." 

The old meeting-house erected on the sum- 
mit of what was known as Meeting-House Hill, 
on the road leading from Hinsdale village to 
Merry's MeadoM', was given to Daniel H. Rip- 
ley to be used in rebuilding his factory in the 
village, which burned down in 1840. The fac- 
tory was again destroyed by fire and was re- 
placed by the mills now owned by Haile, Frost 



HINSDALE. 



361 



& Co. Sometime before 1 840 the Congroga- 
tionalists occupied tiieir church now standing 
iu the village. 

Governor Hunt and Dr. Cyrus Wa.-hbnru, 
living on the west side of the river, and on tlie 
east, Daniel Jones, Scth Hooker and Uriel 
Evans, were members of the parish at or be- 
fore the year 1800, giving character and promi- 
nence to the town and society. 

In 1801, Rev. Mr. Gay, for the sake of peace 
and in consideration of the agreement of the 
town to pay him five hundred dollars, absolved 
the town from its covenant with him as the 
pastor, but continued to snp})ly in Hinsdale and 
Vernon, on alternate Sundays, for six years ; 
and later in Hinsdale, as before stated, preach- 
ing: until 1808 in the house first erected near 
the bank of the Connecticut River. Vernon, 
w iiere the majority of the parishioners resided, 
having become a separate town, a second church 
edifice was erected on the summit of the hill on 
the road now known as Brattleborougli Street. 
Perched on this hill, the steeple could be seen 
for miles beyond the State line in Northfield, 
and the bell, donated by Mrs. Marsh, daughter 
of Governor Hunt, could be heard on all the 
farms in southern Hinsdale and Vernon. The 
farmers, at first, were proud of their church as 
a hmdmark visible from afar ; but, having felt 
ti)(> i)urdeu of paying for it, were not disposed 
to burden themselves further with the expense 
necessary for the support of a regular preacher. 
It was, in fact, twenty-five years after the Iniild- 
ing was completed before a pastor was settled. 
This period has been described as the dark ages 
of the church iu Hinsdale. The early fathers 
had been set off to another parish, or had dis- 
appeared. The town had ceased to be a little 
community of farmers, and became a field for 
tlie missionary. 

After the construction of a road up the 
Ashuelot Valley from the old ferry below 
( 'ooper's Point, great quantities of lumber were 
iiauied to the landing to be rafted, giving 
employment to a number of raftsmen and 



lumbermen, who took up their abode 
in the town, and many boatmen were called here 
to aid in taking large boats up the rapids in the 
Connecticut, between the Ashuelot and West 
Rivers. In the first half of this century nearly 
all heavy merchandise was carried on these boats 
to the towns on or near the river-banks for 
more than a hundred miles above the State line. 
In seven miles above the landing in Hinsdale 
the river falls thirteen feet. From five to ten 
extra men were required to be taken on at Hins- 
dale to push one of these boats up the rajiids ; 
and, at certain seasons, a number of upward- 
bound boats arrived at the landing daily to 
await the arrival of the swift-water men, as they 
were called. These easy-going, hardy l)oatmen, 
and many of the lumbermen, were given to 
merry-making, drinking and fighting. Their 
influence was opposed to the church and religion, 
and they never appeared to feel the need of 
either ; and the few inhabitants who saw the 
need of both were not able to support a regular 
pastor. 

After Mr. Gay, the pulpit was unsupplied for 
some years, except by some neighboring min- 
ister occasionally, when Rev. Mr. Low and Rev\ 
Mr. Lawsou supplied for a time, followed by 
Rev. Mr. Andrews, a Baptist clergyman, for 
the five years ending in 1821. In the mean 
time a Sunday school was organized, which 
numbered eighty members. , 

The early church records having been de- 
stroyed, and the church supplied by ministers 
of different denominations, a coun(i] was held 
October 8, 1821, "to take into consideration the 
concerns of the Congregational Church iu Hins- 
dale." The council found only four male and 
five female meaibers of the original church, and 
these were reorganized under a confession of 
faith and covenant. From 1825 to 1832 the 
Home Missionary Society sent to the chiu'ch as 
supplies Rev. Mr. Griswold, Rev. ^Ir. Smith 
and Rev. Mr. Longley. Rev. Eliphalet Strong, 
a graduate of Harvard in 1824, was ordained 
May 17, 1832, over a church of fifteen mem- 



362 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



bers, which increased to fifty the next year. 
He was dismissed in 18:15, and for a time was 
confined in an insane asylum, but recovered, and 
removed to Illinois. Rev. Joseph Marsh, a 
graduate of Dartmouth in 1824, was installed 
May 2.'>, 18;15. During his ministry the church 
occupied its new edifice, erected in the village in 
1835, and forty-one were added to the church. 
He was dismissed tiie day his successor, the Rev. 
Gardner S. Brown, a graduate of Dartmouth, 
was ordained. 

Mr. Brown entered on his ministry with 
much enthusiasm. A young man, with a good 
voice, and other attractive personal c[ualities, he 
would have made an impression in any place. 
He seemed to feel sincerely what he often said 
in his pulpit with characteristic force, " Woe be 
unto me if I preach not the gospel !" At the 
outset he filled the pews with listeuers, who were 
moved and impressed with his teachings, and 
many came to the fold, while the influence of 
the church for the first time in many years be- 
came the leading influence of the town. But 
the change was not all due to the f)reacher. 
The water-powers in the Ashuelot had called 
here a number of new men and families, which 
wrought a great change in the character of the 
place. Among these were Caleb Todd, who 
first begau in this town the manufacture of 
woolen fabrics, and Pardon H. and Pliny Mer- 
rill, who constructed the canal aud imjiroved 
the upper falls. Colonel Levi Green, Jonathan 
Brown, William Ilaile, Dr. F. Boyden, Deacon 
Windsor Bowker and others, all of whom were 
business men of intelligence and character, 
young, or in the prime of life, desirous of bring- 
ing their homes under the influence that good 
schools and the church ouly can give. Besides 
these. Deacon A. kShattuck, Henry Hooker, 
William aud Lewis Taylor and others, natives 
of the town, were active members of this church. 
All those who are named above, whether natives 
or not, took active parts in the affairs of the 
society and town, speaking in the evening meet- 
ings, in which the pastor encouraged them, until 



they acquired the art of speaking well, and 
there came to be less of exhortation than debate 
or discussion, more spirited than is usual on such 
occasions. The pastor was in the habit of pre- 
siding, never hesitating to criticise a speaker, or 
to stop him if he talked too long. At one of 
these meetings the Universalist minister at- 
tempted to speak, saying, " In the pejice of God 

there is liberty " " No liberty for you, sir, 

here," roared Pastor Brown, before another word 
could lie uttered. 

The interest in religion could not, under the 
circumstances, long be confined to one society. 
Good men protested against what they called 
the insolence of the young pastor and the doc- 
trine of eternal punishment, which, they said, 
he made the principal part of his sermons aud 
creed. Talk upon religious subjects prevailed 
in stores, shops and wherever men were in the 
habit of meeting, as well as in vestry meetings. 
The result was that the Universalist Church, 
organized a few years before, and until then 
languishing, had just lived, all at once revived. 
It began its new life by expelling an original 
memljer who was alleged to have used profane 
and abusive language, and averred that "he 
joined the society to bother a brother member," 
and, gathering in many converts, it completed, 
in 1840, the edifice the church now occupies. 

At this time there was a class of men — vil- 
lagers and farmers of much influence in the 
town — who were in the habit of spending their 
evenings in the post-ofiice and stores. Some of 
these men were ([uite intelligent and sensible, 
and, withal, very good talkers. They discussed, 
iu little groups, politics, religion and local topics 
with much pleasantry, and often with a good 
deal of spirit. Among these, the man listened 
to with the most amusement was John Stearns, 
a tall, swarthy young farmer, who lived on his 
farm two miles out of the village, where the 
original Shattuck built his fort. There was no 
end to his sallies and stories, aud he could make 
sport of a loco-foco or a backslider without of- 
fending his victims. There were others like 



HINSDALE. 



363 



lim who were never found inside of ii cluircb, 
et weri' not scoffers, but sought to make the 
iiost of life with little thought of the hereafter. 
iVhen a church-member faltered, or did aught 
miss, tliey discovered and published it. This 
irobal)ly led the churches to undue vigilance. 
Vt all events, cases of discipline were very com- 
iion, and for causes which would now not be 
leemcd to warrant it. 

In the hard-cider Presidential campaign in 
840 the vestry-meetings were nearly deserted 
or the gatherings in the stores and other pulilic 
)laces, where Mr. Stearns talked to little groups 
vhich gatliered about him, laughing at his 
wlitical jokes and comments on current events, 
vhich were, perhaps, as good as the best in the 
lewspapers of the pi'esent time. 

During this campaign a controversy arose be- 
ween Caleb Todd and the church, which ended, 
f it has yet ended, only upon the death of Mr. 
fodd more than thirty years afterward. The 
Jiurch record shows that Brother Todd made 
Iiarges atjainst Deacon Windsor Bowker. At 
i hearing before the church Deacon Bowker 
nade no defense, and the church having decided 
igainst Brother Todd, and the latter having re- 
cused to abide by the decision, a council of pas- 
ors and delegates was called to consider the 
grievances between him and the church, and be- 
;ween him and Deacon Bowker. Before the 
'ouncil assembled Deacon Bowker brought 
•harges against Brother Todd, declaring "he 
lad taken the gospel steps with him and had 
■eceived no satisfaction." This matter was also 
■eferred to the council. The record shows thatan 
ecclesiastical council assembled November 3, 
1840, but what action was taken in relation to 
iny of tlie charges does not appear. But it does 
i|)[)car from the record that at a (luu-ch-meeting, 
held February- 3, 1841, charges were presented 
Igainst Caleb Todd, on which he was excom- 
iiuuiicated. What the charges were does not 
njtpear from the record, which only shows that 
charges and grievances were made or existed. 

If the charges were preserved or extended 



on the record, the real nuitiuy which led to the 
excommunication would not probably be 
disclosed. It has never been believed or sug- 
gested that the charges were for disgraceful 
conduct, or for any cause which might not be 
the result of some misunderstanding. Be that 
as it may, the excomnuiuication did not affect 
his standing as an upright citizeu whose char- 
acter and integrity were such that he would 
readily have been admitted into any church of 
the same faith, except that by which he was 
expelled. It may be that he could not yield 
to the pastor, whom he ha<l antagonized, and the 
brethren who expelled him sincerely believed 
that there could be no harmony iu the society 
while he remained. He bittei-ly complained of 
his excommunication as a personal disgrace, 
and obtained much sym]iathy in and out of tlie 
society. To the end of his life he begged to be 
taken back, but could never be brought to 
acknowledge that he had done wrong, nor 
could the brethren who expelled him; and 
both remained steadfast in the belief that they 
were right, until he died, in 1871, outside the 
pale of the church. 

The controversy after the excommunication 
continued, and it was aggravated with other 
causes of dissension. The will of James H. 
Davenport, a deceased brother, M'as contested 
bv his heirs, and the case instead of being left 
to the decision of the courts, be(>ame a subject 
of contention in the church, iu which the pastor 
became involved. The latter is reported to have 
said in his pulpit that " even the Almighty 
could not make two four, or break the will of 
man." No allusion was probably intended to 
any particular man or case, but some persons 
insinuated that the will referred to was the 
stubborn will of Caleb Todd, and others that 
it was the last will and testament of the de- 
ceased brother, that could not be broken. 
Whatever was intended, the effect under the 
circumstances, with other things, was to alienate 
both the friends of Mr. Todd and the heirs 
from the pastor and those sustainiug him. The 



364 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



M'ill-case, after one or more trials in court, was 
compromised, and the will was not broken uor 
tiie dissensions stayed. 

In 1843 about a score of members (but only 
a part of tlie disaffected) asked to be dismissed 
from the church. A committee appointed to 
visit and labor with them performed their 
duty apparently without success. Their re- 
quest not being granted, Dr. Frederick Boy- 
den and otiiers sent to the church a communica- 
tion declaring tliemselves " free and independ- 
ent of the church," and a dozen or more 
members were thereupon suspended or expelled 
and others soon after " cut off." A class of 
jNIethodists was then formed, in which a num- 
ber of those " cut off" found fellowship. 

At the next meeting of the church, action 
was taken for tlie dismission of the pastor. A 
council assembled April, Ki 1844, and, accord- 
ing to the record, it was happy " to find that 
the church and pastor, Eev. G. S. Brown, 
have from the betjinninji' been united in affec- 
tion and remained steadfast in maintaining, 
against a heavy pressure of hostile influences, 
the order and faith of the gospel;" but it 
adjudged tiiat tlic relation between the pastor 
and his people should be dissolved. 

During the ministry of Mr. Brown much 
good work was dt)ne by the minister and con- 
gregation. Although they were upon some 
things divided, the people generally did not 
suffer their differences to impair the good 
feeling which prevailed among tliem or prevent 
them from co-operating heartily in whatever 
they thought miglit improve their social or 
religious condition. Tlie children were greatly 
interested in the Sunday-school, which was well 
attended, and three times on Sundays the pastor 
preaciied, and preached well, to full pews. In 
his view, it was not the duty of a good shep- 
herd with soft words to lull his flock into dull 
contentment with their present condition so 
long as he could see higher and better jiastures 
to which they might be led, but to lead them 
gently and kindly, if he could, and rouse and 



drive them, if need be, fighting for them or 
against them, if he must ; despite his faults 
and misfortunes, his influence, upon the whole, 
was good. He had many devoted friends in 
the congregation, among whom there was, under 
him, genuine harmony and good fellowship. 

Upon his dismission he retired forever from 
the ministry. After teaching for a time in 
New York he devoted the remainder of his life 
to the practice of medicine with success, and 
was buried in Alstead, his native town. 

Rev. Moses Geroukl was installed October' 
30, 1844. His patient and fiiitiiful work in 
trying to heal the dissensii)ns in the church 
was not wholly imsuccessful. Some of the 
suspended members, at their request, were 
restored ; others, having luiited with other 
churches, were quietly dropped. The bitter- 
ness which had existed between a few members 
of the church subsided, and the strife at least 
diminished. The Universalist, Baptist and 
Methodist Churches were organized before or 
during his ministry, and by reason of the 
differences, each had received some recruits 
from the original society. The religious inter- 
est greatly increased under Mr. Gerould's 
ministry. There was improvement in the at- 
tendance upon all the church services, and in 
the numbers uniting with the several churches. 
With the building of a railroad, in 1851, 
another element, the Catholics, came to stay. 
Their church is now, and is likely to be, one of 
the principal churches in the town. To the 
end of his ministry Mr. Geroukl had the confi- 
dence and respect of all parties in every church, 
and, for his work as a pastor, a citizen and 
friend of education, he deserved the gratitude of 
the people of the town. He was dismissed Feb- 
ruary 2, 1853, and moved to Canaan, N. H. 

For two years following there was no 
settled pastor. Rev. William A. Patten sup- 
plying for a pdrt of the time. 

Rev. Moses H. Wells was installed May 1, 
1856. He is described as a most excellent 
man and faithful preacher. Ninety-one were 



HINSDALE. 



365 



added to the church during his niini.stry. At 
his own i-equest, on account of failing health, 
his people, witli much reluctance, were com- 
pelled to yield to his dismission August 31, 18(!5. 

Rev. J. S. Batchelder was installed March 
6, 1866, and continued a ministry which was 
acceptable to his people for moi'e than five 
years, until, at his request, he was dismissed, 
December 5, 1871. 

llev. C. C. Watson was settled December l."5, 
1871, and, at his request, was dismissed 
October 30, 1877. Under him the interests of 
the church and societv were carefullv guarded, 
and the influence he exerted over his people 
was salutary and elevating. He was suc- 
ceeded by the present incumbent, Rev. Henry 
H. Hamilton, a graduate of Amherst and 
Audover, who was installed March, 1878. 
The society is now in a prosperous condition. 
The church lumibers one hundred and fifty- 
three; the Sunday-school, one hundred and 
eighty-five ; the usual congregation, about three 
hundred and fifty to four hundred. The 
church edifice has recently been repaired and 
enlarged. Tlie principal audience-room con- 
tains a large organ and sittings for four hun- 
dred and fifty ; the vestry, a small organ and 
seats for two hundred and fifly. 

The First U^fiVEESALisx Church ok 
H1N8DALK was organized by Ivory Soule and 
others. At the first meeting, held Octoljer 4 
1833, Otis Doolittle was chosen moderator ' 
Pliny Smith, treasurer; Joab Davis, clei-k ' 
Henry Ide, T. J. Pierce and Arad Cooper, 
trustees. They built their meeting-house, as 
above stated, in 1840. Tlie church numl^ers 
about fifty, the congregation about one hundred 
and fifty. It has had many preachers, but 
none for a long term. The present incumbent 
is Rev. E. A. Reed. 

The IMethohist Episcopal Chtrch. — A 
class of eight members was organized in 1842, 
and in the first year was largely increased. 
The church now numbers seventy members ; 
the Sunday-school, eighty-five ; the congrega- 



tion, one to two hundred. The church, l)uilt 
iu 1875, has sittings for three hundred. The 
first minister, appointed in 1843, was Franklin 
Thurber. He was followed by Jared Perkins, 
Samuel McKeau, Charles Chase, H. M. Matter- 
son, W. H. Jones, John Hillman, A. C. Har- 
dy, Henry Dorr, Edward Bradford, A. ( '. Colt, 
F. J. Folsom and F. J. Felt. 

Bapti.st CHmcH OF Hinsdale. — A small 
Baptist society liad long existed iu the north 
pai-t of the town. The Baptist Church of 
Hiusdale was organized, or reorganized, jNIay 
3, 1873, by Lemuel Liscomb, W. A. Hortou, 
Ira Barrett, Thomas F. Dix, Zenophen Streeter, 
J. E. Randall, H. B. Streeter and others, and, 
with the aid of ^Mr. Esty, of Brattle- 
borough, soon after built tiie small brick church 
in the village. 

St. Joseph's Parish (Catholic), Rev. 
J. J. Holahan, pastor, was established in 1884. 
In this parish there are about ninety families. 
The Sunday-school numbers sixtv ; the usual 
congregation, about three huntlred. The new 
church, when fiuislicd, will accommodate four 
hundred. 



CHAPTER II. 

HINSDALE— (Cnntimied). 
Manufacturing Interests— Militarj' — Schools — Newspapers. 

Manitfactures. — In the meadows and up- 
lands in Hinsdale for nearly six miles, near and 
along Connecticut River, tliere are some lands 
of the best quality, which were occupied and 
improved by the early settlers. The town is 
one of the smallest in extent iu the State, 
including less than ten thousand acres. It 
exteuds south of the Ashuelot River about 
three miles. At the mouth of the Aslmelot it 
is less than a mile wide, and less tlian a quarter 
of a mile on the Massachusetts State line. A 
mountain range rises along the eastern border, 
extending into Winchester. The views from 
the roads on this range, with the Green Moun- 



366 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tains in the distance and the long river winding 
through many miles of the nearer meadows, are 
as beautiful and picturesque as any in the valley. 
Above the great bend in the Connecticut, and 
north of the Ashuelot, the town is from three to 
four miles in width, but a sandy plain inter- 
venes l)etweeii Merry's Meadow and the moun- 
tains (111 tiie east. There are few very good farms 
in tiie town, and only a small portion of the 
whole territory can be called good farming land. 
On the hills and plains some farms have been 
deserted and are used only for pastures or are 
left to grow up to wood. There probably 
never were more than fifty families at one time 
deriving their support from agriculture. 

By far the larger part of the population are 
maintained by the avails of their labor in the 
mills and shops of the village. More than 
sixty years ago Caleb Todd began the manufac- 
ture of woolen goods. He was succeeded by 
Dan. H. Ripley, John Todd, Governor William 
Haile and Rufus S. Frost. The business is 
now continued by Rufus S. Frost and William 
H. Haile, under the name of the Haile & Frost 
Company, manufacturers of cashmerettes and 
flannels, employing from two hundred and fifty 
to three hundred persons. C. J. Amidon & 
Son, successors of Bishop & Boyden, make the 
same kind of goods, and employ from one hun- 
dred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty. 
The Brightwood Mills, owned by George C- 
Fish, and the firm known as G. & G. A. 
Robertson, are each extensive manufacturers of 
manilla paper. The other principal manufac- 
turers are Newhall & Stebbins, makers of 
mowing-machines and lawn-mowers ; the Jen- 
nings &Griffin Manufacturing Company, chisels, 
knives and cutlery ; Holman & Merriman, ma- 
chinists ; (!. D. Merriman, iron foundry ; Hins- 
dale Machine and Tool Company, vises ; M. S. 
Leach and John W. Battles, carriages ; and John 
G. Snow and Luke Parks, boxes and wooden- 
ware. 

Schools.' — The schools of this town followed 

1 By C. P Hall. 



the old district system, and each was conducted 
\vithout reference to any other, with about the 
efficacy and support found in other towns, till 
1S77, when two of the three districts cornering 
in the village united and built a good house. 

In 1878 a town High School was organized, 
which proved a successful and important ele- 
ment in the school system. Its establishment 
made a more thorough organization in the lower 
schools a necessity, that pupils might be better 
fitted when they came to the High School, and 
during the next two years the Third District in 
the village was united with the other two, and 
tiie schools were thoroughly graded into two 
primary, two secondary and one grammar. 

In 1884 the districts were abolished and the 
town system adopted in their place, so that now 
the outer schools are put on a par with those in 
the village, and hence the system is made more 
efficient than it could be under tlie old arrange- 
ment. This town was the first in this county 
to adopt this system, whicii the last Legislature 
has made universal throughout the State. 

Military.^ — -The military spirit of this 
town responded promptly to the attack upon 
the government in 1861, and on the 11th of 
May the people voted to raise fifteen hundred 
dollars to fit out volunteers and care for their 
families. Already her sons were aroused, and 
some of them enlisted in the Second New 
Hampshire and other regiments. Other meet- 
ings followed, at whicii the people showed their 
interest in having the Rebellion put down by 
their readiness to care for and aid those who 
were willing to risk their lives in doing it. 

On the 9th of August, 1862, immediately 
following the call for three hundred thousand 
men, the town voted to pay a bounty of two 
hundred dollars to all who would enlist under 
that call, and to raise eight thousand dollars to 
meet the expense, thinking that the quota of the 
town was about forty. It was soon learned 
that the quota was only twenty. In the mean 
time the forty had enlisted, thirty-seven of 

2 By C. P. Hall. 




1^ //C-^^'^^^<^^/i^- 



'-o-U 




^2^^u^ 



HINSDALE. 



367 



them in one day. Then came the questions, 
"Who shall go?" "Shall the whole bounty 
hf paid ? " 

Many of the soldier boys had enlisted to go 
together, and said so in words not to be misun- 
derstodd. After a somewiiat heated discussion 
of the questions at issue for a few days, wiser 
counsels prevailed, and it was voted to ])ay the 
bounty to all who had enlisted. This satisfied 
the boys and proved the best course tor the 
town in every way, for the extra men were set 
down to the credit of the town when it was not 
so easy to get men. Here, as throughout the 
North, the pulse of patriotism beat with a flush 
of fever during these days of a nation's peril. 

In October seven thousand three hundred 
and fifty ddllars was i-aised to aid the families 
of soldiers, and in the ^larcli following two 
thousand dollars ; and this aid continued to the 
close of the war. In the fall of I860 the town 
voted a bounty of three hundred dollars to any 
who \\ere mustered into the service of the na- 
tion. 

The whole number of men enlisted from 
this town is eighty-nine, who served in the 
following regiments: Fourteenth New Hamp- 
shire, 4l^ ; Eighteenth New Hampshire, 9 ; 
First United States Sharpshooters, 6 ; Fifth 
New Hampshire, 5 ; Second New Hampshire, 
3 ; Sixth New Hampshire, First New Hamp- 
shire Cavalry and Eighth Vei'mont, each 2 ; 
Third New Hampshire, Second Vermont, 
Fourth Vermont, Ninth Vermont, Tenth Mas- 
sachusetts, Twenty-seventh Massachusetts, Sev- 
enty-ninth New York, Eighth Louisiana, Sev- 
inleenth United States Infantry and the Navy, 
1 each ; and in unknown resiments, <:>. 

Newspapers. — The Star-Spangled Banner 
was established here by Hunter & Co. in 1863, 
and was published until April, 18X."). 

The Prof/rcss was started in 1884, and dis- 
continued in 1885. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



WILLIAM ILVILE. 

William Haile, son of John and Eunice 
(Henry) Haile, was born in Putney, Vt., in 
May, 1807. 

In 1821 the family moved to Chesterfield, 
N. H., where the sou attended school till he 
was sixteen years of age, when he entered the 
store of Ezekiel Pierce as a clerk. At the age 
of twenty-one, having borrowed a small sum of 
money, he opened on his own account a stoi'e in 
the Centre village of Chesterfield. Here he 
carried on business for the next seven years 
with success. 

While the population and trade of the town 
were continually dimmishing, his own irade 
constantly increased. In 1 834, with the little 
capital he had accumulated and a credit which 
greatly exceeded his capital in money, he opened 
a general country store in Hinsdale, in which 
he remained for the next fifteen years. His 
mercantile business in such a small village and 
trade centre was necessarily limited, but it is 
safe to say that few men in the same circum- 
stances and conditions could have accomplished 
more. He possessed qualities which in a mer- 
chant almost insure success and gave him credit 
which was not dependent on his possessions. 
With his strong personal attractions, his train- 
ing and natural aptitude for trade, his honesty 
and untiring devotion to business, it is not 
strange that he succeeded and prospered finan- 
cially in all his undertakings. From 1847 till 
his death he was actively engaged in the manu- 
facture of cashmerettes, repellents, flannels and 
other goods in Hinsdale, having for his part- 
ners at different times Caleb Todd, Daniel H. 
Ripley, John D. Todd and Rufus S, Frost. 
He was also interested in other enterprises and 
was an efficient ofBcer in various local institu- 
tions. He took an active and prominent part 
in church affairs and was a member of a number 
of the principal benevolent societies. Though ex- 
tensively engaged in business, he took a promi- 



3(i8 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



nent part in political affairs. With the exception 
of two years, he represented Hinsdale in the State 
Legislature from 1840 to 1854 ; was elected to 
the New Hampshire Senate in 1854-55, of 
which liody lie was also president the latter 
year, and was again elected Representative in 
1856. The next year he was elected Governor, 
to which office he was re-elected in 1858. He 
was the first Governor of the State elected by 
the Republican party. 

In 187.'j he removed from Hinsdale to 
Keene, where he had built a fine residence. He 
did not cease, however, to talce an active part in 
business till his death, which occurred July '22, 
1876. 



FREDERIC BOYDEN, M.D.^ 

The life-record of a physician, however dis- 
tinguished, is at best imperfect and fragmentary. 
The best years of manhood are spent in the 
practice of a laborious profession, among a 
limited circle of friends and patrons, and his 
fame and memory are often embodied in the 
simple but impressive words, " the beloved 
physician." It is only now and then that a 
physician like him whose virtues we commemo- 
rate, by his long residence, by his talents and 
integrity, by his individuality and strong points 
of character, comes to be regarded as a promi- 
nent man in the community, not only within 
but outside (jf his profession, and his loss to 
be widely and dcei)]y felt. 

Frederic Boyden was born at Deerficld, 
Mass., in the year 1810, and was therefore 
sixty-one years of age at the time of his death, 
which occurred November 11, 1871. An 
accident in early life prevented him from eu- 
srascins: in asriculture or mechanic arts and 
caused him to turn to the more thoughtful pur- 
suits of the student and scholar. 

Having selected the profession of medicine, 
he studied the prescribed time, and took his 
diploma at the Medical School of Harvard 



1 By W. S. Leonard, M.D. 



University, then, as now, one of the first and 
best New England medical colleges. He 
located in Hinsdale, and commenced practice 
about fifty years ago. For a (piarter of a cen- 
tury he was the only physician permanently 
located in town; other doctors came and went 
away, some of them remaining for a year or 
two, but he had no competitor for any length 
of time. The requirements and the standard of 
medical education have changed much in the 
last third of a century, yet there can be no 
question but Dr. Boyden stood in the front 
rank among physicians of the time as a sound, 
well-read, self-reliant and skillful ]M-actitioner. 
In the best and busiest 3'ears of his practice he 
was associated more or less intimately with such 
men as the elder Dr. Twitchell, at that day one 
of the first physicians and surgeons in New 
England, also with Dr. Adams, of Keene, a 
physician of much eminence and skill. The co- 
temporary of such physicians, Dr. Boyden, in 
addition to his extensive knowledge, doubtless 
gained something from the great stores of ex- 
perience garnered up by these eminent men. 

Dr. Boyden was considered to have special 
skill in what is technically called diagnosis, or 
" the art of distinguishing one disease from an- 
other," and in prognosis, the judging of tlie 
progress and termination of disease by symp- 
toms. In these departments his judguient was 
particularly good. It has been said of him that 
it was very rare fi)r a patient to recover when 
the doctor had pronounced the case hoj)eless, 
and on the other hand, a favorable opinion from 
him, as to the chances of recovery in a seem- 
ingly desperate case, gave encouragement and 
hope alike to patient and friends. 

It was thought the doctor had unusual suc- 
cess in the treatment of acute inflammatory 
diseases, in typhoid fever, as it prevails in the 
Connecticut and ^Vshuelot Valleys in autumn, 
in pneumonia and lung affections generally^ 
TJie tj'pe and character of the same disease 
varies much in different sections of the country, 
and even in different localities in the same State, 




^^. 




HINSDALE. 



369 



but Dr. Boyden, by liis long expi'rieuce and 
oliservatiou, understood perfectly every pha.se 
of the acute diseases which visit the Ashuelot 
Valley, and knew how to combat them. So far 
as the minor " ills which flesh is heir to " were 
concerned, the aches and pains which are un- 
comfortable but not dangerous, the doctor 
(especially in the later years of his practice) 
rather avoided the treatment of these. He did 
not want anything to do with them, but left 
them to be treated by younger and more en- 
thusiastic practitioners, who needc<l the ex- 
perience more than he ; l)ut in severe cases, 
wiiere life and death were balanced almost 
equally in the scale, here he was at home. He 
put his whole miud and energy upon the case, 
he selected his remedies with care, he gave his 
directions with precision, and he expected these 
to be followed out to the letter. It was in such 
emergencies that his skill and judgment were 
most clearly seen. 

Of all quacks, delusions and shams, of fancy 
practitioners who put on the livery of the 
regular physician to serve the purposes of em- 
piricism. Dr. Boyden had a wholesome ab- 
horrence. He would not fellowship with them, 
and bv his practice and his influence he did all 
in his power to put down ignorant pretenders, 
vet no man was ever more free from a desire to 
have the reputation of making great cures than 
he. Like Dr. Biglow, he recognized the 
wonderful recuj^erative power of " nature in 
disease." He was never a great medicine-giver, 
but aimed in his treatment to assist nature 
rather than to drown out the ailment by heroic 
doses of drugs. 

Had the doctor given his whole attention to 
the profession of medicine he would undoubt- 
edly have ranked among the first physicians of 
the State, and as it was, tliough gradually be- 
coming more and more absoi'bed in otiier pur- 
suits, as the years went by, and reading com- 
paratively little of modern medical literature 
it was surprising to see how fresh he was upon 
all points, and how he frequently wrought out 

24 



in his own mind new methods and plans of 
treatment, which he could by no possibility have 
read in the books, and still were almost identi- 
cal with the latest and best modern authorities. 
Within three or four years of his death the 
doctor withdrew from the active duties of the 
profession, retaining only his consultation 
practice, and devoted himself more exclusively 
to his business as a manufacturer; yet lie re- 
tained to the last his interest in medicine as a 
science, and in the rational treatment of disease. 
It must be not very far from forty years 
since Dr. Boyden made his first venture in 
business, outside of his profession as a physician. 
We learn that he was associated for short 
periods with several individuals, but his career 
as a manufacturer will perhaps date from the 
time when he formed a partnership with the 
late Sylvester Bishop, and carried on the manu- 
facture of cashmerett goods in a limited way, in 
a small building near the site of Amidon's 
factory. 

Mr. Bishop was a man of untiring industry 
and perseverance, conjoined to a remarkable up- 
rightness and probity of character. With- 
out doubt, there were seasons of discouragement 
to this firm, and the " hard times " pressed 
heavily upon them occasionally, as it does upon 
larger corporations ; yet this partnership con- 
tinued without interruption up to the date of 
Mr. Bishop's death, in LS64,— C. J. Amidon 
having previously been admitted as a partner 
in the firm, so that the business continued under 
the name of Boyden & Amidon, As a busi- 
ness man the doctor was promj)t and energetic, 
bringing to bear upon the minutia; of business 
transactions the same nervous energy which 
characterized his actions in everything else. 
He was a rigid economist, looking carefully 
after the details of his business personally 
rather than trusting this to others. It is a 
gratifying fact that he was successful pecuniarily, 
amassing a handsome fortune, and that he came 
to be regarded as a good manufacturer as well 
as a successful physician. 



370 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Dr. Boyden ever took a great interest in 
politics. He was first, last and always a Demo- 
crat. At a time when men were changing their 
political views for the sake of office or emoln- 
ment, the doctor stood firm as a rock by his 
original creed. He was not illiberal nor an 
extremist, unless we count it illiberal and ex- 
treme for a man to stand up boldly and fear- 
lessly for what he deemed the right, whether in 
religion or politics. He was one of the ac- 
knowledged leaders of bis party, not only in his 
own town, but in this part of Cheshire County ; 
he served as jwstmaster imder two or three 
Democratic administrations, the last time for 
four years under James Buchanan. He also 
represented the district in the Senate of New 
Hampshire a nundjer of years ago. Irrespec- 
tive of party, he at one time or another filled 
almost all the offices within the gift of the town, 
and was ever considered a most able and effi- 
cient town officer, and those who diffi^red most 
from him politically could but admire the sin- 
cerity of his convictions and the steadfastness 
of his faith in his own party. 

He became a member of the Masonic frater- 
nity about twenty-eight years ago, joining the 
Philesian Lodge, at Winchester, in company 
with several of his fellow-townsmen. He was 
one of the founders of the Golden Rule Lodge, 
in Hinsdale, and signed the petitions for a 
charter. He ever took a deep interest in 
Masonry, and especially in the jjrosperity of 
the lodge which he had helped to establish, and 
though declining all offices of honor and trust, 
yet there was no post within the gift of his 
brethren which he might not have received if 
he would have consented to accept promotion. 

Dr. Boyden was thrice married. His first 
wife was Charlotte Stearns, daughter of Walter 
Stearns. She died September 6, 1848, aged 
twenty-nine years. His second wife was Julia 
K. Merrill, daughter of Pardon Merrill, an old 
resident and much esteemed citizen. The fruit 
of this union was one son, Freddy, who died in 
infancy. Juliadied April 1, 1854, aged twenty- 



six years. His third wife was Delia H. Taylor, 
daughter of William Taylor, Esq., whom he 
married May 1, 1856. They had three chil- 
dren, — Ida Louise, James Everett and Alice. 
The two last-named died in infancy. Ida mar- 
ried, September 11, 1877, Eobert W. Day, a 
prominent citizen of Springfield, Mass., and a 
member of the widely-known firm of The 
Morgan Envelope Company. They have two 
living children, — Pauline Boyden and Robert 
Frederic ; another daughter, Alice Louise, died 
in infancy. After the death of her husband, 
Mrs. Boyden removed to Springfield, Mass., 
where she now resides. 

In social life Dr. Boyden was remarkably 
genial and fond of mirth. He enjoyed a joke 
and a gdod story, and knew how to tell one 
effectively. There were those who thought him 
reserved and austere in manner, a few people 
who feared him, but it was because they did 
not know him well, for und(>rneath a manner a 
little abrupt, the result of a peculiar nervous 
temperament, he possessed a genial disposition 
and a kindly heart : 

"For the lives that look so cold, 
If their stories could be told, 
Would seem cast in gentler mold, 
Would seem full of love and s])ring." 

The doctor never seemed to grow old. He 
was alike the companion of old and young men, 
adapting himself with equal facility to either, 
but remaining young and fresh in all his feel- 
ings and sympathies to the last. It is needless 
to speak of his integrity of character, of his un- 
swerving honesty, of his honorable and upright 
dealing with his fellow-men, of his great per- 
sonal influence for good in the comnuinily, ever 
increasing as the years rolled by. In the good 
life which he lived was embodied his religion, — 
a religion en)inently vital and practical, a re- 
ligion above all creeds and dogmas : 

" For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, 
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 

In the summing up of a character .so rounded 




^'U^lyAJl.FlUcl-l' 




■£ yff^e^w^c 



HINSDALE. 



371 



and perfected by the virtues of an honorable 
and useful life, we can exclaim with truth that 

"The elements 
So mixed in him that Nature miglit stand up 
And say to all tlie world, This was a man." 



GEOr!( i !■; liOnKRTSON.' 

The Robert.son family is of Scotch descent- 
The fatiier, William Robertson, was born in 
Lasswade, Scotland, July 21, 179;5. Little or 
nothing of Ids early life is known except that 
he served as an apprentice at tlie trade of a 
paper-maker for seven years, accordinj;' to the 
old custom. He married Christenna Ross, of 
Edinburgh, February 1-1, 1817, and in 1818 or 
1819 emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, wherehe 
resided about two years, working at his trade 
very likely, and then removed to Plartford, 
Conn., living there till the autumn of 182;5, 
when he removed to Putney, Vt., engaging in 
the manufacture of paper in that little Vermont 
town, and this was his home for most of the 
years following until, in his old age, he moved to 
Hinsdale, N. H., with his good wife, where they 
passed their declining years near the home of 
one of their sons. They are remeud)ered by tlie 
present generation as most charming old people, 
whom age failed to render morose or querulous, 
enjoying the society of the young, — retaining 
always the Scotch dialect and the sturdy virtues 
of their Scotch lineage. Mrs. Robertson par- 
ticularly was one of the most delightful old 
ladies we ever recollect to have seen, — so brisk, so 
cheery and .sympathetic, so fresh and young was 
she in all her feelings and impulses to the last. 
Seven children were the fruit of this union, viz.: 
Ann, Marion E., George, John, Jean X., Edwin 
R. and Christenna C. It is not our purpose to 
follow the fortunes of each of these descendants 
more than to say that they have all filled bravely 
and well their positions of duty in the world 
and preserved the honored name of Robertson 

'By W. S. Leonard, M. D. 



intact from dishonor, — worthy descendants of 
an honored father and mother; but we desire to 
put on record a brief sketch of one of the sons, 
George Robertson, whose portrait appears in this 
history and who pas.sed many years of a success- 
ful and honorable business life in Hinsdale. 

George Robertson was born in Hartford, 
Conn., April 19,18-22. The family moved to 
Putney, Vt., when he was less than two years 
of age. His boyhood and early lile were un- 
marked by any uuusual events. The common 
schools of the ])eriod were brief and the oppor- 
tunities of ac({uiring an education were very 
limited, and Mr. Robertson was wont to regret 
that better opportunities were not afforded him 
for acquiring an education ; as a young man, he 
was full of life and energy, fond of athletic 
sports, mirthful and endowed with a fair share 
of true Scotch grit and pluck. At an early age 
he began to work in his father's pa])er-mill with 
his brothers, so that he may almost be said to 
have been a papei'-maker from the cradle U) the 
grave. 

Before the older boys, (icorge and John, were 
of age the father removed tempoi-arily to Co- 
hoes, N. Y.,and leased a paper-mill there; after 
a .short time, not .satisfied with tin; outlook, he 
proposed to the sons that they should return to 
Putney, that he would re-buy the paper-mill 
there, give the young men their time, as was the 
fashion in those days, and transfer t(^ them the 
whole charge of the mill, under the firm-name 
of George & John Robertson. This was ac- 
cordingly done, and the young men, not yet hav- 
ing attained their majority, went into business 
for themselves, and it is proof of the foresight 
and sagacity of their father that this firm con- 
tinued undisturbed for many years, and to-day 
John Robertson, the younger of the two sons, 
owns the same paper-mill. George Robertson 
moved to Hinsdale in 1 849, but continued to be 
in partnership with his brother John at Putney 
until 1850, and his brother was in like manner 
a partner with him in the paper industry which 
George built up at Hinsdale. 



372 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



On locating in Hinsdale, Mr. Robertson 
bought, in company with others, a paper-mill 
which had been built by Thomas & Cutting in 
1845, and at once commenced the manufacture of 
paper. This was destroyed by fire in 1851. 
He immediately rebuilt and resumed bu:?iness ; 
again, in 1 8(58, a desti'uctive fire consumed the 
mill and machinery. After an interval he put 
up another mill and had it in working order in 
1865, but in 1881 an accident almost as serious 
as a conflagration overtook the firm ; by the 
bursting of what is colled a rotary bleach the 
mill and a large portion of the machinery were 
laid in ruins. Such a series of misfortunes, 
which would have driven to despair many a 
brave man, had no effect to dishearten Mr. Rob- 
ertson. He knew no such word as fail. He 
commenced to rebuild at once, although it was 
late in the autumn, and the next spring found 
him ready for business again with a better mill 
and more extensive machinery than ever before; 
so that, whereas in the early years of his business 
he could manufacture only about eight hundred 
and fifty jjounds of paper a day, he could now, 
in 1882, turn out from four to five thous- 
and pounds in the same length of time. 
But this stout-hearted man of such indomita- 
ble energy and perseverance, who had the 
iron will and steadfastness of purpose to build 
up time and again a new business out of the 
ruins of the old, was overtaken at last by a 
most grave and lamentable accident, which ended 
his life in the midst of its best and busiest 
years. Two of his sons were building a new 
paper-mill on the Ash uelot River, in the town of 
Winchester three miles above. On the after- 
noon of the 24th of May, 1882, he rode up to 
the site of the new works in process of erection, 
and while talking with his son, by some strange 
mishap, a huge derrick fell, and in its down- 
ward course struck him upon the head, fractur- 
ing the skull and causing injuries from which 
death ensued in a short time. 

So passed away, in the full maturity of his 
life, with strength unabated and the prospect of 



many years of usefulness in store for him, a man 
who for thirty-one years had pursued an honorable 
and upright business career in Hinsdale and 
won for himself a high position in all the re- 
lations of life. In glancing at his life record 
and the various accidents and casualties therein 
recorded, one might naturally get a wrong im- 
pression of the every-day life of this good man 
and prominent citizen. The misfortunes which 
occasionally overtook him were, after all, mere 
specks in the pathway of a successful career, so 
speedily did he rise above them, and there came 
to liini in the intervals many years of uninter- 
rupted business prosperity and happiness. He 
was exceedingly happy in his family relations. 
He married, May 13, 1844, Abigail "Wyman, 
of Jamaica, Vt., and the union was blest with 
six children ; two sons died in early childhood, 
and four arc living, viz.: Frank W., George 
A., Edwin C. and Orren C, all of whom are 
married and follow the profession of their 
father. 

In reviewing the salient points in Mr. Rob- 
ertson's character we are impressed, first of all, 
with his intense energy, his grit, pluck and per- 
severance under difficulties. His life in this re- 
spect conveys an important lesson to all those 
who are disposed to give up and fold their 
hands because fortune seems against them. Ob- 
stacles and hindrances only made him put forth 
the more determined efforts to overcome them, 
and his success should be a means of inspiration 
to all young men who are compelled to be the 
architects of their own fortunes. Mr. Robert- 
son was ever a public-spirited man ; anything 
that was for the public good always received 
his cordial approval and aid ; without seeking 
office, he at one time or another filled many im- 
portant posts within the gift of the town. He 
was a member of the Masonic fraternity and 
prominent in the councils of Golden Rule 
Lodge. In politics he was originally a Whig ; 
but when the ^^•ave of Know-Nothingism swept 
over New England, the sturdy Scotch instincts 
which he inherited from his ancestors could ill 



HINSDALE. 



3Y3 



brook tlie dooma that a man niiist he horn in 
any particular country in order to be of good 
stanchng in a party, and he sundered tlie (jld tie?; 
and united with the Democratic party, to which 
he adhered as long as he lived. 

He was a generous man, kind to tiie pnor and 
(>v('r ready to give to any benevolent object; his 
sympathies were easily enlisted and he never 
stopped to measure the length of his purse when 
any worthy enterprise called for aid. fSaid he to 
a gentleman who solicited a subscription for 
some meritorious project, " Put me down for 
such a sum as you think I ought to pay." 

Two or three instances have come to light 
when Mr. Robertson assisted worthy young 
men who were struggling to get a start in life, 
simply because he saw that they were woi-thy 
and needed aid, and in every case this assistance 
on his jjart was the means of insuring success 
in after-life to these young men, who remembered 
his timely generosity with gratitude. 

We have alluded elsewhere to tlic liapjiy 
family relations of Mr. Robertson ; lie was a 
devoted husband and a loving father. 

There seemed to be a community (jf interests 
one toward another, and a great unanimity in all 
that pertained to home happiness and domestic 
comfort. To his sons he was at once father, 
counselor, companion and friend, — entering into 
all their projects with tlie enthusiasm and interest 
of an elder brother, tempering the impulsive- 
ness of vouth with his mature ind<::mcnt and 
discretion. 

He was an active member of the Congrega- 
tional Church and Society for several years be- 
fore liis death, and his piety was of that practii^al 
kind which found its best expression in works. 
His pastor. Rev. H. H. Hamilton, says of liim : 
" He was for five years superintendent of the 
Sunday-school, and under his administration it 
was very successful. He was greatly interested 
in the children and had a way of gaining their 
affections. To his pa.stor he was loyal and a 
kind personal friend. As a Christian, he was 
positive in his convictions and an earnest seeker 



after truth. Religious experience to him was a 
reality ; his faith was strong and he was never 
troubled with doubts. He was converted late 
in life ; but the change was real, the work thor- 
ough; no one justly doubted the reality of the 
change or questioned his sincerity. We all 
mourn the loss of a large-hearted Christian man." 

And yet another personal friend puts on record 
these words : " With him honor and probity 
were garments for every -day wear ; his religious 
convictions, never unduly obtrusive, were not 
for Sunday ministration alone, but were his 
companions in the routine work and details of a 
busy life. His broad charity of thought was 
proverbial. He was ever ready to cast its mantle 
over the shortcomings of others. In practical 
every-day life he thus illustrated his entire sin- 
cerity and belief in the religion he professed." 

It is an incident often mentioned in these 
later years that the be;iutiful poem entitled 
"Over the River," by Nancy A. W. Priest, 
afterwards Mrs. Wakefield, was written by her 
in the summer of 1S.')7, while an employe in 
the mill of George Robertson. This exquisite 
gem of poesy has found its way into many hearts 
all over the world, and given the writer, whose 
early death we have never ceased to deplore, an 
enduring; fame in the annals of American litera- 
tvire. 

We know not how we can more appropriately 
close this life-sketch than by quoting the con- 
cluding lines of another lyric by the same 
author, less famous, it is true, and not even found 
in the published volume of her poems, but 
nevei'tlieless bearing the impress of a genuine 
poet. These seem pertinent to the close of the 
good life we have attempted to portray, and are, 
at once, a solace and a benediction, — 

"And I thought it were pleasant and sweet to die, 

To pass from this world of care and strife, 
To close on its sorrows my glazing eyes, 

To open again on a better life. 
And when we shall bow to the common fate. 

May we find that the life-paths our feet have trod, 
Lead up to the shining, pearly gates 

Of the city whose builder and head is God." 



374 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



JOHN STEARNS.' 

In preparing a brief biographical notice of one 
of Hinsdale's oldest and most widely known 
citizens, whose portrait accompanies this sketch, 
it is proper to refer briefly to the genealogy of 
the Stearns family. It appears that Nathaniel 
Stearns, the grandfather, came from Hebron, 
Conn., and is supposed to have settled for a 
time in Northfield, Mass., and then removed to 
what is now Hinsdale. The first notice of him 
in the old town records is in 1774, where he is 
termed Lieutenant Stearns, and there is a record 
of his marriage to Dorcas Sanger, January 4th 
of that year. Walter, his eldest son, was liorn 
in the latter part of the same year, being the 
oldest often children. 

He married Thena Shattuck in August, 1797. 
And just here it is pertinent to trace out the re- 
mote ancestry of the Shattuck family, in order 
to show that the farm owned and occupied for 
so many years by John Stearns came down in a 
dii'ect line of descent by way of the Shattuck 
race. 

Daniel Shattuck located in Merrv's Meadow 
in ITM). He built a fort on both sides of the 
little brook where now stands the large barn 
liuilt by John Stearns. This fort was assaulted 
and partly burned by the Indians in 1746. 
Daniel Shattuck had a son Daniel born in 1727. 
He was a soldier at Fort Dummer in 1756 and 
afterwards captain of a company at the battle of 
Stillwater in 1777. He died in 1809. This 
Daniel Shattuck had two wives, — Mary, daugh- 
ter of Stejihen Smith, of Sunderland, Mass., 
and for his .second wife, Lucy, widow of Martin 
Smith, of Amherst, Mass. He hod seven chil- 
dren, among them a son named Makepeace, who 
married Lydia Grandy, and the last-named 
were the parents of Thena Shattuck, the wife of 
Walter Stearns. 

Walter Stearns was a resident of Hinsdale all 
his life, with the exception of seven years, from 
1801 to 1808, when he resided in Dover, Vt. 



'By W. 8. Leonard. 



He reared a family of thirteen children, namely : 
Fanny, Roxie, John, Emily, Rhoda, Elliot, 
Maria, Gracia, Nathaniel, Horace, Walter, 
Mary and Charlotte. 

Of this great family there remains now only 
Maria, formerly wife of the late Dayid Blancli- 
ard and later wife of the late Kimball C. Wor- 
den. She at present resides on Canal Street. 

Only two of the sons settled in town, Elliot, 
a farmer and for many years a prominent and 
highly-esteemed citizen, and John, the subject 
of this sketch. John Stearns was born in Hins- 
dale, August 10, 1801. Of his early life we 
can record little beyond the fact that he was 
reared a farmer, with the limited educational 
advantages which were the lot of farmer boys 
of that period ; but what he lacked in book 
knowledge he made up in tact, keen observa- 
tion and good judgment. 

On February 25, 1825, he was united in mar- 
riage to Esther Webster, of Northfield, Ma.ss., 
a most estimable woman and a connection of Noah 
Webster, of dictionary fame. It is most fitting 
that we trace his career from the time that he 
assumed the management and ownership of the 
large and productive farm which, until his time, 
had been in the hands of the Shattuck family, 
and which he bought and where he resided for 
more than half a century. Besides being a 
good farmer, he early turned his attention spe- 
cially to dealing in horses and cattle, and became 
widely known all through Northern New Eng- 
land as a shrewd and successful buyer and trader 
He also dealt more or less in real estate, being 
one of the owners, with John Ray, of the old 
Americfin House, at Brattleborough, and the 
Ashuelot Hou.se, at Hinsdale, was more than 
once his property. He may be said literally to 
have carved out his own fortune, and ere he 
had reached middle life he had amassed a hand- 
some property and was accounted one of the 
solid men of the to^\n. In his day he wielded 
great influence in town afi^airs, and though never 
accepting any public office, yet he exercised a 
controlling jjower over all important measures. 



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It was a sotirc'u of gnitifioatioii tn liiiii in liisoUl 
ago to c'oiMjwrc tlio Hinsdale of fifty yoai's ago, 
tlicn a small Iiaiiiiot with a few scattered houses, 
witli (ho iliiisdalo of to-ilay, an enterprising, 
thriving village, with its tasteful residences, 
prosperous manufactories and material wealth 
and prosperity, and to feel that he had contrih- 
uted not a little toward making the town what 
it is l>y his good judgment and far-sightetl pru- 
dence and sagacity. In private life Mv. Stearns 
was a most genial c(>m|ianion, hearty, mirthful 
and given to hospilaiily. There is some subtle 
inlluence which imliucs I hose men niio possess 
broad acres, large barns and luxuriant meadow 
lands, who deal much and largely in horses and 
lilt cattle, wideh tends to make them g(!nial and 
overflowing with hospitality. For many years 
"Uncle John" and his good wife dispensed a 
gold<>n hospitality at the old Stearns homestead, 
making their home a true New England home 
in tiic most ample sense, and it is sad to think 
how fast these suiuiy luimes are disa[)pearing 
from our country hill-sides and valleys, and 
(hat the stiu'dy virtues and generous, hospitable 
manners, of which these good people were tiie 
types, are gradually fading out of oni- Anieri- 
ean life. 

Mr. Stearns had a keen |)erccption of wit and 
humor, enjoyed a good Joke or a laughable 
story and couM iiimself (ell one on oc(!asion. 
()fthis iiiculty the inlirmities of age never bereft 
him, and many of his witty savings and iiits of 
(juict satire and humor will loiij; be reineniber- 
ed among the local traditions of tiie town. 

Ilnclc John was not unmindful of tiie S(a'ip- 
liiral injunction to iiK'reascand miilti|>ly and re- 
plenish the eardi. A tiunily of eight children 
was born (o him, vi/. : Jane R., Elvira, Dwight 
\V., Janode, h'ranklin, Newton, Charles and 
I'^llcn. All of tliciii uro. living; all have fiimi- 
lies of their own and occupy honorable and use- 
I'lll positions in life. In the siimiiicr of I.STS 
the family circle was i>rokeii by the death of | 
the mother, Mrs. Stearns, who passed away, 
al'ler a lingering illne.ss, at the ripe age of sev- 



enty-nine years, — a noble woman, who embodied 
in herself the hou.sehold virtues of patience and 
unvarying kindness, and who was univensally 
respected and beloved by all who know her. 

'I'Ik' death of this iiiithful and devoted help- 
mates had a profound eflect upon Mr. Steams. 
It was a rending asunder the ties which bound 
him to this world. Already an old man, he 
gradually withdrew more and more from (he 
world withoiK, and for (he last year or two of 
his lil'c rarely left (he old homestead. His iinal 
sickness lasted only a few hours. lie died 
on December 2, 1884, i|uietly and peacefully, 
under tlie roof that had sheltered him so many 
years, surroundeil iiy his <;hildren and friends. 

This sketch woulil beincomphste if wcs should 
neglect to menlion some ol'the cotemporaries of 
John Stearns, — men who wvw more or less as- 
sociated with him in town alliiirs and whose loss 
liinsdalo has been (salle<l to mourn within the 
last fifteen or tw<'iily years. 

First of all, there was William Haile, a na- 
tive of Chesterfield, coming hero a young man, 
first a morchant and la(<'r in life a sucecssfid 
inannlaclnri'r. The (own honored him, and " 
honored itself the more, i)y sending liim many 
times as its representative to the General < 'oiirt. 
The Senatorial I)isti'i('t pressed upon him (he 
()lliee of S(;ile Si'iiator, and ihe State twice be- 
stow<'<l upon him (he highest honor within its 
gift, in electing him its ( iovernor. ( )iic of the , 
most |)olislied and dignified presiding ollicers in 
(he Slale, and as a cidzeii idcnlilied with all Ihe 
interests of the town for many years, Hinsdale 
prondiv claims him as her own, though the last 
years of his life were jiassod in a neighboring 
<'ity. 

" And to add fireiitcr lionora to IiIh age 
Tlimi niiiii could give him, 
lie died, fearing God." 

Next wo may mention I )i'. I''rederic IJoydcn, 
the docloi- yyro' ('.rceUciire for about a third oi'a 
cenlnry, later in life a successful mill-owner and 
manufacturer, but re(aining his love for his 
chosen profession all his life long, — a man great- 



374 b 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HA3IPSHIRE. 



ly honored and beloved, and whose death, in the 
full maturity of his mental vigor and in the 
midst of his usefulness, we have never ceased 
to deplore. 

Caleb Todd, prominentlv connected with 
town affairs for many years, a man of unusual 
personal presence, honest and firm in his opin- 
ions and beliefs, even though they leaned toward 
the unpopular side ; who believed that minori- 
ties were always in the right and majorities al- 
ways in the wrong, — a stately old gentleman, 
as we remember him, who, by common consent, 
was calle<l by the old-time title of " the 'Squire." 
Jonathan Browne, whom the young men of 
this generation recollect as a man of quiet man- 
ner, moderate in speech and dignified in move- 
ment, who in hLs time had much to do in shap- 
ing the affairs and guarding the interests of the 
town. 

Sylvester Bishop, the manufacturer, a man 
of incorruptible integrity and honesty. 

Elihu Stebbias, the courtefjus gentleman, who 
was als<j a power in town matters in his day 
and held many positions of trust, which he fill- 
ed with fidelity and acceptance. 

Oliver Adams, who beneath a rough exterior 
concealed a heart as soft as a woman's, and po«- ; 
sessed a fund of g<X)d, sound common sense and 
integrity, which the young men of to-day would 
do well to seek after. A farmer, and a good 
&rmer, before the days of agricultural colleges, 
mowing-machines or fancy fertilizers ; he knew 
how to make farming pay, and he did it by 
steady, persistent industry. 

John Stearns outlived all these prominent 
men whom we have briefly mentioned. It was 
pleasant to hear him in his old age speak of 
thfjse his associates, and, with a touch of his old 
humor, recount anecdotes of their peculiarities 
as well as their excellent traits. But there were 
two whose span of life was lengthened out even 
beyond Mr. Steams, and whose deaths occurred , 
within the limits of 188-5, the year just closed, 
who are worthy of mention in the catalogue of 
Hinsdale's influential men of a past generation; 
we refer, of course, to Henry Hojker and Lewis 
Taylor. 

Henry Hooker was Hinsdale's oldest citizen, 
being ninety-three years and eight months old 



at the time of his death, a descendant of Rev. 
Thomas Ho<3ker, the first pastor of Cambridge, 
Mass., and a grandson of Rev. John Hooker, 
of Northampton. On his mother's side a grand- 
sou of Rev. Bunker Gay, the first minister of 
Hinstlale. At ninety, erect and vigorous, a 
gentleman of the old school, punctilious in dress 
and manner, and walking with an elastic step 
that younger men might well en\-y, — a man who 
could l<x>k back far enough through the vista of 
tlie past to remember when Mrs. Howe (after- 
wards Mrs. Toots) came in her old age to the 
house of his grandfather. Rev. Bunker Gay, to 
beg him to write out the narrative of the mas- 
sacre of her husband by the Indians, and the 
details of her captivity in Canada ; and this story, 
written in the most terse and vigorous English, 
can be found to-<lay in the old " American Pre- 
ceptor," a sch<x»l-book which was in use in our 
common schools early in the present century. 

I^ewis Taylor, who died later in the year, de- 
served to be classed, as he was, among the best of 
a type of honest, God-fearing men, such as illus- 
trate and adorn the vnrtues they profess. He 
was for more than half a century a power in 
church and town affairs, and his voice and his 
influence were always on the side of truth and 
right. Mr. Tavlorever twjk a great interest in 
the early history of the Connecticut and Ash- 
uelot Valleys, especially the Indian traditions, 
and it Ls greatly to be regretted that, Ixfore the 
infirmities of age prevental, he did not put on 
record, in a permanent form, the interesting 
facts and data stored up in his memory. 
As it was, he contributed not a little toward 
the history of Northfield, Mass., and, better still, 
at his own expense, he caased to be erected the 
marble monument which marks the spot of the 
encounter of \i't< ancestor. Sergeant Taylor, with 
the Indians. By so doing he has at the same 
time left a monument for himself, which will 
last through the ages. 

And so, with this brief mention of the co- 
temporaries of John Steams, we close this imper- 
fect sketch. Will the next generation emulate 
the industry, the thrift, the energy and enter- 
prise of these men, who leave behind them a re- 
c«jrd of the good old-fiishioned Xew England vir- 
tues which we may well a~pire to follow ;' 



HISTORY OF SWANZEY 



r 



BY COL. BENJAMIN READ. 



CHAPTER I. 

SwAXZEY wa.* first .<ettled under tlio autlior- 
ity of Massachusetts. When tlie first settlement 
of the town was made tlie line between Massa- 
chusetts and Xew Hampshire had not been es- 
tablished, but it was assumed by Massachusetts 
that the territory was within its jurisdiction. 
The first authoritative movement made, which 
resulted in a settlement, was in 1732. In 
June of this year Governor Belcher, iu his 
sketch to the Great and General Court of Mas- 
sachusetts, recommended that care be taken to 
settle the unnrronted land. In the House of 
Representatives it was thereupon votetl that 
there be seven towns opened, of the contents of 
six miles square, and the report located two of 
these seven towns on Ashuelot River, above 
Northfield. On the 1st of July, 1733, this 
vote was concurred in by the Council and con- 
sented to by the Governor. 

October 19, 1733, Joseph Kellogg, Timothy 
Dwight and William Chandler were appointed 
a committee to lay out forthwith the townships 
on Ashuelot River " unless they find that by rea- 
son of laying out the township granted to 
Colonel Willard and others (Winche.ster), the 
land remaining at Ashuelot River will not well 
serve for two townships, iu which case they are 
directed to lay out only one on that river." In 
February, 1737, the committee made a return 
to the General Court of a " plot of two town- 



ships, each of the contents of six miles squarp, 
situated on each side of Ashuelot River, above 
the tract of land lately grant«l to Colonel Jo- 
siah AVillard and othere, beginning at a spruce 
or white pine tree standing about midway l>e- 
tween the south and east branches of said river, 
about five pearch east of the bank of the main 
river, and thence running each way as described 
on the plot." The report was accepted and the 
lands contained in said townships were declared 
to lie in and constitute a part of the county of 
Hampshire. The line thus established was 
the dividing line between Upper A.shuelot and 
Lower Ashuelot, and since Upi)er Ashuelot 
took the name ofKeene, and Lower Ashuelot 
the name of Swanzey, this line lias continued to 
be the dividing line between the two towns. 

To prepare the township for settlement, a 
committee was sent by ifas&ichusetts in May, 
1734, to lay out sixty-three house lots. The 
first step taken by the committee must have 
been to lay out a street or highway. They 
commenced on the south side of the South 
Branch, about thirty rods from where it meets 
the Ashuelot River, and then ran southerly up 
over Meeting-House Hill, and then down to 
the west side of the moat. The length of this 
highway was about a mile anil a half The 
house-lots that were laid out upon this road 
were about sixteen nxls in width, and some 
forty rods in length. Thirty-two lots were 
laid out upon tlje west side, and thirty- one upon 



376 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the east side. A few yeai's aftei* the lots were 
laid out the south lots on the east side were 
thrown up and two lots laid out on the west 
side at the south end, and several of the centre 
lots on the east side were altered by moving 
them back a number of rods in order to lay out 
on Meeting-House Hill a piece of land-common. 
The object of laying this land-common was to 
have a place to set a meeting-house, to have a 
burying-ground and a public common. 

The design of having sixty-three house-lots 
was to have sixty for actual settlers, and to 
have one lot for the first minister, one for the 
ministry and one for schools. After the house- 
lots had been laid out the townshij) was ready 
for settlement, when sixty persons should pur- 
chase rights in the township, upon which to set- 
tle themselves or to settle one of their children. 
A share was one house-lot and one of the sixty- 
tiiree lots of each division into whicii all of the 
land in the township was subsequently divided. 

Tiio terms of admission were, that eacli set- 
tler should pay five pounds for a riglit ; that he 
should actually live on iiis land within three 
years after his admission, and continue there for 
the space of two years after in pez'son, and witli 
his family, if such he had ; that he should, with- 
in five years from his admission, build a house 
on his land of eighteen feet square and seven 
feet stud at tlie least, and within the same time 
sufficiently fence and till or fit for mowing eight 
acres of land ; and in case any settler fail of 
performance, his right to be forfeited, and the 
committee for admitting settlers were required 
to take of each at the time of admission a bond 
for twenty pounds for the use and benefit of the 
settlers in case he should fail to perform the 
conditions mentioned. 

The first meeting held by those who became 
proprietors of the township was at Concord, 
Mass., June 27, 1734. At this meeting Nathan- 
iel Hammond, of Littletown, was chosen mod- 
erator ; Ephraim Jones, of Concord, clerk ; 
John Flint, of Concord, Joseph Hill, of Bllier- 
ica, Thomas Cutler, of Lexington, Eleazer Rob- 



bins, of Harvard, and Nathaniel Hammond, of 
Littletown, were chosen to manage the pruden- 
tial aifalrs of the township. 

The five pounds required of each proprietor 
for admission was to reimburse tlie province 
the money advanced to pay committees and the 
expense of the survey of the township and the 
house-lots and for building a house of public 
worship, or to be used as the General Court 
should order. 

The meeting of the proprietors that was iield 
June 27th adjourned to meet in the township of 
Lower Ashuelot September 18tli, at ten o'clock, 
forenoon. This meeting was adjourned to eight 
o'clock the next morning, to meet ou house- 
lot No. 1. 

The division of the house-lots was made by 
drawing lots for them. The following' are the 
names of the sixty proprietors, and the number 
of the house-lot which each drew : 

Josiah Dival, 1 ; Thomas Hapgood, 2 ; Thomas 
Kendal, 3; Samuel Bacon, 4; James Heaton, 5; John 
Haldin, 6 ; AVilliam Rogers, 7 ; John Mead, 8 ; Jo- 
seph Lee, 9; Daniel Brown, 10; Joseph Hill, 11; 
James Wallis, 12; John Flint, for his son, Ephraim 
Flint, 13; Elnathan Jones, 14; Benjamin Keed, 15; 
Benjamin Whitney, 17; Nathaniel Hammond, for his 
son-in-law. Chamberlain, 18; James Houghton, Jr., 
19; John White, 20; John Muzzey, 21 ; Jonathan 
Prescott, 22; David Cutler, 23; John King, 24; Jo- 
seph Hill, Jr., 25; Robert Gumming, 26; Nathaniel 
Hammond, 27; James Henry, 28 ; Thomas Cutler, 29; 
Hezekiah Sprague, 30; Benjamin Heywood, 31 ; Jon- 
athan Hammond, by his father, 32 ; Joseph Haskel, 
33; Ele.izer Robbens, 34; William Whitaker, 35; 
Samuel Douglass, 3(5 ; Aaron Lyon, 37 ; Benjamin 
Thompson, 88; Nathaniel Whitemore, 39; Thom.is 
Kendal, 40; Timothy Stearns, 41; John King, 42; 
John Lampson, 43 ; John Slorr, 44; John King, for 
his son, 45; John Mewharter, 46 ; Nathaniel Mattoon, 
49; Ephraim Jones, 50; William Lyon, 51; Benja- 
min Farusworth, 52 ; Oliver Wallis, 53 ; William 
Arms, 54; Charles Prescott, 55; Enos Goodale, 56; 
John Taylor, 57 ; Ebenezer Conant, 58 ; William Carr, 
59; Thomas Heaton, 60; Thomas Kendal, 61 ; Sam- 
uel Doolittle, 62; Gardner Wilder, 63. School lot was 
16, ministry lot, 47 ; minister's lot, 48. 

Some alterations were made in the house-lots 
by a committee chosen for that purpose in 1739. 



SWANZEY. 



377 



The following is the report of the committee, 
and the plan of the house-lots aftei' the altera- 
tions had been made : 

'• This Plan Describeth the House Lotts in ye Lower 
Ashuelot township so called laid out in part By Mr 
Nathaniel Dwight in May 1734 and since then agre- 
able to a vote of ye proprietors theares Been Con- 
siderable alteration made in them from ye Waiey 
they Were first proposed to be Laid out by a Commit- 
tee chosen for that End (as appears by this plan) by 
Laying a peace of Land common for sating up an 
house for publick worship &c. and bounding the 
Eastwardly End of ye Lotts on ye Eastwardly side of 
ye Road on ye second and third Division Lotts and 
on ye Westerly side of ye Eoad thears sum variation 
made in ye roads betwen ye Lotts viz The Road of 
four Rods wide on ye south side of ye Lott is added to 
sd Lott in full, satisfaction for ye Road of four Rods 
Wide taken out of ye north side of ye Lott No 25 
which was don by agreament of ye committee and 
ye person who is ye present proprietor (or owner) 
of sd No 31 & 25 and Likewise by a free consent of 
ye present owner of ye Lott No 31 ye Road is turned 
in at ye North-Eastwardly Corner of it and Runs 
somthing angling Cross sd Lott Leaving part of if 
on ye soutli and south Eastwardly side of ye Road as 
appears by this plan Laid out in December, 1733, by 
Benj" Brown, surveyor. 

" Thomas Cresson, 1 

" Samuel GuNN, - Commiitee." 

" Bexj' Browx, J 

Three general divisions characterize the sur- 
face of Swanzey. The largest division is com- 
posed of tliat part which is elevated above the 
plains and meadows. It is of granite forma- 
tion, and macli of it is quite uneven, although 
not so much so as to unfit a large proportion of 
it for farming purposes. There are many hills ; 
some of them are quite rugged and have an 
elevation of several hundred feet above the 
adjacent plains and meadows. Five of the 
most prominent of these elevations have been 
designated mountains. These are Mount Hug- 
gins, in the northeast part of the town ; Mount 
Chaisson, on the west side of Ashuelot River, 
about a mile and a half from the centre of the 
town ; Mount Cfesar, near the centre of the 
town ; Picket Mountain, in the southwest corner 
of the town ; and Franklin Mountain, lying 



south of the Ashuelot River and being partlv 
in Winchester. 

There are many hundred acres of plain land. 
The soil of the-se plains is generally rather light 
and dry, and is not well adapted to high culti- 
vation, but profitable crops of corn, rye, oats 
and buckwheat have been raised upon them, 
and to some extent they have been cultivated 
for the hay crop. It is suppo.sed, by many, 
that the surface of the plains was formed when 
Ashuelot Valley was a lake, and that it was by 
the action of the water of the lake that the 
material which composes the surface of the 
plains was so finely distributed as is .seen upon 
our level plains. 

The proportion of intervale and meadow-land 
to the upland in Swanzey is quite large, and 
the quality of the soil is in marked contrast. 
At some period large quantities of earth, com- 
posed largely of clay, were distributed over the 
valley, which was subsequently covered by the 
sand of the plains. The sand formation that 
covers the clay formation varies from a few 
inches to forty or fifty feet. In some places the 
clays come to the surface upon the upland. 
Where it does, the soil is of excellent quality. 

Since the Ashuelot Valley ceased to be a lake 
the rivers have been doing their work to mould 
the surface into its present formation. From 
hundreds of acres the sand has been removed, 
and in many places several feet of the clay 
earths. The result of these operations has 
given to the low lands of the town, in most 
cases, an excellent soil. 

The eiFect of the drift period is seen in many 
places. It is the mo.st noticeable of any place 
in the town at East Swanzey. 

The distribution of boulders from oiu' own 
hills and mountains, from those in adjacent 
towns at the north, and from some mountains far 
away have been very profuse. In many places 
they are very thick, and many of them quite 
large. Upon our plains and meadows they are 
not to be seen. The great amount of material dis- 
tributed through the valley since their distribu- 



378 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tioii has buried them in these places generally 
entirely out of sight. 

Of the forests of Swanzey, at the time the 
township was granted, the most extensive was 
white pine. Upon the plains it was the prin- 
cipal timber, and it constituted a large amount 
of the timber upon the intervales and hill 
lands and it was generally of excellent quality. 
Hemlock, next (o pine, was the mo.st abundant. 
Large numbers of these trees grew upon the 
intervales, and many of them were of large 
size, and upon the hill land they constituted a 
large part of the timlier, particularly in the 
valleys. Red oak was mingled amongst other 
forest-trees in most places. There was much 
good white-oak timber in the southwest part of 
the town, and in the southwest corner there 
was some chestnut. The soil of the intervales 
and meadow land was congenial for the growth 
of the elm. INIany of these trees upon these 
lands were of majestic proportions. Black- 
birch, yellow-birch and white-birch were found 
in many places. The poplar was not an un- 
common tree. Rock-maple could not be con- 
sidered as one of the principal forest-trees, but 
upon some of the intervales and hills a suf- 
ficient number of them were found of good 
size, and so conveniently together as to make 
good sugar-orchards. White-maple was more 
widely diffused than the rock-maple, but less 
majestic. The shagbark walnut grew in many 
parts of the town, particularly about the centre 
and in the westerly part. Some of the hills 
were largely covered with beech. Hard-pine 
grew upon some of the plain.s, black-ash in the 
swamps, white-ash in some of the valleys 
amongst the hills, where the soil was rich. 

Of the wild animals, the early settlers of the 
town were familiar with the bear and M'olf. 
They knew that occasionally a deer, a cata- 
mount, a lynx was seen. Of the denizens of 
the larger rivers, they knew .something of the 
habits of the salmon, the shad and the lam- 
prey eel. 

The great trouble of the early settlers were 



the Indians. It M'as some twenty years from 
tlie time that the first settlements were made 
before they could feel themselves not in danger 
from them. It is proliable at first they were 
not much ajiprehensive of danger, but this feel- 
ing of security could not have been of long du- 
ration. As early as 1738 a fort had been par- 
tially built around Capt Nathaniel Hammond's 
house. November 6th, of this year, the pro- 
prietors voted that eighteen pounds of powder 
and thirty-six pounds of lead be purchased for 
a reserve stock. Subsequently, the proprietors 
voted to finish the fort around Captain Ham- 
mond's house, and a committee was chosen to 
see to the building of two more. The com- 
mittee were directed to build one of the two 
upon Meeting-House Hill, and the other around 
John Evans' house. Apprehensions of danger 
from the Indians continued to increase, and by the 
spring of 1797 they had become so grave that 
it was deemed necessary, for the safety of the in- 
habitants, to abandon the settlement. Such 
articles as could not be taken away were buried 
in the ground or concealed that they might es- 
cape destruction or being captured by the Indians. 

To have left the settlement under such circum- 
stances must have been very sad. It was 
full ten years from the time the settlement 
was commenced. During this time much hard 
work had been done, much land had been 
cleared of the heavy timber that was found 
upon it, houses had been built, roads had been 
laid out in different directions, and work enough 
done upon them to make them useful in pass- 
ing to and from the neighboring towns ; mills 
had been built and the building of a school- 
house had not been neglected. It is traditional 
history that only one building escaped destruc- 
tion by the hands of the Indians. 

The following list gives, as far as has been 
ascertained, the names of the inhabitants pre- 
vious to the abandonment of the township, with 
the year in which their names first appeared 
upon the records, and, as far as we are able, the 
place from which each came : 



SWANZEY. 



379 



Nathaniel Hammond, Littleton, Mass., 1737; Charles 
Lummis, Bolton, Mass., 1737 ; John Evans, Bolton, 
Mass., 1737 ; Samuel Farnsworth, 1737 ; Thomas Cres- 
sou, Sunderland, Mass., 1737 ; William Carr, Deer- 
field, Mass., 1737 ; Samuel Hills, Sunderland, Mass., 
1737 ; Benjamin Jethro Earns. 1737 ; Benjamin 
Brown, Concord, Mass., 1738 ; Abraham Graves, Hat- 
field, Mass., 1738; Samuel Mitchel, 1738; David Beld- 
ing, 1738; William Grimes, Lancaster, Mass., 1738; 
Samuel Gunn, Sunderland, Mass., 1738 ; Nathaniel 
Gunn, Sunderland, Mass., 1738 ; Ephraim Jones, 
Concord, Mass., 1739 ; William Scott, 1739; Andrew 
Gardner, 1739; Charles Armes, 1740 ; Timothy Brown, 
Brookfield, Mass., 1740; Thomas Hammond, Little- 
ton, Mass., 1740 ; Rev. Timothy Harrington, 1741 ; 
Jonathan Hammond, Littleton, Mass., 1741 ; Nathaniel 
Hammond, Jr., Littleton, Mass., 1741 ; Eliakim King, 
1743; James Heaton, 1743; Seth Heaton, Wrentham, 
Mass., 1744; Joseph Hammond, Littleton, Mass., 1744 ; 
Samuel Belding, 1745 ; Charles Earns, 1746 ; Samuel 
Chamberlain, 174t); Samuel Hills, Jr., Sunderland, 
Mass., 1746; Timothy Hammond, Littleton, Mass., 
1746. 

It is evident from the above list of persons 
wlio settled in tlie townsliip, tliat most of those 
who were grantees did not intend to settle in it. 
They might have become grantees to forward 
the settlement of new towns, or their motives 
might have been speculative. The above list 
includes only Nathaniel Hammond, Jonathan 
Hammond, James Heaton, Ephraim Jones and 
William Carr, who were original grantees. 

The first settlers of the town were much 
embarrassed by the result of the settle- 
ment of the boundary line between Ma.ssa- 
chusetts and New Hampshire. When they 
came here they had no doubt but the territory 
belonged to Massachusetts. On the 3d of 
October, 1740, they held a meeting to consider 
what should be done to relieve them from their 
embarrassed condition. The following extract, 
from the records of this meetiug, disclo.ses the 
general feeling of disappointment : 

" The proprietors being informed that by y° Deter- 
mination of his majesty in Council Respecting y' 
Controverted bounds between y'' province of y" Massa- 
chusetts Bay and New Hampshire they are Exclude^ 
from this province of y" Massachusetts Bay to y' which 
they always supposed themselves to belong therefore 



they unanimously voted that a petition be presented 
to y" King's Most Excellent Majesty setting fourth our 
Distressed Estate and praying we may be annexed to 
Y' said Massachusetts province also unanimously 
voted that Thomas Hutchinson E^q, be impowered to 
present y" said petition to his Majesty and to appear 
and fully to act for and in y' behalf of this town re- 
specting the subject matter of said petition according 
to his best discretion." 

By this establishment of the boundary line 
the inhabitants of the town not only lost the 
protection they had a right to claim from 
Massachusetts, but they also lost all legal claim 
to their lands vested in any act of that prov- 
ince. In the face of tliese discouragements, it 
is little wonder that they eventually left tlieir 
possessions and fled to their former homes in 
Massachusetts. 

The exact time that the settlers commenced 
to return to the township is not known. It is 
probable that it was at the same time that the 
settlers commenced to return to Keene. The 
proprietors of the two townships up to this 
time seem to have moved simultaneously in all 
transactions connected with the settlement of 
the two townships. 

The proprietors of Upper Ash uelot held their 
first meeting at Concord, Ma.ss., June 20, 1734. 
Those of Lower Ashuelot held their first meet- 
ing at the same place, June 27,1734. Both of 
these proprietors' meetings were adjourned to 
meet in the respective townships the 18th of the 
following September. The two townships ap- 
pear to have been abandoned at the same time. 

The " Annals of Keene " contain the follow- 
ine: in relation to the resettlement of that town : 

o 

" In October, 1748, peace was declared between 
England and France. The Indians, however, con- 
tinued their depredations until June, 1749, and a 
treaty of peace was not made with them until Sep- 
tember of that year. 

"On the restoration of jjeace the settlers, who had 
been driven from their lands by the war, made prep- 
arations to return. The exact time when Upper 
Ashuelot was again occupied has not been ascer- 
tained. It was probably some time in 1750, — cer- 
tainly as early as 1751, as it is within the recollec- 
tion of Thomas Wells, now living, who came to reside 



380 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



here in 1752, that eight or ten dwelling-houses had 
been erected." 

The settlers did not find, after their return, 
that they were relieved from apprehension of 
danger from the Indians. In 1754 the Indians 
were engaged in capturing individuals, destroy- 
ing property and causing a general alarm in the 
frontier settlements in the province of New 
Hampshire. 

In 1755 armed laborers with a guard of 
four soldiers went to work in the Great Mead- 
ows. The soldiers were in advance. They 
heard a rustling in the bushes and supposed 
that it was caused by a deer, and one of the 
soldiers fired at the spot. The noise proved to 
have been made by Indians. When the gun 
was fired the Indians supposed they were dis- 
covered and they fired at the soldiers. The 
laborers coming up, saw the Indians and attacked 
them and drove them to the plain at the north. 
An express was instantly sent to Keene and a 
party of fifteen men, under Captain Metcalf, 
went out to meet them. The Indians made 
their escape. This may have been the last time 
hostile Indians were seen in Swanzey. The 
place where these Indians were discovered in 
the meadow has been known from that time to 
the present as the Indian Meadow. 

The statement has been made in some jjub- 
lislied works that many of the inhabitants of 
Swanzey lost their lives at the hands of the In- 
dians. We do not think these statements are 
well authenticated. If any one was ever killed 
in the town, or if any inhabitant of the town 
was killed when away from the town, the fact 
does not appear in any of the town records, nor 
is there any traditional evidence who they were 
or where they were at the time. 

The only person who is known to Swanzey 
people to have suffered personal harm by the 
hands of the Indians was Thomas Cresson. He 
was born in 1722, and died in Swanzey in 1821, 
lacking but a little more than one year of being 
one hundred years old at the time of his death. 
His father, Thomas Cresson, came to Lower 



Ashuelot, when his son was a lad, from Sunder- 
land, Mass. Thomas Cresson, Jr., went with 
a party from about here for the protection of 
Fort Dummer, and was captured near that fort 
and carried to Canada. It was some three years 
after his capture that he was permitted to return. 
A number of persons are now living who re- 
member having seen Thomas Cresson in his 
old age. 

It is stated in Belknap's " History of New 
Hampshire " that Deacon Timothy Brown and 
one other gentleman was captured by the In- 
dians, and it is also stated in the same work 
that some women and children were captured in 
Lower Ashuelot ; names not given. Belknap's 
history is good authority. 

Lower Ashuelot was granted by New Hamp- 
shire as Swanzey, July 2, 1753, to the fol- 
lowing piersons : 



Nathaniel Hammond. 
Abraham Graves. 
William Grimes. 
Benjamin Grout. 
Thomas Cresson. 
Thomas Cresson, Jr. 
William Hill. 
William Cresson. 
William Carr. 
Elijah Graves. 
Samuel Belding. 
Eliakim King. 
Jonathan Woodcock. 
Joshua Graves. 
Abner Graves. 
D.avid Belding. 
Timothy Brown. 
James Heaton. 
James Heaton, Jr. 
William Heaton. 
Samuel Hills. 
Nathaniel Hills. 
J. Woodcock, Jr. 
Jonathan Hammond. 
Thomas Nutter. 
Ebenezer Hills. 
John Prat. 
Timothy Prat. 
Samuel Prat. 
Joseph Hammond. 
Thomas Hammond. 
Seth Gay. 



Asa Grout. 
Daniel Arms. 
Ebenezer Arms. 
Nathaniel Gunn. 
Wyat Gunn. 
Daniel Gunn. 
Ebenezer Sprague, Jr. 
Ebenezer Sprague. 
Joseph Merchants. 
Noah Bodman. 
Benjamin Shelding. 
Mark Ferry. 
Jonathan Tracey. 
John Tracey. 
Phinehas Tracey. 
Jonathan Arms. 
Jonathan Bardwcll. 
Oliver Wit. 
Oliver H.ammond. 
Joshua Prime. 
Joseph Write. 
Benjamin Brown. 
Simon Davis. 
Samuel McClenon. 
Zebulon Balord. 
Stephen Nutter. 
Caesar Freeman. 
Samuel Gaylon. 
James Blood, Jr. 
Christopher Grout. 
His Excellency B. 
Wentworth, Esq. 



SWANZEY. 



381 



All rights that wore supposed to have been 
acquired by the jjroprietors from Massachusetts 
were confirmed to them by Xew Hampshire. 

Previous to the abandonment of the town 
more than half of the land had been divided 
among the projirietors. At a meeting held at 
Concord, IVIass., October 9, 1734, the proprietors 
voted to divide the intervale land called the 
Great meadow, and so much of the intervale, 
on the South Branch, as lies below Town- 
House Bridge, into sixty-three lots, as equal 
as practicable in area and (quality, and appointed 
Eleazer Robbins, J^athaniel Hammond, Eph- 
raim Jones, Benjamin Read and Nathaniel Mat- 
toon as a committee to make such division. 

These lots averaged about eight acres each. 
At a, meeting held at Concord, June 11, 1735, 
the committee appointed to make this second 
division made their report which was accepted, 
and the proprietors drew for their shares. 

At a meeting held in the township September 
8, 1736, it was voted to make a division of 
twenty acres of the undivided lauds to eacii 
owner of a house-lot, and appointed Xathauiel 
Hammond, Nathaniel Mattoon, James Heaton, 
Benjamin Haywood and Peter Evans a com- 
mittee to make said division. This called the 
third division of the intervale land, included 
most of the remaining intervale and meadow 
land in the township. The lots laid on the 
South Branch, above where the Town-PIouse 
Bridge now stands, were called the South 
Branch meadows, those on the Pond Brook 
the Pond Brook meadows, those on the Ashue- 
lot River, above West Swanzey, the Mill mea- 
dows and those between AVest Swanzey and 
M'estport were called the Hypoueco meadows. 
The lots of the third division were drawn 
October 27, 173(J. 

At a meeting held at Concord, March 10, 
1737, it was voted to make a fourth division of 
the undivided lauds. These lots were laid out 
on the upland, about two-thirds of them being 
between the road which runs through the centre 
of the town and the road which runs from 



West Swanzey to Westport, on the east side of 
the river. The remaining third was laid where 
the road now runs from Town-House Bridge to 
Keene, and ujion the hill east of this range of 
lots. Nathaniel Hammond, Benjamin Read, 
Samuel Chamberlain, Ephraiiu Jones and 
Nathaniel Mattoon constituted the committee 
for making this division. 

At a meeting hekl in the township, at tiie 
house of Captain Nathaniel Hammond, Sep- 
tember 7, 1737, it was voted to draw lots for 
the fourth division shares, and that he who 
should draw No. 1 should make his pitch on 
the morning of the lltth. He who should 
draw No. 2 should make his pitch on the after- 
noon of the same day and that this should be 
continued, making two pitches per day, until 
the division should be completed. In this divi- 
sion the lots eaoh contained about sixty-five 
acres. 

At a meeting held at the same place, October 
26, 1737, it w;is voted to make a fifth division, 
each lot to contain one hundred acres. This 
pitch was made in the following manner : The 
proprietor who drew the right to make the first 
pitch made his selecti(jn in any part of the un- 
divided land he chose, and had his land laid 
out in form to please himself Number two 
had the same privilege, and so on in numerical 
order. This resulted in farms being surveyed 
into all conceivable shapes. 

The marsh-meadow lots must have constituted 
the sixth division. These lots were laid out in 
good form. A seventh divisicjn, each share to 
contain fifty acres, was made February 6, 1760. 
These shares were pitched in any ]ilace and 
in any shape that the proprietor might choose. 
A division of fifty acres was made April 18, 
1774. The lots were pitched the same as the 
fifth and seventh were. A division of ten acres 
was made Nov'ember 11, 1803 ; a division of 
nine acres was made June 7, 1809, and a divi- 
sion, being the last one, was made Mav 7, 1833, 
containing three acres. The time that the last 
division was made lacked but a little over a 



382 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



year of one hundred years from the time that 
the first proprietors of the township drew lots 
for tlieir liouse-lots. 

As Richmond was granted February 28, 
1752, it contained a tract of land lying on the 
east of Swanzey, that extended to Keene line, 
that was afterwards known as Richmond Gore. 
December 11, 1762, this gore was disannexed 
from Richmond, and annexed to Swanzey. The 
length of the west line of this gore was seven 
miles. The north line ran on Keene thirty 
rods ; the east line ran on Marlborough and 
Fitzwilliam six miles and one hundred and 
thirty rods ; the s(jutli line, which severed it 
from Richmond, was about three miles and a 
half in length. 

The original grant of the township of Lower 
Ashuelot, six miles square, and the annexation 
of Richmond Gore, gave to Swanzey all of the 
territory that the town ever contained. The 
present shape of the town is owing to having 
had land included within its bounds that had 
been granted for another township previous to 
being included within the bounds of Lower 
Ashuelot, and by having some of its territory 
taken to form the town of Troy, by having 
about three hundred and fifty acres annexed to 
Marlborough, and a small piece annexed to 
Keene. 

Those who first surveyed Lower Ashuelot 
could not have been aware that they in- 
cluded within its bounds a large tract of land 
that belonged to Winchester. Winchester's 
claim was good, as their grant was made pre- 
vious to the grant of Lower Ashuelot. The 
line, as first run, extended six miles from the 
southwest corner of Keene, south thirty-nine 
degrees, west to a corner, and thence east six 
miles. One cau see by looking at the map of 
Swanzey that this survey carried the southwest 
corner of Lower Ashuelot far into Winchester. 
When Troy was incorporated, in 1815, a num- 
ber of hundred acres of the southeast corner of 
the Richmond Gore was taken from Swanzey 
to form that town. The north end of the gore 



had previously been taken from Swanzey and 
annexed to Marlborough. 

The Richmond Gore had been, jjrevious to 
being annexed to Swanzey, surveyed into ranges 
and lots. The lots contained about one hun- 
dred acres each. At the time this gore was an- 
nexed to Swanzey but few, if any, settlements 
had been made upon it; l)ut the lots were taken 
up and settlement made quite fast afterwards. 
Nearly all of the territory that comprises No. 
9 School District, the East Swanzey School 
District and the district in the hollow was in 
the Richmond Gore. 

The methods of managing the municipal 
affairs of Lower Ashuelot were very different 
from the present methods of managing town 
affitirs. Money was raised by the proprietors 
to pay for preaching, for the support of schools, 
to build and repair roads and bridges, and for 
all municipal expenses by making an assess- 
ment equally upon the proprietors' shares. It 
made no difference whether the ])roprietor lived 
in the township or not, or whether any part of 
his land had been brought under cultivation 
and buildings erected upon it or not, he had to 
pay one-sixtieth part of the expenses of the 
township. Instead of town officers, committees 
were chosen by the proprietors for special pur- 
poses. 

After the to\vnship had been re-granted by 
New Hampshire, there was a change of meth- 
ods. Town-meetings were held and town offi- 
cers elected. From 1753 to 1885 there has 
been considerable change in the expenses of 
towns, in town officers and in the duties of towns. 
These changes may be shown by copies of town 
records. 

The New Hampshire charter made the fol- 
lowing reservations : 

" For His Excellency, Benning Wentvvorth, Esq., 
one tract of land, to contain five hundred acres, one 
whole share for the Incorporated Society for the Prop- 
agation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; one whole 
share for the first settled minister of the Gospel in 
said Town ; one whole share for a Glebe for the min- 
istry of the Church of England as by law established. 



SWANZEY. 



383 



" Voted March 4, 1766, to build a good and suffi- 
cient pound, thirty-five foot square, in the highway 
at the end of John Frary's house. 

" At a meeting of the inhabitants of the town of 
Swanzey, legally met at the meeting-house in said 
Swanzey, on Tuesday, the fifth day of March, 1771, 
the meeting being opened, Capt. Joseph Hammond 
was chosen Moderator ; then the meeting was ad- 
journed for the space of half an hour to meet at the 
house of Lieut. Johnathan Whitcomb. Re-assembled 
at the time and place appointed. Thomas Applin 
was chosen Town Clerk ; Thomas Applin, Samuel 
Hills, Benjamin Brown, David Elijah Groves, chosen 
Selectmen. Voted, that the Selectmen be assessors. 
Caleb Sawyer was chosen constable ; Capt. Joseph 
Hammond, chosen town treasurer ; Thomas Ham- 
mond and Amasa Parker, chosen tythingmen ; Lieut. 
Joseph Whitcomb, Joseph Cummings, Henry Morse, 
David Belding, Roger Thomjison and Benjamin 
Brown, chosen surveyors of highways ; Elisha Scott 
and Elijah Belding, chosen fence viewers ; John 
Starkey, sen., deer-reef; Wyat Gunn, Ebenezer Hills 
and Jonathan Woodcock, Jr., chosen hogreaves ; Na- 
than Scott and Gardner Duston, chosen field Drivers; 
Samuel Belding, chosen sealer of leather. Voted, to 
accept of the settlement of accounts with Capt. Jon- 
athan Hammond as treasurer for the years 1768 and 
1769, as presented to the town by the selectmen. 

" Voted, to raise forty pounds lawful money to 
make and repair road. 

" Voted, that labor at the roads be set at two shil- 
lings and eight pence per day, from the first day of 
Apr. to the first day of Oct, and the rest of the year 
at two shillings per day. 

" Voted, that swine may go at large on the common, 
yoked and ringed according to law, from the first of 
Apr. to the last of October. 

" Voted, to allow Mr. Elijah Graves fifteen shillings 
lawful money for his services as selectman. 

"At a meeting of the inhabitants of Swanzey in 
the Providence of New Hampshire, held at the 
meeting-house in said Swanzey, on Monday, the 8th 
day of May, 1775. 

" Voted, that Mr. Samuel Hills be appointed a Dep- 
uty to represent this town at the Convention of Dep- 
uties proposed to be held at Exeter, on the 17th day 
of this instant ; and that he be fully empowered and 
authorised in behalf of this town, to join with the 
Deputies of other towns in addopting and pursuing 
such measures as may be judged most expedient to 
pursue to restore the right of this and the other col- 
onies ; and that he be emjjowered as aforesaid, to act 
for the space of six months if the said Convention of 
Deputies shall judge it to be necessary. 



" Foied, December 18, 1775, That it is the opinion 
of the town that Colo. Jose[)h Hammond, Maj. 
Elisha Whitcomb, Capt. Joseph AVhitcomb, Jr., 
Capt. Jonathan Whitcomb, Mr. Thomas Ham- 
mond, Mr. Benjamin Brown and Lieut. Daniel 
Warner be chosen a Committee of Safety agreeable 
to the advice of the Continental Congress, and we ac- 
knowledge them a Committee of Safety for this town, 
and we a2)prove of what they have acted in that ca- 
pacity. 

" Voted, March 4, 1777, to allow to Mr. David 
Belding twenty shillings for his time, trouble and ex- 
penses as a selectman last year, and to Colo. Ham- 
mond, Thomas Hammond and Elijah Groves nine 
shillings each for their services as selectmen last 
year; to allow Thomas Applin twelve shillings for his 
service as selectman last year. 

" Voted at a special town-meeting, January 22, 1778, 
That this town approves of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion and perpetual union between the United States 
of America, as proposed by the Continental Congress, 
and desire that the same may be ratified and con- 
firmed. 

" Voted, That our Representative at the General 
Court be instructed to concur with the Representa- 
tives of the other towns in this State in appointing 
and calling a full and free representation of all the 
Deputies in this State for the sole purpose of framing 
and laying a permanent plan or system for the future 
government of this State agreeable to a vote of the 
General Court. 

" Voted, May 12, 1778, To send one man to meet 
with the Convention at Concord, the tenth day of 
June next, and Calvin Frink, Esq., was chosen. 

" Voted, March 2, 1779, To allow Calvin Frink 
twenty-five pounds as a reward for his services as 
Delegate for the town in the Convention, held at 
Concord, June 10, 1778." 

A town-meeting was held May 2, 1781, "to 
choo.'se one or more persons, if the town shall 
think propper to convene at Concord on the 
second Tuesday in June next for the sole pur- 
pose of forming and laying a permanent plan 
or system of government for this State." 

At this meeting Rev. Edward Stoddard was 
chosen a delegate to represent the town in tiie 
convention. 

A town-meeting was held December 31, 1781, 
" to see if the town would accept of the Con- 
stitution or form of Government agreed upon 
by the Delegates of the jjeople of this State in 



384 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUiNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Convention, bognu and held at Concord on the 
second Tuesday of June hist." 

Tlie question was jjut, " wlietiier tlie voters 
present do accept of the Constitution or plan of 
Government as it has now been read ?" 

Thirty-one voted to accept it; five declined 
voting either way, three of \Nhoni declared 
they had not perused it sufficiently ; two said 
they did not know whether they belonged to 
the State of New Hampshire or Vermont, and 
one objected against one article, viz., respecting 
the governor, that no man shall be eligible as 
governor more than three years in any seven. 

At a town-meeting held May 28, 1783, 
seventy-three voters were present, and voted on 
reconsidering the Constitution or plan of gov- 
ernment. Fifty-eight voted to accept the Cou- 
stitutif)n as it stood ; fifteen voted not to accept 
it without alteration. 

At a town-meeting held October 6, 1783, it 
was " voted, that it is the opinion of this town 
that, with rcsj)ect to the proposed alteration of 
the eighth article of the Constitution of the 
United States, that each State ought to be taxed 
according to the wealth of each State ; but 
whether numbering the persons or taking the 
value of the land according to any mode of 
valuation that is practicable be the best way to 
ascertain the wealth of each State we are by no 
means able to determine, and do therefore con- 
fide in the wisdom and judgment of tlie Legis- 
lature of the State, to act as they shall think 
most just and equitable." 

Thomas Applin, Calvin Frink and Aaron 
Parsons were chosen "a committee to draft in- 
structions to the delegate in the General Court. 

The first town-meeting held in Swanzey un- 
der the Constitution, which had been adopted, 
was held March 2 1784. The chief executive 
officer of the State under this Constitution was 
styled a President. The town officers ele(;tetl at 
this meeting were: Moderator, Samuel Hills ; 
town clerk, Calvin Frink ; selectmen, Isaac 
Hammond, David Belding, Jr., and Benjamin 
Hammond. 



Of the votes given for a president of the 
State, Meshech Weare had 10 ; George Atkin- 
son, 21 ; John Sullivan, 2. Of the votes given 
for two senators for Cheshire County, Thomas 
Applin had 14; Daniel Newcombe, 2; Calvin 
Frink, 27; John Bellows, 5; Simeon Olcot, 5; 
Benjamin Bellows, 1. 

" Voted at this meeting to grant forty-eight shillings 
to Rev. Mr. Godchird as a reward for his services as a 
member of the late Convention for forming a Consti- 
tution for this State. 

" Voted, to grant Capt. Samuel Hills fifteen shillings 
as a reward for his services as a member of the afore- 
said Convention. 

"Voted, March 1, 1775, to raise twelve pounds for 
the purpose of trimming the burying ground. 

" Voted, March 7, 1786, to raise £4 13s. Ip. to com- 
plete the fencing of the burying ground." 

At a legal meeting held October 30, 1 786, a 
plan for emitting paper money by the General 
Court was read. The vote was unanimous 
against approving the measure. 

A committee was chosen for suggestinc; al- 
terations in the plan, consisting of Koger 
Thompson, William Grimes, Wyman Richard- 
son, Abraham Randall, ElLsha Whitcomb, 
David Belding, Jr., and Ebenezer Hills. No- 
vember 13, 1780, the committee made the fol- 
lowing report : 

" That twenty thousand dollars be emitted on the 
same plan that the General Court proposed to emit 
the ten thousand pounds, with the addition to have it 
a tender for all debts due in this State and in lieu of 
the forty thousand pounds that the General Court 
proposed to emit on land security that the Statenotes, 
be called in, and the holder in lieu of said notes to 
receive certificates of the same sum, in lieu of the 
same so that the interest of said notes may cease, and 
the certificates to be received in allout standingtaxes, 
seventeen voted in favor of the report, and two 
against it." 

A town-meeting was called December 4, 

178(J: 

" To see if the town would agree with some person 
to pay the last State tax required to be paid in facili- 
ties by the first of January next, and repay such per- 
son or persons in cattle or any other way they shall 
agree. 



SWANZEY. 



385 



" Voted, That the selectmen lie imixiwered to agree 
with Mr. Nathan Capron who has uiukrtaken to pay 
said tax for the town 

" Vdfed, That the selectmen, together with Maj. 
Elisha Whitcomb, Maj. .Jonathan Whitcomb, Lut. 
Samuel Wright and Mr. David Belding, Jr., be a 
committee to e.xamine into the requests of several 
constables representing such assesments in their 
hands against such jiersons, as they have not had op- 
portunity to collect and make such an adjustment 
and abatement to such constables as they shall judge 
ecjuetable." 

The foreooing; votes sliow the financial eon- 
dition of the town at tliat period. The war 
for Independance iiad been successfully prose- 
cuted and Independence achieved, hut there had 
been no well-matured plans adapted for a 
State or for a General Government. The fi- 
nances of the country were in a deplorable 
condition, taxes were heavy in consequence of 
the war, the people were without money, and to 
pay their taxes was almost an impossibility. 

" Voted March 5, 1793, That each man be allowed 
four pence per hour for each hours actual labor at 
the highways, and two pence per hour for a plough, 
two pence per hour for each yoke of oxen, and one 
pence per hour for every cart used at said highway. 

" Voted, To allow Mr. Moses B. Williams six shil- 
lings for warning sundrey persons out of town." 

It appears to have been lawful at this time 
for towns to refuse a settlement to such persons 
as they thought might be likely to become a 
2)ublic charge. 

At the annual town-meeting, March 5, 1793, 
the following subject was taken into considera- 
tion : 

" Whereas, Mr. John Harvey and others, inhabi- 
tants of Swanzey, have requested said town that they 
would vote that they and their land may be annexed 
to the town of Marlborough, representing they live 
much more convenient to Marlborough Meeting- 
House than Swanzey, &c. 

"The town having considered of the said request, 
think the same to be reasonable therefore. 

" Voted, That Messrs. John Harvey, Kember Har- 
vey and Samuel Stearns, and the land whereon they 
dwell, and the laud belonging to Mr. Timothy Har- 
vey be set oil' from the town of Swanzey and annexed 



to the town of Marlborough, said tract of land lies in 
the northeastwardly part of said Sw-anzey and is the 
most northwestwardly part of that gore of land which 
was set off from Richmond to Swanzey, and is as 
follows, viz: Beginning at a heap of stones, being the 
southeast corner of the town of Keene, then runs on 
said Keene west 8 degrees north, 32 rods to the old 
corner of Swanzey, then runs south, 34 degrees west 
on Swanzey old line 418 rods to a white pine tree, 
then runs east 20 degrees, 30 minutes; south on com- 
mon land 212 rods to a stake and stone in the patent 
line, then runs on the patenfline north 9 degrees, 30 
minutes east, 418 rods to the first mentioned corner 
containing three hundred and five acres." 

At the annual town-meeting, March l.''>, 1832, 
the following was part of the business trans- 
acted. 

" Voted, To provide each soldier with 1 pound 
powder on muster day. 

" Voted to hold the next annual meeting at the 
Baptist meeting-house." 

The collecting of all the taxes to be assessed in 
the town of Swanzey the ensuing year was then 
set up at public auction to be struck off to the 
lowest bidder be to produce bonds to the accept- 
ance of the selectmen fi)r the payment of the 
same into the state, county and town treasuries 
as directed by the Statesmen, and also to make 
a full statement with the town treasurer ten 
days before the annual town meeting in March, 
1833, or to receive nothing for his services as 
collector for said year, and they were struck otf 
to Jonathan Whitcomb, he being the lowest 
bidder, for the sum of $28.00, after which the 
said Whitcomb withdrew his bid when they 
were again set up on the same conditions as at 
first and struck off" to Israel Brown, he being 
the lowest bidder, for the sum of $18.15. 

The following report shows the expenses of 
the town for the year jjrior to March 13, 1832 : 

" We, the undersigned, have carefully re-examined 
the books, receipts and orders of the past year and 
find the receipts into the treasury exactly as reported 
at the annual meeting, on the 13th instant, and we 
also present a more definite report of the disburse- 
ments from the treasury than was made at said meet- 
ing,— 



386 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Paid for support of poor $244 62 

for schooling 673 61 

repair of Sliite Bridge 81 87 

Plank for otlier Bridges 39 24 

on account of Small Pox 22 75 

Non-Resident Highway 00 00 

Taxes worked out 17 57 

Eunice Graves 15 26 

a Note for Blodget Place 38 50 

muster expenses & Powder 51 79 

Selectmen 54 91 

Sup. School Committee 15 26 

outstanding school Order 40 38 

other outstanding Orders 62 71 

Incidental Charges 61 76 

Cash in Treasury 133 77 



Total $1,553 98 

" Out standing orders at the time of settlement, 
$20.51, which, deducted from the money on hand in 
the treasury, will leave a balance of $113.26. 

" Elijah Sawyer, 1 Selectmen 

" Joseph Woodward, - of 
" Benjamix Hamblet, I Swamey. 

" We, the undersigned committee, appointed at the 
last annual meeting to examine the selectmen's ac- 
count of money expended the last year, have attended 
to the business assigned us and report that the above 
statement of the selectmen we find to be correct, and 
not varying materially in the sum total from their 
first report. Their disbursements are in the present 
report more regularly classed, and we cheerfully give 
our sanction to the same, all which is submitted by 

" James Henry. 

" Amos Bailey. 

" Ephraim K. Frost." 

At a town meeting held November 5, 1832, 
to vote for electors for President and Vice- 
President of the United States, Jackson elec- 
tors liad 197 ; opposition, 116. 

Vote for electors, November 7, 1836 : 
Van Buren electors had 139 ; opposition, 45. 

At this meeting, November 7th, the sense of 
the voters was taken upon the State making an 
appropriation for an insane hospital ; twenty-five 
voted in favour of the measure and seventy-six 
against it. 

The following action was taken by the town 
upon the division by the State of the surplus 



revenue divided by the United States between 
the States. 

" State of New Hampshire. 

" Che.shire, Ss. 

"To the inhabitants of the town of Swanzey, in the 

county of Cheshire, in said State, qualified to vote in 

town affairs 

" Greeting 

" You are hereby notified and warned to meet at 
the old meeting-house in said Swanzey on Saturday, 
the twenty-fifth day of February, 1837, at one o'clock 
P.M., to act upon the following subject : 

" To see if the town will vote to receive their share 
of the surplus money. 

"To see if the town will choose an agent to take 
the charge of said money. 

"To see what disposition shall be made of the 
money." 

At the meeting held in pursuance of the fore- 
going warrant the town — 

" Foto/, To receive said surplus money, 112 voting 
in favour and 86 against. 

" Voted, To choose an agent to obtain and loan said 
money. 

" Voted, That Elijah Carpenter be our agent for the 
above purpose, and that he loan said money in sums 
not exceeding $300.00, nor less than $50.00 giving the 
town of Swanzey the preference and report his doings 
annually at the March meetings and voted said Car- 
penter be our agent during the pleasure of the town. 

" Voted, at the annual meeting for 1838 that Elijah 
Carpenter agent for said town to loan money of the 
surplus revenue pay the interest arising thereon into 
the town treasury, taking said treasurer's recept 
therefor." 

At the Presidential election in 1840 the Van 
Buren electors received 244 votes ; the Harrison 
electors, 143 ; the Birney or Abolition electors, 
1. The one vote was the first vote ever cast at 
a Presidential election against slavery in tiie 
town. It was cast by John AVithington, an old, 
stanch Democrat. Mr. Withington had be- 
come convinced that it was his duty to vote 
against slavery, and what he conceived to be his 
duty to do he would do it. The feeling against 
political action at that time was very strong, by 
both Whigs and Democrats. The Presidential 
election that year in Swanzey was probably the 



SWANZEY. 



387 



most exciting one ever held in the town. Nearly 
every V(3ter in town voted. 

At the Presidential election in 1 844, James 
K.Polk electors had 211 votes; Henry Clay 
electors, 81 ; James S. Birney electors, 33. At 
til is election the town voted upon the question 
(if abolishing capital punishment, — 111 voted in 
tavor, 184 against. 

''Voted, March 12, 1850, to repair the old meeting- 
liduse for a town-house. Chose Amos Bailey, David 
and Lymau Parker a committee to make the repairs. 

" Voted, That the committee expend a sum not ex- 
ceeding seven hun<h'ed and fifty dollars. 

The repairs made consisted in taking oiF the 
helfry on the west end, the porch on the 
east end, taking out the galleries, taking out the 
pews and the windows, cutting down the house 
several feet, putting in a new set of windows, 
tinishing the inside and painting the outside. 

The votes cast for Presidential electors, No- 
vember 2, 1852, were as follows: Franklin 
Pierce electors, 232; Winfield Scott electors, 
57 ; Free-Soil electors, (J2. 

The twelfth article in the warrant for the an- 
nual town-meeting, 1854, was 

" To see what measures the town will take to pre- 
vent the setting off a part of Swanzey to Keene. Upon 
this article the town 

" Voted, That our Representatives be and are hereby 
empowered and authorized to employ, if they think 
it to be necessary, and engage council to defeat the 
petitioners in their attempt to be severed from Swan- 
zey and annexed to Keene." 

At the ainutal town-meeting, 1855, the town 

" Voted, That the Representatives be instructed to 
use all means in their power to prevent Swanzey Fac- 
tory Village from being set off to Keene and employ- 
council if necessary." 

The vote for Presidential electors the first 
Monday in November, 1856, was as follows : 
Buchanan electors, 229; Republican electors, — ; 
\\'hig electors, 2. 

The votes for Presidential electors, Novem- ! 
ber 6, 1860, were as follows: Lincoln and' 
Hamlin electors, 214 ; Douglass and Johnson 



electors, 195 ; Breckenridge and Lane electors, 
18 ; Bell and Everett electors, 1. 

The votes for Presidential electors, November 
8, 1864, were as follows : McClellan and Pend- 
leton, 260 ; Lincoln and Johnson, 1 54. 

During the Rebellion the town contracted a 
large debt to meet the requirement of the war. 
The money was principally used to pay bounties. 
At the commencement soldiers were obtained for 
small bounties, but as the war continued it be- 
came more difficult to obtain them, and large 
bounties were paid by the town. In 1864 as 
high as one thotisand dollars was paid for three 
years' men, and five hundred dollars for one 
year. 

Tlie financial condition of the town, Feb- 
ruary 17, 1866, is shown by the report of 
the selectmen as made out at that time, and it 
also shows the sources from which the loans 
were obtained, — 

Note at savings-bank, Keene $1,000.00 

Note at savings-bank, Keene 0,000.00 

Note at savings-bank, Keene 2,000.00 

John W. Starkey's note 500.00 

John W. Starkey's note 300.00 

Nathan Winch's note 1,562.00 

Enoch Howes' note 1,400.00 

A. & J. Holbrook's note 750.00 

Lewis Carpenter's note 500.00 

A. Kingsbury's note 500.00 

Mrs. Almira Hewes' note 50.00 

F. C. Whitcomb's note.... 175.50 

J. D. Ware's note 350.00 

C. Dodger's note 300.00 

Alvin Starkey's note 4,200.00 

Emma Cass' note 300.00 

William H. Knight's note 200.00 

John AVithington's note 130.00 

Luke Ellors' note 107.00 

John Starkey's note 800.00 

Almira Sawyer's note 75.00 

Note at savings-bank, Keene 2,000.00 

Benjamin Pierce's note 7,000.00 

John Starkey's note 500.00 

Miss R. Williams' note 50.00 

Congregational Society's note 120.00 

A. Kingsbury's note 1,500.00 

D. R. Marshal's note 300.00 

Note, Calvin Bryant's estate 1,000.00 



388 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Note, Calvin Bryant's estate 100.00 

Charles Howard's note 600.00 

Mrs. Hannah J. Clark's note 300.00 

C. Whitcomb & Co.'s note 10,000.00 

Baley Corlis' note 250.00 

J. N. Forrestall's note 350.00 

Note to Aaron Dickinson's estate... 380.00 

Francis Cook's note 1,000.00 

Mrs. C. E. Harris' note 1,000.00 

Henry S. Applin's note 300.00 

Marshall Ei.xford's note 3,000.00 

Zadock L. Taft's note 500.00 

Asahel W. Dunton's note 500.00 

Francis Hill's note 198.35 

G. G. Willis' note 1,000.00 

Martha L. Graves' note 250.00 

F. C. Whitcomb's note 75.00 

Noah Youngman's note 500.00 

Ahas Cass' note 100.00 

Zadock L. Taft's note 300.00 

Lyman Holbrook's note 125.00 

Mrs. Lucy A. Taft's note 326.00 

Mrs. Maranda J. Holbrook's note... 75.00 

Ahas Cass' note 200.00 

Charles Marsh's note 100.00 

Lewis Carpenter's note 600.00 

Lemuel O. Hunt's note 400.00 

Edward Dickinson's note 450.00 

Clark H. Houghton's note 500.00 

Roswell Whitcomb's note 290.41 

Wheeler & Falkner's note 179.97 

O. E. Parson's note 300.00 

Josiah Parson's note 300.00 

Mrs. Susannah Bryant's note 100.00 

David Pelkey's note 300.00 

Mrs. Arvilla S. Wilber's note 70.00 

Mrs. Arvilla S. Wilber"s note 350.00 

Lewis H. Hunt's note 500.00 

•Zadock L. Taft's note 150.00 

Note, Calvin Bryant's estate 160.00 

George W. Eastman's note 300.00 

Willard Adams' note 400.00 

Orrin i". Oakman's note 100.00 

Mrs. H. Wetherill's note 100.00 

Mrs. Silence Starkey's note 150.00 

Arza Higgins' note 1.50.00 

E. O. Whitcomb's note 200.00 

J.C.Webber's note 60.00 

S. W. Falkner's note 100.00 

J. C. Webber's note 102.00 

L. R. Starkey's note 300.00 

D. M. Harris' note 50.00 

Henry Abbott's note 300.00 



Alvin Starkey's note 2,000.00 

Mrs. Mary E. Partridge's note 250.00 

Mrs. Christian Marble's note 250.00 

Mrs. Sarah Willis' note 295.00 

Estimated due town-officers for 1865 800.00 

Estimated interest due on notes 850.00 

Amount $64,494.56 

Minus indorsements 572.70 

163,921.86 
Assets. 

Cash in the treasury $3,386.53 

In the collector's hands 1,716.83 

Due from State, soldiers' aid 925.77 

Due from the county for the sup- 
port of N. J. Underwood 214.60 

Due from general government boun- 
ties for nine men 2,160.00 

$8,403.73 

Total amount of liabilities $63,921.86 

Total amount of assets $8,403.73 

Indebtedness of the town, Febru- 
ary 17, 1866 $55,518.13 

February 16, 1867 55,011.28 

February 17, 1868 55,112.16 

February 17, 1869 55,092.50 

March 1, 1870 54,137.45 

March 1, 1871 49,443.14 

March 1, 1872 47,356.12 

March 1, 1873 33,429.37 

The town luul received, previous to the 
time the foregoing report was made, twelve 
thousand three liundred and twenty-five dol- 
lars from the State, being the town's proportion 
of the amount assumed of the town's debts. 

Indebtedness of the town, March 

1, 1874 $28,812.88 

March 1, 1875 25,349.85 

March 1, 1876 22,806.89 

March 1, 1877 20,382.31 

March 1, 1878 17,369.99 

March 1, 1879 14,594.05 

March 1, 1880 11,318.74 

March 1, 1881 9,370.73 

March 1, 1882 6,431.64 

March 1, 1883 3,208.40 

March 1, 1884 1,774.17 

Probably there was about as many farmers 
in Swanzey in 1800, as there has been at 
any one time in its history. In a large 



SWANZEY. 



389 



number of places where there is au old cellar- 
hole, there was at that time a small house owued 
l>y an industrious farmer, who l)y iiard work 
was clearing up his land and was supporting a 
large family. There was at this time a consider- 
able amount of travel through the centre of the 
town. ISIui'h of the travel from Cheshire 
County and Vermont going to Boston took this 
route. This travel consisted largely of farmers 
going to Boston to dispose of some of the sur- 
plus products of their farms. This travel was 
sufficiently large as to make it an object for 
some of the farmers to keep public-houses. One 
of these, which was quite a noted one, was on 
the hill iu that part of Swanzey which was 
taken in 1815 to form the town of Troy. 
Other public-houses were kept at the Centre. 

It was the custom of larg-e numbers of the 
farmers, in the fall of the year or in the early 
winter, to make up a load from the products of 
tiie form, together with some articles that had 
been made by the wife or daughters, and go 
himself to Boston and market them, and make 
purchases of some of the principal articles that 
would be needed the coming year. Large num- 
bers of these loads were drawn by a single 
horse, some would make up a load for two 
horses, and in some cases oxen were brought 
into requisition. These loads were largely made 
up of a few hundred pomids of pork, a few 
tubs of butter, a number of cheeses, a box or 
two of poultry, a web of frocking and a piece 
of flannel. The return load would consist of 
a few bushels of salt, a few gallons of rum, a 
few gallons of molasses, a few j^ounds of tea, a 
jack-knife for each of the boys, and a piece of 
goods to make the wife a dress and some 
trinkets for the girls. 

This method of the farmers was not very ad- 
vantageous to the country trader, but still it left 
some business for him, and this business con- 
sisted almost entirely of taking in farm pro- 
ducts in exchange for goods, and sending these 
goods to a distant market to exchange for new 
stock of goods. 



Mills, both saw-mills and grist-mills, were 
regarded as a prime necessity at the very com- 
mencement of the settlement of the town. 

The following extract from a i:)roprietors' 
meeting of March 16, 1737, testifies that the 
subject of building necessary mills was early 
entertained : 

" Voted That two hundred acres of land adjoining 
the Upper Great Falls in the Great River, to lay as 
convenieutly as may be to said falls be laid out to 
Ephraim Jones his heirs and assigns at his or their 
cost upon condition that he the said Jones his heirs 
and assigns at his or their cost upon condition that 
he the said Ephraim Jones his heirs and assigns shall 
build a good saw-mill at said falls on or before the 
15th day of August next and maintain it ten years 
at least and to saw for and sell boards to the proprie- 
tors, at the same price they generally do at other 
places said land to be laid out by the committee and 
surveyor which shall be chosen to lay out the next 
division of land to include said fall reserving free 
liberty for the setting up of a grist-mill at said place 
when the proprietors shall think it necessary. If the 
said Ephraim Jones, his heirs or assigns (who are to 
have the liberty before any other) shall decline it, 
and if at the end of said ten years, or any time for- 
ward the said Jones, his heirs or assigns, shall neglect 
or refuse to keep up and maintain a saw-mill at said 
place then the privilege and conveniency for a saw- 
mill at said place to revert to the proprietors." 

The saw-mill was built by Jones, and there 
can be little doubt but that he subsequently 
built a grist-mill at the same place. These 
mills stood a few rods below the site of the 
present mills at West Swanzey. They shared 
the fate of the other buildings of the township 
at the hands of the Indians. Before the 
township was resettled after its abandonment, 
and there was propriety in rebuilding mills at 
this site, Mr. Jones had died, and mills have 
never been built at that site. 

Previous to 1760, Captain Joseph Whitcomb 
had taken up his residence at West Swanzey. 
He had five sons. Some of these, if not all, 
came with their father. They all became in- 
habitants of the town. Captain Whitcomb 
and sons obtained four acres of the two hundred 
acres on the west side of the falls, and erected 



390 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



a saw and grist-mill, where the woolen-mill 
now stands. In 1800 these mills had been 
supplying the farmers with manufactured 
lumber, and grinding their grain for forty 
years. 

On June 1, 17o9, David Belding, Elisha 
Scott, Joshua Graves and Abner Graves ob- 
tained a grant of fifty acres of laud at Factory 
village, in consideration that they build at that 
place a saw and grist-mill within two years, 
and keep the mills in good repair for ten years 
and do work for customary prices. They ob- 
tained from the proprietors of Keeue the right 
to take the water from the East Branch, through 
a canal, to furnish the water-power for their 
mills. 

John Whitcomb and sons built the first saw 
and grist-mill at East Swanzey, in al)Out 17. SO. 

Captain Samuel Brown and Moses Board- 
man Williams had a fifty-acre lot pitched and 
surveyed at Westport, June 2, 1774, which 
included the falls ; mills were erected there at 
an early date. 

Richard Stratton commenced the business of 
cloth-dressing previous to 1800 at West Swan- 
zey', and Colonel Elisha Whitcomb built a card- 
ing machine at East Swanzey at an early date. 

A tannery had been built and was in success 
ful operation at what was long known as the 
Blake tannery. Captain Timothy Bishop had 
at one time a small foundry on a brook up 
amongst the hills in the east part of the 
town. 

Carpenters, shoemakers and blacksmiths were 
scattered through the town. But it was to the 
farmers in the town up to 1800 that the mill- 
owners and the mechanics looked for employ- 
ment. The fact was that nearly^ every man in 
town M'as engaged in farming. The tavern- 
keeper, the trader, the mill-owner, the clothier, 
the carder, the carpenter, the shoemaker, the 
tanner, the blacksmiths, the nail- maker, the 
brick-makers had their farms. They carried 
on their farms to a great extent by exchanging 
their "oods and their labor for labor to culti- 



vate lands already cleared and for clearing up 
more land. 

In 1800 there were many large and substan- 
tial houses in the town, many of more moderate 
proportions and not a large number of small 
framed houses and but a small number of log 
ones. Probably there never was much necessity 
for using the log house for any great length of 
time. Timber was abundant and of little value 
and plenty of mills to manufacture it. 

The oldest type of the best houses that had 
been built previous to 1800 was a two-story 
house in front and one-story at the back part. 
Tlie plan was to have two good-sized front 
rooms on the lower floor and to have two good- 
sized chambers on the second floor. The centre 
of the rear j)art contained a large kitchen, and 
at the ends of it bed-room, pantry, cupboards, 
entries, etc. To accommodate the three large 
rooms on the lower floor and the two front 
chambers, a very large chimney was built in the 
centre of the house. Another type, and one 
from which a larger number was built than 
from the first, was to have the same construc- 
tion upon the lower floor, but without the 
second story in front. A fashionable type for 
the best houses at a later date was to build 
with two stories and with a four-cornei'ed flat 
I'oof. If it was built with two rooms upon 
each floor, it had usually a chimney at each end 
of the house. If it contained four rooms upon 
each floor, the chimneys were built bet^veen the 
front and rear rooms. 

From the standjDoint of 1830 a considerable 
amount of business had been engaged in in the 
previous thirty y^ears of a different character 
from that pursued jirevious to 1800. 

Perhaps the first business taken hold of was 
the weaving of cotton cloth by the women. It 
was a number of years after machinery had 
been put in operation in this country for spin- 
ing cotton yarn before the weaving of cot- 
ton cloth by the power-loom was successfully 
accomplished. During this time cotton yarn 
was made in the mills and distril)uted throujih 



SWANZEY. 



391 



the couutiy to be woveu by womeu. Large 
amounts of this ^^•ol■k were done in Swaiizey ; 
men went with teams to Iliiode Island and 
(tbtained the yarn and put it out to be woven. 
There was in abnost every house oue or more 
looms and some of the family busy at work 
weaving. 

About 1810 a mill was built at the Factory 
village for making cotton yarn. Subsequently 
looms were put into the mill. 

In 1830 the mill was in active operation 
making cotton cloth. About 1820 a small 
amount of machinery was running at East 
Swanzey, by William Ryder, Phineas Stone and 
Henry Cooper, making cotton yarn. 

Between 1800 and 1830 an important busi- 
ness was commenced by tlic owners (if saw- 
mills in manufacturing lumber for the princi- 
[lal towns low down upon the Connecticut 
River. There was at this time a large amount 
of superior pine timber in the town. In the 
winter a number of mills were heavily stocked 
with this timber. The mills at this time were 
all sash-mills, and, compared with the present 
circular-mills, lumber was sawn very slowly by 
them. To make up for this, they were kept 
running during the mouths of March, April, 
May and June, night and day. As soon as the 
lumber was sufficiently seasoned, teams were em- 
ployed to cart it to the bank of the Connecticut 
River, at Northfield, Mass., or Hinsdale. At 
these places it was packed into large rafts and 
floated down the river to such places as Spring- 
field, Hartford and New Haven, and there sold. 
The principal men engaged in this business 
were John Stratton, Major Benjamin Whit- 
comb, Moses Howard, Alvin Hohnau, John 
Chamberlain, Daniel H. Holbrook, Lyman 
Parker and Roswell Parker. 

This business was of great advantage to the 
farmers. INIany of them owned considerable 
quantities of timber, which they could dispose 
of to the manufacturers for cash. Most of the 
farmers at this time had one or more pairs of 
oxen. These were usually kept busy in the 



winter, logging. Those who had timber of 
their own could cut and draw it themselves ; 
those who had not timber of their own could 
usually find employment fir themselves and 
teams by working for the mill-owners, who 
generally bought lots of standing timber and 
hired it cut and drawn. 

The lumber that was carted to Northfield, as 
most of it was, had to be drawn over North- 
field Hill. The road was rather steep upon 
both sides. That \\ hich was carted from East 
Swanzey had to be drawn over the Potter Hill 
and over the Fish Hill. Both of these hills 
were steep upon both sides. 

Most of the teams for carting had two yoke 
of oxen ; some would have an extra horse and 
some would be one pair of oxen and a horse. 
The loading of the wagons was most frequently 
done (inc day, that the team could start as ([uick 
as daylight the next morning. They would reach 
the river and unload before dark, and return 
home during the night. 

The prices paid for work, and the wagons and 
sleds used those times, were very different from 
the price paid for work at the present time and 
the wagons and sleds used. Four dollars for 
carting a load of lumber with two yoke of oxen, 
to Northfield, was about a fair price; and in 
the winter, when a man got for himself and a 
pair of oxen for a day's work one dollar and 
twenty-five cents, he thought that he was fiiirly 
paid. The wagons used, most of them, were 
made with a wooden axle-tree skeined. Brakes 
for wagons were unknown in those days. As 
some of the hills were so steep on the road over 
which the lumber had to be carted that went to 
the river, one pair of oxen could not manage a 
load drawn by two yoke, and so a false pole was 
used, that both pair could hold back in going 
down the steep hills. The sleds had long run- 
ners, shod with wood. 

Another business introduced into the town 
was the working up the red oak timber into 
shocks. The business consisted in ffoinu; into 
the wo(jds, cutting down the best red oak trees, 



392 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



sawing them up into blocivs of the lengtli of a 
stave for a molasses hogshead ; then in splitting 
these blocks up into staves ; then in shaving 
and jointing the staves ; tiien in binding tliem 
to make tlie bulge of the hogshead ; then in 
^Jacking enough in a bunch to make a hogs- 
head, and bending them firmly together. 

They were then carted to ('onnectieut River 
and transported down the river loaded on the 
top of a raft of boards or carried in a large 
boat made for transporting freight up and 
down the river. The sliooJc market was at 
New Haven, Conn. There were men at that 
place who bought them and shipped them to 
the West Indies. 

The making of palm-leaf hats was intro- 
duced into the town previous to 1830, and at 
that time many of the women were busy mak- 
ing hats. 

Soon after ISOO, if not before, the travel 
from Keene for Boston was diverted from the 
road that passed through Swanzey Centre. At 
first it went through Marlborough and Jaffrey ; 
but soon the turnpike was built through the 
east part of Swanzey, which soon became a 
great thoroughfare for freighting, for private 
traveling and staging. After the travel had 
left Swanzey Centre there was but little busi- 
ness for public-houses to do, that were on the 
road that passed through there; but soon the 
Underwood tavern was Iniilt at the Factory 
village, which for a long tinu^ was popular and 
well 2)atronized. 

Benjamin Page was born in 1792, and died 
when about sixty-six years old. During the time 
after he was twenty-one years old to the time of 
his death he was one of the marked men of the 
town. He was intensely in earnest to become 
rich, and wns extremely visionary. These traits 
in his character led hina to engage in many 
different branches of business. He at first en- 
gaged in trade at Swanzey Centre ; next he 
commenced to make woolen flannels at the place 
of his birth, the old Ephraim Page homestead. 
The spinning of the yarn for these flannels and 



the weaving was done at first by hand. A shop 
was built in which to do the work, and women 
were employed. His next move for making 
these goods was to purchase, at East Swanzey, 
the cloth-dressing business, and change the ma- 
chinery for making flannels. About 1830 the 
business of making flannels was given up, and 
machinery for making pails wa.s put into tlie 
mill. 

This was the first of the pail-making business 
in Swanzey by machinery, and was nearly the 
first that was done anywhere. A very little 
had been done in Troy and Marlborough. 

We will now take a look at Swanzey as it 
was in 1830, and notice some things that 
dated a few years from 1830. 

The old growth pine timber was quite abund- 
ant. Large tracts could be seen of these stately 
forest-trees upon the plains and upon the hills. 
Many of these trees appeared in another form, 
which gave to the town a disagreeable aspect. 
At a time when pine timber was not considered 
of any value it was cut and burned up on the 
land. In cutting the timber upon land for the 
purpose of bringing it under cultivation, many 
large pine-trees would be found that it would 
be a great task to cut and burn up. The result 
was that many of these trees were left standing 
when the land was chopped, and were killed by 
the fire when the land was burned. And it 
was very frequent to find at this date, when cut- 
ting off a timber-lot, old, defective ti-ees that 
were not worth cutting and would be left, and 
then fire would run through the lot and they 
would be killed. Such trees could be seen in 
all directions, some with bark on, some with it 
partly off and some with it all off; some of the 
trees would have limbs on ; some would have 
nearly all their limbs gone; some were black, 
having been burned after they had become 
partially dried. 

Nowhere in Cheshire County was to be found, 
in 1830, a road over which there was more 
staging, more teaming and more general travel- 
ing than the turnpike in the east part of Swan- 



SWANZEY. 



393 



zev. The travel by stage between Keene and 
Boston nearly all went over this road. In sum- 
mer soon aftiT d:\yliglit, and in wint(>r before 
daylight, four-horse stage-coaches would start 
and pass down over this road. In summer the 
stages from Boston would pass before dariv, in 
winter it would V)e aftei- dark. Tlie passengers 
aboard the coaches would be made up usually of 
some from Keeue, some from other towns in 
Cheshire County, many from Vermont, a few 
from the northeast of New York and frequently 
some from Canada. 

The teams that one would see on the road 
going south would be one of six horses, with a 
great load of bags of A^ermont wool; then 
would bi' seen more frequently two-horse teams 
going the same way, some with loads of grain 
from the Connecticut lliver towns, loads of 
butter and loads of cheese from Vermont. When 
these teams came back, if they went through to 
Boston, they would l)e loaded with all kinds of 
merchandise for the traders, or such stocks as the 
manufacturers had to purchase for their special 
business. In those times people who went to 
visit friends went very generally witli their own 
teams ; some ^vould have a nice pair of horses 
and a nice carriage, some with a nice pair of 
horses an<l a larm-wagou, some with a nice 
horse and <'haise, some with an ordinary horse 
and a common wagon. The old Underwood 
tavern at the Factory village, was a place where 
large numbers of teamsters and travelers were 
entertained. 

A number of Swanzey men at this time 
owned a nice chaise, about the only nice car- 
riages that were used. Of those who owned 
such a carriage was Rev. Ebcnezer Colman, Hon. 
Elijah Beldiug, lion. Elijah Carpenter, Major 
Ezekiel Page, Captain Levi Blake, Amos Bailey 
Esq., Captain Benjamin Brown, Captain David 
Holbrook, Israel Staidey, Alexander Perry and 
Alvah Thompson. 

The majority of the people rode in a com- 
mon wagon. These were made with a wooden 
axle-tree ; the body of the wagou was set square 



down upon the axle-tree, and the seats were set 
iqjon wooden springs. 

Rev. Ebenezer Colman was tiie minister of 
the Congregational Cliurch and Society in 1830, 
who worshiped at what is the town-house, un- 
less the Universalists wanted it. This denomina- 
tion claimed tiie right, to use the house a ])ortion 
of the time, and when they did the Congregation- 
alists worshiped at a hall, or a .school-house. 
The Universalists had no regular minister, and 
used tiie house only occasionally as they em- 
ployed a minister for a few Sabbatiis or as a 
minister of that denominatiou iiappened to be 
in town. 

At tliis time not so large a projxn-tion of the 
people attended meeting on Sunday as they 
did fifty years previously, but going to clum'li 
was more general than it is at present. Of 
those that did go, in the east jiart of Swanzey, 
most of them went to the Congregational meet- 
ings and in the west part of the town they 
went to the Ba])tist meetings. 

A large majority c)f liu^ men that went to 
chui'ch wei'e farmers. Raising of colts was an 
important part of the business of the farmers. 
The mare that raised his colts was used to carry 
the family to chureh. On Sunday one would 
see a large number of mares, witii colts by 
their sides, hitched under the horse-sheds, or 
under a shade tree, or to a fence. A less nnmlier 
of the boys attended Sunday-school, than at the 
present time. Much of the intermission be- 
tween the m(»rningand afternoon services would 
be spent by the boys in looking at the colts 
and ascertaining who had got the best ones. 
But the fun with the colts came after the meet- 
ing was out. 'I'hey would be full of frolic, 
and get mixed uj), to the annoyance of the men, 
and that would make fiui for the boys. Priest 
Colman kept a mare from which he raised 
colts, and he could be seen week-days riding 
about town making calls with his mare 
hitched to his chaise, and her eoit running by 
her side. 

Wages were low compared witli the present 



394 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



price paid for labor. Priest C'olman's salary? 
we think, was three hundred dollars in money 
and his fire-wood a year, and he had a strong 
body, a vigorous mind, and was a good 
minister. INIen would work on a farm in the 
summer, and keep school in the winter, for 
fifteen dollars a month. Women would work 
for two dollars a week at teaching school or 
at honse-work. 

The water-power in Swanzey consists of a fall 
of water at Westport of about ten feet of the Ash- 
uclot River. The fall of the same river at West 
Swanzey is twelve feet. This is all the power 
that can be obtained from that river in the 
town. The water-power at the Factory vil- 
lage is obtained by bringing the water through 
a canal from the East Branch in Keene. After 
the water leaves the Factory village it has 
to fiow aljout a mile before it enters the Ash- 
nelot River. It furnishes in its course an ex- 
cellent water privelege at Spragueville. 

The South Branch has no fall that furnishes 
power for some four miles from its mouth. 
Above this, to where it enters the town, there is 
considerable fall of water, and seven very good 
water privileges have been brouglit into use. 
The Swanzey Pond is the only natural pond in 
the town. It covers al^out one hundred acres. 
At the outlet of this pt)nd there is one very 
good privilege. There have l)een two saw-mills 
on a brook that runs from Richmond north to 
Pond Brook and enters the South Branch. 
There have been two saw-mills on Hiponeco 
Brook, which is in the south\vest corner of the 
town. There is a mill on Bridge Brook, in the 
southeast corner of the town, for manufacturing 
jjail stock, and there was a mill at one time for 
making toy pails. Varey Brook is in the ex- 
treme west part of the town, and there was a 
saw-mill ujion this brook for many years. A 
small brook runs by the house of Captain Ed- 
mond Storrs, upon which he has mills. 

We will give the names of the principal busi- 
ness men in the town, excepting the farmers, 
and the nature of their business and the places 



where they were located in 18."W, or very near 
that time. 

The mills at Westport were operated by John 
and Wetherbee Chamberlain. Benjamin H. Carl- 
ton w^as a clothier at the same place. B. C. 
Peters carried on the tailoring business. Major 
Benjamin Whitcomb owned the mills at West 
Swanzey, on the west side of the river ; John 
Stratton on the east side. Isaac Stratton was a 
clothier. Samuel Stearns, Luke & David Ben- 
nett, Porter Hills were in trade either at West 
Swanzey or Westjiort. Archer Campbell was 
operating the cotton-factory at the Factory 
village, and the other mills at that place. Dr. 
E. H. Frost owned the mills at Wilson Pond. 
Ezekiel Graves had a saw-mill at the Hollow, 
and Ira Taft a shingle-machine. Lyman & 
Roswell Parker had a saw and grist-mill at East 
Swanzey. Joseph ^^^lIteoml) iiad at the same 
place a shingle-mill and a carding-machine. 
Heniy C-ooper and Israel Applin had a saw- 
mill. The cloth-dressing mill had at this time, or 
did soon after, pass into the iiands of Benjamin 
Page, and was changed into a manufactory of 
pails. Who operated the saw-mill at Swanzey 
Pond we have not ascertained. John Perry and 
John Hills had saw-mills on the Sant Brook, 
Nathaniel Thompson, on Hiponeco Brook, and 
Daniel Varey on Varey Brook. Captain Levi 
Blake carried on the tanning business about a 
mile and a half south of the middle of the town, 
and employed four or five men at the business. 
Amos Bailey, at the Centre, employed three or 
four men making- boots and shoes. C^aleb 
Sawyer was the trader at the Centre. Two of 
the best-known-carpenters and builders in this 
vicinity at this time were Zadock L. Taft and 
his brother, James S. Taft. 

Tlie followino; are the names of men and their 
business, which has intervened between 1830 
and the present time : 

Alvin Holman was associated with John Cham- 
berlain at Westport. in the lumbering business a 
number of years. He may have been there as 
early as 184(1 Franklin Holman, a brother of 



SWANZEY. 



395 



Alvin, commenced the manufacturing of nest 
buckets at tlie same place about the same time, 
and continued the business for a number of 
years. After Mr. Chamberlain and the Holmans 
had discontinued business, the principal manu- 
facturing of the place was done by a com|)any 
of which Stephen Falkner, Henry Holbrook 
and several others constituted the firm. 

About twenty years ago James Marsh and 
E. F. Read bought the mills and water-power, 
made some extensive repairs and commenced 
the manufacturing of pails. Mr. Marsh ul- 
timately bought out jNIr. Read and has continued 
the business. 

It is many years, perhaps twenty-five, since tlie 
making of small boxes for the New York mar- 
ket was begun in the village. One of the first 
in the business was a Mr. Coborn. After him 
Mr. Henry Holbrook was in the business. Mr. 
J. Mason Read was the successor of Mr. Hol- 
brook, having purchased the machinery soon 
after Messrs. Marsh and Read bought the mills. 
Some two years since Mr. Read moved his 
machinery to Kcene. 

Mr. Sylvanus Bartlett moved from Westport 
to Keene some three years ago. We think that 
he had been most of the time a resident of the 
village more than forty j^ears previous. He 
opened a few years at the West ; during his 
residence there he was much of the time in 
trade, and some of the time a manufacturer of 
wooden-ware. 

Jotham Frink, Stephen Falkner and Henry 
Abbott have been iu trade here. E. F. Read 
was for some time associated with Mr. Marsh 
in trade. Until quite recently Mr. George 
Brooks had been with jNIr. Marsh. 

We presume that it is fifty years since Ever- 
son Cook commenced trading at West Swanzey, 
and he may have continued in the business 
there twenty-five years. Much of this time he 
connected the tailoring business with his store. 

Of other men that have traded at this place 
are Jonathan and Hiram ^Vllitcomb, Jotham 
Frink, Rev. Mr. Mason, Joseph Hammond, 



Joseph Ware, Paul F. Aldrich, Frank Snow, 
Russel & Whitcomb, and J. L. Parker. 

The tanning business at this place was begun 
by Isaac Stratton. It m.ay have l)eeu thirty- 
five years ago. The business was continued 
many years by Mr. Stratton. Several j'ears 
ago Asa Kendall purchased the establishment 
and did a large business at tanning until within 
two or three years ago. 

John Stratton, Jr., and his brother-in-law, 
Jotham W. Frink, bought the Whitcomb mill, 
on the west side of the river, not far from 
thirty years ago; they subseipiently built what 
is now a part of the woolen-mill. The mill 
was run by these men a number of years. E. 
F. Read and J. L. Parker have each been en- 
gaged a number of years in manufacturing 
wooden-ware here. Some of the time they 
were in company. 

Virgil Woodcock was born July 16, 1806. 
He learned the carpeuter's trade of his father, 
Levi ^\ oodcock. Soon after he reached his 
majority it was apparent that he wa.s a good 
workman, was very industrious and was des- 
tined to be a man of business. He very soon 
had a number of men in his employ, and was 
taking contracts to build large buildings, such 
as meeting-houses, hotels, etc. His residence 
was at Swanzey Centre ; he there built a shop 
for his business and put in a steam-engine. It 
subsequently appeared that he took some of his 
contracts too low, which resulted in his becom- 
ing involved. Soon after gold was discovered 
in California he took an overland route to that 
place. He returned, after staying there a few 
years, having accumulated something of a prop- 
erty. The shop, that he first built had been 
disposed of, and made into two dwelling-houses. 
Soon after his return from California he asso- 
ciated himself with Phinehas Stone, and they 
erected at Swanzey Centre a large mill, and put 
in steam-power sufficient to operate a saw-mill, 
a grist-mill, pail-works and machinery for 
manufacturing chair stock. The enterprise did 
not prove profitable, and the business was con- 



396 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tiiuied only a few years. Mr. Woodcock died 
July 18, 1875. A few yeare before his death he 
Avas interested in gold-mining at Plymouth, Vt. 

We have already mentioned that Benjamin 
Page commenced the manufacturing of pails 
by machinery at East Swanzey about 1830. 
Very soon after Mr. Page had got his tirst 
, mill into successful operation he built a new 
mill on another privilege. This was where 
Wilder P. Clark's pail-shop now stands. Na- 
than Winch and Joseph Putney bought the old 
Whitcomb carding-raill a few years after Mr. 
Page commenced making pails and put in ma- 
chinery for making pails. They continued the 
business a short time and then sold out to Mr. 
Page. A few years later Mr. Page bought the 
Parker grist and saw-mills. He took out the 
grist-mill and put in pail machinery. This 
gave him the ownership of all the mills in the 
place, which he continued to hold until his 
death. He was connected with the pail busi- 
ness some twenty-seven years. Some of this 
time he was in trade at this place, and some of 
the time at the Centre. At one time he en- 
gaged in making friction matches ; at another 
time he went into the poultry business. His 
estate was settled and the mills sold in 1859. 

Since the sale of Mr. Page's property, and 
the time when the present proprietors came 
into jTOSsession of their respective mills, the 
following persons have been interested in opera- 
ting some one of the mills for a longer or 
shorter time making 2>ails : Benjamin Read, 
Asa Clark, J. W. Murphy, Silas B. Patridge, 
John S. Sargent, Edward Woodward, Calvin 
Alexander and H. W. Mason. A. W. Banks 
and J. Mason Read owned one of the mills a 
number of years, and during this time they 
manufactured chair stock and pail-haudles. 

The lower mill privilege at East Swanzey 
was brought into use by G. G.Willis and Nelson 
Howe about 1852 for manufacturing wooden- 
ware. They built a substantial dam, erected 
good buildings and equipped the mills with the 
best of machinery. Mr. Howe continued with 



Mr. Willis a kw years as a partner, when he 
disposed of his interest to Mr. Willis. Mr. 
Willis left the premises after having been in 
possession some fifteen years. Nathan Winch 
and George F. Bucklin were the successors of 
Mr. Willis, but they continued in business but 
a short time, when they disposed of the estab- 
lishment to George F. Lane. 

Not far from 1858, Elkanah and Frederick 
Augustus Lane, two brothers, commenced work 
for a new manufacturing establishment about a 
half-mile above East Swanzey village. They 
subsequently manufactured chair-stock, pails 
and horse-blankets. It is now some years since 
anything has been done at this place. It is 
owned by E. F. Lane, of Keene. Not far from 
the time thai: the Lanes built this mill Batchellor 
& Bigelow Iniilt the mill at present owned by 
Edward A\'ilcox. Messrs. Batchellor & Big- 
elow did business at the mill but a few years. 

We presume that it is about thirty years since 
Ephraim Murdock, Jr., purchased the mill-site 
at the Factory village, where the old cotton- 
factorv stood, and begun the makino- of ijails, 
and continued the business up to the time of 
his death, which luay have been five years ago. 
Mr. Murdock had for a time associated with 
Mr. William Nason, and he may have had 
others in company with him. 

Between the time that Archer Camiibell op- 
erated the cotton-fiictory and the time that it 
was burned, it was run a short time by George 
Olliver. In 1840 it was being run by Jarvis 
Bates & Bros. ; later it was run by Barns Bros. 
In 1840, Daniel Kimball was the owner of the 
Underwood tavern and its manager. Later, 
Franklin Goodnow was in |)Ossession of the 
premises. 

For many years Daniel H. Holl^rook was 
the owner of the saw-mill at the outlet of 
Swanzey Pond. He manufactured principally 
old-growth pine lumber and he shipped it 
largely to the markets low down on the Con- 
necticut river. 

Roswell Whitcomb built a mill upon Hypo- 



SWANZEY. 



397 



neco Brook to manufacture wooden-ware stock 
some years previous to 1860. He operated the 
mill a number of years with financial success. 

Moses Howard was born not far from the 
commencement of the present century. He 
died a number of years ajjo. Durius; his life, 
after he reached his majority, he was engaged 
in various kinds of business: was a large far- 
mer ; dealt extensively in lumber, although not 
a mill-owner ; made shook and built bridges 
and roads. 

Colonel Henry Starkey and his son John 
were engaged many years in making shook. 

We will now give the present business situa- 
tion of the town. 

At Westport, James Marsh owns all of the 
water-power and the mills connected with the 
water-power, and uses the mills for making 
pails. He owns a store building for the sale of 
goods and the stock of goods. He owns a 
larire number of dwelling-houses in the village. 

o o o 

Jerome Field manufactures wooden-ware and 
uses steam-power. 

A considerable amount of granite is quarried 
on the side of Franklin Mountain, not far from 
the village. 

. The business at West Swanzey consists of 
the woolen-mill, managed by Obadiah Sprague ; 
the wooden-ware business of Charles Russel and 
George E. AA^hitcomb ; the wooden-ware busi- 
ness of Frank Snow ; the box business of Solon 
Snow & Son ; the box business of Obadiah 
Sprague and Orlow Parsons. 

Towns & Fames have a grist-mill. Solomon 
Fox has two stores, at which are kept a general 
assortment of goods. George Brooks deals in 
flour, grain and groceries. H. B. Evans keeps 
a livery stable. Frank Snow usus steam-power 
for his manufacturing, and furnishes power for 
Solon Snow & Son's box business and for the 
grist-mill. All the rest of the manufacturing 
in the village is done by water-power. A few 
years since Obadiah Sprague built at the place 
now called Spragueville two large, substantial 
mills. One was designed for a woolen-mill, the 



other for a saw-mill and for manufacturinar 

o 

lumber into merchandise. The mills were in 
operation but a short time before they were 
burned. The woolen-mill has not been rebuilt. 
The other has been, and a company consisting of 
Obediah Sprague, Charles Hawes and James 
L. Wright are manufacturing in it boxes and 
extension-tables. 

George Garfield bought the Murdock establish- 
ment at the Factory village after Mr. Mur- 
dock's decease and is doing an amount of busi- 
ness equal to that done by Mr. Murdock ; we 
presume, Mr. Orren Dickinson has been in busi- 
ness at this village a long time. Most of this 
time he has had a grist-mill and much of the 
time he has manufactured sash, doors and 
blinds. At present some of his sons are with 
him in the manufacturing business. A Mr. 
Howe owns the old Underwood tavern and keeps 
a public-house. 

The upper mill privilege on the South 
Branch is owned by E. F. Lane & Son and 
they manufacture flour- buckets. The next be- 
low is owned by Edward Wilcox and he makes 
boxes. The next privilege down the stream is 
owned by E. F. Lane. 

Of the four mill privileges at East Swanzey, 
there is at present mills upon three of them. 
The mill upon the other was burned two years 
since and has not been rebuilt. The upper one 
of those that are in use is operated by James 
M. Ramsdell for making different kinds of 
wooden-ware. The next one is owned by Wil- 
der P. Clark, of Winchendon, and he makes 
pails exclusively. The lower one is in posses- 
sion of George F. Lane & Sons ; they make 
buckets and pails. Mr. Lane the senior mem- 
ber of this firm, has been longer in the business 
of manutactijring wooden-ware than any other 
person now in the business in Swanzey. The 
mill that E. F. Lane now owns was formerly 
owned by him. 

The mill at the outlet of Swanzey Pond has 
been owned a number of years by the Lom- 
bards. They manufacture pail-stock, box- 



398 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



stock and lumber generally. Walter Perry has 
a mill on a brook in the south part of the town. 
He uses both water and steam and makes pail 
and tub-stock and pail-handles. 

There is machinery in Swanzey for making 
wooden-ware and boxes sufficient to work eight 
thousand cords of timber, mostly pine, in a 
year. Most of this timber is obtained in the 
town. The large amount that is yearly cut 
does not appear to reduce the quantity. The 
timber used is almost exclusively second-growth 
pine. 

Since the commencement of using this kind 
of timber for making wooden-ware, large tracts 
of land have been left to grow up. It grows 
very fast, and, thus far, the supply has ]>een 
equal to the demand. Probably tliere has been 
no time for the last fifty years when more acres 
of land in Swanzey were covered with growing 
timber than there is to-day. 

The owners of mills in Swanzey have suf- 
fered severely by fire. The cotton-factory at 
Factory village was burned. When George F. 
Lane owned the mills where E. F. Lane now 
owns he was twice burned out. The mill that was 
built by Elkanah and Frederick A. Lane, and 
which was used at last for making horse-blank- 
ets, was burned a number of years ago. Of 
the four mill-sites at Easi Swanzey, the upper 
one has been burnt oif three times ; the next 
one below, twice ; the other two, once each. As 
we have before stated, Obadiah Sprague had 
two large and substantial new mills burned at 
Spragueville. Mr. Walter Perry has been once 
burnt out. Frank Snow, at West Swanzey, had 
a large mill, nearly new, burned. And we 
think that mills have been twice burned on the 
site now owned by James Marsh, at Westport. 

The aggregate loss from the burning of dry- 
houses at the wooden-ware establishments has 
been very great. The loss of a few hundred 
dollars by the burning of a dry-house has been 
a common occurrence since the wooden-ware 
business was commenced in the town. 

Swanzey has a n^ilitary record >vhich is 



highly creditable. The history of the town 
during the Revolution shows that tiie public 
sentiment of the town was decidedly in favor 
of the Revolutionary cause. The following 
record shows the promptness with which the 
musket was shouldered on learning of the bat- 
tle at Lexington and Concord : 

A company consisting of one lieutenant, one 
ensign, fiiur sergeants, four corporals and fifty- 
two privates, marched from Swanzey at day- 
light on the morning of April 21st, under the 
command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Ham- 
mond. (Vol. xiii. p.526.) Twenty-two of them 
enlisted at Cambridge for eight months, and the 
remainder returned after an absence of fifteen 
days. 

We do not claim that all of this company 
was composed of Swanzey men, but that they 
composed a large part of it there can be no 
doubt. 

One of those from Swanzey, who enlisted for 
eight months, was Captain Jonathan Whitcomb. 
He was made a captain, and his company was 
attached to Colonel Reed's regiment. 

The following gives the return of Captain 
Whitcomb's company June 14, 1775 ; onecaptain, 
one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, one 
fifer, fifty-one privates. A return of the com- 
pany June 21, 1775, showed that two of the 
number had been wounded. 

In 1777 the town of Swanzey " Voted that 
each man that shall, pursuant to orders from 
Colonel Ashley to Captain Whitcomb, en- 
list into the Continental army for three years, 
or during the war with Great Britain, shall be 
allowed and paid by the town £26, and also, 
that each man in this town that has already done 
service in the present war shall be allowed for 
the same in such proportion as shall be deter- 
mined by a committee to be appointed for that 
purpose, allowing a year's service at £13 6s. 8cl. " 

The committee for this pxn-pose consisted of 
Thomas Applin, Calvin Frink, Samuel Hills, 
Dauiel Warner, Henry Morse and Joseph 
Whitcomb, Jr., who reported as follows: 



SWANZEY. 



399 



" SwANZEY, Feb. 23, 1778. 

"We, the subscribers, being a committee appointed 
by the town to receive the accounts of such pereons as 
have done or procured any service to be done iu 
tlie present war, and to consider the same and make 
them such allowance therefore as we should think 
reasonable and just, and having attended the busi- 
ness whereto we were appointed, do find and report to 
the town as follows, viz: That we think it just and 
reasonable that there be allowed and paid as the town 
shall agree. 

"To John Aplin, for 3 days in the militia and 2 
months to Bennington, £4 lis. Id. 

" David Belding, Jr., for a term in the militia to 
Otter Creek, £17 (is. 

" Samuel Belding, Jr., for service in the e.xpedition 
to Canada, done by Annanius Tubs, £15. 

" Lieut. Moses Belding, for 13 months' service in 
the army, £28 3s. 4(/. 

" Ensign Timothy Bishop, for 12 days in the militia 
to Cambridge, 2J months' service at Ticonderoga by 
hire, 1 month in the militia to Ticonderoga, aud 12 
days to Otter Creek, £10 4s. 2d. 

" Daniel Bishop, for 12 days in militia to Cam- 
bridge, 1 month to Ticonderoga, 12 days to Otter 
Creek and two months' service to Bennington, 
£9 2s. 6rf. 

"Elijah Belding, for 12 days in militia to Cam- 
bridge and for 2' mouths by his brothers, £6 13s. 4rf. 

" Eleazer Brown, for 1 months' service iu the militia 
to Ticonderoga, done by Levi Durant, and 12 days 
service in the militia to Cambridge and 12 to Otter 
Creek, £4 15s. id. 

"Wright Brown, 2.v months' service at York, 
£5 8s. 4rf. 

"Thomas Cresson, Jr., for a term in the militia to 
Cambridge, a month's service in militia to Ticonde- 
roga and 12 days to Otter Creek, and for service done 
by his son, £15 12s. 6d. 

" Nathan Cresson, for 1 month's service to Ticon- 
deroga and 4 months in the Continental service, 
£10 16s. 8d. 

" Joseph Cummings, for 9 days in militia to Cam- 
bridge, 2J months done by Enoch Cummings, and a 
term in militia to Otter Creek, and 2 months done by 
Simeon Taylor, £11 8s. 9d. 

" Thadeus Cummings, for 2J months by Enoch 
Cummings, £5 8s. 4c?. 

" Ephraim Cummings, for service in militia 5 days, 
and for 1 month and 6 days' service in the army, 
1777, £2 19s. 6d. 

" Caleb Cook, for 4 months' service done by Ben- 
jamin Parker, £8 13s. id. 



" Greenwood Carpenter, for 2j months' service 
done by his son, £5 8s. 4rf. 

"William Carpenter, for 2.i months' service to Ti- 
conderoga and 1 month at Cambridge, £7 lis. 8'/. 

"Enoch Cummings, for8T months' service at Cam- 
bridge 1775, also 12 days in militia to Otter Creek, 
1777, £19 5s. lOd. 

" Nehemiah Cummings, same as above, £19 5s. \0d. 

" Nathaniel Dickinson, for 1 month at Ticonderoga 
and 4 months in the army, done by Henry Stevens, 
1777, £10 16s. 8(/. 

"Joseph Dickinson, for 12 days in militia to Cam- 
bridge, 4 months in army by Henry Stevens, and for 
12 days to Otter Creek, £11 5s. lOrf. 

"Benjamin Day, 25 days in militia at Stillwater in 
1777, and 4 months' service before he came to Swan- 
zey, £16 19s. lOrf. 

"Joseph Day, 5 months at Ticonderoga and 12 
days in militia to Otter Creek, £11 14s. 2'/. 

" Amos Day, 10 months at Cambridge, £21 13s. 4f/. 

" Joseph Durrant, 12 months in army, £26. 

" Levi Durant, 8 months at Cambridge, 1775, and 
12 days in militia at Otter Creek, £18 4s. 'Id. 

"John Follett, Jr., 12 days at Cambridge and 1 
month at Ticonderoga, £3 18s. id. 

"Calvin Frink, 4 months at Cambridge, 1775, and 
1 month at Ticonderoga, 1776, £10 16s. 8rf. 

" Joshua Graves, 5 months at Ticonderoga by hire, 
1 month in militia at Ticonderoga and 5 days in 
militia, 1777, £13 7s. id. 

"Elijah Graves, Jr., for 3 days in militia, 1775, 10 
months at Canada by Isaac Billings, 1 month at Ti- 
conderoga and 25 day sat Stillwater, 1777, £26 Os. 11(/. 

" Daniel Gunn, 12 months in army, £26. 

" Wyat Gunn, 12 days to Cambridge, 21 months at 
Ticonderoga, £7 3s. id. 

"Thomas Greene, 1 year and 8 mouths' in array, 
£13 6s. M. 

" Joseph Greene, 1 year and 8 months in army, 
£43 6s. Sd. 

Abraham Griffith, 8 months in army at Cambridge, 
£7 6s. 8d. 

" Abuer Graves, 1 month at Ticonderoga, £2 3.?. id. 

" Charles Grimes, 12 days at Cambridge and 9 
months in Continental Army by hire, and 12 days 
at Otter Creek, 1777, £22 3s. Id. 

" Colo. Joseph Hammond, 9 days at Cambridge, 5 
months in army by hire, and 12 days at Otter Creek, 
1777, £13 Os. 5d. 

" Thom.as Hammond, 21 months by Joseph Ham- 
mond, Jr., and 2 months by Daniel Day, £9 15s. Oif. 

" Isaac Hammond, in militia to Cambridge, and 2 



400 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



months in array by Daniel Day, and going to Otter 
Creelc, £6 I'j.?. 2(/. 

" Edward Hazen, 12 days to Cambridge, and 12 
days to Otter Creelc, and for 2 months by bis son, £6 
19s. 2rf. 

"Samuel Hills, 12 days to Cambridge, 12 days to 
Otter ('reek by hire, 50 days in militia to Westsvard, 
1777, and tor money paid for town to hire men for 
Continental army, £12 lis. 2d. 

" Ebenezer Hills, 10 months to Canada, £21 13«. 4rf. 

" Nathaniel Hills, Sr., Si months in army at Cam- 
bridge, £18 10s. 4rf. 

"Nathaniel Hills, Jr., 10 months in army at Can- 
ada, £21 13s. 4rf. 

"Joseph Holmes, 2 months in army at Bennington, 
£4 6s. 8rf. 

"Dennis Hafferon, 10 months in army at Canada, 
1776, £21 13s. 4(/. 

"Michael Hafferon, 10 months in army at Canada, 
1776, £21 13s. 4rf. 

" Benjamin Hews, months in army at Cambridge> 
1775, £13. 

" Benjamin Hews, Jr., 6 months in army, 1776, £13. 

" Benjamin Hammond, 2) months at York, 1776, £5 
8s. 4d. 

"Joseph Hammond, Jr., 8J months at Cambridge, 
1775, and for 1 month more at Cambridge, £21 Is. 8rf. 

" Charles How, 4 months at Cambridge, 1776, by 
hire, £8 13s. 4d. 

"Theodore How, 6 weeks at Winter's Hill, 1776, 
and 4 months at Cambridge, 1776, by hire, £11 18s. 
4d. 

" Uriah How, 15 days in militia to Cambridge, 1775, 
6 weeks at Winter's Hill, 1776, 5 days in 1777, and 2 
months in army to Bennington, 1777, £10 2s. Ad. 

" Jethro Kimball, 12 days in militia at Cambridge, 
1775, and 5 months in army at Ticonderoga, 1776, by 
hire, £12 lis. 8d. 

" Eli Kimball, to Cambridge in militia, and 1 year 
in Continental army, 1776, £27 18s. 

" Elkanah Lane, Jr., 4 months in army by his 
brother, and in militia to Ticonderoga, 1776, £10 16s. 
8d. 

"Justus Lawrence, 2| months in army, 1777, £5 18s. 

"Lieut. Henry Morse, 2| months in army at Ticon- 
deroga, 1776, and for money paid town to hire men 
for army, £12 5s. 1</. 

" Jonathan Nichols, Jr., 1 month at Cambridge, 
1785, and 2 months at Bennington, 1777, £6 10s. 

" Elijah Osgood, in militia to Otter Creek, and hir- 
ing Jonathan Woodcock 6 months for Continental 
army, £15 17s. 6d. 

'' Benjamin Olcott, 5 days in militia, 1777, and 2 
months at Bennington, £4 14s. 



" Benjamin Hazen, 2h months at York and 12 days 
to Otter Creek, £6 5s. lOaf. 

"Aaron Parsons, 6 days in militia, 1775, 2k months 
in army at Ticonderoga, 1776, and 12 days at Otter 
Creek, 1777, by hire, £7 3s. 4d. 

"Samuel Page, 9 days in militia at Cambridge, 

1775, £1 6s. 3(/. 

" Josiah Prime, 6 months at Roxbury, 1775, £13. 

"Amasa Parker, 12 months in army that went to 
Canada with General Arnold, £26. 

"Simeon Puffer, 12 days at Cambridge, 1775, and 5 
months in army that went to Canada, 1776, £12 lis. 
Sd. 

"Amos Puffer, 10 months in army to Canada, 1776, 
and 12 days to Otter Creek, 1777, £22 10s. lOd. 

"Josiah Read, 2 months at Bennington, 1776, £4 
6s. Sd. 

" Levi Rugg, 12 days to Cambridge, 1775, and 5 
months at Ticonderaga, 1776, £12 lis. 8d 

"John Rugg's heirs, 10 months in army to Canada, 

1776, by said Rugg and 12 days to Cambridge, £23 
8s. 7d. 

" Pentecost Stanley, 12 days at Cambridge, 1775, 
and 2J months in army at York, 1776, £7 3s. id. 

" Elisha Scott, 4 mouths by Nathan Cresson, 1777, 
£8 13s. 4d. 

"Nathan Scott, 5 days, in 1777, and 25 days at 
Westward, 1777, £2 3s. lOd. 

"Benjamin Starkey, 1 year by himself and others, 
£26. 

"John Starkey, 2J months at York by Benedict 
Webber, 1776, £5 8s. id. 

" Enoch Starkey, for money paid to hire men for 
Continental army, £7 10s. 

"Joseph Starke)', 8-i months at Cambridge, 1775, and 
1 month at Ticonderoga, 1776, £20 5s. 8d. 

"John Thompson, 2 months at Bennington by hire, 
£4 6s. 8(f. 

" Roger Thompson, 2h months at Ticonderoga, 

1775, by Josiah Prime, and 1 month at Ticonderoga, 

1776, £7 lis. 8d. 

" Samuel Thompson, 12 days at Otter Creek by 
hire and 25 days in militia at Westward by hire, 

1777, £2 13s. 6rf. 

" Ebenezer Thompson, 12 days at Otter Creek, 1777, 
and hiring Jonathan Woodcock six months for Con- 
tinental army, £15 17s. 6d. 

"Annanius Tubs, army at Canada, 1776, 12 days at 
Otter Creek, 1777, and 2 months at Bennington, 1777, 
£11 7s. 2(/. 

"Philemon Whitcomb, 4 months, in 1777, by Ben- 
jamin Parker, £8 13s. 4rf. 

" Lieut. Daniel Warner, 10 days in militia in Cam- 



SWANZEY. 



401 



bridge, 1775, 12 days to Otter Creek, 1777, and 9 
months in Continental army by hire, £22 2s. 9d. 

"Capt. Joseph Whitcomb, 1 month to Ticonderoga, 
1776, and 1 month in army at Westward, 1777, £4 
fo. S(/. 

" Captain Jonathan Whitcomb, 8i months in Con- 
tinental army at Cambridge, 1775, £18 8.s. 4d. 

"Maj. Elisha Whitcomb, 11 months and 8 days in 
army at Canada, 1776, and 12 days at Cambridge, 

1775, and 12 days at Otter Creek, 1777, £26 9s. 2d. 
"Abijah Whitcomb, 8i months in army at Cam- 
bridge, 1775, £18 8s. 4d. 

" William Wright, 2i months in army, 1776, by 
Wyat Gunn, and 15 days in militia, 1777, £5 18s. 8rf. 

" Lieut. Samuel Wright, 12 days in militia at Cam- 
bridge, 1775, 2i months at York, and 2\ months at 
Peeskill, 1776, £12 lis. 8d. 

" Cornelius Eoberls, 1 year in Continental army, 

1776, and 12 days to Otter Creek, 1777, £26 17s. 6d. 
"Jonathan Woodcock, Jr., 1 mouth in militia to 

Ticonderoga, 1776, £2 3s. 4d. 

" Nathan Woodcock, 2 months, in 1777, by Daniel 
Day, £4 6s. Sd. 

"John Whitcomb, 12 days to Cambridge, 1775, 5 
months at Ticonderoga, 1776, by hire, 1 month at 
Ticonderoga by himself, 12 days to Otter Creek, 1777, 
and 2 months in army at the Westward, 1777, £19 
19s. 2d. 

"James Wheelock, 10 months to Canada, 1776, £21 
13s. -id. 

"Moses Boardman Williams, 12 days at Otter 
Creek, 1777, and 2 months in army at the Westward, 

1777, £5 4s. 2rf. 

" Ensign James Heaton, 10 months in army before 
he came to Swanzey and 12 days militia to Otter 
Creek, 1777, £22 10s. lOd. 

"Benjamin Follett, 1 month in army at Cambridge, 

1775, and 2 months in army at the Westward, 1777, 
£6 10s. 

"John Plene, 1 month at York, 1776, by hire, and 
6 weeks at York by hire, £5 4s. 

" Samuel Heaton, 2i months at Peekshill, 1776, £5 
8s. Ad. 

" Samuel Hills, Jr., 10 months in army to Canada, 

1776, £21 13s. 4d. 

" Elkeuah Lane, Sr., 15 days in militia to Cam- 
bridge, 1775, and 5 days in militia at another time, 
£1 3(/. 

"Samuel Lane, 1 month in militia at Ticonderoga, 
and 4 months in Continental army, 1777, £10 16s. Sd. 

" Jonathan Day, 2.} months in army, 1777, by hire, 
£5 8s. 4(/. 

"Daniel Day, 12 days in militia to Cambridge, 
1775, £1 15s. 



"Nathaniel Potter, 12 days in militia to Cam- 
bridge, 1775, 2\ months in army, 1777, by hire, and 
12 days in militia to Otter Creek, 1777, £8 10s. 

"Stoddard Frazy, 2 months in army by hire, 1777, 
£4 6s. M. 

"Moses Griffith, 5 months in army at Ticonderoga, 
1776, £10 16s. 8rf. 

"William Grimes, 5 mouths in army at Ticonderoga, 

1776, by hire, and 9 months in Continental army by 
hire, £30 6s. 8rf. 

" William Grimes, Jr., 12 days at Cambridge, 1775, 
1 month to Ticonderoga, 1776, 12 days to Otter Creek, 

1777, and 9 months in army by hire, £24 5s. lOrf. 
"James Grimes, 12 days to Cambridge, 1775, and 

12 days to Otter Creek, 1777, £2 12s. 6(;. 

"Andrew Nichols, 10 months in army to Canada, 
1776, £21 13s. -id. 

"Jonathan Hammond, 3 years in Continental army 
by hire, £78. 

" Timothy Brown Applin, 2 mouths in Continental 
army by hire, £4 iis. Sd. 

"Nathaniel Heaton, for service by Daniel Gunn, 
£10 10s. lid. 

" Ezekiel White, 4 mouths in army by hire, £8 13s. 
■id. 

"David White, 2i mouths in army by hire, £5 
8s. 4d. 

" Kimber Harvey, service in army, 1777, £3 14s. 
2d. 

" Willard Hunt, 8 months in army, £17 6s. Sd. 

" Pelitia Hazey, 6 weeks' service, £2 18s. £2rf. 

" Thomas Applin, for money paid for town to pro- 
cure men for Continental army, £6 15s. 9d. 

" Benjamin Freeman, 4 months' service by his son, 
£8 13s. 4rf. 

"John Frazy, 5 mouths and 12 days by his son Job, 
£11 14s. 2d. 

" Ephraim Harvey, for service by .lames Green, 
£4 6s. Sd. 

" Timothy Harvey, 10 mouths iu army to Canada, 
1776, £21 13s. 4rf. 

The foregoing list eontain.s one hundred and 
twenty-seven names. Tlie coniniittee ou the 
part of the town wliicli made out the report 
of the services which each of them had done 
consisted of Thomas Applin, Calvin Friiik, 
Samuel Hills, Daniel Warner, Henry Morse 
and Joseph Whitcoiuli, Jr., and was made 
February 23, 1778. 

The town voted, January 2, 1778, to choose a 
committee to use their utmost endeavor to pro- 



402 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



cure the men wanted to make up our quota of 
men for the Coutiuental army. The committee 
chosen consisted of Elisha Whitcomb, Joseph 
Hammond and Samuel Hills. 

The following extracts show that Swanzey 
had soldiers in the army later than 1777 : 

" This may Certify that Noah Parkis hath Due on 
my Role for his Service at the North — and last year, 
seven Hundred and six pounds, ten Shillings, Conti- 
nental money which was made up only at Sixty-Seven 
for one of Two pounds per month for a private. 

" Ephraim Stoxe. 
" Keene, August 10th, 1781. 

" To the Town of Swanzey or whome it may Con- 
seam." 

The following petition of Swanzey soldiers 
was addressed to the General Court : 

" That your petitioners did in the year of our Lord 
1779, Inlist as private soldiers in the Continental Ser- 
vice for one Year then next ensuing and did actually 
and faithfully perform one Y'ear's Service in the 
present War and were Discharged from said Service 
in June, 1780, for which said Service your Petitioners 
have never yet Received any wages either from the 
Continent or this state and we Humbly apprehend 
that we are Justly entitled to a Reward for our Ser- 
vices equal to others in the same predicament. 

" Your Petitioners, therefore. Humbly pray, that 
this Honorable Court would take the Premises into 
their Consideration and grant us, your Petitioners, 
such a Competent Reward for our said services as in 
your Wisdom you shall think jiroper. 

" And as in Duty bound shall ever pray. 
" Antipas How. 
" Andrew Nichols. 
" Joshua Jewett Prime." 

" Swanzey, October 15th, 1784. 
"To the paymaster of the State of New Hamp- 
shire : 

"Sir: Pleas to pay to Mjr. Elisha Whitcomb, all 
the Wages and Dejjreciation that is due to me for My 
Servise in the Continental Array, in the Years 1777 
and 1778 and his Receipt Shall be a Discharge from 
me in full. 

" Moses Belding." 

He was a lieutenant in Captain William 
Ellis' company, ScammeJl's regiment, and was 
discharged September 1, 1778. 

"I reced of Jonathan Whitcomb, thre pound 
Lawful Money as a hire, for Iniesting During the 



wor In the first New Hampshire Regt., and Do 

prorais to Sarve for the Town of Swanzey During 

Said Term. 

" Amasa Parker, Sargt. 
"Jany 15th, 1780." 

"These may Certify whome it may concern, that 
we the Subscribers being a Committee appointed by 
the Town of Swanzey to procure Soldiers for the 
Continental Army in the Year 1778, did agree with 
Mr. Jonathan Woodcock, to Inlist into said Army for 
the Term of two Years, from Some time in February, 
1778, and we never agreed with or Engaged him for 
any longer Time. 

"Samuel Hills, | 

,< T TT /■ Committee." 

"Joseph Hammond, I 

" It appears by the Books, that John Nicholson 
and John Bemis were allowed by the Committee of 
Safety, as Soldiers for the Town of Swanzey, in the 
Year 1782. It does not appear by any Books or 
returns when they were mustered. 

"J. Oilman." 

The following Swanzey men were in the 
First New Hampshire Regiment : 

Joel Andrews, enlisted May 12, 1778; discharged 
December 31, 1780. 

Corporal John Cross, enlisted January 1, 1778; dis- 
charged December 31, 1781. 

William Frankfort, enlisted January 9, 1778 ; died 
April 17, 1779. 

Levi Simmons, enlisted February 13, 1778; dis- 
charged December 17, 1780. 

Joseph Tucker, enlisted February 3, 1778 ; dis- 
charged December, 1780. 

Sergeant Amasa Parker and Solomon Hazel- 
tine were in Captain Benjamin Ellis' company 
in 1781 and in the First New Hampshire Regi- 
ment in 1782. 

The following is a copy of a bill for pastur- 
ing government cattle : 

" Swanzey, Dec. 20th, 1789. 

" Capt. John Jennison, Collector of Beef, Dr., to 
the Selectmen of Swanzey for Pasturing Beef Cattle 
as followeth (viz. ) 

"For pasturing thirty-one Head of 
Beef cattle from the 16"" Day of July till 
the 7* of September, being Seven Weeks 
and four Days, at nine pence per Head 
per week £8 16s. 4d. 

'■ For pasturing Nine head 2 weeks and 
four Days (viz.), from the Seventh of 
Sept. till the 2.5'" 16s. 6d. 



SWANZEY. 



403 



" For Pasturing thirty-two Head from 
the 25 of Sept. till the 11'" of Oct., be- 
ing two weeks and two Days ]-ls. 9d. 

" For Pasturing Twenty-two Head of 
Beef Cattle from the 11'" of Oct. till 
the first day of Novem', being three 
weeks 

" For keeping one Beef Creture from 
the first Day of Nov. till the IG'" of De- 
cember, being Si.x; weeks, at 9"* per week.. 4s. 6rf. 



" Joseph Dickin.son 
" David Belding, Junr. 
"Calvin Frink 



£13 Is. 7d. 

Selectmen 
■ of 
Swanzerj." 



A most exciting state of affairs existed in tlie 
westerly part of New Harap.sliire during .some 
of tlie last years of the Revolution, and some 
of the following years, which was caused by a 
portion of the people becoming di.saffected to- 
wards New Hampshire and wishing to unite 
with Vermont. The following statements, 
made by the selectmen of Swanzey to the 
General Court, show the state of affairs in the 
town : 

"The Selectmen of the town of Swanzey in behalf 
of themselves and the Town Humbly Shew 

"That under the Present unhappy Situation of our 
afi'airs in this part of the State, when most in many 
and many in all the Towns have revolted from under 
the Government and Jurisdiction of the State, bid- 
ding defiance to the Authority and Laws of tlie same, 
Absolutely Refusing to pay Taxes or to contribute 
any thing in any way or manner towards Raising men 
for the Continental Army, or Providing Supplies for 
the same, We find it extreenily DiflScult for us to 
Comply with the Requisitions of the State, for, altho' 
the greatest part of the People in this Town Remain 
firm in their Allegiance to the state. Utterly averce 
to the late and present factious and Seditious conduct 
of a great (if not the greatest) part of the people in 
this Western part of the State. Yet our affairs are 
extreemly Embarrassed, for, if Taxes are Assessed, 
they cannot be Collected, as some will Refuse to pay, 
and if Constables or Collectors should Distrain Such 
Delinquents for their Rates mcjbs would Arise, and 
perhaps the power of the State of Vermont would be 
employed for their protection. 

" We have exerted ourselves as much as we could 
in order to Raise our Quota of Men for the Continen- 
tal Army, and Also for Six Months, but have not 



been able to compleat the former, nor to Raise any 
part of the latter, which Inability is owing princi- 
pally, if not Solely, to the confused Situation of this 
part of the State, And unless Sometliing can be done 
for our Assistance it will be Absolutely Impossible 
for us to Raise men or money for the Service of the 
State. 

"We consider ourselves as Subjects of the state of 
New Hampshire, and are firmly Resolved to persist in 
our Allegiance and expect the protection of the State, 
without which we shall not be able to stand against 
the opposition that will be made. 

" We Humbly pray that your Honors would take 
the matter into your Wise consideration and make 
Such provision for our protection and Safety as that 
we may not be Obliged to Yield to unreasonable men 
and Measures. 

"Tho" Applin 
" Calvin Frink 
" Elijah Belding 
" LsAAC Hammond 
" Elisha Whitcomb 
"Swanzey, June 9, 1781." 



1 



J 



Selectmen 

of 
Swanzey. 



The following petition, relative to beef tax 
of 1784, was addressed to the General Court 
February, 1785 : 

"The Petition of the Selectmen and Assessors of 
the Town of Swanzey, in said State, for the year 1784, 

" Humbly sheweth, — 

" That whereas in the year 1781 the General Court 
of this State Ordered and directed the Selectmen of 
said Swanzey to Assess the Inhabitants of said Town 
their Quota of Beef for the Continental Army, which 
was accordingly done, and the greatest part of said 
Beef was paid by said Inhabitants, yet some were de- 
linquent. Refusing to pay their State Tax, Occasioned 
Principally by the Union of the Grants (so-called) 
with Vermont, by reason of which agreably to an Act 
of the General Court, said Swanzey was Ordered to 
pay a deficiency of said Tax and a fine for their De- 
linquency, both of which amounting to £137, which 
the Treasurer of this State, by his Warrant directed 
to the Selectmen of said Town, has ordered to be 
Assessed, which has not yet been complied with, Be- 
cause your petitioners think it very unjust to Assess, 
Levy and Collect the aforesaid Sum of those Persons 
who paid their Tax in due time, and your Petitioners 
have no Warrant to Assess said Sum on those that 
were Delinqueut, and dare not venture to Assess said 
Sum, either on the whole or part of the Inhabitants, 
lest it should make great confusion, murmuring and 
Complaining among the People of Said Town. Your 



404 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Petitioners, therefore, most Humbly and earnestly 
pray that this Honorable Body would take the above 
Stated Case into their Serious consideration, and 
make such Order thereon as in their Wisdom they 
shall think most just and Equitable. 

" And as in Duty Bound shall ever pray. 

"David Beldixg, [ Selectmen & Asses- 
" Isaac Hammond, \ sors of Sivamey." 

The following, relative to the beef tax, was 
addressed to the General Court December 13, 
1786: 

"The Selectmen of Swanzey, in the County of 
Cheshire, humbly beg leave to lay before this Honor- 
able Body their Embarrassments as to Assessing the 
Doomage for this Town's Deficiency of Beef in the 
year 1781. Your Petitioners immediately on Receiv- 
ing Orders for collecting Said Beef, Assessed the 
Inhabitants of Swanzey, Seting the Beef at twenty- 
Seven Shillings per Hundred weight, and as your 
Petitioners were Sensible of the Importance of the 
Order of Court being complied with, they exerted 
themselves and Collected a considerable part of the 
Beef by the Set time, and would undoubtedly Col- 
lected the whole had it not been for a number of Politi- 
cal Heriticks in this and Adjacent Towns, who, by 
their Instigations and artful insinuations. Shook the 
AUegiancy (of the ignorant andunprincipaled part of 
the community) from the State of New Hampshire, 
and Attached tjieni to the usurped State of Vermont, 
and the luibecillity of Government was so great at 
that Day that your Petitioners thought it not wise to 
compel or use Coersive measures with those who 
would not freely pay their proportion of Said tax, and 
since the Energy of Government has increased and 
this Town has been caled upon to pay Said Tax, with 
a Doomage, the Selectmen have taken up the matter 
and find it Difficult, if not Impossable, to make an 
Assessment for said Doomage in anj' way which will 
not blow up an unquenchable rire in this Town, for if 
we should Assess it on the Delinquents only, who in 
justice Ought to pay the Same, we Should in so 
doing do injustice, for a Number of said Delinquents 
are Removed out of this Town, and, consequently, out 
of the reach of an Assesment, and should an Asses- 
ment be made on the whole Town, it would be to 
make the Righteous be as the Wicked, which the 
Patriarch of the Hebrews Saith, is far from the Al- 
mighty. Y"our Petitioners, therefore, most Humbly 
pray this Honorable Body to take the matter into 
their wise Consideration, and either except of the 
twenty-Seven Shillings on the Hundred weight, which 
is already Assessed, and which may be Collected 



without Dificulty or Direct Y'our Petitioners in what 
manner to proceed, that they may escape the Publick 
Odium. 

" Isaac Hammond, f Selectmen of 
" Calvix Feink, (^ Swanzey- 

" In House of Rep. January 16, 1787, Voted that as 
there is great difficulty respecting the assessment for 
the deficiency of Beef in the Town of Swanzey, the 
Treasurer be directed, so far as respects said Beef 
Tax, to .stay the Extent against said Town untill the 
first Wednesday of June next." 

Of the Swanzey men who rendered important 
.services during the Kevolution, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Joseph Hammond may be considered 
the most con.spicuous. He marched immediately 
at the head of a company for the field of con- 
flict when he heard of the battle at Lexing- 
ton. He went with his regiment to Ticonderoga, 
being lieutentant-colonel under Colonel Ashley. 
He resigned his commission June 14, 1779. 
He was, however, employed in various ways 
during the war, acting as mustering officer, and 
at times in charge of the transportation of sup- 
plies to the army at Ticonderoga, etc. He was 
at home when the battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought. He knew that many of the Swanzey 
soldiers were with the army in that vicinity, 
and among them his son Joseph. When he 
heard of the battle he prepared to start im- 
mediately, that he might know the results of 
the battle. He started in the morning and 
rode through in a day, a distance of about ninety 
miles, and returned the following day. The 
following poem describes this famous ride : 

" Says old Colo. Hammond, ' I'd like to know 

The fate on the morrow of my son Joe ; 

I learn by the herald that rode by to-night, 

The unwelcome news of the Bunker-Hill fight; 

Nor doubt I a moment my son Joe was there, 

In fighting our foemen, to fight his full share ; 

And I have resolved and approved of the plan 

To oft' on the morrow and learn what I can. 

So, wife, in the morning the breakfast prepare, 

While I catch and curry the old red mare ; 

Till then let us sleep — 'tis needful we rest — 

And dream what we may, we will hope for the best, 

The Colo, rose early and early prepared 

To start on his journey as he had declared, 



SWANZEY. 



405 



And soon in the door-yard the old mare was tied, 

' All saddled, all bridled,' all fit for a ride. 

The Colonel's cocked-hat now he put on his head, 

His spurs on the heels of his boots, as he said : 

' Wife, now my blue-coat and my doublet of buff, 

And I shall be rigged for the ride well enough.' 

The sun got up some minutes before 

The Colonel was ready to steji from the door, 

And say to his lady ' good morn,' or ' good bye, 

Then thinking of Joseph, a tear in her eye. 

He reached for the bridle when started the mare 

And snorted, the Colonel looked so militaire 1 

He patted her neck as he stood by her side. 

To calm her a wee ere he got up to ride, 

Then sprang to the saddle, 'thout further delay. 

And like a knight errant he galloped away. 

From Swanzey, New Hampshire, thro' Fitzwilliam 

sped. 
Swift skim'd the red mare, and strong was her tread ; 
And onward, and onward, and onward she prest. 
No sign that she was weary — that she required rest ; 
Tho' sweating the heat, and oppressive the dust. 
She turned not ; she stopped not to half quench her 

thirst. 
And ere Sol his car to the Zenith had run. 
The Colonel's long journey was more than half done. 
When looking ahead, lo ! the Colonel espied 
An inn-stand, inviting, close by the roadside; 
To this he reined up for a little respite. 
And called for refreshments as would a bold knight; 
' Some oats for my mare and a drink at the spring. 
And as for myself, Til a bumper of sling! ' 
(For all liquored ujj in those days, you will find. 
To strengthen their courage and cheer up the mind). 
But short was his tarry, and, proud of her load. 
The old mare was prancing along the high-road ; 
On ! on through old Concord she gallantly sped. 
And onward she galloped through Lexington's town, 
A place on the road of fame and renown. 
And drew up at Charlestown, at Bunker Hill's side 
Before it was sunset, where ended his ride. 
And glad was the Colonel when Joseph he found. 
His limbs and his wind and his body all sound. 
And early next morning the red mare was seen. 
Her head up, her tail up, just leaving the green ; 
Her strength like an engine with fleetness combined, 
(The Colonel on forward and Joe on behind). 
So lightly she cantered and turned up the road. 
Not caring a ' fip ' for the weight of the load. 
She started for home with the Colonel and son. 
And ere it was sundown her day's-work was done. 
And how felt the mother when meeting with Joe, 
Tliere's none but a mother can feel or can know ; 



And what think ye, reader, hadn't we here 
As goodly a rider as ' Paul Revere ? ' " 

Swanzey furnished its full complement of 
soldiers for the AVar of 1812. Of those that 
went into the service, William C. Belding was 
killed at Chippewa Plains, July 5, 1814 ; Rufus 
Graves was killtd at Bridgewater, Canada, July 
25, 1814; a son of John Guild was killed in 
Upper Canada ; Joshua Prime, a lieutenant of 
marines, died at Sackctt's Harbor March 1, 
1813; Gains Cresson died a Burlington, Vt. ; 
and Benedict Arnold died at Portsmouth. 

The town's record in the War of the Re- 
bellion is !is follows : 

" Voted September 21, 18(51, that the selectmen be 
instructed to borrow from time to time such sums of 
money as may be wanted to pay the families or 
parents of soldiers, who have enlisted, or may here- 
after enlist in the service of the United States, the 
sum of one dollar per week for the wife, and one 
dollar per week for each child. 

" Voted March 11, 1862, to indemnify the select- 
men from all liability which they may have incurred 
or hereafter incur by paying money to the families 
of soldiers and instruct them to continue to pay to 
them in accordance with the State law, according to 
their best judgment. 

"Resolved, August 11, 1862, That the town will pay 
two hundred dollars to each person who will enlist 
from the town to fill up her required quota (of a draft 
ordered by the President, August 4, 1862, of three 
hundred thousand troops for nine months), imme- 
diately on the mustering into service of such volun- 
teers, provided they received no bounty from gov- 
ernment, otherwise one hundred and twenty-five 
dollars. 

" Voted September 10, 1863, To raise three hundred 
dollars to pay to each of the soldiers, or their substi- 
tutes, ten days after they are mustered into the ser- 
vice of the United States. 

" Voted May 30, 186-t, To pay the drafted men, or 
their substitutes, three hundred doll.ars each to fill 
all back quotas of said town under the last calls of the 
President of the United States. 

" Voted June 16, 1864, That the selectmen shall pay 
three hundred dollars to each of such persons as may 
enlist, or their substitutes, and be accredited to the 
town of Swanzey on any future calls for three-years' 
men. 

" Voted AMgwsi 13, 1864, To pay volunteers for one 
year, one hundred dollars ; for two years, two hun- 



406 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



dred dollars ; for three years three hundred dollars ; 
and that the selectmen be, and are hereby authorized 
to borrow a sufficient amount of money to carry the 
above vote into effect. 

" Voted August 29, 1864, That the selectmen be, and 
are hereby authorized to pay bounties to citizen 
volunteers who have resided in the town three months 
as follows: five hundred dollars for one year, seven 
hundred and fifty dollars for two years and nine 
hundred dollars for three years, immediately on being 
mustered into the service of the United States. 

" Voted That the selectmen be, and are hereby 
authorized to pay bounties to drafted men or their 
substitutes to the full extent of the law as provided 
or that purpose. 

" Voted That the selectmen be, and are hereby 
authorized to procure an amount of money sufficient 
to carry out the object expressed in the above votes 
and at the best rates possible. 

" Voted That the selectmen be requested to interest 
themselves as much as possible in the matter of 
raising volunteers to fill the quota of this town. 

" Voted September 1, 1864, To indemnify the select- 
men against any liability which may arise by reason 
of said selectmen paying bounties of three hundred 
dollars to individuals who have furnished an accepta- 
ble substitute to count on the quota of the town since 
July 16, 1864. 

" Voted December 22, 1864, To pay to those persons 
who have or may furnish an acceptable substitute to 
fill the quota of the town on any future call the sum 
of one hundred dollars for one year, two hundred 
dollars for two years and three hundred dollars for 
three years. 

" Voted To pay bouuties to citizens volunteers wlio 
have resided in the town three months or more, as 
follows : five hundred dollars for one year, seven 
hundred and fifty dollars for two years and nine 
hundred dollars for three years on being mustered 
into the service of the United States. 

The following persons contributed to fill the 
quotas of Swanzey by enlisting, or by furnish- 
ing substitutes, or by paying commutation when 
drafted : 



Charles R. Applin. 
Albert G. Read. 
Jonathan M. Holden. 
Allen B. Haywood. 
Anson Gilson. 
Samuel Hurd. 
Henry S. Applin. 
Philo Applin. 
26 



David W. Hill. 
Sylvander Hovey. 
Demerit W. Stone. 
Harvey Sargent. 
Thos. N. Woodward. 
Daniel E. Woodward. 
San ford Bolles. 
Leonard Lyman. 



William B. Marble. 
Daniel H. Holbrook. 
Albert Ballou. 
Charles Wheeler. 
Henry P. Read. 
Samuel Rock wood. 
Charles H. Sebastian. 
Edward P. Sebastian. 
Sidney Stone. 
Lowell W. Darling. 
Amasa Bourne. 
John Stone. 
Willard Bragg. 
George F. Trobridge 
Amos E. Cummings. 
Elliot Wright. 
Gardner Wheeler. 
Carlos Quinn. 
Samuel Quinn. 
Charles Quinn. 
Elbridge G. Prentice. 
Joseph Cross. 
George B. Richardson. 
Jeremiah Pluramer. 
Cyrus F. Holbrook. 
Oliver L. Nash. 
Prescot D. Coburn. 
Stilman D. Nash. 
Warren F. Allen. 

Horace Barney. 
George O. Knapp. 
John A. Bread. 

George W. Robinson. 

Thomas Burns. 

Aaron Dickinson. 

Cyrus W. Stanley. 

Benjamin Pomeroy. 

George Wilson. 

Bradley Hill. 

Amos D. Combs. 

George W. Johnson. 

Oratus Very. 

George Mattoon. 

Isaac Starkoy. 

Charles H. Mcintosh. 

Henry Coburn. 

N. R. Smith. 

Aaron Sumner. 

Obed Holton. 
Thomas Christie. 

James L. Davis. 

Leonard S. Holden. 

Charles Barber. 



Sanford S. Wilber. 
Richard R. Ramsdell. 
Theodore Hovey. 
Oratus J. Very. 
Noyce G. Wheeler. 
Roswell O. Aldrich. 
Samuel Stephenson. 
Lyman C. Deeth. 
Aaron Lebourveau. 
George Jackson. 
Henry Hill. 
Asa C. Hemmenway. 
Obed Holton. 
Menzies E. Stratton. 
Benjamin F. Mead. 
William W. Starkey. 
Samuel Rockwood. 
Charles R. Applin. 
John L. Meserve. 
Alonzo D.Sumner. 
John A. Colby. 
William Read. 
William Eastman. 
Michael Farrel. 
Harvey Thompson. 
John Barker. 
Thomas Smith. 
Frank Canovan. 
John Stewart. 
George Perkins 
George D.avis. 
Thomas Karney. 
Sexton W. Williams. 
William (!)akman. 
Silas W. Ballou. 
Albert R. Ballou. 
George A. Haywood. 
Charles Temple. 
Asahel W. Dunton. 
Moses D. Ballou. 
George H. More. 
Ansell B. Dickinson. 
John W. Taggard. 
Timothy Sherman. 
Henry S. Applin. 

Amos E. Cummings. 
Joseph Cross. 

Elbridge Prentice. 
John A. Bread. 
Aaron Dickinson. 

John F. Hunt. 

Orick L. Haskell. 

Warren A. Pickering. 



SWANZEY. 



407 



Charles H. Barber, Jr. 
Johu Barber. 
John S. Thayer. 
D. Brainerd Healey. 
George W. B. Caffre. 

A. W. Tupper. 
Amos Davis. 
Seamen A. Stone. 
Edward Doolittle. 
George P. Ward. 
Eli W. Kaynolds. 
George I. Capron. 
Horace B. Starkey. 
William Sebastian, Jr. 

B. P. Lamson. 
Charles G. Gilmore. 
Samuel Mattoon. 
Charles W. Philbrook. 
William E. Thatcher. 
Charles W. Mattoon. 
William Stone. 
Chas. E. Stephenson. 
Charles H. Holbrook. 
Franklin Burbank. 
Dexter H. Thomas. 
Harrison R. Ward. 
D. L. M. Comings. 
Calvin Greenleaf. 
Luther Smith. 
Luther Beal. 

Willis Reason. 
Cyrus F. Holbrook. 
Lincoln Wheelock. 
Henry D. Holbrook. 
Charles H. Gove. 
George B. Holbrook. 
A. D. Combs. 
Carrol D. Wright. 
Franklin C. Whitcomb. 
Daniel F. Mealey. 
David Buftbm (2d). 
Charles W. Scott. 



William N. Ripley. 
Ira A. Hooper. 
George W. Sweetzer. 
John P. Hill. 
Charles Marsh. 
Jotham M. Ballon. 
Martin Jewell. 
Lewis Carpenter. 
Nathaniel Bourn, Jr. 
J. Q. A. Wilson. 
Sylvander L. Hovey. 
Lemuel O. Hunt. 
Charles B. Blodgett. 
Benjamin F. Clark. 
Edward Dickinson. 
Jonas C. Waters. 
Clark H. Houghton. 
Fred. E. Seba.stian. 
Oratus J. Very. 
George Burns. 
Daniel W. Clark. 
Charles H. Howard. 
George E. Whitcomb. 
J. N. Forrestall. 
George Willis. 
Lyman C. Willis. 
Charles Bowles. 
Josiah Parsons. 
Benj. H. Richardson. 
James C. Fames. 
Orloe E. Parsons. 
Thayer Thomson. 
George W. Eastman. 
James H. Alcott. 
Henry C. Clark. 
David Pelkey. 
Alvin W. Houghton. 
Edward P. Sebastian. 
George W. Ellis. 
Henry B. Davis. 
Charles S. Parks. 
Lewis Hunt. 



In tlie foregoing list several names appear 
twice, occasioned by the person re-enlisting. 
In some cases, where men furnished substitutes, 
his name appears and also the name of the 
substitute. 

Wc cannot give a correct list of those who 
were killed or wounded and of those Avho died 
while in the service or of those who never re- 
turned. 

An.son Gilson, George F. Trobridge, John 
Stone, Thomas Burns, Aaron Dickinson were 
killed ; Lowell W. Darling died from the ef- 
fect of a wound ; Allen B. Haywood lost his 
right arm ; Daniel K. Healey was permanently 
disabled ; Albert Ballou and Francis C. Whit- 
comb were badly wounded. It is not known 
what became of Charles Wheeler and Joseph 
Cross. Eliot Wright, D. Brainard Healey, B. 
P. Lamson, David Buffum (2d), Demerit W. 
Stone, Sanford Bolles, Sanford S. Wilber and 
Henry S. Applin died. 

Amos D. Combs was a lieutenant in the 
Sixth Regiment and a cajitaiii in the Four- 
teenth Regiment; David Buffum (2d) was a cap- 
tain in the Sixteenth Regiment. 

Carrol D. Wright was a lieutenant in the 
Fourteenth Regiment when it was organized 
and was promoted to colonel before he left the 
regiment. 

Many natives of Swanzey went into the army 
from other places, and of these it is known that 
Lymau W^hitcomb, Lucius Whitcomb and Na- 
thaniel F. Lane were killed, and that Wallace 
G. Dickinson and Elmer F. Dickinson died 
while in the service. 



HISTORY OF WAT.POLE 



BY GEORGE ALDRICH. 



CHAPTEE I. 

FROM 17-19 TO 1760. 

The early liistory of any one town on Con- 
neeticut River only is repeated in the earlj' set- 
tlements of others located in the same vicinity, 
in the maimer in which families lived, and 
also in the dangers by which they were beset by 
hostile Indians. Town lines were no barriers 
to the friendship that one settlement had for 
another. There were prominent motives which 
the early settlers had for a pioneer life. One 
was to better their condition and make a name 
for themselves ; and the other was to get away 
from t])e conventionalities of populous towns 
into an atmosphere of freedom, — they could not 
brook restraint. Many of the early settlers of 
this town were from the State of Connecticut, 
who br(.)ught with them the frugal, industrious 
habits of the people of that State, and also the 
religious sentiments of the Puritans. Another 
class of settlers came from Londonderry, this 
state, who were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. 
They also were frugal, industrious peo]>le, and 
made the old rocky hills yield an abundance for 
man and beast. 

After the lapse of more than a century and a 
quarter, it is impossible for the historian to tell 
what character all the early settlers of this town 
bore, only from tradition. However, it is in- 
ferred from their acts found recorded in the 
records of the town, and such stray informa- 
tion as has been gathered from other sources, 
that most of the first settlers were men of great 
force of character, patriotic in their political 
408 



sentiments, strict in their religious observances, 
frugal and industrious. The intellectual attain- 
ments of the first settlers were not of a high 
order ; but in time men of culture took up an 
abode here. It may be that some of the first 
settlers letl their country for their country's 
good and made a new home for themselves and 
families ; but this is not probable, for only one 
instance is known of a sheriff dogging -the 
heels of a runaway, and that was Colonel Ben- 
jamin Bellows, who afterwards was the most 
prominent settler that ever settled in town. 
His great crime was this, he hail not ready 
mouey sufficient to satisfy all his creditors be- 
fore he left Massachusetts. 

It is not positively known whether the 
Aborigines ever occupied permanently the terri- 
tory now embraced by the lines forming the 
town of Walpole or not ; but one thing is cer- 
tain, that annually, in the months of May and 
June, very large numbers collected iu the vi- 
cinity of the Great Falls (now Bellows Falls), 
for the purpose of catching shad and salmon, 
it being the best fishing-ground to be found in 
all New England. The blossoming of the 
shad-tree {Amelanchier Canadensis) was the 
signal for all the Indians for many miles around, 
and even from Canada, to gather about the falls 
for the purpose of catching shad and salmon. 
Multitudes of these fish would ascend the Con- 
necticut every spring, to deposit their spawn at 
its head and at the source of its tributaries. 
After a long-weary journey from the ocean the 
shad were barred further progress by the rapid 
flow of the water. In the basin below the 
rapids the shad would gather in myriad num- 



WALPOLE. 



409 



bers, and make futile attempts to ascend, but 
made a failure every time. 

The Indians, perched on the rocks below, 
with their scoop-nets, found no difficulty in ap- 
peasing their hunger during the shad season. 
In time the shad became discouraged in their 
attempts to ascend the main stream, when they 
would descend the river till a suitalde tributary 
was found, which they would ascend and ful- 
fill nature's laws, and return to the salt water in 
August — shad poor. The salmon, more agile 
than the shad, bound on the same mission, 
would ascend the most rapid portion of the 
falls with apparent ease ; so rapid is the stream 
that an iron bar suspended over the current will 
not sink, but float on the water. It is said that 
salmon have been seen darting up tiiis cascade 
with the sjieed of a locomotive, with two or 
three lamprey eels in tow, that had fastened 
themselves upon the sitles of the salmon at the 
dawn of day by suction. 

There is sufficient evidence to warrant the 
conclusion that there were large numbers of 
Indians who lived a part, if not all the year, 
near the railroad station at Cold River. lu 
the immediate vicinity and also a half-mile be- 
low, the plough-share of civilization has un- 
earthed Indian skeletons, spear-heads, arrow- 
heads, heaps of clam-shells and numerous other 
Indian relics, which, together with the rude 
carvings on the rocks below the Falls, are in- 
dubitable evidences of there having been a 
famous lodgment for Indians about this vicinity 
long before the pale-faces' eyes rested on this nat- 
ural landscape of beauty. One-half mile south 
of Cold River is a spring of chalybeate waters, 
thought by the Indians to possess remarkable 
medicinal qualities. There was a tribe of In- 
dians who frequented this spring, called the 
Abanake&s or Abanarquis (meaning the pines), 
from whom the spring derives its name. The 
Indians drank freely of the water and washed 
themselves all over with it, claiming it would 
cure cutaneous diseases. It might have been 
potent in its effects on the red-skins; but no 



one ever knew of any sanitary effects it had on 
white people. It is very offensive to most ])eo- 
ple, both in taste and smell ; one glas* of it be- 
ing sufficient for a life-time with ordinary peo- 
ple, unless driven to the very verge of death 
from thirst. 

One hundred and thirty-six years ago, (in 
May or June), if a person with a good field- 
glass had been perched on tlie highest point of 
Fall Mountain (now called Kilburn Mountain), 
a bird's-eye view would have revealed to him, 
near where Cold River station now is, several 
scores of wigwams ; their dusky owners cross- 
ing and re-crossing the basin below the falls in 
their bark canoes ; while their squaws were on 
shore doing their drudgery ; their papooses wal- 
lowing in the filth around the wigwams, and 
the Indian maiden loitering about in the shade 
of the stately elms, stringing her ornaments 
and wampum. A few rods south from the In- 
dian camping-ground were the now fertile 
plains, then studded with dwarf pitch-pines 
and an uneven growth of white birch. In 
turning to the east, a gloomy forest of hemlock, 
which was the home of the gaunt, ravenous 
gray wolf, that made the night hideous with his 
howl, presented itself to view. In the far dis- 
tance down the river, a shadowy view of the 
towering pines on Boggy Meadow was seen. 
This is the most arable, productive section of 
the town ; but it was not cleared for more than 
eighty years afler the first settlenient of the 
town. The reasons were : first, the great 
amount of labor necessary to remove the heavy 
timber growing there and, secondly, the un- 
healthiuess of the atmosphere which arose from 
decaying vegetable matter, producing malaria. 

The glass, when pointed to the southeast, 
would bring to view the highest elevation of 
land in town — Derry Hill — the altitude of 
which is more than thirteen hundred feet above 
the level of the sea. This tract of land was 
covered with a heavy growth of beech, birch 
and sugar-maple timber, which has been mostly 
cut ofl', and now a second growth is almost 



410 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ready for the axe. Ou looking to tlie west, 
almost iiiuler one's feet is the narrow defile 
between Fall Mountain and Connecticut River, 
where the St. Francis Indians, from Canada, 
used to travel, before Walpole was settled, ou 
their marauding expeditions to the border 
settlements in Massachusetts. Many were the 
captive whites who plodded along this narrow 
defile on their way to Canada, to be sold to the 
French, downcast, weary, footsore and hungry. 
The territory north of Walpole to Canada line 
was one unbroken, gloomy forest, excepting No- 
4 (now Charlestown). Game was plenty. There 
were the stately moose and his third cousin, the 
sprightly, graceful red deer, that lived on the 
scanty, uncut herbage of the openings in sum- 
mer and browsed on the twigs of deciduous trees 
in winter. The flesh afforded appetizing viands 
for the hungry pioneer. The huge, ungainly 
black bear was frequently met, seen moving 
about with his shuffling, plantigrade gait, hunt- 
ing for some fresh esculent or newly-fallen 
nuts from the beech-tree or acorns from the 
oak. 

Bear steak then, as now, was considered a 
delicacy. The smaller game embraced the 
raccoon, the gray and black squirrel, the quail 
and partridge — all of which the ready fowling- 
piece would bring to the sportsman's feet. The 
smaller streams were crowded with spotted trout, 
which had never been lured by the seducing fly 
of Isaac Walton. Among the carnivorous 
animals were the lynx, the wild-cat and cata- 
mount ; the latter had his lair on Fall Moun- 
tain. The woodlands wore a weird appearance 
— old decaying trees, which had fallen in every 
conceivable direction, fantastic forms of with- 
ered limbs and old standing trees, denuded of 
their bark, contrasted strangely with the fresh- 
ness of later youth. Reptiles sported in the 
slimy pools of the lowlands or crawled un- 
harmed over piles of decaying timber. The 
rattlesnake lay coiled asleep in some sunny 
nook, or was noiselessly drawing his hideous 
form over mouldering vegetation, in quest of 



some luckless frog. His general habitat, in 
summer, was in the vicinity of Cold River, but 
in winter he sought repose in the clefts of rocks 
on Fall Mountain. Nights were made hideous 
by the dismal moan of the catamount or the 
howl of the gray wolf, when hunger forced 
them in squads or packs to seek something to 
sustain life. Silence reigned by day, save oc- 
casionally the roar of the " Great Falls," or 
broken, perhaps, by the often-repeated tattoo of 
the male partridge, morning and evening cheer- 
ing his mate. 

The red man was the sole occupant of the 
soil, and was as wild as the savage beasts around 
him — a predatory vagabond, in constant war- 
fare with his own race ; seeking the destruction 
of the early settlers, or leading them into a 
captivity worse than death ; the bark of the 
white-birch his canoe ; strings of shells his 
ornaments, his calendar and his coin ; huts 
made of bended saplings and evergreen boughs, 
roofed with the skins of animals and the rind 
of trees, his habitation ; leaves of the forest his 
bed ; his religion, if any, the adoration of na- 
ture ; his morals not much above the instinct of 
intelligent animals; disputing with them the 
occupancy of the forests, and dividing with the 
squirrel and bear the fruits of the hills — lazy, 
improvident, wicked. 

The Indian, naturally sullen, morose and 
mercenary in his disposition, and having been 
driven from time to time from the graves of 
his fathers, and his fishing and hunting-grounds 
by the encroachments of the whites, needed but 
little to incite him to plunder and the most 
cruel barbarity; consequently he was found 
continually harassing the frontier settlements, 
in small predatory bands, burning the habi- 
tations of the early settlers, destroying their 
cattle, killing men, women and children or 
forcing them into captivity, where they would 
be held for many years away from their chil- 
dren and friends. 

It seems truly wonderful, to many persons 
in these "piping times of peace," that any one 



WALPOLE. 



411 



could be found who had tlie courage, Imrdihood 
or even temerity to plant himself in a howling 
wilderness, far removed from any friendly neigh- 
bor and almost under the tomahawk of merciless 
Indians, the white man's deadly foe. But 
when it is considered that many pioneers m a 
ucw country, like oni-s, had everything to gam 
and nothing to lose bnt their scalps; that famili- 
arity with danger, as with everything else, 
breeds contempt ; that the early lessons of 
children in bygone days were the stories of 
murder, treachery, pillage and rapine perpe- 
trated by Indians ; that such stories were re- 
counte<l the hundredth time by the gray-haired 
grandsire to his grandson on his knee, so that 
at an early age the child became thoroughly 
schooled in the habits, artifices and wiles of the 
red man, and at manhood, being thus taught, 
he held the Indian in contempt, and believed he 
could check-mate his foe on his own ground ; 
wonder ceases that pioneers could be found, who 
wei-e ready to brave the dangers of a pioneer's 
life. At any rate such persons were found, and 
among them was — 

John Kilburx, who was born in Glaston- 
l)ury. Conn., 1704; consequently he was forty- 
live years old when he came to Walpole, in 
1749. He had built himself a log; cabin on 
the fertile intervale, about three-fourths of a 
mile south of Cold River, and about the same 
distance from the place where the Indians, in 
large numbers, sojourned in the summer through 
the fishing season. His family consisted of 
himself, his wife, his daughter Mehitable (Het- 
ty) and his son John. 

Thomas Kilburn was the first settler of the 
name in this country, M'ho came to America 
from England in l(io5, bringing with him his 
wife and five children. John Kilburn, Sr. 
was the fourth remove from Thomas. The 
uame of Kilburn can be found among the Eng- 
lish nobility to the time of Chaucer, and the 
line of descent can be directly traced from that 
time to the present. The name is spelled in 
different ways by the old English families, as 



well as in this country ; but the sound is tiie 
same. Kilburn, Kilborn, Kylbourne, Kil- 
borue are some of the various ways the name 
is found sjjelled. The origin of the name 
is the same. The name is made up from two 
words, Knle and Bourn, which signify, the for- 
mer cold and the latter water, — cold water. The 
coincidence of the names of the first two set- 
tlers of this town, meaning about the same thing, 
is quite singular ; Bdlc Eau, pluralized, mean- 
ing beautiful waters, and Kule Bourn, meaning 
cold water or cold stream. What is in a name ? 

Kilburn had lived in town some three or 
four years before Colonel Benjamin Bellows 
settled in town, without communication with 
friend or foe ; although he had often sought 
intercourse with the Indians, they had studiously 
avoided him. During this period he had no 
rest day nor night. He was not only exposed 
to the inclemency of severe storms in his rude 
hut, and all the hardships and privations inci- 
dent to frontier life, but was living day 
and night in constant fear of the tomahawk or 
the scalping-knife. During the day he did not 
dare to go a few rods from his cabin without 
his gun, and at night his bed was the cold 
ground, a bear skin for his covering, and a 
cartridge box for his pillow ; nor did he dare 
camp two nights in the same place, while the 
Indians were lurking in ambush, i-eady to 
strike the deadly blow at the first opportunity. 
Many times during his absence they visited his 
cabin in tlie dead of night, and stole everything 
they could find and carry away. 

Some time in 1754, a company of Indians 
came down the river, landed above the falls and 
invited Kilburn to trade with them. He visi- 
ted their boats, bought some skins, and made 
some presents of flints, flour and fish-hooks. 
For a while the Indians continued to hunt and 
encamp about the neighborhood, and, as no 
mischief was done, he felt move secure as time 
passed on, the sight of wigwams becoming 
familiar to his eyes and the sound of guns an 
every-day occurrence to his ears. 



412 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



In 1752, Colonel Bellows had become a 
settler in town and some others soon after, 
of whom more further on. 

In 1754, in the spring, a large Indian, by 
the name of Philip, who could speak a little 
broken English, visited Kilburn's cabin, in a 
friendly way, pretending to be on a hunting 
excursion, and in want of provisions. He was 
generously supplied with flints, flour and other 
articles and dismissed. Soon after it was ascer- 
tained, however, that this same wily scoundrel 
had visited all the frontier settlements with the 
same plausible story, and was suspected by all 
as a wolf in disguise. Governor Shirley, of 
Albany, sent word by a friendly Indian that 
five hundred Indians were collecting in Canada, 
whose purpose it was to butcher and wipe out 
the entire population of the advanced settle- 
ments on Connecticut River. This news greatly 
disturbed Kilburn, but he did not leave his 
home nor lie down. He immediately went to 
work and built a palisade around his cabin 
with heavy timbers, firmly set upright in the 
ground, placed so near together that nothing 
larger than a cat could pass between the tim- 
bers. He purchased everything necessary for 
a prolonged siege, and then with stoical indiff- 
erence waited coming events, which had already 
cast their shadows before in the murders and 
depredations that had been committed by the 
savages in the neighboring settlements. Colo- 
nel Bellows had already become a settler and 
employed a large number of men to work for 
him, clearing the lauds and in making other 
improvements ; among them was the building 
of a mill to grind corn and other grains. This 
mill was situated at a place now known as 
Blanchard's Falls, about a mile northeast from 
Colonel Bellows' residence. On returning from 
the mill to Bellows' Fort, as his residence was 
now called, the stream on which the mill stood 
had to be crossed, which was about thirty feet 
lower than the plain above, then covered ^\ itli 
stunted pines, underbrush and ferns. 

A sketch of Walpole without the story of 



The Kilburn Fight would be like play- 
ing Hamlet with Hamlet left out. The Indians 
had learned that Colonel Bellows and his men 
were at work at his mill, and would return 
home some time during th } day, and would be 
likely to follow the foot path across the plain, 
which was in front of what is now the residence 
of Willard T. Blanchard. The Indians had 
stationed themselves across this path in a .semi- 
circle. About noon on the 17th of August, 
1755, as Colonel Bellows was returning with 
his men, about thirty in number, each with a 
bag of meal on his shoulder and a carefully 
loaded fire-arm in his hand, on approaching the 
plain, their dogs ran up the bank and halted 
and began to growl and show other unmistak- 
able signs that something did not suit them. 
When fairly on the plain, Colonel Bellows' 
sagacity told him that i-edskins were close at 
hand. Colonel Bellows then coolly told his men 
to drop their sacks of meal, examine their flints, 
and at a signal from him give a whoop and 
drop down into tlie ferns. This manoeuvre 
brought every Indian to his feet, which gave 
Bellows' men an excellent opportunity to jiick 
off" his man. How many .savages bit the dust 
at this time was not ascertained, for it is well 
known that an Indian will fight longer for a 
dead comrade than for a living one. If any were 
killed at this time, they were dragged away. 
The Indians were completely panic-stricken 
and they rushed down the steep bank to the west 
pell-mell, on to the meadow on which Kilburn's 
hut stood and hid themselves in the alders grow- 
ing there. Colonel Bellows and his men moved 
away from the scene in the direction of the fort, 
with much greater celerity than was their daily 
custom. Kilburn and his hired men, returning 
from their work to dinner, discovered the red 
legs of the savages in the alders, whereupon he 
quickened his steps to his hut to put things in 
order for a warm reception. The inmates of 
his cabin were himself and wife, a hired man 
by the name of Peak, his son John, then eigh- 
teen years old) and his daughter Mchitable 



WALPOLE. 



413 



(Hetty). After barricading bis doors and win- 
dows and taking otber necessary precantions, 
quiet reigned for a few minutes. During tiiis 
quiet interval Kilburn's eyes were directed to 
the bank east of his cabin, where a foot-path 
ran down the hill to tlie intervale below. One 
hundred .uid ninety-seven Indians crossed this 
path in a very short time and stationed them- 
selves on the side-hill east of his cabin. Sub- 
sequently it was ascertained that as many more 
were lying iu ambush at the mouth of Cold 
River. 

Silence was broken soon after by that " old 
wily, treacherous devil" Philip, who had visited 
Kilburn's cabin the summer before and had 
received presents from his hands, by his appear- 
ing, partly hidden behind a tree, and calling 
upon those iu tlie house to surrender. Said he, 
" Old John, young John, come out here, I know 
you — we give you good quarter!" "Quarter!" 
vociferated old Kilburn, with a voice like 
thunder, that rang through every Indian's brain, 
and every valley around. " You black rascals, 
begone or we'll quarter you !" Who would have 
anticipated this more than Spartan reply, without 
tremor from a camp of four men hedged around 
by four hundred merciless savages with a]ipe- 
tites sharply whetted for the blood of white 
men ? 

Meanwhile, those ambushed at the mouth 
of Cold River had joined their comrades 
gathered near Kilburn's home. 

After Philip had made his generous offer of 
surrender to Kilburn, he returned to his tribe, 
and after a few minutes' consultation with them 
the terrifying war whoop was sounded convey- 
ing to the uninitiated the impression that all 
the imps of pandemonium had broken loose. 
Immediately a shower of leaden hail, from at 
least four hundred guns of the enemy, pene- 
trated and splintered the roof of our hero's 
cabin. Before the smoke had settled down 
from the enemy's guns, so as to obscure the 
surroundings, Kilburn espied an Indian of 
more than ordinary size leaning against the 



fence, partly hidden from view. Kilburn 
seized uj)on this opportunity of getting the 
first return fire. He leveled his musket, pulled 
the trigger, and his human target dropped 
dead on the spot. Kilburn always maintainetl 
that this Indian was no other than that old 
scoundrel Philip. Our hero's enemies were on 
all sides of him, and while some of them kept 
up a continuous fire against the hut, without 
doing any harm, others were engaged in 
destroying his hay, grain and j)igs, and making 
a general slaughter of his cattle, Kilburn and 
his men did not waste their anmiunition, but 
resolved, that at every discharge of their mus- 
kets, every deadly missile should take effect. 
The defenders had several muskets in the cabin, 
which were kept hot by incessant firing. 
They had poured their powder into hats that it 
might be more convenient for loading their 
arms. Their bullets began to run low, when 
a happy thought struck them, which was to sus- 
pend blankets under the roof and catch the 
enemy's bullets, which the women recast and 
maile them do double service, being immedi- 
ately sent back as an acknowledgment of their 
receipt. It was evident that Kilburn's bullets 
had a telling effect on his enemies, for they 
were not so bold as they were at the begin- 
ning of the siege, when they made the 
rash attempt to burst in the door ; they were 
only seen now, stealthily crawling from tree to 
tree and stump to stump, avoiding exposure as 
much as jwssible. From noon, on that memor- 
able day, the incessant firing and fiendish 
war-whoop dinned on the ears of all within 
hearing distance. At length the savages began 
to disappear one by one, and when the sun had 
shed its hist lingering beams and the mantle 
of darkness hung over the scene, the Indians 
were gone. In a very short time the turmoil 
of the day was followed by almost deadly 
silence. No sounds were heard but the Au- 
gust cricket chirping his evening song and the 
melodious lullaby of the distant falls. 

Colonel Bellows and his men had heard the 



414 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



firing all the afternoon, Init none of them had 
the foolhartliness to go to the relief of Kilburn 
and his family. They would rather brave the 
taunts of cowardice than run the risk of losing 
their scalps, — it needed something more than the 
love of glory to stimulate a handful of men to 
meet four hundred savages on an open jjlain. 

Late in the evening, when all was still, Peter 
Bellows, the intrepid oldest son of the colonel, 
sallied forth to learn the fate of the Kilburns. 
Stealing along cautiously, figuratively with his 
heart in his mouth, he at length arrived at the 
door of his neighbor, made himself known and 
was at once admitted. He was the first to con- 
gratulate Kilburn on his wonderful escape and 
honor him for his bravery. He found that no 
one of the household had been injured but one, 
and that was Kilburn's hired man. Peak. He, 
by exposing himself needlessly in the early part 
of the engagement, received a M'ound in the hip, 
and as there was no surgical aid nearer than 
Northficld, Mass., forty miles distant, to care 
for him, he died the fifth day afterwards. Ever 
after this memorable fight, though the In- 
dians continued to harass the neighboring- 
towns and settlements, they never again visited 
Walpole to molest the settlers. It has been said 
by some, and the belief has been fully shared by 
others, that the heroic defense made by Kilburn 
to save his family, as it dampened the courage 
t)f the savages, was the means of saving many 
valual)le lives. 

Many j^ears after the Kilburn fight, a story 
was told, which has a degree of plausibility on 
its face, at least, and runs thus : A relative of 
our townsmen (the Blanchards) became ac- 
quainted with an old Indian chief, then living 
in the State of New York, whose name was 
Joshark Noshark, who formerly belonged to the 
St. Francis tribe of Indians. He told the 
Blanchards' relative that he was in the Kilburn 
fight, being a young man then nineteen years of 
age. His memory was unimpaired, and he gave 
a full and minute history of that eventful day. 
He described minutely the surrounding .scenery, 



the falls, the mineral spring, the mountain and 
the red and yellow paints his tribe was in the 
habit of prc>curing to decorate their bodies. He 
said that Philip was killed in the early part of 
the fight, and, with many others killed, was 
buried south of the falls,— that Philip was 
buried in a spot removed from the i-est of the 
tribe which were killed. After Philip's friends 
had dug a grave by using their hands and scaly 
stones, sufficiently deep for their purpose, they 
laid his remains in, and first covered the body 
with dirt, then a large flat stone was placed on 
him, then more du't and finally with a covering 
of leaves, carefully spread over the whole, so 
that the whites might not discover his burial- 
place. He gave as a reason why Walpole was 
never after molested, that his tribe believed 
that the " Great Spirit " frowned on their con- 
duct after having been so well treated by Kil- 
burn. 

During the construc^tion of the Cheshire Rail- 
road several human skeletons were exhumed, 
supposed to be Indians, and among them was 
one, buried under a flat stone, answering, by its 
huge pi'oportions, the description formerly given 
of Philip. These bones were procured and 
wired together by one Dr. Ilobbins, of Bellows 
Falls, and are now in the possession of his 
family. 

It appears, from all the information in pos- 
session of the writer of this sketch, that John 
Kilburn had a grant of the township of Wal- 
pi)le, procured from the government of the State 
of New York. The authorities then of that 
State had about as much knowledge of the 
geography of this region as an average school- 
boy has of localities in Australia. The State 
of New York never held any jurisdiction on 
the east side of Connecticut River. Tiie claim 
of New York to the soil of New Hampshire 
was a shallow pretense, based on the ignorance 
of those in authority at the capital of New 
York. 

Many people, sometimes, lose more from ig- 
norance than it would cost them to srain infor- 



WALPOLE. 



415 



matiou. This was the case with John Kilburn, 
for Benuiug Wentworth was, at the time of" 
Kilburn's advent in town, the Governor of the 
State of New Hampshire, and had been for 
eight years granting to parties all about in this 
vicinity, and as far west as Bennington, Vt. 
(from whose name Bennington is derived). 
Colonel Bellows knew to what government to 
apply for a charter, wiiich he obtained in 1752, 
three years after Kilburn settled, who expected 
to be protected in his fancied rigiits by holding 
a valueless roll of parc-hmeut. Then came the 
" tug of war." Bellows M'as imperious and 
domiueering;, and Kilburn was sullen and un- 
yielding; the one had the State of New Hamp- 
shire to back him, the other nothing but his 
strong arm and indomitable will. A letter in 
the possession of the writer of this sketch, writ- 
ten by George Kilburn, the great-grandson of 
old Ji)hn, states that after the quarrel had lasted 
for some years between the families. Bellows so 
far ^•iclded as to make an offer to divide the town- 
ship with his great-grandfather; but his reply 
was, " No ! I bought the land aiid paid my 
money for it ; I '11 have all or I '11 have none ! " 
After a while Kilburn became discouraged in 
trying to maintain a contest so unequal, when 
he left town and settled in Springfield, Vt. ; 
Colonel Bellows then offered him fifty acres in 
one body, of any land in town ; Kilburn ac- 
cepted this offer, and located his future home 
where Oliver J. Hubbard now resides. He soon 
returned from Springfield, built himself a house 
and settled once more. 

The curious would be glad to know why he 
settled there. If he had an eye for the beauti- 
fid, the question is answered, for from an eleva- 
tion east of the house the most beautiful 
semicircular view is had that can be found in 
the surrouudino; couutrv. When he moved into 
his new house he exclaimed, " Here I will live 
till I die, and no foe of any kind shall ever 
drive me away so long as I can hold a gun ! " 

Tlie Kilburn and Bellows families lived 
neighbors in town nearly one hundred and 



twenty years, and never intermarried. At 
lengtii one of the Bellows descendants, of the 
fourth generation, and one of the Kilburns, of 
the sixth generation, married ; and the mingled 
blood of the first two settlers courses the veins 
of their two children — a son and daughter. 

The Kilburns did not rise much above the 
surface till the fourth generation, through 
Elijah, old Kilburn's grandson. He had a 
large family — nine children, six of whom M-ere 
boys, who were all respectable, thriving people, 
some of whom secured a large competency as 
mill-owners and superintendents. All have 
been leading men in communities where they 
have lived. 

There is no one by the name of Kilburn liv- 
ing in the town to-day, and but few descendants. 

Ml". Kilburn was a man of but limited edu- 
cation ; therefore he was not the peer of othei's 
more fortunate, who figured as town officers ; he 
only held some few minor positions in town. 
He was industrious, honest and brave, and he 
lived long enough to see his great-grandchildren 
on the stage, when, at a ripe old age, he died, 
and was buried in the old cemeteiy north of the 
village, where a jilaiu, substantial slab of granite 
marks the spot, with the following inscription : 

" In memory of 

John Kilburn, who departed 

this life for a better, April Sth, 1789, 

in the 85th year of his age. 

He was the first settler of this town 

in 1749." 

1752. — A star actor will now be introduced 
to the reader, who, with his descendants, did 
more to settle the town, build her church edi- 
fices, foster education and the building of high- 
ways in the first twenty yeare after his advent, 
tlian all others put together. In fact, the influ- 
ence of this man and his family was felt in 
every movement made in town, even down as 
late as 1830. When one voter met another town- 
meeting day morning, he asked of the other, 
" Well, how are you going to vote to-day ?" His 



416 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



reply was, " I dou't know ; I haven't asked the 
'Squire yet," meaning a son of 

Col. Benjamin Bellows, who was the 
founder of the town. Beuning Wentworth, 
desirous of forming settlements on Connecticut 
River, offered as an inducement to Colonel Bel- 
lows any of the unappropriated lands found in 
this region. After looking about for some time, 
the colonel, for reasons known only to himself, 
selected No. 3 in the chain of forts (now Wal- 
pole.) In 1752, Colonel Bellows, Theodore At- 
kinson, Colonel Josiah Blanchard and sixty- 
seven others, grantees, purchased the township 
above-named, and obtained a charter, which 
reads thus : 

" George II., by advice of Beniiing Wentworth, 
Governor, granted unto his loving subjects, inhabitants 
of New Hampshire, and his majesty's other govern- 
ments, in equal shares, whose names are entered on 
this grant, to be divided among them in sixty-seven 
different shares, all that tract of laud in said province 
of New Hampshire, described, &c., &c. And the 
same is incorporated as Walpole, and the inhabitants 
thereof are enfranchised and declared entitled to the 
privileges of other towns in said province, and 
as soon as there shall be fifty families resident there, 
shall have the liberty of holding two fairs annually, 
and shall also have a market opened and kept one or 
more days in a week, as may be thought advanta- 
geous. 

"The first meeting of said town shall beheld the 
third Wednesday of March next (1752), and Benjamin 
Bellows is appointed moderator of such meeting and 
to call the same. To hold said land on these condi- 
tions, namely, every grantee shall, within five years, 
cultivate five acres of land for every fifty acres of his 
share, and shall continue to improve and settle the 
same by additional cultivation, on penalty of forfeit- 
ure of his share. 

"That all white and other pine-trees fit for our 
royal navy, be preserved for use, and none be cut or 
felled without his majesty's special license, upon same 
forfeiture and punishment of any acts of parliament 
now or hereafter enacted. 

"That before division of land, a tract or center of 
township shall be marked in town lots, one of which 
shall be allotted to each grantee of the contents of 
one acre, yielding and paying therefor to us, &c., for 
ten years, one ear of Indian corn annually on the first 
day of January, if lawfully demanded. 



"Every proprietor, settler or inhabitants, shall 

yield and pay to us, &c., yearly, after the expiration 

of ten years, one shilling proclamation money, for 

every hundred acres he so owns, settles or possesses, 

and so in proportion for greater or less tracts, which 

said money shall be paid to our council-chamber, or 

to officers appointed to receive it. 

(Signed) 

" Bexning Wentworth. 

" In testimony &c., Feb. 13, 1752, and 25th year of 
George's reign. 

" Recorded by Theodore Atkinson, Sec." 

Nine years after the date of the charter the 
grantees represent that, by reason of the Indian 
wars and other good and sufficient reasons, it is 
not practicable for them to comply with its 
conditions ; therefore the time is lengthened 
from year to year until the conditions of the 
charter are fulfilled. This document is dated 
March 12, 1761, being the first year of the 
reign of George III. 

Colonel Bellows had built for himself and 
family a liabitation which was afterwards called 
a fort, of which more further on. 

On opening the town records is found, in 
compliance with the provisions of the charter, 
the doings of the first town-meeting, which was 
held on the third Wednesday of March, 1752. 
According to the provisions of the charter. Col- 
onel Bellows was the first moderator. The 
meeting was M'ithout warrant, and no record i.s 
found where the meeting was held. The record 
was as follows : 

"At a meeting held at Walpole In the Province of 
New Hampshire, agreeable to Charter on the third 
Wednesday of March a.d. 1752, Benjamin Bellows 
being appointed Moderator, — first voted and Chose 
theodore Atkinson Esq, and Benjamin Bellows Select- 
men for sd year Insuing. Secondly, Chose Benjamin 
Bellows Town Clark, then desmissed the meeting. 
Attest Benjamin Bellows Town Clark." 

The record of the town-meeting of 1753 is 
precisely like the foregoing. In 1754 the first 
part of the record is the same as the preceding 
one, except that Sam. Johnson is chosen moder- 
ator, — 

"Secondly chose Benjamin Bellows, Sam. Johnson 



WALPOLE. 



417 



and Robert Powker Selectmen. 3' Chose Col. Wil- 
lard Town Clark. [The name of Col. Bellows seemed 
to have been scratched out and Col. Willard's name 
substituted.] Fourthly, chose Enoch Cook Constable. 
Fifthly chose Enoch Cook Servayer of hie Ways." 

Tlie first three records appear to have been 
made at one sitting, by the color of the ink and 
other evidences, and probably were, from the 
fact that seven years later each settler was as- 
sessed one shilling to procure " a town-book to 
be kept for the use of the town." When ol> 
tained, most likely, the above records were 
transcribed into the new book from some loose 
memoranda. 

The records of the town for the first three 
years were undoubtedly in the handwriting 
of Colonel Bellows, but after that time were 
in the handwriting of his .son, Benjamin Bel- 
lows, Jr., although signed and attested by his 
father till Benjamin, Jr., was chosen town 
clerk in 1759, when he was only nineteen yeare 
of age. He held the office of town clerk from 
the above date till 1795, except two years, 1778 
and 1782, when Amos Babcock and N. Goddard 
supplanted him, — a period of thirty-four years. 
Theodore Atkinson and Joseph Blanchard, 
who appear on the records the first two years 
as selectmen, the former living in Londonderry, 
and then secretary of the [)rovince, and the lat- 
ter (a brother-in-law of the colonel) living in 
Duastable, attending to his multifarious busi- 
ness transactions there, probably, were not am- 
bitious enough to find their way through the 
slush, snow and blizzards of March without 
roads, and guided only by blazed trees, to at- 
tend a town-meeting in the then infant town of 
Walpole. Sara. Johnson and Robert Powker, 
whose names figure as selectmen the next year, 
died yearlings, for they do not appear on the 
town records again. The same year Colonel 
Willard's name is recorded as town clerk, — a 
man who had the infant town of Winchester on 
liis hands, and, consequently, had no right to 
meddle with town affairs in Walpole. Enoch 
Cook, who was chosen constable and surveyor 
of "hie ways" the same year, together with 



Johnson and Powker as selectmen, — it is more 
than suspected, as there were but four families 
in town four years later, — were mere men of 
straw. 

Where was poor Kilburn these long years, 
when there was such a paucity of men ? Prob- 
ably he did not have then, if he ever did, an 
embracing friendship for Colonel Bellows— he, 
most likely, was at home town-meeting days 
nursing his wrath to keep it warm, while, it may 
be. Colonel Bellows was cosily seated before 
a warm fire toastino- his shins and smokinir a 
corn-cob jiipe. 

In March, 1755, Benjamin Bellows was 
chosen moderator, town clerk, selectman and 
treasurer, and John Kilburn and Daniel Twit- 
ehel appear as associates of Colonel Bellows as 
selectmen ; but before the month of March 
closed that year, Mr. Twitchel and a man by 
the name of Flynt went back, east from Con- 
necticut River, on to the hills, for the purpose 
of procuring some black-ash timber for boat 
oars, where they were both found, shot by the 
Indians — dead ! They were found lying on 
their backs. One was scalped, the other was 
cut open and his heart taken out, cut in jiieces 
and laid on his breast. Flynt was buried on 
the sjiot ; Twitchel, having friends, was carried 
away and buried elsewhere. 

The exact spot where Flynt was buried is 
about one and a half miles northeast from Wal- 
pole Village, near the Drewsville road, a few 
rods west. A small pile of stones, carelessly 
thrown together, marks the spot. It is said 
that one John Flynt had a Bay State charter 
of this town about 1742. Who knows but the 
above-named Flynt was the man? 

The inhabitants of the town had already 
been thrown into great excitement and fear on 
learning that the savages had visited Charles- 
town in June, 1754, at an early hour in the 
morning, before the families had arisen, anrl 
capturing and carrying into captivity James 
Johnson, his wife and three children, together 
with his wife's sister (Miriam Wiliard), Ebeu- 



418 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ezer Farnsworth and Peter Labaree. One 
Aaron Hosiuer eluded a horrible fate by secret- 
ing himself under a bed. 

That event, with all the suiferings and hor- 
rors attending it, followed soon after by the 
killing of Twitchel and Flynt, and a few months 
later by the Kilburn fight, spread a mantle of 
gloom and awful suspense over the few settlers 
that had gathered in town ; but the murders of 
Twitchel and Flynt seemed to make a deeper 
and more solemn impression on the minds of 
the inhabitiints, because the taking off of two 
of their neighbors in such a barbarous way was 
the first white blood known to have been shed 
in the immediate vicinity after the first settle- 
ment in town. The people at that time were 
very superstitious, and they believed the guar- 
dian angel of Twitchel was continually hover- 
ing over them, and warning them of the wiles 
of the savages, and calling njjon them to 
avensre his murder. 

A rock in Connecticut River, a little south of 
the Cold River railroad station, may be seen at 
low water, where Twitchel used to fish with 
uever-failing success. This rock, for many 
years, was held in religious veneration by the 
early settlers. There, even now, a good angler, 
with a few worms and a good deal of patience, 
may catch a generous fry. 

In 1745 a body of French and Indians, the 
latter twelve in number, attacked the garrison 
at the Great Meadows (now in Putney, Vt.), on 
the 12th of October, at noon. A brisk fight 
was carried on for an hour and a half, and one 
Indian was killed. The fort was defended with 
so much courage the enemy withdrew. In lieu 
of victory, they killed and drove off the cattle. 
Nehemiah How, who was cutting wood about 
eighty rods from the fort, was taken by the In- 
<]ians and no attempt was made to rescue him. 
As they were leading him away on the west 
bank of the river, opposite Boggy Meadow, 
they espied two men crossing the river in a ca- 
noe, when they fired and killed one of them, 
David Rugg, and the other, Robert Baker, 



made for the east shore and escaped. The Indians 
scalped Rugg and mounted the scalp on a long 
pole and carried it through Charlestown, in 
triumph, to Crown Point. This David Rugg 
was, without a shadow of doubt, the identical 
man who was buried on Boggy Meadow and 
the place is known to this day as " Rugg's 
Meadow." 



David Rugg, David Twitchel, 



Flynt 



and Pike (who lost his life at the Kilburn fight) 
are the only foiir persons who ever lost their 
lives in town by the bullets of the merciless 
savages. 

Colonel Bellows was induced to come to Wal- 
pole to settle by the persuasions of Benning 
Wcntworth (who was then Governor of the 
province), with whom Bellows was well ac- 
(|uainted, and who offered him (Bellows) extra 
inducements, for several reasons, viz. : One 
was the settlement of towns in the western part 
of the State, not only in Cheshire County, but 
in all the region roundabout, where he granted 
charters as plenty as blackberries in August. 
Another reason was, he found in Colonel Bel- 
lows just the man to push a new settlement 
on the frontier— a man of considerable culture 
and of great force of cliaracter; and, lastly, he 
wanted to secure as large a missionary fund as 
possible by reserving five hundred acres of land 
in each grant, the income of which was to go 
the Episcopal Church, of wliich he was an ar- 
dent devotee. 

Wentworth,not having a very definite idea of 
the surroundings in the vicinity of the Cireat 
Falls, and supposing the land lying in the im- 
mediate vicinity of the falls to be the most val- 
uable for his purpose, on account of the shad 
and salmon fisheries, and to make the matter 
doubly sure, he consulted Colonel Bellows on 
the propriety of locating his missionary lot east 
of the falls. The colonel very honestly told 
him " that a plot located there would be of lit- 
tle use to him ; that it might make a good sheep 
pasture, but nothing better." It is presumed 
that the Governor suspected the colonel of a lit- 



WALPOLE. 



419 



tie sharp practice by imdervaluing this plot ; 
therefore, Wentwortli pitched his missionary lot 
ou the top and east side of Fall Mountain, 
which is now a part of Langdon, but is to this 
day called " the Governor's sheep pasture." 

When Colonel Benjamin Bellows came to this 
town to settle, he l^rought with him his wife 
(whose maiden-name was Abigail Stearns) and 
five children. Their names were Abigail, who 
died in Northampton, Mass., when young ; 
Peter, Benjamin, John and Joseph, all born be- 
tween 1736 and 1744. The colonel buried his 
first wife November, 1757. She was the first 
tenant of the old burviug-ground. The next 
year, in April, he married the Widow Mary 
Jennison, former wife of Jonathan Jennison, of 
Lunenljurg, Mass. She bore him five children, 
viz. : Abigail, Theodore, Mary, Thomas and 
Josiah, born between 1759 and 1767. 

The Rev. Henry W. Bellows, a great-grand- 
son of the colonel, says, in his " Memorial Mon- 
ograph," that, "The immediate cause of my 
great-grandfather's leaving Lunenburg was 
that he had become embarrassed in pecuniary 
matters, by being bound for others, and, in the 
great scarcity of money, was unable to meet the 
demands of his creditors. That he was pur- 
sued by the sheriff to the State line, and, once 
fjiirly over it, stopped and held a parley with 
the sheriff, stating that he had no disposition to 
avoid his obligations, but that a jail was a poor 
place in which to find means to pay debts; that 
he would soon return and liquidate all his ob- 
ligations." It is most certain that he lived up 
to his word, for he soon returned to Lunenburg 
to look after his interests there. When the 
colonel married the Widow Jennison, she had 
six children, all of whom came to Walpole 
with tlieir mother and became the foster chil- 
dren of the colonel. The third and fifth of this 
family were boys, whose names were John and 
Jonathan, respectively. These boys both set- 
tled in town as farmers, and from them has 
sprung all the persons by the name of Jennison 
who ever lived in Walpole. There ai-e none of 
27 



the descendants of John living in town to-day, 
although at one time there was (piite a number. 
The descendants of Jonathan still remain in 
town. 

The habitation of Colonel Bellows was lo- 
cated on a slight elevation of land, where the 
dwelling and horse-barn of Thomas Bellows 
now stand. It was in the form of the letter L, 
each wing being one hundred feet in length and 
twenty feet in breadth, giving four thousand 
feet of floor-room. It was strongly built, of 
logs and earth, and was surrounded by a pali- 
sade. A lookout was constructed on the west 
end, commanding a limited view in each direc- 
tion. Here Colonel Billows lived for ten or 
more years with his numerous family, consist- 
ing of himself, wife and eleven children, which 
was afterwards increased by five more. His own 
large fiimily and the numerous hired help he 
had about him required much forethought in 
order that the pot might be kept boiling. 

This habitation or fort was Colonel Bellows' 
private property, though a few State militia, it 
is said, were stationed there at one time, and 
Bellows was also presented with a huge iron 
cannon by the public authorities ; but there is 
no further evidence of its beingr a fort. 

For some time after Colonel Bellows settled 
in town he had to go to Northampton, Mass., 
to mill, going down with his corn in boats in the 
spring, and returning with his meal and other 
stores necessary, not only to feed his own fam- 
ily and hired help, but many families that re- 
sorted to his fort for protection, and all other 
comers and goers who wanted to appease their 
hunger or stay over-night. As soon as he could 
procure proper help and material, he built himself 
a mill on Blanchard's Brook, before mentioned. 
From this mill, it is said, he supplied the early 
settlers of Langdon, Alstcad and Lempster 
with meal for several years. They came and 
went on foot, and transported their meal on 
their backs sometimes ten or twelve miles, 
when a bushel of meal at the end of their 
joiu'ney would seem as heavy as four. 



420 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



There were no stores kept in town at that 
early period, and tlie settlers had to go to 
Northfield, Mass., a distance of forty miles, to 
do their trading. They purchased their goods 
of one Aaron Burt, who was a wholesale and 
retail dealer. This Burt was the great-grand- 
father of Henry and Levi Burt, of this town. 
A set of Aaron Burt's account-books, ledger and 
journal, are in the possession of Henry Burt, of 
this town, at this time more than one hundred 
and thii-ty years old. They are in a beautiful, 
round handwriting, and well preserved. In 
tiieni are found charges made against no less 
than sixteen persons kno'svn to have been resi- 
dents of this town. It is curious to n<jte, after 
the lapse of so many years, that those old ac- 
count-books should be brought forward to give 
the data by which one can gather who lived 
here and what, in a measure, was the general 
condition of the purchaser, financially and 
otherwise. If the goods bought were for 
household consumption, and were large and fre- 
quent, it showed that the purchaser had a large 
family and his credit was good; if many dry- 
goods swelled the bill, the inference is that the 
family was composed largely of females. An 
inference could be drawn of tiie condition of 
every family. Colonel Bellows had frequent 
and large bills there. One was for a large bill 
of nails of all sizes. The account is dated the 
same year he Iniilt his new house, which, no 
doubt, were bought for that purpose. The last 
items charged on the colonel's bills were two 
casks of brandy and three barrels of rum. The 
purchase of these last items is strong evidence 
that the colonel was not a teetotaler. 

JoxATHAN Leavitt. — lu those early days 
the settlement of a minister was the paramount 
subject of the settlers. They could no more 
do without their minister then their accustomed 
meals. He furnished their religious views, 
their brains and their morals. 

He was looked upon, by high and low, as 
superior to all others aix>und him ; and due 
deference was paid him. He was settled for 



life, and a " minister's lot " was assigned to 
him as his own property in fee. Where this 
lot was first located is not 'positively known ; 
but somewhere within the compass of Walpole 
village. But what a cliauge one hundred years 
has wrought ! Now, if a minister preaches his 
honest sentiments, and they do not suit the 
conventional ideas of his society, he is called to 
a severe account for it; if he preaches even 
what he is hired to preach, the people find 
fault with him. Now, if he does well, he is 
esteemed, by most people, as being on a level 
with others who do as well. Tlie fact is he 
preaches what the people like rather than what 
he would untrammeled preach, for he knows 
that he is settled on horse-back and the horse 
is liable to be led to his door at any moment 
\vith the request to mount and leave. It is 
related that a noted divine, who had held an 
im usually long pastorate, was asked one day, 
what was the secret of such success. He 
facetiously replied, " Well, I preach neither 
politics, temjierance nor relir/ion ! " 

FROM 1760 TO 1770. 

The first business of a public nature done in 
Walpole, other than choosing town officers, 
was to assess each settler twelve shillings, lawful 
money, to be worked out on the highway, at 
three shillings per day, if worked out before the 
1st of September ; if not, two shillings per day 
thereafter. This was in 1761. At the time 
they assessed each settler seven shillings to pay 
for preaching, and " Voted that Benjamin Bel- 
lows, Esq., provide seats and other conveniences 
for the purpose." 

Previous to the above, in 1760, "At a legal 
meeting of the inhabitants, held at the fort in 
Walpole December 22d," the town voted to 
give Mr. Jonathan Leavitt a call to become 

o 

their minister, and at the same meeting they 
also voted to give him the following encourage- 
ment and salary. The stipulations, as recorded, 
read thus : — 

"Voted to sive Mr. .Tonatlian Leavitt Seventy five 



WALPOLE. 



421 



pounds, Sterling money of Great Britton, as an encour- 
agement to settle in tlie work of tlie ministry in said 
Town, the one halt', that is tliirty seven pound ten 
Shillings Sterling in three months after his Ordina- 
tion and the other half in nine months after his Or- 
dination, as also the Eight in the Town that is Re- 
served for the first settled minister in said place to be 
his, provided he accepts and settles in Said place." 

They also voted to give him — 

" For a Salory provided he settles in the work of 
the ministry in this Town of Walpole, namely to 
begin as thus for his first Year Thirty Seven pounds 
ten Shillings Sterling money of Great Britton and to 
rise three pound fifteen Shillings Sterling money each 
year annually to be added to said Salory till it amount 
to the sum of Sixty pound Like money there to stay 
at sixty pounds Sterling till there be Eighty Rateable 
poles in said Town Inhabitants belonging to said 
Town, then rise fifteen Shillings on Each pole that 
shall be added to said town till it makes the sum of 
seventy five pound Like money for Each year and 
then to stope and be the yearly Salory so Long as he 
the said Mr. Jon.athan Leavitt shall continue to be 
the minister in said Town. 

" 5'-'. Agreed and Voted that Each settler in and 
belonging to said town that is an Inhabitant and 
belonging to said Town pay the sum of two pound 
five Shillings Sterling money of Great Brittain for the 
Use of said settlement of Mr. Jonathan Leavitt and 
his first Year's Salory that is one pound ten Shillings 
toward his settlement and fifteen Shillings Toward 
his first Year's Salory and it is agreed and voted that 
May's Benjamin Bellows make up the rest of the sum 
of one hundi-ed and Twelve pound ten Shillings 
Sterling being the money Voted for the settlement 
of Mr. Jonathan Leavitt and his first Years Salory 
if he accepts and settles in said Town." 

On the foUowiug February Mr. Leavitt 
rejilied to the above scholarly document, — 

"Walpole, February 20, 1761. 
" Being called upon by you the Inhabitants of this 
Place to settle among you in the work of the Gosple 
ministry and viewing it as my Duty, Do now in the 
Fear of God Depending on him by his Grace and 
spirit to assist me in the Faithful Discharge of this 
so Great a Truth comply with your call. Relying 
upon it that you will Do all on your part and in your 
Power to assist, Strengthen and encourage me so long 
as God shall continue me with you. I say relying 
on this I do engage to settle among you, provided, 
that there sliall nothing appear between this and the 



time of Ordination to forbid it, in which time I ex- 
pect that you will Lay out the right of Land through 
this town of Walpole which by Charter is given 
to the first settled minister in the Place. And in 
Testimony of this solemn engagement I here unto set 
my hand." 

" Jonathan Leavitt." 

The terms of Mr. Lcavitt's settlement and 
salary were very liberal for those days, when 
there were so few to pay, there being but 
twelve or fifteen families in town at that time 
all told, and tlie purchasing power of money 
being three-fold of what it now is. 

Mr. Leavitt was ordained on the lOtli day of 
the following June, and Sergeant Israel Cal- 
kins was jiaid two dollars for his services in 
procuring a mini.'^ter to ordain Mr. Leavitt. 
Nothing more is heard of the parson till April, 
17(j4, when the settlers called a town-meeting 
for the pnrj)ose of hearing the nunds of the 
inhabitants on some difficulties that had arisen 
between the parson and his parishioners. 

The parishioners soon came to the conclusion 
that the services of their settled minister were 
no longer agreeable to their standard of moral- 
ity ; but how to get rid of him was an enigma, 
for ministers vceve then settled by written con- 
tract, M'hich Mas binding, certainly, on the part 
of the town. The ministers generally held 
the towns responsible to tlie contract. The 
town chose a committee to wait on Mr. 
Leavitt and confer with him. In tiie mean 
time it was proposed to have a council ; but 
before the time the council was to meet, which 
was on the 20tli day of May following, the 
above-named committee and the parson had 
arranged matters to the satisfaction of both 
parties. Mr. Leavitt released the town from 
all obligations to him in any way on the 27th 
day of May, 17(34. The parson seems to have 
been in bad odor with ids people, wiiicli caused 
the inhabitants to act very unanimously and 
with promptness, and Mr. Leavitt to submit 
to their decision with as quiet grace as possible. 

The full charges brought against Mr. Leavitt 
for his summary dismissal do not appear ; but 



422 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



one was, the parson was caught one day in lead- 
ing home a runaway slave of his, a woman, by 
a rope around her neck, which was attached to 
the pommel of his saddle. Colonel Bellows, 
hearing of the outrage, declared, "That such 
cruelty should not be tolerated ;" that he " set- 
tled Parson Leavitt and would unsettle him." 
What became of the parson is not known. 
The town, after Leavitt's dismissal, hired one 
Jonathan Moore, who preached for the people 
some time. 

It is seen, from the above, that the long- 
smothered " Anti-Slavery " sentiment of the 
North thus early cropped out. The minister's 
slave and two others owned by a pious family 
were the only ones known to have been held in 
bondage in town. 

The paramount interest of the settlers was 
centred on building and furnishing meeting- 
houses, for more than a generation, as the town 
records abundantly show. Scarcely six months 
passed in this long time without town-meetings 
being called " to see what the town would do " 
in relation to meeting-houses. H(nvever, at 
length a vote was carried to build a meeting- 
house, ^\hich was located on land now occupied 
by John AV. Hayward — ^just in front of his 
wood -shed. 

This house was, in size, fifty-six feet in 
length by forty -two in breadth, and each set- 
tler, rich or poor, was assessed twelve shillings, 
or to work four days in putting up the frame. 
It is seen by this that the poor man's spiritual 
needs were as great as those of the rich then. 
It was provided that, if the means for raising 
the frame were inadequate, " Colonel Bellows 
was to make up the rest." This house was 
never completed, though meetings were held 
there for a long time, till the population of the 
town outgrew its size, when the people were 
again agitated about building and locating a 
new house. 

The people of the town were now restive 
without a settled minister among them, when 
one day a man twenty-eight years old, from 



Cambridge, Mass., and a graduate of Harvard, 
whose name was Thomas Fessenden, presented 
himself as a candidate for the vacancy. His 
jjreaching suited the peo])le and they forthwith 
gave him a call. 

The following is a cojiy of the call to 
Thomas Fessenden : 

"Province of New Hampshire. 

"Walpole, Sep. 26, 1766. 

"At a Legal Meeting of the Inhabitants of said 
Walpole, held at the Meeting house in said Town, 
Firstly Chose Benjamin Bellows, Esq., Moderator. 
Secondly, Voted to give Mr. Thomas Fessenden a 
call to settle in the work of the ministry in said 
Walpole. Thirdly, Voted to give as an Encourage- 
ment to the said Mr. Thomas Fessenden one hundred 
and fifty pounds Lawful money Dollars, at Six Shil- 
lings Each, as a settlement, and said Bellows is to 
pay one-third of said settlement, and it is Purposed 
that the settlement be in two payments, half said sum 
in six months from his Ordination and the other half 
one year from his Ordination. Fourthly, Voted to 
give Mr. Fessenden, as a yearly Salary, for the first 
year Fifty pounds like money, and for the second 
year fifty-three pounds, and so rise three pounds a 
year for five years, then stand at Sixty Five pounds a 
year till there be one hundred settlers in said Wal- 
pole, or familys, to make up the hundred Inhabitants 
Properly called familys, then to rise to Eighty pounds 
Like money as above jiaid, and there to Continue at 
that sum yearly so long as the said Thomas Fessenden 
shall be our minister, and the People have Liberty to 
pay said Salary, if they see Cause, in good winter 
wheat that is Marchantable at four Shillings Per 
Bushel, Good Rye at three Shillings per Bushel and 
Good Indian corn at two Shillings p'r Bushel ; Good 
Beef at tw'o ji'r pence pound, or Good Pork at three 
pence p'r pound, the Pork being hoggs that weigh 
Eight Schorr and upwards, all wliich is to be De- 
livered at the house of Mr. Fessenden at the above 
[)rices." 

November 1, 176(J, Mr. Fessenden presented 
to the town his letter of acceptance. It is 
(piite lengthy, and would not be of much in- 
terest to the general reader, only in the indis- 
criminate and profuse use of capitals. It is 
more scholarly in its grammatical construction 
than jVIr. Leavitt's. He calls the offer " Gen- 
erous," and clearly sees the hand of Providence 



WALPOLE. 



423 



in the uuanimity of the people ; but he seri- 
ously objects to the manner of payment of his 
salary ; he wants one-half of it paid in money. 
He says " that more meat and grain than is 
needful for me to spend will, in order to pro- 
vide for my household, Oblige me to turn 
Marchant, so Divert me from my Studies and 
Proper Calling, and in the same Proportion 
Deprive you of my labor." He further states, 
in substance, that if his salary be paid one-half 
in money he will accept the call. Mr. Fessen- 
tlen was not unreai^onable to retpiire one-half 
in money, and the inhabitants saw the point 
was well made, and had the good sense to ar- 
range matters more satisfactorily to Mr. Fes- 
sendon. He was ordained minister of the town 
January 7, 1767; but the records are silent in 
relation to the proceedings on that occasion. 

An account of the manners and customs of 
the people during Mr. Leavitt's pastorate was 
given by a Mrs. AVatson, of Pennsylvania, who 
was a daughter of one John Fanning, who 
settled in Walpole at that time, on the place 
now owned by S. Johnst)n Tift'any. Mrs. Wat- 
son, when her father came here, was eight or 
ten years old ; but when she returned, after 
many years of absence, to visit her early home, 
she was an old woman, but retained her facul- 
ties in a remarkable degree. The story runs 
thus : 

" We started from Stonington, Conn., to go to Otter 
Creek, Vt., in a sloop of our own and came as far as 
Hartford, where we purchased a pair of horses and 
wagon to convey us up on the east side of the river. 
The country as far as Chicopee was very fine. Hat- 
field was then but a small town, but the fields of 
grain were immense, without fences. At Sunderland 
the road was mountainous, and we had to purchase 
oxen to haul our goods. We then jjaased through a 
little village called Keeue, and owing to the diflicul- 
ties of traveling we stopped at No. 'i, Walj)ole. My 
father built us a house of square timber and covered 
the roof with bark; but the gable ends were left open 
for a time, so we could plainly hear, when sitting 
around our fire-side in the evening, the barking of 
foxes, the howling of wolves and the cries of the 
panther, which resembled a woman's in distress and 
(seemed) intended to decoy people into the woods, 



where those animals proved troublesome when not 
prevented by fire-arms. 

" The flesh of the deer and bear afforded the 
settlers a delicious repast. The approach of the lat- 
ter was very unceremonious and sometimes rude to 
strangers. Wild turkeys were trapped and shot, and 
quails and pigeons caught in nets in great numbers. 
The brooks were filled with trout and the river 
abounded in salmon and shad ; one of the latter was 
taken near the Falls with a rattlesnake's head in its 
mouth. An intercourse with wild animals was car- 
ried to an unusual extent in the numbers tamed. A 
brood of young raccoons were taught to suck a cat 
and play about the house like kittens, only more 
mischievous. 

The inhabitants then lived in the wilderness, 
as shown by her story of Mrs. Prichard, 
" who," she said, " was lost in the woods and 
subsisted, like wild beasts, on berries and the 
bark of trees twenty-one days." She started 
during a thunder-storm from a place called 
Jennison Hill, with a child two years old, to 
visit a neighbor's house. Leaving the path to 
avoid a large snake, she lost her way and was 
not seen again for just three weeks, when some 
men discovered her at the mouth of Cold 
River. 

"She fled at the sight of men, like a deer, but was 
overtaken and brought back to a house. Her clothes 
were completely torn off. After recovering her senses 
in a degree, she stated that her child died the third day, 
and she buried it under a log. She said she heard 
the Indians' guns, and saw them several times in pur- 
suit of her (probably her friends, who spent several 
days looking for her), but she secreted herself so as to 
keep out of their way. That woman was living not a 
great many years since, in AVestminster, Vt., in a 
state of mental aberration. In tearing down the 
chimney where she lived, her coveted old pipe was 
found in a sly nook. 

" At this time there were about twelve or fifteen log 
houses in town. The meeting-house was unfinished ; 
there was not a carriage in town, the traveling being 
performed on foot or horseback ; sometimes three or 
four children were carried in this way at a time, be- 
side a wife, on a pillion, and the upsetting of such a 
load was of frequent occurrence. Colonel Bellows 
was the most considerable man in town ; Peter, the 
colonel's oldest son, was then settled in Charlestown, 
where the people used often go to attend meeting. 



424 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Mr. Leavitt, the minister in town, wore a large 
wig, full powdered, and when he entered the meeting- 
house the whole congregation rose to do oheisance to 
the man in hlack, who, in his turn, always responded 
with a formal bow. Powder was not worn on the 
hair by those who were contented with the use of the 
eelskin, which was considered as adding dignity to 
the wearer, in proportion to the size and length of 
the queue. 

" Officers of the militia wore cocked hats. Of the 
ladies, Mrs. Leavitt took the lead in dress ; at church 
she wore a full suit of lutestring, without any bonnet, 
holding a fan to shade the sun from her face, as was 
the fashion ' down country.' 

" Next to her were the daughters of Colonel Bel- 
lows, and their two half-sisters, Jennisons. They 
wore plain Quaker bonnets of black silk; white or 
colored ones were not seen. To improve their figures, 
the ladies quilted their petticoats with wool, to make 
their hips show off to advantage, which contrasted 
with the smallness of their waists, painfully compressed 
with long stays. Home-made durants, camblets and 
serges, full of gay flowers of artificial needlework 
were fashionable articles. Stockings, of their own 
knitting, and high-heeled shoes, with buckles, were 
indispensable. 

" It was thought an improvement to beauty and 
elegance to expose the petticoat before throug a screen 
of lawn apron, the gown being left to swing open. 
The hair was all combed back, leaving no curls nor 
ringlets about the face. Instead of following the 
modern fashion of covering the back part of the head, 
their Ijonnets were so much pitched forward that the 
cap and back part of the head were exposed. 

"A large portion of pin-money was derived from 
the sale of golden-thread, ginseng and snake-root, 
which was procured by their own hands. Dr. Chase 
was the only physician." ' 

Soon after the town had settled Pansoii 
Fesseiideu in the ministry and on the farm (now 
called the Farr place), and also had built them- 
selves a house of worship (only in name), the 
settlers turned their attention towards the edu- 
cation of their children, something they so much 
needed themselves, for it is doubtful whether 
one in five of the population could read and 
write. Accordingly, in 1768, the town voted 

' The above narrative, in substance, was given by Mrs. 
Watson to Dr. Ebenezer Morse, of tliis town, about the 
year 1826. 



to have three schools, and for their support they 
voted fifteen pounds for winter schools, and the 
next year voted " to raise twenty-four pounds 
for schooling, and to form three districts." It 
appears that the population was now increasing, 
for the selectmen took a census of the to\\n and 
found in 17(37, 308 inhabitants, divided thus, — 
24 married men, from sixteen to sixty ; 52 un- 
married men, from sixteen to sixty ; 104 boys, 
under sixteen ; 1 man over sixty ; 72 unmarried 
females ; 52 married females and 3 widows. 
It is seen, if the number of girls was equal to 
the number of boys, it was high time to make 
provision for .schooling. 

Colonel Bellows intended to have the village 
in Walpole, near the fort ; but for some unac- 
countable reason the population "drifted" 
down the river, where the present village now 
is, — perhaps the reason was to be nearer the meet- 
ing-house, which then stood on "Uncle Si's" 
Hill. Be that as it may, the first school-hotise 
built was located where Josiab G. Bellows' 
house now stands, and is now the residence of 
Moses Q. Watkins, on Washington Scjuare. This 
wa.sNo. I. It is very easy to account for District 
No. 2 being located near the month of Cold 
River; it was the fertile intervale in that vicinity 
that made that region populous ; but why a 
population, so early, should have .settled in the 
" Valley, " sufficiently large as to require a 
school-house there, is not so plain ; unless the 
nearness of the locality to Colonel Bellows' mill 
was an inducement; for in early days the land 
was covered with a dense growth of hemlock 
timber ; the soil was wet, sterile and covered with 
angular boulders ; and, moreover, the " Valley " 
was the special home of the gray wolf, whose 
howls at night were the terror of mankind and 
domestic animals. The organization of school 
districts in town sufficiently indicates where the 
population was most dense, in the early settle- 
ment of the town, except District No. 14, which 
was taken from Nos. I and 2. 

The town has always exercised a watchful 
care over the educational interest of the rising 



WALPOLE. 



425 



geueration witliin its borders. It began by 
raising fifteen pounds for schooling purposes, | 
and has added to tliat sum from time to time 
till now (1885), when our school expenditure ] 
reaches more tlian five thousand dollars. 

The town about 1770 was comj)arativelY 
([iiiet ; the Indians were no longer troublesome, 
the minister was preaching peace, the schools 
were well agoing, and no town-meetings were 
railed but the annual one, where not much was 
done but the choosing of town officers. At those 
meetings •were chosen two kinds of officers who 
do not appear on the town records now, — one 
was the tithingman, the other the deer reeve, 
of whom several were chosen of each kind. 

The tithingman was a kind of Sunday 
police. His duties were to see that order was 
maintained around the church on the Lord's 
day, and to prevent unnecessary traveling on 
Sunday. People were not allowed to labor in 
their fields on that day ; if they did, they were 
subjected to a large fine. 

The flesh of the deer was not only considered 
a delicacy, but was indispensable to the poor, as 
it alForded them a large share of their meat diet; 
hence officers were chosen, called "deer reeves," 
to protect the does and fawns at certain seasons 
of the year from wanton, indiscriminate 
slaughter. 

FROM 1770 TO 1780. 

This decade was marked by much feverish 
anxiety, deprivation and human suffering; the 
settlers had to live as they could. The ominous 
events which terminated in the Revolutionary 
War began to cast their dark shadows before; 
liut when the news came to Walpole of the 
battle at Lexington the quiet of the town was 
struck to its very foundation. 

Benjamin Bellows, Jr., better known as gen- 
eral, was then thirty-five years old, and was 
then, and during his whole life, the acknowl- 
edged leader in town, both from natural and 
acquired abilities. 

The next morning after hearing the news 
from Lexington, General Bellows, his brother 



John and Thomas Sparhawk mounted their 
horses, and started for the scene of blood. On 
arriving at Keene they inquired for one Cap- 
tain Wyman, and were told that he had started 
for Concord that morning at sunri.se, with about 
thirty men. On hearing this answer thev ex- 
claimed, "Keene has shown a noble spirit!" 
and hastened onwards, soon followed by thirty- 
five men from Walj)ole. Those men were out 
about eleven days on that expedition. 

Walpole was not behind other towns in the 
State in furnishing men and means for the ser- 
vice and use of the Continental army ; nor 
were tiie families of soldiers neglected at home ; 
for the town records bear evidence that money 
was raised from time to time tor the benefit of 
such families, and committees were appointed 
to see that they were made comfortable. 

The pay of the soldier was ten pounds for 
one year's service, or wheat at five shillings per 
bushel. In 1779 the town raised one thousand 
pounds to procure five soldiers fiir the army, 
but at this time it took twenty-four pounds of 
currency to purchase one in gold, and two years 
later it took twelve hundred pounds in the same 
currency to equal one in gold or silver. 

The exact number of men that went into the 
Continental service in this town cannot be as- 
certained from any available .source; but it is 
said that most of the able-bodied men .served a 
longer or shorter period. 

General Benjamin Bellows, though he rose 
from the lowest office in the militia of the State 
to be a brigadier-general, was not long in the 
field. He was mostly engaged in raising troops 
for the United States service, and was one of 
the principal men in the State sought for when 
any aid to the national government was wanting. 
Twice he marched his own regiment to Ticon- 
deroga, — first in 1776, for a service of twenty- 
five days, and again, June 28, 1777, to reinftirce 
the garrison there besieged by the enemy, when, 
according to the pay-roll, the time of service 
was only twelve days. Finally, he carried his 
regiment, September 21, 1777, to reinfoi-cc the 



426 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Nortlieru Coutinental army at Saratoga, un- 
der the command of General Gates, at the 
time when General Burgoyne surrendered. In 
the general's account with the government is 
found a charge for u horse killed in the service, 
luit it does not state whether killed under him 
or not. 

It is said that " most of the men in town 
wentto Saratoga," and very likely they went with 
the general. Tradition says that quite a number 
of men who went with General Bellows to Sara- 
toga, went as scouts, and among them were two 
men whose names were Crane and Hall, the 
latter was nicknamed " Munn," but his proper 
name was Jonathan. They had on their way 
there a severe tight with a band of Indians. 
Crane had a hard tussle with an Indian single- 
handed, who was armed with a cutlass, and got 
his hand so severely cut that he was unable to 
use it ever afterwards. The victory was com- 
plete, for the scouts captured one hundred and 
fifty of the enemy. Old Munn \\as present 
when Burgoyne delivered up his sword, and 
exclaimed, " We've got you for breakltist, and 
we'll have Cornwallis for dinner ! " 

Thomas Bellows (the 'Squire), in speaking of 
the men who went to Saratoga from Walpole, 
and whose memory was remarkable, used to 
say that he could remember the names of twelve, 
when he would commence and name them till 
he reached the last one, when he would hesi- 
tate and, becoming impatient, would ejaculate, 
" No matter, he was a black man, any way ! " 

A squad of the Walpole soldiers captured a 
boat belonging to the enemy, that contained 
barrels, which they supposed were filled with 
rum, but what was their chagrin when, boring 
into tliem with their bayonets, they were found 
to contain only pork. 

August 16, 1777, was fought the battle of 
Bennington, and during the day the booming 
of the cannon was distinctly lieard on the Wal- 
pole hills and also on the lowlands. The 
[)eople wei'e busily engaged in their harvest, but 
they dropped the sickle and scythe and left the 



wheat in the ground and tlie grass in the swath, 
put up a scanty supply of viands in their knap- 
sacks, took their guns and ammunition and 
started on foot for Bennington, where they 
found Molly Stark not a widow. 

Many trophies were brought home by the 
soldiei's, which are sacredly kept as heirlooms 
by their descendants. The military suit of 
General Bellows is extant and intact. The 
writer of this sketch wore it several years ago 
on a certain festive occasion, and it fitted like a 
glove. 

Not many soldiers rose to distinction from 
Walpole, nor is it kncjwn that many were 
killed or wounded, but a descendant of John 
Merriam informed the writer that John Merriam, 
Jr., received seven bullets in the baciv part of 
his nether garments without a scratch; but what 
is more wonderful, he survived ! The same in- 
formant also stated that a tradition held in his 
fiunily M^as, " at the time of the battle of Ben- 
nington three thousand troops from the eastern 
part of the State passed his great-grandfather's 
house on their way thither and drank at his well 
and filled their canteens with water, and then 
passed on to the top of tlie hill west, where one 
Josiah Goldsmith dined a portion of tiiem on a 
very large fat ox." 

At a town-meeting, held December 9, 1776, 
Colonel Christopher Webber was chosen to rep- 
resent the town at Exeter, this State, and at the 
same meeting a committee was chosen to draft 
instructions for him, which he did not need. 

These instructions were submitted to tlie 
voters in town in due time for approval, and 
adojited, with the proviso that they should be 
submitted to a sub-committee, " that they be 
made grammar." Whether the copy found in 
the town records is in the amended form or not, 
it is a literary curiosity, as it not only shows 
the educational status of the men of those days, 
but also their religious faith. In those instruc- 
tions Mr. Webber was particularly enjoined to 
use his influence with the Governor to have him 
appoint a " fast-day." Perhaps Colonel Web- 



WALPOLE. 



427 



ber did not fully understand tlio bearing of 
those " spirited instructions," as a certain writer 
called them ; but whether so or not, Mr. Web- 
ber paid no attention to them. He believed 
more in the efficacy of " canister and grape," 
than he did in prayer, in staying the progress 
of the enemy. When the colonel returned 
home he was confronted with threats of being 
brought to the bar of the town for his delin- 
((uency; but his popularity did not wane, for the 
next spring he was triumphantly returned. 

CoLOXKL Benjamin Bellows died July 10, 
1777, and his civic mantle fell on his son Ben- 
jamin, bv whom it was never tarnished. The 
general was then the acknowledged leader in 
town, and he retained his hold on the people as 
long as he lived. 

The cohjiiel left to his nine children, by his 
will, a very large landed estate in Walpole and 
other towns in the vicinity. It appears by his 
will that he had given to his children a princely 
estate before he made it, the luimber of acres of 
land it is impossible to state, but by his will be 
bequeathed to each of his children the number 
of acres which follows, viz. : Tti Peter he gave 
seven hundred acres in Rockingham and six 
hundred acres in Walpole, in the north part ; 
to Benjamin, four hundred acres in the south 
part of the town ; to John, eight hundred acres 
in two lots ; to Joseph, seven hundred in Rindge, 
Mason and Fitzwilliam, besides unenuraerated 
lands in Lunenburg, Mass. ; to Abigail, one 
iiundred and thirty acres, with buildings ; to 
Molly, five hundred acres in Westminster, Vt ; 
to Josiah, five hundred acres in Walpole and 
thirty-three in Westminster, Vt. It is sup- 
posed he made suitable provisions for Thomas 
and Theodore before he died, for their names 
do not appear in his will. He also gave seventy 
acres, in Keene, to Mary AVillard ; fifty acres 
in town to John Jennison and one hundred 
acres for a grammar school, but no one knows 
where it was located. The will was published 
in the time of the Revolutionary War, and prob- 
ably its conditions were such as could not be 



complied Mith at that time, and the land re- 
verted. 

He also gave one-ninth part of his remaining 
lands in Rockingham to each of his nine chil- 
dren ; the number of acres is not known. 
Thus it is seen, when Colonel Bellows died, he 
was in possession of from six to eight thousand 
acres of land, enumerated and uneuumerated. 
He also gave his children one thousand and 
fifty pounds in money together with numerous 
cows, oxen, horses, and also household furni- 
ture, taken together, amounting to a large 
sum. 

In person Colonel Benjamin Bellows was tall 
and stout, weighing, a short time before his 
death, thi-ee hundred and thirty pounds ; but 
still he continued to ride about his farm on a 
strong sorrel horse, looking after his interests. 
He lived in a style that necessitated much 
activity aud forethought to satisfy the daily 
demands of his own household, to say nothing 
of the numerous comers and goers. All were 
hospitably treated, both rich and pom', for he 
kept an open house, in one sense. 

A large oaken table in the kitchen under 
the house was always spread fur his workmen ; 
but he maintained a separate table for his own 
family. He made four hundred barrels of 
cider annually and put down twelve barrels of 
pork every winter. Eggs were brought in by 
the half-bushel and salmon was so plenty that 
his hired men stipulated that they should not 
have it oftener than three times a week. In 
1775, General Bellows was the captain of a 
military company in this town. 

It appears that Benning Wentworth had 
given charters to a large number of towns on 
both sides of Connecticut River indiscrimi- 
nately, and the grantees on the west side were at 
loggerheads with the authorities of New Yoi-k, 
and a nest of towns settled in Marlborough, 
Vt., because the New Hampshire grantees could 
get no justice done them in the " York " courts. 
As time went on the evils grew no less, till, at 
length, the "Yorkists" undertook to hold a 



428 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



court at Westminster, Vt. ; l)ut the grantees were 
determined they f^hdiild not, and, accordingly, 
assembled in the coiirt-lnmse (unarmed) he- 
fore the time arrived for the opening of the 
court. This was in March, 1775. Soon the 
court arrived with the sheriflp and his posse, and 
barely wedged themselves in. The court clearly 
foresaw that no business could be done, and 
adjourned ; but still the sheriff remained till 
about eleven o'clock at night on March 13th, 
when something precipitated the firing of the 
court party on the Green ^Mountain boys, which 
resulted iu tlie killing of one AVilliam French 
and mortally wounding another person. The 
news of this killing spread like wild-fire over 
hill and through dale, and, before daylight the 
next morning, men from all quarters were .seen 
going to Westminster, when, by noon, the vil- 
lage was filled with five hundred exasper- 
ated men, swearing vengeance on the j)erpetra- 

tors. 

FROM 17.S0 TO 1790. 

General Bellows (then captain) was imme- 
diately sent for to repair to Westminster as 
soon as possible with his company, to prevent 
more bloodshed. When there, he stationed his 
men out of sight of the crowd, but freely min- 
gled with it himself, counseling peace, law and 
order. Thus oil was spread (in the troul:>led 
waters till the culprits could be hastened off to 
Northampton jail, the nearest one that would 
keep them. When the last beam of the setting 
sun touched the little village of Westminster 
that day it was as ([uiet as a Sabbath morning. 
I'robably General Bellows served his country 
better on this occasion than on all his military 
campaigning put together. 

Vermont, now, had got rid of the pretended 
jurisdiction of New York over the territory east 
of the Green Mountains, and the Tories, whohad 
been long sowing to the wind, were now reap- 
ing the whirlwind of retaliation from the New 
Hampshire grantees, who had long been tantal- 
ized and oppressed by them under the protec- 
tion of the "Yorkists." It would seem that 



sunshine was now smiling on the grantees ; but 
it was otherwise, for trouble had already com- 
menced between New Hampshire province and 
the jirovince of Vermont. 

It appears that the settlers on the New Hamp- 
shire grants for fifty miles on the Connecticut 
River, were mostly from the same section of 
New England, namely, Connecticut ; and as 
there were no settlements then of innxu-tanee 
east of the grants in New Hampshire for many 
miles, it was natural that the settlers on the 
grants should affiliate ; hence the strange pro- 
ceedings. 

Sixteen towns in the vicinity of Cornish, 
N. IL, joined the Vermont settlers through a 
convention held there, l)ut owing to some mis- 
understanding tliey did not remain long. Yet, 
as the Vermont adherents numbered about one- 
half the population on the east side of the 
river and, the excitement continued, till at 
length a convention was called to meet at 
Charle.stown, N. H., January 1(3, 1781, where 
all the New Hampshire grants were invited. 

The call was in printed circulars, setting 
forth that, if a certain named majority of the 
towns were in favor of forming a " union " with 
Vermont, the Vermont Assembly would ratify 
the proceedings. Each party was now on the 
alert, running up and down highways and by- 
ways, drumming recruits till the day of meet- 
ing. The convention was largo and fully rep- 
resented, and the (piestiou set forth in the call 
was ably discussed pro d con for some time. 
At length a resolution was presented, which, if 
carried, would take from Vermont all the New 
Hampshire grants on the west side of the river 
— virtually annihilating the State of Vermont — 
which was carried by a large majority and gave 
the New Hampshire people much joy and 
hilarity. Ira Allen, of A^ermont (brother of 
Ethan), was present on this occasion and was 
busy through the following night with his 
henchmen, conferring with his friends. 

When the convention assembled the next 
morning a motion was carrie<l to recommit the 



WALPOLE. 



429 



report to a committee for emendation, that it 
might be in a suital>le form for publication. 
When the committee submitted tlie amended 
form of the report for adoptiim, it was found 
that a clause had been inserted recommending 
the grants on the east side of Connecticut River 
to consolidate M'ith Vermont, which surprised 
none but those not in tlie secret. The question 
on its adoption was put and carried by an over- 
whelming majority. 

General Bellows and twelve others, a part of 
whom belono;ed to the Council and the others 
the Assembly of New Hampshire, left the con- 
vention in disgust, not without leaving a vigor- 
ous protest, however, against such base trickery, 
(xeneral Bellows was certainly outflanked this 
time ; but he knew where to strike his enemy 
where it was vuluerable, as Vermont had been 
for some time a petitioner to Congress for ad- 
mission as a sister State of the Union, but had 
not beeu admitted for the reason of the troubles 
on Connecticut River, of which Congress had 
been seasonably advised; but now, after the 
foregoing outrage, General Bellows, with his 
influential friends at Exeter, represented the 
condition of affairs in a vigorous protest to 
( *ono;ress against A^erraont's admission. In the 
mean time General Washington wrote a confi- 
dential, unofficial letter to Governor Chittenden, 
of Vermont, frankly stating that Vermont 
would not be admitted to embrace any territory 
east of Connecticut River. 

Now commenced, and was continued for a 
long period, a state of anarchy and confusion 
which beggars description. Lieutenant John 
Graves represented the town in the Vermont 
Assembly, at Windsor ; General Bellows was 
confronted at home by large influential families, 
such as the Halls, the Hoopers, the Hutchins, 
Graves and many others; sheriffs were im- 
prisoned when doing their duty ; the judgment 
of courts were set aside and attempts made to 
break them up ; majorities in towns of one 
jiartv bulldozed the minorities, and no person 
knew whether he lived under the "bench" seal 



or that of the " rising sun." The people on the 
grants were cariying their revengeful feelings 
to such an alarming extent that the militia 
Avas called out in both States and held, for a 
while, ready for action. 

In the course of time the sentiments of 
Washington's letter reached the Vermonters, 
which was a wet blanket to them. Then, when 
they became as anxious to rid themselves of 
their New Hampshire family as they were to 
get them, they did not " love Caesar less, but 
they loved Rome more," — i.e., to get into the 
Union. All parties iiad become weary of this 
unprofitable strife, from wheni'e no good had 
come, but much that was disastrous. 

On the 11th of February, 1782, the Vermont 
Assembly was in session, and a resolution was 
introduced, in accordance with the expression of 
the Assembly previously made, and was pre- 
sented, voted on and carried, which was an af- 
firmative vote for tiie dissolution of the 
" luiion " of the grants.^ 

Now peace once more reigned, and, after 
a while, the people enjoyed life under their own 
vine and fig-tree, and resumed their accustomed 
vocations. 

The town at this time (1784) contained about 
twelve hundred inhabitants and had outgrown 
their meeting-house. For two years frequent 
ineffectual attemjrts \v'ere made to get a vote of 
the town to build a new one. Finally, in 1786, 
a vote was secured to build one, when a dis- 
agreement arose about its location. At length 
the town decided to build on land near where 
B. E. Webster now lives. The people had no 
settled plan of construction, but went on, from 
step to step, as the vote of the town dictated. 
When the wood-work was completed, they were 
some time in agreeing what color it should l)c 
painted. Finally, straw color was adopted. 
To raise money to pay for its construction and 
finish, it was agreed to sell pews by " public 
vendue," and whoever would bid off" a pew 

^ For a more elaborate statement, see " History of Wal- 
pole.'' 



430 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



should give a bond for security of paymeut. 
Connected with the building was a high tower, 
in which the bell was hung that (1885) 
greets our ears with its mellow tones now 
on the town-house. ApoUos Gilmore rung this 
bell for many years, morning, noon and night, 
and he was so punctual at his post that the say- 
ing was "he regulated the sun." The capacious 
lower floor was divided into little seven by four 
feet compartments, called pews, resembling a 
sheep-fold in the spring. Over the pulpit was 
suspended an oval, dome-like structure, sur- 
mounted with an emblematical device called a 
sounding-board, and on three sides ran a deep 
gallery which was not only a loft for the organ, 
but was divided into pews. The deacons' seats 
were built on the right and left-hand sides of 
the pulpit. Thus equipped, the people of the 
town all worshipped at one place, with no mod- 
ern isms to disturb them. The house was com- 
pleted in 1789. 

Till 1785 there was no way of crossing Con- 
necticut Eiver only by ferry-boats, of which 
there were many. But one Enoch Hale, a citi- 
zen of Rindge, N. H., moved to town in 1784, 
obtained a charter of the Legislature and built 
a bridge in 1785, which connected "Walpole with 
Rockingham at Bellows Falls. This was the 
first bridge that ever spanned the Connecticut 
River, and no other was built on the river till 
179<i. It was considered a great undertaking 
and made Mr. Hale famous. This bridge 
passed into the possession of one Frederick 
William Gey er, and was a source of consider- 
able income. 

Geyer had a family, and a daughter of his 
was married to Richard D. Tucker. Tucker's 
wife at her father's death received this bridge 
as a portion of her legacy. Ever since that 
time it has been known as " Tucker's Bridge." 

In 1786 Walpole was dismembered of all 
the territory lying north of Theodore Atkin- 
son's linetoCharlestown, measuring one mile and 
two hundred rods on its southern boundary. 
This territory included the " Governor's sheep 



pasture," which was set oft' to form the town of 

Langdon. This arrangement discommoded the 

settlers on the river, and the next year that 

portion now running north from Cold River, by 

legislative authority, was reannexed to the 

town. 

FROM 1790 TO 1800. 

The succeeding ten years were those of 
plenty, happiness, hilarity and contentment; 
the virgin soil, with proper industry, produced 
an al)undance for man and beast; the apple 
orchards, \\ hich had been planted twenty years 
before, had just come into a bearing condition 
of native fruit, and yielded abundantly every 
year. C^olouel John Bellows had an orchard of 
thirty aci-es in extent. Every farmer had his 
apple orchard, and at every tenth farm was an 
old-fashioned cider-mill. 

Forty-eight hundred barrels of cider were 
made in 1795, which gave to each man, woman 
and child nearly four barrels each. A portion 
of this cider was distilled into cider-brandy at 
a distillery that stood where the High School 
building now stands, and owned by Colonel 
Caleb Bellows, the general's son. In one shape 
or another, this large quantity of cider found its 
way into the stomachs of the townsmen yearly, 
and for more than a quarter of century after- 
wards this brandy and cider-drinking was kept 
up, which formed the era of red eyes and blue 
noses. Families, when out of cider, considered 
themselves out of everything, and the man who 
could not putinto his cellar twenty barrels of cider 
yearly was considered poor, and the man who 
could not keej) a sideboard filled with liquors 
was of no account. 

The meeting-house being completed, and large 
enough to accommodate all the people who went 
to church, assembled there week after week for 
a quarter of a century to listen to Thomas Fes- 
senden and Pliny Dickinson, and hear them 
preach their long-winded sermons, which 
often ran up to the tenthlies. 

The townsmen were taxed ^jro rato for the sup- 
port of preaching whether they believed in the 



WALPOLE. 



431 



" stauJiug order " of creeds aud beliefs or not. 
There were agnostics in tliose days, as well as 
now, and what could induce all the people in 
cold weather, some of whom had to travel four 
or five miles on foot or horseback and sit 
through two long services in that unwarnicd 
church, is more than can be guessed at, unless, 
to get their money's worth, for in many cases 
reluctant payment of taxes was creeping in. 
During thirty-five years that old church never 
was warmed, and by some church members it 
was considered sacrilege to warm a church. 
After the benediction, at noon, many of the par- 
ishioners repaired to the public-house of Alexan- 
der Watkins, which is still standing and owned 
by B. E. Webster, and seated themselves in semi- 
circle around a blazing fire in his capacious re- 
ceiving-room. Parson Fessenden sometijues 
preached a cold sermon, and on those occasions 
he drifted with his parishioners to Uncle Alex's, 
as he was called, and then and there quaffed a 
generous quantity of flip witli them. Then it 
was not considered derogatory foi' the cloth to 
take a little, just a little, for the " stomach's 
sake." Here the head of each family purciiased 
a mug of flip, from which each member partook 
from the same mug, and for every mug sold 
Uncle Alex would add another stick of wood to 
the already hot fire ; so by the time for after- 
noon service the parishioners and pai'son were 
well warmed inside and outside to meet the chill 
1 if the afternoon. 

Parson Dickinson, who after this period be- 
came the town minister, was cast in a different 
mould from Parson Fessenden; he considered 
the guzzling of cider, cider-brandy and the 
looking upon " wine when it was red" as dan- 
aerous to the morals and the well-beino- of his 
charge. 



and used his influence to discourage 
their use as a common beverage. He was not 
a free liver himself, and it is presumed never 
touched even wine without being urged by his 
parishioners. 

The lines of demarkation in society were 
clearly defined in those days. There were 



some families who had gained wealth by their 
shrewdness or otherwise, and who looked upon 
themselves as the salt of the town, but by the 
yeomanry as salt without its savor. These two 
classes had no affiliations in common. Then 
there was a literary coterie that affected wit, 
poetry and literature. This coterie was com- 
posed of such men as Royal Tyler, of Brattle- 
borough, Vt., who was afterwards chief jus- 
tice of that State ; Samuel Hunt, afterwards 
member of Congress ; Samuel West, of Keene, 
a brilliant advocate, together with Joe Dennie, 
of this town, editor of the Fanners' Museum, 
and Roger Vose, who also was afterwards mem- 
ber of Congress, and others in town. The 
foregoing persons belonged to the club proper, 
while there were others who joined them in 
their symposiums (iccasioiially, which were held 
at Major Bullard's, who kept a public-house 
here. 

This house was known far and wide as the 
Craft tavern.' The persons who joined this 
self-styled literary club occasionally were Dr. 
Heilliman, who came to this country with the 
Hessian soldiers in Revolutionary days, Al- 
pheus Moore, Dr. Spaulding and Jeremiah 
Mason, who was a young lawyer here then, 
but who afterwards became distinguished in his 
profession and well known throughout New 
England. 

One anecdote is related of him, when in prac- 
tice here, which is worth repeating. Mason 
was a malformed man, inasmuch as this : he 
was six feet, six inches in stature, with pedal 
extremities very long in proportion to his body, 
and when seated in one of the old-fashioned 
high-backed sleighs, with his youthful features, 
he very much resembled a boy. One day in mid- 
winter, when the snow lay deep on the ground, 
he started for Keene, over the hills in a high- 
l)acked sleigh, with robes well tucked around 
him. On the high land he met a burly, cross- 
grained teamster, who, by threats and billings- 

' Burnt down October 31, 1880. 



432 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



gate, was beut on depriving Mason of liis legal 
right to half of the road. He soon found that 
threats availed nothing ; so, with upraised whip, 
heapproaelied this seeming boy to see what virtue 
there was iu eastigation. Mason now thought it 
time to put in a defense, and accordingly seized 
liis whip with butt end forward, and liegan to 
rise up, with robes tumbling off, till up, up, he 
stood at full height before the appalled teamster, 
when he ejaculated, " You need'nt get up any 
more on yer ; there's enough neow ; I'll turn 
eout!" He did so, Mason maintaining silence 
all the while. There is no other case to be 
found where the stature of a man sustained the 
statute of the State. 

The meetings of this club were held quite 
often, and when its members wei-e assembled 
the old house was turned into a literary pande- 
monium ; boisterous hilarity prevailed ; all 
kinds of liquors \\ere drunk to excess ; card- 
playing and kindred amusements obtained ; 

breaking: of crockery and furniture were com- 
es .' 

mon, and late or early siqjpers were indulged 
iu, as the case might be. Parson Fessenden 
seemed to be a subject for ridicule by the wags 
— perhaps he had crossed their path from the 
pulpit. He was diminutive in size, and when 
dressed iu the Continental garb of those days 
the wags fancied that he resembled the Jack of 
Clubs, an important card in their favorite game 
" Palm Loo," hence they dubbed him " Old 
Palm." At one time, when Joe Dennie 
was editor of the Museum (Walpole paper), 
which was printed in the building now occupied 
by Chapin & Burt, butchers, he was sought for 
at the tavern no less than twelve times for 
" copy " to finish an essay he was writing for 
the paper. 

Tiie last time when " copy " was wanting he 
was engaged in a rubber of whist, when he 
said to his friend Tyler, " Here, Tyler, play my 
hand, while I give the devil his due ! " In a 
few minutes the essay was completed, although 
he was surrounded with confusion. 

Then there were the tradesmen and mechan- 



ics, who, though respectable as a class, were a 
kind of connecting link between aristocracy 
and the yeomanry. The yeomanry, which 
comjjosed most of the population, was content 
in honest labor and industry. As citizens, they 
cared for nothing l)ut material gain and the 
comf(jrt of their households ; they neither af- 
fected pride nor put on airs. The good old 
housewife and her daughters, with " rosy cheeks 
and bonny brows," spun the wool and flax, the 
former colored and woven into cloth for the 
entire outward garments of both sexes in the 
families, and the latter into bed-linen and under- 
garments. The hides of their slaughtered ani- 
mals were converted into various kinds of 
leather for home wear, by local tanners, of 
whom Daniel Bisco was one, whose tannery 
was located near where Henry J. Watkins now 
resides. This leather was made into shoes and 
lioots in the kitchens of the farmers, by per- 
sons who went from house to house, with bench 
and kit, and made up a year's stock of foot-gear 
for a family at one time, and many a sixteen- 
years-old damsel's eyes glistened at a pair of 
cowhide shoes for the winter after going bare- 
foot through the summer. Shoes were all 
sewed then — pegged shoes were not seen till 
twenty years afterwards. This procedure of 
shoemakers (then called cordwainers), and a 
similar one pursued by females in cutting and 
making the clothing of men and boys in their 
midst, was (tailed " whipping the cat." 

Colonel John Bellows furnished employment 
for a large number of females, by furnishing 
them with wool to spin into yarn. Their visits 
on horseback to return yarn and procure more 
wool were frequent and constant, and, with their 
horses tied around his house, made it resemble 
a public inn on some festive occasion. The 
colonel had multifarious dealings with the farm- 
ers, and it was said that his balance-sheet at 
the end of the year, made always a favorable 
showing for himself. 

The common people then were bigoted, 
superstitious and ignorant ; they believed in 



WALPOLE. 



433 



lucky and unlucky days, and were rigidly 
guided by the phase of the moon in the planting 
of their seeds, the killing of pork and the wean- 
ing of calves and babies. One of those old 
wiseacres saw Judge Sparhawk, an enlightened 
townsman, sowing wheat one day, when he ac- 
costed him thus: "Judge, you won't raise any 
wheat ; it's the wrong time in the moon ! " The 
Judge replied, "I'm not sowing my wheat in 
the moon, s-i-r!'' 

Such is the force of education, that many oi 
our townspeople believe in those whims and 
notions to-day. Ignoi'ant ! M'hy not igno- 
rant? The common people had no means of 
ac([uiring knowledge ; althougii the town 
appropriated a sufficieut sum of money yearly, 
still, there were no schools, only in name. The 
teachers for winter schools were hired for their 
lihysical strength, rather than mental ([ualifica- 
tions ; cultivated young men did not bite sharp 
at eight dollars per mouth and board round, to 
teach school in rural districts. Tlien there 
were no school-books worth)- of the name. 
They had the "New England Primer," the 
Bible, the " Psalter " and " Dodworth's Spell- 
ing-Book ; " there was no text-book on arith- 
metic, but, to supply the place, the teachers 
used to give their pupils practical " sums," and 
explain the why and tiie wherefore as best they 
could. Birch-bark was in common use to 
figure on, and also to write copies on. In this 
way some mastered the rudiments of arithmetic, 
while others advanced in reading, \\riting and 
spelling. English grammar was taught some, 
and in 1800 Morse's Geography was introduced 
as a study, but the work now would have no 
merits, only as a curiosity. 

The roads were only bridle-paths, most of 
them, although laid out ; tiie people had no use 
for carriage roads, for there were no carriages. 
Four-wheeled pleasin-e-wagons were not seen in 
town till twenty-five years later. There was 
no post-office in town till Ajnil 1, 17!to, and 
Samuel Grant was appointed postmaster. Be- 
forethis time letters were taken from some central 



point and carried by a man called a " post-rider " 
to the persons directed on the letter. News- 
papers had no circulation, tiiere was no free 
library, and very few books found in farmers' 
houses. The almanac was in every house, and 
relied upon implicitly as a weather prognos- 
tieator. Under the circumstances, how could 
peoj)le be anything but ignorant? Still, those 
people were happy. They had seasons of en- 
joyment — their election and thanksgiving days, 
their ajijile bees and kitchen junkets, their husk- 
ing bees aud tpiilting frolics, and, more than 
all, their burst of patriotism on the glorious 
Fourth. Well, if ignorance is bliss, it is folly 
to be wise ! 

On the 11th of April a new era of progress 
dawned on Walpole ; it was the publication of 
a live newspaper, and was issued from the press 
of Thomas & Carlisle, whicii was in the old 
building now standing at tiie corner of High 
and Main Streets, and occupied as a meat- 
market and tenement-house. At first it was 
called The New Hampshire Journal and Farm- 
ers' Museum. The size of the sheet was 
eighteen by eleven inches, the paper was course 
and dingy, and the type inferior and old-fash- 
ioned. Like other newsjjapers of the day, at 
its commencement there were no elaborate origi- 
nal articles in it. Snatches of news, a few 
deaths and marriages, some foreign intelligence 
four mouths old, a few lottery and other adver- 
tisements, some political effusions, an essay or 
so, "Spectator" fashion, aud some racy anecdotes 
made up, figuratively, the oUa podrida. A few 
years later, however, the last page was sur- 
mounted with an eugraviuo; of a huge flower- 
pot, and underneath was printed in large cap- 
itals "The Dessert." In 170G, Joseph Dennie 
became his conductor, and he gathered around 
him a corps of brilliant writers, such as Royal 
Tyler, David Everett, Thomas Green Fessen- 
den, Isaac Story and others, whose abilities may 
be traced in its well-arranged folio pages. The 
above-named persons wrote for this paper just 
for the " fun of it," each striving to do his best 



434 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



in ordei' to gain notoriety or secure fame. 
Dennie confined his contrilmtions, principally, 
to articles called the " Lay Preacher." They 
were essays on morality ; and sucii was the fame 
he acquired with his cotempoi'aries, that he was 
styled the " Addison of America." In the 
height of this paper's prosperity Dennie boasts 
of its being read by " more than two thousand 
persons ! " If poor Dennie could wake from 
iiis slumbers, what would he say of American 
journalism to-day '? The publishers failed, 
Dennie left town, and the paper went into a de- 
cline. Various fortunes attended it till 1827, 
when Nahum Stone, a shoemaker, revived it, 
and continued it in Walpole till November 14, 
1828, when it was removed to Keene, and now 
is published under the title of Tlie Cheshire 
RepubUcan. 

John Prentiss, who was then editor of the 
Netv Hampshire Sentinel, on learning that Stone 
was about removing to Keene, ami knowing 
him to be a shoemaker, facetiously remarked, 
"Well, I hope he wont lose his awl (all). 

That old printing establishment did a large 
business for those days in the way of printing 
books, if one can judge by the catalogues pub- 
lished in the 3Iuseum. The first American novel 
ever noticed by the English press was printed 
in this town. The printing establishment here 
gave employment to a large number of typos, 
who were, according to accounts, a set of bois- 
terous, drinking vagabonds. Joseph T. Buck- 
ingham worked in this office at one time six 
months, and he says in his autobiography, "they 
were the most miserable months of my life." 
This drinking, roistering life was not confined 
to the classes above noticed, but obtained with 
the rural population, who were wont to assem- 
ble Saturdays and on festive days at Major 
Bullard's, and roll ten-pins, wrestle and get 
drunk or into a fighting condition. If neighbors 
had any old scores to settle, they took such days 
to settle them with fisticuffs in Bullard's bar- 
room. There M'as one Abraham Hall then liv- 
ing in town, who, it is said, possessed herculean 



strength. He was generally present at those 
broils, brought thither in an ox-cart, as there 
was no other conveyance for him by reason of 
his weight, whose avoirdupois was four hundred 
and twenty pounds at the age of sixty. He 
officiated as a jihysical umpire in the broils of 
his neighbors, when they got in close quarters, 
by seizing the belligerents by the napes of their 
necks and holding them asunder till their ire 
cooled off, or, if they proved restive under such 
restraint, he would butt their heads together 
until they cried enough. 

The eighteenth century closed with a very 
cold winter, and to-day (1885) there is but 
one person living in town who was born here in 
the last century. Thus it is seen that eighty- 
five years make nearly a clean sweep of all born 
before 1800. 

FROJI 1800 TO 1810. 

Alwut the year 1800 William Jarvis, of Ver- 
niont, was consul in Si)ain from the United 
States. He imported some merino bucks from 
that place, of which Joseph Bellows, a grandson 
of Colonel B. Bellows, purchased one and paid 
fifteen hundred dollars for him. Through this 
buck the farmers in town began immediately to 
improve the quality of their wool, by infusing 
the blood of this buck with their Irish flocks, 
till about 1825, when two brothers named 
Searles imported a flock of Saxony sheep into 
Boston, a few of which found their way into 
this town. In 1827 the same parties imported 
another lot into New England in the care of 
one Kreutchman, a German, one hundred of 
which were leased to Major Samuel Grant and 
Major William Jennison, who had formed a 
copartnership in shee}) husbandry. By the 
terms of the lease the company was to have one- 
lialf the increase. Major Grant then owned the 
farm in the southeast part of the town known 
as the " Seven Barns," and Major Jennison 
owned the farm where William T. Ramsay now 
lives, both of which were admirably adapted to 
sheep husbandry. To improve their stock 



WALPOLE. 



435 



Grant & Jennisou purchased a buck of the 
Searles and paid one hundred and ten dollars for 
him. He was known to the farmers by the 
euphonic name of " Old Haunch." A disease 
among the sheep, known as the foot rot, was 
brought with those Saxony sheep. The most 
assiduous care was necessary to protect those 
sheep from the cold of winter and the cold 
storms of spring and summer ; especially was 
this the case in yeaning-time, when the lambs 
had to be kept before a fire in the house. Wal- 
pole was in a perfect sheep craze, when her 
pastures were dotted with 16,000 sheep. Al- 
though the farmers got one dollar per pound 
for cleanly-washed wool, they soon found that 
the average fleece was not more than two and a 
half pounds, and, moreover, the carcass being 
small, it was worth but little for mutton. 
The farmers soon learned that they, under such 
conditions, were losing money, and there was as 
much of a craze to free themselves from the 
dilemma as there was to get into it, and meas- 
ures were immediately taken wliich restored 
their old breed. 

In 1802 or 1803 when New England was 
visited with that destroying scourge, the small- 
pox, Walpolc was not exempt from it, and 
the inhabitants were dying daily. Several 
town-meetings were called for the purpose 
of taking the sense of the town on providing a 
pest-house, and giving license for vaccination ; 
but ignorant conservatism went strongly against 
both propositions, till at length Thomas Jeffer- 
son and a few leading men at Washington, who 
had tried vaccination in their own families, 
issued a circular to the jieople of the United 
States, setting forth its harmless effect on the 
patient and its potent effect in preventing the 
spread of the dread disease. The physicians 
and some of the leading men of Keene issued a 
similar circular to neighboring towns. Wal- 
pole then at once dropped its ignorant conserva- 
tism and permitted sanitary measures to be 
adopted, when soon the dreadful scourge had 
nothing to feed upon. 

28 



At this time, 1803, a new newspaper was 
started, advocating the measures of Thomas 
Jefferson's administration. It was called the 
Political Observatory, and printed by David 
Newhall, with Stanley Griswold for editor. 
The proprietors wei-e Thomas C. Drew, Elijah 
Burroughs, Amasa Allen, Alexander Watkins 
and Jonathan Royce, who were the first persons 
in town to cast a Democratic vote. 

In 1805 Parson Fessenden, who had been 
the town's minister thirty-eight years, and 
whose age was now sixty-six, had become 
physically and mentally worn out, and the town 
was anxiously looking about for some one to 
sujiply his place. 

Pliny Dickinson had occupied Mr. Fessenden's 
desk several Sundays and preached very ac- 
ceptably to the congregation, and the society 
looked forward to the immediate time when he 
would become the town's minister. Mr. Dick- 
inson had full knowledge of the sentiment of the 
parish, and he u.sed it to further his ends, but 
did not succeed. The town called a meeting 
and voted to give Mr. Dickinson a call, and a 
salary of five hundred dollars per annum and 
some other things. The call was duly pre- 
sented to him with a retiuest to return an 
answer at an adjourned meeting. The call was 
not loud enough ; he wanted six hundred dol- 
lars. He continued to postpone his answer at 
two meetings, in the mean time hoping to get 
the extra hundred. 

Mr. Dickinson's vacillating course was not 
well relished by the parish, and when he under- 
took further postponement at the third meeting, 
the parish peremptorily demanded an answer 
then and there. ]\Ir. Dickinson clearly saw his 
little game was lost, when he immediately 
returned an answer accepting the proposal by 
the parish. At first he was settled as colleague of 
Mr. Fessenden ; but after Mr. Fessenden's death 
he became sole pastor. He continued to preach 
as the town minister until the disruption of the 
old church, in 1826. He preached for five 
hundred dollars a year during his pastorate, 



436 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



brought up a large family of children, and 
when he died, in 1834, he left his family sixteen 
thousand dollars. He was a favorite with the 
elite, but with the yeomanry it was otherwise, 
as proved by tradition and a singular document, 
published in 1S26 and signed by sixty-six 
men, stating that they did not believe in the 
religious views held by Mr. Dickinson. He 
was very rigid in his church discipline, allow- 
ing no one to come to the communion-table but 
those of his faith. On one of those occasions 
two Amazonian Welsh girls, the daughters of 
Thomas Darby, a ^veaver by trade, who lived 
in the woods, just in the edge of Westmore- 
land, came to his church, and when the commu- 
nion service was served, they partook with the 
comnjunicants. The parson, on learning before 
lie left the church, who those strange personages 
were, and their place of domicile, declared he 
" would not have the sanctuary of the Lord so 
defiled," and before he had hardly swallowed 
his breakfast the next morning he mounted 
his horse and was on his way to their home. 
On arriving at the old log hut, he found old 
Tom busy with his shuttle, but the girls were 
gone. After stating his grievance, to the old 
man, to which he attentively listened, he 
replied : " Weel, weel, I'm soory, burned 
eoory, for I've alius told my gals to keep oot 
of bad company ! " It is not stated how sud- 
denly the parson left. 

In 1806 West Street was built and the old 
brick store, which was burned in September 
18 19. The following year (1807) the village 
bridge was built across the Connecticut, the 
third on the river. It was built by a corpora- 
tion, and the superstructure was on wooden 
jiiers. The same year a mail-coach passed 
through Walpole to Hanover, N. H., three times 
a week, thus receiving mail from Boston every 
otlier day. 

FROM 1810 TO 1820. 

At the beginning of this decade the New 
England States had witnessed the rise and pro- 
gress of a singular disease known as the sp<itted 



fever ; but it was not considered contagious. 
This town was not exempt from its ravages, and 
many homes were made desolate. The first in- 
dication of an attack was, not infrequently, a 
sudden pain in the extremities, quickly spread- 
ing over the whole system, and fatally termi- 
nating within twenty-four hours. In the 
spring of 1812 several children died of it. 
The following March seven adults died of it 
in as many days. The whole numl)er of deaths 
in town from this disease is not known, but 
many. This disease, then known as spotted 
fever, is now considered the same as cerebro- 
spinal meningitis. 

In the engagements of the War of 1812 none 
of the Walpole men participated ; but a com- 
pany under the command of Josiah Bellows 
(3d), twenty-eight in number, went to the de- 
fense of Portsmouth, in the fall of 1814. 
Eleven men also went under the command of 
Captain Warner. These companies were in 
service but a short time, and the trophies 
brought home and the laurels won were very few. 

Thomas Collins Drew, an unlettered, penni- 
less lad, born in Chester, this State, in 1762, 
came to this town with the Derry Hill settlers, 
and made Walpole his life home. By dint of 
perseverance, at the age of fifty he had accumu- 
lated some property, and was about building a 
substantial brick dwelling in the village — the 
brick being already on the grounds — but owing 
to a rupture with those to the " manor boi'n," 
he changed his mind and purchased a mile 
square of land in the northeast part of the 
town, now known as Drewsville, in 1810. He 
moved his brick thither and erected the hotel 
now owned by Thomas Taunt. The volume of 
water then in Cold River was three times what 
it now is, and was soon utilized in driving ma- 
chinery in cotton and woolen-factories, and also 
for many other needful purposes. Artisans 
flocked into the place, and stores sprang into 
being, which altogether, till 1835, made Drews- 
ville' a lively place. This was the hey-day period 



' Named for .1. C. Drew. 



WALPOLE. 



437 



3f Drewsville, and it is said the place did more 
business at that time than was done in Walpole 
village. Evidence of the thrift of the place 
once ai'e seen in the large size of some of the 
old buildings ; but, like everything else, the 
place had its days of prosperity and those of 
decline. 

FROM 1820 TO 1830. 

As early as 1815 Jonathan H. Chase com- 
aienced a new industry in the south part of the 
town, in the manufacture of sewed sole shoes in 
a small way, but in IS20 per/f/ed work had ob- 
tained, and the shoe business began to increase, 
when !Mr. Chase formed a copartnership with 
liis brother-in-law, J. B. Kimball, of Boston, 
who furnished the leather and sold the shoes, 
while Chase manufactured them. In the course 
of twenty years several other firms engaged in 
the business, with varied success, till about 1 835, 
when the business reached its maximum. Hun- 
dreds of men and women in town and adjoining 
towns found employment in the manufacture of 
brogans for the Southern market, while at the 
same time Jared Miller was manufacturing 
boots for the Western market. The sound of the 
shoe-hammer was heard, not only in the regular 
shops, l)ut in very many of the rural homes, 
which gave one the impression of a miniature 
Lynn. Many of the workmen were young men, 
and a more roystering set of fellpws could 
hardly be found. They dressed in the finest 
Saxony cloth, with oilier extravagant dressings 
to match, and being clannish in their affiliations, 
they controlled the measures of the town. The 
town can now boast of but one solitary cobbler, 
occasionally making a pair of shoes. 

Meeting-house questions belonging to the 
town had slumbered now (1826) twenty-five 
years, but the subject was revived in 1825, and 
three meetings were called to see if the town 
would move the meeting-house into the village, 
which proposition was invariably voted down. 
The ostensible plea set forth was, by moving, 
the people would be better accommodated ; but 
the real purpose was to secure a place for Uni- 



tarian worship, the sentiments of which had ob- 
tained a strong foothold in the village. At a 
town-meeting held October 6, 1826, those in 
favor of removal had secured the shoemakers 
and riff-raff of the village to vote with them by 
some suh rosa means, and a vote was declared 
in favor of removal, to the site where it now 
stands. It served the Unitarians about fourteen 
years, when it was converted into a town hall, 
and now, after forty yeai-s of service, the old ex- 
citement about town-houses is repeating itself. 
The removal wasattended with much ill feeling, 
and it is said one man was crazed by the act. The 
defeated party, one hundred and fifty-three in 
number, signed a protest against its removal ; 
but it was noticed only as a brutum fulmen. 

The opposition jiarty, composed of the old 
faith, Universalists and agnostics, immediately 
formed themselves into a new society called 
" The Independent Congregational Society," and 
forthwith took measures to build a new house 
on the old site, which was completed within a 
year. For a few years the worshippers of the 
old faith struggled on ; but in 183G the " union " 
was dissolved and the Universalists had full 
control. At once the preaching of universal 
salvation was commenced and continued at 
intervals for some eight years, when it died out 
altogether. The Universalists then made over 
their policies to bats and owls, which held pos- 
session till 1869, when the original proprietors 
rased the house and sold the remnants at a loss 
of ninety-six per cent., besides the interest on 
the investment. In 1826 another newsjjaper 
was started, called the Cheshire Gazette, edited 
and managed by one Francis Parton, which in 
size and general appearance would compare 
favorably with similar papers of to-day. It 
lived but one year. 

FROM 18.30 TO 1840. 

Those good people in town who lament over 
the degenerate times of to-day, on the liquor 
traffic and intemperance, have only to go back 
forty or fifty years and feel rejoiced that the 



438 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



cause of temperance has made so much headway. 
Then there were six stores in town, a majority 
of whicli sold liquor. At one store fifty hogs- 
heads were sold annually, and if the other 
stores all put together sold as much more, an 
immense sale must have been made ; but the 
story is not yet told ; there were seven taverns in 
town, all in full blast, the tavern-keepers mak- 
ing it a point to sell as much liquor as possible. 
At the lowest estimate of the liquor sold in 
town, it must have been a barrel to each voter. 

Rum was everywhere, — in the hay-field and 
in the shops ; at marriages and at funerals ; 
drunk by the high and the low, males and fe- 
males, boys and sometimes girls. Fortunate 
for New England, the Washingtonian move- 
ment had just taken root, and the women put 
forth their potent infiuence to stay the progress 
of destruction. The damsels " boycotted " the 
young men by not allowing tipplers in their 
society, which effectually cured them. It is safe 
to say that not one-fifth as much liquor is sold 
in town to-day as was sold fifty years ago. 

The census of 1830 gave Walpole two thou- 
sand and thirty-four inhabitants, — the largest 
number as yet counted. The stir and bustle in- 
cident to the business of those years made the 
village a lively place. Teams were doing the 
work of railways now. Heavily-laden wagons 
were passing through, drawn by six and eight 
horses. One of eight horses went from here 
to Boston once a week to sujiply the traders 
with goods ; stage-coaches from all points were 
constantly arriving and departing, bringing and 
carrying away the mail, which was distributed 
at the post-ofiBce here. The crack of the jehu's 
whip could be heard at most any hour of the 
day ; coach passengers, generally, either break- 
fasted, dined or supped here ; pleasure-seeking 
travelei'S, with their teams, made a choice of 
this place to rest at night in summer; in winter 
the old tavern was filled nights with teamsters 
going to and returning from Boston. Such 
^as Walpole in this decade. 



FROM 1840 TO 1850. 

This decade is void of any particular inci- 
dents that atfected the people throughout the 
town. 

In the fall of 1843, at the time of the annual 
regimental muster, a company of soldiers called 
the "saucy six " was stationed on the Common, 
which had been planted with shade-trees but a 
short time before with much care. Certain per- 
sons living out of the village ever appeared to feel 
jealous of the village people or any improvements 
they might make within its limits. Accord- 
ingly, those miscreants took this occasion, headed 
by their captain, to uproot and destroy every 
tree growing there. It was found that no legal 
measures could reach these vandals, and the vil- 
lagers showed their indignation by hanging the 
captain in effigy. At the next session of the 
State's Legislature, through the effort of Fred- 
erick Vose, a stringent law was passed, protect- 
ing shade-trees on public grounds. Never be- 
fore were the citizens of the village more 
shocked than at this unprovoked vandalism. 
Subsequently, in 1855-56, Benjamin B. Grant 
and Thomas G. Wells replanted the Common 
and also i)lanted the principal streets with about 
nine hundred elms and maples, which have not 
been molested and are vigorously growing, 
serving not only to beautify the village, but af- 
fording a grateful retreat from the midsummer's 
sun. 

In September, 1847, there was standing a 
large wooden building on Main Street, just 
north of Mad Brook, which extended east one 
hundred and seventy-five feet, with an L. The 
lower part was occupied by a tannery, founded 
in the eighteenth century by Daniel Bisco, 
but now owned and occupied by one Harvey 
Reed. The second story was occupied by the 
French Brothers, who afterward moved to 
Keene, as a carriage manufactory, and filled 
with all kinds of combustibles belonging to that 
business. In September of that year this 
building was totally consumed by fire. The 
owner sustained a heavy loss, without insurance, 



WALPOLE. 



439 



as the policy had just expired. Efforts were 
made to rebuild by subscription, but all proved 
futile. 

In September, 1849, another conflagration 
took place, which destroyed the old brick store 
in the village, which was built in 1.S06. This 
building was three stories high and sufficiently 
long for three cai)acious store-rooms, fronting 
east. It was occupied at the time by Tudor & 
Rockwood, Philip Peck and William G. Wy- 
man, merchants, a library, and liy Frederick 
Vose, lawyer. The fire also reached three 
other buildings, which were consumed. As 
soon as possible new buildings were put up on 
the burnt district, to replace those destroyed. In 
1855 this same site was burnt over, this time 
destroying two stores, a grocery and dwelling ; 
the last building was where the flames com- 
menced, through an illy-adjusted stove-pipe. 

In the course of a few months the buildings 
now standing on the site were built. 

In July, 1849, a charter was obtained for a 
savings-bank, which went into operation in 
1850, and continued so until November, 18(34, 
when it was robbed of $52,000 cash, and a 
large amount of securities of various kinds, by 
one Mark Shinborn, a Jew, and a Westmore- 
land boy named George M. White. At the 
time of the robbery the deposits amounted to 
$108,045.58, besides a surplus of $3841.58, 
although it had met with some losses by poor 
investments. The robbery caused its winding 
up; but in October, 1875, a new bank went 
into operation, which is in existence now (1885). 

FROM 1850 TO 1885. 

Walpole, like other old, sleepy towns, did 
not furnish much material for the historian by 
decades; therefore the following thirty-five 
years will be embraced under the above head. 

One year after another passed, and the one 
was a counterpart of the other. Each was en- 
livened by the annual town-meetings, when the 
two nearly evenly-balanced political parties did 
not meet on common ground. On those occa- 



sions large sums of money were expended bv 
the rival parties, and much bad blood was 
stirred up, severing neighlxirly amenities. This 
was the state of feeling when, on the 12th of 
April, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon by the 
direction of Jefferson Davis, the leader of the 
Southern people in the great Rebellion in the 
United States. On the 14th instant the Presi- 
dent of the United States called for seventy-five 
thousand men to put down the Rebellion. Many 
young men had been told that the Southern 
people were a set of cowards, and that one 
Yankee was a match for four "secesh," which 
was believed by those who volunteered on the 
first call ; nor were the}' disabused of this 
belief till they had had a taste of Bull Run, 
where 

" They went to figlit, but ran .iway 
To live to fight another day." 

On the first call for volunteers five re- 
sponded ; on the second call in May following 
for eighty-two thousand fourteen enlisted.' In 
September, 1862, thirty-one more enlisted, 
receiving one hundred dollars bounty from the 
town. The bounty for volunteers during the 
month of September was increased to one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. In the spring of 1863 
volunteering had nearly ceased, but the enemy 
was pressing hard, and more men must be had. 
A draft appeared now the only alternative, and 
consequently the President of the United States 
issued a proclamation for a conscription of 
three hundred thousand men on the 8th of May, 
1863. Fifty-two men was the quota of this 
town, and volunteers could not be procured. 
An enrollment of all the men in town between 
the ages of eighteen and forty-five was made, 
and, probably, at no time in the town's history 
could there have been so many men found who 
heaped anathemas on their natal day. If they 
could have been born a little earlier, or a little 
later, all would have been well. When the 

' The names of soldiers and other details cannot be given 
for want of space. See history of town. 



440 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



draft was completed it was found that many 
of the uncoveted prizes had fallen to those who 
were not in a condition to comply with the de- 
mand. The drafted men had a choice of three 
ways to pursue, — one was to go, the second was 
to pay a commutation of three hundred dollars 
to the United States government, which would 
only clear them from the pending draft, and the 
third was to furnish a substitute, which was the 
one adopted, it is thought altogether. In this 
way, while the war part of the drafted man's 
bones might lie bleaching under a Southern sun, 
the real man was at home selling cotton cloth 
at seventy cents per yard. 

Those who were liable to be drafted breathed 
freer, but they soon found tliat, although they 
had got their feet out of the mud, they im- 
mediately found them deeper in the mire, for 
on the 18th of July following three hundred 
thousand more men were called for. 

This was a thunderbolt, because there was a 
less number to draw from. Town-meetings up 
to this time had been frequent, and many to 
raise money to pay bounties and provide for 
soldiers' families had been called, which were 
generally well attended by men of both politi- 
cal parties; but now and until the close of the 
war there was but one party that attended the 
meetings, which was styled the " War Party." 
It was composed of parents who had sons 
liable to be drafted, and single men whose age 
did not exempt them from conscription. In 
order to fill quotas now, the town resorted to a 
new plan, which was to hire men outright for 
the service at the lowest price at the town's ex- 
pense. Meetings were frequent for this pur- 
pose. At one meeting a vote was passed au- 
thorizing the selectmen to procure men at any 
price ; but was subsequently limited to one 
thousand dollars. Tlie prices paid were regu- 
lated by the law of supply and demand for 
substitutes, ranging from four hundred dollars 
to seven hundred and fifty dollars. Those 
men were a curse to the service rather than a 
benefit ; for it took one good soldier to keep 



two of the substitutes from nmning away, and 
he did not succeed in that. These men were of 
all nationalities, without patriotism, honesty or 
morality. 

'' They went to war, and jumped away 
To 'list agaui where best 'twould pay." 

Some of those fellows were so adroit after 
getting their money that they never saw the 
army. 

The soldier's life, abstractly considered, is not 
a coveted one, and it is curious to note at this 
late day some of the apparent reasons that in- 
duced the men in town to enlist as volunteers. 
It is not claimed that any of our men were 
destitute of patriotism, but many had no relish 
for the turmoils incident to a soldier's life; on 
the other hand, there were those whose whole 
being was wrapped in excitement and danger; 
those, generally, were the first to volunteer. 
Another and larger class of men felt it to 
be their duty to enlist, but were reluctant to 
leave their cheerful homes ; but the impending 
drafts hung over them like a pall. There were 
but two ways for them to do — one was to take 
their chances in a draft, or enlist as volunteers 
with a reasonable town bounty, which last was 
chosen, and at this time a large number en- 
rolled themselves in the New Hampshire Four- 
teenth Regiment, September 22, 18(52. How- 
ever paradoxical it may seem, there was another 
class, small in number, of staid, sober, quiet 
young men, who hardly had ever heard the roar 
of the cannon, and who had never been a score 
of miles from home ; they were among the first 
to volunteer. This class must have been im- 
bued with true patriotism or a strong religious 
sense of duty, or it may be both, that induced 
young men to leave all that was cheerful and 
hozue-liketo battle with the rough and danger- 
ous scenes of a soldier's life. 

Of the personal reminiscences of the men 
who participated in the Rebellion from this 
town there are but few, and those are too 
lengthy for insertion here. Most of those who 
returned did so with a clean soldier's record. 



WALPOLE. 



Ul 



No one achieved distinction, and but one was 
promoted from the ranks to corporal. 

There were one hundred and eighty-five per- 
sons credited to this town in all, volunteers and 
substitutes, as going into the service, of whom 
seventy-five were actual residents. Eight of 
the three months' men re-enlisted, nine died of 
disease, four were killed outright, eight 
wounded and six missing, while fifty-three of 
the substitutes are known to have deserted, and 
one volunteer from town — not a native — and 
eight were discharged on account of disability. 
There was but one volunteer from this town 
who gave his superiors any trouble, and he was 
from "auld Ireland." He entertained the vague 
fancy that a " free country " meant free rum, 
and when he got a sufficient supply to make 
him spiritually-minded he fancied himself a 
second Samson, and his soldier comrades had 
to take care of their heads aud ribs. He was 
locked up a great portion of his time, where he 
had leisure to cogitate on the incongruities of 
American freedom. 

The indebtedness of the town in 1862 was 
five thousand three hundred dollars, and in 
1866 it was forty-six thou.sand dollars; and it 
is safe to say that forty thou.'rand dollars of this 
sum was incurred in consequence of the war. 
In 1869 the town debt, to the amount of thirty- 
six thousand dollars, was funded, and is now 
(1885) all paid. 

In connection with the Rebellion was the 
Sanitary Commission, which took six more of 
our men, who discharged the duties assigned to 
them faithfully, from a physician to a teamster. 
When the Commission was fully organized, under 
the presidency of Rev. Henry W. Bellow.s, the 
women (good souls!) emulated their great-grand- 
mothers ill ministering to the needs and com- 
forts of the soldiers iu field and hospital, by 
sending them tid-bits for their appetites, and 
warm clothing to prevent colds and sickness. 

THE CHURCH. 

It appears by the old church records that 



a church was formed as early as 1757, but it 
does not appear who the members were till 
after the ordination of Thomas Fessenden. 
Jonathan Leavitt was ordained pastor June 10, 
1761, and dismissed June 19, 1764. January 
8, 1767, Thomas Fessenden was ordained, and 
a church was formed the same day, consisting 
of the following members, viz. : Thomas Fes- 
senden, Benjamin Bellows, John Graves, John 
Parmenter, William Smead, Jonathan Hall, 
James Bundy, Joseph Barrett, David Dennison, 
John Marcy, Samuel Holme.s, Samuel Trott, 
John Kilburu, Jr., Timothy Delano and Na- 
thaniel Hovey, and the wives of ten of the 
above-named, making the number twenty-five. 
Eight years later the church numl)ered one 
hundred. During the active jjastorate of Mr. 
Fessenden, of thirty-eight years, the number 
admitted to the church, by letter and pro- 
fession, was three hundred aud sixty-five, aud 
in that time he solemnized two hundred and 
ninety-nine marriages. The church was called 
" The First Congregational Church of Wal- 
pole," and the religious tenets of its members 
were like those of the Puritans. This Church 
in olden times was denominated " The Standing 
Order." The members were veiy strict in 
their observance of the Sabbath and the sanc- 
tuary, and in looking after each other ^^■ith a.s- 
siduous care and concern, as will appear by the 
following transactions of the church. One 
Isaac Johnson was in the habit of taking a 
little too much " for the stomach's sake," and 
James Bundy felt disturbed. The transaction 
reads thus: "November IS, 1769. — James 
Bundy complained of Isaac Johnson for intem- 
perate drinking — supported. Tote?, that he 
be susi)ended from spiritual privileges until 
he make satisfaction." He appeared, made 
confession and was restored to fellowship. On 
another occasion, October 11, 1770, "Nathan 
Bundy complained of Lsaac Stowell as guilty 
of falsehood and theft, wherein he also him- 
self was an accomplice. Voted, to suspend 
both till it appears which is criminal." "They 



442 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



afterwards make satisfaction and are restored." 
The above are but simply .specimens of a 
large number of similar ones. 

In 1772 they " Voted, one shilling per pole 
to provide for the Lord's table, and those who 
refuse to pay the church tax be suspended." 

Every member of the church who committed 
any irregularities inconsistent with its discipline, 
whatever its nature, or whether male or female, 
was required to make open confession in the 
broad aisle at the preparatory lecture Ijefore 
communion. 

Mr. Fessenden was born in Cambridge, 
Mass., in 1739, graduated at Harvard in 1758, 
settled as minister of the town in 1767, and 
died May 9, 1813. His entire pastorate was 
forty-six years, eight of which he had a col- 
league. During this loug period his labors 
were generally satisfactory to tlie town, but on 
one occasion, however, he preached a sermon 
(about the year 1800) which was of a political 
kind, that disturbed a portion of his hearers, and 
by them he was requested to make an apology 
the next Sabbath, which he promised to do. 
Accordingly, after his last sermon on the next 
Sabbath, he remarked, "I have been requested 
to apologize for some remai'ks I made in my 
last Sabbath's discourse, which I will willingly 
do : if I said anything in that discourse that 
I did not mean to say, I am very sorry for it, 
and T hope this will be a sufficient apology." 

He had lived long enough in town to see two 
generations come upon the stage, when those of 
his age extended to him the brotherly hand, the 
youth reverenced liim, tlie ungodly respected 
him and the children loved him. He lived at 
a period when pamphlet disquisitions were rife 
on the subjects of election, predestination and 
free agency, in which he found delight in dab- 
bling. In 1804 he wrote a book entitled, " The 
Science of Sanctity," which is said by theolo- 
gians to be the most erudite work on that sub- 
ject extant. 

It is said that he was a man of good nature 
and acquired abilities, full of life and anima- 



tion, jovial with the townspeople, good at 
repartee, and fond of social gatherings and 
their concomitants, — a good dinner and a mug of 
flip. 

After the death of Mr. Fessenden, Mr. Dick- 
inson was sole pastor till the disruption of the 
church, in 1826, before noticed, after which 
time he preached a few times in the old church 
in the village, then a few years in the new 
house on the hill, but never again had a settle- 
ment. He died Augu.st 27, 1834, of apoplexy, 
at the commencement dinner-table, in Amherst, 
Mass. 

Mr. Dickinson's life in Walpole was not 
altogether a pleasant one ; his austerity of man- 
ner made him many enemies ; but the unkindest 
cut of all was in his matrimonial alliance. 

He was born in Granby, Mass., in 1777 and 
consequently was twenty-eight years old when 
he was settled in town. He went to board 
with Colonel Caleb Bellows, a grandson of the 
founder of the town. The colonel then had a 
daughter, Mary Brown, who was five years old, 
born in 1800. Mr. Bellows did not like Mr. 
Dickinson, but tolerated him in his family. 
When IVtary arrived at the age of womanhood 
the colonel discovered a closer intimacy between 
his daughter and the parson than mere friend- 
ship, and he was wroth ; but when, soon after 
the discovery he had made, he learned that 
their bans were to be cried the following Sun- 
day, he was mad. His objections were : first, 
her youth ; second, tlie disparity of age ; and 
the third was that he did not like the man who 
was to be his son-in-law. When the next Sun- 
day arrived, Mr. Bellows was at church in 
season, and, when the congregation was all 
seated and the parson in his pulpit, N. 
Townsly, town clerk, cried the bans of Pliny 
Dickinson and Mary Brown Bellows. As soon 
as the last word had dropped from the lips of 
the crier, Mr. Bellows rose from his seat, as 
pale as a sheet, and, in an excited n:anner, cried 
out, " I forbid the bans ! I forbid the bans !" 
If a thunderbolt had .struck the church, no 



WALPOLE. 



443 



greater ■shock would liave been given to the 
congregation. Mr. Dickinson very calmly 
went through his day's service, and the next 
■Sunday preached from the text : " I am a man 
of sorrows and not unacquainted with grief." 

The parties were bound for the state of mat- 
I'iniony, and a father's injunction and blasts of 
heated breatli did not avail anything, and, con- 
sequently, the next nine days' thrill was the an- 
nouncement of their nuptials. When, where 
ind l)v whom they were married no one living 
in town seems to know. She lived to be mar- 
ried to three husbands and had children by two. 
3he outlived her husbands, and, in 1884 or 
1885, died in Minnesota. 

Thk United RELiGiors ChristfjVN So- 
'lETY. — In the year 1800 one Abner Jones, of 
Vermont, seceded from the Free-Will Baptists 
in<l began preaching through Vermont and 
Xew Hampshire a doctrine of his own, and 
gathered together many believers in the new 
loctrine. They denominated themselves Chris- 
ians. Edward B. Rollins, a convert of Jones', 
■ame to Walpole in October, 1817, and began 
lolding meetings in j)rivate houses, barns and 
dder-mills. He was a powerful, persuasive 
)reacher, and soon gathered a churcli in the 
' Hollow," which was formed in the Decemlier 
bllowing. Jacob B. Burnham was a convert 
)f Rollins, who supplanted him (Rollins) in 
L823, through some disagreement. The church 
vas sundered, one portion adhering to Rollins, 
he other to Burnham. The Rollins party 
)uilt a church at the foot of March Hill, which 
NHS ephemeral, and the Burnham party, in 182(j, 
)uilt the church now standing in the " Hol- 
ow." Burnham continued to preach and bap- 
ize till 1845 or 1850. 

During iNIr. Burnham's pastorate he gathered 
iround liim as large a number of communi- 
•ants as any society in town had, and the church 
vas filled every Sunday for a number of years. 
3ne word from Parson Dickinson's mouth did 
uore to the building up of tiiis society than all 
he influence of preaching, and that word was 



"defiled." Mr. Levi Allen, an admirer of 
Mr. Rollins, one day asked permission of Mr. 
Dickinson for Mi". Rollins to occupy his desk 
some day, that Mr. Dickinson's hearers might 
hear him preach. His reply was, " I should 
be very happy to please you, Mr. Allen ; but I 
cannot have my sanctuary defiled by such a 
man as Mr. Rollins." 

The men that followed Mr. Burnham, as 
preachers there, were Abiah Kidder, Jona- 
than Farnam, C. W. Martin, W. H. Ire- 
land, Jared L. Green, Seth Hinkley, David B. 
Murray, N. S. Chadwiek, J. W. Woodward 
and Clark W. Simonds. 

The present pastor, H. ]\I. Eaton, has done 
more missionary work in that vicinity than all 
others put together, although an old man. 

Walpole Town Congregational So- 
ciety.' — After the disruption of the old town 
church, in 1826, and wlien the religious caldron 
was boiling and seething hot, the Unitarians, 
under the guise of the old society's name, hired 
one Thayer, a kind of hylirid preacher, but 
those of the sterner faith kept aloof. 

This state of things continued till February 
3, 1830, when a full-fledged Unitarian was or- 
dained. His stay was short, for it is found 
that, on May 23, 183:5, Orestes A. Bronson 
was installed, who resigned in March, 1834. 

Horatio Wood was installed September 24, 
1834, and resigned June 22, 1838. This was a 
period of prosperity for the Unitarians. The 
elite of the town all attended church, if for 
nothing more, to hear the good music, which 
was better then than it has been since that time. 

William Silsbee was ordained July 1, 1840, 
and resigned September 3, 1842. This year 
the present Unitarian Church was built, and 
Mr. Abiel Chandler presented the tablets. 

Martin W. Willis was ordained December 6, 
1843, and resigned May 1, 1848. He was the 
tii-st settled minister afler the completion of the 
new house. 

1 This is a misnomer. It should be " Unitarian.' ' 



444 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



William P. Tilden was installed September 
27, 1848, and resigned January 1, 1855. Mr. 
Tilden was esteemed not only by his society, 
but bv all the citizens in town, as the dissem- 
inator of good morals and the promoter of the 
best interests of the town. 

Mr. Lathrop was installed November 0, 
1856, and preached one year, when a Mr. Ran- 
ney supplied the year following. Charles Emit- 
ter, an eccentric man, was installed November 
.'{, 1858, and left after preaching a little moi-e 
than one year, when Wr. C. T. Canfield sup- 
plied the desk, from January, 18(j0, to the fol- 
lowing June, after which Thomas Daws was 
installed, December 15, 1861, and resigned 
January 1, 1865. 

The same year Nathaniel Seaver, Jr., was 
ordained, November 2.3d, and resigned May 2.'', 
1868. Russell N. Bellows supplied from 
October 18th, the same year, till October 1, 
1869 ; and on the 10th of June following 
George Dexter was settled, who continued till 
May 3, 1873. The next minister was William 
Brown, who was installed in August, 1873, and 
resigned in August, 1883. The present incum- 
bent is Rev. John Williams, who was settled 
April 1, 1884. 

The First Congregational Church 
AND Society in Walpole (Orthodox). — 
There were a number of persons in town who 
could not see their way with clearness through 
Unitarian spectacles, and they resolved to have 
a place of their own wherein to worship. Ac- 
cordingly, six of those people — all but one as 
p!)or as church mice — formed themselves into a 
church and society, and immediately, through 
their own feeble eiforts and those of the Rev. 
Z. S. Barstow, of Keene, with the sister 
churches, procured funds sufficient to build the 
present church edifice, which was completed in 
1833. It has since been raised one story and 
remodeled. Edwin Jennison, a grandson of 
Captain John, one of the first settlers, was the 
first to occupy its puljjit. He preaclietl there 
till March, 18.35, when, by reason of impaired 



health, he relincpiished his charge to one B. B. 
Beckwith, who ]ireached to the society less than 
ten months. 

For what reason he left his charg-c so soon is 
not known to the writer ; but the story current 
at the time was that the charges brought 
against him by the church were that " he wore 
a fashionable beaver, a frock coat and rode a 
horse through the streets on a galloping 
gait." 

Abraham Jackson, who resembled the like- 
nesses of Old Hickory, was settled January 10, 
1837, and dismissed June 5, 1845. August 
6th, same year, Ezekiel H. Barstow was or- 
dained, and continued to be the pastor till De- 
cember 30, 1851, and Alfi'ed Goldsmith was 
installed the same day, who continued with the 
society till March 7, 1853, when he was dis- 
missed and the society was without a settled 
minister till January 31, 1855. At the last- 
mentioned date John M. Stowe, of Hub- 
bardstou, Mass., was settled and remained 
with his people till February 4, 1862, when he 
returned to his native home, soon to die from 
injuries received by a load of wood on a sled 
passing over him. Mr. Stowe was a man that 
had few enemies, and, like Mr. Tilden, of the 
Unitarian Church, was ever ready to lend his 
influence for the 2)romotion of good in .society. 
The society was without a settled minister till 
August 31, 1865, when Rev. Gabriel H. De 
Bevvice was settled, who remained till August 
6, 1868. June 2, 1870, Rev. William E. 
Dickinson was settled, and dismissed March 31, 
1875. Thomas S. Robie occupied the desk one 
year, from September, 1875. September 20, 
1877, Frederick Lyman Allen was ordained 
and remained with the .society till June, 1884. 
From September, the same year, till now (1885) 
W. H. Teel has supplied the desk. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. — In the 
summer of 1842, Increase S. Guild secured the 
appointment of John P. Prouty for Walpole 
.station. During the next few years several 
preachers came and went, till 1845, when a 



WALPOLE. 



445 



chapel was built, oow staudiiig on Washington 
Square. Services were held there until 1860. 
During tliis period the ministers that officiated, 
twelve in number, lived on starvation diet, for 
tiie society was very poor, and depended largely 
on outside benevolence. The society fell to 
pieces in 1860, and the worshippers divided; 
one part joined the Orthodox and the others 
trusted themselves to the tender mercies of the 
Unitarians. 

Episcopal Society. — Tiiis society at Drews- 
ville was incorporated in 1816, under the name 
of the First Protestant Episcopal Society of 
M'alpole. The first rector's name was Luman 
Foote. In 18;>6 the present stone chapel was 
built, and at the time of its consecration the 
original name was changed to St. Peter's Church. 
The Rev. E. A. Renouf is now its rector. 

Baptists. — In 1837 Samuel Nichols, a mer- 
cliant of Drewsville, built a small chapel at that 
place for the use of a Bajjtist society formed 
tliere, but the society was short-lived, and now 
there are no Baptists in town. 

Tiie Roman Catholics have a church at North 
Walpole, but it is not old enough to have a his- 
tory. 

MEX OF xotj:. 

Following are a few brief notices of men 
wlio have, by accident or otherwise, risen from 
tiie general level of tlieir townsmen, and made 
themselves conspicuous members of society, and 
also of their descendants, whose influence has 
been felt in other ])laees. For convenience, 
their names are arranged alphabetically. 

Am ASA Allen came to this town in 1776 
from Pomfret, Conn., a poor young man twenty- 
six years old, and commenced business as a 
merchant. He continued in tlie business some 
tliirty years, and died at the age of seventy, leav- 
ing ."$75,000. He was very popular with the 
townspeople, and they elected him to represent 
tiiem in the Provincial Legislature, at Exeter, 
seven times, and was State Senator in 1802-.J. 
He was general of the State militia, and held 
numerous minor town offices. He gave the old 



church the organ, afterwards used by the Uni- 
tarian Society, and was present at the casting of 
our old town-liell (now intact) and dropped in 
the silver composing a portion of its metal. 
When be died his funeral was largely attended. 
Although married twice, he left no children. 
He lived in the hou.se now owned by Mrs. Piiilij) 
Peck, which he built. 

Aaron Allen was from Mansfield, Conn., 
and was an early settler. He was a farmer and 
owned a very large area of land in the south 
part of the town. He represented the town at 
Exeter in 1788-89. He iield numerous town 
offices, his name occurring most frequently in 
the town records. His oldest son, Levi, was 
also popular witli the people, and was so much 
engaged with town busine.ss, settling estates, etc., 
that he neglected his more paying business and 
became poor, when his pride forced Iiim to move 
from town. 

Otis Bardwell was born in Deerfield, Mass., 
October 17, 179:^, and died March 27, 1871. 
He began life as a stage-driver ; but being a man 
that took good care of his earnings, he soon ac- 
cumulated money to own a team, when he 
formed a copartnership with George Hunt- 
ington. Tlie firm soon owned all the mail-lines 
in the vicinity, at a time when their bids were 
the only ones for carrying the mails. The firm 
soon became well oiF. In 1849, when the Chesh- 
ire Railroad was completed, staging came to a 
stand-.still. He then purchased a plot of laud 
in Rutland, Vt., and built tiie well-known 
" Bardwell House." During the latter part of 
his life, owing to his financial standing in town, 
he was honored witli financial trusts. When a 
stage-driver, in the month of January, 1819, in 
coming over Carpenter's Hill, he plucked blos- 
soms from an apple-tree and gave tiiora to the 
lady passengers. 

Ben.iamin Bellows was born May 26, 
1712, and died .July 10, 1777. He came to 
Walpole from Lunenburg, Mass., when he 
was forty years old and founded the town (1752), 
and for twenty-five years thereafter he ^vas the 



446 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



common centre, around which all the satellites 
moved. During these years he held two or 
three town offices each year. 

A general notice of his life in town may be 
found in the earlier pages of this sketch. 

Benjamin Bellows, Jr., was the second son 
of the founder. He seems to have had a greater 
controlling influence over the townspeople than 
any man- who ever lived in town ; he was the 
Bellows among the Bellows'. His judgment 
was good and his word law among the towns- 
people. At his bare-headed nod the rough boys 
took their seats in the old church, and catch- 
penny showmen he di'ove from town on his own 
responsibility. He was town clerk thirty-two 
years, and held various other town offices. He 
was State Senator from his district, and also 
Councillor ; was chosen a member of the Con- 
stitutional Congress in 1781, but declined serv- 
ing. He was a member of the Convention that 
ratified the Federal Constitution of February, 
1788. He was president of the Electoral College 
in this State in 178!), and again elected in 1797. 
In the State militia he rose fi'om corporal to 
the command of a brigade, and was colonel of 
a regiment during the Revolutionary struggle. 
He is described as being six feet in stature and 
of dark complexion, courteous in manners, but 
firm in purpose, persuasive in language and 
ever kind to his neighbors. His education was 
mostly gained by t)bservation, as the Bellows 
family were never considered book-worms. The 
saying formerly current was that, " If you shut 
up a Bellows in a room with books, if there is 
no other way of escape, they will go tlirough 
the window." Seated in an easy chair in the 
chimney-corner of his own house, ' neatly 
dressed in Continental garb, lie rounded his pe- 
riod with his brother John, in discussing the 
gossip of the day over a clay pipe. He died June 
4, 1802, aged sixty-two. Some mention has been 
made of his brother John and his son Caleb 
in the foregoing pages, both of whom were 

' Now owned by Mrs. Prentiss Foster, 



active, influential men. John Bellows had one 
son, Josiah (2d), who had some influence in 
town in his way. He is remembered by the 
old citizens as beiijg a smooth, fluent talker, 
and story-teller. On this account he obtained 
the sobriquet of " Slick Si." If anything 
was wanting in his stories, his conscience never 
troubled him in supjjlying the deficiency. 

Thomas Bellows, familiarly known as the 
" 'Squire," to whom the old colonel bequeathed 
his homestead, was an entirely different man in 
character from either of his half-ln'others, Ben- 
jamin or John, in that he had little or no am- 
bition, only to be considered an honest man, 
which feeling in some instances he carried so 
fai- as to do injustice to himself. He was born 
1762, the same year his father built his new 
house, now standing and occupied by his son 
Thomas. His name apjjears frecpiently in the 
town records as a town officer, and he was the 
first man to represent the town in the General 
Court after the adoption of the State Constitu- 
tion, in 1792. 

Early in 1794 he was appointed councillor 
for five years, and in 1799 sheriff for the 
county of Cheshire, an office which he held 
more than thirty years, and during this period 
he was haunted with the morbid idea that he 
might be called upon to hang somebody. He 
had an ample fortune left him, which he kept 
intact, but did not add much to it during life. 
He manifested much interest in the welfare of 
liis neighbors and townsmen, and had a strong 
penchant for not only knowing their busines.s, 
but the business of all others. At times this 
matter was carried so far as to call forth ungen- 
erous rebuffs, which .sorely grieved him. He 
was fond of conversation, but had an impedi- 
ment in his speech, which made it appear quaint 
and laughable to strangers. He was tall and 
gaimt, with a heavy face, and wore modest cloth- 
ing, which never could be made to fit. His 
memory was remarkable ; he could remember 
everything he ever saw, even to the first rat. 
In religion, he was a Unitarian. He lived a 



WALPOLE. 



447 



loug life of purity, benevolence and charity, and 
was called to his fathers April 18, 1848. 

JosiAH Bellows, the tenth and yonijgest of 
tlie old family, and a stanch old R(jman, was 
liorn in 17(i7, and died in 1840. In his youth- 
ful days, it is said, he scattered some wild oats, 
but after he married he toned down into an 
influential, reliable, good citizen. His vocation 
was a farmer. He represented the tow n in the 
State Legislature in 1809-10 and in 1819, and 
held many town offices. In his intercourse 
with the world he was taciturn, and in conver- 
sation monosyllaljic almost to abruptness, which 
gave strangers a wrong impression of the real 
man, for he was a kind neighbor and public- 
spirited citizen. His older son, known as 

JosiAH Bellows ijiv), was cast in a differ- 
ent mould from his father, and of more pliable 
metal. He was lotjuacious, urbane and yield- 
ing; he never meddled with the business of 
other people, yet no man has lived in town in 
later years that had a greater silent influence. 
He was engaged in mercantile pursuits more 
than thirty years : was chosen Representative 
in 1823, '24, '25 ; captain of militia in 1814; 
postmaster from 182(3 till 1840, when all the 
mail matter lodged in the town was contained 
in a box three by two feet, and when the num- 
lier of inhabitants was larger than at the present 
time. He also held many ofSces of honor and 
trust, both in town and county. He died 
January 13, 1842. Only one son is now left 
to represent him, Josiah G., who is now a jjrac- 
ticing lawyer in town and esteemed citizen. 

Hexry Whitxey Bellows, a great-grand- 
son of the founder, through Josej^h and John, 
was born in Boston, Mass., June 14, 1814. He 
graduated at Harvard College in 1832 and com- 
pleted his divinity studies in 1837. On Janu- 
ary 2, 1838, he was ordained pastor of " All 
Saints' Church," in Xew York City, and held 
the place till his death, which occurred in Jan- 
uary, 1882. He was the only Bellows who 
ever gained a national reputation, and this was 
accomplished through the United States Sani- 



tary Commission as president during the Rebel- 
lion. He was widely known as a preacher, lec- 
turer and writer in his own denomination (Uni- 
tarian) and by others. In 1868-69 he wrote 
and published two octavo volumes of European 
travels, entitled " The Old World in its New 
Face," which will compare most favorably with 
any work of the kind extant. He contributed 
largely to the higher publications of the day 
and was known as a brilliant pulpit orator. 

Henry Adajis Bellows was born Octo- 
ber 25, 1803, and was the great-grandson also 
of Colonel Benjamin — through two Josephs. He 
commenced life poor. He, while a lad, attended 
an academy at Windsor, Vt., which in those 
days afforded no better educitional advantages 
than those now had at our common schools. 
After x-emaining there a few months he entered 
the law-office of William C. Bradley, in AYest- 
minster, Vt., and on completing his law studies 
was admitted to thel)ar in Xewfane, Vt., in 1826. 
The same year he was admitted to the bar in 
Xew Ham2)shire and commenced practice in 
Walpole. In 1828 he renaoved to Littleton, 
X. H., where he practiced his profession twenty- 
two years, when he removed to Concord, this 
State. He had now gained a high reputation 
as a lawyer throughout the State, and on the 
resignation of Judge Perley, September 23, 
1859, he was appointed Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Judicial Court, and held the position 
till October 1, 1869, at which time he received 
the appointment of chief justice. Plis de- 
cisions and rulings in court wei-e always sound, 
clear and logical. He was no politician, but 
was elected representative to the (xeneral Court 
three times — once from Littleton, in 1 839, and 
twice from Concord, in 1856-57. He died 
very suddenly at his liome in Concord, with but 
little premonition, Alarch 11, 1873, of disease 
of the heart, just l)efore his term of office 
would have expired by limitation. AVithout 
superior educational advantages, he rose to a 
high point of honor and trust. For his hon- 
est)' of purpose he was esteemed ; for being 



448 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



just he was honored ; and for his urbanity he 
was beloved. 

David Bufpum was the seventh son of 
Joseph Buffiim, of Walpole, and was born 
April 15, 1803. He came to Walpole in 1820 
and was a clerk three years for his brother Wil- 
liam, who was a mercliant here, and then formed 
a partnership with him in trade. 

From that time for about fifty years he was 
in business, sometimes with partners and at 
other times alone. In his jiosition during this 
long period he became thoroughly acquainted 
with all the townspeople, and, in a measure, ex- 
ercised over them a eoutrolling influence. His 
multifarious business relations admirably fitted 
him to form good judgments and give good ad- 
vice, which was largely sought for by many. 

He was elected to the State Legislature in 
1849 and 1850, and, also, was a member of the 
convention called to revise the State Constitu- 
tion, in 187(5. He is now an octogenarian, with 
few business cares, enjoying his otiuiii cum di(/- 
nitate. 

George Carlisle was the son of John 
Carlisle, a siioemaker, and a great-grandson of 
David Carlisle, one of the early settlers. 
George began life a poor boy, but by his hon- 
esty and industry he won the esteem of Stone 
& Bellows, merchants Jiere, who entrusted him 
witli a large Invoice of goods of, in, tlicn, the Far 
West, Cincinnati, where he established himself 
in due course of time as a merchant. Exercis- 
ing good judgment he purchased land from time to 
time with surplus money iu the environs of the 
Queen City, which soon rose in value mani- 
fold, and made him at the time of his death, 
which occurred iu 186;5, a very rich man. He 
is represented to have been a liighly honorable 
business man, public-spirited and generous to 
his Walpole kindred. 

Thomas Collins Drew, in some respects 
was one of the most remarkable men who ever 
lived iu town. He was born in the town of 
Chester, this State, in 1762. In boyhood an 
inmate of the almshouse iu Portsmouth, adoi^ted 



by one McNeal, of Londonderry, he ran away 
and joined the Continental forces, and after the 
war closed returned to McNeal. Mr. McNeal 
had no use for him, and sold his indenture to 
William T. Ramsey, a settler of this town, for 
a pair of old stags. He came home with Ram- 
sey, and at his majority or soon after married, 
when his wife taught him to read and write. 
He now \mi on the harness and made a bold 
push for a livelihood, either by hook or by crook, 
and as years rolled ou he grew in jjopularity 
with his townsmen, and was promoted colonel 
of the Twentieth Regiment of New Hampshire 
militia, and soon was elected, over those to " the 
manor Ijoru," to the State Legislature iu 1802, 
aud was re-elected in 1804, '05, '07, '08 and 
'09. He was then elected State Councillor two 
years. He had a great influence iu town-meet- 
ings, being a fluent sjjeaker. During those 
years he kept a public-house at the place which 
perpetuates his name, — Drewsville. In his old 
age lie undertook to tend his bar on both sides 
at a time, which greatly bewildered him at times. 
None of his posterity are now living. 

TiiojrAS Green Fessenden, the oldest of 
the old parson's family, was born Api'il 12, 
1771, graduated iu Dartmouth in 1796, 
studied law in the office of Stephen R. Bradley, 
iu Westminster, Vt., and died in Boston, No- 
vember 11, 1837. He early commenced a lit- 
erary career, which he pursued through life, 
writing books and numerous pamphlets. He 
wrote and published a book in England satiriz- 
ing the medical faculty there. It had an im- 
mense sale iu Loudon, and wiis subsequently 
jiublished in this country in three editions. It 
was entitled " Dr. Caustic." The work is a 
strauge comj^ound of erudition, doggerel verse 
aud nonsense. In 1822 he commenced the 
publication of the New England Farmer, when 
he did not know enough about farming to hoe 
a hill of potatoes, and continued it fifteen years. 
For versatility of genius, ready wit, biting sar- 
casm and as a popular jourualist, no native 
townsman has been his equal. 



WALPOLE. 



449 



John Graves, Ji:., seems to liavo been a 
man (if some local influence during the "border 
troul>les " in the last century, as he was elected 
to represent the town at Windsor, Vt., at that 
period. Josiah G., his grandson, through Ster- 
ling, his father, studied medicine and removed 
to Nashua, this State, more than forty years 
since, and there became widely known as a skill- 
ful physician, and accumulated a handsome for- 
tune, lie was born July 1'], isn,an(! is still 
living. 

Samuel Gr.vnt, familiarly known as Major, 
was born at Watertown, Mass., in 1770, and 
came to this town soon af\cr his majority, by 
trade a saddle-maker. He married the daughter 
of General Bellows, and at Bellows' death, in 
1802, came in possession of a large farm in the 
southeast part of the town — her patrimony. This 
place was known as the " Seven Barns." Here, 
for many years, he extensively carried on sheep 
husbandry, owning at times a thousand sheep. 
By his strong will and conventional position in 
town, he secured a strong hold on his townsmen, 
and was elected to the General Court four times, 
viz. : in 1797, 1799, 1817 and 1838, besides 
holding many offices of trust. He is repre- 
sented to have been punctilious, exacting and 
imyielding in his intercourse with his neighbors. 
He died April 12, 1844. 

Aaron Hodskins, Ji;., was born in town 
August 17, 1769. He was a farmer by occu- 
pation, but intellectually a strong man. He 
was generally known as '"Squire," and for 
many years, when in active life, was a potent 
factor in the civic affairs of the town. He was 
religiouslv a Universalist, and was the head and 
front of that societj' in town. His son, Asahel 
B., also belonged to the same denomination, was 
active in the cause, and also had some influence 
in local politics. 

Abraham Hoixand, who was the third phy- 
sician that settled in town, was born in Barre, 
Mass., in 1751, graduated at Dartmouth 
and studied medicine, and on completing his 
studies came to this town and commenced prac- 



tice about 1 78(X Three of his granddaughters, 
through his son Nathaniel, were married to 
Harrison P. and Hudson E. Bridge, who were 
Walpole boys, and who as men were citizens of 
St. Louis, Mo., where they accumulated very 
large fortunes. 

Foster Hooper, an orphan at an early age, 
was the son of Salmon Hooper, and the grand- 
son of I>evi, one of the early settlers, was born 
April 2, 1805. He studied medicine, and in 
1826 went to Fall River, Mass., where for 
more than a generation he enjoyed an extensive 
practice and was held in high estimation by all 
the medical fraternity. There were no ])ublic 
enterprises on foot in that city for more than 
forty years but Dr. Hooper had a controlling 
voice in them. He was chosen often to fill the 
civic offices of the place. His career, at his 
death, which occurred in 1870 from disease of 
the heart, left a more favorable lasting impres- 
sion than if he had been a member of Congress, 
which position was almost within his grasp at 
one time. 

Jonas Hosmer was a staid old church dea- 
con and farmer. He came to town from Acton, 
Mass., in 1 783,and remained here during life. He 
iiad eight children, seven of whom lived to ma- 
turity and all were highly respectable people. 
Five of the number were boys, and never were 
there five boys born in town in one family who 
could boast of a cleaner record from vice than 
those of Jonas Hosmer. Two of tliem, Eli and 
Elbridgre, were widelv known and esteemed 
school teachers; Edwin followed farming, and 
Alfred and Hiram became practicing physicians. 
The latter became eminent in his profession in 
Watertown, Mass., and in other walks of life 
was a prominent citizen. He was the father of 
Harriet Grant Hosmer, the world-renowned 
sculptress, who was born in 18-">((. On her 
mother's side she is the great-granddaughter of 
General Benjamin Bellows. 

Aaron Prentiss Howlani> was the son of 
Charles Howland, a mechanic who lived in the 
" Valley," this town. He (Aaron) was born in 



450 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1801, and di«lJuly_9, 1867. He learnecmhe 
trade of a carpenter, and soon after bis majority 
became a master-builder, -which business he fol- 
lowed for many yeare ■srith varied success. In 
1853-54 he represented the town in the Legis- 
lature, and aftewards became interested in poli- 
tics, and as a local wire-puller he never had an 
equal in town. He was fii-st a Whig, then a 
Republican in sentiment, and, lastlv, an un- 
flinching partisan. His word was law to his 
henchmen, and for years he figured as the cham- 
pion of opposition to the Democracy over the 
check-list at March meeting times, when there 
was always a " tempest in a tea-pot," and where 
he found that there were diamonds that cut dia- 
monds. He was United States district assistant 
assessor during and after the War of the Rebellion. 
During the last years of his life he exercised a 
potent influence in town and church afiairs. 
Who living in town thirty years ago did not 
know the stirring, ubiquitous, money-making 
Aaron Prentiss Howland ? 

George Huntixgtox, of whom mention 
has been made in connection with Otis Bard- 
well, was born in 1801, and died 1876. Early 
in life he kept the tavern in the village, and bv 
his urbanity and enterprising qualities he won 
the esteem of his townsmen, who honored him 
with a seat in the State Legislature in 1835, '36, 
'37, and soon after was appointed sheriff of the 
county. He held several town offices, was a 
railroad and bank director for several years. In 
middle life he was one of the most comely, well- 
dressed and popular men in town, and was re- 
ported rich, as he paid the high'est individual 
tax in town. In his business transactions, first 
impressions always served him ; he never used 
figures much ; but later in life impressions did 
not serve him, and his business went wrong, 
till at length a collapse came and he died com- 
paratively poor. 

Dr. Fka>.'cis Kjttredge came to this town 
more than one hundred years ago, to set a 
broken bone of one of the Bellows family, from 
Tewksbury Mass., there being no competent 



surgeon to be found nearer. He remained till 
the fracture was healed, and during the time 
was induced by Colonel Bellows to remove here. 
j He was termed a natural bone-setter. He had 
sixteen children, and ten of his descendants be- 
came doctors. Jesseniah, one of his sons, became 
famous by compounding an unguent for old sores. 
I It required but little study in those old days 
to become an !M.D. There were many that 
knew little or nothing of surgery and all that 
was deemed necessary for common practice 
was to know how much blood to take from a 
patient in a fever, how much jalap to deal out 
for sick headache, and how much picra to 
give in mulligrub. There was but one of the 
ten above noticed \vho received a cla.ssical edu- 
cation, and none of them rose to be eminent 
in their profession, but through their combined 
social standing the_v had some influence. Jes- 
seniah (2d) was well versal in Free-M;isonrv, 
and had a commanding influence with the craft, 
it is said. 

Jacob Xewmax Kxapp, who died in this 
town July 27, 1868, in his ninety-fifth year, 
exercised a silent influence in town for more 
than fifty years, and more especially in the 
Unitarian Church. 

His son, Frederick Newman, rendered effi- 
cient service in the Sauitarv Commission during 
the Rebellion. 

Hope Lathorp, was born in Tolland, Conn, 
about 1798, and learned the trade of planter. 
He came to Drewsville in 1819, where he 
followed that business a few years. He was 
appointed deputy sheriff soon after he came 
to Drewsville, and at the same time kept a 
public-house there. He was one of the direc- 
tors of the Connecticut River Rank, at Charles- 
to^\ni, N. H. and was its president when he died 
in 1878. For a number of years he was post- 
master at Drewsville and merchant at the same 
period. He was not a progressive man, his par- 
araoimt thoughts and energies being centred on 
the accumulation of money. At the time of 
his death bis accumulations were large for the 



WALPOLE. 



451 



country, which were left to his two daughters. 
His weahh and shrewdness ga ve him some local 
influence, but beyond his own town he was but 
little known. 

Bolivar Lovell is the sou of Aldis 
Lovell, who was a lawyer of some local repute 
in town at one time. Bolivar was born at 
Drewsville, August 30, 1826, and obtained only 
a common-school education at that place. At 
his majorit}' he went forth into the world and 
found employment in Providence, R. I., a.s a 
clerk there for three years, when he returned 
to his native home and commenced the study 
of law in his father's office then at Alstead, about 
1845. In 1847 he was appointed deputy sher- 
iff and while acting in that capacity he was 
still pureuing his law studies in the office of 
Lovell Wait, of ALstead. In 1855 he was 
appointed Sheriff for Cheshire County, which 
office he held for ten years. In 1862 he was 
appointetl United States assessor of internal 
revenue for the Third Xew Hampshire District 
and held the office eight years. In 1869 he 
was admitted to the bar, and has since prac- 
ticed his profession, first in Alstead and now 
in this town. In 1873-74 he was elected a 
member of the Governor's Council. He is 
considered a safe reliable basiness man, and an 
honest lawyer. He is now (1885) still prac- 
ticing his profession at Drewsville, financially 
enjoying life's blessings. 

Dr. Ebexezer Morse was born in Dublin, 
this State, in 1785, graduated at Dartmouth in 
1810, studied medicine and came to this town 
in 1813, a fully-fledged physician, when he put 
out his shingle on the northwest corner of the 
house now occupied by Frederick A. Wier. At 
the beginning of his practice he had Drs. John- 
son, Holland, Sparhawk and the Kittredges 
to contend with. Slowly he worked his way 
along, till, in the course of forty yeai-s, he had 
crossed the thresholds of three-fourths of the 
habitations of the people in town professionally 
and formed their favorable acquaintance, which 
gave his voice a listening ear in town aflfliirs. 
2fl 



He was too conservative to be a leader and too 
proud to follow. He hated innovation, and the 
frivolities of fashion he despised. He clung to 
the past, — the old school-books and the old 
way of cooking were the best. He was a fine 
prose- writer, and the town is indebted to his pen 
for much of its early history. He courted the 
muses sometimes, but tliey did not return his 
advances ■with grace, he having no scruples 
about feet or length of line. He was once 
elected to the General Court and three times 
selectman, besides holding some other minor 
offices. An entire change came over him in the 
last years of his professional practice, which was 
this, — instead of dosing with blue pills, jalap 
and using the lancet, he thought bread pills, 
pure air, clean sheets and a good nurse were 
more efficacious in restoring health than any 
other means. He died December 30, 1863. 

Thomas axd Isaac Redinc;tox were re- 
spected and influential merchant-citizens in town 
in the earlier part of this century. They were 
in trade some twenty-five years. Isaac repre- 
sented the town in the State Legislature in 
1813-14 and 1816. They both had families, but 
none of the blood remains in town to-day. 

Jonathan Royce first came to Marlow, but 
soon removetl to Walpole, from Connecticut, at 
the time of the exodus from that State into the 
valley of the Connecticut, between 1775 and 
1780, bringing his entire worldlv effi^cts on a 
hand-sletl in the winter. He settled in the 
" Valley." The town records, for many years, 
disclose the fact, by the frequent occurrence of 
his name therein, that he was a man of good 
ability and that his .services were much in de- 
mand. For many years he was justice of the 
peace. He at one time, it was said, owned 
more poor land than any other man in town. 

Thomas Sparhawk. — In the year 1769 a 
man came to this town, thirty-two years old, 
from Cambridge, Mass., who was a graduate of 
Harvard, with the class of 1 755, where he pur- 
chased himself a homestead, and remained 
through life as a very popular, high-minded. 



452 



HISTORY OF CHESHIKE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



well-educated, church-goiDg citizen of the town, 
— that man was Thomas Sparhawk. He had 
not been long in town before his abilities were 
recoo:nized and his influence felt. He was the 
first merchant in town, tlie settlers before tiiat 
period having to go to Northfield, Mass., and 
make necessary purchases of one Aaron Burt, 
a wholesale and retail dealer there, of whom 
mention has been made. Mr. Sparliawk was 
the first man to represent the town at Exeter, 
in 1775, and was for many years judge of Pro- 
bate for the county of C'lieshii'e, and also clerk 
of the court. He yearly held important offices 
in town, till the infirmities of age impaired his 
usefulness. He died October 31, 1S03, and 
left his son Thomas to walk in his illustrious 
footsteps. Thomas, Jr., was born 1761 and 
died 1848. He was an active, influential towns- 
man, almost yearly holding some important 
office during his active life, and was honored by 
a seat in the State Legislature in the years 1795, 
1796, 1798, 1801 and 1803, and was also a 
member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1783. It is said that the conduct exhibited by 
his church brethren at the time the old building 
was removed so grieved him that he became 
alienated from churcli-going thereafter. He 
lived and died a man of strict piety and good 
works. 

Dr. George Sparhawk, a graduate of 
Harvard, in the class of 1777, came to this town 
between 1780 and 1790, and commenced prac- 
tice as a physician, but not being successful, 
and having some means, he purchased a large 
tract of land where George B. Williams now 
lives, and gave his attention to farming. From 
year to year he made additions to his landed 
estate, till he was the largest land-owner in 
town. Through his education and wealth com- 
bined, he had some influence ; otherwise not, for 
he had ever an itching palm for all the land 
adjoining his. He died in 1847, aged ninety 
yeai's. 

Roger Vose was born in Milton, Mass., in 
1763, graduated with the class of 1790, and 



came to this town a lawyer in 1793, where he 
remained in practice during his active life. He 
held many important offices in town for many 
years. He had no qualities that distinguished 
him at the bar from other lawyers, but is chiefly 
remembered a.s being the only member of Con- 
gress that Walpole ever had, and for being one 
of the coterie of wits heretofore mentioned. He 
was at one time an associate judge of the courts 
in this State, and also judge of Probate fur the 
county of Cheshire. 

His son, Frederick, was born in town Novem- 
ber 2, 1801, and graduated at Harvard College 
in 1822. After studying the profession of law 
he commenced its practice in this town, and 
continued it through life. In 1847-48 he was 
a member of the State Senate, and in 1833 was 
a member of the House. He also held many 
important offices of trust and honor in the town, 
county and State, being for many years judge of 
Probate, bank commissioner, etc. As a lawyer 
he had a general reputation, being considered 
one of the soundest and best-read lawyers in the 
State. He was not a brilliant man, and he never 
attempted to argue a case of importance before 
a jury on account of having a constitutional 
timidity, which he never could overcome. In 
his habits he was peculiar, seldom appearing at 
social gatherings, and when in mixed company 
was always taciturn, but with a friend alone 
he was one of the most genial companions. In 
his intercourse with people he was considerate, 
always avoiding offense, which marked him as a 
true gentleman ; was public-spirited and be- 
nevolent, never letting his left hand know what 
his right hand was doing. Many funny .sayings 
might be told of his, bearing the stamp of sly wit, 
which he inherited from his father. He died 
in New York in November, 1871, aged seventy 
years. His death was greatly lamented by his 
townsmen and all others who personally knew 
him. 

Colonel Christopher Webber was one of 
the earliest settlers in town, and during the 
Revolutionary struggle was one of its active. 



WALPOLE. 



453 



leading men. lie re]3resented the town at 
Exeter in 17 70 and 1777, and for more than 
twenty years was one of tlie most efficient towns- 
men. He wa.s captain of a company that went 
to Saratoga, under General Bellows. His de- 
scendants living in town, being of the fifth 
generation, knew but very little of him. 

Alexander Watkins wtus fi-om Pomfret, 
Conn., and came to town about 1777 and set- 
tled as a tavern-keeper on the place now owned 
by Benjamin E. Webster. 

By his constant intercourse with the town's 
people, he acquired some influence. He had a 
family of eight children, seven of whom were 
boys. Two of the boys, Alfred and Hiram, 
studied medicine and located in Troy, N. Y., 
wiiere they enjoyed an extensive practice. Al- 
fred was at one time mayor of the city. Hiram, 
the only one of the old family, is now living in 
town, a hale old octogenarian, having been 
born in l.SOl. The other five boys settled in 
town, and Alexander's descendants are now, and 
have been for years, the most numerous of any 
people in town. Most of tliis family have been 
industrious, good citizens, and have been local- 
ly influential. 

Other persons have lived in town, who per- 
haps are just as deserving as the foregoing ; but 
want of space forbids an account of them. 
Among them are the Biscos, Bonds, Baruetts, 
Bradleys, Stephen Rowe (who lived in town 
from 1818 to 1830), Burts, Campbells, Carpen- 
ters, Crehores, Dunshees, Batons, Evanses, Fos- 
ters, Fishers, Fays, Fields, Griswolds, Gold- 
smith (Josiah), Jennisons, Johnson (Dr.), Kid- 
ders, Lymans, Lanes, Martins, Maynards, Mel- 
ishes, Putnams, Russells, Scavers, Steamses, 
Starkweathers, Townsleys, Tudor (Heuiy S.), 
Wightmaus, Weirs, etc. 

Walpole to-day (1885). — The town of 
Walpole is situated in the northeast corner of 
Cheshire County, N. H., and is about nine 
miles long and four broad, with an area of 24,- 
331 square acres of land, about eighty per cent. 
of which is under improvements, and more than 



one-half of the improved land is arableand of the 
best quality. Its population in 1880 was 2018 
inhabitants, and would have been many less in 
number had it not been for the rapid influx of 
people of Irish descent, within a few years, in- 
to North Walpole, where now is a hamlet of 
more than five hundred people. The ])ursuits 
of the people are principally agricultural, there 
being but little water power in town. The in- 
voice of the town, taken April 1, 1884, for the 
purpose of taxation, was $1,431,244, including 
598 polls, which is about the number of legal 
voters. The town has fourteen school dis- 
tricts, fifteen school-houses and eighteen schools, 
one of which is a High School, and the expendi- 
ture for school purposes, yearly, is about forty- 
five hundred dollars. The number of scholars 
is four hundred and sixty-one, and the average 
length of schools is twenty-nine weeks. There 
ai"e five churches, to wit : Orthodox, Unitarian, 
Episcopal, Christian and Roman Catholic, all 
of which have men of ability for pastors. 

The traveling public can find lodging at 
four public-houses, buy goods at five stores and 
get their mail at two post-offices. There are 
two lawyers, five doctors, one brewery, doing a 
large business, and two summer boarding-houses, 
which are well filled during the hot season. 
There are several shops of minor imjjortance 
that are very convenient for the jieople, 
which are found in every country town. Two 
liverv-stables furnish fine teams for the fine 
drives about town, and for other purp(j.ses, at 
reasonable rates. 

The soils of the town on the river and table- 
lands east are fluviatile, while back on the hills 
they are more tenacious, being a heavy loam, 
with sometimes an admixture of clay ; most of 
the soils are arable and well suited to all kinds 
of farm crops in this region. Fruit-trees of all 
kinds produce well but the peach, which does 
not do well here now, but apple and pear-trees 
yield an abundant harvest. 

Much of the town is superimposed upon 
micaceous and argillaceous slate. The rocks 



454 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



composing Fall Mountain are gneiss, sienite and 
mica slate, merging, in some places, into fibrolite, 
a very hard formation, which is almost inde- 
structible. A vein o{ serpentine has been found 
in the south part of the town and a bed of 
graphite also, but the per cent, of iron is so 
great in it that it is unfit for commercial pur- 
poses. Peroxide of iron is found iu the north 
j)art of the town in considerable quantities. At- 
tempts were made at one time to utilize it, but 
proved futile. There is a fountain of chalyb- 
eate waters about two and one-half miles north 
of the village, called "Abarakee Springs," the 
name being derived from an Indian tribe that 
once, in bygone days, used to bathe in its 
waters for cutaneous diseases. There are a few 
angular and water-worn boulders scattered 
about town but, only one of magnitude. The 
town can boast of a free library of well-selected 
books, numbering three thousand volumes, 
■which annually receives additions and is well 
patronized. It also has a savings bank, a tem- 
perance lodge, which is doing much good, and 
a lodge of Free-Masons, which was established 
June 13, 1827, called " Columbian Lodge, No. 
53." The chai-ter members were Christopher 
Lincoln, Wm. G.F^'ield and Jesseniah Kittredge. 
The charter was surrendered to the Grand 
Lodge during the Morgan troubles and held by 
it till 1861, when it was apjjlied for and ob- 
tained by Dr. Jesseniah Kittredge, Wm. Mitch- 
ell, Jacob B. Burnham, Dr. Hiram Wotkyns 
and sixteen others. Dr. Kittredge was elected 
Master of the new lodge and was re-elected 
several times. The second Master was George 
Rust ; third, Joshua B. Clark ; fourth, 8amuel W. 
Bradford; fifth, Abel P.Eichardson ; sixth, Geo. 
G. Barnett ; seventh, Curtis R. Crowd ; eighth, 
Geo. G. Barnett ; ninth, Abel P. Richardson ; 
tenth, Geo. B. Holland ; eleventh, Andrew A. 
Graves; twelfth, Rosalvo A. Howard. 

A Thief-Detecting Society was established 
here in 1816, and is in a flourishing condition 
now. The village has an efficient Fire Depart- 
ment, and the young men of the town have 



formed a brass band. Geo. B. Williams has a 
fine stock fiirm, with a large herd of Jersey cat- 
tle, which it will richly pay the curious to visit. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



JOSIAH O. GRAVES, M.I). 

Among the most honored names of medical 
men in New Hampshire during the last half- 
century is that of Josiah G. Graves. No his- 
tory of the State would be complete that did 
not give a sketch of one for so long a period 
identified as one of its representative physicians, 
and who, to-day, retired from practice, retains 
the vigor of middle life, the power of accurate 
thought and just and quick conclusion, the 
firmness of an honest and truthful nature and 
the suavity and courtesy of the gentleman ot 
the "old schoi.l." 

Josiah Griswokl Graves, M.D., was born 
July 13, 1811, in Walpole, N. H., one of the 
loveliest villages of the be;uitifid Connecticut 
Valley. His father was a well-to-do farmer, 
and his mother a woman of superior mind and 
excellent judgment, who looked wx'll to the 
ways of her household, as did the notable 
women of that period. Ralph Waldo Emer- 
son affirmed that man is what the mother makes 
him. Much of truth as there undoubtedly is in 
that assertion, it does not tell the whole truth. 
Past generations, as well as the beloved mother, 
have contributed to the building of the man. 
Physical peculiarities, jjhysical ajrtitudes and 
mental tendencies have been transmitted by the 
ancestors, and in the case of this mother and 
son, who shall say that the mother's nature, 
intensified by the inheritance of powers from 
progenitors strong physically and mentally, did 
not so influence the son as to make his successful 
career certain from the start, forcing him from 
the uncongenial vocation of a tiller of the soil 




^^(.Cni% 



S-. 



WALPOLE. 



455 



into a mission of healing during a long range 
of years. 

From an able article in " Successful Xew i 
Hampshire Men " we extract as follows : "Xot , 
having a fency for farmiiig, and thus acting ' 
contrary to the wishes of his father, he left 
home at the age of eighteen, with his mother's 
blessing and one dollar in money, determined 
upon securing an education and fitting himself 
for the medical prtjfession. He defrayed the 
expenses of his education by his own individual 
efforts and native will and indu.?try, by teaching | 
both day and evening, and was remarkably suc- 
cessfiil in his labors. Being a natural penman, 
he also gave instruction in the art of penman- ■ 
ship." ! 

He commenced the study of his profession 
in 1829. He was a student in medicine in the 
office of Drs. Adams and Twitchell, of Keene, 
and subsequently attended medic-al lectures at 
Pittsfield, Mass., and graduated at the Medical 
Department of Williams College in 18:>4. Af- 
tersvards he spent six months in the office of 
Drs. Huntington and Graves in Lowell. | 

Dr. Graves commenced the practice of medi- ! 
cine in Xashua, X. H., September 15, 18-34. , 
At this time Nashua was a comparatively yoimg 
town. It was but a brief period, however, be- 
fore the energy, determination and sup>erior 
medical and surgical skill of the young physi- 
cian carved oat for him an extensive practice. 
For forty years he followed his profesion in 
Xashua and the adjoining region with imtiring 
assiduity and with a success that has but few 
parallels. He loved his profession and gave to 
it his best powers. He was gifted in a remark- 
able degree with a keen insight into the nature 
of disease, and, of course, his success was in 
proportion to his fitness for his calling. He did 
not need to be told symptoms ; he knew by in- 
tuition where the break in the constitution was ; 
and how to rebuild and give new lite. He was 
made for his profession, and not his profession 
for him, which is too often the case. After ' 
several years' practice, desirous of ftirther im- | 



provement. he took a degree at Jefierson Col- 
lege, Philadelphia. At the time of the Rebellion 
the Governor and Council of Xew Hamj^hire 
appointed him a member of the Medical Board 
of Examiners. 

Dr. Graves retired from active practice in 
1871. He has been for many years a valued 
member of the Xew Hampshire State Medieval 
Association. In 1852 he delivered an address 
before that body on a subjec-t which was of the 
greatest moment, and at that time occupied the 
attention of the leading members of the medical 
profession in all manufacturing centres. This 
address was on '•'The Factory System and its 
Influence on the Health of the Operatives." It 
was bold, incisive and fearless, and won high 
praise for the careful investigation which it 
showed, its exhaustive treatment and its con- 
vincing logic. He took the ground (in opposi- 
tion to Dr. Bartlett, who stated that the death- 
rate of Lowell was less than the stirrounding 
towns), that the yotmg people went to the mills, 
and the old people stayed on the farms, and after 
a few years, when mill-life had broken their 
constitutions, the operatives retnrned to their 
birth-places and did not die in Lowell. Much 
care was taken in the preparation of the ad- 
dress. Factory after fiictory was \-isited, and 
hundreds of operatives consulted. The conclu- 
sions reached by Dr. Graves were accepted as 
correct. 

He has had a most remarkable practice in 
obstetrics, and has a complete record of five 
thousand cases. We give as an iUnstralion of 
Dr. Graves' wonderftil accuracy and system one 
fact well worthy the attention of all physicians. 
From his first day's practice he, every night, 
posted his books for that day's business and 
now has the entire set bound in fine morocco, 
with all entries in his own clear writing and 
without a blot to mar the symmetry of the 
page. Every business tran^ction has been in- 
serted in his " diary," which is equal in accuracy 
to that tamous one of John Quincy Adams, and 
manv an old soldier has had occasion to thank 



456 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Dr. Graves for the flicts derived from these 
books, by whicli lie lias secured his bounty, 
back pay or pension. 

Dr. Graves has been much interested in rail- 
roads, east and ^^'est ; has been a director in the 
Na.shua and Lowell Railroad and other roads 
He is a director in the Faneiiil Hall Insurance 
Company and in the Metropolitan Steamship 
Line, and is also connected with many other 
financial interests of a comprehensive character. 
He has a business office in Boston, and manages 
his large estate with as much foresight and 
.sagacity as many younger men. He has alM'ays 
manifested a deep interest in the application of 
science to business purposes, believed firmly in 
the financial success of the electric light where 
many shrewd men considered it an impractica- 
ble scheme, and was one of the earlier investors 
in its stock. His faith has been munificently 
repaid, and he is now a large holder of the 
most valuable stock in this field. 

From the first, Dr. Graves has been in warm 
sympathy with the principles of the Democratic 
party as enunciated by Thomas Jeffereon, An- 
drew Jackson and other leaders, and has fear- 
lessly, at all times and under all circumstances, 
championed what he believed to be for the 
" greatest good to the greatest number," con- 
ceding with a broad liberality the same rights 
to eveiy other citizen which he exercises him- 
self. He has received the thirty-second degree 
of Masonry, and is a Unitarian in religion. He 
believes " in a Christian observance of the Sab- 
bath ; that Sabbath-schools should be supported, 



for on them rests the moral safety of the coun- 
try ; that the ' Golden Rule' should be the 
guide for all our actions.' " 

The family relations of Dr. Graves have been 
most felicitous. He married INIary Webster, 
daughter of Colonel William Boardman, of 
Nashua, in 1846. She was descended from two 
of the ablest New England families, — Webster 
and Boardman,^ — and was a most estimable and 
Christian lady. For many years she was a de- 
voted member of the Unitarian Church and an 
earnest worker in all good causes. Kind and 
sympathetic, courteous to all, with a quiet dig- 
nity and purity of demeanor, she was a cher- 
ished member of society and an exemplar of the 
highest type of Christian womanhood. She 
died December 26, 1883. 

"As a man. Dr. Graves is distinguished for 
his firmness. His opinions he maintains with 
resoluteness until good reasons induce him to 
change them. He means yes when he says 'yes,' 
and no when he says 'no.' He is a man of pos- 
itive character. It is needless to say that, while 
such a man always has enemies (as what man of 
ability and energetic character has not?), he has 
firm and lasting friends, — friends from the fiict 
that they always know where to find him. 
Among the many self-made men whom New 
Hampshire has produced, he takes rank among 
the first, and by his indomitable energy, indus- 
try and enterprise has not only made his mark 
in the world, but has achieved a reputation in 
his profession and business on which himself 
and friends may reflect with just pride." 



HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND. 



BY WILLARD BILL, JR. 



CH AFTER I. 

BOUNDARIES, GEOLOGY, FLORA, ETC. 

The township of Westmoreland constitutes 
one of the four towns tliat border upon tiie 
Counceticut Rivei- within Chesliire County. It 
is bounded on the nortli for 1460 rods by Wal- 
pole; on the east for 800 rods on Surry and 960 
rods on Keene ; on the south for 31)0 rods on 
Keene and 2524 rods on Chesterfield, and upon 
the western low-water mark of the Connecticut 
River on the west. Its longitude is 72° 27' 
west from Greenwich and latitude 42° 48' 
north. It is of irregular outline, owing in 
part to the serpentine course of its river bound- 
ary. By the terms of the Wentworth grant, 
the township was to contain 23,040 acres or 
equivalent to six miles square; 1040 acres extra 
was allowed for highways and unimprovable 
lands. In 1769 a portion of this area — 1654 
acres, known as the " Westmoreland Leg," ex- 
tending to the Ashuelot River — was taken by 
legislative enactment, with a portion of Gilsum, 
and constituted into the township of Surry. Its 
surface is hilly, but it has a considerable amount 
of intervale land. For the most part, the soil is 
productive and the town deservedly ranks high 
for agricultural purposes. It has no elevation 
of land particularly prominent above the others, 
and all bear a similitude of general outline. 

Geology. — Westmoreland presents to the 
geological student a field of much interest. 
Traces of a glacier are seen ujion the striated 
rocks in different sections of the town, as it 



flowed, a mighty' river of ice at least one thou- 
sand feet in depth from the icy throes of the 
north toward Long Island Sound, moving with 
the velocity of no more than twenty-five feet 
yearly, leaving in its wake vast dejiosits ot 
earth, or " till," in the form of smooth, sym- 
metrical, rounded hills. Round Hill, near 
the house of Mrs. G. W. Daggett, the Paine 
Pasture Hill, the hill north of the East 
Depot, are good illustrations. These are called 
lenticular hills. Southeast of the North Depot 
is an eruptive granitic hill. 

The valley of the Connecticut is of modi- 
fied drift formation, terraced by the action of 
the river. The higher terraces, like the site of 
F. G. Parker's house, are some four hundred feet 
above the level of the ocean, while the lower 
terraces, like the county farm, are some two hun- 
dred and fifty feet. 

Transported boulders are occasionally found. 
Some of these are visitors from xVscutney's 
stony bosom. 

Dunesformedof Champlain sands are found in 
four different localities. The most promi- 
nent of these is located nearly opposite the 
dwellino:-house of Mrs. C'. F. Brooks. In the 
southwest part of the town, on land of the J. 
L. Veasy estate, are to be seen a series of in- 
verted conical depressions that are suggestive of 
vent-holes to the earth's interior g-ases at an 
early age. At some former period the valley of 
the Connecticut must have been covered with a 
large body of water extending from the Wan- 
tastiquet barrier upon the south to Blount Kil- 

4o7 



458 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



burn upon the north. Then Partridge Brook 
discharged its waters into the lake before reacli- 
iug the county farm meadow, and flowed over a 
rocky bed now plainly to be seen on the north 
side of highway, just west of the intersection of 
roads near the C. Q. A. Britton bridge. Near 
the house of G. J. Bennett is to be seen the 
suggestive journey of a huge boulder as it 
traveled unresistingly down the steep hill-side. 
The Harvey Pond is the only sheet of water in 
the town that can be called a natural pond, and 
this is of inferior extent. Of the many brooks 
flowing through the town, the Partridge Brook 
is by far the most important, being the outlet of 
Spofford Lake ; it enjoys the benefit of a large 
reservoir for its source, and having a descent of 
five hundred feet ere it reaches the Connecticut 
Rivei', distant about six miles, it furnishes 
numerous water-powers. It is not known how 
it derived its name — a name given it previous 
to 1752. 

The Mill Brook rises in Walpole, flows 
through the East Parish and empties into the 
Counecticut Iliver. It is a wild stream, l)ut 
furnishes water-power to a limited extent, and 
was the first to be harnessed to tlie uses of man. 
Other streams of lesser size abound in different 
sections of the town. 

The rocks of Westmoreland belong princi- 
pally to the Coos Group, and consist of quart- 
zite, gneiss, mica slate, mica schist, hornblende 
rock and conglomerate. Granite is found in 
the east part, while quartz is often seen. In 
the southwest part is a vein of molybdena. 
There, in 1830, Samuel Lincoln expended con- 
siderable money in driving a horizontal shaft 
into the ridge of rock, with the view of strik- 
ing a richer vein tiian the outcrop ; his labor 
proved to be unremunerative, but for years it has 
been a favorite resort for specimen-seekers. At 
the Curtis mine, in the south part of the town, 
have been found beautiful specimens of fluor- 
spar. 

Flora.— The flora of Westmoreland does 
not differ essentially from that of neighboring 



towns. It was formerly covered by heavy 
forests of pine, hemlock and the hard woods. 
The pine growing in the valley was in especial 
favor with His Majesty, and reserved by him 
in his grants. Nor does the fauna differ. In 
early times wolves were common, and some- 
times troublesome, while bears, panthers, lynxes 
and deer were by no means rare ; but these ai'e 
now of the " things past." Until within recent 
years some of our brooks bore evidence of the 
curious handiwork of the beaver, whose dams 
survive their ai'chitects many years. No veno- 
mous rejjtiles have been known. In early years 
the shad and salmon abounded in the river and 
furnished an abundance of excellent food. But 
that was long ago. To-day the smiling face of 
a successful fisherman is, like angel visits, few 
and far between. 



CHAPTER II. 

WESTMORELAND— (C'0H«"iMC<i). 
EARLY HISTORY. 

To the enterprise and energy of Massachu- 
setts do we owe alike the first settlement and 
the first incorporation of Westmoreland under 
the name of No. 2. The settlement of New 
England, commencing with the landing of the 
Pilgrims in 1620 upon Plymouth's icy shore, 
at first concentrated around IMassachusetts Bay, 
from whence it wended its way backward and 
upward along the arterial rivers, which fur- 
nished the readiest communication with the 
older towns, and far the safest. But in those 
days settlement proceeded painfully slow, and 
utterly uulike the experiences of to-day in our 
Western States. Sixteen years after the coming 
of the Pilgrims, Springfield, Mass., was settled, 
in 1636. In 1654 it reached Northampton, 
and in 1670 Deerfield. Three years more and 
it had reached Northfield. Here it halted in 
its progress up the river for fifty-one years, until 
1724, when Fort Dummer was built, a short 
distance north of the line that separates Vernon 



WESTMORELAND. 



459 



from Brattlehorough. About seventeen years 
more pass away, and a settlement was com- 
menced, in 174], in tlle present tnwnsliip of 
Westmoreland. Tims we see that more than a 
century elap.sed before a settlement reached West- 
moreland from Sj)ringfield, Mass. Ijet us sur- 
vey briefly the circumstances and enumerate 
some of the impediments in the way of more 
rapid strides of civilization upwai'd along the 
most important water artery of New England, 
in the valley (if thi; Connecticut. 

The colonies at tiiis period were weak in re- 
sources and could not fiiruisli an adequate base 
of supplies to meet the natural necessities of its 
distant frontier, — a irontier constantly ex- 
panding, and particularly exposed to the merci- 
less hostility of the Indians, whose thirst for 
blood was kept constantly inflamed by the in- 
trigues of the FrcMcii, wild iiad pushed tiieir 
settlements along the St. Lawrenc:e. During 
these times Fran(«and England were frequently 
engaged in warfare. There existed between 
them a deep-rooted national hatred. This feel- 
ing was brought to America by the emigrants 
froiri each country. Both nations pushed their 
settleiuents in America to their utmost ciipacity. 
They found the cduntrv inhabited by the red 
men. To them the French exercised a wise spirit 
of conciliation, and easily moulded them into 
.servieea!)le allies. The English, unfortunately, 
pursued a ctiutraiy course, and made of them 
implacal>le foes. The English sougiit to push 
their settlements from the south up the valley ; 
the French from the north, with their Indian 
allies, sought to beat them liack, and thus the 
valley became a scene of imminent danger, 
both (if life and property. Thus was settlement 
retarded ; at times driven back, now pushed 
forward, and, like a nicely-balanced beam, os- 
cillated to and fro, but slowly, yet surely, mov- 
ing up the valley. 

To the Massachusetts Legislature came the 
prolilem of how best to protect their frontiej- 
from these depredations. It was a problem of 
difficult solution. It was successfully accom- 



plished, and in a way that furnished the best 
possible protection to an exposed, well-nigh de- 
fenseless frontier, and at the same time led the 
way to extending settlement farther back. 

At this time tlie settlements along the valley 
of tlie (Connecticut constituted the extreme 
frontier. Westward to the Hudson no settle- 
ment l)r(ike tlie wilderness of unbroken forest. 
It was a long distance to the eastward through 
the primeval forests to the older towns upon 
and near to the Bay. Trails, maikcd by bl a zed 
trees, furnished the only comnuinication thereto. 
Nor can we conceive of a greater contrast than 
the circumstances of living then and at the pre- 
sent day. Tiieu the settler nuist keep constant 
watch b( itli by day and liy night. He lived, moved 
and iaboret^l under a cloud of constant peril. He 
needs must keej) his fire-arms within easy reach 
of his daily toil. Even there, with the fullest 
precaution, he fell the j)rey to some Indian am- 
bush, his family massacred or, worse, led into 
captivity and his home destroyed. Along the 
frontier it was an absolute necessity to construct 
and maintain garrisons, or forts, and sujiport a 
body of soldiers, whose duty was. to scour the 
woods in (piest of lurking savages, and to repel 
attack. This necessity led to the first incorpo- 
ration of the town, and, in after-years, settle- 
ments followed. As early as December 12, 
1727, the JNIassachusetts Legislature considered 
the project of establishing a tier of townships 
to the north, as outposts against the I'aiils of the 
Imlians. No action, however, was taken, until 
June following, when it was voted to lay out 
these townships, to build a seri(AS of forts and to 
})rovide for each a small garrison of troops and 
a cannon. A committee was chosen to make 
the necessary survey. They were directed to 
lay out these towTis eight miles north and five 
miles south of a straight line running from the 
northeast corner of Northfield to Dunstable 
(now known as Nashua), and thence up the ^ler- 
rimaek River to Rumford (now Concord). This 
committee was directed to act within reas(jnable 
time. Owing, no doubt, to the difticnlty of the 



460 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



work, tliey wt'iv iiimMe to report until January 
15, 1736. Witli tlu'ir ivixn-t they presented a 
reconimendation " that, tor t'nrtlier defense and 
protection, a line of towns l)e laid out from 
Rnniford to (Jreat Falls (now known as Bel- 
low's Falls), and from thence on the east side of 
the river to Arlington (now Winchester)." This 
recomniendation was accepted hy the Ijegisla- 
tnre. \ connuittce was chosen to make the 
necessary survey, who rejiorted November .'!0, 
1736. This report was accepted, and the town- 
ship of No. '2 was thercu])on chartered. 

Nathaniel Harris, of Watertown, Mass., was 
appointed to call the first meeting of the pro- 
prietors of No ■-!. Afterwards it was called 
Great Meadow, which name it retained until it 
was chartered by the New Hampshire • Legisla- 
ture, when it toojc the name it now bears — 
Westmoreland. The grantees under the Massa- 
chusetts charter were " Daniel How, Jethro 
Wheeler, Thomas Chamberlain, Moses Wheeler, 
Harridcn A\'hccler, .Jr., .Tethro Wheeler, Abner 
How, .losiah Fostci', .Joshua How, Meshach 
Taylor, Benjamin AUdridge, .Jonathan Hil- 
drith, .Joseph How, Daniel How, Junr., Nathan- 
iel Wooster, Jeremiah Hall "' and possibly 
others. I know of no record whatever of any 
action taken l)y the grantees of No. 2. The 
presumption is that they did act, and that the 
records of their doings have been lost. Feb- 
ruary 2, 1737, No 2, with other townships 
adjoining, were placed in Hamj^shire County, 
" in order to have their title recorded, the King's 
peace preserved and comtnon jusiace done." 

So far, the only inhabitants of " No. 2 " con- 
sisted of a few families of Abenaquis, or Abena- 
kees Indians, a small sub-branch of the Five 
Nations. It is said the meaning of this name 
is the Pines. Their wigwams were in the north 
part of the town, on land now owned by Robert 
E. Green, beside a small brook afterward known 
as the Wigwam Brook. They remained for a 
brief time only, and on terms of amity with the 
pioneer white settlers. 

Four years pass away ; the long winter is 



broken ; beneath the genial rays of a spring- 
time sun the ice and snow had disappeared ; 
bud and leaf gave coloring . to awakening 
nature, and the forest was teeming with the 
songs of the early spring birds. It is the spring 
of 1741. Embarked in four large bark canoes, 
came slowly up the river from North field the 
first settlers of No. 2. They land near the 
mouth of a stream afterward known as Mill 
Brook. The leader of the four families, Dan- 
iel How, selects the site of his future home, 
when; now lives Fred CJ. Pai'ker. Jethro 
^\'lu■elel•, another |)ioueer, selects the site for his 
dwelling just north of the railroad bridge, east 
of the house of Jolui C. Faruham. The other 
two settlers, Philip Alexander and 'lliomas 
Crissen, locate between these two. It is certain 
that settlements were made at two other places 
in the township soon afterwards. Peter Hay- 
ward settled near the Ashuelot River in 1 764. 
Upon " Canoe Place," since known as Canoe 
Meadow, father and son, both bearing the name 
of Jonathan Cole, and otiiers, settled soon after 
the coming of How and others. The site of 
Cole's house was a few rods south of the hou.se of 
Abel B. Cole, and it is worthy of mention that 
this pitch of Cole has always remained in pos- 
session of his descendants. The Cole family 
has been a prominent one in the town af- 
fairs in every generation. A few rods north, 
upon land of George R. Perry, was built a 
block-house, to which the settlers upon this 
meadow and vicinity could flee for refuge in 
times of danger. The first mention we find of 
"Canoe Place" is in a diary of Captain Kel- 
loss:, who was commandino; at Nortlifield No- 
vember30, 1724. 

Tradition attributes the origin of the name 
from the custom of the Indians to secrete their 
canoes in the ravine near its southerly extrem- 
ity. This meadow was a famous spot for the 
Indians, and was one of their camping-grounds 
on their journeys up and down the river. Here 
game of all kinds abounded ; here food was 
easy to obtain and of good variety ; and this 



WESTMORELAND. 



461 



spot naturally became a favorite resting-place 
for the red man. Upon the west the river 
abounded, in tliose early days, with shad and 
.salmon ; on the south the niountaiu resoundt'il 
with the peculiar notes of tiie wild turkey. 
Hence the origin of its name. The brooks were 
teeming with inmuncrablc trout leaping in the 
summer sun, and the curious beaver busily plied 
his unique workmanship, while through the 
forest gamboled the active deer. 

The l)lock-house, as constructed in those 
early times, was more suggestive of strength 
than of architectural beauty. They were built 
of logs, or, rather, .squared tindjers, laid hori- 
zontally one al)ove the other in the shape of an 
oblong or square, and locked together at the 
angles in a manner of a log cabin. This struc- 
ture was roofed and furnished with loop-holes 
on every side, throngii which to oliserve and at- 
tack the enemy. Tiie upper story usually pro- 
jected over the lower, and underneath this pro- 
jection other loop-holes were cut to enable those 
within to tire down on the assailants in case of 
a close ap])roacii. 

Of a similar construction were the houses of 
Daniel How and Jonathan Cole, and their re- 
spective associates. Strange as it niay seem, 
portions of Howe's block-house arc now in 
existence, preserved intact frfun the mutations 
of time. Howe's house was stockaded Ijy hav- 
ing a circle of logs around it, set upright in the 
ground, for the purposes of defense. 

In 17 11 war broke out between France and 
PjUgland. War between the.-<c nations was al- 
ways attended ]>y a remwal ot' Indian hostilities. 
Tiie valley of the Comiecti<'ut Jliver became the 
scene of pillage and of murder. It was at once 
utterly unsafe for the scattered settlers of No. 2 
to reside in their respective h<^mes. Accord- 
ingly, the settlers of No. '2, I'utney and West- 
minster united to build a stockaded fort upon 
the Great Meadow, in Putney, upim the site 
of the hou.se formerly owned by Colonel 
Thomas White, near the landing of the ferry. 
Leading to this ferry (the first one in town) was 



a road to the Howe settlement. This fort was 
named Fort Hill. It was of oblong form, 
eighty by one hundred and twenty feet, built of 
yellow pine timber hewed six inches thick and 
laid up about ten feet high. Fifteen dwellings 
were erected within it, the wall of the fort form- 
ing the back wall of the houses. These W(>re 
covered with a single roof, which slanted up- 
ward to the top of the wall of the fort. In the 
centre of the inclosure was a hollow .s([uare, on 
which all the hou.ses fronted. (~)n the north- 
east and southwest corners of the fort watch- 
towers were jilaced. A great gate opened on 
the south, toward the river, and a smaller one 
toward the west. The fort was generally gar- 
risoned l)y ten or twelve men. A cannon was 
furnished by the Massachusetts government 
that sui'vived the fort many years. On a cer- 
tain Fourth of July occasion, within the 
memory of many of our older citizens, this old 
cannon was " brought out " at the South village 
by the l)oys, to utter its voice in celebrating the 
glories of the day. It was loaded excessively 
and wadded with gras.=, .sand and various other 
materials suggested to the fertile nnagination of 
boyhood. Upon being fired it explo<led, and a 
fragment of the cannon was embedded in the 
house of Mrs. Burcham. U]>ou the comple- 
tion of the fort several of the inhabitants of 
No. 2 joined the garrison. These were David 
How, Thomas Chamberlain, Isaac Chamber- 
lain, Joshua \\ arncr and son, Daniel ^A'arner, 
wife and sou, Harri.soii AVheeler, Samuel 
Miuot, Benjamin Aldridge and his .-^on George, 
who afterward became a general. Colonel .lo- 
siah Willard, who owned the meadow, gave the 
use of the land as a eonsitleration for building 
the fort and <lefending it during the war. The 
land was portioned out to each fiimily, an<l the 
families were accustomed to work on their farms 
in company, that the\' might be l)etter pri>j)ai'ed 
to assist one another in the event of a surj>rise 
by the enemy. It wa.s no rare event to hear 
the shouts of the Indians in its vicinity during 
the nisiht. Atone time thev laid an ambush at 



462 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE; 



the iiortli eud of tho nioiulow ; hut the settlers, 
who were at work on an adjacent island, were 
fortunate in heing warned by a dog of their 
presence, and escaped in a dii'ectiou contrary to 
that by which they had come. 

On the ijth of July, 1 743, a party of Ooron- 
dax Indians, from Canada, appeared upon the 
meadow. William Pliips, an inhabitant of 
Great MeadoM-, as he was hoeing corn 
near the southwest corner, was surprised and 
captured by two of these Indians and carried 
into the woods to the west. While ascendintr 
the steep hill-side, about half a mile from the 
fort, one of his captors retuinied tijr something 
left, leaving the prisoner in charge of his com- 
rade. Watching his o])portunity, Phips struck 
down his captor with his hoe, whicli lie had re- 
tained, and, seizing the gun of the prostrate 
savage, siiot the other as he was ascending the 
hill. Phips thereupon started for the fort, but 
before reaching it was seized by three others of 
the same party, killed and scalped. 

Phips, but a shoi't time previous, had married 
Jemima Sartwell, daughter of the owner of 
Sartwell's Fort, a lady whose beauty, goodness 
and sufferings afterwards come down to us, 
through the mists of many years, as " The Fair 
Captive." 

Oil the 12th of October folidwiug a body of 
French and Indians attacked tiie fort at mid- 
day. A brisk fight was carried on fur an hour 
and a half. Out' Indian was known to have 
been killed, and, doubtless, others, as it was 
the custom of the Indians to conceal tiieir dead. 
The fort was defended with so much spirit that 
the enemy were not able to tuke it or materially 
to injure it. 

They killed however or drove away nearly 
all the cattle in the vicinity. Nehemiah How, 
who was chopping wood about eighty rods from 
the fort, was taken by the Indians as they came. 
His capture was effected in full sight of the fort, 
but it would have endangered tlir lives of all in 
the garrison to attem])t a rescue. As they were 
leading him away by the sideof the river they jjer- 



ceived a canoe approaching containing two men. 
Firing, they killed one of them, David Rugg, 
but the other, Robert Baker, made for the oppo- 
site shore and escaped. All three of these 
men belonged to the garrison. Proceeding far- 
ther, they passed three other meu, who. In- 
skulking under the bank, reached the fort iu 
safety. One of them was Caleb How, the 
j)risoner's son. Arriving opposite to Number 
Four they compelled their captive to write his 
name on a piece of bark and there left it. After 
traveling seven days to the westward they came 
to a lake, where they found five canoes laden 
with corn, pork and tobacco. Suspending the 
scalp of David Rugg upon a pole, they em- 
barked in the canoes and proceeded to Crown 
Point, from whence How was taken to C^uebec, 
where he died. Belknap, in his History of 
New Hampshire, speaks of him "as an useful 
man, greatly lamented by his friends and fellow- 
captives." Soon after these occurrences the fort 
was evacuated and went to decay. While a 
treaty of peace between the hostile powers was 
signed at Aix-la-Chapclle, Oetoljer 7, 174.S, the 
natural ferocity of the Indians had become so in- 
flamed that they keptup their foragesintothc next 
season. Meantime the long contention between 
]\Ia.ssachusetts and New Hampshire, respecting 
their boundary line, having been decided by 
the King, and thereby a large slicesevered from 
the tbrmer and given to the latter province, in- 
cluding the township of Number Tw'o, created 
the necessity of a new charter iroui the New 
Hamj)shire government. Upon the close of 
war settlement was rapid. At Portsmouth, in 
the Council chamber, on February 10, 1752, 
were assembled tiie Governor and his Council. 
The business that called thera together was the 
consideration of sundry petitions from various 
towns lately severed I'rom the Old Bay State, 
praying for incorporation under the New 
Hampshire government. A inong them was one 
signed by Daniel How and Thomas Chamber- 
lain and others from Number Two. 
The following is a copy of their petition : 



WESTMORP]LAND. 



463 



" Tlie Petition of the Subscribers hereunto most 
humbly Shews — That sundry of your Petitioners, 
Sometimo viz, about Seven years liefore the last Indian 
War, Settled under the niassatdmsets at a place call'd 
Number Two laying on the East side of Connecticut 
River about fourteen miles above Fort Dunnner 
(which by the late Punning of the Boundary line be- 
tween New Hampshire and the Province of niassa- 
chusets Bay falls within the Province of New Hamp 
shire) where tliey layd out their substance and that 
at their own cost and Charge for their Defence against 
the French and Indian Enemy on the opposite side 
of the River they built a Fort — that after the Indian 
War broke out they were obliged to leave their Hab- 
itations and lost Considerable of their Substance — 
that since the late Peace witli the Indians they have 
returned to the s'' Place That Sundry of your Peti- 
tioners are Children of Such as Set down at said 
place at first and expended their money in making 
the first settlement there — That your Petitioners have 
been at least one hundred and fifty Pounds old Ten' 
Charge the last fall in making and Clearing Roads — 
That as they have No Incorporatii>n — They labour 
under Insuperable Difficulty not being in a Cajiacity 
to raise any Moneys for any public use or service — 
And That unless they are enabled so to do, they 
shall be under an unavoidable necessity of leaving 
the said place and thereby loosing all they have been 
out there — 

"Wherefore your Petitioners most humbly pray 
your Excellency and Honours to make a Grant of the 
s'' Tract of land called Number two to your Petitioners 
And such others as your Excellency and Honours 
shall think proper so as to make up the number 
sixty four in all — and your Petitioners as in duty 
bound shall pray itc 

" Jan'-'- 80:'" 1750 



" Daniel How 
Jethro Wheeler 
Thos Chamlierlain 
Amos Davies 
Amos Davis jun'' 
Jonas Davis 
Samuel Davis 
Ebenezer Davis 
moses Wheeler 
isaac chamberlain 
Josiah Chamberlen 
Hariden Wlieeler Junr 
Jethro Wheeler 
Simeon Knight 
martin Severance 
John Brown 



William Moor 
Joshua How 
Beiiiamin Knights 
Silas Brown 
meshach Taylor 
John Alexan(k^r 
Daniel Shattuck Senei 
Enoch Hall 
Simon Hall 
Thomas Chamberlain 
Joshua Chambrlain 
jedidiah t'hamlierlaiu 
Job Chaml)erlain 
Aaron Davis 
lieniaman alldridge 
Jonathan hildrith 



Joseph How 
Daniel How Junr 
Nathaniel Woods 
.leremiah Hall 
Isaac Stone 



Abner How 
Josiah Foster 
Samuel Foster 
niichal gibson 
John Sheilds 
Danil Sheilds 

"Sevcrall of them have 2 & 3 rights apeice there- 
fore they have Entred Some of their Chililren as 
Chandler How Wheeler &£' 

" Mem" 

" Maj Willard 

"Coll Willard;') Rights 

"Maj' f1'owle-3 rights 

"Philii> alexander an original Grantee & Settler 

" rich'' Ward an old Grantee to be Entred 

This petition was forwnrded to the (lovernor 
and his Council in 1750. 

Tlie charter was <;ranteil Fehniarv 1-, 1752. 

Tlie prayer of tliis petition aliive with the 
others wa,s granted, and Number Two received 
a new incorporation under the name of West- 
moreland, in honor of Ijord Westmoreland, an 
intimate friend of (lovernor Wentwortii. 

THE CHARTER. 

"Province of New Hampshire, George the second. 
(Seal). By the Grace of tfod, Cireat Brittain, France 
and Ireland, King, Defender of ye faith, &<■. To all 
Persons to whom these Presents shall come. 

Greeting: Know ye. That we of our special grace 
certain knowlidge and mere motion, For ye due En- 
couragement of settling a New |>lantation within our 
said Province By and with ye advice of our trusty and 
well beloved Benning Wentwortii, Es(j. our Govenor 
and Commandcr-in-Cliief of our said Province of New 
Hampshire in America and of nur Cnuncil (jf ye said 
Province have upon the conditions and Reservations 
hereinafter made given and granted and by these 
Presents for us our Heirs and successors Do give and 
grant in equal shares unto our loving subjects Inhabit- 
ants of our said Province of New Hampshire and his 
Majesty's other governments and to their Heirs and 
assigns forever whose Names are Entered on this 
grant to be diviilcd to and amongst them into sfcpy////- 
two equal shares. All that Tract or Parcel of land 
situate lying and being within our Province of New 
Hampshire containing by admeasurement Twenty- 
three thoiifand anil fort]/ iicreK which Tract is to con- 
tain six miles square and no more, out of which an 
allowance is to be made for Highways and unim- 
proveable Lands, Rocks, Mountains, Ponds and Rivers 



464 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



one Thousand and Forty acres free, according to a 
plan thereof made and presented by our said Gover- 
nor's orders and hereunto annexed. Butted and 
Boundcil as follows, viz. : Beginning at a stake and 
st(3nes at the Northerly corner of Chesterfield and 
running from thence South seventy-eight degrees 
East by Chesterfield to a stake and stones in Ashuelot 
Line; from thence Northerly by Ashuelot Line to ye 
Northwest corner of ye upper Ashuelot (so called) ; 
thence North eighty-five degrees East Four miles to 
a stake and stones ; i'rom thence North by ye Needle 
so far as that line runs parallel with ye first men- 
tioned Line, will include between Connecticut River 
and ye Easterly Line aforesaid, the Contents of six 
miles square and if ye same be and is incorporated 
into a township by the name of Westmoreland and 
that the Inhabitants ye do or shall hereafter inhabit 
said township — are hereby declared to be Enfran- 
chised with and intitled to all and every the Privi- 
leges and Immunities ye other Towns within our said 
Province by Law exercise and enjoy, and further 
that the said Town as soon as there shall be Fifty 
Families Resident and settled thereon shall have ye 
Liberty of holding Two Fairs one of which shall be 

held on ye and ye other on ye annually 

which Fairs are not to continue and be held longer 
than ye respective days following the said resi)ective 
Days and as soon as ye said Town shall consist of 
Fifty Families a Market shall lie opened and ke|>t one 
or more days in each week as may be thot most advan- 
tageous to the Inhabitants, also that ye first Meeting 
for ye Choice of Town qfticers agreeable to ye Laws of 
our said Province shall be held on ye second Wednes- 
day in March next, which meeting shall be notified 
by Mr. Thomas Chamberlain who is hereby also ap- 
pointed ye moderator of ye said first meeting which 
he is to notify and govern agreeable to the Laws and 
customs of our said Province and ye annual Meeting 
forever hereafter for ye choice of Snch officers of said 
town shall be on the second Wednesday in March 
annually. To have and to hold the said Tract of Land 
as above expressed together with all the Priviledges 
and a|)purtenances to them and their resjiective Heirs 
and assigns forever upon the following conditions, 
viz.: That every Grantee his Heirs or assigns shall 
plant or cultivate five acres of Land within ye Term 
of five years for every Fifty acres contained in his or 
tlicir share or Proportion of Land in said Townshiji 
and continue to improve and settle ye same by addi- 
tional cultivations on Penalty of ye F'orfeiture of his 
grant or share in ye said Township and its reverting 
to his Majesty his Heirs and successors to be by him 
or them regranted to such of his subjects as shall 



eflectually settle and cultivate ye same. That all 
white and other Pine Trees within ye said Township 
fit for Masting our Royal Navy be carefully preserved 
for that use and none to be cut or felled without his 
Majesty's special License for so doing first had and 
obtained upon ye Penalty of the Forfeiture of ye 
Right of such grantee his heirs or assigns to us our 
Heirs and Successors as well as being subject to the 
penalty of any act or acts of Parliament yt now are or 
hereafter shall be enacted. That before any Division 
of ye said Lands be made to and amongst ye grantees, 
a tract of Land as near ye centre of ye Township as 
ye Land will admit of, shall be reserved and marked 
out for Town Lotts one of which shall be allotted to 
each grantee of ye contents of one acre, yielding and 
paying therefor to us our Heirs and successors for ye 
space of Ten years to be computed from 3'e date here- 
of, the Rent of one ear of Indian corn only, on the 
first day of January annually if lawfully Demanded, 
The first Payment to be made on ye first Day of 
January next following ye Date hereof. Every Pro- 
prietor, Settler or Inhabitant shall yield and pay unto 
us our Heirs and successors yearly, and everj' year 
forever from and after ye expiration of ye ten years 
from ye Date hereof namely, on ye First Day of 
January which will be on ye year of our Lord Christ 
One thousand seven Hundred and sixty-two. One 
shilling Proclamation money for every Hundred acres 
he owns, settles or Possesses and so in Proportion for 
a greater or Lessor Tract of ye said land which money 
shall be paid by ye Respective Persons abovesaid 
their Heirs or assigns in our Council Chamber in 
Portsmouth or to such officer or officers as shall be 
appointed to receive the same and this to be in Lieu 
of all other Rents and services whatsoever. In Testi- 
mony hereof we have caused ye seal of our said Prov- 
ince to be hereunto afiixed. Witness, Benning Went- 
worth, Esq., our Governor and Conunander-in-Chief 
of our said Province the Twelfth day of Feb"' in ye 
year of our Lcml Christ 1702 and in ye 2r)th year of 
our Keign. 

" B. WENTWoRTli. 

" By his Excellency's Cominaml with advice of 
( 'ouniil. 

" Thkodoke Atkinson, Sec'ii" 
The uaint's of tlie grantees of Westmoreland 
are as follows : 

"Thomas Chamberlain, Benja. Aldridge, Daniel 
How, Jethro Wheeler, Daniel How, Jun'r, Caleb 
How, Abner How, Josiah Willard, Oliver Willard, 
Samuel How, John Arms, Valentine Butler, Samson 
Willard, John Fowl, James Fowl, Nathaniel Woods, 



WESTMORELAND. 



465 



Jeremiah Hall, Timothy Harrington, Josiah Foster, 
Edward How, Samuel Miuot, John Fowl, Jur., Philip 
Alexander, Richard Ward, Nathaniel Harris, Corne- 
lius White, Ebenezcr Turner, Samuel Livermore, 
Samuel Williams, Moses Hastens, John ('handler, 
Simeon Alexander, Ebene/.er Hubbard, Joseph Har- 
ington, John Rugg, Thomas marshal, El)ene/.er Hins- 
dale, Samuel Hunt, John Alexander, Kiioeh Hall, 
William Moor, Jethro ^Vheeler, Ju'r., Kuirbanlcs 
Moor, Ju'r., Joseph Bellows, Herridon Wheeler, Isaac 
Chamberlain, Josiah Chamberlain, Joshua Chamber- 
lain, Amos Davis, Jedediah Cbamberlen, Jonathan 
Cole, Mical Gilson, Simeon Knights, John Brown, 
William How, Jonathan Cuniniiugs, Ju'r., John 
Chamberlain, John Taylor, Daniel I'earce, His Ex- 
cellency Benning Wentworth, Esq., one tract of land 
to contain Five Hundred acres which is to be ac- 
counted two of ye said shares, one whole share for in- 
corporateil Society for ye Propagation of ye Gospel in 
foreign parts, One whole share for the first settled 
minister of ye gospel in said Town, One whole share 
for a Glebe for the ministry of ye Church of England 
as by law established. Samuel Wentworth, of Boston ; 
Theodore Atkinson, Richard Samuel Smith, John 
Downing, Samson Sheaffe, John Wentworth, Ju'r., 
Esq., Stephen Chace, of New Castle." 

Of these grantees we have verv limited iinowl- 
edge. It is certain, however, that but a sumil ])i ir- 
tion of them were ever actual settlers. A num- 
ber of names were phiced in tlie list of grantees 
in reward for public and niilitarv services. 
Others were inchided through favoritism, and 
other reasons, no doubt. The grant was not 
satisfactory to the petitioners, inasmuch as it did 
not inchide as much territory as tlie old grant 
of No. 2 by some eight scpiare miles. A strip 
two miles wide and four long was severed from 
its northern boundary and included in the grant 
to the Walpole petitioners. April 211, 1752, 
tlie fdlliiwiug petition wa.s forwarded to the 
Governur , but without avail : 

"May it jdease your Excellency with the Honour- 
able Couusil to Condesend to hear the humble Pete- 
tion of the Propriators and Inhabitants, of the Town 
of Westmorland. 

" The Province of the Massachusetts Enjoying the 
land on this part of this Eiver which they then 
Claim'd as their property, consonant with which sup- 
posed Title wee petetioned for this Township, and be- 
ing granted, wee immediatly proceeded to a Settlement 



about Fourteeu years since, when by the Running the 
Line of the Provinces wee fell within the Limmittsof 
your P^xcelleucys Government, and by Renewed Pe- 
tition made to Your Excellency, for a Renewed grant 
of the Land, wee have been favour'd with the same, 
but as wee Suspect not according to the Intention of 
Your Excellency and Honourable C<mnsil, for Jlajor 
Willard and M' Bellows hath not t'onlorni'd to our 
Original (irant from the Massachusetts nor according 
to our Intention, which was to abide by our Origiiuil 
Lines, which are at present destroy'd, for the upper 
line is removed near Two milles lower down the River 
from whence our grant first took place, in which lay 
our Meadows or entervails, with our second divisions 
and all our Improvements on them whith the best 
[lart of our land and extending our line two milles 
lower down Inchuleing barren and Rockey Hills, no 
ways conunoding the town, and then stretcliing the 
Line upon the north side of the Upper ashawhelock, 
which leaves us the barren laud and mountains be- 
twixt us, which Lyeth so far distant from the Body of 
the Town, that will never Commode the same, and 
these our Grievances wee fear will disable this town, 
either for the maintaining the Gospel, or sufficient 
Inhabitants to withstand the Indians, now wee pray- 
eth for the Restoration and Confirmation of our Orig- 
inal Lines. 

" Wee would advertise your Excellency and the 
Hon"'" Counsil that when M' Bellows went with a Pt,- 
tetion for No'" 3 Called walpole, he enter'd a number 
of names leaving out the names of the Old propriaty 
of that Town, and particularly them that had Cleard 
[lart of their land, and built also, Oflering them but 
Eaqual Encouragement with others never labouring 
there, and depriving them of their labour without sat- 
isfaction for the Same, and he went in with his Peti- 
tion which being granted him, he is suppos'd to have 
purchas'd of them whose names were inserted for a 
Small Consideration, and now will give but the small 
Encouragement of fifty Acres of Upland to each Set- 
tler, without any Entervail, and this Prejudices people 
against settleug there, having before interrupted the 
former propriarty in their Settleing and now discour- 
aging them after great expence, which wee fear will 
be Very detrimental to the Settleing of his and our 
Town — 

" Neither petetion we for the additional grant of any 
othei: land particularly the farm formerly granted to 
Lieutenant Gov' Taylor but only for the hair Lines 
which wee Enjoyd uutil tlie late Lines were Ran by 
the fore mentioned Gentlemen — 

" We would I'urther Certifie Your Excelency and 
the Hon'''' Counsil that we w^are the first petetioners 



466 



HISTOllY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tor land on this River, and have suffer'd the greatest 
Losses from the enemy by fire and Sword, and have 
hitherto stood the Heat and burthen of the day, and 
at last to be undone without the knowledge of Your 
Excellency together with the hou''''' Counsil, who if 
truly knowing and fully understanding the same, wee 
hope from your now Goodness and Clemency will re- 
dress these our present difficulties which wee groan 
under and which is submitted ]5y Your Excellencys 
humble Petitioners, who as in duty bound will ever 
Continue to pray for you. — 
" In the name and by the 



Consent of the Inhabitants 



D.VNIEI, How 
Jethro Wheeler 



Amos Davis 
Thomas Cbamberlin 
Daniel How .Jun' 
.Fohn Warner 
Jethro Wheeler Ju'^ 
Herrodiam Wheeler 
Isaac Chamberlin 



& propriators on the Spot 

'Benjamin Aldridge Joshua Chamberlin 

Jebediah Cbamberlin 
Calel) How 
Samuel How 
Edward How 
Abner How 
Simeon Alexander 
Phillip Alexander 

"P, S, M' Bellows hath Layd out his Town about 
Nine Milles long on the River but four milles wide at 
the Lower end, and but three milles wide at the upper 
end — 

"And the four milles wide, & Two Milles in length 
is run down in to our town that is the Occasion of our 
Grief — 

"Westmoreland April the ■Ji)"' 1752." 

However favorable tlic foadition.s of tlie 
grant may have been, still, owing to the un- 
settled condition of the times, the depredations 
of the Indians, and other causes, the grantees 
were unable to fultill the conditions of the 
charter, and, upon petition, the grant was ex- 
tended June n, 17G0. 

The survey of the town was made by Caleb 
Willard under the supervision of Joseph Bel- 
lows, of Walpole, and Josiah Willard, of Win- 
chester, and a plan of the same drawn and coiu- 
pleted Mareli LS, 1752. By referring to the 
j)lan, tlie reader will observe that the out- 
line of the town is about the same to-day 
as when first surveyed. The town, as first sur- 
veyed, extended from the Connecticut to, and 
even across, the Ashuelot River. 

In compliance with the conditions of the 
charter, the proprietors of the town laid out the 



" town lots " east of the house where formerly 
Captain Prentiss Daggett lived, now owned by 



Divididing Line delween 
iVestmoreUndS Wdlpole 
5 Miles k W flods 




JJivididing . 
Chestcrficldk WcstmcrcUnd 



znHods. 



.Vlbert Chickering. It is now a pasture and is 
known as the seventy-acre lot. Tradition 
speaks of only one house having been l)uilt up- 
on it. This lay-out, iiowever, was simpiv to 
make their title good by fulfilling the condi- 
tions of the charter. The proprietors of the 
town had their own views as to the pro|)er lo- 
cation of the town lots, and proceeded to carry 
them out by laying out an eight-rod road or 
street, extending from Partridge Brook to Wal- 
pole town line. This street was narrowed to 
four rods in 1 7SG. Its general coiu'se was 
nearly on the line of the present highway run- 
ning over Park Hill ; thence north of the house 
of Clarissa Chickering, east of the present high- 
way, by the house formerly occupied by D. 
Livingstone and bv the house of R. T. Aldrich. 
x\.s first laid out, the lots contained ten acres 
each; but this did not take all the land fronting 
upon tlie street, so, at a proprietors' meeting, 
March 31, 1752, it was voted to double these lots, 
making twenty acres in each. A few house lots 
were laid out in other portions of the town. 
The tier of north lots extended to the meadow 
lots. In the subdivision of the town each pro- 
prietor, there being seventy-two, had a pitch lot 



WESTMORELAND. 



467 



of one liundred acres, a meadow lot and a house 
lot, both of twenty acres each, and one hundred 
and fifty acres of common land. After making 
the seventy-two divisions, even with the gener- 
ous e.Ktras ft)r roads and waste lands, it was 
found that there were some surplus lands left; 
these were sold at " vendue." As settlement 
preceded the survey, the town was veiy irregu- 
larly subdivided. It was not deemed best to 
interfere with pitches already made.' The 
proprietors chose a committee, consisting of 
Daniel How, Jethro Wheeler, Thomas Cham- 
berlain, Benjamin Aldrich, Richard Ward, Ca- 
leb How and Joseph Hutchins, to lay out the 
house lots, the meadow lots and suitable roads. 
They were instructed, March 31, 1752, to meas- 
ure all tiie meadow land in tiie town and to 
compute one acre on the " Grate river " to be 
equal to two on the Ashuelot River. While we 
have no plan of their work, yet, from references 
found occasionally in old deeds, we conclude 
that they first surveyed a base line perpendicu- 
lar to the Chesterfield town line and extended 
it to the Walpole town line. This line, begin- 
ning at a stone monument in the Chesterfield 
line, passed near the intersection of roads west 
of the house of L. G. Wheeler ; thence east of 
Ebeuezer Leach's house, east of Henry Rodgers' 
house, and so on to Walpole line. From the 
base line to the eastward to Keene town line was 
the first division of lots ranged toward the east 
and lotted to the south. These lots were one 
liundred and si-\;ty rods east to west and one 
hundred rods north to south. The second divi- 
sion of lots was incorporated into the town of 
Surry. From the base line to the meadow lots 
was the third division, which was lotted from 

'An amusing anecdote is related of the origin of tlie se- 
lection of Benjamin Aldrich's pitch. As he was " viewing 
the landscape o'er" to make his selection, he paused upon 
a steep hill-side, leaning ag.ainst an upturned tree. While 
in this position, for some cause, the tree suddenly flew 
hack, hurling Aldrich down tlie declivity, heels over head. 
In this manner he made his pitch, which has remained in 
the ownership of his descendants to the present day. 
The present owner is Ai-vin Aldrich. 
30 



the base line to the west and ranged from the 
Chesterfield line to the north. These lots were 
one hundretl rods east to west and one hundreil 
and sixty rods north to south. Governor Went- 
worth and his .son's lot, comprising in all si.x 
hundred acres, was laid out in one body in the 
southeast corner of the town. It was one mile 
in length north to south and seventy-eight chains 
east to west. Adjoining upon the north came 
the school lot, and then the glebe. The minis- 
ter's lot tradition reports a.s near the house of F. 
M. Proctor. 

Governor Benning Wentworth had ama.ssed 
a large fortune, a portion of it by questionable 
means. He virtually sold grants of townships 
to scheming proprietors, and reserved in each 
five hundred acres to himself. After his deatli, 
in 1770, the title to these lauds began to be dis- 
puted. The Governor proposed in Council the 
question " Whether the reservation of five hun- 
dred acres in .several townships by the late Gov- 
ernor Benning Wentworth in the charter grants 
conveyed the title to him?" Seven of the eight 
Councilors answered the question in the nega- 
tive, and the reserved lands were offered to pri- 
vate settlers. The glebe land the proprietors 
of the town divided among its thirteen soldiers 
that had served tiirough the Revolutionary 
War, whereupon the church brought suit into 
court to maintain its proprietorship, and after a 
long and costly litigation secured the verdict in 
its favor. This suit cost the town about one 
thousand dollars. I am unable to ascertain 
the final disposition of the lot for the " Incor- 
porated Society for the Propagation of Ye Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts." Probably a home de- 
mand absorbed it. The first meeting of the 
proprietors of the township of Westmoreland 
was held at the house of Thomas Chamberlain, 
March 31, 1752. Samuel Hunt was chosen 
moderator, Caleb How proprietors' clerk, and 
Joshua Warnen treasurer. These meetings were 
held by notifications posted in saitl town, in 
Northfield and in Winchester. 



468 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



CHAPTER III. 

WESTMORELAND— (C.y»(i..urf). 
THE VERMONT CONTROVERSY. 

The territory now comprising the present 
State of Vermont was for a number of years 
claimed by New York, by virtue of a " Letter 
Patent," from King Ciiarles II., in 1674, to 
the Duke of York, wherein was expressly 
granted all the lands from the Connecticut 
River to the east side of Delaware Bay. The 
provinces of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
shire were in one, with one provincial govern- 
ment ; but September 18, 1679, the King decreed 
that they should be separated, but left the bound- 
ary line between the two in uncertainty, which 
occasioned a heated controversy, and another 
royal decree, "that the northern boundary of 
Massachu.setts be a similar curve line, pursuing 
the course of the Merrimack River at three miles 
distance, on the north side thereof, beginning at 
the Atlantic Ocean and ending at a point due 
north of Pawtucket Falls ; and a straight line 
drawn from thence due west till it meets his 
Majesty's other governments." From this last 
clause New Hampshire inferred and claimed 
that her territory extended as far westward as 
Massachusetts. This claim would embrace 
nearly all of the present State of Vermont. 
To further add to the complications of the 
controversy, Massachusetts claimed a portion of 
the disputed territory, basing her claim upon 
the point that the royal decree could only af- 
fect particular grants of the Crown, and tiiat 
New Hampshire embraced only the original 
grant to Mason, in 1629, which was bounded 
on the west by an uncertain located " curve 
line," which was not defined until it was sur- 
veyed, in 1787. The line, as surveyed, ex- 
tended from lot No. 18, in the town of Rindge, 
in a northeasterly direction to the town of Os- 
sipee. Between this line and the Connecticut 
River, and on both sides thereof, the territory 
was known as the New Hampshire Grants. 
Thus, three States at the same time were claim- 



ing the same territory. The Governor of New 
Hampshire at this time was Benning Went- 
worth ; he was a man full of ambition and 
decisive energy ; he heeded not the contending 
claims of Massachusetts and of New York, but 
proceeded to grant townships of land with a 
rapidity that numbered one hundred and thirty- 
eight townships prior to the year 1764, all 
west of the Connecticut River. The first town- 
ship granted he named after his own name — 
Bennington. These towns were also known as 
the New Hampshire Grants. The activity of 
Governor Wentworth naturally hastened the 
controversy to a conclusion sooner than it 
would otherwise have been. All the claimants 
naturally appealed to the King to have their 
respective claims verified by royal edict. In 
1764 the King responded in favor of New 
York. 

Thereupon for a time the government of New 
Hampshire ceased in Vermont. New Yoi-k 
regarding all grants made by Governor Went- 
worth as null and void, refused to compromise, 
and enacted laws hostile to the claims of the 
settlers, thus succeeded in arousing their bitter 
opposition, which culminated, in 1777, in a 
declaration " That they would at all times con- 
sider themselves as a free and independent 
State," at the same time petitioning Congress 
to receive them into the Union as such. Hav- 
ing adopted a constitution, rejiresentatives as- 
sembled at Windsor for the first time in 1778. 
Representatives from sixteen towns located 
upon the east side of the river made applica- 
tion to be admitted into the new State, claim- 
ing that the original grant to John Mason did 
not include their territory ; and inasmuch as 
their existence depended on a royal commission, 
which was now annulled by the Revolution, 
they were free to choose their own rulers. 
These petitions met with favor from a conven- 
tion of the freemen of Vermont, assembled at 
Bennington June 11, 1778, and an invitation 
was extended " to any others that might choose 
to unite with them, should have leave to do so." 



WESTMORELAND. 



469 



Mescliech Ware was now President of the 
province of New Hampsiiire. He remonstrated 
with the officers of the State of Vermont 
against this dismemberment of his province. In 
consequence, only ten towns on the east side of 
the river sent representatives to tiie next session 
of the Vermont Legislature. But the terms 
of union imposed by the Vermont Legisla- 
ture upon these New Hampshire towns were 
peculiar, ina.smucli as it refused to receive them 
upon equal terms with the Vermont towns, by 
refusing to allow them to unite with Vermont 
counties already established, or to constitute 
auew. This action led to opposition, to dissent, 
to withdrawal from the Assembly, and to the 
calling of a convention of all the towns upon 
both sides of the river who favorwl the union, 
to meet at Cornish, N. H., December 9, 1778. 
In this movement Westmoreland participated, 
but not with unanimity. A respectable minority, 
under the leadership of Colonel Joseph Burt, 
was strongly in favor of the New Hampshire 
government. The following memorial, ad- 
dressed to the General Court in 1781, illus- 
trates fully the views of the minority party : 

This convention resolved to unite " to pursue 
such legal and regular measures as would secure 
to the Grants a satisfactory form of government 
without regard to any former limits." The pro- 
ject of forming a new State met with opposition 
on every side. 

The party in opposition in Westmoreland, it 
appears, were not so much opposed to the idea 
of the proposed new State as to the manner of 
formation. On the 8th day of June, 1780, 
they sent a memorial to the General Court of 
New Hampshire, signed by thirty-nine of its 
leading citizens, with Joseph Wilbore at its 
head, expressing dissent to the idea of secession, 
" but if the Confederated States Shall consent 
to erecting the New Hampshire Grants on both 
sides of the river into a new State, upon a just 
and equal footing, then we shall have no ob- 
jections." 

The Legislature of Vermont took active 



measures to dissolve it. The New Hamp- 
shire Legislature did not incline to relinquish 
one iota of its jurisdiction upon the west side 
of the river, and to make affitirs all the 
more complicated, Massachusetts claimetl a por- 
tion of the disputed territory. The matter 
was submitted to Congress, but without result. 
Under these ill-omened auspices the several 
towns upon both sides of the river persevered 
in forming the new State. A convention of 
delegates met at Walpole, November 15, 1780, 
" to comjiare opinions." Jonathan Cole and 
Joseph Wilbore were the delegates from this 
town. The result of this conference was " that 
the union of all the towns granted by New 
Hamjjshire was desirable and necessary," and 
recommended a convention be held at Charles- 
town, N. H., on the third Tuesday of January, 
1781. It was a time of great excitement. 
Three parties were in the field of action. Each 
were eager for victory. 

The following statement, concerning matters 
in town at this time, is of interest : 

" Westmorland 13 Feb^ 1781— 
" Sir— 

" Before this reach&s you, you will undoubtedly 
hear of the disorder in this part of the State, — I find 
that people pretend to be actuated by several mo- 
tives,^-some say that the Court of New Hampshire 
are so Arbetary that they ought to brake from them, 
some say that New Hampshire had rather confine the 
State to the Mason Line, then have any of the Grants 
west of the River; but some more bold Enemies to 
the State and States, such as Capt Daniel Carlile of 
Westmorland who on the seventh of this Instant be- 
fore several witnesses, — Did declare, that for his part, 
he was for the Convention, not because he saw what 
they was after, but tbe more disorder the better in 
order to bring about a Revolution : for says he We 
must either be subject of Fiance or Britton and for 
his part he chose Great. Britton, and if the people 
would rise and drive the French from the Continent, 
he would go in parson, or contribute one hundred hard 
Dollars towards the same ; for says he, the people must 
throw of the authority, and then they could make a 
peace, for a peace with Great Britton was what he 
wanted and said, I am not, afraid to declare my sen- 
timents before your best Authority, for said he your 
Authority is weak and if three towns will Combine 



470 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



together, the Authority dare not medle with them, 
Dor send for any Tax and as for myself says he I will 
pay no more Taxes to New Hampshire, for a Revolt, 
from Authority is what J want, and such like conver- 
sation, this Cap' Carlile and some other disaflected 
persons have been very active by one means or other 
to lead the people to Act as inconsistant with and 1 
think as much against their interest and the common 
good, as they could have acted ; this is not the only 
Town for I am well informed that the disaffected per- 
sons are all engaged in this new Plan, for seperating 
from New* Hampshire, as they please to term it; but 
I believe it is more as Cap' Carlile desires it to be, to 
bring on all the disorder possible. He and some 
others are grone to very bold and I wish for heavens 
sake that Authority might take place and all our 
domestick Enemies might either be subjected to Au- 
thority or driven from us for they are the Pest of So- 
ciety, and I think they are on the gaining hand in 
this part of the State — Sir I thought it my Duty, to 
inform your honor of this that you might be ac- 
quainted of what persons we have amongst us — 
" I am Sir 

" Your Honors most 

" Obed' and Hble Serv' 

"Joseph BtrKX 
"The Hon* Mesheck Weake" 

The following is a 2>etitiou of sundry citizens 
against a union with Vermont, etc.; addressed 
to the General Court, 1781 : 

" The memorial of a number of the Inhabitants of 
the Town of Westmoreland in the County of Cheshire 
& State of New Hampshire :— Humbly sheweth— - 
That your memorialist, ever Anxious to promote the 
grand cause of the United States of America, & par- 
ticularly the State of New Hampshire; and at all 
times have endevored to defend the same, and never 
sought by any means whatever, to leave the Govern- 
ment of New Hampshire by attempting to .Toine with 
any other State, or Body of People; yet conterary to 
our will, there has been Votes obtained in many 
Towns in this Part of the State, to Joine Vermont so 
called : the Town of Westmoreland (at least a major- 
ity of it) has Voted to Joine with them. Your me- 
morialist conceive that such Votes are unconstutinal, 
therefore cannot be binding upon us : — We your me- 
morialist viewing ourselves as part of the thirteen 
confederated States, have a right to protection there- 
from, and particularly from the State of New Hamp 
shire, considering ourselves as part thereof; and your 
memorialists humbly pray, that we may be protected 
from the usurped Authority of Vermont or any un- 



constitutional Authority whatever, Hoping your Hon- 
ors will take our unhappy Situation, under your wise 
consideration and grant us such relief, as shall be 
most for ours and the States public good ; — we beg 
leave to say that we are much exposed to the inroads 
of the Enemy — & in a defenceless State, through de- 
ficiency of Arms & irregularity of the Militia, accru'd 
by the unhappy Dispute, — Officers Ellected under 
the Authority of Vermont; some of which have been, 
in years past considered as inamical to the Liberties 
of America; altho they are very zealous for the inde- 
pendence of Vermont — we do not pretend to say that 
they are not good men now ; yet we are not without 
fears, that their designs are not, altogether so friendly 
to the common Cause, Others who were under the 
Oath of Fidelity to the thirteen States, have dis- 
penced with their Oaths, & have sworn to support & 
maintain the Independence of another State; which 
conduct creates much confusion in this part of the 
State. — We have entered our protest against their 
proceedings, and do appeal to the confederated States 
for protection ; wishing that our unhappy situation 
may be laid before Congress: — Altho those gentle- 
men that are for the New State, say that Congress, 
will not take up to determine any thing upon the 
matter, Nay some say, that Congress have no business 
to Do any thing more then to receive Vermont into 
confederation, they direct us to look upon the Other 
Side of the River, where the New York party have 
been waiting some years for protection from New 
York, and Congress, and cannot obtain it, they also 
add that we had better unite with them, & then Con- 
gress will establish the State ; but we had rather have 
the consent of the confederated States first, which if 
they shall determine that we leave the State of New 
Hampshire, «& be erected into the State together with 
the grants, west of the river {which if done we trust 
will he upon a Just and equal footing) we shall have 
no Objections, in whose wisdom and prudence we 
confide, «fe as in duty bound will ever pray — 

" Westmorland June 8* 1781 
"Joseph Wilbur george Clark 

Elijah Temple David Witherell 

Joseph Burt Ebenezer gilbart 

Nath' Wilbore Levi goodanow 

Daniel Stone Simeon Proutey 

Job Wilbore Elias Chamberlain 

John Pierce William Brittin 

Jonas Butterfield Isaac Butterfield 

george Aldrich Francis Putnam 

Ephraim Lenord Philap Wilbore 

Elisha Wilbore Philip Wilbore Jur 

Joseph White Joseph Tompson 



WESTMORELAND 



471 



Ebenezer Brettun 
Caleb Aldrich 
Nath' Tinney 
Ephraim AVood 
John Snow 
Pendleton Brettun 
William Adams " 



David Brittin 
Jeams Brittin 
Ebnzr Brittin Ju 
Ezekal mixer 
Philap Brittin 
John Adams 
David Wilbore 
Nehemiah Browne 

Btit the controlling majority were in favor of 
forming a new State, however, to be called New 
Connecticut, to extend from the •' curve line " 
to the Green Mountain range. With this pur- 
pose in view, Westmoreland sent to this conven- 
tion her representative, Joseph Wilbore. 

Forty-three towns were represented from the 
two States. December 5th, Westmoreland 
chose Jonathan Cole for its delegate, with in- 
structions that in case the convention allowed 
any member a seat in the same M'ithout first 
taking the oath of fidelity to the United States 
to withdraw ; also that the grants on the east 
side of the river make a full and free rejiresen- 
tation at the Court of New Hampshire. This 
convention appointed a committee to confer 
with the Vermont Assembly in reference to 
terms of union and adjourned to meet at Cor- 
nish in February, when the Assembly would 
be in session at Windsor, a few miles distant. 

The result of this convention was favorable 
to Vermont. On the oth of February a town- 
meeting was called, which " Voted to accept of the 
proceeflings of the Convention held at Charles- 
town, Jan. 16, 1781." The convention lay 
the matter before the Assembly in the form of a 
petition ; it received a favorable response, with 
a condition attached that two-thirds of the 
towns interested on both sides of the river, to a 
distance of twenty miles, should approve of the 
union, and adjourned to April. On assembling 
they found that the necessary number of towns 
had given a favorable vote, and the union was 
thei'efore consummated. Representatives from 
thirty-five towns on the east side of the river 
took their seats as members. The towns south 
of the north line of Claremont and east of the 
river were organized into Washington Couutv. 



After meeting at Bennington the following 
June, the Vermont I^egislature assembled Oc- 
tober 11, 1781, at Charlestown. Captain Eph- 
raim Stone represented Westmoreland. The 
Lieutenant-Governor and one of the Councillors 
were chosen from the east side of the river. 
This I>egislature was a body of men of more 
than average intelligence. Its members were 
chosen for distinguished ability and prominence. 
Questions of momentous importance were be- 
fore it for action. A regiment of New Hamp- 
shire troops appeared under Colonel Reynolds ; 
he was promptly advised that his force was too 
small for conquest, too large for intimidation. 
He made no attempt to disturb the session. 
INIeantime, Vermont had applied for admission 
to the Union. Congress voted to admit her upon 
the condition that she relinquish the towns 
upon the east side of the river. This she re- 
fused to do. She had possession of nearly a 
third part of New Hampshire. This condition 
of things could not long continue. Nearly every 
town had its court and judicial officers 
duplicated, each acting under their respective 
State governments. In Chesterfield it ter- 
minated in a conflict of physical prowess. 
The New Hampshire government, now 
actively aroused, was making preparations to 
send troops into the revolted towns to put down 
the secession party. Upon the other hand, Ver- 
mont was equally vigilant. Dr. William Page, 
of Charlestown, was now sheriff of Washington 
County. He issued orders, December 1, 1781, to 
Colonel Chamberlain, Captain S. Nathan Frank- 
lin, John Cole and Jonas Butterfield, all of 
Westmoreland, to be in readiness, with their com- 
mand to march at short notice. Two Chesterfield 
men having been arrested and lodged in the Char- 
lestownjailbya Vermontsheriff,the New Hamp- 
shire assembly authorized Colonel Hale, the 
sheriff of Cheshire County to release them. In 
the attempt he was himself arrested by the Ver- 
mont sheriff and committed to the same jail. In 
retaliation, Sheriff Page was arrested and lodged 
in the Exeter jail. Civil war was now immi- 



472 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ueiit. In Jiiuuiuy, 1782, New Hampshire 
ordered a thousand men into Cheshire County 
to support its civil officers; her Governor issued 
a proclamation orderino; the people in the re- 
volting towns within forty days to go before 
some New Hampshire magistrate and sign an 
acknnwledcrment that the jurisdiction of New 
Hampshire extended to the Connecticut River. 
The Vermont government was equally active 
in maintaining her claims. The New Hampshire 
General Assembly had passed, August, 1781, an 
act obliging each town to provide monthly in- 
stallments of beef and rum for the use of the 
Continental army. 

Westmoreland, in common with the other re- 
volting towns, refused to pay the tax, upon the 
ground of non-recognition of New Hampshire 
authority. In consequence, a warrant was is- 
sued and served upon the town for the tax; the 
town voted not to pay it, and thereupon was 
fined, but so great was the feeling against the 
State that Colonel Reuben Alexander, who was 
ordered to raise the body of his regiment and 
march them to the execution of the act, was ap- 
palled by the clamor of the people to an extent 
that he feared to comply with his orders, and so 
reported. One Samuel King, a prominent 
Chesterfield revolter, having been arrested was 
followed to Keane by numerous parties, includ- 
ing a party from Westmoreland under Captain 
Carlisle, who succeeded January 1, 1782, in 
rescuing the prisoner from the New Hampshire 
sheriff. 

On the same day General Washington wrote 
a letter to Governor Chittendon, informing him 
that it would be an indispensable preliminary 
of the admission of Vermont into the Union to 
relinquish its extension of territory, intimating 
that a refusal to accede to this request would be 
considered an act of enmity to the United 
States government, requiring the coercion by 
military power. On the 23d of February fol- 
lowing, the Assembly of Vermont, in session at 
Bennington, voted to accept the boundary as 
prescribed by Congress, on the line of the west- 



ern bank of tlie Connecticut River, and to re- 
linquish all claims to any territory east of said 
river. This ended the conflict. The disaffected 
towns quietly returned to their former State 
allegiance. For this concession Vermont ex- 
pected to be speedily admitted to the Union, 
but its hopes were deferred for nine years, dur- 
ing which time the humorists named her the 
" Future State." Thus the secession movement 
of the New Hampshire towns ended. And now 
as we look back over the long vista of the years 
and view the circumstances attending those stir- 
ring times, and as we weigh the character 
of the men therein engaged, as we consider that 
Westmoreland in common with her sister towns 
was of INIassachusetts birth, whose infancy re- 
ceived lier fostering protection ; and when we 
view upon the other hand the cold negligence of 
New Hampshire, to care for children confided 
to her guardianship, by royal decree, upon her 
demand; we cannot wonder at the feeling that 
there was shown to exist, an honest belief, that 
they were free to elect another government, that 
New Hampshire had no claim to their alle- 
giance, and they so acted in the direction of es- 
tablishing a firm and stable government for the 
people on both sides of the river. 



CHAPTER IV. 

WESTMORELAND— ( Continued). 

ECCLESIASTICAL. 

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, KNOWN IN LATER TIMES 
AS THE UNITED CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

As has been stated in another chapter the citi- 
zens of Westmoreland, Putney and Westminster 
united in building a fort upon the Great Meadow 
in Putney. Here in times of peril the scattered 
settlers of these towns resorted for safety from 
Indian forages. Here they held their first 
religious services under the ministration of Rev. 
Andrew Gardner, who preached there for nearly 
three years. He had previously occupied the 



WESTMORELAND. 



473 



position of chaplain and cliirurgeon at Fort 
Dumraer. He was noted for liis quaintness and 
eccentricity. It is related that iij)on a certain 
special occasion, at Fort Duinnier, in view of 
disastrous events following Indian forages that 
were preceded invariably with surprise, he 
])reached from the Revelation of 8t. John iii. 3 : 
" If, therefore, thou shalt not watch I will come 
on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know 
what hour I will come upon thee." May 4, 

1762, tiic proprietors of the town having met at 
the house of Thomas Chamberlain, voted " to 
build a meeting-house and to Set it on ye hill by 
Daniel Hows [Nortiieast corner of the Cole 
Cemetery — Ed.] to build it fifty feet long, forty 
feet wide and twenty feet ])ost." A committee of 
five (5), with Josiah Willard as chairman, were 
chosen to superintend its erection. August 26, 

1763, the town voted " to raise the sum of one 
pound, sterling money, on each original right 
in said town, to be laid out toward finishing 
the meeting-house, to be assessed in ye following 
manner, — five shillings on each house lot, mea- 
dow lot. Pitch and after rights." September 26, 

1764, nine members from other churches signjd 
the first church covenant. This was ou the 
fast previous to the ordination of Rev. William 
Goddard, which was held on the 7th day of 
November following. These members were 
William Goddard, pastor-elect, member of ye 
first church at Newtown ; Thomas Chamberlain, 
church at Newtown ; Joshua Warner, cliurch 
at Harvard; Amos Davis, church at Peters- 
ham ; Samuel Minot, church at Chelmsford ; 
Robert Thompson, church at Reading; Benja- 
min Pierce, church at Attleborough ; Abner 
How, church at Amherst; Joseph Pierce, 
church at Wilmingtcm." The council which 
ordained Rev. Mr. Goddard as the first settled 
minister in Westmoreland, consisted of Rev. 
Joseph Buckminster, Rutland, Mass. ; Rev. 
Bulkley Piatt, Charlestown ; Rev. Clement 
Sumner, Keene ; Rev. Samuel Hedge, Warwick ; 
Rev. Joseph Sumner, Shrewsbury. At this 
council six members presented their letters, two 



desired to be admitted, thus- constituting eight 
members beside their pastor. During the three 
years following twenty were admitted by letter 
and fifteen by profession, two were dismissed 
to the church at Westminster, and perhaps one 
or two had died, so that at the close of the year 
1767 there were forty members. 

On the 17th of August, 1775, another council 
was convened, consisting of the pastors and 
delegates of the churches of Cornish, Walpole, 
Charlestown and Claremont agreeably to letters 
missive from the church and people joined by the 
pastors " to consider and give advice upon some 
matters of grievance subsisting between said 
pastor and people." The result was to dismiss 
Mr. Goddard. The town by vote concurring. 
It seems as though Mr. Goddard had served 
the church faithfully and wisely for eleven 
years. The grievance consisted of his " un- 
soundness " on account of adopting " the half- 
way covenant," an ism originating in North- 
ampton, Mass., early in this century. This 
doctrine was simply that " all persons of correct 
sentiments and sober life might profess religion 
and have their children baptized, though they 
did not come to the Lord's table. Possibly 
other difierences arose. It was a time when 
political feeling ran high. The lines were 
closely drawn, and Mr. Goddard did not fully 
agree with the patriot party, in refusing to sign 
the " Test Oatii." During the year 1776 the 
contest arose respecting a new location for the 
church. This society, the only one in town at 
the time, was composed mostly of Baptists and 
Orthodox ; the former were located in the 
northerly and easterly portions of the town, 
the Orthodox in the southerly and westerly i)or- 
tions : naturally the Baptists were in favor of 
retaining the old location. 

Those living in the east parish had, a short 
time previous, organized and held meetings, as 
will be seen elsewhere. 

The Orthodox were determined foi- a more 
southerly location. They composed the stronger 
party, but their pathway to success was far from 



474 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



being strewn with." flowery ease." March 13, 
1776, the town chose a committee consisting of 
Deacon Jonathan Cole, Captain Joseph Bnrt, 
Amos Pierce, Ebenezer Brittin and Captain 
Daniel Pierce, to make a new location. This 
was reported " to be on the top of the hill south 
of Mr. Job Chamberlain's at the corner where 
the road turns easterly that leads to Lieutenant 
Stone's," and the present location of the Park 
Hill Church Following Mr. Goddard came 
Rev. Jeremiah Barnard, who preached on pro- 
bation for about one year. April 14, 1777, 
the town voted " to give Mr. Barnard a call to 
settle in the work of the ministry in this town," 
and chose a committee, of which Jonathan Cole 
was chairman, to draft proposals. These were 
presented to the town at a meeting held May 
13, 1777, and accepted. There was a settle- 
ment of £1 50, a salary of £6G 1 3.s. 4d., to be in- 
creased £5 yearly until it reached £80 ; if the 
families that paid rates should increase to one 
hundred, then he was to receive £10 more 
or £90, which sum was to remain his 
salary, in current money of the State. Farm- 
produce at this time was the standard of 
value, and this salary was computed on the 
basis of the following prices, viz. : Wool, 
2s. 2d. @ ft). ; wheat, 6ts. ; rye, 4s. ; corn, 3s. ; 
flax. Is. ; pork that weighs ten score and up- 
ward, 4Jd. The year 1777 was one of constant 
alarms from the threatened invasion of Bur- 
goyne and his army. Repeated calls came from 
the Vermont Committee of Safety for militia 
to repel the enemy. It was responded to with 
alacrity and so all was commotion. For a 
time, church affairs retired into the background 
and especially so the matter of the removal 
of the church building. The year 1778 wit- 
nessed the commencement of a struggle origi- 
nating from the unfortunate geography of the 
town in not having any one point adapted for 
a centre that was acceptable to the whole town. 
So the years bear witness of the lamentable fact 
of an indication to pull down, rather than to 
build, up. To a large degree the church has 



been made to carry the load of sectional jeal- 
ousy. November 10, 1778, the town voted "to 
move the church to the place prefixed for it." 
This vote was reconsidered on December 5th 
following. Then came a warm discussion rela- 
tive to the amount of respective ownership of 
the now separate societies of the Baptists and 
Orthodox, resulting in a public sale of the 
church on the first Monday of January, 1779. 
The Baptists bid it off for seventy pounds. 
But this sale proved w'ithout avail, as the town 
voted, February 14th, "to reconsider all that had 
been done relative to the sale of the meeting- 
house." It also voted " to submit the whole 
matter to a disinterested committee to be se- 
lected by both societies, to be paid by the town, 
to consist of five persons, whose award should 
be binding upon all." Benjamin Bellows, Amos 
Babcock, Abraham Smith, Lemuel Holmes and 
Jesse Clark were selected for a committee, with 
Colonel Bellows for its chairman. This com- 
mittee was directed to meet March 3, 1779. 
Isaac Butterfiekl provided for them at an ex- 
pen.se of £7 16s., he being an inn-keeper at the 
time. A committee of six, consisting of 
Archelaus Temple, George Aldrich, Benjamin 
Pierce, Ephraim Stone, Joseph Wilbore and 
Daniel How, were to present the case before 
the committee of arbitration. Their award in 
brief was, " to appraise the house at one hun- 
dred and forty pounds, that the Orthodox So- 
ciety should have it, and that the Baptists 
.should be paid their proportion of this sum, ac- 
cording to their valuation in said town for tax- 
ation, to be paid as soon as the next crop of 
grain becomes marchantable." Once more the 
town voted, August 12, 1779, to move the 
meeting-house, raising one thousand pounds to 
defray the expense thereof. Isaac Chamber- 
lain, Nathan Franklin, Waitstill Scott, John 
Cole and Reuben Kendall were chosen a com- 
mitee, to superintend its removal. This com- 
mittee acted pi-omptly, and aided by " bess," 
made popular by a gift of a barrel of rum 
from Major Keep, an interested man for its re- 



WESTMORELAND. 



475 



luoval they were numerously attended and the 
work of removal was quickly consummated. 

On the 16th day of September, 1779, the 
first meeting was held therein. Upon tiiis site 
the building stands to-day ; it has withstood 
the butfetings of many angry storms both from 
within and without, but still stands a faithful 
sentinel overlooking a large extent of country. 
It cost to move and fit up the building the sum 
of £2388 lis. 6(/., of which the sum of £514 
18.S. 6d. accrued from sale of " pew ground." 

In addition thereto, there was considerable 
contril)uted by way of donation. This sum 
seems large, but we are to bear in mind that 
the currency at this time, known as Continental 
money, was depreciated in value ; it afterwards 
became worthless. 

As originally constructed, it was simply a 
plain building, without steeple or porch. Upon 
the new site, it took to itself, porches upon the 
east and west sides, with entrance upon the 
south side. Broad aisles and high-suspended 
galleries extended around the three sides of it. 
The pulpit was elevated and reached by winding 
stairs, over which was suspended a sounding- 
board, surmounted by a dove, cleverly carved 
from wood. In front and beneath the pulpit 
were the deacon's benches. The wall-pews 
were elevated above the body, and all had high 
backs, with spindle tops and railing on top. 
The seats were Inuig upon hinges ; these were 
raised in time of prayer, during which all must 
stand, and the clatter of falling seats at its 
close made no slight noise. This house was 
thoroughly well finished, bearing witness to the 
skillful handiwork of Steward Esty. This 
house remained in this form until 1827, when 
an addition of twenty feet was put on in front, 
the porches removed and a steeple ei'ected. 
These porches were made into dwelling-houses. 
In 1853 it was worked over into its present 
form. About 1779 Rev. Mr. Barnard termi- 
nated his pastorate. Early in this year Rev. 
John INIillens preached ujion probation accept- 
ably, it would appear, as the town voted to give 



him an invitation to settle, but he declined to 
accept. During the latter portion of this year 
Rev. Daniel Farrington preached. For a few 
years there was no regular pastor ; sundry itin- 
erant preachers supplied the pulpit ; among 
them was Rev. Beniah Hudson. November 
8, 1784, an invitation was extended to Rev. 
Joseph Davis. He did not see fit to settle, but 
supplied the pulpit for nearly two years. Mr. 
Davis was an ordained minister, considerably 
advanced in years, and lived in Holden, Mass. 
He was noted for being an expert penman, and 
the records kept by him are in beautiful handwrit- 
ing. The year 1785 witnessed the Ijeginning 
of a long and acrimonious struggle over the 
ministerial tax. So far it had been raised by 
the town, and went to the support of Orthodox 
preaching entirely ; pei-sous of other jJerenasions, 
notably the Baptists, complained loudly of its in- 
justice, as well as illegality. After being submit- 
ted to divers committees of arbitration without 
success it was finally adjusted by raising the tax 
independent of the town. Following Mr. Davis 
came Rev. Mr. Lawrence, who preached a short 
time on probation. During the two years be- 
ginning in 1788, Rev. Mr. Mills preached a 
part of the time. He was followed by Rev. 
Allen Pratt, who was ordained October 6, 1 790. 
Mr. Pratt was a graduate of Harvard College, 
of the class of 1785. His salary was to be 
one hundred pounds yearly, " to be paid \ in 
cash and J in grass-fed beef at 16s. Sd. per cwt., 
or in grain ; M'heat 4s. Sd., rye 3s. 4d., corn 2s. 
Sd. per bushel." 

For nearly thirty-eight years Mr. Pratt offi- 
ciated as pastor of this church. Under his minis- 
try 273 joined the church. He baptized 289 
persons, married 419 couples, and during his 
ministry 1043 died. In the winter of 1821-22 
the church experienced the greatest revival within 
its history, the fruits of which wa.s an increase 
of 80 to its membership, and 94 were baptized. 
January 1, 1828, Mr. Pratt having asked for a 
dismissal, a council was convened at his house, 
which granted his request. The same daj^ a 



476 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



new liouse liavini^ been erected at the South 
village was deilicatecl ; a new society of eleven 
members was fbriiied, a Ciill avjls given Mr. 
I'ratt to become its pastor, it was accepted anil 
all confirmed in one evening by the same 
conncil. Pie remained witii the new society 
until lS-'57 ; atlcr this he onl^' occasionally 
officiated in the ])ulj)it. It will be seen that 
his pastorate in this town extended over the 
long period of ibrty-scven years. Nor should 
we wish for further evidence to convince us 
that "Priest I'ratt " was truly a remarkable 
man. In the early summer-time, from his 
cherished home, as tlie morning dews were 
kissing the bright green grass and the happy 
birds were warbling their songs of praise, 
as the morning sun was gilding tlie eastern hill- 
tops witli golden light, his spirit took its u|)- 
ward flight. His work on earth was finished. 
He was buried in his chosen spot, which he had 
selected, inclosed and donated to the town for 
a cemeteiy, overlooking uuieh of the field of his 
life's work. His tombstone records the date 
June 5, 1843. " He lived respected and died 
lamented." 

Rev. Otis C. Whiton, a graduate of Dart- 
mouth iu 1815, followed Mr. Pratt as pastor of 
the First (Church, commencing the Sabbath fol- 
lowing Mr. Pi-att's dismissal. He was installed 
May 21,182<S, and was dismissed at his own re- 
quest January 1, 18;}3. He died at Harrisville 
October 17, 1845. From 18:5.3 Rev.Ebenezer 
Chase preached two years. Under his ministry 
the church nicnibership was largely increased. 
The two churches united in supporting tlie same 
minister, holding services in each house alter- 
nately imtil tiie house at the South village was 
destroyed by fire. In 1835 He v. Clark Perry 
is f()und laboring here. Then came Rev. 
Thomas Riggs. He was installed December 30, 
1835, and dismissed June 17, 1839. During the 
year 1840 Rev. Alanson Alvord supplied the 
pulpit. June 16,1841, Rev. Robt.W. Fuller was 
onlained and was dismissed January 11, 184.3, 
nearly fifty members wi're added to the church 



under his ministration. Rev. George W. Ash 
was ordained October 25, 1843, and dismissed 
March 11,1 846. Rev. Stephen Rodgers com- 
menced preaching August 6, 184(J. For a time 
the society flourished, a parsonage was purchased, 
the church building was I'emodeled, but a day of 
trial was near; a portion of its members, mostly 
living in the south part of the town, withdrew 
and formed a new society at the South village. 
For a time it was war, l)itter and unrelenting. 
Its effects were lasting and withering. We 
hasten, for we are on dangerous groiuid. Mr. 
Rodgers was dismissed in 1857. Following Mr. 
Rodgers came Rev. Charles Greenwood, who was 
ordained pastor November 5, 1857; dismissed 
January 27, 1859. Rev. Kiah R. (Hidden 
commenced preaching January 29, 1860, was 
ordained to the ministry June 19, 1860, and re- 
mained till January 29, 1863. Rev. Solomon 
Bixby was acting pastor from February, 1863, 
to February, 1868. For the year ensuing Rev. 
Edward F. Abbott supplied the pulpit — 
1868-69. For some years thereafter there was 
no regular preaching. In September, 1873, 
both churches united in employing as acting 
pastor Rev. C. K. Hoyt, then a recent graduate 
of the Auburn Theological School; he remained 
until May, 10, 1874. November 19, 1874, both 
churches formally consolidated in a single organ- 
ization. Rev. Charles N. Flanders, an An- 
dover graduate, was ordained as pastor Decem- 
ber 29, 1874, and was dismissed November 4, 
1878. He was followed by Rev. F. J. Grimes 
in 1879, who was the acting pastor for nearly 
three years. Rev. Roswell Foster supplied the 
pulpit in 1884-85. 

The First Congeegationai. Church. — A 
society was organized under the above name 
May, 1852. The same year it built a house for 
public worship at the South village. This 
house was dedicated December 22, 1852. On 
the following Sabbath Rev. Robert ^y. Fuller 
commenced preaching in the new house. A 
church organization was instituted at au eccle- 
siastical council held December 26,1852. This 



WESTMORELAND. 



477 



church was formed from sixteen members who 
had witlidrawu from the old church and two 
otliers. The first meeting of this church was 
held February 9, 1853. Oa the 15th of the 
same month Abraliam How and Gilraau White 
wore elected deacons; they had held previously 
the same position in the old church. This 
church was admitted into the Cheshire Confer- 
ence of Churohes June 14, 1854. January 7, 
1856, Mr. Fuller resigned his pastorship. Rev. 
Oscar Bissell followed him, his ordination oc- 
curring May 14, 1856; he was dismissed April 
28, 1861. For two years thereafter Rev. E. B. 
Bassett was the acting pastor, commencing 
April 14, 1862. From May, 1864, to May, 
1869, Rev. William Claggett was acting pastor. 
From the autumn of 1869 to September, 1873, 
Rev. Thomas L. Fowler supplied the pulpit. 
In 1873 this society joined the old society in 
holding services in their respective houses alter- 
nately, employing the same pastor, and have 
continued this relation to the present time. 

The Baptist Chuikjh. — A Baptist society 
was formed in East Westmoreland as early as 
1771. Rev. Ebeuezer Baily was ordained its 
finst pastor, November 30, 1773. The members 
of this society mainly came from Middleborough, 
Mass., and were members of its first church. The 
first church building erected by this society was 
doubtless an unpretentious affair, and stood upon 
the opposite side of the common from school- 
house No. 2. January 3, 1789, this society 
voted to build a new house and to locate it 
west of the old house, and adjacent to the old 
site. This house was thoroughly built, and was 
completed October, 179(J. Elder Baily 's pas- 
torate was eminently a successful one. It ex- 
tended over thirty yeai-s. During his ministry 
this society was strong and influential. 

The following is the petition for the incorpo- 
ration of a Baptist society, addressed to the Gen- 
eral Court June 4, 1800 : 

" Humlily Shew Your Petitioners, Inhabitants of 
the Towns of Westmoreland, Walpole, Surry and 
Keene, Professors of Religion by the Denomination 
of Baptists — That for many years last past thej' have 



assembled together for public Worship as a Baptist 
Society : and, for the more orderly and regular man- 
agement of the same — pray that they, with such 
others a.s may hereafter be admitted as members, may 
be incorjjorated into a religious Society to be called 
and known by the name of the Fikst Baptist So- 
ciety IN Westmoreland with sufficient power and 
authority to support and Settle a minister — to build 
and repair meeting Houses and to raise and Collect 
taxes for those purposes — To warn and hold 
meetings and to choose all proper officers tor transact- 
ing and managing the Concerns of said Society and to 
make by Laws for regulating the same, provided the 
same are not contrary to the Constitution and Laws 
of the State-^and for Liberty to bring in a Bill accord- 
ingly—Or, that the Honourable Court would make 
such Order on the premises as to them shall seem 
meet — and as in duty bound pray 

" Caleb Aldrich Jr Dudley Thomas 

W" Brettun Daniel Wilber 

Sammuel Robbins Paul Clark 

John Brown Ephraim Brown 

Asa Hancock Joseph Whitney 

Noah Fuller J'' Stephen Bowker 

Eben-- AVright John White 

Chever Fowler Levi Hancock 

John Chamberlain Benj' Leonard 

John Chamberlain J' Jonathan Wilber 

Levi Ware Oliver Wright 

Oliver Smith Jabez Straton 

Nehemiah Brown Philip Britton 

Cyrus Staples Benjamin Merryfield 

Josluui P^iller Benjamin Carpenter 

John Snow Elijah A. Hall 

Amos Brown Zephaniah Leach J"^ 

Samuel Woodward William Aldrich 

Jon" Winchester Rufus Smith 

Seth Bretua Joshua Hall " 
John Paul 

Nine of these petitioners were iuhabitiiuts of 
Surry. 

December 10, 1800, this society was incorpo- 
rated by legislative enactment, by the name of 
the First Baptist Society in Westmoreland. In 
1810 Elder Nathan Leonard came from Sutton, 
Mass., and jjrcached nearly four years. He is 
represented to have been an able pulpit orator 
and a smart business man. In June, 1818, 
Elder Simeon Chamberlain was ordained, but 
completed his pastorate before the close of the 
year. January, 1821, found Elder Hosea Trum- 



478 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



bull first preaching to this society, over which 
he was ordained May 2(5, 1822. February 26, 
1826, Benjamin Dean, Jr., was ordained at 
Swanzey as an evangelist, and accepted a call to 
labor with this society. For many yeai-s there 
was no preaching, except by itinerants. An 
act having passed the Legislature in 1848 relat- 
ing to the sale of meeting-houses in cases where 
they had not been occupied for the space of two 
years, led the way to a vote of the proprietors 
to sell this house about 1852. It was purchased 
by a union association, and removed and rebuilt 
into the present house at East Westmoreland. 
John B. Osborn was the contractor ; the con- 
tract-price was $1000, with the old house 
and some contributions of labor. This house 
was built, and is now owned as a union house. 
Each denomination is entitled to the occupancy 
of the house in proportion to their respective 
ownership. Here, for many years. Rev. Jehiel 
Claflin has labored faithfully, and with deserv- 
ing credit. At the present time Rev. N. D. 
Parsons conducts one service weekly under Bap- 
tist auspices. In this house Rev. Mr. Bruce 
conducts one service weekly at the present time 
under the Christian creed auspices. 

In 1797 a church building was erected in the 
Glebe Parish; its site was on the rise of ground 
upon the opposite side of the highway from 
the No. 4 school-house. This building was 
never completely finished and was removed to 
the Chesterfield Factory village in 1828 or 1829 
and made over into the present bit-shop. Rev. 
Nathaniel Wilbur was the only regular preacher 
in this house, preaching about twenty years. I 
do not learn that any church organization was 
ever formed to worship in this house, or that 
Mr. Wilbur was ever ordained. This house 
was built and preacliing maintained therein 
mainly by those of the Baptist persuasion. 

The Christian Church and Society in 
Westmoreland originated about the year 1818, 
mainly through the instrumentality of Elder 
Edward B. Rollins. This sect is an offshoot of 
the Free-Will Baptists; originating about the 



year 1800, from the preaching of one Abner 
Jones, of Vermont. Elder Rollins was one of 
the first to espouse this creed, and commenced 
his labors in this vicinity by founding a society 
in Walpole in 1817. He was at that time a 
young man of fine 2>i'esence, an able and elo- 
quent speaker, gifted with a rich, musical voice, 
and esjiecially effective in addressing his appeals 
clothed in Scriptural language. He possessed 
to a large degree those magnetic qualities that 
draw an ardent following. In 1825 an unpre- 
tentious one-story building was erected in the 
East Parish for the use of this society. In 
this house Elder Moses Winchester, a convert 
to the preaching of Elder Rollins, preached for 
nearly thirty years. 

Elder Winchester possessed a natural gift for 
public si3eaking, and if he had been blessed 
with a liberal education Mould have ranked 
high among the pulpit orators of tlie land. He 
often lamented his lack of a thorough educa- 
tion. His life was truly an exemplary one in 
all the Cliristian graces. 

At the present time Rev. Mr. Bruce is offici- 
ating as elder of this society. For many years 
Deacon Gaius Hall was its wise counselor and 
liberal supporter. It was largely through his 
liberalitv and influence that its meetings were 
maintained and its society kept alive. 

The Universalist Church. — For some 
years prior to 1827 there existed a feeling and 
a desire on the part of many of the people liv- 
ing in the south part of the town to hokl relig- 
ious services at the then newly-planted South 
village. Naturally this feeling led to the con- 
templation of erecting a new church edifice. 
The south part of the town contained many 
influential men of means and ability who in- 
dorsed Univerealism. So far they had met the 
Orthodox people as brethren, paying tlieir pro- 
portion of ministerial taxes. The proposed 
new location received their approval and en- 
couragement. The people in the north part 
of the town and Hill village naturally opposed 
the removal. They looked upon its accomplish- 



WESTMORELAND. 



479 



ment as presaging a division of the church ; 
and upon the proposed new location with uncon- 
cealed hostility. It was (slearly apparent that 
certain elements were working in the direction 
of making tlie South village the centre of the 
town for all gatherings. 

Sectional feeling ran high. Ambition en- 
kindled into a blaze, and the red-hot coals of 
agitation were kept fanned to their intensest heat. 
About this time Josiah Knight, who lived 
where Mrs. S. A. Barker now lives, offered to 
give an acre of land for a site for a church 
building and for a common around it, upon the 
condition " that it should be devoted to this 
purpose and to no other, and so to remain 
forever." Afterwards he gave a strip of land 
for the horse-sheds. This offer naturally 
brought the agitation to a focus. Immediately 
subscription-papers in the hands of enthusiastic 
influential men soon secured sufficient means to 
erect a large and well-built edifice. It was 
built of brick, with galleries around three sides 
of it, and was completed in 1827, at a cost of 
$5343, about one-half of which was paid by 
the Universalists. It was built by Sherel)iah 
Cowdery. It was dedicated January 1, 1828. 
Kev. Solomon Robinson, of Stoddard preached 
the dedication sermon. So a new church 
organization was formed and christened as the 
First Congregational Church. 

At the same time Rev. Allen Pratt left the pul- 
pit at the Hill village, where he had labored 
many years, and was ordained pastor of the 
new church. With him came his.two deacons, 
Josiah Noyes and Abraham Howe. For a time 
the new society flourished, but it soon became ap- 
parent that it was composed of incongruous ele- 
ments. The Universalists soon demanded the 
use of the house a portion of the time for preach- 
ing of their faith. This demand was stoutly 
resisted by the Orthodox people. Thereupon a 
new contention arose. The contest waxed 
fierce, but it soon ended. On Sunday evening, 
March 1, 1838, an alarm of fii-e rang throusrh 
the still night air. A sheet of fire was seen to 



burst out of the belfry of the church, and in a 
short time it lay a mass of blackened, smoulder- 
ing ruins. Suspicion declared the origin of the 
fire to have been incendiary, but it was never 
proved. Soon after the burning of this church 
the Orthodox people returned to the old church. 
The remains of the building, together with all 
the rights and privileges pertaining to the prop- 
erty, was sold at auction and purchased by 
Captain Wilson Gleason, in behalf of the 
Universalists, for one hundred and seventy-five 
dollars. They immediately commenced to 
erect a new edifice, nearly upon the old site, 
but of much smaller dimensions. 

The length of the new house is one foot less 
than the width of the old one. The same 
brick, foundation-stone and frontal steps were 
used. It was completed and dedicated in the 
the month of September, 1838. Rev. Charles 
Woodhouse, who had preached occasionally 
prior to this very acceptably to the Universal- 
ists of this town, preached the dedication ser- 
mon from the apt text, " The glory of this 
latter house shall be greater than the former 
saith the Lord." So far the Universalists had 
no regular organization, but on the lOth day of 
December, 1838, a meeting was held for this 
purpose, which adjourned to January 7, 1839. 
Meantime, a notice, as re(|uii-cd by law, was 
published in the Farmer and Museum, a news- 
paper then published in Keene, as follows : 

" Notice is hereby given that Wilson Gleason, Has- 
kell Bufl'um, Barton Simmons, StejAen Barker, John 
Pierce and their associates have formed themselves 
into a religious society, to be known and distinguished 
by the name of the Uuiversalist Society in Westmore- 
land, agreeably to the Statute in such case made and 
provided. Westmoreland, Dec. 11, 1838." 

At the adjourned meeting the organization 
was perfected by adopting a code of by-laws and 
choosing necessary officers. The list of mem- 
bers numbered thirty, and were as follows: 

Prescott B. Albee, Stephen Barker, Arba 
Barker, Tileston A. Barker, William Bennett, 
Snell Buttum, Erasmus Buffum, Haskell Buf- 



480 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



fum, Calviu Q. A. Britton, Silas Browu, Na- 
than G. Babbittt, Elias Chamberlain, Amasa 
Chaffee, Caleb C. Daggett, Wilson Gleason, 
Clinton Gleason, Gilbert T. Heustis, Samuel 
How, Samuel How (2d) Reuben Kendall, Jotham 
Lord, John Pierce, Jotham L. Paine, Barton 
Simmons, Harlon H. Simmons, Barton Skin- 
ner, Timothy Skinner, Carlton Thayer, Samuel 
Torrey, Erastus Ware. The support of preach- 
ing was to be defrayed partly by subscription 
and the balance by taxation of the members, 
upon the basis of valuation of each as made by 
the selectman for general town purposes. But 
this plan of taxation soon proved unsatisfactory 
and -in consequence some requested to have their 
names cancelled from membership. In 18-15 
the society voted to raise the necessary money 
entirely by voluntary subscription, and have 
pursued this plan until the present time. Rev. 
Charles Woodhouse was the first settled minis- 
ter over this society, preaching every Sabbath 
until 1841, two-thirds of the time until Jan- 
uary, 1843, and one-half of the time during the 
remainder of his ministry, which ended Jan- 
uary, 1S44. Mr. Woodhouse possessed more 
than ordinary ability, and was es2)ecially noted 
for his aptness to fit himself for any occasion 
with credit to himself and general satisfaction 
to his hearers. His Christmas discourse of 
1843 is still remembered as one of unusual abil- 
ity, and his memory is cherished by our older 
men, who remember him well with great re- 
spect. He was followed by Rev. Josiah ]\Iar- 
vin, then a young man and a pupil of Mr. 
Woodhouse. He commenced his labors Janu- 
ary 1, 1844, preaching one-half of the time un- 
til 1848. For the ensuing year there was no 
regular preaching. Early in the year 1849 Rev. 
A. Scott became the })astor and remained one 
year. He was followed by Rev. Phineas Her- 
sey, who preached one year from May 15, 1850, 
one-half of the time. He was succeeded by 
Rev. E. H. Lake, who preached one-half of the 
time to January, 1855. Mr. Lake was quite 
popular as a pul])it oi"ator and succeeded in 



drawing good audiences. He was followed by 
Rev. Mr. Sias, who remained one year. From 
this time to January, 1857, Rev. Solomon Laws 
preached occasionally. Rev. S. H. McColles- 
ter was pastor from 1857 to 1862. The influ- 
ence of i\Ir. jNIcCollester extended beyond the 
bounds of his own society and town even. He 
was active in the cause of education and excelled 
as a teacher. As a superintendent of schools 
none surpassed him and few, indeed, could equal 
him. His influence for improvement of com- 
mon schools was felt wherever he went. Dur- 
ing his residence here he was precejjtor of the 
Valley Academy and was very successful. His 
services at funerals were very satisfactory and 
of wide-spread demand. His removal from 
town was felt to be a public loss. 

In 1860 the society bought a piece of land of 
Col. T. A. Barker, and erected a parsonage 
thereon at an expense of $937.15. This was 
sold to W. R. Dunham, M.D., April 1, 1869, 
for twelve hundred dollars, and the jilace of 
Mary Paine purchased for a like purpose fur 
six huudred dollars. From 1862 to 1869 Rev. 
O. G. Woodbury was pastor, preaching one-half 
of the time. During the years 1869-70 Rev. 
Solomon Laws preached a portion of the time* 
In 1871 Rev. Joseph Barber commenced preach- 
ing one-half of the time and remained until 
1877. Siuce then the j)ulpit has been supplied 
by Rev. Hiram B. JMorgan, of Chesterfield, 
Rev. Edward Smiley and Rev. W. S. Williams, 
of Putney, Vt., in order named. 



CHAPTER V. 

WESTiiORELA'SD— [Continued). 

MANUFACTl-niNG, SCHOOLS AND POLITICS. 

Westmoreland from its earliest settlement 
has been emphatically a farming town, 
although it possesses a considerable amount of 
water power, principally furnished by the Part- 
ridge Brook, and to a limited extent by Mill 



WESTMORELAND. 



481 



Brook aud other lesser streams. As early as 
March 30, 1752, the j)ro])netors of the town 
voted to give any person that wonld liiiiid a 
trrist-niill in said town the sum of £150 and 
fifty acres of land on the Mill Brook, with the 
condition that the mill should be put into opera- 
tion hy August 1st ensuing, and to be kept in 
good repair for ten years thereafter. A tax was 
imposed of six pounds, old tenor, upon each pro- 
prietor to defraj' the expense of building a mill, 
and for the building and repairs of the high- 
ways. Thomas Chamlwrlain and Sanniel Minot, 
accepted the offer and built the first mill in 
town. Afterwards, for many years, it was 
known as the Granger mill. About the vear 
1800 it was rebuilt by its owner, Eldad Granger. 
For many years it was actively employed until 
it was suffered to go to decay. Previous to its 
coustruction the citizens of this town luid to go 
to Hinsdale and to North C'harlestown to do their 
milling. Mr. Sanford Granger informs me that 
he was told, when a boy, that the people had to 
go a long way " roundabout " to either mill in 
order to avoid the Indians, who were lurking 
in the valley. This was long before the advent 
of wheel vehicles, and the only means of con- 
veyance was on horseback, and at first the only 
roads were paths through the woods indicated 
by blazed trees. 

The first saw and grist-mill built upon the 
Partridge Brook was located above the brido-e 
leading to the C. Q. A. Britton place. They 
were l)uilt prior to the Revolutionary War; by 
whom, I am unable to state. About 1800, 
Aristides Heustis purchased them and sold 
them to Captain Simeon Cobb, and from him 
they passed to his son. General Simeon Cobb. 
These mills were located uj^on opposite sides of 
the stream. The saw-mill was on the south 
side and facing the south. In the grist-mill 
was a carding-machine, which had a large pat- 
ronage for many years. In 1808 a freshet car- 
ried away the dam and saw -mill, and the grist- 
mill went to decay. At the time the freshet 
struck the mill the saw was in operation and 



nearly through the log. Cobb remarked that he 
thought it would get through before it reached 
Hartford. U[i<in reljuildiug. General Cobb lo- 
cated them below the bridge ; his son Albert 
superintended their erection, and his son-in-law, 
Aaron B. Woolley tended them many years. 
Farther up this stream, soon after the close of the 
Revolutionary War, Leonard Keep built a saw 
and grist-mill. For manyyearsthey were operated 
by Thomas McXeal. A short distance below 
on the stream McNeal had a linseed oil mill. 
This mill building, many years since, was re- 
moved and constructed into a dwelling-house, 
now occupied by J. P. Bennett. After passing 
through the hands of many proprietors, the 
saw and grist-mill, with adjacent land, were 
purchased by Leonard Wilcox, in 1875, under 
whose energetic administration they have been 
improved, and are doing a thriving business. 

Ebenezer Pierce rebuilt a grist-mill about 
the year 1842, and put therein a carding-ma- 
chine ; it has now gone into decay. A short 
distance above, Pavid Johnson built a saw- 
mill in 1776. This mill afterwards was owned 
many years by Abiather Shaw, and has 
been actively employed to the present time. 
Still farther up the stream David French built 
a saw-mill, which has cut out a large amount 
of lumber and proved for many years a lucra- 
tive investment. This mill was built during; or 
soou after the Revolutionary A\'ar. A grist- 
mill was erected by Nathan Franklin upon the 
Ox Brook previous to 1800, and was located at 
Miue Falls. Afterwards a company built a 
saw-mill on the site where the bridge now 
stands ; both were swept away by asevere freshet. 
South of the house of Charles H. Leach form- 
erly stood a fulling-mill, built by one McMurphy 
about the close of the Revolutionary War 
where, under the charge of Nat, Fisk and Jimna 
Walker, each twenty years, and afterwards 
Henry I^each, considerable business was done 
at fulling cloth. 

About, if not, i\\Q jir&t cut nails manufactured 
in this country were made in this shop. 



482 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



lu tlie year 1856 both dam and mill were 
swept away by a freshet, together with quite 
an amount of machinery. In 1859 Colonel 
D. W. Patten moved the Dean shop from 
Park Hill, and M'orked it over into a mill 
that was used for various purposes — at first 
for dressing lumber, then as a pail manufac- 
toiy. In 1873, while repairing the buildincr, it 
fell to the ground a mass of ruins. The same 
year, upon the same site, he erected the present 
building and built a stone cement dam. In 
18(32 Edwin J.Goodnow moved the Beebe house 
from the East Parish and fitted it into a mill for 
the manufacturing and dressing of lumber; 
afterward he put the old No. 4 brick school- 
house into his chimney and attached steam 
power. This mill is now doing a good busi- 
ness. 

At an earlier date Levi Chapin erected a saw- 
mill near and south of the house of S. H. Burt, 
but it has long since passed away. Below the 
lower bridge on Mill Brook, Ephraim Brown 
at an early date built a saw-mill. This mill 
passed into the hands of JNIajor Butterfield, and 
soon after was burnt. Procuring lumber, he pro- 
ceeded to frame another building, but the tim- 
ber was burnt ere he could raise it. Both fires 
were the work of an incendiary. Above this 
site, and nearly opposite the house of J. W. 
Keith, was another saw-mill, but by whom and 
when it was erected is to me unknown. 

The first mill on the site of the present 
mills of E. W. Bosworth was built about the 
year 1777, by Major Britton. At the time of 
its erection noble pine-trees stood so near and 
thick to the mill that logs enough for many 
thousand feet of lumber were rolled directly 
from the stump into the mill. Soon after the 
erection of this mill an ineffectual attempt was 
made to turn the pond of water that formerly 
stood upon Surry Summit (since drained by the 
building of the Cheshire Railroad) into the 
Mill Brook. This mill was rebuilt in 1812 by 
Stephen and Robert Britton, Gains and Joshua 
Hall. Henry Hall built the first grist-mill 



here, having previously run a small fulling- 
mill in the same building. j 

Above, on land now owned by ,1. B. Hall, 
Charles C. Comstock built a saw-mill about 1845. 
Afterwards Mr. Comstock removed to Michigan, 
and in 1884 was elected a Representative in the 
United States House of Representsitives. Other 
mills undoubtedly have been built that have 
not come to the notice of the writer. The 
list of different brick-yards and wheelwright- 
shops, like the ending of an auction bill, are 
" too numerous to mention." At one time Na- 
thaniel Wilber had a powder-mill south of the 
present East Parish Church. It is related that 
one evening, while Wilber was at work in his 
mill, for want of a candle-stick, he stuck his tal- 
low dip into an open barrel of powder; being 
busily engaged, ere he was aware his " dip " 
had burnt down to the improvised " stick." The 
next day he was lamenting the loss of nearly 
half of the barrel of powder, before he suc- 
ceeded in putting out the fire therein. 

At one time nail-making was quite an in- 
dustry, the State paying a bounty on hand-made 
nails. In order to illustrate the progress of 
the times, I insert the following certificate for 
illustration from many : 

" State of New Hampshire. 
" Cheshire 8s, Westmoreland, May ye" 30th, 1791. 
" We, the Subscribers, selectmen of s'' Westmore- 
land, hereby certify that Abiather Shaw of said West- 
moreland has since May one thousand seven hundred 
and eighty-nine, made and caused to be made in his 
workshop one hundred and Ninety Eight thousand of 
to Penny nales and one hundred and fifty-four thou- 
sand of four Penny nales and fourteen thousand of 
Twenty Penny nales and thirty five thousand of six 
penny nales, the whole of the above Nales were bona- 
fidely wrought and nuide in the shop of the aforesaid 
abathier by himself and hands in his Imploy. 

" Caleb Aldrich, 1 Selectmen of 
"David Hutchins. I Westmoreljind. 

"Counter Signed by me Amos Babcock the 
Nighest Justis of the Peace to S' abiathers Work 
Shop." 

The bounty ou same was eight jjounds. 
Nor are we to forget another industry, em- 



WESTMORELAND. 



483 



ploying more hands ihan all the other manufac- 
turing industries of the town combined. The 
niml>le hands of tiie women have contributed to 
keep together many a household with the ill- 
paid fruit of their patient toil in the braiding 
of palm-leaf hats. 

COMMON SCHOOI5. 

"Lift we the twilight curtains of the Past, 
And turning from familiar sight and sound ; 
Sadly and full of reverence let us cast 
A glance upon Tradition's shadowy ground ; 
Sadly the few pale lights which glimmering round 
That dim strange land of Eld seem dying fast." 

Our earliest town records bear the date of 
1775. For twenty three years from the incor- 
poration of tiie town of Westmoreland, with the 
exception of a few scattered papers and brief 
proprietors' records, we have no " written 
story " to compile from. Here and there we 
get a little tradition clouded with much un- 
certainty. As the forefathers of the town lived 
and moved amid scenes of con.stant peril, of 
privation and hardship, it is not to be presumed 
that any great attention was given to common 
schools previous to the close of the Revolutionary 
War. Previous to 1784 the selectmen of West- 
moreland had made some provision for public 
instruction by employing sundry itinerant in- 
structors to teach the children of the town who 
are capable of learning to read, write, and cast 
accounts, also to instruct them once a week in 
some orthodox catechism. One pedagogue, by 
the name of Pettibone, occasionally came from 
Massachusetts on horseback and kept a private 
school in a dwelling-iiouse that formerly stood 
near the })resent residence of Frederic Dean, 
was probably the first "to wield the birch" in 
Westmoreland. Probably the first school- 
house ever erected in town was in the south- 
west corner of the old cemetery, near the 
residence of Fred G. Parker. In early times 
the eaves of the church sheltered with fostering 
care the school-house. The earliest record we 
have been able to find of any action of the town 
relating to schools was a vote passed IMarch 20, 
1748, to divide the town into four districts, to 
31 



be called squadrons. Through individual enter- 
prise and public-spirit, six school-houses had 
previously been constructed in different portions 
of the town, and were located as follows : One 
nearly opposite the present No. 4 house ; one 
on the road leading from F. M. Procter's house 
to Chesterfield, near the south line ; one near 
the house of Adin T. Reed ; one at the Hill 
village; one on the north side of old highway, 
in the valley east of the present No. 9 house, 
and one probably near the present No. 11 house. 
These houses did not compare favorably with 
the comfortable provisions of the modern school- 
house. They were roughly boarded, low posted 
with " long benches that extended around the 
three sides of the room, with the exception of 
the door-way. The fourth side was occupied 
by a high open fire-place, and clumsy chimney 
sometimes laid up with brick, but quite as often 
with stone, furnishing the most ample ventila- 
tion. Each row of benches to the rear was 
elevated upon a floor a step higher so that the 
back seats were virtually posts of observation. 
The smaller scholars were seated in front, and 
came more directly under the eye of the school- 
master than those seated in the rear, and doubt- 
less were made to feel the fall of the ponderous 
birchen ferule as a punishment for misdeeds in- 
stigated from the more secure back seats, furnish- 
ing an incentive to rise more potent than the 
desire to emerge from ignorance. Here were 
taught in primitive style, — reading, writing 
and arithmetic, and sometimes geography and 
grammar. But pedagogues capable of teaching 
the latter branches were rare. A necessary re- 
quirement of the teacher was the ability to 
manufacture a good pen from quills brought 
for that purpose by the scholars. This faculty 
must now be included among the lost arts. Nor 
were text-books in those times very common. 
A spelling-book, bound in boards, was con- 
sidered an acquisition, and the owner was rated 
rich among his fellows. For many years Web- 
sters' spelling-book was universally used both 
as a spelling and reader. 



484 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Its interesting stories are still i-elated with 
kindling eye and animated voice by many of 
our older citizens. In 1790 Webster's old 
"Third Part" was published, then came the 
" American Preceptor," the Columbian Orator," 
the "English Reader," the "American First 
Class Book," "National Eeader," "Easy Les- 
sons " and " Sequal to Easy Lessons," Pike's, 
"Adams," and Colburn's "Arithmetics," Morse's 
" Geography " and Murray's " Grammar " were 
also taugiit generally in later years. During 
the year 178^, an" attempt was made to divide 
the town into twelve squadrons, and a commit- 
tee was chosen to make the divisions and to 
locate the school-houses. It appears that the 
Committee performed their duty, for the town 
gave due credit by passing a vote to that effect, 
still from some cause did not adopt their report. 
The town was now gaining in population at 
the rate of nearly one hundred yearly. It had 
nearly double the population of to-day. Many 
sections of the towns were discommoded by dis- 
tance to school-houses. They clamored for 
greater facilities, and labored diligently to have 
their wants supi)lied. In 1792 the town voted 
to create a new school squadron, defining its 
boundaries, which were nearly the present 
bounds of No. 10. 

In 1794 the town choose Caleb Aldrich, Jr., 
William Hutchins and Nathan Babbitt a com- 
mittee " to make a new division of the town 
into schoolricks." They reported in favor of 
eight divisions, to be called school wards. They 
located the houses substantially as follows : 

First, at intersection of roads west of O. J. Ware's 
house. 

Second, near the house of F. G. Parker, in south- 
west corner of cemetery. 

Third, on the site of the present No. 10 house. 

Fourth, north and near A. Briggs' house, on east 
side of road. 

Fifth, at intersection of roads south of Frank Al- 
drich's house. 

Sixth, near Captain Theodore Coles' house. 

Seventh, near S. H. Burts' residence. 

Eighth, near Almon Craig's house. 



By this division a few families at the south- 
west and east parts of the town were not con- 
veniently accessible to a school-house, and to 
these few families the town gave their school 
money tax to be schooled out under the in- 
spection of the selectmen. Those in the extreme 
east part were far better accommodated by send- 
ing to the adjoining Surry school-ward. The 
following year, 1796, the town voted two hun- 
dred and forty pounds for the building and 
furnishing of school-houses, " to be divided 
according to what they pay," and to be effected 
by a committee chosen for that purpose. In 
1798 the town voted to make a new division, 
and chose a committee for that purpose. They 
made eleven divisions. Beside creating three 
new wards they made considerable alterations 
in the bounds of the old wards, and numbered 
them differently. 

The new Ward 4 is nearly identical with the 
old Ward 7, and its house is on the same site. 

The new Ward 5 is nearly identical with the 
old Ward 6, with the same site for its school- 
house. 

The Sixth Ward school-house was located 
south of the house of Frank T. Aldrich This 
ward is nearly the old Ward 5. 

The Seventh Ward house remains upon old 
site. 

The Eighth Ward house was now built on 
its present site. 

The Ninth Ward house location was left dis- 
cretionary with the district who removed it to 
the east side of the road near the southwest 
corner of the home-pasture of the J. N. Bart- 
lett estate. In 1846 it was removed to its 
present site. 

The new Ward 1 was formed from the di- 
vision of the old Ward 8 into the new Wards 
1 and 2. Ward 8 house became Ward 2 house 
now and the Ward 1 house was built upon the 
site of the old Christian meeting-house. Af- 
terward it was removed to near the gateway 
leading to the house of Albert Chickering and 
was burnt. 



WESTMORELAND. 



485 



The Third Ward house was built at the in- 
tersection of roads near the site of the Alvin 
Chickering buildings. In 1815 this house was 
removed to the north side of the brook on east 
side of the road, near the house of Elmer T. 
Nims. In 1830, the present house was built 
on its present site. The new Ward 10, formerly 
a portion of Ward 2 and 3, retained the site 
and house of the old Wai-d 3. Ward 1 1 house 
was built on its present site. 

These wards remain essentially unchanged 
to-day. The committee making this division 
consisted of Seth Brittou, Joseph Euil'um, Na- 
thaniel Blanchard, Elias Gates, George Cobb, 
James Robbins, Charles Church, Solomon 
Wheeler and Stephen Bowker. Their report 
was accepted and adopted by the town, and five 
hundred and fifty pounds were raised to build 
and repair school-houses. " Each ward was to 
have what they paid." March 19, 1798, the 
town chose a collector and a building-committee 
of three from each ward. Steward Esty, John 
Brown and Joseph Hunt were chosen to ap- 
praise the school-houses already built or partly 
so. Their report indicates but four houses ap- 
praised, namely : No. 10 house, $153.33 ; No. 
9 house, $197.15 ; No. 2 house, $76.12 and No. 
6 house, $58.83. In 1804 the town raised 
seven hundred dollars for schooling and an- 
nexed Steward Esty and Joseph Wilber to the 
Second Ward. Thus for twenty-one years the 
town has been variously divided into squadrons, 
ricks and wards. Previously to the year 1805, 
the care of the schools at first devolved upon 
the selectmen, afterwards upon the creation of 
wards, it was shifted to the responsibility of 
ward committees. 

In 1805 the Legislature established by statute 
the district system, which for many years worked 
favorably, but as our population lessens it fails 
to be as satisfactory. In 1807 Leonard ^A'ilcox's 
real estate (then Thomas MoNeal's) was taken 
from Ward 7 and annexed to Ward 10. In 
1808 the Legislature provided for superintend- 
ing School committees, whose prescribed duties 



were to visit and inspect schools at such times 
as should be most expedient and in manner 
conducive to the progress of literature, morality 
and reliirion. 

March 15, 1S1(J, Jotham Lord, one of the 
prominent men in the town, donated to _the 
town the sum often dollars, upon the following 
conditions, which were accepted by vote of the 
town, May 17, 1817 

" That the money was to be cared for by the Se- 
lectmen, by them to be let out, not exacting from any 
person in town more than 5 per cent, interest, which 
must be paid every three months. The town to have 
a prior right to the loan of the same, to be loaned 
upon good security, and kept until its annual gains and 
additions shall increase the sum to $2000, after which 
the town may appropriate the interest tliereof to 
such purposes as they may think most useful to the 
town." 

For many years it has been deposited in the 
Chesiiire Provident Institution, and nowamounts 
(1884) to $757. 25. The general understanding 
is that it shall be devoted to the schools. At 
this same meeting the town vottxl to accept the 
donation of one thousand dollars from the will 
of Eliphalet Fox, upon the conditions that the 
interest be devoted toward the support of our 
schools. For many years this has been a peren- 
nial source of substantial aid to the cause of 
education, and, while the mists of years have 
obscured the history of Fox, still the town has 
occasion to revere his name as a noble, public 
benefactor. In 1829 the town received from the 
State $1772.67. This is known as the Literary 
Fund. It came from a tax imposed by the 
State in 1821 of one-half of one per cent, (in the 
cajjital stock of the banks. The interest there- 
on is by law devoted toward the support of the 
schools. In 1829 the Union District was 
formed (No. 12), from Districts No. 2 aud 11, 
and the farms formerly owned by Isaac K. 
White and Gardner Knight were taken from 
No. 3 and annexed to No. 2. In 1830 the 
school-house in No. 3 was built on its present 
site. At the same time the farm of F. M. 
Procter was taken from No. 4 and annexed to 



486 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



No. 3, also the place of William Brown from 
No. 5, and also the present South village from 
No. 10. From No. 3 the same year the Butter- 
field pa.sture was taken and annexed to No. 12; 
also the farm of Henry C. Cobleigh, from No. 
9 to No. 8. In 1835 a committee was chosen 
to define the boundaries of the several school 
districts. It consisted of one member from each 
school district, namely, Larkin Baker, Henry 
Esty, Ijuna Foster, Increase Warren, Haskell 
Buffum, Barton Skinner, Calvin Q. A. Britton, 
Timothy Hoskins, Jr., Aaron Works, Otis 
Hutchins, David Livingston and Zenas Britton. 
Their work was accepted, and remains to-day 
the only written record of boundaries of school 
districts of legal force, excepting special changes 
since made by vote of the town and otherwise. 
In 1835 the No. 1 District was severed into 
two, and therefrom No. 13 formed. 

The matter of location of school houses in 
town, and esjiecially in the East Parish, has 
been the fruitful subject for much contention for 
many years. In 1845 several lots of several 
owners and part of the present John B. Hall 
farm, were taken from No. 2 and annexed to No. 
12. About 1870 school-house No. 1 was burn- 
ed. A diifcrence of opinion arose respecting 
the proper site for a new house. The one cho.seu 
did not meet the desire of all, and the matter 
was settled by resorting to the county commis- 
sioners, who located the house in 1873 upon the 
present site. The following year the home- 
farm of J. E. Fuller was taken, by act of the 
Legislature, from No. 2 and annexed to No. 1. 
In 1884 the farm of Delana Norris was 
taken irom No. 2 and annexed to No. 1. 
In 1879 Districts No. 1 and 13 were united. 
Numerous otlier changes have been made on the 
several school districts, but time and space will 
not admit of their emuueration. 

The liCgislature of 1884 repealed this system, 
and the town became one district. 

In comparison with former years our schools 
have very largely decreased in numbers ; to- 
day we have no schools with eighty to oiie hun- 



dred and upwards of scholars as was formerly 
witnessed. I' 

Teachers would be rare indeed to-da}' who 
could be induced to take one of those old time 
schools to manage. It required more than 
common ability to manage them successfully 
then. Among the successful pedagogues of 
those earlier years were Barton Skinner, Otis 
Hutchins, Arvin Aldrich, Zenas Britton, 
Charles Butterfield, Larkin Baker and many 
others. Among them was one Nathaniel Wil- 
bore, commonly known as Priest Wilbur. It 
is related of him that upon a certain occasion 
while teaching the school in the present 
No. 2 district one of his scholars, John Bowker 
by name, having committed some misdemeanor, 
was sent out doors by Wilbur " to prepare for 
a flogging." Bowker proceeded to enca.se his 
body and limbs with birch bark over which he 
drew his clothes and presented him.self for cas- 
tigation. Taking his switch in hand, Wilbur 
struck a blow aroimd the culprit's legs. He was 
surprised to hear the rattling of the bark and to 
witness the illy-suppre.ssed merriment of his 
victim. " What does this mean?" asked Wilbur. 
" It means," replied Bowker, " tliat I have obeyed 
your orders to prepare for a flogging, and I have 
to the best of my ability." It is said that 
Bowker escaj^ed punishment that time. 

POLITICAL. 

In colonial times the only parties (other than 
local or personal) were the supporters and 
opposers of the royal prerogative. These were 
known as Whigs and Tories. In the war for 
independence the latter party became extinct 
as a party. Its most bigoted members fled 
from the country ; others, by concessions to the 
Whigs, remained surrounded, however, in an 
atmosphere of deep-seated hatred, oftentimes of 
persecution. In the convention that framed 
the Constitution first appeared the parties 
known as Federalists and Anti-Federalists. 
The former, under the leadership of Washing 
ton and the elder Adams, wished to strengthen 



WESTMORELAND. 



487 



the general government at the expense of the 
individnal States that entered iuto the Confed- 
eration. The latter party, under tlie lead of 
Jefferson and Madison, took tlie opposite view, 
and wished to maintain tiie independence of 
the individual States at all hazards. The re- 
sult was a eompronuse Constitution. Political 
history is the record of compromise. The per- 
petuity of any republican form of government 
is dependent upon the free exercise of the right 
of suffrage, under proper restrictions, of its 
nicely-balanced power, wielded by tlie advocates 
or the opponents of measures of public expedi- 
ency. After the adoption of the Constitution, 
in 1789, there was very littl(> political excite- 
ment. Westmoreland was practically a politi- 
cal Federal unit foi" fifteen years. Parties had 
now assumed the names of Federalists and 
Re]3ublicans. 

In 1805 the Republicans carried the State; 
and the following year Westmoreland for the first 
time. The votestood : For John Langdon, 146 ; 
Timothy Farrar, 62; Joim J. Gilman, 11. 
For the three years ensuing Governor Lang- 
don received a handsome majority. The result 
was reversed in 1809 and 1810, when Jeremiah 
Smith, the Federal nominee, carried the town. 

For some years a heavy vote was cast and 
evidently party feeling was active. This be- 
gan to subside in 1818. From 1810 to 1819 
first one party was in the ascendancy, then the 
other, l)ut always upon a light vote. In 1817 
James ISIonroe became President, and the Fed- 
eral name disappeared from the political hori- 
zon. During his administration arose " the ir- 
repressible conflict " between liberty and slavery. 
This was a tojjic that forced itself for debate 
in every public place, at every private hearth, — 
a debate that waged stronger and stronger in 
tlie course of years and finally culminated in 
the firing upon Sumter and the War of the 
Rebellion. Following the disappearance of 
the Federal name came the Radicals and the 
Conservatives, but all were merged in the com 
mon name of Republicans. When measure: 



became obscure, candidates became conspicuous 
and served to excite contention. At this time 
David L. !Morril was in the Senate of the 
United States from New Hampshire. Elo- 
quent and incisive of speech, he fearlessly stood 
up in the Senate Chamber and hurled his de- 
nunciations against the further extension of 
slavery. In 1825 Westmoreland complimented 
him with two hundred votes for Governor and 
none in opposition. In the warm controversy 
that ensued towards the close of Monroe's ad- 
ministration, respecting who of the five candi- 
dates in the field should be his successor, West- 
moreland voted unanimously for the Adams 
electors. In March, 1825, New England's fav- 
orite son was inaugurated the sixth President 
of the United States. Soon, party feeling be- 
came stronger and more acrimonious. Under 
the leadership of Adams and Clay, a new party- 
name appears, called the National Republican. 
In later years it took the name of Whigs, and 
still later, in 1856, it united with the anti- 
slavery party and took the old name of Repub- 
licans. Westmoreland, from the advent of the 
Whig party to the outbreak of the Rebellion, 
strongly leaned toward Democracy ; from that 
time it has generally been Republican, although 
generally very evenly divided. 

In a hasty review, let us now consider the 
part that Westmoreland bore in tlie several 
early Constitutional Conventions and the events 
connected therewith, preliminary to tlie final 
adoption of the Constitution of 1789. 

On May 9, 1775, Joseph Wilber was chosen 
a delegate to a convention which assembled at 
Exeter on the 17th of tlie same month. One 
hundred and two towns were rejjresented by 
one hundred and thirty-three members. Post- 
offices were established, a committee of supplies 
for the army and a Committee <>f Safety were 
formed, and the provincial records secured, 
whereupon this convention adjourned Novem- 
ber 16th. On December 12, 1775, Heber Mil- 
ler was chosen I'epresentative to tlie Provincial 
Congress, to be held at Exeter on the 21st day 



488 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of the same month, and Jonathan Cole, Benja- 
min Peirce, Arclielaus Temple, Joseph Wilher, 
Waitstill Scott. John Cole and Amos Peirce 
were chosen a committee to give instructions to 
the representative. Ebenezer Britton was chosen 
a Committee of Safety. This Congress, without 
delay, drew up a new form of government, as- 
suming, on the oth day of January, 177(), the 
name and authority of a House of Representa- 
tives, and chose twelve persons to form a 
separate branch of the Legislature, to be called 
the Council. AH acts, to become valid, were to 
be approved by both branches. Each branch 
was to chose its own presiding officers, and 
both branches wliile in session performed ex- 
ecutive duties. During a recess of the Legis- 
lature a Committee of Safety was provided and 
chosen to perform executive duties. Meshech 
Weare was chosen president of this Council, and 
was ex-officio president of this Committee of 
Safety. For the first time this Congress adopted 
the name of Colony of New Hampshire. Soon 
after the Declaration of Independence the name 
Colony was dropped and the name State sui)- 
stituted. 

The warrant for a meeting to be held De- 
cember 13, 1770, was the first one to bear the 
heading of the State of New Hampshire. On 
January 31, 1777, the town voted "dissatisfac- 
tion with the present plan of government." 
While the particular grievance is not stated in 
any record, still it is safe to say that the town 
participated in the very general feeling exist- 
ing throughout the State that the legislative 
branches had assumed monarchical powers. 

On April 6, 1778, Archelaus Temple was 
chosen to attend the convention to be held at 
Concord, June 10th, to agree upon some system 
or form of government for the State. The 
plan that they proposed did not receive the ap- 
proval of the peo])le. 

January 23, 1788, Archelaus Temple was 
chosen a delegate to a convention to be held at 



Exeter the ensuing month to consider the Fed- 
eral Constitution, and in behalf of the State to 
accept or reject it. June 21st it was adoj)ted. 
On the 15th of December, 1788, was held the 
first town-meeting for the purpose of voting for 
representatives in the Congress of the United 
States and for electors of President and Vice-Presi- 
dent. Three representatives and five electors 
were voted for. The following is the record : 
Samuel Livermore, Benjamin West, Abial 
Fostereach had the entire number of votes—name- 
ly, thirty-two — for representatives. For electors 
each of the following men received the entire 
vote cast, — twenty-seven : Joshua Wentworth, 
Benjamin Bellows, Timothy Farrar, Ebenezer 
Smith, Barzaliel Woodward. The lightness of 
the vote is truly surjirising, when we consider 
that during the eleven years that followed 
the year 1775 the population of Westmore- 
land increased rapidly. From 758 in 1775 
it reached 1620 in 1786. The town was 
now booming with prosperity. This con- 
tinued until 1820, when, from various causes, the 
population began to decrease. Tlie first election 
ever held for State and county officers was held 
under the new Constitution, Marcli 3, 1784. 
The entire number of votes cast for President of 
the State were given to John Langdon, being 

26. There were no votes cast for Senators. 
The Senatorial districts coincided with the coun- 
ties, and to Cheshii'e County was assigned two 
to elect. 

Archelaus Temple was chosen a delegate to a 
convention to be held at Concord, September 7, 
1791. This convention proposed to the people 
for their ratification seventy-two amendments. 

Their purport does not now appear. Augu.st 

27, 1792, the town " Voted to accept the amend- 
ments under the head of Senate, Governor and 
Council." This Constitution, with the several 
amendments adopted this yeai', remains substan- 
tially to the present time. 



WESTMORELAND. 



489 



CHAPTER VI. 

WESTMORELAND— (Co.i/m.ierf). 
MILITARY HISTORY. 

I wotTLD that I could write of the military 
history of Westmoreland with an approach to- 
ward completeness. The records of the town 
are missing from its incorporation to the year 
1775. Of its eventful history during these 
twenty-three years we have only the most meagre 
and fragmentary evidence. Truly, we have oc- 
casion to mourn their loss. It is certain that 
Westmoreland was represented in the last French 
and Indian War, hut how numerously we know 
not. Its citizens were frequently called upon 
to I'cpel Indian forays, of which mention is made 
in another chapter. Joel Priest was a private 
in Rodo-ers' Rangers in the French and Indian 
War, and was present at the sacking of the St. 
Francis village in 1759 ; he was also a Revolu- 
tionary soldier, serving in Capt. Hawkins' com- 
]>any in Colonel Bedel's regiment, also in Capt. 
Carlisle's company. In accordance with an act 
of the Provincial Congress, passed August 25, 
1775, the selectmen proceeded to take a census 
of the town, the first after the State ceased to 
be a province, and the first made with any 
claim to accuracy. The result was a popula- 
tion of three hundred and fifty-seven, including 
thirty-eight persons gone into the army. The 
selectmen also report sixy-three fire-arms fit for 
use, and sixty-seven wanting to supply the 
town. This report, signed by Heber Miller, 
Arehelaus Temple, Waitstill Scott, selectmen, 
bears date of October 26, 1775. Who were 
these thirty-eight men I can only write in part. 

The want of fire-arms, it seems, was not 
readily supplied, for we find recorded a petition 
bearing date of June 3, 1776 signed by the town 
Committee of Safety, — Joseph Burt, Ebenezer 
Britton, Jr., John Chamberlain, — addressed to 
the Legislature or Colonial Committee of Safety 
as follows : 

"Gentlemen, we have Jest heard of the Retreet of 
our Nothard arinv Which Puts us in feere that the 



Savages Will Be Down upon our frontiers and we in 
this Towne Being very Short for ammunition as well 
as Sum amies Wanting: Have with our Naboring 
Towns agreed to Send nir Amos Babcock after amies 
and ammunition ; and we hope that we may Bee 
Saplied With those articals Without Which we Can- 
not Defend ourSelves Nor oure Country in order that 
each man have one Pound of Powder we Want in 
this Towne sixty wait and we Want fore hundred 
flints one hundred w' of Lead and Twenty guns 
Which Will Well aquip us for wor if mr Babcock Can 
Be Saplied With the above articals we the Subscribers 
Being the Committee of Safety for the Towne of West- 
moreland Will in Behalf of the Towne ingage the 
Pay." 

On the 14th day of March, 1776, General 
Congress passed a resolution which came to the 
selectmen in a form of a retpiest from the Com- 
mitte of Safety of New Hampshire, "to recjuire 
of all males above twenty-one years of age 
(lunatics, idiots and negroes excepted) to sign to 
the declaration on this pa])er ; and when so done 
to make return thereof together with the name 
or names of all who shall refuse to .sign the 
same to the General Assembly or Committee of 
Safety of this Colony." The declaration or 
pledge was as follows : 

" We the Subscribers do hereby solemnly Engage and 
promise that we will to the utmost of our Power at 
the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes with Arms op- 
pose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets 
and Armies Against the United American Colonies." 

One hundred and thirty signed the declara- 
tion, as follows : 

Israel Amsby. Abiel Eddy. 

Benjamin Aldrich. Jonah Edson. 

Caleb Aldrich. Nathan Franklin. 

James Butterfleld. Seth Gilbert. 

Ebenezer Britton. Gideon Gilbert. 

Ebenezer Bailey. Jonathan Goodnow. 

Joseph Burt. Edmund Goodnow. 
Ebenezer Britton (2d). Nahum Goodnow. 

William Brockway. Israel Goodnow. 

David Britton. Asa Goodnow. 

William Britton. Fortunatus Gleason. 

Luther Baily. James Gleason. 

Seth Britton. Benjamin Gleason. 

Jonas Butterfield. David Glasier. 

Enos Burt. Elias Gates. 

Jonathan Holton. 



490 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Gideon Burnham. 
Moses Bennett. 
Ephraim Brown. 
Joseph Boynton. 
Daniel Blanchard. 
Moses Brown. 
Isaac Cobb. 
Daniel Cobb. 
Henry Chamberlain. 
John Chamberlain. 
Roger Conant. 
Thomas Chamberlain. 
Jedediah Chamberlain. 
Jonathan Cole, Jr. 
Aaron Chandler. 
John Cole. 
Jonathjin Cole {3d). 
Increase Chamberlain. 
John Cooper. 
Isaac Chamberlain. 
Stephen Dutton. 
David Darby. 
Nathaniel Daggett. 
Josiah Dodge. 
William Day. 
John Doyle. 
Jeptha Dow. 
Eleazer Robbins. 
Robert Robbins. 
Ephraim Robbins. 
John Robbins. 
Jonas Robbins. 
Eleazer Robbins, Jr. 
David Robbins. 
David Robinson. 
Benjamin Rodgers. 
Micah Read. 
John Snow. 
Jonathan Sawyer. 
David Stacy. 
Waitstill Scott. 
John Scott. 
Jeremiah Tinkham. 
Alexander Trotter. 
Reuben Tarbell. 
Elijah Temple. 
Archelaus Temple. 
John Veazy. 
Daniel Whitman. 

And .six refused to 

Rev. William Goddard. 
Leonard Keep. 
Job Chamberlain. 



William Hutchins. 
Abuer How. 
Daniel How. 
Josiah Hacket. 
Samuel How. 
David Johnson. 
Daniel Johnson. 
Willis Johnson. 
Reuben Kendall. 
Daniel Keys. 
Ephraim Leonard. 
Jacob Leach. 
Sherebiah Leach. 
Zepheniah Leach. 
Josiah Leach, Jr. 
Aruniah Leach. 
Isaac Leach. 
Josiah Leach. 
Seth Leach. 
Nehemiah Man. 
David Nathernell. 
Benjamin Pierce. 
Ebenezer Pierce. 
Daniel Pierce. 
Amos Pierce. 
Joseph Packard. 
John Ranstead. 
Noah Whitman. 
Joseph Wilbore. 
Philip Wilbore. 
Nathaniel Wilbore. 
David Wilbore. 
Philip Wilbore (2d). 
Joseph White. 
Moses White. 
Esekiel Woodward. 
Jonathan Willis. 
Artemas Wille. 
Ephraim Wetherly. 
William Warner. 
Joshua Warner. 
Joshua Warner, Jr. 
Job Warner. 
John Warner. 
Henry Walton. 
Samuel Works. 
Harridon Wheeler. 
David Winchester. 
Jonathan Winchester. 

sign, namely, — 

Aaron Brown. 
Daniel Gates. 
John Butterfield. 



Why these six men refused to sign the Test 
Oath is not apparent. Three of them, at least, 
were true patriots, and performed good service 
in the American cau.se, namely, — Keep, Brown 
and Gates, and there is no evidence whatever 
that the other three men were Tories. 

In 1767, prior to the Revolution, the militia 
in this part of the State from Massachusetts line, 
as far north as Claremont and including Nevt^- 
port, were in one regiment, commanded by Colo- 
nel Josiah Willard, of Winchester. When the 
war came on Colonel Willard sided with the 
Tory party and his regiment was divided 
into two in August, 1775. To the First Regi- 
ment Westmoreland was assigned. The com- 
mand of this regiment was given to Samuel 
Ashley, Esq., of Winchester. Isaac Butterfield, 
of this town, was its major. This was afterwards 
known as the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment. 
The battle of Lexington, on April 19, 1775, 
aroused the people to a sense of their danger. 
At a convention held at Exeter, May, 20, 1775, 
it was voted to raise two thousand men in ad- 
dition to those already in the field, which would 
constitute a brigade of three regiments, 
under the respective commands of the fol- 
lowing colonels : Stark, Poor and Reed. The 
Eighth Company of Colonel Reed's regiment 
contained the following Westmoreland men, and 
wa.s under command of Captain Jacob Hinds : 

Isaac Stone, lieutenant. Samuel White, corporal. 
George Aldrich, 2d do Nahum Goodenovv, drum- 
John Cole, sergeant. mer. 
Caleb Aldrich, corporal. 

Privates. 



Ebenezer Aldrich. 
Thomas Arasden. 
Job Brittain. 
Ebenezer Chamberlain. 
Henry Chamberlain. 
Daniel Carlisle. 
David Darby. 
Silas Farnsworth. 
Samuel How. 
William Hutchins. 
Jude Hall. 
Ephraim Leonard. 
David Robbins. 



Eleazer Robbins. 
Samuel Robbins. 
James Simonds. 
David Wetherell. 
David Warner. 
Nathan Wilbore. 
John White. 
Job Warner. 
David Glazier. 
Aaron Whiting. 
John Ranstead. 
Caleb Balch. 
Ephraim Stone, Q. M. Sgt. 



WESTMORELAND. 



491 



Tliis compsiny oonsisted of sixty-five men,iii- 
cludiug its officers. These iiien were in the 
service for diiferent periods, but uone for a 
greater length of time under this comjiany or- 
ganization than three months and eigiit days. 
The privates reeeived pay at the rate of forty 
shillings per month and were allowed for one 
Iniiidred and ten miles travel at the rate of one 
penny a mile ; also, one pound and sixteen shil- 
lings for eoat and blanket. 

This regiment was engaged in the memora- 
l)le struggle at Buidxer Hill, June 17, 1775, and 
together with another New Hampshire regi- 
ment, untler Colonel Stark, repulsed two des- 
perate attacks made by the flower of the Brit- 
ish army, led by (leneral Howe in person, and 
held their ailvanced position until their amminii- 
tion was exhausted, and, having lint a few bay- 
onets, they retreated in good order, but uncon- 
quered. On the l^lst of June, 1775, four days 
after the battle. Colonel Reed, at ^A'inter Hill, 
made his regimental return, in which we find 
that Captain Hinds' company is credited with 
thirty-nine men fit for duty, two wounded, 
two sick, fourteen uninjured, one missing, 
five absent. 

These regiments were soon afterwards reor- 
ganized a.s " Continent;d troops," or regulars, 
and did excellent service at Trenton and Prince- 
ton. 

The following are interesting relating to 
Captain Hinds' company: 

" We the subscribers do Solemnly and Severally 
inlist ourselves as Soldiers in the New Hampshire 
Service for the preservation of the Liberties of Amer- 
ica from the day of our Inlistment to the hist day of 
Decemljer Next, unless the Servis should admit of a 
Discharge of a part or the whole sooner, which shall 
be at the Discretion of the Committy of Safety and 
we Hereby promise to submit ourselves to all the or- 
ders and Regulations of the army and faithfully to 
observe all such orders as we shall receive from time 
to time from our Superior officers. 

" John Ranstead Samuel How 

Caleb Balch David Glazure 

Job Warner Edward West, deserted 

Nathan Wilbur Aaron Whiton 



Ebenezer Aldrich 
David Wetherell 
Ephraim Leonard 
Benjamin Minot 
Daniel Warner 



Nathaniel Whitcomb 
David Thompson 
Jonathan Thompson 
Ephraim Stoue" 



"Sept. lOth, 1775. — We the Subscribers do hereby 
acknowledge that we have received of Ichabod Rolins, 
Esij., Twelve Shillings, £. m'y each for a Blanket and 
Forty Shillings £ my each for one month's pay being 
inlisted in Captain Hinds' Company in Colonel Reed's 
Kegiment. 



Nathaniel Whitcomb 

his 
David X Thompson 
mark 

his 
Jonathan X Thomjison" 
mark 



"John Ranstead 
Job Warner 
Ebenezer Aldrich 
Benjamin INIinott 
Daniel Warner 
David Glazier 

his 

Aaron X Wheaton 

mark 



" We the Suliscribers belonging to Captain Hinds' 
Company in Col. Reed's Regiment do hereby ac- 
knowledge that we have received of Tinio. Walker, Jr., 
Four Dollars each man in full for the regimental 
Coats which was promised us by the Colony of New 
Hampshire. 



" Medford, Oct'. 4, 1775. 

" John Cole 
William Farwell 
Richard Coughlaii 
William Hutchins 
Nahum Goodenow 
Samuel Robbins 
Reuben Tarbell 
Luther Winslow 
Daniel Warner 

Ira X Evans 

mark 
Elijah Elmer 
David Glazier 
Nathaniel Whitcomb 
Elijah Taylor 

his 

Israel X Thomas 

mark 

Daniel Carlile 
Moses Belding 
.Tosiah Powers 
Jonathan Barrit 
John W. Mitchel 
Henr>' Chamberlin 
Job Warner 



Ebenezer Aldrich 

hiH 

Eleazer X Robbins 

mark 

Jude Hall 
Ephraim Stone 
Elijah Coo|)er 
Ebenezer Chamberlain 

his 

Nathaniel X Pettiugil 

mark 
his 

James X Simmonds 

mark 

his 
John X Mcginnis 

mark 

David Stoddard 
David Robbins 

his 

Jonathan X Thom|)Son 
mark 
his 

Lemuel X Wentworth 

mark 
his 

David X Thompson 

mark 

Caleb Aldrich 
Jonathan Wright 
Elisha Belding" 



492 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Ezokiel Davis had u coat tuund by the 
colony. 

In the Nintli <'oni|>aiiy of same regiment was 
Neiiemiah Brown. He retnrned in tiie fall of 
the year sick with a eoniplieation of diseases, in 
conse([nence of which lie was put upon the half- 
pay list. His i'etiini(>nt participateil in the hat- 
tie of Bunker 1 1 ilk 'I'lie reconls show that 
Aldriiii, White, Cole, Darby, How, Carlisle 
and others each lost a jH)rtion nf their wardrobe 
at the battle of June 17, 177"i. 

At an early hour in the morning of tiie last 
day of the year 1775, a small force of Amer- 
can troops, under Arnold and Montgomery, af- 
ter a march of incredible hardship, weakened 
by hunger, exposed to all the severities of a 
Canadian winter, appeared like spectres before 
the strongest fortified city in Anicri<"i. In a 
drivingstormof hail and snow tiiey madethede.s- 
[)erate attempt to take (iuebee by assault. It was 
fated with defeat. It proved worse than that. 
The American forces were obliged to retreat, a 
scattering remnant. 

Th(! news of its defeat, with all its detail of 
horrors, thrilled the American cause. January 
20, 177<i, the New Hampshire House of Repre- 
sentatives voted to raise one regiment of soldiers 
forthwith. This regiment consisted of eight 
companies and was placed under the command 
of Colonel Timothy Bedell to reinforce the 
Northern 'Continental army. Isaac Butter- 
field, of Westmoreland, was major. The Sec- 
ond Conijjany of this regiment was commanded 
by Captain Daniel Carlisle, of Westmoreland 
and contained tlic following Westmoreland 
men : 
Ephraim Stone, second Henry Chamberhiui. 

lieutenant. Joshua Pierce. 

Timothy Butteriield, sergeant. Joel Priest. 
(Jaleb Thayer. Bezaleel Grandy. 

William Temple. Daniel Gates. 

Isaac Gibbs. Philip Alexander. 

Luke Aldrich. Thomas Amsden. 

Joel Aldrich. Jacob Staples. 

Isaac Stone. Ebenezer Chamberlain 

Ebenezer Aldrich. Enos Burt. 

John Rugg. Moses Brown. 



They arrived at a tort called The Cedars, 
distant about forty-five miles to the southwest 
from Montreal. Colonel Bedell expecting an 
immediate attack, knowing that he was ill-pre- 
pared to resist successfully, left a part of his 
regiment, numbering four hundred men, under 
the command of Major Bntterfield, and pro- 
ceeded himself to Montreal for reinforcements. 
Soon after. Captain (leorge For.ster, with five 
hundred British troops, appeared bcfi)re the 
fort and demanded its surrender. Major Bnt- 
terfield, upon consultation with his officers, de- 
cided that it would be without avail to witii- 
stand the demand, having l)ut a scant sup])iy 
of anununition, in a damaged condition, with a 
large number upon the sick-list, and ail weak- 
ened from wintry exposure. He considered it 
best to capitulate, agreeably to the rules of 
war. This lie did on the 19tli day of May, 
1776. Contrary to the terms of the surrender, 
his men were afterward treated in an inhuman 
manner, stripped of their clothing and some 
were murdered. Major Bntterfield has been 
severely criticiscti, even by some of the men 
under his command, for capitulating without a 
fight ; but it seems safe, at least, to presume 
that he endeavored to act Avisely under the cir- 
cumstances. 

The following j)etition is of interest in con- 
nection with tiiis iirief sketch. It appears that 
but a few men signed this petition, and it is 
reasonable to supj)ose that if the feeling therein 
expressed, was generally entertained by all the 
men under connnand of Major Butterfield, tiiat 
other and more numerously signed petitions 
would have been presented, — 

"To the Honourable the Council and house of 
Representatives to be conven'd at Exeter, in New 
Hampshire on the the lO"" day of March 1779. 

"The Humble Petition and Remonstrance of the 
Company Commanded by Cap' Daniel Wilkins in Col" 
Beedels Reg' in Canada humbly sheweth that on y' 
ig"* of May 1776 we unhappily fell into the hands of 
our unnatural and savage Enemy at the Cedars in 
Canada when Major liutterfield our commanding 
oiflcer Capitulated with Cap' Foster of the British 
army to the great grief and surprise of said Company , 



WESTMORELAND 



493 



on the following terms (viz) that we surrendered our- 
selves as prisoners of war and was to deliver up our 
arms which accordingly we did and we was to have 
our jiacks and Baggage -and Cap' Foster Engaged 
not to suffer the savages to plunder or abuse us, nor 
sutler the British troops so to do. But contrarj' to the 
Rules of War, they inhumanly without regard to their 
jironiise, suffered the savages to rob and plunder us of 
our packs and baggage, and strip us of our clothes oft" 
our backs and left us entirely naked, in this deplora- 
ble situation we were left in an enemies Country with- 
out money, clothing or friends that could contribute 
to our relief — Therefore your humble petitioners 
humbly pray that your honors woidd take the matter 
under your serious consideration and grant to each per- 
son a sum something adequate to the loss he sustained 
and your Petitioners will gratefully acknowledge the 
favor, and as in duty bound shall ever jiray. 

"Signed by Robert Campbell and twenty-two 
others." 

I have seen no record of any action luivins; 
lieeu taken npon this petition. 

Relating to Captain Carlisle's cunipaiiy, we 
finil the following receipts of interest: 

"Chailestown Feb. 24'" ITTfi— Received of Jn" Bel- 
lows Esq' twenty-one Guns with Bayonets also twenty- 
one belts the Guns (« -iHs. and the belts {a\ 5s. each 
If not returned to be accounted for according to the 
Custom of the Army, — 
" Dan' Carlisle, Captain of Col° Bedels regiment." 

"Charlestown February 24'" ITTd—Rec" of John 
Bellows Esquire Five pounds five shillings & Seven 
pence for the travel of forty-five Men of my company 
to the place of mustering. 

" P' M' 

Dan' Carlisle" 

Captain Daniel Carlisle renuiined with the 
northern army until after Gctieral Sullivan 
had a.ssamed its ooinniand. Upon a inarcii to 
the soutliward, Captain Carlisle was detailed to 
look up some boats to transport the troops 
across Lake Chamjtlain. As the enemy had 
destroyed them all, Carlisle's search was conse- 
quently in vain, and he so reported to General 
Sullivan. He was ordered to make another 
search, and nece.ssarily with the same result 
and report. Sullivan thereupon flew into a 
passion, drew his sword and made a movement 
as if to strike Carlisle down. Carlisle instantly 



seized a gun from the hands of a soldier standing 
by his side, instantly leveled it at Sullivan's 
head, and, with a firm voici', informed Sullivan 
to lower his sword or die. Sullivan lowered 
his sword, but Carlisle was cashiered and sent 
home in disgrace. Nevertheless, Carlisle was a 
good soldier and a true patriot. 

The Third Company of this regiment was 
under the command of Captain Ja.son ^\'ait, 
and included the following men from West- 
moreland . 

Nehemiah Gould, enlisted Ajiril 2;i, 1777; 
discharged August 10, 1778. 

David John.son, enlisted April lii, 1777; 
discharged, December, 1781. 

Captain Jason ^\'ait auiie to this town during 
the Revolutionary War from Alstead. He was 
a man of great physical strength and endurance. 
He rose from a private tu a major, in times when 
promotion was only .secured by merit. Captain 
Wait, together with his regiment, were held 
prisoners for a time. Upon the reorganizing 
of Colonel Stark's old regiment, April 7, 1777, 
^\'ait was made captain of Company 2, under 
t'ohmel Joseph Cilley, and served in this 
capacity during tiie years 1777, '78, '79. In 
1780 he was jtromnti'd to nuijor of his old 
battle-scarred regiment, and remained with it to 
the close of the war. It is related that at tiie 
battle of Bennington he captured, alone, six 
Hessian prisoners. He was a noted fighter. 
He died in l80(j, and was buried with the 
honors of Ma.sonry in the Cole cemetery. 

In the autumn of 177(5 a regiment was 
raised for Canaila under ( 'dlimel Joshua \\'in- 
gate. As ensign of Company 6 we find Wil- 
liam Bennett. Later, another regiment was 
raised for the same destination under Colonel 
Nahum BaMwin. Tlic Sixth ( 'ompany was 
under tlie command of Captain John Houghton, 
and included the following men from West- 
moreland : 



Waitstill Scott, ensign. 
Edmund Goodnow. 
Samuel Cobb. 



Caleb Aldrich. 
Ephraim Leonard. 
William Britain. 



494 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Nathan Franklin 
Jonathan Houtton.' 



John Chambeilin. 
David Frencli. 



In the roffinient raised to reinforee the 
northern army, under Colonel Isaac Wyman, 
of Keene, in August, 1776, I find its record to 
contain tlie following men credited to West- 
moreland : Benjamin Young Smith, Asahel 
Johnson, Jesse Nott and John Avril. 

New Hampshire raised a regiment of men 
in December, 1776, to reinforce the Continental 
army in the State of New York, under the 
command of Colonel David Gilman. These 
men received one month's advance wages, " a 
bounty of 20 shillings per month over the 
Stated wages — also two pence a mile for Travel 
& in lieu of baggage- Waggons." The First 
Company was under the connnand of Captain 
Francis Townc, and included the following men 
from Westmoreland : Micah Reed, sergeant ; 
Jonathan Avery, Nathaniel Thomas, l^hilip 
Alexander, David Wincliester, Jonatlian Win- 
chester. 

Following the Declaration of Independence, 
the New Hampsliirc Assembly and Council 
proceeded, in Sejitember, by legislative act, to 
organize all male jiersons, with ceiiain excep- 
tions, into a training-band and into an alarm- 
list ; the former comprising all able-bodied male 
persons in the State from sixteen years old 
to fifty, and the latter all male persons from 
sixteen to sixty -five years old. Negroes, mu- 
lattoes and Indians, together with certain per- 
sons occupying official positions and in certain 
employments, were exempted from military ser- 
vice, Both classes were organized into com- 
panies and regiments, and all were liable to do 
duty in case of an emergency. Every person, 
if able, was required to furnish at his own ex- 
pense his arms and accoutrements; otherwise the 
town in which he resided did so. 

The alarm-list included all persons between 
the said specified ages not included in the train- 
ing-band. The alarm was to be the firing of 

' Probably Holton. 



three guns one after the other, by firing the 
beacon, or the drums beating the alarm. Early 
in May, 1777, express-riders came into New 
Hampshire bearing the news of the approach of 
the British army upon Ticonderoga. Major- 
General Folsom, in command of the New 
Hampshire militia, called out portions of the reg- 
iments in the western jiart of the State to march 
immediately to the aid of the American army 
at that place. Accordingly, Colonels Bellows, 
Ashley and Chase marched their regiments to 
Ticonderoga. The alarm jiroving to be false, 
these regiments returned in about three weeks. 
Of this regiment, Westmoreland furnished its 
adjutant, Ephraim Stone, and its ([tiartei-mas- 
ter, Leonard Keep. Captain W'aitstill Scott, 
of this town, commanded the First Company 
of Colonel Ashley's regiment. Its roll contained 
the followino- Westmoreland men : 

Waitstill Scott, c.iptain. py]>liraini Sawyer, fourth 

Nathan Franklin, ser- sergeant. 

geant. John Vea/.y, fourth corp. 

John Chamberlain, sec- NahumGoodnow, tlrum- 

ond lieutenant. nier. 



Israel Anisbury. 
Caleb Aldrich. 
William Akers. 
Joseph Roynton. 
Nehemiah Brown. 
Job Britton. 
Samuel Cobb. 



Privates. 

Nathaniel Daggett. 
Shadrach Dodge. 
Timothy Goodnow. 
Abraham Gibbs. 
Oliver Gerry. 
Daniel Whitman. 
Benjamin Walker. 



Increase Chamberlain. John Warner. 

Calvin Chamberlain. Ephraim Wetherell. 

Reuben Kendall. Ezekiel Woodward. 

William Read. David Winchester. 

John Read. Thomas Hazleton. 
Solomon Robbins. 

Chesterfield and Hin.sdale were repre- 
.sented in this company. This company was 
discharged June 21st, having served forty days, 
and received j)ay at the rate of £4 10s. per 
month, with travel fees at three pence per mile 
out and two jtence on return, computing the 
di.stance at one hundred and ten miles. Gen- 
eral Gates, in command at Ticonderoga, No- 
vember 9, 1777, wrote a letter to the officers 



WESTMORELAND. 



495 



and men of Colonels Bellows' and Ashley's reg- 
iments, returning thanks for the spirit and ex- 
pedition shown in marehing upon tlie first 
alarm of threatened invasion. These men had 
barely got home when other expresses arrived 
with tidings that Burgoyne and his army had 
actually arrived within a few miles of Tieon- 
deroara and was about to invest the fated fort- 
ress. Immediately the militia was called to the 
rescue. From Westmoreland and vicinity a 
company of sixty-three men marched, of whom 
the following were citizens of Westmoreland : 

.tohri Ciile, captain. .lonathaii Sawyer, ser- 
.[onathan Holton, first geaiit. 

lieutenant. Ephraiin Sawyer, wer 
Abial Eddy, second lieu- geant. 

tenant. .fob Warren, cor|)oral. 

James Buttertield, en- Moses Briggs, corporal. 

sign. David Wetherell, corp. 

William Hutchins, aer- Nahum Goodnow, druni- 

geant. mer. 

Joseph White, sergeant. David Foster, (iter. 

Prii'ates. 

Caleb How. Elisha Wilber. 

David Robbins. Ephraim Witherell. 

Eleazer Robbins. Jo.seph Burt. 

Simeon Cobb. Daniel Pierce. 

Simeon Duggett. Leonard Keep. 

Nehemiah How. Luther Baily. 

Jonas Robbins. John Robbins. 

James Gleason. John Veazey. 

John Doyle. Amos Pierce. 

El)enezer Pierce. David Britton. 

Benjamin Pierce. Job Britton. 

David Pierce. John Ran.stead. 

Samuel Works. Reuben Tarbell. 

Benjamin Extell. Josiah Warren. 

John Warner. .Jonathan Cole. 

Jonas Edson. Caleb .\ldricli. 

Daniel How. Ephraim Leonard. 

John Snow. William Britton. 

Nathaniel Wilber Henry Chamberlain. 
Timothy Buttertield. 

Thi.s company left town June 28th, and 
marched to within five miles of Otter C-rcek, 
where an express informed them that the enemy 
had retired. They returned to No. 4, when 
they were overtaken by orders to march to Ti- 
couderonda ; they responded to the call and got 



within three miles of Otter Creek, where they 
met the army on their retreat. 

These constant alarms and repeated marches 
served to work up military spirit and to ripen 
it for action. Nor did they have long to wait; 
for Burgoyne, flu.shed with success, was prepar- 
ing to swoop, like a vulture, njion the New 
Hampshire grants. So far, before his triumph- 
ant marches the Continental troops vanished 
like autumn leaves Ijefore the (jale. The Enir- 
lisli ministry cnnsidei-ed that New England was 
the heart of the rebellion ; hci' object was to 
.sever it from the other colonies; then to sub- 
jugate it. ^^'ith this object in view. General 
Burgoyne dctMrlie<l ( Vilonel Bauni with fifteen 
hundred Hessians and Tories, with a large body 
of Indians, with orders to scour the countrv 
from Otter Creek to Rockingham ; thence down 
the river to Braftleborougli, aii<l then to return 
to 7VII)any. Colonel Baum \vii.s directed to tax 
the towns along the line of hi.s march with 
such articles as he wanted, and to take hos- 
tages fi>r tiie performance of the deni;uid ; to seize 
horses, .saddles and In-idles, to the number at 
lea.st of thirteen hundred ; the more the bet- 
ter. But the ])ro,sj)ect of Indian depredations 
createil the greate.st coiiuiiotion. The Vci-niont 
Committee of Safety again .sounded the alarm. 
Expres.s-riders were sent in all directions hear- 
ing a written missive of a few words, which, 
like the burnt and liloodj' cross of the Scotch 
highlanders, called the clans ready for action. 

During the French and Indian, as well as the 
Revolutionary War, an eliective arm of the 
military .service was known as the Partisan 
Corps or the Rangers. 

Of the former of tiK' two prominent parti.'^an 
ofhcers from ^\'estmoreland, Major Benjamin 
Whitcomb, we know very little; of the other, 
Captain George Aldrich, fortunately, more. Of 
him a short sketch, we trust, will not l)e ami.ss. 

His father was Benjamin .\ldricli (formerly 
spelled Alldridge), one of the original grantees 
of the town, (reorge was l)orn in Wali)ole, 
Mass., March lo, 17;>8, and came to Westmore- 



496 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



land with liis fatliLT's family in 174;i, living 
here most of the time until his decrase, July 17, 
1815. The year following their coming to this 
town, 1 744, the French and Indian War broke 
out and it became hazardou.s to reside here. 
The Aldrich family then removed to Northfield, 
Mass., and remained until 17-")2. In 1755 the 
" Old French War," so called, broke out. The 
Great Meadow fort was garrisoned. For five 
years George Aldrich did duty as a soldier 
therein. In 1758 he enlisted under C'aptain 
Barnard, of Deerfield, in Colonel Williams' 
regiment, under General Abercrombie, and was 
present at the disastrous battle of Ticonderoga. 
At the close of this campaign Aldrich returned 
and performed guard -duty for some time. At 
this time all V^ermont was a wilderness ; no 
settler's house broke the wilderness' sameness. 

No settlement had been made in Walpole or 
Chesterfield. Of. his services in the army fur- 
ther reference is given elsewhere. After the 
organization of the militia, after peace was con- 
cluded, he was appointed to the command of the 
Twentieth Regiment and afterwards of the 
brigade. He was not excelled as an officer. 
In 1805 he was a Presidential elector. In 1807, 
'08, '09, '10 he was a Senator from the Tenth 
District. He was repeatedly called to positions 
of public trust within tiie gift of the town and 
was ever a prominent and public-spirited citi- 
zen, and was one of the original members of 
the lodge of Free-Masons in this town, known 
as the New Jerusalem Lodge, No. 3. He 
married Azubah How, September ;>(), 17()"2, and 
reared a family of seven children. 

Each company consisted of not less than 
thirty men, and ot' none but such as were able- 
bodied and capable of the greatest endurance. 
Veterans in Indian warfare, habituated to dar- 
ing deeds and wasting fiitigue alone, were ad- 
mitted into this service. The duties of the 
Rangers were thus specified : " To scour the 
woods and ascertain the force and jxisition of 
the enemy ; to discover and ju-event the effect 
of his ambuscades and to ambush him in turn ; 



to acquire information of his movements by 
making prisoners of his sentinels ; and to clear 
the way for the advance of the regular trt)ops." 
In this service Westmoreland took a promi- 
nent part. In a battalion of Rangers renowned 
for its effectiveness, under the command of Ma- 
jor Benjamin Whitcomb, of this town, she was 
represented certainly by twenty men, and there 
is no doubt by more, whose names are not at 
hand. Its First Company consisted of : 

Capt. George Aldrich. Sergt. Manassah .Sawyer. 

Lieut. Jonas Butterfield. Corp. Elijali Temple, 
fjieut. David Gootlenough. Drummer, Joseph How. 

Privates. 

Uriali Temple. Noali Levans. 

Samuel Brittoii. Perley Rogers. 

Nathaniel Whitiomb. James Eddy. 

William Martin. Aliel Pierce. 

Selali How. Jeduthan Roberts. 

Asa Pratt. Francis A. Kerly. 
James Winton. 

During a portion of the time this battalion 
was in the service, Ephraim Stone was captain 
of the Second Cornpany. All of these men 
were from Westmoreland. It consisted of three 
companies, and witii few changes was thus or- 
ganized throughout the Revolutionary War and 
was dismissed in 1781. The field of operations 
of this battalion was extended; from the upper 
valley of the Connecticut it circled through 
Canada to Lake Ciiamplain and southward to 
the vicinity of Bennington. 

The nature of the service ref|nired of the 
Rangers necessarily made it impossible to trans- 
port camj) ecpiipage, and in consequence they 
experienced much suffering, and especially from 
the rigors of Canailian winters. Their march 
oftentimes was through or over snow four or 
five feet deep. At night their encampment 
often consisted of an excavation in the snow, 
into which were thrown boughs for their couch; 
upon these they would throw themselves, 
wrapped in their blankets, heads and points to 
economize space, with the stars above them for 
accompanying sentinels. It was a time of great 
despondency. The State was drained of both 



WESTMORELAND. 



497 



men and money. It was the darkest hour of 
tlie Revolution. Tories were numerous and 
aggressive. It required tliC utmost vigilance of 
the Rangers ti> intimidate them and to prevent 
them from open acts of hostility. 

The New Hampshire Legislature was con- 
vened to meet this emergency. It could raise 
men, hut before them stared an empty treasiu'v, 
but— 

" As news of tlie Army's need was read, 
Then in the hush .John Langflori saiil, 
Three thousand dollars liave I in fcold, 
For as much I will pledjje the plate I hold. 
" Eighty casks of Tobago rum ; 
All is the Country's; the time will come, 
If we conquer, when amply the debt she'll pay ; 
If we fail our property's worthless. A ray 
" Of hope cheered the gloom while the Oovernorsaid, 
For a regiment now with Stark at its head ; 
And the boon we gained through the noble lender 
Was Bennington Day and Bin-goync's Surrender." 

The Legislature inunediately ])roceeded to 
divide the State into two brigades, one of which 
was given to the command of John Stark. 
This brigade was composed of three regiments, 
one of which was under Colonel Nichols; it was 
composed often companies, the Eighth of which 
went fnun Westmoreland. This company (piickly 
responded to the call and assembled at Keep's 
hotel, on Park Hill, July 22, 1777. It is related 
that one Robbins, a man of ardent temperament, 
was so enthused for the fray that he reached the 
])oiut of assembling forgetful of his hat. The 
line of march was by the way of Charlestown. 
The roll of this company consisted of si.\ty-one 
men, some of whom were from Chesterfield. 
It was the third company to re})ort to General 
Stark, at Charlest(jwn, and was complimented by 
him fur their promptness and good appearance. 
I'rovisions being scarce at this jjlace, Aaron 
Wheeler and Job F. Brooks, two of our thrifYy 
farmers, each carried up to Charlestown a two- 
horse loud of supplies. This company con- 
tained the following M'estmorelaud men : 

Amos Peirce, lieut. Jonathan Cole, corporal. 

Jonathan Holton, lieut. Sam'l Robbins, corporal. 

Jonathan Sawyer, Sergt. Benoni Tisdale, fifer. 
Ephraim Sawyer, Sergt. 



Ephraim Amidon. 
Elisha Belding. 
Nehemiali Brown. 
Simeon Cobb. 
Simeon Daggett. 
Daniel Glazier. 
Kicliard Haselton. 
William Haselton. 



Privates. 

.Tosiah l^each, ,Ir. 
Benjamin Pierce, 
.lonathan Bobbins. 
Solomon Bobbins. 
Eleazer Robbiu.s. 
■lohn Bobbins. 
John Ranstead. 
.John Warner. 



As soon as a few hundred men had gathered 
at Charlestown Stark pusheil on to INIaiichestcr, 
Vt., leaving orders to have the troops t'ollow 
him as fast as they arrived. Here he was 
joined by Colonel \\'arner, with his (Jreen 
Moimtain Boys, and with his united forces 
pushed on, August Stli, for Bennington, where 
he arrived the next day. 

At this time Major Benjamin Whitcomb, 
with his battalion of Rangers, was stationed in 
Canada. His first captain, George Aldrich, 
was on his way to his l^attalion with recruits 
that he had enlisted in Westmoreland and 
vicinity. His route led him through Stark's 
vicinity. It so hapjiened that they met the 
day before the battle of Bennington. Stark, 
believing that the morrow would witness a 
battle, easily prevailed upon Aldrich to remain 
over the ensuing day and to participate in its 
events. To Aldrich was given a major's com- 
mand, with instructions to drive back a body 
of Indians who were advancing upon one of 
Stark's flanks; succeeding in this, he received 
orders to attack the north breast-work of the 
enemy. Aldrich, although a stranger to his 
command, was particularly an efiicient officer, 
and one well calculated to inspire the confidence 
of his men. Arriving witiiin seven rods of 
the breast-works, Ma.jor Aldrich ordered his 
men to fire, and then, with an Indian yell, 
rushed up to and over them, and \'ictory was 
won. It is said that Aldrich alone captured 
three Hessian prisoners, which he brought into 
Stark's headquarters fully equipped. On the 
l;5th Stark learned of the arrival of a de- 
tachment of Burgoyne's army under the com- 
mand of Colonel Baum at Cambridge ; he im- 



498 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



mediately seiitout Lioiit('iiaiit-( 'dIiiik'I (iregg, of 
Colonel Nichols' regiment with a detachment of 
men, including a portion of Captain Carleton's 
company in advance, and foHowed tlic next day 
witii iii.s entire forces. 

He soon met Gregg retreating before an over- 
whelming force of Hessians, Tories and Indians 
in iiot pursuit. Stark despatciicd theotlier por- 
tion of Captain ( 'aricton's companv, witii others, 
to seize a lot of cattle in posse.ssion of the 
enemy, at (Jrecnljush, some twenty-five miles 
southwest. Meeting with suci'css, they had neai'ly 
rea<-hed the outposts of Stark's army, wiieii, from 
a cottage beside tlie highway, a grief-stricken 
woman st(>pped out, and infornie<l them that 
there was a band ot" two hundred Tories a 
siiort distance forward. iVccnrdingly, they |)r(>- 
ceeded cautiously until, rcadiing a bi-ook, they 
halted to allow the cattle to slake their thirst, 
and John Jlanstead, Benoni Tisdale, Nehemiah 
Brown and Solomon Robbiiis proceeded in ad- 
vance as scouts to feel tiic way. Tliey j)rf)- 
ceeded bat a short distance, when they were 
fired upon by the Tories, who were concealed in 
the bushes upon a rise of ground beside the 
highway. Ranstead tell pierced with sixteen 
bullets and Ti.^dale was shot through the lungs. 
No other Westmoreland man was killed ; but 
others were wounded, among whom was Lieu- 
tenant Jonathan Holton, a ball nearly tearing off' 
his upper lip and passing out of his right cheek ; 
at the .same time a buck-shot entered his left 
cheek and lodged near his right eye. The New 
Hampshire Assembly granted Holton, August 
20, 1778, the sum of £11 (id. and half-pay. 
Want of space forbids a more detailed account 
of the battle of Bennington, which occurred 
Augu.st 16, 1777. The roar of the cannon was 
distinctly heard in our town. Its results gave 
new hope to ourdes[)airingarmies. On the 18th 
of September following, Captain Carleton's 
company returned to their homes, having .served 
in the field some two months. A number of 
men went from this town with this company, 
whose names were not on the company's roll. 



and whose munl)er and names are not clearly 
known to the writer. Two Hessian prisoners 
taken at this battle, Al)ner Darl)v and Daniel 
Frazier, afterwards settled in this town. During 
the year 1777 the duty devolved upon New 
Hampshire to furnish many troops ; she con- 
tinued to keep her three regiments in the field, 
aside from tho.se called out for special services 
and otherwise. 

In the rolls of the officers of the First Regi- 
ment, luider Colonel ( 'illey, we find the following 
men from W'estmoi'eland : Jason Wait, captain 
Company '2 ; AA'illiam Hutchins, lieutenant. 
William Hutchins was born in Attleborong-h, 
Ma.ss., December IS, 17411, and came to this 
town in 1772, settling upon the farm now owned 
l)y Willard R.Gline; he remained u])on this place 
one year, when he ])urchased and moved to the 
farm now owned Ijy his grandson, Otis Hutchins, 
where he died in 18.38. He was an ardent 
patriot, and thereby became a mark of royal 
enmity. In 177.'5 a detachment of the King's 
troops from Westndnster attempted to arrest a 
man for some offense not now known, who was 
living upon the farm now occupied by Lorenzo 
Joslin, in Putney. The neighbors, including 
Mr. Hutchins, rallied in his behalf and suc- 
ceeded in defeating the intended arrest. In re- 
taliation, the troops seized the only cow of Mr. 
Hutchins and drove it away with them. He 
was among the first to enlist in the patriot 
cause. In Captain Hutchin's company we find 
Stephen Loi-d, aged forty, enlisted April 1!), 
1777 ; also, David Johu.son, Jr., aged twenty- 
one, enlisted June Gth. 

In Scamuieirs r(>giment, in Captain John 
Grigg's comjjany, we find Josiah Powers, aged 
thii-ty-three, mustered May, 1777, for three 
years ; also, Calvin Chamberlain, mustered Feb- 
ruary 4, 1778. In February, 1781, we find 
Caleb Aldrich, sergeant in Captain Benjamin 
Ellis' company. 

In the Second Regiment, under Colonel Rice, 
we find Benj. Whitcomb, major ; Geo. Aldrich, 
captain; and Jonas Butterfield, lieutenant. 



WESTMORELAND. 



499 



The First New Hampshire Continental Reg- 
iment was recruited and organized in April, 
1777. Col. John Stark having resigned, Col. 
Joseph Cilley was appointed to its command. 
This regiment, with the Second and Third New 
Hampshire, was assigned to a brigade command- 
ed by General Sullivan, whose headquarters at 
this time were at Ticonderoga. The First Com- 
pany of the First Regiment was under the com- 
mand of Capt. Isaac Farwell, and contained 
many Cheshire County men, and James Simons' 
from Westmoreland. The record speaks of him 
as being twenty-six years of age; is credited 
with eighteen miles mileage (from Westmore- 
land to Charlestown); he received twenty pounds 
bounty. Relating to him we find the following 

certificate : 

" Derrifif.ld 20 March 1781 
"This may certify that James Simons has served in 
the Continental Army ever since the commencement 
of the War and by Reason of his Infirmity of Body he 
Rendered unfit for any further services and is tliere- 
fore discharged. Given under my Hand 

(Signed) John Stark, B Geuer' " 

In October, 1 780, the British and Indians 
burned Royalton, Vt., and committed other 
depredations in the vicinity. The alarm having 
reached this town, a company of militia im- 
mediately proceeded in pursuit of the enemy. 
The following petition explains itself. I can find 
no names of the soldiers who marched from this 
town under the command of Lieutenant Britton. 

" To the General Court : 

" I Ebenezer Britton Ju' of Westmoreland in Said 
state, do pray, and Humbly shew that I being a Lieut- 
enant in the melitia of this state in the year AD 1780 
in October — at which time there was a Call for the 
melitia to go forward and Repel the force of the 
Enemy who at that time burnt the town of Roylton — 
the Command of the Company whereof I was Lieu' 
devolving upon me I accordingly Endavoured to for- 
ward on the Company under my Command as quick 
as possable and for the purpose of Conveying the 
baggage did impress Several horses one of which Was 
the property of M"" Elislia Wilbore of Westmoreland 
and of tlie value of ten pounds Silver money, which 

' Sometimes written Simonds. 



Sum I have paid to the said Elisha wilbore — as an 
Equivelent for the said horse as the said horse while 
in Said Service Loaded and traveling fell and broke 
his Sholder and was thereby lost in the publick ser- 
vice — Your jietitioner humbly prayeth that the Said 
sum often pounds — with the Interest thereon may be 
Allowed to him and paid out of the treasury of this 

State. 

" Ebenezer Britton 

" Lieut. 

"Sworn to before John Doolittle 

" Oct 18 1785 " 

The records of the town are strangely deficient 
of any record of bounties paid to soldiers. From 
Hammonds' "Town Papers" we cull the follow- 
ing evidence that they were paid : 

" In Committee on Claims Mar. 15. 1783— 
" The Bounty advanced by Westmoreland to W" 
Martin is Nine pounds which sum has been deducted 
from his depreciation 

"Ex* Per JosiAH Oilman Jun"' 

" CoNCOHD June 22, 1786 
"The Bounty advanc'd by the Town of Westmore- 
land to Solomon Robins a Soldier for one year, is 
Twenty two Pounds, which has been deducted from 
his depreciation 

" Ex'' Per JosiAH Oilman, Jur' " 

December 10, 1779, the General Court voted 
to direct the treasurer to discount to Westmore- 
land five hundred and twenty-eight pounds for 
bounties advanced to its soldiere. 

In 1794, eleven years af^er the close of the 
War of the Revolution, on account of serious 
trouble with the Western Indians and the 
" Whiskey Rebellion " in the valley of the Mo- 
nongahcla, caused by a law passed by Congress 
levying duty upon domestic distilled spirits, 
the President was compelled to call out the mil- 
itia, " fifteen thousand strong," with which to 
speedily quell the rebellion. New Hampshire 
voted four regiments of minute-men to be held in 
readiness to march at any time, and the several 
towns were called on to furnish their j)roportion. 
December 8th, Westmoreland " Voted to raise the 
private soldiers' wages to forty shillings per 
month, including what Congress have voted to 
give, exclu.sive of clothing and rations, and non- 
commissioned officers in proportion, and to ad- 



500 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



vance to each uiaii now to be drafted one-half 
montli advance pay in ease they should be call- 
ed to march." The wages given by Congress 
was four dollars a month. The names of these 
men are not known. They were not called in- 
to action. 

WAR OF 1812-15. 

Relating to tliis war the records of West- 
moreland are singularly deficient. From frag- 
mentary evidence we have found, however, abun- 
dant proof that the town was not reluctant to 
respond to every call for men in defense of 
country and liberty. This war with Great 
Britain was declared June 19, 1812. Sep- 
tember 9th tbllowing. Governor Gilman ordered 
" the whole of the militia to be in readiness to 
march at a moment's warning." A detach- 
ment from twenty-tiiree regiments was ordered 
to march to Portsmouth immediately. These 
men were organized upon arrival into a brigade, 
the First Reo-inient of which was under the com- 
niand of Nat Fisk, of Westmoreland, as Lieuten- 
ant Colonel commandant. This regiment was 
ordered out September 1 0, 1 8 1 4, for three months. 
Colonel Fisk was born in Framingham, jNIass., 
in 1787, and came to Westmoreland in early 
life and established himself in business a» a 
clothier in the shop that formerly stood south of 
the house of Chas. H. Leach. Here he was 
successful. After a few years he opened a store 
in the village now known as Park Hill, where 
he became a successful merchant. He was ma- 
jor of the First Battalion of the Twentieth 
Regiment New Hampshire Militia. In 1814 
he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel in the same 
regiment. In September of the same year he was 
appointed to the command of the First Regiment 
of detached soldiers for the defense of the sea- 
board, and was stationed as above. In 1830 he 
removed to his paternal homestead, in Framing- 
ham. About 1856, while on a visit to his 
daughter in this town, Mrs. Geo. F. Dunbar, he 
died suddenly of heart-disease, aged sixty-nine 
years. LTnder his command, in Capt. INIarsh's 
company, we find Abial Bridges and Otis Briggs 



transferred from Capt. Warner's company to 
Jonathan Robbins'. In the same regiment we 
findinCapt. Oliver Warner's company, the names 
of Henry Mason, ensign ; Benjamin Brown, ser- 
geant; privates Jonathan Robbins and Otis 
Briggs ; all enlisted for three months from Sep- 
tember. In the Second Regiment, under Col. 
Steel, in Capt. James M. Warner's company, we 
find Lewis Reed, corporal ; Elijah Barrows, 
drummer, and Privates Henry Bemis, Cej^has 
Clark, Zera Ilutehins, Jonathan Hall, Jr., Ed- 
mund Simmons, Aaron Wheeler, Carley 
Wheeler, Joseph Welborn. These men all 
enlisted for sixty days and were mustered 
September 25, 1814. In the Eleventh 
Regiment of United States Infantry, under 
Lieut. -Col. Bedel, recruited at Concord dur- 
ing the summer of 1813, we find the names of 
Timothy Aldrich, ensign, Caleb Briggs, Eph- 
raim Leonard, Benjamin How ; the latter was 
wounded in the leg in the battle of Chippewa. 
Doubtless others were enlisted whose names are 
not known or recognized by the compiler in the 
long army-rolls. 

On the 5th of September, 1792, the new 
Constitution was adopted. It contained im- 
portant provisions relating to the militia. In 
December following, an act was passed by the 
Legislature arrang-ina; the militia into regri- 
ments, brigades and divisions, describing their 
limits and number, etc. By this act the com- 
panies in AValpole and AVestmoreland consti- 
tuted the First Battalion of the Twentieth Reg- 
iment. This regiment was placed in tiie Fifth 
Brigade of the Third Divison. This act was 
constantly undergoing revisions, and, in 1808, 
it was considerably simplified. The act passed 
this year provided that all free, able-bodied 
white male citizens of the State, from sixteen 
years to forty, should be enrolled, with certain 
exceptions. Nearly forty years passed, follow- 
ing this act, without radical changes in the 
militia laws. For many years Westmoreland 
possessed two companies of militia. The Light 
Infantry was popularly known as " the Old 



WESTMORELAND. 



501 



West Light." It M^as a company of moii that, 
ill all martial respects, ranked very high. For 
yeare it sharply competed with the "Keeue 
Light" for the palm of superiority. For some 
years it was under the command of Captain 
Tileston A. Barker, who was very efficient in 
this work. This company furnished its own 
uniforms, but were provided with arms by the 
State. The remainder of the enrolled men com- 
posed the " Floodwood " company. They had no 
uniforms, and were obliged to furnish their own 
arms. Sometimes their movements bordered 
upon the grotesque. These companies were 
obliged to turn out at least twice each year for 
inspection of arms and for drill. 

"Training-days" were memorable days for 
all, both old and young. The splendid uniforms 
of the Light Infantry, the precision of all their 
movements, the pompous commands of the offi- 
cers, the shrill notes of the fife and the roll of 
the drum served to arouse all with enthusiasm. 
Regimental musters were held yearly, iu the 
months of August and September, sometimes 
in this town; but these days, with their associa- 
tions, have long since passed away. But many 
of our older citizens still relate, with kindling 
eye and animated speech, the lively incidents 
of those days. 

WAR OF THE REBELLION. 

For many years prior to the breaking out of 
the War of the Great Rebellion, the military 
spirit of Westmoreland had lain dormant. 
The news of the firing upon Sumter thrilled 
the heart of the North with martial fire anew. 
Then the men of the North, irrespective of 
party, hastened to defend the nation's honor ; 
to fight for home and kindred. The following 
is the record of the citizens of Westmoreland 
who enlisted in the military service of the 
United States during the War of the Rebellion, 
1861-65 : 

Lewis W. Aldrich, mustered in Company I, Ninth 
Regiment New Hampsliire Volunteer Infantry, 
August 15, 1862 ; promoted to corporal January 
1, 1865; mustered out June 10, 1865. 



Lewis W. Aldrich, (2d), mustered in Company I, 
Ninth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, August 15, 1862 ; mustered out June 10, 
1865. 

William Aiken, mustered in Company I, Twelfth 
Regiment, Vermont Volunteer Infantry, October 
4, 1862; mustered out July 14, 1863. 

William C. Aiken, mustered in Company I, Ninth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
August 18, 1862; wounded September 17,1862; 
discharged for disability March 17, 1863. 

Charles L. Aiken, mustered iu U. S. Navy. 

Amasa O. Amidon, mustered in Company E, Fifteenth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
November 5, 1862, for nine months ; mustered out 
August 13, 1863. 

Tileston A. Barker, mustered as captain Company A, 
Second Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer 
Infantry, June, 1861 ; appointed lieutenant-colo- 
nel Fourteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Vol- 
unteer Infantry, September 19, 1862 ; on general 
court-martial Washington, D.C., February 25, 
1864, to February 5, 1865; honorably discharged 
February 5, 1865 ; breveted colonel September 
13, 1866. 

Frank T. Barker, mustered as captain Company A, 
Fourteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Infantry, August 31, 1862 ; discharged April 
21, 1864. 

Joseph Burcham, mustered in Company H, Second 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
September 17, 1861 ; disch.arged for disability 
September 20, 1862; re-enlisted in Company C, 
Fourteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Infantry, September 22, 1862 ; transferred to 
Company A, April 2, 1863 ; discharged January 
1, 1865. 

William J. Burcham, mustered in Company E, Sixth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
November 28, 1861 ; died at Hatteras Inlet, N. C, 
January 28, 1862. 

George H. Britten, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, August 8, 1862; mustered out July 8, 
1865. 

Charles H. Burgess, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, September 22, 1862; discharged for disa- 
bility at Concord, N. H., December 11, 1862. 

David Curtin, mustered in Company G, Fourteenth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
September 23, 1862; discharged for disability 
December 31, 1864. 



502 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



John Curtin, mustered iu first lieutenant Company E, 
Sixth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, April 20, 1864; wounded June 3, 1864; 
discharged on account of wounds August 10, 
1864. 

Patrick H. Curtin, mustered in Company E, Sixth 
Regiment, New Haniishire Volunteer Ini'antry, 
November 28, 1861; wounded August 29, 1862; 
transferred to United States Volunteer Reserve 
Corp, May 2, 1863. 

Charles Campbell, mustered in Company F, Sixth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry> 
November 28,1861 ; discharged February 2, 1863. 

Norton E. Chamberlain, mu8tere<l in Company D, 
Fifty-third Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer 
Infantry ; died at New Orleans May 16, 1863. 

William E. Clark, United States Navy. 

John Conner, United States Navy. 

Isaac W. Derby, mustered corporal in Company A, 
Second Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fontry. May 31, 1861; wounded July 21, 1861; 
discharged for disaliility August 25, 1861 ; mus- 
tered as lieutenant in United States Cavalry in 
1863. 

Elisha Douglass, mustered in Company K, Ninth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
December, 1863; wounded May 12, 1864; died 
from wounds May 17, 1864. 

Samuel E. Douglass, mustered in Company F, Sixth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
November 28, 1861 ; wounded August 29, 1862 ; 
died of wounds at Georgetown (D. C.) Hospital 
September 19, 1862. 

Charles L. Derby, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
tantry, September 22, 1862 ; mustered out July 
8, 1865. 

John C. Farnham, mustered in Company E, Fifteenth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry ; 
discharged August 13, 1863. 

Edwin J. Goodnow, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, September 22, 1862 ; wounded September 
19, 1864 ; discharged on account of wounds Feb- 
ruary 8, 1865. 

Timothy M. Gary, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, September 22, 1862 ; mustered out ,Tuly 
8, 1865. 

James K. Greeley, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, September 22, 1862 ; wounded September 
19, 1864; mustered out July 8, 1865. 



Charles P. Hall, mustered first lieutenant Company 
A, Fourteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Vol- 
unteer Infantry, August 9, 1862; in charge of in- 
valid detachment under provost marshal Wash- 
ington, D. C, June to November, 1863 ; promoted 
to captain Company C, February 20, 1864; in 
command Fort Pulaski, Ga., March 5 to June 5, 
1865; mustered out July 8, 1865. 

Franklin J. Hall, mustered in Company A, Fourteenth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infiintry, 
September 22, 1862; promoted to corporal April 
1, 1865; mustered out July 8, 1865. 

George Hall, mustered in Company I, Ninth Regi- 
ment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, De- 
cember 16, 1863; wounded June 1, 1864; trans- 
ferred to Sixth New Hampshire Volunteer Infan- 
try, Junel, 1865 ; mustered out July 17, 1865. 

Aristides Heustis, mustered in Company A, Second 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
May 31, 1861 ; died at Summit House Hospital, 
Philadelphia, Pa., December 23, 1862. 

Fay Keith, mustered in Company A, Fourteenth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
August 13, 1862 ; died in service. 

Samuel I. Leach, mustered in Company A, Fourteenth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
September 22, 1S62; clerk for brigadier-quarter- 
master October, 1862 to April, 1863 ; promoted 
to corporal ; clerk in Campbell General Hospital 
April, 1863 to July 21, 1865; transferred to 
United States Volunteer Reserve Corp, Decem- 
ber 5, 1863 ; mustered out July 21, 1865. 

Albert G. Leach, mustered in Company A, Fourteenth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
September 22, 1862 ; died of disease at Washing- 
ton, D. C, May 31, 1863. 

Charles H. Leach, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, August 14, 1862 ; died at Poolsville, Md., 
January 23, 1863. 

Leonard Lowe, mustered in Company I, Ninth Regi- 
ment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry ; killed 
at Petersburg Mine July 30, 1864. 

James B. Mason, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, August 14, 1862; transferred and pro- 
moted to first lieutenant in Thirty-first Regiment 
United States Cavalry Troop, February 14, 1864; 
wounded at Petersburg Mine July 30, 1864; dis- 
charged December 12, 1864. 

Amos S. Metcalf, mustered in Troop A, First Regi- 
ment, New Hampshire Volunteer Cavalry, March 
25,1864: captured June 13,1864. 



WESTMOKELAND. 



503 



Leslie K. Osborne, mustered in Company E, Sixth 
Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
November 28, 1861 ; mustered out November 27, 
1864. 

William L. Pratt, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, September 22, 1862; mustered out July 8, 
1865. 

Isaac W. Rawson, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, September 22, 1862; mustered out July 8, 
1865. 

William S. Starkey, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer 
Infantry, August 27, 1862 ; died at Washington, 
D. C, May 13, 1863. 

Henry M. Staples, mustered musician Company A. 
Fourteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer 
Infantry, August 14, 1862; promoted to principal 
musician November 1, 1864; discharged July 8, 
1866. 

Warren Streeter, mustered in Company F, Fourth 
Regiment Vermont Volunteer Infantry, Septem- 
ber 7, 1864 ; discharged June 6, 1865. 

Albert W-. Streeter, mustered in Company I, Ninth 
Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
August 15, 1862 ; died of disease at Falmouth, 
Va., February 6, 1863. 

Herbert N. Streeter, mustered in Company I, Ninth 
Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, 
August 22, 1862 ; died of disease at Aquia Creek, 
Va., February 7, 1863. 

Ezra F. Streeter, mustered in Company F, Fifth Reg- 
iment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, Oc- 
tober 23, 1861 ; discharged for disability, April 
30, 1862. 

Frederick A. Timothy, mustered in Company A, 
Fourteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volun- 
teer Infantry, September 22, 1862 ; mustered out 
July 8, 1865. 

Holland Wheeler, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer 
Infantry, September 22, 1862 ; promoted to ser- 
geant January 27, 1804; wounded September 19, 
1864 ; mustered out July 8, 1865. 

Sidney P. Winchester, mustered in Company A, 
Fourteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer 
Infantry, September 22, 1862; discharged for 
disability, March 27, 1863. 

Hiram Woodward, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, September 22, 1862 ; mustered out May 19, 
1865. 



Edgar F. Wiley, mustered in Company I, Ninth Regi- 
ment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, Aug- 
ust 15, 1862; wounded May 12, 1864; transferred 
to United States Veteran Reserve Corps Januarj' 
9, 1865. 

Sidney H. Young, mustered in Company A, Four- 
teenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer In- 
fantry, August 14, 1862 ; killed in battle Opequan 
September 19, 1864. 

Edwin Young, mustered in Company A, Second Reg- 
iment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, May 
31, 1861 ; promoted to sargeant May 1, 1863 ; 
mustered out June 21, 1864. 

The following is the list of non-resident sol- 
diers credited to Westmoreland : 



William Miller. 
Charles Nelson. 
William Smith. 
William Thompson. 
George Wilson. 
Luther Jossely. 
Franklin Vose. 
James Bennett. 
Joseph Coyne. 
Jamas Malone. 
.lohn Brown. 
George Clark 
John Clark. 
John Coleman. 



Anton Crick. 
John Ervin. 
Henry Jacobs. 
Charles Johnson. 
James Smith. 
Joseph Williams. 
John Anderson. 
Walter Comstock. 
Jeremiah Carroll. 
James M. Janess. 
Ransom D. Pettingill. 
Mitchell Brennan. 
Simon Dyer. 



C H A P T E R V 1 1. 

WESTMORELAND— (Con(i.ii'<;(i). 
CIVIL HISTORY AND CEKSUS. 

The following is the list of town officers 
from 1775, prior records are missing : 

MODERATORS OF ANNUAL MEETINGS. 

Joseph Burt, 1775, '77, '78, '79, 1781, '88, '89, 1791, 
'92, '93, '95, '96, '98, '99, 1892, '3, '4, '5, '0, '8, '9, '10, 
'11, '12, '13, and '14,-26 years. 

Ebenezer Britton, 1776. 

Benjamin Pierce, 1780 to 1782. 

Isaac Chamberlain, 1783. 

George Aldrich, 1784. 

Nathan Franklin, 1785, '86, '97. 

Amos Babcock, 1787, '90, '94. 

Nathan Estabrooks, 1800. 

.Toseph Buffum, 1801, '07. 

David Dwight, 1815, '16, '17. 



504 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Jotham Lord, 1818, '19, '20, '21, '23, '24, '26, '27, 
'30, '31, '32, '33, '34, '35, '36, '37, '38, '39, '40, '41, '42, 
— 21 years. 

Simeon Cobb (2d), 1822. 

Nathan Babbitt, 1825. 

Samuel Winchester, 1828 to 1829. 

Larkin Baker, 1843, '44, '46, '47. 

Charles F. Brooks, 1845. 

Tileston A. Barker, 1848, 49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, 
'55, '56, '57, '58, '64, '67, '70—14 years. 

George W. Nims, 1859, '60. 

Ebenezer Britton (2d), 1861, '65, '66, '68, '69, '71. 

Dexter Warren, 1862, '63, '74. 

Stephen B. Gary, 1872 to 73. 

Willard Bill, Jr., 1875, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83, '84, 
— eight years. 

George W. Daggett, 1876. 

Arad Fletcher, 1877. 

TOWN CLERKi5, 

Heber Miller, 1775, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, 81, '82, '83. 

John Doolittle, 1784, '85, '86, '87, '88. 

Caleb Aldrich, Jr., 1789, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, '95, 
'96, '97, '98, '99, 1800, '1, '2, '3, '4, '5, '6, '7, '8, '9, '11. 

Daniel Brooks, 1810. 

Benjamin Snow, 1812, '13, '14. 

Joshua Britton, 1815 to 1816. 

Theophalas Hoit, 1817. 

Allen Pratt, 1818, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24, '25, '26, 
'27. 

Larkin Baker, 1828, '29, '30, '31, '32, '33, '34, '35, 
'36, '37, '38, '39, '40. 

Charles F. Brooks, 1841, '42. 

Nathan G. Babbit, 1843, '44, '45. 

Anson Cole, 1846, '47, '48, '49, '51, '52, '64. 

Timothy Hoskins, 1850, 

Alexander H. Wheeler, 1853. 

Dexter Warren, 1854, '55, '56, '57, '58, '59. 

Joseph Leonard, 1860, '61, '62. 

Henry F. Cowdery, 1863. 

Edwin J. Goodnow, 1864 to 1885. 

EEPKESENTATIVES. 

Joseph Wilbcr, 1775 and 1784. 
Heber Miller, 1776. 
Ebenzer Britton, 1777 and 1778. 
Joseph Burt, 1779, '80, '93, '94, '95, '96 ; 1781 voted 
not to send. 

Isaac Chamberlain, 1782, '83. 

Samuel Works, 1765, '86. 

Amos Babcock, 1787. 

Archilaus Temple, 1788, '89, '90, '91, '92 and 7. 

Alpheus Moore, 1798. 

Ezra Peirce, 1799, 1800, '01, '02. 



William Britton, 1803, '13, '14, '15. 

Joseph Buffum, 1804, '05, '06, '07. 

Job F. Brooks, 1808, '09. 

Broughton White, 1810. 

Ephraim Brown, Jr., 1811 and 1812. 

Daniel Dwight, 1816 and 1817. 

Simeon Cobb, 2d, 1818, '19, '21, '22, '23. 

Jotham Lord, Jr., 1820, '24, '35, '36. 

Larkin Baker, 1825 and 1826. 

Samuel Winchester, 1827 and 1828. 

Gains Hall, 1829, '38. 

Barton Skinner, 1880, '31, '32. 

Timothy Hoskins, 1833, '34, '40. 

Charles F. Brooks, 1837 to 1839. 

Tileston A. Barker, 1842, '43, '52. 

John Albee, 1844 and 1845. 

Solomon Wilson, 1846, '47. 

John Pierce, 1847, '48. 

David Livingston, 1848 and 1849. 

Abijah French, 1850 and 1851. 

George W. Wheeler, 1853. 

Haskell Buffum, 1854 and 1855. 

Willard W. Pierce, 1856 and 1857. 

Isaac K. White, 1858 and 1869. 

Anson Cole, 1860 and 1861. 

Jedediah Sabin, 1862, '65. 

Daniel W. Patten, 1863 and 1864. 

Ebenezer Britton, 1866, '67, '68. 

Charles Knight, 1869 and 1870. 

Otis Hutchins, 1871. 

Robert L. Aldrich, 1872 and 1873. 

Nelson Wilbur, 1874. 

Charles N. Quimby, 1875. 

John Mason, 1876. 

John A. Chamberlain, 1877. 

William J. Eeed, 1878. 

Oliver J. Butterfield, 1879. 

Theodore Cole, 1881 and 1882; Biennial Sessions. 

Eli E. Wellington, 1883 and 1884. 

Stephen H. Burt, 1885. 

SELECTMEN. 

1775. — Heber Miller, Archelaus Temple, Waitstill 
Scott. 

1776. — Heber Miller, Benjamin Pierce, Ebencser 
Britton. 

1777. — Joseph Burt, Amos Pierce, Ephraim Stone. 

1778.— Joseph Burt, Ephraim Stone, Daniel 
Pierce. 

1779. — Joseph Welbore, Nathan Franklin, William 
Hutchins. 

1780. — Ebenezer Britton, Isaac Butterfield, Micah 
Read. 



WESTMORELAND. 



505 



1781. — Jonas Butterfleld, Abner Darbey, Israel 
Amsbury. 

1782. Abiel Eddy, Benjamin Pierce, Josej)!! Burt, 
John Doolittle and Joshua Pierce. 

1783. — Isaac Chamberlain, Ebenezer Britton, 
Samuel Works and Isaac Butterfleld. 

1784. — John Doolittle, Azariah Leach, William 
Hutchins. 

1785. — George Aldrich, William Hutchins Azariah 
Leach. 

178(1. — George Aldrich, Nathan Franklin, Nathan- 
iel Wilbore. 

1787. — Ezra Pierce, Samuel Cobb, Caleb Aldrich. 

1788. — Ezra Pierce, Caleb Aldrich, Jr., Jonas Eob- 
bins. 

1789. — Caleb Aldrich, Jr., Jonas Eobbins, George 
Cobb. 

1790.— Caleb Aldrich, Jr., George Cobb, David 
Hutchins. 

1791.— Caleb Aldrich, Jr., David Hutchins, Ezra 
Peirce. 

1792. — Caleb Aldrich, Jr.. Ezra Pierce, Nathan 
Babbitt. 

1793.— Caleb Aldrich, Jr., Nathan Babbitt, William 
Hutchins. 

1794.— Caleb Aldrich, Jr., Ezra Pierce, Nathan 
Babbitt. 

1795. — Caleb Aldrich, Jr., Nathan Babbitt, Abner 
Darby. 

1796. — Caleb Aldrich, Jr., Joseph Buflum, Nathan 
Franklin. 

1797. — Joseph BufFum, William Britton, Ezra 
Pierce, Joseph Burt, Daniel Cobb. 

1798.— Caleb Aldrich, Jr., Nathan Babbitt, Ezra 
Pierce. 

1799. — Joseph Buflum, William Hutchins, William 
Britton. 

1800. — Joseph BufTum, William Hutchins, William 
Britton. 

1801.— William Britton, Nat. Fisk, George Cobb. 

1802.— William Britton, George Cobb, Nat. Fisk. 

1803.— Nat. Fisk, Broughton White, Job F. Brooks. 

1804.— Nathan Babbitt, John Wheeler, Jr„ Caleb 
Aldrich. 

1805.— Job F. Brooks, Nat. Fisk, Robert Britton. 

1806.— Job F. Brooks, Nat. Fisk, Robert Britton. 

1807.^Job F. Brooks, Ephraim Brown, Jr., Robert 
Britton. 

1808. — Ephraim Brown, Jr., William Britton, Levi 
Green. 

1809. — William Britton, Levi Green, Moses Dudley. 

1810. — William Britton, Levi Green, Moses Dudley. 

1811. — Joseph Buflum, Timothy Skinner, William 
Britton. ' 



1812.— William Britton, Job. F. Brooks, Aaron 
Works. 

1813. — Job F. Brooks, Aaron Works, Ebenezer 
Bailey, Jr. 

1814. — Job F. Brooks, Aaron Works, Ebenezer 
Bailey, Jr. 

1815. — Job F. Brooks, Ebenezer Bailey, William 
Arnold. 

1816.— Job F. Works, Ebenezer Bailey, William 
Arnold. 

1817.— Job F. Brooks, Simeon Cobb, Theophalus 
Hoit. 

1818.— Job F. Brooks, Theophalus Hoit, Jotham 
Lord, Jr. 

1819. — Theophalus Hoit, Jotham Lord, Jr., Gaius 
Hall. 

1820.— Theophalus Hoit, Gaius Hall, Abraham 
Howe. 

1821.— Theophiilus Hoit, Gaius Hall, Abraham 
Howe. 

1822.— Job F. Brooks, Seth Hall, Jr., Aaron F. 
Daniels. 

1823. — Aaron F. Daniels, Jimna Walker, Ebenezer 
Bailey. 

1824. — Aaron F. Daniels, Jimna Walker, Ebenezer 
Bailey. 

1825. — Jotham Lord, Jr., Jimna Walker, William 
Britton. 

1826 — Jotham Lord, Jr., Jimna Walker, William 
Britton. 

1827. — Jotham Lord, Jr., Jimna Walker, William 
Britton. 

1828.— Nathan G. Babbitt, William Britton, Abel 
Gleason. 

1829. — William Britton, Abel Gleason, Samuel 
Winchester. 

1830 — Abijah French, Luna Foster, Aaron Works. 

1831. — Abijah French, Luna Foster, Aaron Works. 

1832. — Abijjih French, Aaron Works, Larkin Ba- 
ker. 

1833. — Abijah French, Aaron Works, Larkin Ba- 
ker. 

1834. — Abijah French, Aaron Works, Larkin Ba- 
ker. 

1835. — Sampson How, Austin Parker, Linus Aid- 
rich. 

1836. — Sampson How, Austin Parker, Linus Aid- 
rich. 

1837. — Abijah French, Aaron Works, Larkin Ba- 
ker. 

1838. — Abijah French, Aaron Works, Larkin Ba- 
ker. 

1839. — ^Abijah French, Aaron Works, Larkin Ba- 
ker. 



506 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1840. — Aaron Works, Larkin Baker, Gauia Hall. 

1841. — Larkin Baker, Aaron Works, Haskell Buf- 
fum. 

1842.— Haskell Buffum, James R. Ware, David 
Livingston. 

1843.— Haskell Buffum, James R. Ware, David 
Livingston. 

1844. — James R. Ware, Arby Barker, Augustus 
Noyes. 

1845. — Arby Barker, Augustus Noyes, James P. 
Ware. 

1846. — Charles F. Brooks, Arby Barker, Alexander 
H. Wheeler. 

1847. — Charles F. Brooks, Alexander H. Wheeler, 
John AUbee. 

1848.— Charles F. Brooks, Alexander H. Wheeler, 
John Allbee. 

1849. — Timothy Hoskins, Jonas Wheeler, Jr., Nel- 
son Wilber. 

1850. — Timothy Hoskins, Jonas Wheeler, Jr., Nel- 
son Wilber. 

1851. — Timothy Ho.skins, Zenas Britton, Arvin 
Aldrich. 

1852.^Timothy Hoskins, Arvin Aldrich, Zenas 
Britton. 

1853. — Arvin Aldrich, Addison Ware, Prentiss Dag- 
gett. 

1854. — Addison Ware, Prentiss Daggett, Ezekiel 
Woodward. 

1855. — Addison Ware, Zenas Britton, Robert T. 
Aldrich. 

1856. — James R. Ware, Farly Norris, Caleb C. Dag- 
gett. 

1857. — David Livingston, Farly Norris, Caleb C. 
Daggett. 

1858. — David Livingston, Alfred Aldrich, George 
R. Perry. 

1859. — Alfred Aldrich, George R. Perry, Ebenezer 
Britton. 

1860. — Ebenezer Britton, 2d, Jedediah Sabin, John 
A. Chamberlain. 

1861. Jedediah Sabin, John A. Chamberlain, Gains 
K. Hall. 

1862.— John A. Chamberlain Gains K. Hall, 
George W. Nims. 

1863. — John A. Chamberlain, Jewett E. Buffum, 
Artemas Knight. 

1864. — Jewett E. Buffum, Artemas Knight, Samuel 
D. Clark. 

1865.— Ebenezer Britton, 2d, Joseph Shelley, George 
R. Perry. 

1866. — Joseph Shelley, George R. Perry, Barton C. 
Aldrich. 



1867. — Joseph Shelley, George R. Perry, Barton C. 
Aldrich. 

1868.— Barton C. Aldrich, Willard Bill, Jr., Francis 
Snow. 

1869.— Willard Bill, Jr., Francis Snow, Prentiss 
Daggett. 

1870.— Willard Bill, Jr., William N. Patten, Jewett 
E. Buffum. 

1871.— Willard Bill, Jr.. William N. Patten, Heber 

B. Cole. 

1872. — Dexter Warren, Jasper Hall, Jewett E. 
Buffum. 

1873. — Dexter Warren, Jasper Hall, Jewett E. 
Buffum. 

1874. — Dexter Warren, Jasper Hall, Jewett E. 
Buffum. 

1875.— Abel E. Johnson, William N. Patten, Solon 
Chickering. 

1876. — Charles Knight, Albert Thompson, George 
J. Bennett. 

1877. — Charles Knight, Albert Thompson, George 
J. Bennett. 

1878.— Willard Bill, Jr., Albert Thompson, Barton 

C. Aldrich. 

1879.— Willard Bill, Jr., Barton C. Aldrich, Jewett 
E. Buffum. 

1880.— Willard Bill, Jr., Barton C. Aldrich, Jewett 
E. Buffum. 

1881.— William E. Cullen, John Works, Albert 
Thompson. 

1882. — John Works, Jasper Hall, Oscar J. Ware. 

1883.— John Works. Oscar J. Ware, Charles M. 
Scovell. 

1884. — Oscar J. Ware, Charles M. Scovell, Oilman 
A. Converse. 

Census. — The following is the census statis- 
tics of Westmoreland from 1767 to 1800. 

1767, 391 ; 1773, 698 ; 1775, 758 ; 1783, — ; 
1786, 1621 ; 1790, 2018 ; 1800, 2066 ; 1810, 
1937; 1820,2029; 1830, 1647; 1840,1546; 
1850, 1678; 1860, 1285; 1870,1256; 1880, 
1103. 

Governor vote. — The following shows the 
number of votes cast for Governor in the most 
sharply contested elections to show the number 
of votei-s as compared with its population : 

1838, 338; 1848, 313; 1860, 168; 1868, 
307; 1S76, 298. 

In early times and up to the year 1791, when 
an act was passed relieving them from tliat 



WESTMORELAND. 



507 



duty, the constables were by virtue of tlieir 
office collectors of taxes. Every man in town 
was obliged, with certain exceptions, to serve as 
constable when chosen under the penalty of 
three pounds. The collection of taxes was, of 
course, to many an unpleasant service, 
and after the population became considerable it 
was very difficult to get constables who would 
willingly perform the duty. A small sum was 
allowed for the service. 

The town, March 13, 1782, voted to prose- 
cute Leonard Keep and Samuel How for not 
serving as constables. Tliis course of discipline, 
however, did not work out the desiretl result, 
and afew years afterwe find the town committing 
generally the collection of taxes to the lowest 
bidder. 

In early times we find the town annually 
electing; a board of " Tithiucn-Men," but this 
office has long since become obsolete. It was 
once considered an honorable and iiuportant 
position. Its duties consisted in enforcing the 
laws relating to the proper observance of the 
Sabbath day, by arresting travelers and by keep- 
ing rude boys quiet in meeting. 

Another town-officer was the deer-reeve whose 
duties consisted in the protection, at certain sea- 
sons of the year, of the deer that roamed in the 
forest. We find no mention of this town-officer 
after 1781. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

WESTMORELAND -(Cmrf/iiied). 
MISCELLANEOUS. 

Currency. — January 1, 1 795, an act took 
effect, having jiassed in Congress February 20, 
1794, abolishing the currency of pounds, shil- 
lings and pence, and from this date accounts 
were kept in dollars, dimes and cents ; after- 
wards in dollars and cents. The first settlers 
used very little money as a medium of exchange. 
Prices were based upon stipulated values of 
farm produce. Foreign gold and silver coins 



constituted the only lawful money. The great 
expense of the French and Indian Wars ex- 
hausted the treasury of the State and incurred 
a heavy debt upon the province. Necessity 
compelled the issue of paper money, but this 
through dejireciation of value furnished only 
temporary relief. This depreciation was has- 
tened by the province joining the Revolution- 
ary party. Silver rapidly increased in value. 
In 1720 an ounce was worth seven shillinofs and 
six pence, in 1 760 it was worth one hundred 
and twenty shillings. On the 10th day of 
May, 1775, Congress voted to issue paper cur- 
rency; this took the name of "Continental 
money." From the first it was a currency 
that did not inspire the fullest confidence. 
It was influential in depreciating the issues of 
'the State and became itself worthless in a ii:\x 
years. It brought financial ruin to many, its 
baneful effects were felt by all. In this town 
into many houses it brought poverty in place of 
competency. 

In the year 1780, the condition of the Conti- 
nental Currency became truly deplorable ; we 
find that the town voted, Alarch 8, to raise 
X4800 for highways, to be worked out at 15s. an 
hour. It Mas \oted to pay Benjamin Aldrich 
£120 for eight weeks' board of a pauper ciiild. 

FiXAXCiAL. — In 1786, the Legislature hav- 
ing voted to submit certain propositions relative 
to the issuing of paper money for an expression 
of approval or of rejection by the people of the 
State, this town on the 15th of November, 
gave an expression of their views, as expressed 
in the following record : 

" The State of New Hampshire, 

" Westmoreland, Xovember the IS"" day in the year 
. of our Lord 17S(J 

"agreeable to a request from the Legislative au- 
thority of this state the Inhabitants of s"* Westmore- 
land on the afores** day of Xo' being legally assembled 
in town meeting for the purpose Collecting their 
opinions relative to the proposed plan sent out by the 
Hon' Court for making paper money — 

" 1="' the Question's being put by divideing the 
house to know the number for having paper money, 



508 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



and the number against it, there appeared to be forty 
for having paper money made, and twenty against it. 

"2°'"'' there ajipeared on aneother Division thereof 
to be thirty one against haveing paper money on the 
present propos'' phm : and twentyone for haveing it 
agreeable to s'' plan. — 

" S""' Nineteen of those that ware against money's 
being Emitted agreeable to y' propos'' plan which is 
sent out — Voted that they would have a bank of 
money made of paper Equal to the sum of this states 
debt, on the following ])!an Viz to have it made a 
tender in all Cases or payments and to have it not on 
Interest, and to have it given out for to run twenty 
Years, and to have it sink one twentyeth yearly until 
it should be Dead 

"the above is a true Journal of the meeting afore- 
said 

"Attest John Doolittle Town Clerk of s'' 

Westmoreland " 

Lawyers. — Westmoreland has never pre- 
sented a rich field for the legal fraternity. The 
number of re.sidcnt practitioners of the law have 
been few. The name of Elijah Wollage is the 
first to appear upon our records. Furthermore 
than evidence that he was an influential man 
in our town afTairs we are ignorant. Following 
him came, in 1791, Jeremiah Mason. He was 
born in 1768 in Connecticut, graduated at 
Yale in 1788, admitted to the bar in 1791 
and began the practice of his profession in 
Westmoreland, where he remained three years 
and then removed to Portsmouth. He soon was 
recognized as the head of his profession in this 
State, whose bar, at that time, was then, and, 
perhaps, since, unequaled in this country. In 
the State Legislature and the United States 
Senate alike he was easily " the first and fore- 
most." Daniel Dwight followed him and prac- 
ticed many years. In 1816 and 1817 he 
represented the town and held, at different 
times, positions of public trust and confidence. 

Nathan Godfrey Babbitt also practiced law 
many years. He was born in Norton, Mass., 
February 12, 1787 ; came to this town about 
1790. 

Joseph Buff"um was born in Fitchburg, Ma.ss., 
September 23, 1784, graduated at Dartmouth 



College, studied law and was admitted to the 
Cheshire bar. For some years he practiced in 
Keene and was elected a Representative in the 
XVIth United States Congress, where he 
served one term. Declining a re-election, he 
removed to his paternal homestead in this town, 
where he lived many years, and died February 
23, 1874, at the ripe old age of eighty-nine 
years. While adopting for many years of his 
life recluse habits, still he was known and 
respected by his townsmen generally as a man 
of sound judgment and of incorruptible hon- 
esty. 

Larkin Baker was born in this town Septem- 
ber 17, 1795, and remained until his decease, 
February 3, 1872. For many years his counsel 
was sought from far and near upon all legal 
matters. Possessed of a tenacious memory, an 
aptness for scholarship, he soon took a promi- 
nent place in both town and county. He held 
the commission of justice of the peace during 
nearly the whole of his business career, and 
transacted nearly all the business of the town 
in this Hue. He was assistant judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas seven years, judge of 
Probate for Cheshire Courity twenty-two years, 
resigning in 1864 by reason of poor health, and 
held, at different times, all the offices within 
the gift of his native town. 

Paupers. — " The poor ye have always with 
you." The first record that relates to the poor 
is July 7, 1783, — " Voted that a woman, who 
resides at the house of Joshua Pierce, who is 
warned out of town, be carried out of town 
according to the directions of the law." At this 
time it was the common practice of the towns 
generally to warn out new-comers with the 
view to prevent their acquiring a legal settle- 
ment. This had to be done within a year after 
the person came into the town. It does not 
appear that \\'estmoreland practiced the pro- 
tection given by the law, as we find only one 
necessary record, " where it speaks of having 
warned out all indiscriminately, without regard 
to their condition or ability to support them- 



WESTMORELAND. 



509 



selves." For many years the paupers were let 
out to the lowest bidder, subject to the judg- 
ment of the overseers. 

In September 2, 1791, we find the following 
unique record : " Voted that Josiah Powers and 
widow Miller be vendued by the Selectmen to 
the lowest bidder at this meeting. Widow 
Miller struck oif to Mr. Joseph Buffum for 
two shillings and nine pence per week, until 
March meeting next. Josiah Powers struck 
off to Mr. Elias Gates for one shilling and 
seven pence per week." In 1832 the town 
purchased of Nat Daggett his farm for a poor- 
farm, having raised $2000 for this purpose, 
and there supported its paupers until its sale, in 
1874. The repeated changes in the law have 
been in the direction of throwingf more and 
more the burthen of the support of the poor 
upon the county ; this rendered town poor-farms 
an useless expense. In 1868 a county alms- 
house was located and built in this town. 

We can no more fittingly illustrate the quo- 
tation heading this brief article than bv refer- 
ring to one of the town paupers by the name of 
Grace Goodnow, who died at the extreme old 
age of over one hundred and sixteen years, and 
wa? undoubtedly the oldest person within our 
town records. 

Cemeteries. — Without doubt the first cem- 
etery dedicated in Westmoreland for burial 
purposes was the one near the residence of 
F. G. Parker. Here, in the northwest corner 
of the yard, 

" Each in liis narrow cell forever laid, 
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 

Whether this yard was founded by private 
enterprise or at public expense, we know not ; 
but be that as it may, the good sense and taste 
exercised in selecting this beautiful site as the 
"city for the dead" must be unquestioned. 

The cemetery upon Canoe Meadow also 
bears an early date. About 1805 Nathaniel 
Daggett deeded the land to Nathan Franklin 
and others upon the condition that it be kept 



inclosed forever for the purposes of a cemetery. 
The lot had been used many years prior for the 
same purpose. The oldest inscription in this 
yard is that of Mrs. Amos Davis, bearing date 
of September 6, 1764. 

For years prior to 1832 two contiguous lots, 
divided by a stone wall, running north and 
south, near the residence of Willard R. Gline, 
were used for cemeterial purposes. Nathan 
Franklin owned the lot upon the east side of 
the wall, Phinehas Gline tlie one upon the 
west side. This year both gave their respective 
lots to the town in trust for the uses of a 
cemetery forever. The dividing wall was re- 
moved and the two lots inclosed in one. Soon 
after Edward Simmons built a private family- 
tomb therein. 

The oldest cemetery in the East Parish was 
situate east of the dwelling of F. W. and F. P. 
Hall, on the north side of the highway. For 
many years it has been uncared for, and in con- 
sequence has assumed the look of dilapidation. 
Though silent, still it speaketh in unmistakable 
language, forgctfidness. 

The cemetery now used in this parish origi- 
nated in a gift of a lot of land from Alfred Al- 
drich to certain individuals, upon the considera- 
tion that an inclosing wall should be built and 
maintained, and the lot to be used for the pur- 
poses of a cemetery. The inclosing wall was 
built in 1847. The sextons of this yard have 
been Alfred Aldrich, Liberty Page and Joshua 
Hall. Lemuel Wight was the first one buried 
therein. Aaron Gary, who built the inclosing 
wall, was tlie first one buried therein after its 
completion. 

The South Village Cemetery originated in 
1851 from a gift of land for this purpose from 
John D. Brown. Already, though the years are 
brief since its inclosure, still how numerous its 
spires of marble to-day! 

The Pratt Cemetery was inclosed by Rev. 
Allen Pratt and deeded by him to the town in 
trust for this purpose. 

Bric-a-Brac. — From Sanborn's " History of 



510 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, JMEW HAMPSHIRE. 



New Hampshire " we cull the following items 
of interest, relating to the years 1770, '71 : 

" In the summer of 1770 the valley of the Connecti- 
cut from Northtild, Mass., to Lancasjer, N. H., was 
overrun by an army of greedy, loathsome, devastating 
worms. They were at maturity of the size and length 
of a man's finger. They moved from the northwest 
toward the southeast, completely covering the ground 
and devoured every green thing along the line of their 
march, except potatoes and pumpkins. Their march 
lasted about a month, when they suddenly disappeared, 
and no one knew when or how. Following them 
came vast clouds of pigeons. The air was literally 
filled with their immense numbers. They were 
caught by the wholesale, and were it not for the food 
they furnished, with potatoes and pumpkins raised 
and saved, the people must have perished from star- 
vation. 

"The following year (1771) was noted for the great- 
est freshet ever known on the Connecticut River. The 
water rose to an unprecedented height, sweeping 
down the valley with resistless fury, and leaving its 
marks that years have not effaced. So suddenly came 
the ilood that all kinds of stock were caught and 
swept away in the raging torrent. Houses and families 
were swept away in many cases. Crops were destroyed, 
and again the valley-dwellers were doomed to much 
suffering. The experience of these two years naturally 
drove settlenientto the hills for some years thereafter." 

The winter of 1798-99 was memorable for its 
severity. Snow came about the middle of No- 
vember and lasted late into the spring. The 
Sentinel speaks of snow being tliree feet in depth 
iu the forest on the date of May 11th. The 
winter of 1810 was one of great contrast, there 
being no sledding until February ,20th. 

The year 1804 was noted for its "great 
eclipse " of the sun. Commencing at 12 M., it 
lasted until three o'clock p.m. It occurred in 
June. It was so dark that fowls went to roost, 
thinking it to be nightfall, and many people 
were greatly alarmed. 

A local hurricane of great severity occurred 
in 1815. It seemed to commence near Hell 
Gate, in the southwest part of the town, and 
traveled in nearly an easterly direction. Along 
its way the forests were swept down like grass 
before the scythe. Passing over the buildings 
of Sinieon Cobb, now occupied by George F. 



Hubbard, it struck the house, twisted it partly 
around, blew down the chimneys and materially 
injured it. The barns and out-buildings were 
laid low. At the time Mr. Otis Briggs was in 
the barn, but fortunately escaped by falling be- 
tween two large timbers that furnished protec- 
tion from the mass of d?hris above him. Mr. 
Lemuel Willis, then a young man, was walking 
near the house when the gale caught him up and 
bore him .some sixty rods to the ridge of land, 
where it deposited him, unharmed from liis 
aerial flight. The out-buildings on the Darius 
Daggett farm, now the estate of Lurana Wil- 
lard, were demolished. The dwelling-house did 
not escape considerable injury. Some barns on 
the farm north of E. Hunt's were laid low. 
The gale passed on in its work of devastation 
until it reached the glebe district, where it 
seemed to lose its furv. 

In early times, and until the advent of the 
present century, everybody rode horseback. The 
women had their side-saddles to ride by them- 
selves, or oftentimes the pillion, on which to sit 
behind the saddle, and hold on with arm around 
their escort. Nearly every door-yard had its 
horse-block from which more easily to mount. 

One Widow Ware, living in the East Parish, 
was the first owner of a carriage in town, 
somewhere about 1800. It had a covered body 
put upon a wooden axle, with a spring seat. 
About 1812 Ephraim Brown and Steward Esty 
purchased the fi rst buggies brought into the town ; 
both were built by Wilder, of Keene. About 
1832 leather thoroughbraces came into fa.shiou, 
and in 1847 steel springs were introduced. 
October 4, 1810, a subscription paper was 
started to secure the sale of stock in the pro- 
posed Westmoreland Bridge, to be built at 
the present Britton's Ferry, then owned by 
Solomon Robbins. The stock being readily 
taken, a corjjoration was legally formed and 
the contract of building the bridge, piers and 
all complete awarded to Peleg Kingsley, for 
six thousand dollars. The two piers were 
only raised to about low-water mark, upon 



WESTMORELAND. 



511 



whioli rested a trestle of woodwork, sujiport- 
ing the bridge. It was completed in the spring 
of 1812, and cost, including the land and 
franchise, $7945.39. In the spring of 1813, 
by reason of the ice freezing to the trestles, 
a rise of water lifted the same, which did not 
settle aright, and the structure fell a mass of 
ruins. It was rebuilt in 1814. In 18:20 an \ 
elephant was forced by piking to cross the 
river upon this bridge. He had nearly reached 
tlie end upon the east side, when a portion of 
the bridge, being somewhat decayed, gave way, 
and the poor beast fell witli a despairing wail, 
that sounded high aUove tlie crash of timbers ; 
but he caught his trunk around some of the 
under-braces, which were fast, and there in 
mid-air he held on, all the time uttering the 
most piercing shrieks of fright ; but this was 
of short duration ; his strength could not long 
support his pondrous weight, and he fell to the 
rocks beneath ; his back was broken, but life 
remained for a few days. The name of his 
driver vv^as Roblin. He was killed. The ele- 
phant's skin was stuffed, and belongs to the 
Boston ]\Iuseum. The bridge M^as repaired, 
l)ut was soon washed away by a Feliruary 
freshet. It has never been rebuilt. In 1830 
a bridge was built across the river about one 
mile above the Ferry, which proved to be a 
temporary affair. 

The year 1816 is memorable as the "cold 
year." Attending each month, excepting Au- 
gust, was a hard frost. On the 9th of June 
there was a snow-storm that extended to the 
.sea-coast even. Very little corn was raised, and 
that of the poorest quality. Pigeons were very 
plenty, and furnished most of the meat for the 
inhabitants, who were in straitened circum- 
stances for food. Fodder was so scarce that 
cattle were by some turned into the forest and 
compelled to hroicse for their living. 

From the older citizens we learn that the year 
1826 was noted as the " gras.shopper year." 
Early in summer the ground was covered, the 
air filled with this loathsome insect. They 



ruined the hay and out-crops, but, the autumn 
being favorable, a good crop of aftermath was 
secured, and our farmers were enabled to winter 
a portion of tluMr stock. The other portion 
was sacrifii'cd throuo;h necessity. Cows were 
sold for five dollars ; others were so reduced in 
flesh that they were slaughtered for their hides. 

In 1831 much interest was awakened all along 
the river towns in the experiment of steam- 
boating upon the Upper Connecticut. At this 
time the amount of boating between the upper 
towns and Hartford and New York was con- 
siderable. 

It was carried on by flat-boats fitted with 
sails. In time of no wind long ropes or " tow- 
lines " were thrown to men upon the .shore, who 
"towed " the boat along the .stream. This was 
a laborious work. There was an universal 
desire for something better; accordingly, the 
" John Ledyard " was fitted up at Springfield, 
Mass., to make the experiment of steam navi- 
gation. As this steamer proceeded on its voyage 
up the river its sight was welcomed with hearty 
demonstrations of favor. The inhabitants 
gathered upon the banks of the river to view 
the boat with hopeful curiosity. But the.se 
hopes were destined to disappointment, for the 
experiences of one season in backing off the 
numerous sand-bars were sufficient to demon- 
strate that steamboating upon the Upper Con- 
necticut was impracticable. 

The year 1833 is spoken of on account of its 
wonderful display of celestial fire-works. ( )n 
the 13th of November, from two o'clock until 
daylight, for three hours, the heavens were 
resplendent with myriad shooting stars, all 
emanating from near the zenith and following 
the arch of the sky. Some are represented to 
be as large as the moon, others but faint streaks 
of light. Its effect upon the people was curious ; 
■some were impressed that the end of the world 
had come, some were excited to excessive relig- 
ious fervor, .some were trembling with terror and 
others yielded to worldly abandonment. This 
year witnessed the culmination of a long con- 



512 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tention over the Mill Brook highway. The 
selectmen upon petitiou had refused to lay out 
this road, whereupon its friends called upon the 
" Courts Committee," who had granted it. The 
town, nevertheless, at a meeting had by vote 
refused to build it, and by this action succeeded 
in being fined by the court. Thus being driven 
to the wall, the town chose Abijah French and 
Aaron Works a committee to let out the l)uild- 
ing of the road and also to superintend its con- 
struction ; but they raised no money for this 
object. But the road was soon built Ijy Simeon 
Cobb, for some $1.50 per rod. 

In 18;54 the town voted to borrow seven 
hundred dollars to complete the road. 

In 1783 the public feeling was very strongly 
opposed to Quakerism, as wefind, September 4th, 
the town voting " that no Shaking Quaker be 
allowed to stay in this town one night, except at 
a public-house, and chose a committee of fifteen 
persons to see that the vote was put into execu- 
tion." Exception was made to inhabitants of 
the town who might entertain tliis faith ; their 
number was few, however. 

Previous to 1787 no warrant for an annuid 
town-iueeting was considered to be complete 
without au article relating to swine. Generally 
the vote was to allow swine to run at larffe, 
provided " that they be yoked and j-inged ac- 
cording to law." To the traveler it was no 
uncommon sight to see his swineship upon the 
highway bearing the insignia of the law, his 
patent of nobility. 

In 1821 the town voted " that no swine be 
jjermitted to run at large in town, only such as 
the Wisdom of the Selectmen may permit." 

In 1822 the town forbid by vote to allow 
swine to run at large. 

January 23, 1782, the town voted "to pay a 
bounty until July 5th, of one shilling for killing 
an old crow and six pence for young crow that 
cannot fly " and " four pence per head for 
grown black-birds." 

About the year 1781, as Joshua Pierce was 
walking through the woods near the Gline 



Cemetery, in the shade of the evening, he was 
suddenly surprised by a bear close by his side. 
As Pierce was unarmed and Bruin seemed dis- 
posed to cultivate too intimate an acquaintance 
by walking upright, with four legs extended, 
as if desirous for an embrace that might uot 
partake of the propriety of friend.ship, Pierce 
swuug himself by means of the overhanging 
limbs into a tree-top and just escaped the enraged 
beast. He was forced all the long hours of 
night, however, to play the part of the 
prisoner until the approach of daylight, when 
Bruin, tired of his assumed role of guard, de- 
parted into the forest, arid Pierce returned to 
his alarmed family. In after-years Pierce was 
wont to talk of this night as the longest with- 
in his experience. From the Recorder, a news- 
paper printed at Keene, bearing date of De- 
cember 30, 1788, we cull the following item : 

" We hear from Westmoreland that as a person was 
working in a field in that town last Friday, that he 
was surrounded by seven wolves, but receiving im- 
mediate assistance, he escaped their devouring jaws." 

Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Aldrich came from 
Abington, Mass., in 1768 or 1770, and were 
among the fir.st settlers in the East Painsh. 
Their place for many years was owned and 
occupied by a worthy descendant, Arvin Aid- 
rich, Esq. Mrs. Aldrich brought in her pocket 
some pear-seeds, which she planted, and thus 
raised the first pear-trees in town. It is related, 
that one day, while visiting with a Mrs. Wood- 
ward a neighbor, who had called upon her, they 
were startled by an unusual uproar in the pig- 
sty. The women hastened to ascertain the 
cause, and were surprised at the sight of a 
huge bear in pursuit of porcine. Upon seeing 
the women Bruin retreated toward the hill to 
the eastward, followed by the intrepid women, 
who had seized the musket that always hung 
over the door of the early settler. But Bruin 
succeeded in eluding his pursuers, who were 
forced to return unsuccessful. Her husband 
upon his return informed them that the gun 
had no lock. 



WESTMORELAND. 



513 



From the Sentinel of July 22, 1815, we find 
tlie following relating to General Aldrieh : 

"About the year 1760, Gen. George Aldrieh, while 
hunting deer in the winter-time, upon snow-shoes, 
had an engagement with an enraged buck, which had 
furiously attacked him after he had thrown his hatchet 
and missed his object. Aldrieh had no other weapon, 
upon losing his hatchet, than his stout staff; this he 
used so effectively that he succeeded in killing his 
adversary without receiving any very serious injury to 
his own person. 

" Soon after, while returning home from hunting, 
he lodged the contents of his musket in the body of 
a catamount, which turned upon him full of fury ; but, 
fortunately having another bullet in his mouth, he 
had presence of mind to charge from hi.s powder- 
horn and drop in a bullet, with one stamp of the 
breech carried the ball home and at the same time 
primed the piece. The ball was lodged in the head 
of the animal almost at the instant he was ready to 
leap upon his prey. 

"At another time his dog attacked a large moose. 
Knowing by the dog's barking that he had game of 
some kind, he proceeded, with his axe in his hand, to 
ascertain its nature. On seeing him the moose left 
the dog and made directly for him. His only resource 
was to ascend a tree which had fallen across another 
and which was near at hand. When the moose had 
got within two rods he threw his axe Indian fashion, 
which, turning once, lodged in the neck of the animal, 
which instantly fell and bled to death." 

Conclusion. — In preparing this article I 
have been actuated by the de.sire to save from 
oblivion some of the more important events in 
the history of my native town of Westmore- 
land. My work is now ended, but far from 
finished. The many duties pertaining to an 
active business life engross my time and 
strength. Yet I would linger a moment to ex- 
press the hope that, some time in the future, some 
one with a more facile pen and more time at coui- 
inand may pufsue the theme of our local his- 
tory with profounder study and with deeper 
research, stimidated, encouraged hy public spirit 
to publish its fruitage in a more com|)lete form, 
and here I would express my grateful acknowl- 
edgments to all who, in the years past, have 
ilhimined the way with kindly words and 
assisting hands, and especially to Colonel D. W. 



Patten I owe my grateful acknowledginents 
for his helpful kindness, and to Hon. I. W. 
Hammond, the accomplished State historian, 
whose services have been to me invaluable. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



CHAMBERLAIN FAMILY. 

The Chamberlain family are of ancient origin 
and English descent, their ancestors bearing a 
coat-of-arms. Their lineage can be traced as far 
back as 1620, their first ancestor having come 
over in the " Mayflower," bearing the name of 
John Chamberlain. September 20, 1 7(J4, one of 
his descendants, named Thomas Chamberlain, 
with six others, names unknown, came to West- 
moreland, N. H., and united in signing the 
Church Covenant, the first step taken toward 
forming a Congregational Church in that place, 
they afterward uniting with the same. John 
Chamberlain, one of the original grantees of 
that town, was born in Newton, Mass.; marrietl 
Eunice Edson, September 17, 1707. His 
fourth son, John, was born August \'.\, 
1773; married I^ydia Brown, of West- 
moreland, October 0, 1 7i)6. Slie had a 
print costing a dollar a yard for her wed- 
ding-dress ; afterward, thinking it a sign that 
she would always be poor to be married in so 
costly a dress, she chose one of her own spinning 
and weaving; but he wore a suit of blue Ijroad- 
cloth, knee pants with silver buckles and long 
silk stockings. The only one left of this gen- 
eration is their youngest daughter, Marv P. 
Chamberlain, born May 5, 1818, who married 
John B. Osborne, of Westmoreland, and is 
now living on the same place where she 
was born, in Westmoreland. Their oldest son, 
John, born November 7, 1800; married, in 
1821, Mary Hall, of Westmoreland. She died 
February 16, 1826, leaving one son, John, Avho 
died about the age of two years. These gener- 



514 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ations were all agrieiilturists and lived in the 
eastern part of Westmoreland, on the ancestral 
acres. He married, second, December 1, 1826, 
Cai'oline F. Farrar, born in Shirley, Mass., 
May 14, 180;3. They lived in Westmoreland 
until 1849, when they moved to Keene, N. H. 
He died there October l;l, 1875. He was a well- 
read man, deejjly interested in all political and 
public questions. She died at Niagara Falls 
April 13, 1876. Their descendants are as fol- 
lows : John Adams Chamberlain, born Septem- 
ber 9, 1827, was the sixth in a direct line bearing 
the name of John Chamberlain. He always 
lived in Westmoreland, held many important 
offices of honor and trust in town and State 
which he never failed to fill with i-are fidelity 
and was always prompt and punctual to the 
moment in all his engagements. He married 
January 1, 18o2, Almira A. French, of West- 
moreland. He died April 29, 1880. 

Descendants, — Ella Maria, born October 9, 
1853; married, December 25, 1878, Allen A. 
Barker, of Westmoreland. Descendant, — An- 
na Mabel, born July 3, 1885. 

Arthur French, born August 15, 1857; mar- 
ried, July 2, 1884, Lessie A. McChesney, of 
Detroit, Mich. 

Anna Cora, born January 25, 1859. 

Carrie Belle, born March 12, 1861 ; married, 
October 31, 1883, John G. Stearns, of Keene. 
Descendant — Perry Chamberlain Stearns, born 
March 12, 1885. 

Helen Mar. Chamberlain, born March 7, 
1829; married, October 10, 1850. Albert 
Nash, of Keene ; reside at Niagara Falls. De- 
scendants, — Carrie Helen, born January 28, 
1857; married, December 17. 1885, James M. 
Merritt of Niagara Falls, N. Y. Nina Belle, 
born June 28, 1865. 

Catherine F. ]\I. Chamberlain, born February 
24, 1831 ; married, September 9, 1851, Hiram 
M. Howard, of Swauzey, N. H. He died at 
his home, Niagara Falls, June 19, 1880. De- 
scendants, — Louisa Maria, born in Keene, July 
13, 1852 ; died in Minneapolis, Minn., Novem- 



ber 4, 1872; Jennie Frances, born in Swauzey, 
February 24, 1856; died at Niagara Falls, 
February 7, 1880; Helen Williams, born at 
Niagara Falls, July 31, 1866. 

Adelaide L. Chamberlain, born Februarv 10, 
1833 ; married, November 8, 1853, David B. 
Stearns, of Keene ; reside in Keene. Descend- 
ants, — Helen Semira, born September 5, 1855; 
married, August 1, 1877, Dallas M. Pollard, of 
Chester, Vt. Descendants, — Margaret Ade- 
laide Pollard, born November 23, 1878 ; Eo- 
land Stearns Pollard, born May 19, 1881. 

Ellis R. D. Stearns, born August 27, 1857. 

Jotham Fred. Stearns, born Augu.st 17, 1864. 

Osburn Edson Chamberlain, born October 
30, 1834; married, April 18, 1861, Lucie Up- 
ton, of Rochester, N. Y ; reside in Rochester. 
Descendants, — Mary Belle, l)orn January 22, 
1862; Carrie Helen, born January 29, 1865, 
died April 2, 1869; Addie Laura, born July 
14, 1867, died March 9, 1869; Osburn Edson, 
born September 23, 1870 ; Laura May, born 
Novemlx-r 28, 1873; John David, born May 4, 
1875; Lillie Minnie, born October 31, 1881; 
Frank Shaw, born May 17, 1884. 

George P. F. Chamberlain, born August 26, 
1836; married, October 12,1865, Jennie E. 
Hayden, of Rochester, N. Y. He died at 
Niagara Falls, March 3, 1871. She died at 
Rochester, June 18, 1878, leaving three chil- 
dren, — Helen Josephine, born August 31, 
1867; George Hayden, born February 28, 
1869 ; Noel Byron, born December 28, 1870. 

Caroline C. Chamberlain, born March 18, 
1839; married, August 26, 1862, Almon 
Bolster, of Jaft'rey ; reside in Keene. Descend- 
ants,— Lilian Adelaide, born December 27, 
1866 ; Mabel Frances, born March 24, 1871. 

Isabel J. Chamberlain, born July 12, 1841 ; 
married, January 2, 1862, Josiah C. Richardson, 
of Keene ; reside in Jack.son, Mich. Descend- 
ants, Leon Josiah, born February 22, 1868 ; 
Isabel Florence, born November 5, 1869, died 
June 23, 1876; Arthur Howard, born January 
16, 1879. 



WESTMORELAND. 



515 



Xoel Byron Chamberlain, born Aua;ust 11, 
1 S4;5, enlisted in the Ninth New Hampshire Reg- 
iment of the War of 18G1, and served to its close; 
married^ Febrnary 18, 187.'5, Delia Brigham 
Clarke, of Fredonia, N. Y.; reside in Buffalo, 
N. Y. Descendants, — Eleanor Risley, born May 
30, 1879, died July 14, 1881. 

Frederic Delmer Chamberlain, born June 16, 
1 840, died September 1, 1849. 

Marion Lucia Chamberlain, burn December 
29, 1847, died September 9, 1849. 



GENEAI,OGY OF THE FRENCH FA^rILY.' 

First generation, — John and (Jrace French. 

John, born 1(J12; admitted as a freeman 
in Dorchester, Ma.ss., 1039. 

Second generation, — Thomas and Elizabeth. 

Thomas, their seventh son, born in Brain- 
tree, Mass., January, 1657 ; married Elizabeth 
; they had ten children. 

Third generation, — Ahijah French, seventh 
child of Thomas French, born May 25, 1709, 
married Johanna Holbrook born December 
21, 1712. 

Descendants : Mary French, born July 22, 
1736 ; Jesse French, born December 15, 1737; 
Josiah French, born September 10, 1739; 
Abijah French, burn February 14, 1741 ; 
Sarah French, born October 13, 1748; Lois 
and Eunice French, born June 2, 1750; Joanna 
French, born August 23, 1752. 

Fourth generation, — David French, born 
December 7, 1755, died February 19, 1836. 

In Milford Mass., David French, son of 
Abijah French, married, in 1777, Lydia Twitch- 
ell, born in Milford, September 18, 1760 ; 
died in Westmoreland, N. H., April 4, 1798. 

They had eight children, — six sons and two 
daughters, — • 

Sally, born December 21, 1779, married Mr. 
Lincoln, died June 30, 1807 ; Zeba, Ijorn June 
28, 1781, married Martha Partridge, died Oc- 



' Collected and arranged from authentic family records 
and other sources by J. A. French, of Keene, N. H. 
3.3 



tober 16, 1853, Bethel, Vt. ; Asaph, horn June 
25, 1784, married Pede Partridge, died August 
19, 1860, Royalton, Yt. ; Lotty, born August 
12, 1786, married Asa Partridge, died July 5, 
IStil, Stockbridge, Yt. 

Fifth generation, — Abijah, born June 2, 
1789, married Azubah Albee, died May 13, 
1862, Westmoreland N. H. ; Maynard, born 
October 29, 1791, married Clarissa Pollard, 
died May 7, 1874, Barre, Vt. ; David, born Feb- 
ruary 16, 1794, married Delia French, died 
August 14, 1864, Barre, Vt. ; Spencer, born 
July 6, 1796, married Lorena Chamberhiin, 
died July 29, 1875, Gaysville, Yt. 

David French married for his second wit'e 
Hannah White, of Westmoreland, born October 
3, 1777, married September 10, 1799, died 
January 27, 1857. 

They had eight children, — seven daughters 
and one son, — 

Lydia, born April 27, 1800, married Mr, 
Stephen Rust, died January 28, 1824 ; Lois, 
born November 28, 1801, married Mr. Augus- 
tus Carroll; Ritte, born April 26, 1804, mar- 
ried Thaddeus Streeter,died December 4, 1863; 
Samuel, born July 13, 1806, died December 24, 
1824, Westmoreland, N. H. ; Sally, born Feb- 
ruary 24, 1809, married Daniel Patten, Keene, 
N. H. ; Dinah, born May 6, 1811, married Oren 
Woods, died December 21, 1850, Keene, N. H.; 
Harriett, born September 7, 1814, married 
Ronalds Leonard, Brattleborougii, Vt. ; I\Iar- 
tha, born January 22, 1823, married Daniel 
Wheeler, died May 16, 1862, Bernardston, Mass. 

Abijah French, son of David French, in 
Westmoreland, December 15, 1814, by Rev. 
Allen Pratt, married Azubah, daughter of Tch- 
abod and Ijona Albee. 

They had ten children,— five sons and five 
daughters, — 

Infant daughter, born December 21, 1816, 
died December 21, 1816 ; infant daughter, 
born July 23, 1818, died July 23, 1818 ; Lira 
Ann French, born January 4, 1821, died Feb- 
ruary 15, 1821 ; Jotham Abijah, born .July 22, 



516 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1822, died April 25, 1825 ; Spencer Lincoln, 
born June 30, 1824, died October 1, 1827; 
infant son, born September 16, 1826, died Sep- 
tember IG, 1826 ; Almira Aziibah, born Octo- 
ber U, 1828 ; Madison, born December 19, 
1830, died February 13, 1831 ; Eunice Mariah, 
born January 30, 1832, died November 21, 
1848. 

Sixth generation, — Jotham Abijah , born April 
25, 1834. 

Married in Westmoreland, January 1, 1852, 
at nine a.m. by Rev. Stephen Rogers, John 
Adams Chamberlain and Almira A. French. 

Seventh generation, — Descendants : Ella 
Maria, born October 9, 1853, married Allen 
Barker, of Westmoreland, December 24, 1879 ; 
Arthur French, born August 15, 1857, married 
Lessie McChesney, of Detroit, July 2, 1884; 
Anna Cora, born January 25, 1859 ; Carrie 
Belle, born March 12, 1801, married John G. 
Stearns, of Keene, October 31, 1883. 

Married in Westmoreland, N. H., at eight 
P.M. October 31, 1883, by Rev. T. L. Fowler, 
John G. Stearns, of Keene, and Carrie B. 
Chamberlain, of Westmoreland. 

Eighth generation, — Descendant : Perry 
Chamberlain, born March 12, 1885. 

Married in Milford, Mass., September 20, 
1866, Thursday, at two p.m. by Rev. James 
B. Thornton, Jotham A. French, of Keene, 
N.H., and Mary A. Ellis, danghter of Washing- 
ton and Amanda (Howard) Ellis, of Milford. 

Seventh generation, — Descendants: Gertie 
Maria, born August 4, 1868, died December 22, 
1878; Bessie Mabel, born July 25,1871; 
Mary Bertha, born March 25, 1880. 

ISIarried, Allen A. Barker and Ella Maria 
Chamberlain, December 24, 1879. 

Descendant : Anna Mabel, born July 3, 
1885. 

ABU A II FRENCH. 

History is the resume of the lives and events 
which are to-day among the things of the pi-es- 
ent, to-morrow those of the past, and in his- 
tory mention should be made of those whose 



personal qualities, business enterprise and 
moral worth have contributed to the wealth, 
knowledge and welfare of the community 
in which they lived, and to this number belongs 
Abijah Frencli, of Westmoreland. 

The first American ancestors of this family 
were John and Grace French, — John, (1) boi-n 
1612. He emigrated to Dorchester, Mass., from 
England, prior to 1 639, as he was admitted free- 
man that year. He afterwards, 1648, removed 
to Braintrce, where he passed his life. His 
seventh child, Thomas, l)orn January 17, 1657, 

married Elizabeth , aljout 1695. Their 

seventh child, Abijah, married Johanna Hol- 
brook. Of their nine children, David was the 
youngest. He married Lydia Twitchell, of 
Milford, Mass. He was a farmer, and fore- 
seeing future success anil a better field for his 
labor in developing the new lauds in the upper 
Connecticut Valley, he removed to Westmore- 
land, N. H., in 1788, purchased lands and be- 
came an agriculturist. In that period of our 
country's history the means of locomotion were 
few and slow, and the moving was done with 
an ox-team. But David French possessed the 
true spirit of the typical New England farmer 
and pioneer, and although the country where 
he was to make his home was almost a prime- 
val wilderness, his pluck, persistency and per- 
severance soon accomplished the work of clear- 
ing a piece of laud, erecting a dwelling-house 
and bringing his farm into a good state of cul- 
tivation. It is now occupied by his descend- 
ants, and is situated midway between West- 
moreland South village and Chesterfield Fac- 
tory village. His first wife, by whom he had 
eight children, died April 4, 1798, and he 
married, second, September 10, 1799, Hannah 
White, of Westmoreland. They had eight 
children. David French was a vigorous, stal- 
wart, positive man, and with his industry and 
other good qualities, it is no wonder that he 
acquired success, as well as a good name. 

Abijah French, son of David and Lydia 
(Twitchell) French, was born on the homestead 



/ 



f ^ 




1^54^ 




,70yyi/i i^S^^^ 



WESTMORELAND. 



517 



in Westmoreland N. H., when everything was 
in a primitive state, and the country but sparsely 
settled. The facilities for educational advantages 
were few and rare, — the school-house a rougii 
structure with slab seats, the school terra limit- 
ed to a few months in the winter, when the 
farmer could not pursue his labor in the field. 
He was trained to work when a boy, and ac- 
quired those habits of industry, prudence and 
economy to which his success in life was mainly 
due. He remained with his parents until his 
majority ; then, contemplating marriage, he be- 
gan a house for himself, but, war being declared 
with Great Britain iu 1812, he boarded up 
the windows of the yet unfinished house, and 
prepared to go to war. He did not go, however, 
as he was not drafted, so he finished his house 
and married, December 15, 1814, Azubah, 
daughter of Ichabod and Lona (Haywai'd) 
Albee. Mr. French carried on farming, car- 
ing for his father and mother iu their declining 
years, and succeeded to the homestead. He 
also owned a saw-mill, which his father had 
erected on a convenient mill privilege, and 
which for those days, before the era of many 
improvements and convenient machinery, did 
a wonderful work. The mill could be started 
on a log, the automatic machinery would set 
itself, and, without further aid, cut the whole 
log into lumber. He sawed lumber, drew it to 
the Connecticut River, and rafted it to Hartford 
and other places. This he continued for many 
years. In winter he drove his team to Boston, 
carrying his own produce and bringing iu ex- 
change supplies for his own and neighbors' 
use. He kept things moving in every direc- 
tion that his ingenuity could devise, eating not 
the food of idleness, but gaining his bread by 
the sweat of his brow, and hence it was sweet 
and he knew how to estimate it. He was 
always a successful worker, a producer, not 
a mere consumer, and the example of such a 
man is provocative of force, industry and gen- 
eral prosperity in the community where he lives. 
In all matters of business he not only labored 



hard, but had a rare judgment and in a high 
degree, what is known in New England as " fac- 
ulty." He was captain of a cavalry troop of 
militia, and a strict disciplinarian. Democratic 
in politics, he represented ^Yestmoreland in the 
State Legislature in 1850 and 1851. He was 
intrusted with the management and settlement 
of many estates, and was often selected as 
guardian to orphan children. He was select- 
man for the years 1830 to 1839, and held a 
commission of justiceof the peace, and in all these 
various positions he discharged his duties faith- 
fully and to the satisfaction of his constit- 
uents. 

Mr. French was vciy systematic, industrious, 
economical, prudent and temperate, and so hon- 
est that everywhere he was known and marked 
for his sterling integrity. A strong man, of 
positive nature, he enjoyed to a high degree 
the confidence, friendship and love of the citi- 
zens of his native town, than whom none were 
more highly reverenced. He was an attendant 
of the Congregationalist Church, of which his 
wife was a valued member, and contributed 
largely to the support of the gospel. In all 
affairs of public interest in town he was an ac- 
tive force, and worked Zealously in all fields 
which his judgment told him were of usefulness. 
He died May 13, 1862. His wife survived 
him many years, shedding the light of a Chris- 
tian example, and surrounded by the care 
and ministrations of kind and loving; children 
until, in the fulness of time she, too, was gath- 
ered to her rest, December 19, 1884. 



IX MEMORIAM. 

AZUBAH ALBEE FEENCH, 

DAUGHTER OF ICHABOD AND LOXA ALBEE. 

WIFE OF ABI.JAH FRENCH. 

BORN IN WESTMORELAND, N. H., 

FEBRUARY 21, 1795. 

WENT HOME TO HEAVEN 

DECEMBER 19, 1884. 

AGED 89 YEARS, 9 MONTHS, 28 DAYS. 

Mrs. Azubah French died at her home in West- 
moreland the 19th of December at 6 o'clock in the 



618 



HISTOllY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



afternoon, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years 
and ten months. By the death of tliis estimable 
lady, the oldest inhabitant of the town passed away. 
But few remain with whom she was associated in mid- 
dle life, when she had an extensive actiiiaintance and 
Was much respected by all. She i>ossessed many 
sterling qualties— good sense, prudent in speech, an 
obliging neighbor. She was kind to the poor and 
always ready to visit the sick and administer to their 
wants. Her thoughtfulness of the welfare of otliers, 
her charities and kindliness of heart, will long be re- 
membered by the pco|)Ie of her native town. Although 
feeble for some years, her last illness was of short du- 
ration. She had ten children, five of whom died in 
infancy, two in their childhood years, and one cut 
down by disease in the midst of her youthful days. 
Only two survive her — Mrs. Alniira A. Chamberlain, 
of Westmoreland, and Jotham A. French, of Keene. 
Mrs. French's life was one of untiring industry. She 
never ate the "bread of idleness'" She looked well 
to the ways of her own household, trained her children 
in the paths of morality and religion, and they in 
turn have been dutiful and faithful to her, sparing no 
effort to make her declining years pleasant and happy. 
She united with the Congregational Church in July, 
18151, and she has always been a consistent and worthy 
member. Only one survives her who was a member 
of the church at the time she united with it. S. 

"blessed are the dead who die in the loud." 
The last link (save that of a dear sister) that binds 
niy heart to the maple-shaded home of my youth is 
broken. Our mother has gone. There is a sadness 
in the thought that I no longer have a mother here 
on earth. But I cannot murmur, for she was spared 
to us far beyond the allotted "three-score years and 
ten." In her departure one more of the life-long resi- 
dents of Westmoreland has passed the silent river 
and joined the happy throng of saints on the other 
Bide, and is now united to the loved ones who had 
gone before. At the age of twenty years she married, 
and lived with her husband forty-seven years, when, 
Rt the age of seventy-two, he passed away. They 
lived a luippy life, though clruded by the loss of 
eight children during those many years of conjugal 
atl'ection. For the last twenty-two years our mother 
has lived in the loneliness of widowhood, though sus- 
tained by the consolations of that religion which, for 
fifty-three years, has been the rule of her life. In 1873 
my sister's family moved into the old home to care for 
her and guide her footsteps gently down the decline 
of life. Never did she fully recover from the loss of 
her son-in-law, who was suddenly stricken down four 
years ago in the prime of life. His kindness and 



devotion were cherished to the very last. The death 
of her granddaughter, a short time before, also made 
a visible impression upon her gradually failing 
strength, and when, sixteen months before her death, 
in consequence of a fall, she could only get about her 
room in a wheel-chair, it became apparent that the 
sands of her life had nearly run out. On the seventy- 
fifth anniversary of her birth many of the relatives 
and friends gave her a pleasant surprise, celebrating 
the joyous occasion with music, supper, reading of a 
poem, etc., and have repeated it for the last fourteen 
years, with the exception of two years, when sickness 
in the family prevented. Several of those who were 
present at these annual gatherings have dropped one by 
one from the circle, but she was spared to see ninety 
years, save two months. In the hundreds of visits 
that 1 have made during the past twenty-three years, 
she has invariably met me with a mother's cordial 
greeting, and, on leaving, gave me a piu-ting kiss, say- 
ing, " Good-bye. Come and see me again." Those 
oft-repeated words were the last that fell upon my ear 
from her lips. While I have been truly thankful 
that a kind Providence prolonged her life to a ripe 
old age, she has been only " waiting and watch- 
ing" for the welcome summons, "Come unto me and 
I will give you rest." 

"The journey at last is o'er. 

And the struggles and toils are past. 
And the holy angels who led her on, 
Till the fight was fought 
And the victory won. 
Have carried her home at last." 

J. A. French. 



HASKEW. BUFFUM. 

The Buffuni family has in many generations 
of the past been mostly agriculturists, indus- 
trious, careful iiulividuals, doing their duties 
well in the sphere of life to wliich tliey were 
called. Here and there one of the family has 
drifted into other fields, professional, commer- 
cial or scholastic, and shown capabilities and 
powers whicli have won success, but tlie greater 
number have been " tillers of the soil." They 
have been men of good judgment, active tem- 
perament, broad and liberal in their views, and 
have performed their share of the public mat- 
ters of the town. This family is of English 
descent. Robert Buffum emigrated to America 




^^■f ?l-yAM.RiU>i'J^ 



<^6c, Aud/ d'-j^L^ 



WESTMORELAND. 



519 



from Yorkshire, England, and settled in Salem, 
Mass., wlierc his name was recorded in 1638. 
He died in 1(579. His wife, Thomasine, was 
bora iu 1(J0G, died in 1688. They had seven 
children. Their .son Caleb, born in Salem, 
1650, married Hannah, daughter of Joseph 
Pojte, who came to America at the same time 
with Robert. Caleb died in 17-51. Benjamin, 
son of Calet), born 1686, married a Buxton. 
Joseph, his son, born 1717, died 1796, married 
Margaret Osborne, horn 1719. Their son, Jo- 
seph, born in Smithfield, R. I., 1754, emigrated 
to Westmoreland in 1784, and lived in the 
south part of the town, and was a farmer. He 
married Sally, daughter of Elias Haskell, of 
Ijancastcr, Mass. They had seven sons, all of 
whom inherited the strong mind, persistent 
will and good common .sense for which the 
family has ever been remarkable. Joseph 
Buflfum lived in the latter part of the eighteenth 
century, when the demand was to live, and 
the question "how?"' was answered by being 
brave, active and vigorous. All of these traits 
Mr. Butfum possessed, and with a wife having 
the same spirit as a helper, the children of this 
worthy couple were strong mentally as well as 
jihysically. Mr. Buffum died in Westmoreland 
in 1829 ; his wife survived him, dying Septem- 
ber, 1848. 

Joseph, the oldest of these seven child- 
ren, was graduated at Dartmouth College, 
became a lawyer, was a member of Congress in 
1818, and, at one time, postmaster at Keene, 
and a man of marked ability, dying unmarried. 
Sewell married Fanny Atherton, of Chesterfield ; 
they had two children, George and Frances 
A. Erasmus married Hepsy Thayer, of 
Westmoreland ; their children were Solon (of 
Staten Island), Alba, James, Sally, Mary and 
Jewett E. William married Mary Ann, daugh- 
ter of Thomas Gordon, of Sterling, Conn ; their 
children were William G., Rufus E., Joseph 
H., George D., Edward W. and Sarah Ann. 
Haskell. Solon, who died young. David, who 
married Mary, daughter of Hon. Thomas and 



Eleanor (Foster) Bellows; their children are 
Thomas B. and Ann Reynolds. 

Haskell Buffum, the fiflh son of Joseph and 
Sally (Haskell) Buflt'um, was born in Westmore- 
land, September 29, 1795. A farmer's son, 
and one of a large family, he was early obliged 
to labor, and his opportunities for school educa- 
tion were limited to the district school, sup- 
plemented l)y one term at Chestei-field Academy. 
But a farmer's life does not necessarily include 
a life which excludes time for thought and 
reading; on the contrary, a farmer has ample 
time to think and digest what he has read ; for, 
as an old writer has well said, "a few books 
well studied and thoroughly digested nourish 
the understanding more than hundreds but 
gargled througii the mouth," and, through life, 
Mr. Buffum carefully improved his opportu- 
nities for reading and observation. He worked 
on his father's farm until he was about twenty- 
seven years old, then purchased one adjoining, 
and, with the care of his own place, superintend- 
ed his father's for many years, and was a dil- 
igent, persevering, hard-working and successful 
farmer. 

In vVpril, 1820, Mr. Buffum married Seloma, 
daughter of Jonathan Wood. Mrs. Buffum was 
a woman of good thought, an almost unfailing 
memory, bright and cheerful iu her manners 
and disposition. She died December, 1883, agetl 
eighty-four years and three months. 

Their children were Haskell W., now at 
Walla Walla, Washington Territory ; he mar- 
ried Mary Burker, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; they 
have five children now living. Julia married 
Dr. Charles Lord, of Westmoreland, and settled 
in Shakopee, Minn.; they have seven children. 
Joseph married Maria A. Ramaley, of Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. ; of their seven children, five survive; 
the oldest. Dr. J. H. Buffum, is an oculist aud 
aurist in Chicago, 111. Seloma married F. W. 
Jenkins, of Pittsburgh, Pa. ; they have five 
children. Mary A. married Jason D. Wheeler, 
of San Francisco, Cal. ; Caroline J. married 
Stephen H. Burt, of Westmoreland ; she died 



520 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



April 17, 1881; tlioy liad seven children. 
Sarah A. married John I). Ramaley, now living 
at St. Paul, Minn., has two children. Susan A., 
twin-sister of Sarah A., died aged four years. 
Coralinn H. married John Works (son of Aaron 
Works, of Westmoreland, a life-long resident of 
the town and a prominent man in business and 
social circles); they have had three children, 
Mary B. (died aged nine years), Walter L. and 
Frederick A. It was with this daughter, Mrs. 
Works, that Mr. Buffum passed his declining 
years. 

Mr. Buifum was a jjarticipant in the civil 
business of his native town, having been select- 
man and representative to the Legislature two 
terms. He was actively interested in the mili- 
tary organizations of the State, and carefully 
preserved his commissions of ensign, Fifth Com- 
pany, Twentieth Regiment of militia, received 
from Governor Plumer, June 30, 1819; that of 
lieutenant, dated March 24, 1821 ; and of cap- 
tain, August 16, 1822, signed by Governor 
Bell ; and his honorable discharge. Mr. Buffum 
died in his native town, March 11, 1885, aged 
eighty-nine years and five months. He was at 
the time of his death the oldest citizen in town, 
and it is worthy of especial note that, notwith- 
standing his advanced age, he continued in full 
possession of his clear mentality and vigor of 
intellect up to the last hours of his life. 

In his religious belief, Mr. BuflFum was a 
Universalist, and from childhood a regular 
attendant upon church services. He was a man 
of courteous manners, of cheerful and humorous 
disposition, most temperate habits, kind and 
affectionate in his family relations, and at the 
close of life's long day he could look back 
to labors well performed and forward to a well- 
earned rest from toil. 

To more than an ordinar_y degree Mr. and 
Mrs. Buffum enjoyed and deserved the love, 
honor and reverence of the community to whom 
for so many years their lives were as an open 
book, on whose pages naught was M'ritten but 
upright motives, charitable deeds, and actions 



in every way consonant with the teachings of 
the Golden Rule. Of the best type of the ster- 
ling New England character of the last genera- 
tion, long will their memory be cherished with 
devotion by their descendants, and the remem- 
brance of their lives rest like a sweet odor and 
a worthy example in the minds of the dwellers 
in Westmoreland. 



THEODORE COLE. 

The Cole families of Westmoreland, N. H., 
are descended from Jbhn Cole, of Hartford, 
Conn., who came from England in 1636, was 
a freeman in 1647, and died in 1685. He had 
three sons, — John, Samuel, and Nathaniel. Of 
Samuel's children, Jonathan, born 1696, was 
the youngest, and settled in Harvard, Mass. 
He had three .sons, — Jonathan, born 1730, who 
was one of the grantees of the town of West- 
moreland ; John, born in 1741, died 1786, set- 
tled in the north part of Westmoreland ; and 
Abijah, born 1732, married, about 1757; Sarah 
Kent, of Harvard, INIass., and died in Harvard, 
1 768, aged thirty-six years. Abijah left two sons, 
Abijah and Asa. Asa was born in 1768, the 
year of his father's death. His early boyhood 
was passed with an aunt, Mrs. Chamberlain, in 
Westmoreland. After his thirteenth year he 
worked with his step-father, Samuel Garfield, 
a millwright, at that trade, building and repair- 
ing many mills in numerous places in New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. In 
January, 1793, he married Anna Goldsmith of 
Harvard, Mass., and resided there for a year 
or more, then for seven years he made his home 
in Rindge, N. H., then removed to Westmore- 
land, and worked at his trade. He built the 
mills afterwards known as the Pierce Mills, and 
was manager of the property for a long time. 
About 1815 he proposed joining the colony 
which Ephraim Brown was organizing for a 
settlement in Ohio, but a severe hemorrhage 
compelled him to relinquish the plan. He 
made a trip to the coast of Maine, but without 







JkZ^in^^&<>-tl 



WESTMORELAND. 



521 



any beneficial results, and returned to West- 
moreland where he died December 6, 1816, 
aged forty-eight years. " His wife, left with a 
large family of young children, proved herself a 
woman of abundant resource. She kept her 
children at home till they grew to be of ser- 
vice to others, when, one by one, they went 
their ways in life. She afterward married 
Amory Pollard, of Bolton, Mass., whom she 
survived. She died in Montpelier, Vt., Sep- 
tember 4, 1852, full of years, loved and honor- 
ed by her children and friends." Her burial- 
place is at Westmoreland. 

Asa and Anna (Goldsmith) Cole iiad eleven 
children, — Asa, who died 1872, aged seventy- 
nine; Richard G. — died 1864, aged sixty-nine; 
>S'ar«/(. wife of Asa Farnswortli, died 1832, aged 
35; Benjninm died at Chagres, Panama, 1850, 
aged 51 ; Anna Goldsmith, wife of Rev. Isaac 
Esty died 1872 aged 70 ; Philena died 1859, aged 
55 ; John, (a whaling captain), died 1875, aged 
68 ; Susan (married, first, Elihu Whitcomb, 
second, Orin Pitkin), died 1883, at Montpelier, 
Vt., aged 74; William, died 1830, aged 19; 
Theodore and Charles, who died (from injuries 
inflicted by a whale, while in command of a 
whale- ship) 1853, aged 37. 

'Theodore Cole, tenth child of Asa and Anna 
(Goldsmith) Cole, was born in AVestmore- 
land, N. H., May 11, 1813. At the age 
of nine-years he went to live in the family of 
Abijah French, a farmer and lumberman of 
Westmoreland. He lived with Abijah French 
until tlie summer of 1834, M'orking on the 
farm summers and attending district school in 
the winter. In the spring of 1835 he left 
Westmoreland, to embark on the sea of active 
life. He went to New Bedford, Mass., the 
place then so celebrated for its great whaling 
interests and engaged as a seaman under the 
well-known master, Captain James Maxfield. 
His first voyage lasted eighteen mouths, and 
among the various points of interest at which 
they stopped were the Azores, South Africa, 
Madagascar, Comoro Islands and Isle of 



France. In April, 1837, he sailed under Cap- 
tain Shubael Hawes, ship '* Frances Henrietta" 
(Charles W. Morgan, agent), and made a two 
years' voyage, going around the world, and 
touching at Cape of Good Hope, Van Diemen's 
Land, Pernambuco, etc. In the fall of 1839, 
he set sail under the same master (Cap- 
tain Hawes), in the ship " Julian," (agents 
Hathaway & Luce), and cruised for some time 
on the Atlantic, stopping at Cape To\vu, Cape 
of Good Hope. They then extended their 
voyage to the northwest coast of New Holland, 
Australia. At this point he left the "Julian," 
having filled the ship, and went on board the 
bark "Pacific" of Fairhaven, Captain Webb. 
Thev sailed south and southeast along New 
Holland, touching at Hobart Town, then east 
by New Zealand, then around Cape Horn, 
touching at St. Catlierina, Brazil, arriving home 
in January, 1842. 

During all these years of seafaring life 
Mr. Cole had, by diligent and prompt attention 
to his duties, won the approval of his employ- 
ers and prepared the way for promotion, and 
at the age of thirty years he had circumnavi- 
gated the globe twice, and in May, 1843, as 
master of ship "Parachute," (Benjamin B. How- 
ard, agent), he began his third voyage around 
the world, stopping at the Sandwich Islands 
for recruits, thence north to the northwest 
coast, returned to Sandwich Islands for water, 
etc., thence to the South Pacific, around Cape 
Horn, returning to New Bedford in July, 
1845. 

Captain Cole was married, in August, 1845, 
to Livilla, daughter of Captain Wilson Gleason, 
a lifelong resident of Westmoreland, and in 
October of the same year he sailed in ship 
"Marengo" (agent, Jonathan Bourne), touching 
at Cape Veid, passing west around Cape Horn 
and on to the Sandwich Islands, from there to the 
coast of Kamtchatka. He was absent two years 
and eight months. In November, 1848, Cap- 
tain Cole sailed in ship "Cowper" (agent, B. B. 
Howard) on a long voyage for whales in the 



522 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Arctic Ocean. Mrs. Cole accompanied hira. 
They sailed direct for Cajje Verd, down the 
coast of South America, west around Cape 
Horn, from thence to the Sandwich Islands, 
then, leaving his wife to await his i-eturn, he 
steered for Behring Strait, passing in June the 
western extremity of Oonalaska. He re- 
mained one season in the Arctic Ocean, discov- 
ering the Plover Islands, July lo, 15(49, although 
he never claimed the title or credit of a discov- 
erer. On his return to the Sandwich Islands, 
his wife rejoined him. They then sailed for 
Houg Kong, China, where they passed a month 
preparing for another Arctic voyage. From 
there tliey sailed through the Japan Sea and 
the Matsumai Strait, north along the coast of 
Kamtchatka stopping at Petropulaski, then 
to the Arctic 0(«an, where Captain Cole com- 
pleted his cargo and started for home. The 
voyage of two years and a half, although full 
of interest and with opportunities of seeing 
many distant lands, and abounding in varied 
experience, was long to Mrs. Cole, and she 
heartily rejoiced when the spires and hills of 
New Bedford came in view, March 22, 1851, 
and she could once nK)re stand up(in land. 

Captain Cole had now for nearly sixteen 
years followed the sea continuously, and by 
his practicality, prudence and perseverance had 
acquired a competency, and lie decided to give 
up his maritime jirofcssion and enjoy the well- 
earned fruits of his labors but being naturally 
au energetic man, idleness was not to his taste, 
and he engaged in manufacturing and mer- 
chandising in Brattleborough, Vt,, where he re- 
mained until 1859, then removed to Westmin- 
ster, Vt., and purchased a farm and lived there 
about seven years, identifying himself with 
the affairs of the town, which he represented 
in the Legislature of 18G2. After leaving West- 
minster, he resided in Keene one year, and then 
made his home in Waverly village, Belmont, 
Mass., for nine years, in order to give his chil- 
dren the advantages of better educational fa- 
cilities. In 1875 he made a pleasure trip 



(prospecting) to California, Colorado and Wy- 
oming, then returned to Westmoreland, his na- 
tive place, where he has since resided, and em- 
ploys his leisure in farming. He was a 
member of the Legislature in 1881-82, as a 
representative of the Republican party, to which 
he has belonged since 1856, when he cast his 
vote for Fremont. 

The children of Theodore and Livilla (Glea- 
son) Cole were Frank T., born June 22, 1853 
(he is a graduate of Williams College, Mass., 
and of Columbia Law School, New York,) now 
a jiraeticing lawyer of ability in Columbus, Ohio ; 
William H., born August 19, 1854, is a wheat 
farmer in San Joaquin County, Cal., mar- 
ried, June 3, 188.'5, Addie M. Greene (they 
have one daughter) ; Lucy Anna, born Febru- 
ary 29, 1856 (deceased); Sarah G., born Febru- 
ary 15, 1857 (died at the age of seventeen); 
and Richard G. l)orn March 21, 1860 (died 
February 12, 1863). 

Captain C(jle was a sea-captain of pronounced 
ability, and a natural leader of men, and as 
shipmastei', merchant and farmer impressed 
others with a sense of his fitness to laid and 
direct, and was an important factor in the 
community where he resided. He improved 
the opportunities of his later life for reading 
and study, so that men of a more liberal 
education wondered at his extensive and ac- 
curate knowledge of history and general liter- 
ature, and his stories of the past showed observa- 
tion and were full of life and hunior. He was au 
able and good counselor to younger men, who 
often resorted to him for advice. Since 1876 he 
had been a member of the Congregational 
Church and contributed liberally to its support. 

Captain Cole was a kind husband and father, 
a loyal citizen and a good man. He died 
July 2, 1885. 



OLIVER L. BUIGGS. 

Of the successful men who have gone out 
from the " Old Granite State" to win fortune 



WESTMORELAND. 



523 



ill the broad field of activity is Oliver L. 
Briggs, of Boston, Mass., a native of the 
town of Westmorelaud, N. H. He comes of 
good Puritan stock, and in his business career 
has evinced many of the principles of the fore- 
fathers of our American republic. 

Caleb Briggs, his great-grandfather, was 
boru in Rehoboth, Ma.ss., February 127, 1743, 
and married, for his first wife, Annie I.iutlier. 
They had five children, two dying in infancy, 
and the three arriving to maturity were Delia, 
Lemuel and Luther. His .second wife was 
t'hloe French ; their married life continued for 
thirty-five years. He married, third, Mrs. 
Mercy Farr. Caleb Briggs came to West- 
moreland iu 1770, where he died, in 1825, 
aged eighty-two years, having lived a long 
life of usefulness. 

Lemuel, his oldest son, was Ijorn in Reho- 
both, Mass., in 1767, and when three years 
of age he removed, ^vith his parents, to West- 
moreland, N. H., when the now well-cul- 
tivated farms were a wilderness. He pa.ssed 
his early life aiding his father in clearing 
the land and tilling the .soil and preparing 
a place to live. He was not finely, but 
strongly educated, receiving an education which 
wa-s the best fitted for his sphere iu life, and 
which, while it developed the muscles, also 
developed the mental powers, and gave to 
his descendants, a goodly inheritance of pluck, 
persistency and perseverance, which enabled 
them to accomplish their aim in life. In 
1791 he married Polly Stephens, who bore 
him seven children, — Polly, Lemuel, Elenor, 
Luther, Amasa, Philander S. and Rhoda. 
Ijcmuel Briggs died in Westmoreland iu 1868, 
after being a resident there for nearly ninety- 
eight yeai^s, aged one hundred years, nine 
months and nine days, having served his 
day and generation long and well. Amasa, 
the fifth child of Lemuel and Polly (Steph- 
ens) Briggs, M'as born in AVestmoreland, and, 
following the occupation of his father, became 
an ao;riculturist. He married Sallv Leonard. 



She wa,s a descendant of the Ijconard family, 
who were early settlci-s in Plymouth County, 
Mass., and prominent in England for many 
generations, coming from Leonard, Lord Dacre 
of England, and through two lines from Ed- 
ward III., viz., through John of Gaunt, Duke 
of Lancaster, and Thomas Plantagenet, Duke 
of Gloucester. Their children were Angeline 
(who died in infancy), Lucy and Oliver L. 
(twins ; Lucy died at the age of twenty), 
Ortensia (who married John E. Vazey, and 
had two children, Tensia and John E.), Alonzo 
(married Lilian Roberts of Boston) and Ly- 
man (married Alice Varney, and has one child, 
Margery). 

Oliver Leonard Briggs, the oldest son of 
Amasa and Sally (Leonard) Briggs, was born in 
Westmoreland, N. H., September 18, l<s;32. 
His early life, until he was eighteen, was passed 
at home, laboring upon the farm, and enjoy- 
ing the usual privileges of country common 
schools, and a few terms at High School. 
He was not strong physically, and unsuited to 
farm labor, and this fact, together with a laud- 
able ambition to go from home and make for 
him.self a place in the world of industry, in- 
duced him at this time, (iSoO) to go to Bo.s- 
ton, and he commenced his successful business 
life. He, at first, accepted a position a.s clerk 
for his uncle, Philander S. Briggs, a West In- 
dia goods merchant ; he served him faithfully 
for a few years and then entered the store of 
James B. Dorr, on Tremont Street, as book- 
keeper, where he remained for some time, dili- 
gently attending to his duties, and living in a 
quiet manner, in order to accumulate something 
from his salary towards a capital of the future, 
and all this time his keen and inquiring mind 
was seeking to devise some way to enable him 
to enlarge his opportunities. At length he es- 
tablished himself in the wholesale and retail 
book trade, and in the meantime, believing that 
" Knowledge is wealth," or one of the ways to it, 
he supplemented his education by studying 
French and book-keeping, and graduated from 



524 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Comer's Commercial College with a good rec- 
ord. He can-ied on this business successfully 
for about six years, wlien he moved to the south 
part of the city, aud engaged in the manufac- 
ture of croquet sets, parlor billiards, and simi- 
lar games for cliildren, for several years, and 
was financially successful. In 1870 he con- 
ceived the idea of going to Jacksonville, 
Fla., for the purpose of manufacturing fur- 
niture, but illness prevented him from carry- 
ing his plan into execution. In 1871, his 
health being re-established, he enlarged his 
plant, and commenced making full-size billiard 
tables. Their superiority being fully estab- 
lished, he has prosperously continued his en- 
terprise, and his tables are now found in private 
residences and popular resorts throughout the 
country, aud Mr. Briggs has devised many me- 
chanical contrivances to keep pace with modern 
improvements, among others the attacliment of 
an improved cushion, wliich he patented in 
October, 1871. 

Mr. Briggs married Mary S. Stone, a lady of 
culture and refinement. [She is the daughter 
of Rev. Cyrus and Abigail (Kimball) Stone. 
Mr. Stone was a nati\'e of Marlborough, N. H., 
a missionary in Bombay, India, aud a writer of 
note. Mrs. Stone was a teacher there under 
the auspices of the American Board, and their 
daughter was born in India.] Mr. and Mrs. 
Briggs have one son, Frederick Huntington, 
aged nineteen years, who is now pursuing a 
collegiate course at Brown University, at Provi- 
dence R. I. 

Mr. Briggs is now in the full vigor of his 
manhood, enjoying the competency which 
he has acquired by his own unaided exertions, 
and he recalls with satisfaction his patient in- 
dustry and persevering energy in starting from 
an humble beginning upon a special line of 
manufacturing, through which he has gained 
so large a success as a business man. His prac- 
tical intelligence and common sense have Ijeen 
broadened by extensive travel in both continents, 
quickened by contact witii men and rounded 



by constant use. In all respects, Mr. Briggs 
is a type of the bright, active, sagacious aud 
honoral)le American, and his prosperity is due 
to his long-continued and well-directed applica- 
tion to business, and determination to have his 
products the best of their kind. 



HENEY ESTY. 

The Esty family is an old and respected one 
in the town of Westmoreland, having been resi- 
dents there for over a century. The name is 
variously spelled in old records, such as Estey, 
Eastey, Easty and Esty. The family is not a 
numerous one. Jeffrey Esty, the first Ameri- 
can ancestor of those bearing that name, settled 
in Salem, Mass., prior to 1637, and Edward 
Eastey, of Sutton, Mass., married Mehitabel, 
daughter of Stephen and Nancy (Dodge) Marsh, 
sometime after 1750. Of their children, Ed- 
ward and Stewart Esty appear as the only ones 
mentioned in the records. We cannot fix the 
identity of these, by any documentary evidence, 
as connected with the Westmorelaud Estys, but 
the latter branch originated in Sutton, and the 
similarity of the names would apparently be 
more than a mere coincidence. Be that as it 
may, we find that Steward Esty emigrated from 
Sutton, Mass., to ^Yestmoreland, N. H., about 
a hundred years ago. Steward Esty passed his 
early life in Sutton, and when a lad, while 
plowing, he heard the firing at the battle of 
Bunker Hill. He worked for a few years at 
his trade of carpenter in Hudson, N. Y., and 
afterward came to Westmoreland, N. H., and 
made a home for himself and his wife, Mary 
(Brown) Esty, and settled on what is now known 
as the David Esty farm. He combined farm- 
ing with his carpentering, and was a successful 
and prosperous man. His brother Edward 
went to Elaine and settled there. William made 
his residence in Brownington, Vt. David came 
to Westmoreland, was a farmer, resided in the 
town, and there died. Steward and Mary 
(Brown) Esty had five children, — John (who 




y^j/^-ca^ o^L*^ 



^c-e^ 



WESTMORELAND. 



525 



was drowned when about fourteen years of age) ; 
Mary (married Niles Aldrieh, of Westmore- 
land, and had four children) ; Nathaniel 
(married Lois Woodward, of Westmoreland ; 
tlioy had three children, — Betsy, deceased, Ed- 
ward and Emil}', still living in Westmoreland) ; 
Clarissa (married Willard Bill, of Gilsum ; of 
their two children, one died in infancy, the other, 
Willard, is a resident of Westmoreland) ; Henry. 

Henry Esty, the youngest child of Steward 
and Mary (Bi-own) Esty, was born in West- 
moreland June 18, 1S0(). He was a studious 
boy, and diligently improved the meagre oppor- 
tunities for education the common schools 
offered, and while in his teens he taught school, 
and then availed himself of the money acquired 
for more extended instruction, and at the age 
of twenty he took charge of a school in Surry, 
N. H. He afterward taught in Brattleborough, 
Vt., and two winters in the north part of West- 
moreland, and was a teacher in Keene when 
the superintending committee was Colonel Wil- 
son, Aaron Hall and the well-known and be- 
loved minister, Dr. Barstow. 

At the time of Heniy's marriage his father 
made a division of his real estate among his child- 
ren, and, as was the custoni in those days (for 
men of means to so arrange their property that 
some especial provision should be made for their 
future) he gave to Henry twenty-five acres ad- 
ditional, with the proviso that he should be the 
child of his old age, and Henry lived with his 
father until the death of the latter, in April, 1 .S41 . 

Mr. Esty married in 1 835, Mary Ann Chamber- 
lain, of Pomfret, Vt. ; they had no children. 
She died in Westmoreland in 1852. He after- 
ward married Mrs. Julia A. Hubbard, of Wind- 
sor, Vt., who had two children, — -Julia, who 
died at the age of nineteen, and Charles, now 
living in Minneapolis, Minn. Mrs. Julia A. 
Esty died several years since. Mr. Esty has 
been a large real estate owner in Westmoreland, 
and once owned the land now comprising the 
village of East Westmoreland, and all the houses 
have been built within his recollection. At the 



time of the building of the Cheshire Railroad 
Mr. Estey lived on the line of the road, and his 
house was rented as a depot, and destroyed by 
fire, probal)ly occasioned by sparks from an en- 
gine, and it was only after three years' litigation 
that he obtained damages. He then purchased 
part of the old Wilbur place, remodeled the 
house, ai>d it lias since been his residence. His 
history of the building of the bridge across the 
Connecticut River, and of the Cheshire road, 
also the difficulties attending the establishment 
of the East Westmoreland post-office, is very 
interesting and worthy of record. He was 
bondsman for the first postmaster, Mr. Wight, 
and appointed to the same office after Mr. 
Wight retired, although he did not attend to 
its duties personally. 

Mr. Esty is a man of great strength of charac- 
ter, keenness of understanding, business fore- 
sight, an original thinker, a fluent conversation- 
alist, well read and at home in the topics of the 
times. He has acquainted himself with the 
writings of Theodore Parker and others of the 
same thought. Although not a believer in any 
creed, he has always contributed to the sup- 
port of a church. His faith is that of the S^^irit- 
ualists, believing that there is a medium of com- 
munication existing, however imperfectly de- 
veloped at present, between the spirits of those 
who have crossed the dark river and those 
remaining on the shores of time. 



ALBERT THOMP.SON. 

Of tlie numerous emigrants who came to 
Plymouth, Mass., in the "good ship Ann" was 
John Thom.son, who was born in the north of 
Wales in the year l(il6, and came to A merica in 
the third embarkation from England, and ar- 
rived at Plymouth early in the month of May, 
1622, being at that time in the sixth year of his 
age. The first knowledge we have of the name, 
with any certainty, is from the ancient record 
of heraldry. Then the name was familiarly 
known in England, Scotland and Ireland, and 



526 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



each family spelled the name differently and 
selected a different badge of heraldry. The 
celebrated poet, James Thomson, was of this 
family, and Charles Thomson, the secre- 
tary of the Continental Congress in Revolu- 
tionary times. The north of Wales being 
contiguous to Scotland, probably John Thomson 
was a descendant of the Scottish family. The 
letter p was not introduced into the name by 
his descendants until a century and a half had 
rolled away. 

John Thomson learned the trade of a carpenter, 
and tradition says he built the first framed meet- 
ing-house in Plymouth, Mass. He married Mary 
Cook, the daughter of Francis Cook, one of the 
first emigrants, in 1()20. He afterwards lived in 
Sandwich and was a farmer, then moved to that 
part of Plymouth now Halifax and subsequentlj^ 
l)uilt a log house in Middleborough, where he 
lived until his house was burned by the Indians. 
At the time of the Indian attacks he had a genera^ 
commission as lieutenant-commandant, not only 
in the field, but of garrison and all posts of 
dansrer. In the year 1677 he erected a frame 
house near where the former house was de- 
stroyed, and made a garrison of it. This house 
was the residence of the fifth generation. It 
was taken down in 1838, having been occupied 
one hundred and sixty years. INIr. and ]\Irs. 
Thomson were zealous, God-fearing jieople and 
were regular attendants of divine service. Their 
hour of rising, especially ou Sunday morning, 
was four o'clock. The distance to church was 
thirteen miles, and it is recorded that his wife, 
on two Sabbaths in June, after breakfast took 
her child of six months old in her arms and 
walked to Plymouth, attended service and re- 
turned home the same day. The long, useful 
and industrious life of the Thomson patriarch 
closed June 16, 1696, when nearly eighty years 
old. He was buried in the first burying- 
ground in Middleborough. Mary, his wife, died 
March 21, 1714, in the eighty-eighth year of 
her asje. Thev had twelve children. The line 
of descent to Albert is, John (1), Jacob (2), 



Caleb (:3), Caleb {4j, Caleb (5), Nathaniel (6), 
Albert (7).' Caleb (5) was a great ship-builder and 
dealer in lumber in Plymouth, Mass. He mar- 
ried Mary Perkins. He died February 9, 1821. 
She died December 9, 1816. They had fifteen 
children, — Gains, Sylvia, Jonah, Ansel, Na- 
than, Abigail, Serena, Alfred, Mary, Eliza, 
Caleb, Nathaniel (6), Joanna, Sabina and Fred- 
eric. Nathaniel was the twelfth child of Caleb 
and Mary (Perkins) Thomjison. He settled in 
Swanzey, N. H., and became a farmer. He 
also carried on a saw-mill and dealt largely in 
lumber. He married, September 13, 1818, 
Annie Field. They had several children, — 
Ambrose, born May 30, 1819, and died July 
3, 1829 ; Julia Ann, born September 18, 1821, 
died March 23, 1822; Julia Ann, born March 
10, 1823, died May 21, 1849; Frederick M., 
born May 19, 1826, died February 1, 1859; 
Eliza, born June 28, 1831, died December 25, 
1850; Andrew J., born November 28, 1828, 
died May 24, 1829; Mary E., born April 20, 
1834 (now Mrs. Britton); Albert (6); Lavina, 
born March 31, 1839 (Mrs. Charles F. Graves, 
resides in Fon du Lac, Wis). 

Albert Thompson, son of Nathaniel and 
Annie (Field) Thompson, was born in Swanzey, 
N. H., October 18, 1836. His early years 
were passed at home. He diligently and care- 
fully improved the educational advantages the 
schools of his native town afforded. His turn of 
mind being favorable to business enterprise and 
activity, at the age of fifteen he left Swanzey 
and went to Keene, where he remained for 
about eight years, a portion ofwliicii time he 
was engaged in the business of furnishing wood 
for the Cheshire Railroad, on his own account, 
and has handled a large amount of the wood 
supplied that road for about twenty-eight years. 
In 1860 he came to Westmoreland, and since 
that time has been closely identified with that 
town. In April, 1859, he married Carrie, 
daughter of Foster Wight, the first postmaster 
of East Westmoreland. They have had five 
children, — Abbie M., born September 1, 1860, 



528 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Mary, born January 18, 1805, married Francis 
Russell; Silas, born November 20, 1806, mar- 
ried Phcebe Thayer; Siiubael; Betsy, born 
August 4, 1811, unmarried, died aged seventy- 
two years; Alfred, born October 17, 1813, 
maiTied Sarah Litcii ; Eunice, born November 
23, 1811), married Caleb W. Ja<|uith. Calvin 
White was a mechanic and made the old-fash- 
ioned mould-board wooden ploughs. He was 
an intelligent man, and held several minor 
town offices. He died April 11, 1843, aged 
sixty-nine; his wife survived him ten years, 
dying September 21, 1853, aged seventy-four. 

Shubael (8), son of Calvin and Sarah (Rich- 
ardson) White, was born in Westmoreland, 
May 27, ISOi). During his early years he had 
the experience that the children of a family 
of humble circumstances of that day usually 
had — labor on the fiirm and limited school op- 
j)ortunities. He learned the carpenter's trade, 
and remained in Westmoreland until he was of 
age. He passed the next five or six years in 
various places, and in 1836 he went to Keene. 
The same year he married, in Boston, Betsey 
Heustis, daughter of Simon Heustis, an old 
resident of Westmoreland. They had one 
child, William H., who is now a judge of Police 
Court at Junction City, Kan. 

He married, for second wife, Nancy L. Wilder, 
daughter of David Wilder, a native of Lancaster, 
Mass. She died February 26, 1883. They 
had two children, — Henry, born October 19, 
1840, was one of the victims of the great 
Rebellion, dying in service December 19, 1861, 
aged twenty-one years, and Charles M., born 
May 16, 1850. 

Mr. White is a man of quiet and uuol)- 
trusive manners, kind, cheerful and social 
in his disposition, faithful to duty and to the 
performance of trusts. He has served as over- 
seer of the poor for over eleven years, as col- 
lector of taxes for four years, and has held 
several minor town offices. At the time of the 
Civil War, when the first call eame for seventy- 
five thousand men, Mr. White, although past 



middle age, responded jiromptly, and enlisted, 
as drum-major, in the Second New Hampshire 
Regiment, and also served in the same capacity 
in the Sixth and Fourteenth Regiments, and 
received his honorable discharge. Politically, 
he is a strong Republican. His religious belief 
is that of the Congregational Church, and he 
has been a consistent member of that body for 
man}' years, and is a ^vorthy descendant of liis 
" Mayflower " ancestor. 



DANIEL W. PATTEN. 

Genealogical history is customary in Europe 
to show the titles to honor and estate; but in 
this country, where wealth and distinction depend 
almost exclusively upon one's own exertions 
and merits, it is a subject of necessity, mingled, 
however, with satisfaction, when we can trace 
our ancestors back through different generations 
to the first one who emigrated to America, and 
know that they were good and honorable men, 
whatever their station in life. 

John Patten came from Ireland, where he 
was born, to America in the early part of the 
eighteenth century, and settled in Norton, Mass., 
and married Abigail Makepeace. (The house 
they occupied is still standing in Norton, in a 
good state of preservation.) He possessed the 
strong, rugged nature of his nationality, together 
with patient endurance, and when, at the close 
of the Revolutionary War, money had so depre- 
ciated in value that his small means were almost 
lost, his brave heart was not easily discouraged, 
and, with diligence and perseverance, he, with 
his four sous, worked early and late until they 
had paid for the farm, and Mr. Patten could 
start square with the world. He was by trade 
a nail-maker. His life in America was passed 
in Norton, where he died. His children were 
William, Samuel, Daniel, John, Abigail, Sarah, 
Lucy and Susan, who married a Jenks, and 
settled in Vermont. William, Abigail and 
Sarah never married. Lucy married Solomon 
Field. Daniel married; had three daughters. 







et^n.<^£ 



^"^/■JU&^t 



WESTMORELAND. 



529 



Phnebe, Abigail, and Harriet ; Ph(Tel)e married 
SuiDiier Knappjthey had ten children. Abigail 
married Mason Stone, and liad five children. 
Harriet married Daniel S. Cobb; had three 
children. Samuel married, family unknown. 
John, the first of the Patton family to settle in 
Westmoreland, was born in Xorton, Mass., in 
1755, and died in Westmoreland, aged sixty 
years. lie was a blacksmith by trade, and a 
hard-working man. He married Jerusha Wood. 
Their children were Abigail (died young), Asa, 
Samson, Daniel, John, William and Sarah 
(who did not attain maturity). Asa married 
Cyntha Field and left Westmoreland, and made 
his home in Coventry, Vt., where he died. 
Samson moved to Maine, married and left 
numerous descendants. John married Xancy 
M. Smith, always resided in Xorton, and died 
there. William married Elfrida Aldrich, of 
Westmoreland, and passed part of his life in 
Pomfret, Vt., but returned to Westmoreland, 
and was a resident there at the time of 
his death. Daniel, son of John and Jerusha 
(Wood) Patten, was born in Westmoreland, 
January 18, 1794. His early life and educa- 
tion was the usual one of the sous of farmers 
and mechanics. He learned the trade of a car- 
penter and pursued his vocation with diligence, 
and was a successful business man. A good 
citizen, but applied himself closely to his own 
affairs, and never sought publicity or office. He 
married, in 1820, Cyrena Shelley, daughter of 
Barnabas and Lydia (Cole) Shelley, of West- 
moreland, born February 24, 1797. They had 
two children, Daniel W. and George E., born 
March 21, 1828. Mrs. Patten died January 
12, 1835. He married, second, Myra Hutchin, 
born May 13, 1803, and died January 25, 1850, 
leaving a daughter, Elmyra C, who lived to be 
twenty-three years old. For his third wife, 
Mr. Patten married Sally French, of West- 
moreland; she was born February 24, 1809, and 
died September 15, 1868. 

Daniel Warren Patten, the oldest son of 
Daniel and Cyrena (Shelley) Patten, was born 



in Westmoreland, February 24, 1822, and with 
the exception of four years' residence in Hins- 
dale, has always lived in his native town. Like 
multitudes of men, he ])assed his youth an<l 
early manhood assisting his father on the farm, 
besides working at his trade of carpentering. 
His school facilities were necessarily limited, 
but by close ap|)lication he became a jiroficienr, 
scholar especially in matheuiatics. Tn nine cases 
out of ten, the men who have achieved distinction 
in politics or in the various lines of business 
activity have passed their early days in the shop 
or on a farm. 

Mr. Patten married, June 4, 1845, Elizabeth 
Howe Heustis, born February 1, 1822, daugh- 
ter of Gilbert T. and Martha (Hodges) Heustis, 
of Westmoreland ; she was a descendant, on her 
mother's side, of Samuel Howe, one of the first 
settlers of the town, and a granddaughter of 
Aristides and Prudence (Baxter) Heustis, of 
Surry, X. H. They have two children, — Ella 
E. (who married Albourne F. Al)bott, of West- 
moreland, now living in Boston), and Martha 
C, who is with her parents. 

In 1849, Mr. Patten, desirous of advancing 
his business interests, went to Hinsdale, where 
he carried on the sash and blind manufacturing 
for four years; he then returned to Westmore- 
land, and continued in the same line of work 
until 1856, when the flood carried away his 
shop containing stock and machinery; but, with 
the same spirit of perseverance which char- 
acterized his great-grandfather, he rebuilt and 
engaged in the business of planing and dressing 
lumber, and added to this the manufacture of 
wooden pails for some four or five years. He also 
engaged in civil engineering, and for twenty- 
five yciirs has been employed in all parts of the 
county, and especially in his native town, where 
he has a comfortable home and a farm to which 
he gives his personal attention. 

His active interest and participation in mili- 
tary organizations is shown by his several com- 
missions, which were given as follows: Ensign 
in the Westmoreland liight Infantry by Gov- 



530 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ernor Hubbard, in 1843; first lieutenant by 
Governor Steel, in LS44; captain of the First 
Company Light Ini'antry, I))- the same Governor, 
iu 1845; lieutenant-eolonel of Twentieth Reg- 
iment New Hampshire Militia, by Governor 
Colby, in 1846 ; and colonel in the same regiment, 
by Governor Williams, in 1847; and received 
his honorable discharge June 9, 1848. 

Mr. Patten has thoroughly believed in his 
native town, and with commendable public 
spirit has endeavored to work for its interests, 
and has been connected with its official duties 
iu many departments. In 1860 he was assist- 
ant United States marshal, and took the census 
iu Westmoreland, Chesterfield, Hinsdale and 
Swanzey, and has held several minor town of- 
fices. Politically, lie is a Democrat, and be- 
lieves in the principles of Jefferson and Jackson, 
and was twice elected to the State Legislature 
on the Democratic ticket for the years 1863 
and 1864. He has been several times nominated 
for State Senator, and for various county offices, 
receiving each time the cordial and full support 
of his party, but failing of election Ity the great 
predominance of the opposing party in this sec- 
tion of the State. He has been many years a 
justice of the peace. 

In his religious preferences he is a Univer- 
salist, broad and catholic in his views, and al- 
ways respecting the opinions of others. He is 
an intelligent and thoughtful man, has given 
great attention to historical research, and has 
rendered much valuable assistance to Mr. 
Willard Bill, the historian of Westmoreland. 



EliBERT CHAMBERLAIN AND EDGAR KENDALL 
HORTON. 

In that year made memorable by the battles 
of Buena Vista and Sacramento, and the severe 
famine in Ireland, which called from the United 
States such munificent donations of corn and 
potatoes to save the famishing, there was born 
to a pleasant home in Westmoreland, N. H., 
Egbeit Chamberlain and Edo-ar Kendall Horton, 



twin sons of Dr. P. Manly Horton and Mary Ann 
Kendall — who were a glad surprise, looking so 
much alike that it was difficult to tell one from 
the other. Bright hopes at once centred in 
them, for they were of noble extraction. Their 
mother was from a superior family of English 
origin, eminently gifted in mind and heart. She 
was a true woman, always loyal to her family 
and well fitted to nurture and train her children 
for usefulness and success in the world. So 
long as she lived she richly blest her home. 
Their father, who is still living in advanced 
years, is mentally strong and of great physical 
endurance, inventive by nature and exceedingly 
apt in mechanical skill and works. The Horton 
pedigree reaches far back into English history, 
even to the period when the Romans occupied 
Brittany. The name itself signifies a cultivator, 
or adviser. All the way tlirough this long line 
the families bearing this cognomen have left 
traces and impressions of genuine character and 
progress. The first of this name came to 
America as early as 1633, and one branch set- 
tled on Long Island and others in Springfield, 
and in the central part of Massachusetts. From 
the last have sprung the family under considera- 
tion. The Horton genealogy shows that they 
have been producers in cultivating the soil and 
originators in handicrafts and in sch()larly 
attainments. 

Egbert and Edgar were fortunate in coming 
into this world in the midst of charming scen- 
ery. If New Hampshire is the Switzerland of 
America, Westmoreland is its Col de Balm, 
abundantly supplied with flowers in the sum- 
mers and snow blossoms in the winter. Its air 
is invigorating; its light, crystalline; its sur- 
face, rich and greatly diversified with hills, 
vales, woods, brooks, rivers, meadows, pastures 
and rural homes. So their young hearts could 
but drink in freely inspiration from all this 
wide-spread beauty and picturesqueness. They 
were cheerful and happy in their early years. 
As they began to attend school they at once 
exhibited traits of promise and scholarship. ' 



WESTMORELAND. 



531 



When tlit'v advanced from the cdiiinion to the 
High Sehoiil they expressed (juickness of dis- 
cerunicnt and readiness of comprehension, mas- 
tering tlie studies tlmt tliey pursued. Reaciiing 
maidiood, they were of medium size, mental 
temperament and ambitious to do for them- 
selves. On leaving home they engaged as clerks 
in mercantile business at Keene, N. H. Edgar 
remained there for five years and tiieu went to 
Providence, E. I., where he continued in the 
same calling for ten years. Egbert tarried in 
Keene but a short time before ho left for Green- 
field, Mass., where he devoted himself to 
photography till ISTO, when he \\(<nt to Prov- 
idence to follow the same business. In 1878 he 
opened a studio for himself, and two years later 
he took in as partner his brother Edgar. Now, 
with their age, experience, taste, skill and love 
for art-works, they were prepared to excel iu 
photography, Egbert devoting himself to the 
art and Edgar to the business part, and so carry 
on the work with a high degree of success. 
Starting now on a basis of strict attention to 
artistic effect and a general excellence in detail, 
they have acquired the enviable position of lead- 
34 



ers in photograpiiic art in Rhode Island, and 
to-day their l)usiness is sei'ond to none in New 
England, and niprcsents to a large tlegree the 
wealthy and l)est patronage of the State. With 
the view of better meeting the demands of an 
increasing business, they have recently fitted up 
two entire fioore of the large block at 87 West- 
minster Street for their work. These are not 
to be surpassed. The reception room is in- 
viting and elegantly furnished. Its walls are 
hung with specimen works in oil and crayon. 
It is a model establishment of its kind, spacious, 
finely-lighted, and well adjusted in all its ap- 
pliances. The studio of the Ilorton Brothei's 
is "-enerallv regarded as a valuable addition to 
the a'sthetic developments of Providence, and 
their business has come to l)e coilnted among the 
enterprising industries of the city. So, through 
ability, industry, perseverance, moral fortitude 
and culture, these young men have already 
attained to a high degree of success, giving 
assurance that they will still bestow by their 
good works greater lionors ujjon their 
patronymic name, their profession, their homes 
and their country. 



HISTORY OF RINDGE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Tiirs tDwnsliij) was ii;ranted by the (lovernor 
of Massachu.sett.s Dotrinber !», 17.'!6, O. S. 
Tlie territory was survejed by Nathan Iley- 
wood ill Nuveiiiber, 17o8, aud the grant con- 
firmed January 24, 1638, O. S. (February 4, 
17311, N. S.) Tlie grantees were siddiers or 
heirs of sohliers who [)artieipated in the expe- 
dition under Sir William Piiipps to Canada in 
lO'JO, and were residents of Rowley, Mass., aud 
vicinity ; henee the name of Rowley-Canada, 
by which the place was known imtil it was 
granted by the Masoniau proprietors, February 
14, 1749, and called Monadnock, No. 1. The 
town was incorporated Fel)rnary 11, 17(58, and 
received its preseut name in honor of Daniel 
Rindge, then an influential member of the 
Council. 

Rindge took a prominent part in the Revo- 
lution, fnrnisliing two regimental commanders, 
viz.. Colonel Enoch Hale, born in Rowley, No- 
vember 28, 1733, a veteran of the French War, 
who was in public positions for many years, 
aud died in Grafton, Vt., April [), 1813; and 
Colonel Nathan Hale, born September 23, 1 743, 
who was in the service from the breaking out 
of the Revolutionary War until he died a 
prisoner in the hands of the enemy, at Long 
Island, September 23, 1780. He was promoted 
for meritorious services to the rank of Colonel. 

The fii-st settler was Abel Platts in about 1742. 

Revolutionary Wae. 
Pay-roll of the men that went to Caml:iridge 
332 



in ( aptain Nathan Hale's comjiany, at the 
time of the Lexington fight, April ye ] !l, I"') : 

£. A-. d. 

Nathiin Hale, captain U G (! 

Francis Towne, lieutenant 1 10 

Daniel Rand, ensign 1 10 

James Crumbie, clerk 1 10 

Page Norcross, sergeant 1 10 

Samuel Stanley, sergeant 1 10 

James Streeter, sergeant 1 10 

Abel Stone, corporal 1 10 

Benjamin Davis, corporal (id 

Samuel Stone, corporal (i (i 

Ezekiel Rand, drummer (i G 

Daniel Lake, Jr., drummer GG 

Leme Page, fifer G6 

.Tohn HanaCord 1 10 

Daniel Russell G ti 

Nathaniel Ingalls 1 ID 

Nehemiah Towne 1 10 

Jonathan Putnam 1 10 

Samuel Russell 1 10 

Jeremiah Norcross 1 10 

Joel Russell G6 

John Buswell 1 10 

Simeon Ingalls G G 

Samuel Parker 6 G 

Joseph Platts 1 10 

Asa Brocklebank 1 10 

Samuel Tarbell GG 

Reuben Page GG 

Abel Platts, Jr 1 10 

Samuel Page 1 10 

John Demary, Jr (i G 

Joseph Stanley 1 10 

Aaron Easty 1 10 

William Carlton 1 10 

James Cutter 1 10 

Simon Davis G 6 



RINDGE. 



533 



£ A-, d. 

John Emory .. 1 10 

EnosLake 66 

Jeremiah Russell 1 10 

David Bobbins 1 10 

Nathaniel Thomas 1 10 

Oliver Bacon 1 10 

Abraham Wetherbee 1 10 !• 

Benjamin Carlton 1 10 

Nathaniel Russell 1 10 

Jonathan Lovejoy 6 6 

Joseph Wilson 1 10 

Solomon Rand 1 10 

Daniel Lake 6 6 

Edward Jewett 1 17 4 

Elisha Perkins 1 10 

Ezekiel Larned 1 10 

Isaac Wood 1 10 

George Carlton 1 10 

This company marched to Cam bridge. Sev- 
enteen returned after four days' service, and 
thirty-seven remained seventeen days; and it is 
probable that several of the latter did not re- 
turn to their homes before joining another coni- 
]ianv from Rindge, which arrived in tlie vicinity 
of Boston about that time. In tiiis company 
of fifty-four men were twelve mIio afterwards 
held commissions in the regiments raised in 
tliis State. This pay-roll is found upon the 
town records, and the payment was made by 
the town. 

Pay-roll of Captain Philip Thomas' com- 
]iany, in Colonel James Read's reginient, to 
August 1, 1775. Time of entry, April 'l'-\, 
1775. 

(Paid to each private seven pounds, two shill- 
ings, ten peni'c.) 

Those marked thus (*) are from other towns. 

Philip Thomas, Rindge, captain. 

John Harper,* lieutenant. 

Ezekiel Rand, Rindge, second lieutenant. 
Benj. Davis, sergeant. Godfrey Richardson.* 

Ezekiel Learned, sergeant. .Jacob Hobbs. 
Simon Davis, sergeant. .John Thomson. 

Jacob Peirce,* sergeant. Thomas Hutchinson. 
John Demary, corporal. Hezekiah Wetherbee. 
Simeon Ingalls, corpor.al. Caleb Winn. 
Jeremiah Russell, corporal. .Fames Coffering.* 
Benjamin Lovering, Benjamin Beals. 



Daniel Lake, drummer. Peter Webster. 

Leme Page, titer. Dudley Griffin.* 

Thomas Emory. Benjamin Dole.* 

Daniel Russell. Isaac Leland. 

Obediah Marsh. Richard Ale.xander.* 

Ezekiel Demary. Neheniiah Porter. 

Enos Lake. Hugh ( Jragg. 

Reuben Page. David Hale. 

Samuel Parker. David Davis. 

Timothy Rogers.* Henry Davis.* 

Ebenezer Ingalls. Jonathan Lovejoy. 

Joseph Wright.* George Carlton. 

Stephen Adams.* Isaac Adams. 

Jiicl Russell. Benjamin Burley. 

Thomas Henderson. Simeon Whitcomb. 

Benjamin Parker. Alexander Douglass.* 
John Dole* 

The following are the articles lost, and the 
amount paid to the several men, in behalf of 
the colony, by Timothy WalkcM-, Jr., the same 
person who formerly su]ip]le<l the pulpit in this 

town : 

£ .f. d. 

"Lieut. John Harper 12 

Ens. Ezekiel Rand :>, 16 4 

Benjamin Davis 1 !•"> 

Benj' Lovering 4 6 

Daniel Lake 4 

Leme Page 6 S 

Ezekiel Larned t 14 

Jacob Pierce 1 3 4 

Simon Davis , 1 4 

John Dcraerry 7 

Simeon IngoUs 2 14 6 

Jeremiah Russell 6 S 

ObadiahMarsh 6 

Benj' Be.al.s () 12 

Joel Russell 5 4 

Dudley Griffin 1 8 

Thomas Emery I 4 

Hugh Gregg U 17 

Ez(!kiel Demerry <l 2 

Benj" Dole I> 6 

Reuben Page I 1 2 

Timothy Rogers 1.'. U 

Richard Alexander '?, SO 

Caleb Winn 3 ?. S 

David Davis 6 12 

Henry Davis 4 

Nehemiah Porter 6 



534 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



£ .?. d. 

Peter Webster 112 8 

Benj' Parker 2 

Thomas Henderson 2 19 

John Thompson 2 00 

DavidHale 5 C 

Isaac Adams 7 

George Carlton 7 

Jonathan Lovejoy 6 

James Cofl'ering 1 4 8 

£59 16 4 " 

The articles lost, for which the above sums 
were allowed, will hv seen in — 

"A list of Losses sustained in the Batal and Retreat on 
bunker hill, the 17th day of June, 1775, of Cap- 
tain Thomas' Company in the New Hampshire 
Reserves. 

Lieut. [John Harper] one hat. 

Ens'n [Ezekiel Rand] coat, two shirts one gun, iron 
strike sword, pr. hose. 

Sarg't Benjamin Davis a blanket, surtout one byanot. 

Sarg't Ezekiel Lamed one gone [gun] one byanot & 
belt, one powder horn. 

Sarg't Simon Davis one coat. 

Sarg't Jacob Pierce a coat, a shag great coat & i)ack. 

Corporal John Demary one blanket, one byanot, one 
haversack. 

Corporal Simeon Inglas one Cartridge Box, one gun 
and & byanot, one powder horn, one blanket. 

Corporal Benj.amin Lovering, Cadous Box & silke 
handkerchief. 

Drums & Fifers — Daniel Lake, [.Tr.] one pair of siise 
[shoes] one blanket. 

Leme Page one shaggo great coat. 

Richard Alexander caduse Box and a coate 

Thomas Hutchinson a pare of trowsors. 

David Davis a fine shirt, & a pare of yarn hose. 

Jonathan Lovejoy a surtout, four shirts, one coat, two 
waistcoats, one gun, three pare of hose, one 
pouch, neckcloth, one pr. of trousers, one cat.- 
Box, by.anot. 

Nehimiah Porter a Byanot. 

Thomas Henderson 2 shirts, 2 pr. hose, coat & wast- 

coat & a pare of Lether breeches. 
James Cochran [Coffering?] blanket, pr. briches, 

pr. of hose a Rasor, havsack. 
Dudley Griffen a coat & shirt. 



Benjamin Beales, a shirt, two pr. of hose. 

Ezekiel Demary one pr. of hose. 

Reuben Paige a great cote and one .shirt, 1 pr. of hose^ 

1 powder horn, one cartridge box, one wastcoat. 
Obadiah Marsh one shirt, one pr. of hose, one Havi- 

sack. 
Joell Russell 1 coat, 1 pr. Leather-briches, 1 pr. hose, 

two shirts, one hat, one powder horn, havesack. 
Jacob Hobbs one blanket. 
Timothy Rogers one shirt. 
Godfray Richison one pare of suses. 
Henry Davis one pare of trousers. 
Hugh Gregg one shag great coat, 1 shirt, 1 powder 

horn, Bulet pouch. 
Benjamin Dole lost Comp'ys bread ('?). 
Peter Webster a felt hat and coat and 1 pare of 

Leather-briches, one shirt, one havsak and one 

Belet pouch. 
.John Thompson one pair suses, one wast-coat, 1 shirt, 

2 pr. of trousers, one neck-cloth, one Havesack, 1 
])r. of hose, 1 gone & powder horn. 

George Carlton, Isaac Adams, and Jonathan Lovejoy, 
we the apprisors of this Company comput their 
loss of guns and other artikals to amount of £18, 
besid the loss of their lives or in captivity. 

Philip Thomas, Captain." 

The companies of the training-band and 
minute-men organized iu this town were under 
the comraaud of efficient officers. Their names 
and the date of their commissions appear in 
the following list. The dates are the earliest 
that can be given with a certainty of accuracy, 
yet a few of the officers may have been com- 
missioned previous to the date given, — 

Solomon Cutler, lieuteuant, 1775; captain, 1777. 
James Crumbie, lieutenant, 1776. 
Daniel Rand, ensign, 1775; lieutenant, 1776 ; cap- 
tain, 1778. 

Francis Towne, lieutenant, 1776; captain, 1776. 

Ebenezer Chaplin, ensign, 1776. 

Abel Stones, ensign, 1777. 

Page Norcross, lieutenant, 1777. 

Salmon Stone, ensign, 1777; captain, 1777. 

Ebenezer Davis, lieutenant, 177S. 

Benjamin Davis, ensign, 1778. 

Jacob Gould, lieutenant, 1778. 

Ezekiel Rand, ensign, 1878. 



RINDGE. 



535 



Asa Sherwin, captain, 1778. 

Othniel Thomas, lieutenant, 1777 ; captain, 1782. 

Isaac Wood, ensign 1779. 

Daniel Adams, ensign, 1880. 

Ebenezer Fitch, lieutenant, 1880. 

Benjamin Foster, lieutenant, 1779. 

Nathaniel Thomas, lieutenant, 1779. 

John Stanley, lieutenant, 1777. 

Samuel Tarbell, lieutenant, 1779. 

John Eills, ensign, 1782. 

At the annual meeting on the 21st day 
of March, Jonatlian Sherwin, Edward Jevv- 
ett, Abel Stone, Francis Towne and Daniel 
Rand were chosen " a committee of inspection 
and eorresjjondence." The three fii'st were al- 
so selectmen for the year. Two of this com- 
mittee having- proved their efficient service in 
raising men and joining the forces in the field, 
and a third being ab.sent a portion of the time 
in another line of duty, " a new committee of 
inspection, safety and correspondence" was 
chosen in September, consisting of Lieutenant 
Ebenezer Chaplin, Mr. Nathaniel Russell, Mr. 
Page Norcross, Lieutenant James Crnmbic and 
Mr. Jonathan Sawtcll. 

Associ.VTiuN Test. — The followiuo; sij^ned 
the association test : 



Abraham Wetherbee. 
Jeremiah Towne. 
William Carlton. 
Nehemiah Towne. • 
Benjamin Bancroft. 
Enoch Hale. 
Seth Dean. 
Edward Jewett. 
Jonathan Sherwin. 
W" Russell, 
•lacob Hobbs. 
John Dean. 
Salmon Stone. 
John Handsome. 
James Crumble. 
Samuel Tarbell. 
Nathaniel Page. 
Solomon Cutler. 
.John Demary. 
John Hannaford. 



James Streeter. 
Samuel Paige, Jr. 
Jacob Gould. 
Caleb Huston. 
David Robbins. 
John Thomson. 
Eleazer Coffeen. 
Benjamin Newman. 
Nehemiah Porter. 
Reuben Page. 
John Lovejoy. 
Solomon Whitney. 
William Robbins. 
Samuel Page, 
.lohn Eills. 
Eliakim Darling. 
Jehosaphat Grout. 
Othniel Thom.as. 
Daniel Lake. 
Jonathan Towne, Jr. 



John Page. 
John Townsend. 
Ebenezer Locke. 
Jeremiah Chapman. 
Nathaniel Russell. 
John Simonds. 
Amasa Turner. 
Nathan Hubbard. 
Abel Stone. 
.Tolin Whitaker. 
James Wood. 
Ebenezer Chaplin. 
James Cutter. 
John Emery. 
Solomon Rand. 
Joseph Stanley. 
Jonathan Sawtell. 
John Sherwin. 
Paul Fitch. 
James Philbrick. 
John Wetherbee. 
Ebenezer Davis. 
Daniel Rand. 
Jeremiah Russell. 
Joshua Webster. 
Benjamin ('arltoii. 
Samuel Stanley. 
Henry Godding. 
Joel Russell, jun'. 
Daniel Davis. 
Jonathan Ingalls. 
Caleb Winn. 
Samuel Walker. 
Ezekiel Learned. 
Daniel Russell. 
Jeremiah Norcross. 
David Hale. 
Richard Tompson. 
Amos Davis. 
George Lake. 
James Carlton. 
Jeduthan Stanley. 
Nathaniel Ingalls. 
Samuel Russell. 
William Davis. 
John Fitch. 
Randall Davis. 
Joshua Tyler. 
Benjamin Moore. 



Samuel Sherwin. 
Richard Kimball. 
Benjamin Peirce. 
Samuel Whiting. 
Oliver Stevens. 
Isaac Wood. 
Joseph Platts. 
Zebulon C'onvers. 
Simon Davis. 
Jonathan Putnam. 
Benjamin Lovering. 
Ebenezer Shaw. 
Abel Platts. 
Benjamin Gould. 
Elisha Perkins. 
Page Norcross. 
Aaron Esty. 
Richard Kimball, Jr. 
Stephen Jewett. 
Israel Adams, Jr. 
Nathaniel Thomas. 
Jonathan Ball. 
Nehemiah Bowers. 
Francis Towne. 
Moses Hale. 
Richard Davis. 
Deliverance Wilson. 
Elijah Rice. 
John Gray. 
Gliver Gould. 
Ichabod Thomson. 
Jepthah Richardson. 
Barnabas Gary. 
Jcdin Lovejoy, Jr. 
.John Buswell. 
Abel Platts, Jr. 
Timothy Wood. 
Simon D.avis, ,Ir. 
Abel Perkins. 
Ezekiel Rand. 
Jonathan Towne. 
Israel Adams. 
Jabez Norcross. 
Joel Russell. 
Jonathan Parker, .Jr. 
Thomas Hutchinson. 
Daniel Grag. 
Samuel Parker. 
Ezekiel Jewett. 



536 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Dauiel Adams. 
David Adams. 
Samuel Adams. 
Jonathan Parker. 
Simeon Ingalls. 



Henry Smith. 
Levi Mansfield. 
Asa Tyler. 
Samuel Adams. 
Abijah Haskell. 



This ])aper is one of uncommon interest. 
Besides jjre.serving the names of many residents 
of the town, it maizes known that there were no 
disloyal or timid men who failed to respond to 
the test of their patriotism. The proud tact is 
here recorded, " they have all signed," and no 
comffient can render more intelligible this ex- 
pression of the sentiment of the town on the 
vital issues of the time. In addition to the 
names enrolled on tiiis pledge, there were forty- 
five men in tiie servit^e who were not permitted 
to join their townsmen in signing the te.st. A 
few of this number, however, were less than 
twenty-one years of age and would not have 
been re(]Uested to sign the })a])cr if tiiey iuid 
remained at iiome. These men not only as- 
serted their ])atriotism with their signatures, 
but with equal alacrity they proved their sin- 
cerity by joining the army whenever there was 
a call for st)ldiers to fill tiic ranks. During the 
year there were ninety-one enlistments by resi- 
dents of this town. Of this number, forty-five 
enlisted for the year ; l)nt the company rolls 
containing their names have not been discovered 
and only a part of their names can be given. 

The list includes : ]\Iajor (and later in the 
year Lieutenant-Colonel) Nathan Hale, Caji- 
tain Philip Thomas, Ezekiel Demary, Daniel 
Lake, Jr., Benjamin Beals, Isimc Leland, Ben- 
jamin Davis, Joseph Wilson, Daniel McCarr, 
Amos Ingalls, Asa Brocklebank, John Demary, 
Jr., Josiah Ingalls, Jr., Ebenezer ]\Inzzey, 
Thomas Emer}-, ( )badiali Marsh, David Davis, 
Benjamin Burley, Benjamin Parker, Asa Wil- 
kins, Ebenezer Ingalls, Jonathan Sawtcll, Jr., 
Ebenezer Newman, \yilliam Davi.s, and several 
others, who.se names have not been ascertained 
with sufficient certainty to warrant their men- 
tion. After remaining several months witli the 
army near Lake Ciiamplain, tiiey joined the army 



under Washington in Pennsylvania. A vote 
of the town, in December, to excuse from a 
per capita tax all those "who enlisted last 
winter initil the fir.«t of January next," has 
reference to these men. 

In July of til is year, Colonel Isaac Wyman's 
regiment of New Hampshire militia was 
raised to reinforce the army in Canada, but 
joined the Northern army, then commanded by 
General Gates, General Sullivan having made 
his successful retreat with the broken army of 
General Montgomery before their arrival. 
This regiment remained in the vicinity of 
Ticonderoga about five months, and suffered 
much from sickness. Captain Joseph Parker 
commanded the Eighth Con]pan>' in this regi- 
ment, of which Daniel Rand, of Kindge, was 
first lieutenant. The roll contains fifteen men 
from this town, including one officer, — 



Daniel Rand, captain. 
William Russell. 
Samuel Parker. 
Reuben Page. 
David Hale. 
Jolin Simonda. 
George Clark. 
John Stanlev. 



Abel Jewett. 
John Handsome. 
Jeremiah Russell. 
Peter Thompson. 
Thomas Emery. 
Peter Webster. 
John Townsend. 



In September, Colonel Nahnm Baldwin's 
regiment was raised to reinforce the ai-my in 
New York. James Crumble was lieutenant in 
Third Company, which contained fourteen other 
men from this town, as follows : 



Benjamin Carlton. 
Jonathan Ingalls. 
Caleb Page. 
Francis Towne. 
Solomon Ran<l. 
.John Page. 
Caleb Huston. 



Lemuel Page. 
Jonathan Ball. 
Nathaniel Thomas. 
James Wood. 
Nehemiah Towne. 
Samuel Chaplin. 
Richard Thompson. 



This regiment remained with the army, luider 
the immediate command of General Washing- 
ton, on Long Island, and vicinity of New 
York, until late in the autumn, or the first of 
December. November 5, 1776, Caleb Huston 
died at (Quaker Ridges, in the State of New 
York, leaving a wife and six children, who 



RINDGE. 



537 



resided in tlii.< town many years. This com- 
|)au>' was (•(inimandcd l)y Captain Abijali 
Smith, a resident ot" New Ipswicii. He was 
the carpenter employed to buikl the first saw- 
mill in this town, in 17(iO. Karly in Deceml)er, 
still another regiment ot" New Ilampsiiire 
militia, commanded Ity Colonel David Gilmau, 
was sent to I'einforee the disheartened army 
under ( Jenend AA'ashington. Francis Towne, 
of Rindge, was ca[)tain of the First Company, 
and Natluiuic^ Thomas is the only familiar 
name found upon the roll. Tiiey, in coiuiee- 
tion with the forty-five men who had enlisted 
for the year, did good service for their country, 
particijjating in the triumph over the Hessians 
at Trenton, and in the memorahle battle of 
Princeton. Although poorly clad and suffi r- 
ing from the cold of winter, they remainetl 
with the army several weeks after their term 
of enlistment had expired. 

In the autumn of this year thirteen men 
enlisted in response to a sudilen call for assist- 
ance at Ticonderoga, and were absent from 
three to six M'eeks. Their names have not been 
ascertained, and perhaps the company to which 
they belonged was not joined to any regiment. 

November 8th, Jolm ^Martin enlisted " for 
during the war " in a company of rangers, 
commanded by ( 'aptain Benjamin Whitcomb, 
which was raised for the defense of the northern 
frontiers. Martin was in this service in 1781, 
and probably remained until the close of the 
war. 
"Sir ' "RiNDGK, Feb. 4, 1777. 

" In consequeuce of orders Rec'' for raising IIH men 
to serve in .someone of the three Continental Batallious 
of this State for three years or during the war, they 
being proportined to the several Towns in my Reg', 
agreeable to some former return which, by there late 
returns, appeared to be Equal, we bave tberefore 
Proportioned them in the following maner. 

New Ipswick to raise 22 Dublin to raise 8 

Rindge " " 17 Marlborougb " " (3 

Jaffrey " " 14 Stoddard " " 

Peterborough" " 14 Paikersfield " 
Temple " " l:^ Washington " 

Fitzwilliam " " 8 Sliptown " 

119 



In Api-il, 1777, Rindge returned si.xteen 
men in IJlodgett's company, Colonel Hale's 
regiment. Nine of them were, — 



.\bijali Haskell. 
Sainufl AV'hiting. 
Thomas Hutchinson. 
Daniel MeCarr. 

Hale's regiment were, 

■loiiathan Lake. 
Snow Boyton. 



Isaac Lelanil. 
.Joliii Handsome. 
Oliver Bacon. 
Daniel Russell. 
Samuel Godding. 

In Chiye's conjpany. 

William Kendell. 

David Brooks. 

Enoch Dockman, in Drew's company. 

Ezekiel Demary, in C'arr's company. 

Moses Thomas, in the Bay State service. 

A company of fifty-one men, under Captain 
Josiah Bro\vu, of New Ipswich, was raised in 
this vicinity. Lieutenant Asa Sherwin, of 
Rindge, was second in command. The company 
was joined to Cohinel Samuel Ashley's regiment, 
and jSIay (ith marched fin- Ticonderoga, where 
they remained until all fears of an immediate 
attack were quieted, \\hen they were ordered 
home and discharged June 21st, after an ab- 
sence of si.v weeks. The men from Rindge in 
this service, fourteen in number, were as fol- 
lows : 

Jonathan Ingalls, orderly sergeant. 
Asa Sherwin, first licuteuant. 

David Adams. Amos Ingalls. 

Samuel Adams. Jonathan Parker. 

Moses Chaplin. Abel Platts. 

Samuel Chaplin. Joseph Stanley. 

.John Emery. William Thompson. 

Moses Hale. Peter Webster. 

Pay-roll of part of Colonel Enoch Hale's 
regiment, which marched from the State of 
New Hamp.shire June 29, 1777, under com- 
mand of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Heald, to 
reinforce the garrison at Ticonderoga, — 

Salmon Stone, captain. 

Othniel Thomas, lieutenant. 

Samuel Tarbell, ensign. 

Thaddeus Fitch, quartermaster. 
Edward .Tcwett, sergeant. Hezekiali Hulibard. 
John Demary, sergeant. Enos Lake. 
Jonathan Sawtell, serg't. Simon Davis. 
Nathaniel Ingalls, serg't. Daniel Lake, Esq. 
Samuel Russell, corporal. Jacob Gould, lieutenant. 



538 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Ebenezer Newman, corp. 
Lemuel Page, fif'er. 
Paul Fitch. 
Henry Lake. 
David Robbins. 
Samuel Walker. 
Reuben Russell. 
Joseph Platts, Jr. 
Samuel Sherwin. 
Caleb Ingalls. 



'Sirs 



Oliver Gould. 
Samuel Stanley. 
Soli)mon Cutler, captain. 
John Demary, Jr. 
Samuel Chaplin. 
David Hale. 
Silas Page. 
Ezekiel Learned. 
Caleb Page. 
Abel Platts. 

" Keene, July y" 3'", 1777. 



"There is an express come to town, from Ticonde- 
roga this morning, that they are in Distress for want 
of men, the enemy having made their appearance 
there. My Company being dismissed yesterday, I 
have not more than about Twenty men, if you think 
Proper to send more men from Rindge, I should be 
glad if you would send them on as fast as possible and 
likewise bring Provision with them, there being no 
Provision to be had at Charlestown. I will march 
with what men I have. 

" I renuiin your Humble Serv', 

"Salmon Stone, Captain." 

" N.B. — The men that are going to march from 
Rindge are the following: 
"Salmon Stone, captain. Caleb Ingalls. 



Othniel Thomas, lieut. 
Ensign Tarbell. 
Quartermaster Fitch. 
Sergeant Jewett. 
Lemuel Page. 
Henry Lake. 
Enos Lake. 
Simon Davis. 
Paul Fitch. 
Samuel Russell. 



Jonathan Ingalls. 
Jonathan Sawtell. 
John Demary, Jr. 
Ebenezer Newman. 
Samuel Walker. 
Joseph Platts, Jr. 
Hezekiah Hubbard. 
Reuben Russell. 
Samuel Sherwin. 
David Robbins." 



Captain Josiali Brown, of New Ipswich, wlio 
commanded the company that responded to tlie 
alarm in May, had been home but a few days 
when the .second alarm was given. He im- 
mediately i-aised another company, and by 
forced marches reached Charlestown the last day 
of June or the 1st day of July, where he re- 
ceived orders to return. While passing through 
Rindge, the ;5d day of July, the date of Cap- 
tain Stone's letter, he was overtaken by an ex- 
press bearing intelligence similar to that received 
by the other returning companies. Within ten 



miles of their home, this officer and twenty-six 
of his men instantly turned about, and with the 
company from Rindge soon joined the retreating 
army near Rutland. They were soon discharged 
and returned after an absence of nearly one 
montii. During these rapid and unexpected 
movements in the field, the town and the patriot 
cause sustained a severe loss in the capture of 
Colonel Natlian Hale. 

" Pay Roll of Capt. Salmon Stone'.s Company in Col. 
Nichols' Regiment, Geu'l Stark's Brigade raised out 
of the 14 Regiment of New Hampshire Militia, 
Enoch Hale, Colonel, which company marched 
from Rindge in said state July 1777 and joined the 
Northern Continental Army at Bennington and Still- 
water. 

"Thaddeus Fitch, quartermaster of the regiment. 
Salmon Stone, Capt. 
John Stanley, second Lieut. 
Abel Stone, sergeant advanced to ensign. 



John Dean. 
William Davis. 
Eliakim Darling. 
Moses Hale, Jr. 
Ebenezer Ingalls. 
Elisha Perkins. 
David Robinson. 
Reuben Russell. 
David Sherwin. 
Henry Smith. 



Daniel Adams. 
Benjamin Beals. 
Amos IngalU. 
Henry Lake. 
Joseph Platts. 
Reuben Page. 
Jonathan Sawtell, Jr. 
Peter Webster. 
Joseph Wilson." 



'Pay Roll of Captain Daniel Rand's Company inCol" 
Daniel Moore's Regiment of Volunteers in the state 
of New Hampshire, joined the Northern Continen- 
tal Army under (jeneral Gates. Discharged at Sar- 
atoga October 18 1777 and allowed eight days to 
travel home, the distance being one hundred and 
sixty miles. 



Daniel Rand, 
Nathaniel Thomas, serg't 
John Demary, serg't 
Benjamin Beals, corp'l. 
Enos Lake, corp'l. 
Dan'l Lake, Jr., drummer. 
Lemuel Page, tifer. 
Jacob Gould. 
Caleb Page. 
Jeremiah Russell. 
Solomon Rand. 
Caleb Winn. 



Captain. 

. Henry Lake. 

Jonathan Lake. 

Samuel Chaplin. 

Reuben Russell. 
. Ebenezer Shaw 

Joshua Tyler. 

Amos Towne. 

Asa Wilkins. 

William Robbins. 

Hezekiah Wetherbee. ' ' 



KINDGE. 



539 



Joel Russell and James Philbriek were in 
another company in the same regiment. 

On the .'kl of Auijust John Handsome was 
killed at the outposts of the army, and Isaac 
Leland died on the 3d of the following month. 
The former was thirty-four and the latter forty 
vearsofay-e. Daniel Eussoll, another Conti- 
nental soldier, was wounded severely at the bat- 
tle of Stillwater, from which he did not recover 
sufficiently to be able to return to his company. 

James Crumble was appointed lieutenant and 
assigned to Captain Blodgett's company, in the 
Second Continental (or Colonel Nathan Hale's) 
Regiment, in tlie autumn of 1776, or early in the 
following year. He continued with his regiment 
until September 1st, when he received an injury 
from a fall from his horse. 

April .3, 1777, the town 

" Voied to Chose Richard Kimball moderator to 
govern said meeting. 

"Voted, to Raise the men, by a Rate, also to make 
an allowance to those that have done anything in the 
war and the allowance shall be as follows ; viz : 

" All those that have served in the army as long as 
may be thought to be their proportion for past service 
and for the present draught for three years, in the 
judgment of a Committee shall be excluded out of the 
rate. 

"Voted for the present draught & all others that 
have done any part of a Turn shall be allowed Credit 
as much to each months service as it shall cost per 
month for the seventeen men now to be raised or such 
of them as we shall hire for thirty-six months, which 
shall be made in the same Rate and the Credit de- 
ducted accordingly. 

"Also Voted to choose a Committee Of seven men to 
manage the same. 

" Chose Capt Solomon Cutler, Ens. Salmon Stone, 
Page Norcross, Enoch Hale, Esqr., Capt. Francis 
Towne, Lieut. Daniel Rand & Edward Jewett, Com- 
mittee as afores*"." 

"StafTRoll of Col. Enoch Hale's regiment of vol- 
unteers, which regiment marched from the State of 
New Hampshire, and joined the Continental Army 
in Rhode Island, August 1778. Two days are 
added to the time in service for travel home after 
discharge at Rhode Islartd. 



£ «. d. 
Enoch Hale, Colonel 36 1 8 

Joseph Parker, Major 25 6 8 

Isaac Howe, Adjutant 20 14 8 

John Mellen, Quartermaster 1.5 15 4 

Jonas Prescott, Surgeon 28 8 

Simeon Gould, Sergeant Major 10 15 8 " 

Dr. Prescott had recently settled in Rindge. 
Subsequently he removed to Templeton, Mass., 
where he died, after a successful practice of 
many years. In this regiment were thirty-tliree 
men from Rindge, including officers. 

Lieut. Samuel Tarbell, in Capt. Cunningham's com- 
pany. 

Ensign Ezekial Rand, in Capt. Cunningham's com- 
pany. 

Ensign John Stanley, in Capt. Twitchell's company. 

Jonathan SawtelljSergt. Solomon Rand. 
Nathaniel Thomas, corp. William Russell. 

Lemuel Page, fifer. Hezekiah Sawtell. 

John Simonds. John Demary. 

.lohn Gray. Joseph Platts. 

Ezekial Learned. Samuel Stanley. 

Samuel Russell. William Carlton. 

Samuel Page. Ebenezer Platts. 

David Robbins. Thaddeus Fitch. 

Samuel AValker. Joseph Stanley. 

Benjamin Carlton. Henry Lake. 

Reuben Page. Amos Towne. 

Timothy Wood. John Emery. 

Jeremiah Norcross. Ephraim Holden. 

The private received £10 10s., at the rate of 
£5 per month. 

Another regiment in this expedition, com- 
manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Pea- 
body, which remained in the service until the 
following December, included three soldiers, 
Abel Platts, Jr., and two others from this town. 

Other soldiers were, — 

Abel Jewett. Ensign Daniel Adams. 

Peter Webster. Barnabas Carey. 

David Robinson. John Buswell. 

J. Sawtells, Jr. Jas. Phillbrick. 

Abel Kimball. Amos Ingalls. 

Simeon Bruce. Joshua Hale. 

J. Lake. Samuel Walker. 

B. Dwinnel. Benj. Beals. 

Thos. Demary. Caleb Page. 
Ebenezer Platts. 



540 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY. NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



War of the RebelIjIon. — The town of 
Eindge responded promptly to the call for men 
during this struggle, and the following is a list 
of those who were in the service : 



George W. Cragin. 
Henry E. Burritt. 
Henry E. Ballon. 
Oliver S. White. 
Albert S. Murphy. 
Hercules W. Raymond. 
Charles Brown. 
Otave Demone. 
Horace C. Bennett. 
Oscar I. Converse. 
George W. Cragin. 
Andrew S. Ballou. 
Ambrose Butler. 
Henry E. Burritt. 
Morton E. Converse. 
Cyrus J. Clapp. 
George M. Cram. 
Augustus A. Chamber- 
lain. 
Henry H. Davis. 
John A. Durant. 
Christojjher C. Demary. 
James Fitz. 
Charles F. Gibson. 
Paul Greenleaf. 
John Hecker. 
Erastus D. Hall. 
John W. Hastings. 
Joshua T. Hunt. 
Jairus W. Hodge. 
George S. Kimball. 
Howard Rand. 
William H. Rugg. 
E. F. Rice. 



John I. Reynolds. 
James E. Richardson. 
Justin S. Richardson. 
Henry H. Sherwin. 
Nathan Smith. 
Walter W. Smith. 
Willard Simonds. 
Edward P. Stratton. 
David Stowe. 
J. Shaftee. 
Thomas R. Todd. 
George A. Whitney. 
Thomas S. Whitney. 
William L. Whitney. 
Leonard P. Wellington. 
Almon F. Nutting. 
James W.-Russell. 
George Allen. 
Charles B. Brooks. 
Samuel W. Fletcher. 
William A. Kemp. 
George F. Gilmore. 
George Stearns. 
Julius Stratton. 
Charles W. Symonds. 
Marshall P. Wood. 

James B. Perry. 

Marion W. Converse. 

Darwin A. Smith. 

John L. Webster. 

Sargent A. Webster. 

George W. Lawrence. 

Wm. H. Parsons. 

Reuben A. Buzzell. 



The following furnished substitutes : 



Clovis M. Converse. 
Conrad R. Converse. 
Eben B. Cutter. 
Henry S. Drury. 
William A. Hale. 
Lyman Hall. 
David L. Hubbard. 

James B. Bobbins 



Willard G. Jones. 
Prucius W. Manley. 
Augustus F. Symonds. 
Albert H. Thomas. 
J. Warren Wilder. 
John A. White. 
Henry C. Whitcomb. 

paid commutation. 



few months later Lyman Hale was drafted and 
furnished a substitute. 

Four surgeons from this town were in the 
service, — Dr. J. Homer Darling, Dr. George 
B. Jewett, Dr. Josiah Abbott and Dr. George 
J. Norcross. 

The town jiaid over thirty thousand dollars 
for bounties, besides increased incidental ex- 
penses of the period, and upwards of one thou- 
sand dollars, disbursed by the war committee, 
which was not assumed by the State. The se- 
lectmen during this period were : 

Martin L. Goddard, 1861. 
Benjamin Hale, 1861, 1862. 
Zachariah F. Whitney, 1861, 1862, 1863. 
Rodney A. Hubbard, 1862. 
Jason B. Perry, 1863, 1864, 1865. 
Joseph S. Wetherbee, 1863, 1864. 
Ezekiel Cudworth, 1864, 1865. 
Josiah Stratton, 1865. 

The First Congregational Church was 
organized in 1765. Rev. Seth Payson, D.D., 
was first pastor. The pastors from that time to 
the present have been Revs. Seth Payson, D.D., 
Amos W. Burnham, D.D., F. G. Clark, E. J. 
Rigffs and R. T. Wilton. 

The first church edifice was erected in 1764. 

The Methodist Church, West Rindge, 
was organized in 1827. The present pastor is 
Rev. Arthur W. L. Nelson. 



HISTORY OF WINCHESTER. 



BY GEORGE W. PIERCE, M.D. 



CHAPTER I. 

Winchester is situated in the southwesterly 
part of Cheshire County, in latitude N. 42° 
45', and longitude west from Greenwich 72° 
25', and is bounded : Southwardly by the Massa- 
chusetts State line, opposite the towns of War- 
wick and Northfield ; eastwardly by the towns 
of Richmond and Swanzey ; northwardly by 
the towns of Swanzey and Chesterfield, and 
westwardly by the town of Hinsdale. 

It lies southwest from Keene thirteen miles, 
southwest from Concord, N. H., sixty-five miles, 
west from Boston, Mass., eighty miles, and east 
from Brattleborough, Vt., twelve miles. Its 
population in 1880 was two thousand four 
hundred and forty-four. 

As originally granted by the province of 
Massachusetts, June 21, 1733, the grant was 
nearly in the form of a reversed block letter L 
(q), and lay to the northward and eastward of 
Northfield, and was bounded : 

" Commencing at a corner on the Connecticut 
River, where the little brook, the first south of, and 
very near the, Liscomb Brook, so called, empties into 
the river. (This point is at the north end of the inter- 
vale now belonging to the farm of the late Obed 
Adams, in Hinsdale. This corner was also the south- 
westerly corner of a farm of five hundred acres in ex- 
tent, owned by Governor Jonathan Belcher, of Massa- 
chusetis.) Thence running up on the east bank of the 
Connecticut River, 4 miles 180 rods, to the point that 
is the present northwest corner of Hinsdale, and the 
southwest corner of Chesterfield, on this bank of the 
river, and is just opposite the north end of the island at 



the Brattleboro' Toll-Bridge (so called), and includes 
the same; thence running eastwardly 8 miles 180 rods ; 
thence southwardly 6 miles 132 rods; thence west- 
wardly 2 ni'les 160 rods ; thence northwardly 5 
miles 20 rods; thence westwardly 3 miles 240 rods to 
the place of beginning." 

The exact descriptiou is: 

" Begining at y" River, at a maple-tree, the south- 
westerly corner of His Excellency's, Governour Bel- 
cher's, Farm (said to be the northern bounds of 
Northfield) ; from thence running up ye said Connec- 
ticut River Fourmiles and one-half and twenty rods, 
taking in two small Islands at the upper end ; from 
thence east twelve degrees, to ye south eight miles 
and a half and twenty (rods) perches, to an heap of 
stones ; then south six miles one-quarter and fifty-two 
rods, to an heap of stones ; then west two miles and 
an half, to a white pine-tree, marked ; from thence 
north eighteen and an half degrees, west three miles 
one-quarter and sixty perches, to a black-oak tree, 
marked ; then north one mile and an half and forty 
perches, to a heap of stones ; then west three miles 
and three-quarters, to the maple-tree, the first men- 
tioned bound. There is allowed about one rod in twenty 
for uneven land and swag of chain; also, there's al- 
lowed 739 acres for farms already Layed out, with 
two hundred acres allowance for ponds and rivers." 

This survey was made and completed by 
Joseph Blanchard, May 10, 1733, and was con- 
firmed by the House of Representatives of the 
province of Massachusetts June 21, 1733. 

This township, thus granted, was first called 
Earlington, but shortly the E dropped, and it 
became known as Arlington. 

This grant was made in response to a petition 

541 



542 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of Josiah Willard, Esq., and sixty-three others 
of Lunenburg, Mass., " To the Great and Gen- 
eral Court or Assembly for the Province of 
Massachusetts Bay held at Boston April 4, 
1733." The petition reads : 

" A petition of Josiah Willard, Esq., aTid sixty- 
three others, praying for a Grant of a Tract of Land 
six mile square, Lying on the east side of Connecti- 
cut River between Northfield and the Truck House, 
to be by them settled into a Township, under such 
regulations and upon such conditions as this Court 
in their wisdom shall judge most fit." 

And it m£t with the following response : 

"Ordered, that the prayer of the Petition be so far 
Granted as that ye Petitioners be allowed by a sur- 
veyor and chain-men, under oath, to la)' out'a tract 
of Land of the contents of six miles square, on the 
east side of Connecticut River, on the Northern 
Bounds of Northfield, under the limitations follow- 
ing, viz. : That the tract be Layed out and a plan 
thereof Presented to this Court for Confirmation 
within Eighteen months Next after the date of this 
Grant; and that within six months next after the 
confirmation of the Grant, there be sixty-seven home 
lots to draw equal future divisions, and that there be 
within two years from the confirmation aforesaid, 
forty Families, settled on forty of the aforesaid 
Lots, each family having an house of eighteen feet 
square and seven feet stud at ye least, and four acres 
of Land fitted for plowing and mowing ; and that 
within three years from the Confirmation aforesaid, 
They build a Convenient House for the Publick 
Worship of God and settle a learned orthodox min- 
ister ; and that twenty-four Lots more be set- 
tled with a suitable family on each lot within Ten 
years ; and within two years from the Grant the Pe- 
titioners clear and make a convenient Traivailing 
Road of twelve feet wide, from Lunenburg to North- 
field, and build an House forreceving and entertain- 
ing of Travilers on the said road, midway between 
Northfield and Lunenburg aforesaid ; and for encour- 
agement of a suitable family to settle in said House, 
it is resolved there be granted to him that will 
dwell in said House for the space of seven years from 
said Grant, one hundred and fifty acres of Land 
about midway on the road aforesaid, and that ye 
aforesaid petitioners be allowed, within six months 



from ye date of this Grant, by a surveyor and chain- 
men, under oath, to lay out the aforesaid one hundred 
and fifty acres, a plan thereof to be presented to this 
Court for confirmation within two months after the 
survey. And it is further ordered that three of the 
aforesaid sixty-seven Lots be for Publick use with all 
future divisions belonging to each ; one Lot for ye 
first settled minister ; another to ye ministry, and the 
other to the use of schools, or therewith to ye first 
three settled ministers successively, each Lot to be 
disposed of either the one way or the other as ye pro- 
prietors or inhabitants shall think most for the pub- 
lick good of the Town. And it is further ordered 
that the petitioners be empowered to make such or- 
ders and rules as may be needful and conducive to 
bring forward the settlement according to the true 
interests and meaning of this order. And it is fur- 
ther resolved, that in case the petitioners do not well 
and truly comply with the terms and conditions 
aforementioned. The Lands hereby granted shall re- 
vert to ye Province and be and belong to it as if this 
Grant had never been. 

" In Council Read and Concurred, Consented to 

" .]. Belcher." 

Northfield immediately claimed that there 
was an encroachment upon her territory to tlie 
extent of three thousand acres. On the same 
day the error was corrected, viz. June 21, 1783, 
and an act passed by the General Court of 
the province of Massachu.setts confirming and 
establishing the survey of Timothy Dwight 
E.sq., as made by him for the Northfield grant 
in 1G85. This encroachment must have been 
upon the Northern end of Northfield and have 
included the Governor Belcher graut, as before 
mentioned, and have been a strip of the 
same width as this grant, viz., three hundred 
and ninety-seven perches on the Connecticut 
River, and have extended three and three- 
fourths miles eastwardly, which was just the 
width of the township of Northfield. So much 
of the original grant of Earlington having 
been rendered null and void, and the equiva- 
lent of land thus granted through error was 
regranted elsewhere on the petition of the Earl- 
ington grrantees Thus the west boundary of 



WINCHESTER. 



543 



Earlington grant, upon the Connecticut River, 
was reduced from four miles, and one liundred 
and eiglity rods to three miles and twenty-three 
rods ; and the west boundary, as it was bound- 
ed upon Northfield, was lengthened from five 
miles and twenty rods to six miles and seventy- 
seven rods. This change in the boundary of the 
grant continued during the entire period of 
its existence as a plantation, and beyond, viz., 
till July 2, 1753. 

The grant was confirmed under date of 
June 21, 1733, as follows : 

" In the House of Representatives, June 21st 173.3. 
Read and accepted and voted that the Lands within 
deliniated and described, be and liereby are con- 
firmed unto ye said Josiah Willard, Esq., and the 
other Petitioners, their heirs and a.ssigns respectively 
forever. Provided it exceeds not the quantity of six 
miles square and does not interfere with any former 
Grant and that ye Petitioners comply with ye con- 
ditions of ye Grant. Sent up for concurrence. 

" J. QuiNCY, Speaker. 

"In council June 21st 1733. Read and concurred 

and consented to 

"J. Belcher." 

Having thus established the outlines of the 
plantation or township of Earlington the ac- 
tion of the House of Representatives of " the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay," of the date 
of April 25, 1733, became of force, it hav- 
ing then been 

" Voted, that Col. Josiah Willard be and hereby is 
fully authorized and impowered to assemble and con- 
vene the Proprietors or Grantees of the Plantation 
lately made by this Court, of a tract of liand on the 
easterly side of the Connecticut River above North- 
field, at such time and place as he shall appoint, to 
choose a Moderator and Clerk and to make such orders 
and rules as may be proper and needful to bring for- 
ward the settlement of the plantation according to 
the condition of ye Grant. 

" Sent up for Concurrence. 

" J. QuiNCY, Speaker. 

"In Council Apr. 25th 1733. Read and Concurred 
and consented to 

" J. Belchee." 



Colonel W^iliard, who, acting under the au- 
thority conferred upon him by the act of April 
25th, issued the following warrant : 

"Persuant to an order of the Great and General 
Coiut, These are to warn and give notice to ye 
Grantee-s or proprietors of the plantation or Township 
Lately Granted by the Said Court on the East side of 
Connecticut River above Northfield, etc. That they 
assemble and meet at the House of Mr. Isaac Farns- 
worth, in Lunenburg on the fourth monday of may, 
Currant at one of the clock in the afternoon. To 
the end that being met and Duly formed. They may 
then and there chuse a Moderator and Clerk, and 
make such orders and Rules as may be thought need- 
ful, to bring forward the settlement of ye plantation, 
according to ye condition of ye Grant. Also to hear 
and accept the report of those persons Employed in 
Surveying and Laying out of the Township and Road, 
&c., and Impower some person or persons to present 
the plan thereof to ye General Court for Confirma- 
tion. Also to order payment of all the Charges that 
has arisen, in getting the Grant, Surveying the plan- 
tation, &c., and grant and Raise money for that pur- 
pose, or make such Grants of Land as shall be 
thought proper for that end, to any persons to whom 
the proprietors are Indebted. Also To Give such 
encouragement to any person or persons as shall be 
disposed to build a mill or mills in said plantation to 
accommodate the settlers, in money or Land as may 
be thought proper. Also to agree upon some xvay and 
method of clearing and making of a Traivailing Road 
from Northfield to Lunenburg, and raise money for 
that purpose, &c. Also to shew their minds con- 
cerning the purchasing the Farms lying within the 
Bounds of the Plantation and if they see cause to 
Grant money for that end and chuse and Impower 
proper persons to manage and transact any of the 
affairs afores'' and also agree upon some proper 
method for calling of proprietors' meetings for ye 
future, and the place where they shall be held. 
" Dated May 9th 1833. " Josiah Willard. 

" At a meeting of ye Proprietors or Grantees of the 
Plantation or Township.' Lately made by ye 
Great and General Court of ye Province of the 
Massachusetts Bay of a Tract of Landon ye East- 
erly side of Connecticut River, above Northfield, 

' The words" orTowaship" are crossed out intheoriginal. 



544 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



held at Lunenburg May 28" 1733. Voted and 
chose Colonel Josiah Willard, Esq., Moderator, 
also voted and chose Benjamin Prescott, Esq., Pro- 
prietors Clerk. Voted and chose Col. Josiah Willard, 
Deacon Ebenezer Alexander, Capt. Johnathan Hub- 
bard, Joseph Kellog, Esq., and Capt. Edward Hart- 
well, be a committee. Directed and fully impowered 
to lay out in that part of the Township near the place 
called 'The Bow' and ' Mirey Brook,' At lea.st 
forty-two House Lots, two of which be for Publick 
use, and that one Publick Lot be Layed out on or 
near the Great River, and Twenty six more be Layed 
out near the one place or the other, as The Commit- 
tee shall judge best upon further viewing of the Land. 
That the Lots be Layed out in as defensible a man- 
ner as may be, and the least Lot to contain Thirty 
acres, and where the Land shall not be so good as the 
best, the Committee are to Lay out a greater quantity 
or number of acres so that all the lots be equal in 
value in the Judgment of ye Comity, A due regard 
being had to their situation and other circumstances. 
That the Comit"" employ in said service an able sur- 
veyor and take a plan of the Lots and after the 
work is accomplished a meeting of the proprietors be 
called. Lots made and each proprietor Draw his al- 
lotment ; and that the charges of the whole be paid 
upon a drawing of the Lots. Voted that this meet- 
ing be adjourned to Tomorrow morning at seven of 
the oclock. May 27"", The Proprietors met accord- 
ingly and passed the following votes, viz.: Voted 
that the Committee Chosen for Laying out the Lots, 
&c., be fully Impowered, Tn behalf of the Proprie- 
tors, to take sufficient Security and obligation of Mr. 
John Goss for his clearing and making a convenient 
Travailing Road of Twelve feet wide in best and most 
direct way from Northfield to Lunenburg that may 
be, according to ye order of Court &c., and to give 
the said Goss sufficient for the payment to him of a 
sum not exceeding One Hundred Pounds in Bills of 
credit, upon accomplishing of ye same as aforesaid, 
or upon the said Goss refusing to let out or cause the 
same to be done by some other person or in some 
other way at the charge of ye proprietors, and that 
the committee be Impowered to order payment of 
some part of the Cost, and charges thereof before ye 
whole work be finished. A Plan of the Township 
taken by Mr. Joseph Blanchard, Surveyor, with 
chain men under oath, being laid before the Proprie- 
tors and considered by them was accepted and voted 



that Col. Josiah Willard present the same to ye 
Great and Honorable Court in behalf of the proprie- 
tors for Confirmation. The accompt of Sundrey per- 
sons for Surveying and Laying out of the Township 
&c., was presented to ye Proprietors for allowance, 
which was Read and Voted that the same be allowed 
and the sum of Thirty one Pounds, Ten Shillings be 
paid the accomptants in full discharge thereof, unan- 
imously voted that in consideration of the charge & 
expense Colonel Josiah Williard has been at in 
Procuring the Grant of the Township, viewing the 
Land &c.. There be and hereby is Granted to the 
said Josiah Williard, his heirs and assigns forever, a 
parcel of Intervale Land Lying at ye upper part of 
ye Township above ye fort on the Great River, To- 
gather with sucli quantity of Land adjoining there- 
unto as the committee that shall be appointed by the 
Proprietors to Lay out the same shall think fit, not 
incommoding the settlers or Grantees, with respect 
to their settlements or Land for their conveniency, 
for that and together with so much, more Land as 
with what shall be Layed out upon ye River as afore- 
said shall ammount to Three Thousand acres in the 
whole. To be Layed out at ye discretion of the Com- 
mittee that shall be appointed for that end so as not 
to incomode the first Lotts or Land that shall be 
thought proper for that purpose. Also voted that 
Mr. Ebenezer Alexander and William Syms, of 
Northfield, and Capt. Edward Hartwell, of Lunen- 
burg, be a committee to Lay out and measure off the 
Land so Granted to Col. Willard &c. Voted that the 
committe for Laying out of Lots be directed to Lay 
out fifty acres of Land on some Stream as convenient 
to the place called the Bow as may be most suitable 
for the building of a saw-mill to be disposed of by 
ye Com aforesaid to any person that shall so soon 
as may be erect a saw-mill or mills there to accom- 
modate the settlers on condition such person or per- 
sons shall keep the same mill or mills in Good repair 
for the space of about Ten years, and that it be left 
to ihe Committee to Give such further encouragement 
to forward the same as they may judge most proper. 
The Com'"' to take proper care that the price of 
Boards at such mill be not excessive, &c. Voted, 
That Two of ye Best places for mills, near the Great 
River, be resorveyed and not Layed out into Lots till 
ye further order of the proprietors. Robert Fysse, 
of Groton, came into the meeting and off to under- 
take ve Buiding of a convenient Dwelling House for 



WINCHESTER. 



545 



the entertainment of Travailours, about midway from 
Lunenburg to Northiield, and inhabit the same agree- 
able to ye order of Court at liis own cost and charge ; 
provided, he may be Intitled to ye one hundred and 
fifty acres of Land Granted by tlie General Court 
To such person as should so do. In consideration 
•whereof, It is unanimously voted and agreed, That 
the said Fysse, his heirs & assigns, have & be Intitled 
to said Granted Land and benefit thereof, so far as 
Lyes with the proprietors ; Provided, he be at the 
charge of Laying out the same, &c. And in con- 
venient Time Enter Into Sufficient Bond, to Benja- 
min Prescott, Esq., In Trust for, and in behalf of ye 
Proprietors, for performance of what he has proposed 
as aforesaid, viz.: Build a Convenient Dwelling 
House for ye entertainment of Travelers, on the 
Road that shall be cleared from Lunenburg to North- 
field, about midway on the same within Two years, 
and Inhabit the same for the space of seven years, &c. 
as expressed in the Court's order. Also, voted and 
agreed, that when, and so often, as a meeting of ye 
proprietors shall be thought necessary, the Proprie- 
tors Clerk at ye Disire of any five of ye Proprietors 
signified in writing under their hands, shall & hereby 
is Impowered to post up notifycations under his hand 
at the Towns of Northtield and Lunenburg, for the 
Proprietors to assemble at the Town of Lunenburg, 
from time to time for the future. Expressing the 
business and occasion of such meeting fourteen Days 
before the time of meeting. And that the .same sh.ill 
be accounted sufficient Warning for a proprietors' 
meeting from time to time. Till the proprietors shall 
otherwise order. Voted, that there be assessed upon 
the Proprietors & paid in To Cap' Johnathan Hub- 
bard, hereby appointed to recieve the same, the sum 
of Fifty shillings by each proprietor of one full share, 
and in proportion by him that holds a Greater or 
Less Interestammounting to the sum of One Hundred 
and Sixty-five Pounds in the whole, by the first Day 
of July next, for defraying the Charges arrison and 
that shall arrise in Ye Propriety. To be paid accord- 
ing to ye votes of the Proprietors, according to said 
order; and that William Syms and Deacon Ephraim 
Pearce be appointed and fully Impowered to collect and 
pay in the same accordingly. That. . . any Three of 
them be appointed assessors and Directed and Im- 
powered to make and furnish the proprietors with 
Lists of the assessments, and prepare the warrants to 
collect and pay in the same. .Tames Porter being a 



petitioner for the plantation, but his name being left 
out of ye Copy, and a motion being made & the 
Question whether the said James Porter shall be ad- 
mitted proprietor. It was voted in the afiirniative. . . . 

" JosiAH WlLLARP, Moderator. 

" Entered and examined by 

"Benj" Prescott, Proprietors' Clerk." 

Having thus organized and formally accepted 
the grant, we find the proprietors nest, through 
their committee, promptly engaged in laying out the 
forty-two house-lots at " The Bow and Mirey Brook," 
and the twenty-seven lots at the " Great River." This 
work was accomplished during the summer of 1733, 
as on the 23d of October in this year, the Proprietors 
assembled at the house of Capt. Jonathan Hartwell, 
in Lunenburg, and after having chosen Col. Josiah 
Willard, moderator, — 

" Voted to pay the Committee, Surveyor & Chain- 
man for ye laying out of yee Lotts, &c., ammounting 
to fifty-nine pounds, nine shillings in full for their 
said services. 

" The Committee for Laying out of Lots in s** Plan- 
tation Layed before the Proprietors Plans of ye Lots 
Layed out, which were approved and accepted. 

" A Plan of Seven Hundred and eighty-four acres, 
including Two small Islands in ye River Toyedout, 
as a part of the Three Thousand acres of Land 
Granted by ye Proprietors to Col. Josiah Willard, 
was Layed before the Proprietors." 

This report is as follows : 

"Oct. ye .3^ 1733.— Then Layed out by the Com"' 
appointed by ye Proprietors for that purpose 784 
acres of Land, being part of the Three thousand 
acres granted by said Proprietors To Col. Josiah 
Willard, Situate and Lying in ye N. W. Corner of the 
Township Granted to the said Josiah Willard, Esq', 
and others, the said Proprietors begining at the 
Northwe,st Corner of said Township. Containing all 
the Land in said Grant Lying there from thence To a 
Red Oak Tree on ye east side of ye River against fort 
Dummer; Thence running east 12 dg' South 160 
poles To a little Black Oak Tree ; from Thence run- 
ning north one deg' West 225 poles To a heap of 
stones; Thence running east U deg' South 80 poles ; 
Thence running North 12 deg' East 300 poles to ye 
north Line of said Township ; Thence Running West 



546 



HISTOEY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



12 d north 357 poles to where it began. Two Small 
Islands in the Kiver being Included therein, &c. 
"Nathan Hey wood, Surveyor. 
" Ebenezer Alexander ) 
" William Syms [■ Com'"." 

" Edward Haetwell J 

The proprietors also voted, 

" That there be allowed and paid To Col. Josiah 
Willard the sum of five pounds four shillings, and by 
him Repaid to ye Committe and others in full for 
their service in Laying out this part of the Land 
Granted him at ye last meeting, and that the remain- 
der of the Land then Granted him be Layed out at 
his own cost and Charge (he having consented and 
agreed thereto). 

" Then the Proprietors present preceded to draw 
their Lotts, which came out and were assigned them 
at ye Bow and the Great River, Respectively, as en- 
tered in the several Lists now Taken thereof, there be- 
ing Twelve Lots not yet drawn . . . (though these were 
assigned, as the following list shows). Of these Lots 
at the Connecticut River, Col. Josiah Willard drew 
No. 28, Isaac Farnsworth No. 15, Johnathan Hubbard 
No. 10, Charles Wilder No. 3, John Stevens No. 2, 
Josiah Willard, Jr., No. 1, Stephen Farnsworth No. 
11, Edward Hartwell No. 4, John Johnson No. 26, 
John Waiting No. 22, Edward Hartwell, Jr., No. 14, 
Eleazer Heywood No. 27, Elisha Chapin No. 12, 
Shem CHapin No. 25, William Willard No. 21, Wil- 
liam Lawrence No. 5, Timothy Minot No. 17, John 
Keen No. 13, Nathan Heywood No. 8, Joseph Kellog, 
Esq', No. 19, Zechariah Field No. 7, John Brown No. 
6, Daniel Shattuck No. 9, Timothy Dwight No. 16, 
Nathaniel Dwight No. 23, Joseph Severance No. 24, 
Rufus Houghton No. 18. Lot No. 20 being reserved 
for public use. At the Bow, or Ashuelot River, Noah 
Dodge drew Lot No. 7, Ephraim Pearce Lot No. 18, 
James Jewell Lot No. 27, Moses Willard Lot No. 3, 
James Hosley Lot No. 17, Ephraim Wheeler Lot No. 
4, William Jones Lot No. 12, Andrew Gardner Lot 
No. 16, Benjamin Prescott, Esq., Lot No. 40, Samuel 
Farnsworth Lot No. 21, Asael Hartwell Lot No. 2, 
Jonathan Willard Lot No. 29, Benjamin Bellows, Jr., 
Lot No. 23, Samuel Chandler, Jr., Lot No. 34, AVilliam 
Goss Lot No. 1, Silas Houghton Lot No. 33, Daniel 
Wright Lot No. 15, Benoni Wright Lot No. 9, Joshua 
Wells Lot No. 39, John Heywood Lot No. 22, Thomas 
Willard Lot No. 38, Francis Cogswell Lot No. 26, 



Jethro Wheeler Lot No. 20, Ephraim Wetherby Lot 
No. 30, John Prescott Lot No. 14, Ebenezer Alexan- 
der Lot No. 31, AVilliam Syms Lot No. 13, Nathaniel 
Chamberlin Lot No. 24, Elias Alexander Lot No. 
37, Joseph Alexander Lot No. 32, Joseph Alexander, 
Jr., Lot No. 25, John Alexander Lot No. 41, Eben- 
ezer Alexander, Jr., Lot No. 36, John Ellis Lot No. 
8, Oliver Doolittle Lot No. 28, James Porter Lot No. 
11, John Summers Lot No. 10, Daniel Brown Lot No. 
19, Edmond Grandy Lot No. 35, Benoni Moore Lot 
No. 42, and Lots No. 5 and 6 were left for public 
use." 

No further general action seems to have been 
taken by the proprietors during the late fall or 
winter of 1733-34 towards the .settlement of 
their grant, yet it appears that individual pro- 
prietors were active in advancing their interests 
in the settlement, foremost of whom was Cap- 
tain William Syms, who had erected a house 
on his lot — " Lot No. 13, at ye Bow" — before 
the 30th of April, 1734. This lot was upon 
the north side of the mountain, now known as 
" Meeting-Hou.se Mountain," and contained 
thirty-five acres. It was the second house-lot 
laid out on " Long Hill," running east, and the 
first house-lot on the east at the beginning of 
"The 10 rod road." The southern line of the 
first east lot, that of John Prescott, and num- 
bered in the lay-out as " Lot No. 14," was, and 
is, the same line as now divides the pa,sture 
lands of Henry B. Robbins and Willard Jen- 
nings, tlie southwest corner of which is nearly 
opposite the premises now owned and occupied 
by Scwell Tafts. This lot contained thirty- 
nine acres and was forty-four perches wide. 
Its description is as follows : 

" House Lot No. 14 : at ye Bow ye most southerly 
lot in ye east range is John Prescott's, the contents of 
which is 39 acres: beginning at a certain stake set 
up for ye southeast corner of s'' lot, and runs east 9 
degr south on common land 165 rods to a stake ; then 
North 9 deg' east on common land 44 poles ; then 
west, 9 deg' North on Lot No. 13, 124 poles to a white- 
oak tree ; then running west 18 deg' south, 18 poles 
to a' stake ; Then running south, 43 degrs west, chief- 
Iv on Lot No. 4, (That of Ephraim Wheeler, on which 



WINCHESTEK. 



547 



are now situated the mills on the east side of the Ash- 

uelot River at Winchester Village), 44 poles to where 

it began. 

" Nathan Haywood, Surveyor." 

The description of lot No. 13, on which Cap- 
tain Lyons erected this, the first house erected 
within the bounds of and by any of the propri- 
etors of the Arlington grant, is as follows : 

" House Lot No. 13, at ye Bow on ye east side of 
ye long hill belonging to William Syms, ye Contents 
of which i.s 35 acres : beginning at a certain white- 
oak tree marked for ye southwest corner of ye said 
Lot, and running east 9 deg'' south on Lot No. 14, 
124 pole to a stake ; Then running north 9 deg' east 
on common land, 4G pole to a white-oak tree; Then 
running west 9 deg' north on Lot No. 12, 124 pole to 
a Stake ; Then running south 7 degree West on ye 
ten rod road, 46 pole to where it began. 

" Nathan Haywood, Surveyor.'" 

This house was probably erected just a little 
north of tiic centre of the lot and only a few 
rods back from the road. The remnants of an 
old orchard are now standing very near where the 
writer remembers an old cellar to have existed 
when he " drove cows." But this has been 
within a few years obliterated, and what was 
then an old pasture whose surface was well 
covered with rocks and grew so much winter- 
green and hardback, that it would hardly sup- 
port one sheep to the acre, is now a fine mow- 
ing, and the opportunity is forever lost to us 
• to point out to our children the e.vact spot where 
the humble dwelling of Captain William Syms, 
the pioneer settler of Winchester, stood. 
But we know very near where it stood, 
and can picture to them the humble hut of un- 
hewn logs, its chimney of mud and stones, to- 
gether with its forest surroundings. 

Sometime during the spring of 1735 the 
proprietors of Arlington set out on their migra- 
tion from Lunenburg to enter into their new 
possessions. The peculiar fejitures of their 
journey have been quaintly and aptly described 
in a letter written by one of those early pio- 
neers of civilization to a friend who had not 
joined in the effort. 
30 



" The land they purchased of the Indians, and with 
much difficulties, traveling through unknown woods 
and through watery scrampes (swamps), they discover 
the fitness of the place ; sometimes passing through 
the thickets, where their hands were forced to make 
way for their bodies' passage, and their feete clamber- 
ing over the crossed trees which, when they missed, 
they sunk into an uncertain bottome in water and 
wade up to the knees, tumbling sometimes higher 
and sometimes lower. 

" Wearied withtoill, they at end of this meete'with 
a scorching plaine, yet not so plains but that the 
ragged bushes scratch their legs fouly even to wear- 
ing their stockings to their bare skins in two or three 
hours ; if they be not otherwise well defended with 
bootes or buskins their flesh will be torne. That 
some being forced to pass on without further pro- 
vision, have had the blond trickle downe at every 
step, and in the time of summer the 6un casts such a 
reflecting heats from the sweet-ferne, whose scent is 
very strong so that some herewith have been very 
nere fainting, although very able bodies to undergo 
much travel], and this is not to be indured for 
one day but many. They rest them on the rocks 
where the night takes them. There short repast is 
some small pittance of bread if it hold out; but as for 
drink they have plenty, the country being well 
watered in all places that yet are found out. Their 
further hardships is to travel sometimes they know 
not whither, bewildering indeed without sight of sun 
their compasse miscarrying in crouding through the 
bushes. They sadly search up and down for a known 
way, the Indian paths being not above one foot broad 
sothataman may travel many days and never see 
one. This intricate worke no whit daunted these 
resolved servants of Christ to go on with the work in 
hand ; But lying in the open aire while the watery 
clouds pour down all the night season and some 
times the driving snow dissolving on their backs, 
they keep their wet clothes warme with a continual 
fire till the renewed morning gave fresh opportunity 
of further travell. After they have thus found out 
the place of abode they burrow themselves in the 
earth for their first shelter under some hill-side 
casting the earth aloft upon timbers. They make a 
smoaky fire against the earth at the higher side and 
.thus these poore servants of Christ provide shelter 
for themselves, their wives and little ones, keeping 
off the short showers from their lodgings, but the 



548 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



long rains penetrate througli, to their great disturb- 
ance in the night season. Yet in these poore wig- 
wames they sing psalms and pray and praise their 
God, till they can provide them houses, which is not 
wont to be with many till the earth, by the Lord's 
blessing, brings forth bread to feed them, their wives 
and little ones, which with sore labours they attaine, 
every one that can lift a howe (hoe) to strike it into 
the earth, standing stoutly to their labours, and teare 
up the rootes and bushes, which the first yeare beares 
theni a very thin crop, till the soued (sod) of the 
earth be rotten, and therefore they are forced to cut 
their bread very thin for a long season. But the 
Lord is pleased to provide a great store of fish in the 
springtime and especially alewives about the bigness 
of herrings ; many thousands of these are used to 
put under their Indian come, which are planted in 
hills five foote asunder and assuredly when the Lorde 
created this corne he had a special eye to supply 
these his people's wants with it ; for ordinarily five 
or six graines doth produce six hundred. 

" As for flesh, they looked not for any in those times, 
unless they could barter with the Indians for venison 
or rackoons, whose flesh is not much inferior to lambe. 
The toill of a new plantation being, like the labors of 
Hercules, never at an end. Yet are none so barber- 
ously bent (under the Massachusetts especially), but 
with a new plantation they ordinarily gather into 
church-fellowship, so that pastors and people sufl^er 
the inconveniences together, which is a great means 
to season the sore labours they undergoe, and verily 
the edge of their appetite is greater to spiritual duties 
at their first communing in time of wants than after- 
wards. Many in new plantations are forced to go 
bare-foot and bare-leg, till later days, and some in 
frost and snow. Yet were they then very healthy ; 
there lonesome conditions was very grievious to some, 
which was much aggravated by continual feare of the 
ludians' approach whose enmeties were much spoken 
of. Thus the poore people populate this howling des- 
art marching manfully on (the Lord assisting) through 
the greatest ditficullies and sorest labours that ever 
any with such weakness have done." 

"We fix upon this date (the spring of 1735) 
of actual settlement, because a regularly called 
meeting of the proprietors \va.s held at 
the house of Mr. Satuuel Hunt, in Northfield, 
on March 25, 17:55, and the notifications for 



said meeting were regularly posted by the pro- 
prietors' clerk, Benjamin Doolittle, under date 
of Marcii 3, 1785, at Lunenburg and Northfield, 
respectively; whilst oii July 21, 1735 the 
said Benjamin Doolittle, as proprietors' clerk, 
posted a regular notification of a meet- 
ing of the proprietors at Arlington and 
at Arlington only. This meeting was called to 
be and was held at the house of William Syms, 
on the last Tuesday (26th day) of August, 1735, 
aud Deacon Ebenezer Alexander was chosen 
moderator, whilst iu all previous meetings of 
the proprietors Colonel Josiah Willard had 
been elected to that office. At this meeting the 
proprietors 

" Voted to raise the sum of one hundred pounds, 
ten shillings money or publick bills of credit. To 
be Levied on y' proprietors of y' House Lots at y" 
Bow & at y" Great River in Equal proportions on 
each lot : for encouragement of preaching y' Gospel 
in y" New-Township at y° place called y" Bow, in or- 
der to prepare a suitable & well qualified person to 
settle among them agreeable to y" Courts order, & for 
encouragement of settling y* New-Township accord- 
ing to ye Courts order & y' said money to be appro- 
priated only & for y" use of providing such a meet 
person to preach y' Gospel among y' inhabitants of y' 
New Township afors'' & defraying y' Cnarges thereof 
& Then voted and chose y" Eev. Mr. Benjam in Doolit- 
tle, Deacon Ebenezer Alexander & Mr. Nathaniel 
Brooks assessors with full power to assess y' s'' sum 
above granted upon y" proprietors according to y" 
vote aboves'', voted also & Chose Mr. Jeremiah Hall 
& Mr. James Jewell Collectors for y' proprietors, to 
gather in y' sum above granted & pay it in to y" pro- 
prietors Treasurer." 

" Voted that Deacon Ebenezer Alexander, Mr. 
Nathaniel Brooks and Mr. Jeremiah Hall be a com- 
mittee to order y" payment of y' above granted hun- 
dred pounds, ten shillings out of y" Proprietors' 
Treasury as is found due. Voted and chose y' Rev. 
Mr. Andrew Gardner, Mr. Nathaniel Brooks & Joseph 
Alexander, To Take y' care of providing such a meet 
person as afore"' to supply y" pulpit until y' s'' money 
be disbursed. Voted to make window-i'ramcs and 
casements, y'= sash fashion for y'' lower tier of windows 
in y' Meeting House, \vith y^ common sort of Dia- 



WINCHESTER. 



549 



mond Glass before winter, provided timber may be 
had suitable for s'' work, & y° Mr. Nathaniel Rock- 
wood & William Syms be a committee to see y' y° s'' 
work eflected by y" Time afore"* & y" payment be 
made out of y' proprietors' Treasury, out of y" money 
formerly granted, y" accompts to be passed & payment 
ordered by y" Committee formerly appointed to pass 
contingent charges & Order payment of y". (This 
committee consisted of Deacon Ebenezer Alexander, 
William Syms and .feremiah Hall.) 

" Voted that y° sixteen pounds agree'' to be paid to 
Mr. Billings for preaching 8 Sabbaths be allowed & 
paid out of y* hundred pounds and ten shillings above 
granted." 

The raeeting-hou.'ie had beeu erected during 
the hite spring and early suianier, as it was 
provided for by the proprietors at their meeting 
of March 25, 1735, when thoy voted, — 

'■ Also y' y° place appointed and returned upon y" 
plan of y" House Lot at y'' Bow by y" Committe 
formerly chosen (this Committe consisted of Col. 
Josiah Willard, Capt. Johnathan Hubbard, Joseph 
Kellog, Esq., and Capt. Edward HartwellJ to lay out 
y° House Lot, be y° place appointed & fixed upon to 
set ye first Meeting-house." This location was upon 
House Lot, No. 5, and the exact point fixed upon was 
on Meeting-House Hill, where the house now occupied 
by Martin M. Baker stands. At this meeting (March 
25th), the Proprietors voted '' to build a Decent house 
for publick worship at ye Bow at ye place already 
voted to set it on, of these dimensions following, viz. : 
40 feet in Length, & 32 feet in bredth '& 18 feet be- 
tween joynts, & to inclose ye out side & finish y"= roof 
of s*" building & y" Doors, & provide boards for y" 
under floor, & lay ye sleepers & lay on ye boards a 
seasoning, & underpin y" s'^ building. Voted to give 
Col. Josiah Willard y° sum of one hundred & eighty 
pounds money, or bills of credit, to enable him to 
build ye Meeting-House at y"" Bow, so far as has been 
already agreed upon, & voted by y' Proprietors, by y" 
Last day of July next ensuing. Provided y' he give 
sufficient bond for Security to some person in trust, 
y' he will perfect y' s'' work to s'' building, as already 
voted by the Last of July afore"*. Voted and chose 
y' Rev. Mr. Ben-i'" Doolittle a Trustee to & for y' use 
of y° Proprietors afor"", with full power To Take y" 
bond for Security of Colonel Willard, to oblige him to 
perfect y" work towards y' building »■* Meeting-House 



as before voted, & to Prosecute s"* bond in case of fail- 
ure." At an adjourned meeting held on the next 
Friday, it was voted " that y" Rev. Mr. Andrew Gardner 
& Deacon Ebenezer Alexander, be a committee with 
y'^^ Rev. Mr. Benjamin Doolittle to see & Determine 
wheather Colonel Josiah Willard builds y" Meeting- 
House agreeable to ye vote of ye proprietors both in 
time and manner, and upon his fulfullment of y" s'' 
vote to order y' delivery ofs* bond Ay" payment of y" 
hundred & eighty pounds voted to him for s'' work." 

Precisely how many and who of the grantees 
wei'e settled within the township at this date we 
are at present nnable to say, though it is fair to 
presume that most, if not all, of those who are 
mentioned by name in connection with tlie 
administration of the affiiirs of the township had 
become residents. Of these were Deacon Eben- 
ezer Alexander, who drew lot No. 31, which is 
the fii-st lot to the south and east of the old Ore 
Mountain road ; James Jewell, who drew lot No. 
27 on Pine Plain, which is very near the house- 
lot of Alvin Kempton ; Rev. Andrew Gardner, 
who drew lot No. 16 on Long Hill, which was 
on the east side of the ten-rod road and com- 
prised a part of the pasture of William E. Bul- 
lock, to the north of the present residence of 
Morrison Forbush ; Joseph Alexander, who drew 
lot No. 32, which is now occupied in part at 
least by Deacon Levi Suben ; Captain William 
Syms, who lias already been mentioned as the 
first actual resident of Arlington. Of others men- 
tioned, Colonel Joseph W'i Hard never became 
a resident of the plantation which he had made 
such great efforts to secure and e.stablish. He was 
born at Lancaster, Mass., in 1693. He early 
became a resident of Lunenburg, and was for 
many years commandant at Fort Dummer, 
(afterward known as the Truck-House) and he 
died as the record says, " on a journey from 
home, December 8, 1750, aged 58 years." He 
was described in a public journal " as a gentle-, 
man of superior natural powers, of a pleasant, 
happv and agreeable temper of mind, a faithful 
friend, one that paid singular regard to the 
ministers of the gospel, a kind husband and 



550 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tender parent. . . . His deatli is a great loss 
tothepnblick, considering his usefulness in many 
respects, particularly on the western frontiers, 
where in the late wars, in his betrustments, he 
has shown himself faithiul, vigilant and careful. 
Of late years he has had the command at Fort 
Dunimer and always used his best endeavors for 
the protection of our exposed infant towns, and 
his loss will be greatly regretted by them." 

Prior to this time such buildings as had been 
constructed by the settlers had been of logs or 
rude frames covered M'ith cleft boards, which 
were split from oak cuts from five to seven feet 
long and were from eight to ten inches Avide, 
and about one and a half inches thick on the 
back. They were laid lapping and made a 
durable and a tolerably tight covering. The 
roofs were thatched, the material used being the 
tall meadow grass, which was to be found in the 
loM-lands in abundance. (_)ne end of the hut 
was principally occupied by the chimney, a 
huge mass of stones piled up as a back for the 
fire-jilace, whilst a hole in the house-top let out 
the smoke. Eight or ten feet in width was a 
fire-jjlace of moderate size. But now Colonel 
Josiah Willard erected a saw-mill on 
Roaring Brook, in accordance with an agree- 
ment entered into between himself, on the one 
part, and a committee of the proprietors, con- 
sisting of himself, Captain John Hubbard, Cap- 
tain Joseph Kellog, Captain Edward Hartwell 
and Deacon Ebenezer Alexander, on the other 
part, the terms of the agreement being as 
follows : 

"That one hundred acres of Land be given and 
granted Colonel Josiah Willard of Lunenburg, 
one half to be laid out at or near y" Place con- 
venient for erecting y' s'* mill or mills together with 
y" Grant of a suitable Stream and Pondage for s'^ 
mill or mills and y" other half in some convenient 
Place Provided y' s"* Colonel Willard build a good 
Sufficient Saw-mill at or near y' place Called y' Bow 
and keep it in Repair near y' space of ten years and 
saw Boards at a Reasonable price : y' s** mill to be 
finished fit for service within y' space of four months 
from y« date of this vote (April 30. 1734) & y' s" 



Colonel Willard to be excused from building or keep- 
ing y' s" mill in repair in Case y' settlers Desert y" 
Place or forbear to settle there in case of war & to 
build or repair y' s'' mill on three months warning at 
any time upon y' desire of y' Proprietors & y' keep it 
in repair y'= term aforesaid & y' y" Rev. Mr. Ebenezer 
Hinsdale Deacon Ebenezer Alexander & William 
Synis who had been chosen a Committee to Lay out 
y" hundred acres above mentioned to Colonel Josiah 
Willard no part of s'' Grant to be Laid on y" North- 
erly & westerly side of Ashewelat River & make 
Return of y' doings to y" Proprietors Clerk to be 
entered on the records." The return of tlie lay-out 
by the Committee is " A plan of sixty acres of Land 
at y' Bow in y' Township above Northfield lately 
Granted to Col Josiah Willard & Others Laid out to 
y" s"* Josiah Willard & Others by us y'' subscribers a 
committee appointed for y' end, it being part of a 
grant of one hundred acres of Land made to him by 
y° Proprietors of s* Township in May A. Dom 1734 
for Encouragement to build a saw mill in s'' place. 
It begins at a marked Hemlock on y' North Side of 
y' Brook called Roaring Brook about ten perches from 
y= s'' mill & Runs No 43° w" 21 Perches to an heap of 
stones; from thence No 3°w"' 21 Perches to a marked 
Hemlock ; from s"" Hemlock No 23° 30" w^' 40 Perches 
to a bunch of Maples ; from s'' Maples No 05° 00" 
east one hundred & fourty Perches to a marked pitch 
pine ; from thence East 05° s fifty two perches & a half 
to a marked tree; from s"" marked tree south five Deg 
w'^' two hundred and four perches to another marked 
tree and from s'' tree to y° place where it began. 

" Surveyed by y'' needle of y'" instrument & Platted by 
a scale of 40 Perches in an inch, October 24 A.D., 
1734. Ebenezer Hinsdale Ebenezer Alexander, Wil- 
liam Syms, Surveyors' Comm"''." That this was the 
first saw-mill built in Arlington is hardly a matter of 
doubt. That the mill had been built before the lay- 
out or the fifty acres mentioned above is evidenced by 
the description of the same, wherein the mill itself is 
particularly mentioned, and I'urther evidenced by the 
vote of the proprietors under date of AprU 30, 1734, 
when they "voted y' Colonel Josiah Willard Have 
Liberty granted him to build an House near y' Saw- 
mill for y' defense of it & settle a family in it to an- 
swer his obligation for one of those Lots he is obliged 
to settle"' at y" Bow & perform y° other part of his 
obligation upon y'' Lot or on y" Land near his house. 
Further on, this same 30"' of April the Proprietors 



WINCHESTER. 



651 



voted that Fifty acres of Land being formerly granted 
by y" Proprietors for Encouragement for y' erecting of 
a mill or mills near y' Great River and y' s'' fifty acres 
being now Laid out in two parts & Plans of y' Same 
now Laid before us & accepted & now ordered to be 
entred on y' Proprietors' Book. Cap' Joseph Kel- 
log appearing to undertake y'' same the Proprietors 
y° voted y' y" fifty acres of Land already Laid out at 
y' Great River for mill Lots together with y' Stream 
included in one part of s"" fifty acres be Granted to 
Cap'. Joseph Kellog provided y' he erect a good, suffi- 
cient saw-mill, fit for service in a convenient time at 
a year's warning, by order of y" Proprietors and Saw 
boards at a reasonable price." 

The desci"iption of this fifty acres of land is : 

"Plans for fifty acres of Land Surveyed & platted 
in two pieces or parts for a mill Lot near y" Great 
River. The one part butted and bounded as follows 
viz : Westerly on y' 22^ House Lot by a line extend- 
ing 105 poles N 20° Deg. E from a marked white-oak 
on y" southeast corner of s'* Lot to a marked Tree. 
Northerly on proprietors' land or common land by a 
Line extending from s'' marked Tree 42 poles E 20 
Deg S to a stake in y' Boggy meadow. Easterly by a 
line extending from S"* stake 106 poles S. 23 Deg 
west to y" meeting of two common roads. South- 
wardly on a highway by a line extending from S"* Cor- 
ner 34 poles west 20 deg N. to y" first mentioned 
White Oak. 

" N. B. — A high-way is to be allowed cross y* North 
East corner of this lot about five rods from y' corner 
as delineated in y" plan subjoyned. The other part 
Lying on a Brook called y' 2'' Brook, butted and 
bounded on undivided Land as follows viz: Easterly 
by a line extending East — 40° N. S5i poles from a 
marked chestnut tree on y'^ North end of an Hill 
called Chestnut Hill, to an Hemlock marked in a 
swamp standing by y' 2'' brook. Northerly by a Line 
extending from S'^ Hemlock No. 40 West 50 poles 
to a marked Hemlock by a Small Brook Westwardly 
by a line extending from y« last mentioned Hemlock 
West 40° South 85J Poles to a pitch pine tree on y' 
foot of an hill Southwardly by a Line extending 
from S" pitch pine S. 40° East, 50 poles to y" Chest- 
nut Tree first mentioned by y= Committes orders 
Surveyed and Platted Nov. 13"' 1733, by me 

" Ebexezer Hixsdai.e." 



This mill must have been on Ash Swamp 
Brook (now Liscomb's Brook in Hinsdale), very 
near the Connecticut River, whilst the first 
mill must have been near the mouth of Eoarin^ 

o 

Brook, probably where the remains of an old 
dam may even now be discovered, as well as an 
old cellar near l)y. It is to be supposed that 
the first settlers of Arlington spoke of the Con- 
necticut River as "y" Great River," as a matter 
of custom that had extended to them through 

o 

those settlers who, for more than a hundred 
years, had had their trading-posts and settle- 
ments upon its banks. The name of the river 
Connecticut is of Indian origin, and is derived 
from the words yidnneh tuk ut, the first meaning 
long, the second and last meaning river with 
waves ; and the Indians who lived upon its 
.shores called all the land lying along its bor- 
ders Quinneh tuk ut. The river is two hun- 
dred and fourteen feet above the sea-level where 
it was included in the Arlington grant. 

As soon as the settlers could gather their 
first crops they spread a not uninviting table. 
Their breakfast usually consisted of bread and 
milk, varied with toasted brown bread and 
roasted apples, hasty pudding, sometimes 
sweetened cider and toasted bread and cheese. 
For dinner meat, turnips, greens, peas and beans 
in their seasons ; and for supper bean porridge, 
Indian pudding, boiled pork and beef, turnips 
and potatoes sometimes. In the summer their 
diet list was increased by an abundant supply 
of milk ; on Sundays they had but two meals, 
breakfast and sujjper. These were both more 
generous than were their week-day meals. For 
breakfast they had chocolate, coffee or Bohea 
tea (the first two sweetened with molasses, the 
last with brown sugar), pan-cakes, doughnuts 
brown bread, toast and some sort of pie; after 
the afternoon church service, their supper often 
consisted of roast fowl, goose or chicken, baked 
spare-rib, with vegetables and pie. The only 
ilour they had was such as they sifted from 
crushed wheat. In addition, they had a fairly 
abundant supply of venison and other wild 



552 



HISTOllY OP CIIESHIKE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



meats from (lie forests, also wild fowl, consisting 
of turkie.s, partridges and ducks. 

Tlic streams abounded in footl fisli, — salmon, 
shad, lierriiig', alewives, trout and all other vari- 
eties of fisii now common to New England streams 
and ponds. Their stock consisted of a few horses, 
neat cattle, swine and jwultry, and their ])rin- 
cipal crops were Indian corn and hay. Potatoes 
were not then grown as a general crop, and only 
became such about 1775; before this date thrcn; 
bushels was th()ut;ht to be a large crop for a 
c'ommou farmer. The time of the men was 
fully occupied from the ilat(' of the completion 
of tlKiir rude dwellings in clearing fields for 
planting, in caring (or such (;ropsas they had been 
able to plant and in |)r(ite('tiiig their stock from 
wandering away into the wilderness and from 
the attacks of wild beasts. Their method of 
clearing the land was to cut up such brush 
and undei-growth of bushes as there might be, 
and to girdle the large trees. This they did by 
chojjping a narrow trench around the body of the 
tree, removing the bark about a liand's breadth 
in width, when, soon after, the tree would cast 
its leaves and remain after as a dead truid^, to de- 
cay in time. I ii lateraud subse(juent"clearings " 
they felled the trees and left them to lie U|)on 
the ground till fairly seasoned, and then burned 
tliem as they lay, afterwards drawing togetiier 
the remnants of uiiburned logs into huge heaps 
and again sul)jecting them to fire till completely 
consumed. The good housewife found her time 
completely consumed in the various duties in- 
cident to the care of Ix'r faniilv, besides makiusr 
butter and cheese, which were articles of ex- 
change for " store-goods " with the nearest local 
merchant. In addition, she carded and spun 
lier own yai'us, from flax or wool, or both. She 
wove her own linen and wool cloth, whilst the 
garments of her children, hei- husband and her- 
self were the results of her own handiwork. In 
the fall each family would gather enough cjindle- 
wood for use in the winter evenings. This was 
hard or pitch-pine, .sometimes stunted or dis- 
eased trees, or old knots which were full of 



pitch. A splinter would give a tolerable light — 
in fact, it was all the light, except the blaze from 
the hearth, which most of the families had. 
Tallow-candles were used to some extent, but 
only when one was so f )rtunate as to kill a fat 
beef. Oil was unknown. 

Their clothing was all of home-spun mate- 
rials, and for tlui men was a coat, vest, small- 
clothes and a fur hat or cap. Two suits were 
sufficient for a life-time (old men sometimes had 
a great-coat and a pair of boots in addition). 
For conmion wear they had a long jacket, or 
fly-coat, reaching half-way down the thigh, 
striped jacket worn under the small-clothes, all 
made of flannel cloth, fulled, but not sheared ; 
flannel shirts and stockings, and leather shoes for 
winter. In .summer they had a pair of wide 
trousers reaching half-way to the knees. Shoes 
and stockings >vere not worn summers by farm- 
ers or by young men. Boys, when out of their 
"petticoats," were put into small-clothes sum- 
mer and winter. The women wore flannel gowns 
in the winter, with stockings and calf-skin shoes. 
In the summer they wore wrappers, or slK;j)herd 
dresses, with stockings and shoes, whilst for 
their best suit they had a calico or camlet gown, 
with short sleeves and ruffles for each arm, 
aprons of checked linen, white cotton or 
cambric caps with small ruffles. Traveling was 
all done on foot or horse-back, following paths 
through the forests designated by blazed trees. 
The settlers of Arlington were often obliged to 
take a sack of grain upon the .shoulder and 
carry the same in this manner to mill at North- 
field, returning with "grist" in the same way. 

These first settlers of Arlington diligently 
applied theniijelves to the clearing aud subdu- 
ing. the rugged soil for tillage, the improvement 
of their buildings, increasing theii- farm stock, 
the construction of roads and bridges during 
these early years, without interruption from the 
Indians or disturbance from the State. But, 
on the 22d of June, 1739, in the House of 
Representatives of the province of Ma.s.sachu- 



sctts, it was 



WINCHESTEK. 



553 



" Ordered, That Col. Josiah Willartl, one of the 
principal inhabitants of the new Township called 
Winchester lying in the County of Hampshire, be 
and hereby is allowed and impowered to notify and 
warn the inhabitants of y" S'' Township to assemble 
and convene in some convenient publick place in said 
Town to make choice of a town clerk and other Town 
OfBcers to stand until the anniversary meeting in 
March next. 

"Sent up for concurrence, 

" J. QuiNCY, Speaker. 
'■In Council June 22" 1739 
"Read and concurred, 

' Simon Frost, Be-p. Secy. 



' Copy Examined. 



" pr Simon Frost, Ikpt. Secy. 



" Consented to. 



" J. Belcher." 

Under this order Colonel Willard called a 
meeting of the inhabitants of Winchester, as 
follows : 

"By virtue of an Order of the General Court of 
the Province of Massachusetts &c Dated June 22'' 
1739, to me directed for calling a meeting of the In- 
habitants of the New Tow-n called Winchester, to 
make choice of a Town Clerk and other Town 
OfBcers. These are to notifie and warn the In- 
habitants of the Said Town of Winchester that they 
assemble and meet at the meeting House in said 
Town on Monday the twentieth day of August cur- 
rant, at eight of the clock in the morning to chuse a 
Town Clerk and other Town Officers to stand until 
the Anniversary meeting in March next. 

"Notified per Order of S" Court of the Massachu- 
setts. 

" JOSIAH WiLLARD. 

" Winchester August y' 14"* a.d. 1739." 

At this, the first town-meeting of Winchester 
(all prior meetings have been of the proprietors 
of the plantation of Arlington), Coloiiol Josiah 
Willard was chosen moderator ; Josiah \\'illard, 
Jr., town clerk ; Colonel Josiali Willard, Mr. 
Andrew Gardiner and Nathaniel Rockwood 
selectmen; Simon Willard, constable ; Nathan- 
iel Chamberlain, tithiugman ; Nathaniel Rock- 
wood, town treasurer ; Simon Willard, Samuel 
Taylor and Henry Bond, hog-reeves; William 



Symcs, Joseph Alexander and Nathan Fair- 
banks, fence-viewers ; Andrew (Jardner and 
Josiah Willard, Jr., informers of all breaches 
of an act tor the preservation of deer ; and 
Gershom Tuttlc, pound-keeper. 

" The Persons above Named were all sworn to the 
faithful discharge of the Several offices whereto they 
were chosen. 

" Attest Josiah Willard, Jr., 

" Tow7i Clerk." 

The political peace of the inhabitants of 
Winchester was rudely disturbed by a royal 
decree dated August 5, 1740, definitely defining 
the boundary line between the provinces of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 

In 1652, in re.sponse to petitions to the Gen- 
eral Court of Massachusetts, surveyors were 
employed, who traced the Merrimack River as 
far north as the parallel of 4.5° 40' 12", and 
they reported the same October Vd, l(i52. 
This report was accepted, and the province of 
Massachusetts relinr^uished her claims to prov- 
ince laud north of this line her new bounds 
on the Connecticut River being near the present 
boundary line between the towns of Claremont 
and Charlcstown. This line Massachusetts 
maintained till 1740, when, after a long and 
acrimonious dispute between the two provinces, 
the whole question was referred by petition of 
the province of New Hampshire to His Ma- 
jesty, George II., who referred the same to the 
" Lords of Council of England," who decided 
in 1739 that the boundary line between the two 
pi'ovinces should be where it is at the present 
time. This finding was established by Hi.s 
Alajesty's royal decree, bearing date, August 5, 
1740, and the survey of the line was made by 
Richard Hazen in March and April, 1741. 

This decree defined the line as " beoinninu; at 
the distance of three English miles north from 
the southerly side of the Black Rocks, at low- 
water mark (near the mouth of the Merrimack 
River), and thence running due west up into the 
mainland towards thesouth sea until it meets with 
his majesties other governments." This survev. 



554 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



as made by Hazen, was a due east and west line 
with an allowance of ten degrees for the wester- 
ly variation of the needle, and severed the 
towns of Warwick and Northfield, leaving a 
portion of each with Winchester within the 
province of New Hampshire. Massachusetts 
did not quietly submit to being thus dismem- 
bered, and for years continued an agitation of 
the boundary line question, and the sympathies 
of the inhabitants of Winchester were largely 
with the mother province, naturally so, as they 
were Massachusetts born and bred, and all their 
political interests were best served by their re- 
maining citizens of that province, and for the 
further reason that the province of New Hamp- 
shire did not want them, for in the controversy 
between the two provinces respecting the bound- 
ary line it was the eastern end of the line, and 
not the western end, that was in dispute and 
that was thought to be of any value in the con- 
test. And it did not for a single moment oc- 
cur to either of them that the western extremity 
of the boundary would fall so far to the south- 
ward as to include these settlements ; and when 
Hazen pushed through the woods to the west, 
following his instructions of a due east and west 
survey, with the 10° allowance for the varia- 
tion of the needle, he gave a surprise to both 
provinces, and one that was not agreeable to 
either, Massachusetts being rudely awakened 
to the' fact that she had lost the efforts and ex- 
pense of years in extending her settlements up 
the fertile valley of the Connecticut River, and 
New Hampshire to the fact that she had citi- 
zens and settlements in her southwestern border 
that she did not want, but over Avhich she must 
exercise maternal jurisdiction and have a foster- 
ing care, a peoi)le to whom she was a stranger, 
and with whom she had no means of communi- 
cation excepting she trespassed on the territory 
of iier not ver}- good-natured (at the time) sister 
jjrovinee. She saw that she must construct 
roads through the wilderness to be able to com- 
municate with them and that she must eitlier es- 
tablish forts for tlieir jjrotection and supply them, 



or else appropriate those already erected by 
Massachusetts, all of which meant expense and 
effort to her when she felt that her former 
burdens were about all she could bear. The 
citizens of Winchester felt that they had been 
severed from their mother province by an arbi- 
trary and unjust decree of their king and were un- 
cared for and unloved by their foster-mother, 
to whom they had been given. They were 
practically left to work out their own destiny, 
and to secure their own salvation if they were 
able. 

The peace of mind of these early settlers 
was about this time still further disturbed by 
the unfriendly relations rapidly developing be- 
tween France and Great Britan ; for they 
well understood that the French, who then 
held and occupied Canada, would incite the 
Indians to attack the frontier settlements of 
the English in case of war between the two 
countries, which would bring upon their de- 
fenseless heads a blow they were illy prepared 
to resist. In 1744 the anticipated condition 
of war between the two countries actually oc- 
curred, and the realities of war were upon them, 
— a war that in its plans and scope was that of 
the civilized white man, whilst in its details it 
was a war filled with all the savage brutalities 
of tiie uncivilized red man. Unprotected as they 
were by New Hampshire, and with only feeble 
and reluctantly-granted assistance from Massa- 
chusetts, these sturdy settlers resolved to 
defend themselves as best they could ; every oc- 
cupied house was turned into a garrison, no 
man walked abroad unarmed and it soon be- 
came even unsafe to step outside a stockade to 
milk a cow or feed an animal. Their horses 
and cattle were killed, their harvests were de- 
stroyed and no field labor could be performed. 
After about a year of alternating hopes and 
fears, hopes that New Hampshire might af- 
ford them some protection or that the war might 
cease, fears for themselves and their families, — 
they abandoned their settlements, and we can 
almost picture them to ourselves, as, in the au- 



WINCHESTER. 



555 



tumn of 1745, the procession of" disappointed 
and almost discouraged settlers started out upon 
their journey to Lunenburg, the men grim 
and silent, the women dejected, the children 
alternately sober and joyous, — sober from 
sympathy and fatigue, joyous fiom brigiit an- 
ticipations of happiness in visiting the former 
home of their ])arents, so often mentioned, and 
the ever-varying scenes about them. On April 
IG, ] 747, a iJarty of Indians under the command 
of Monsieur Debuline, who had come down the 
Connecticut River from Canada to attack North- 
field, burned and destroyed all the buildings and 
property that had been abandoned by the set- 
tlers. 

During the period from tlie fall of 1745 to 
the sjiring of 1753, when the grantees of Win- 
chester returned to rebuild their desolated homes 
and to the cultivation of their wasted fields, 
occasionally a proprietor returned to maintain 
their rights to the soil unimpaired, and men 
from other settlements frequently visited the lo- 
cality and were often attacked by the Indians. 
On June 24, 174(3, twenty Indians came to 
Bridgman's Fort, two miles below Fort Dum- 
mer and attacked a number of men who were at 
work in a meadow. They killed William Rob- 
bins and Jonas Parker, and captured Daniel 
Howe and John Beeman. William Crison and 
Patrick Rugg were wounded, but both recov- 
ered. Howe killed one of the Indians before 
he was taken. 

On July 24, 1746, Col. Willard, with a team 
and a guard of twenty men who had come over 
from Fort Dummer to Hinsdale's Mill, were 
ambushed near the mill, but were able to re- 
pulse the Indians and return in safetv to the 
fort. On August 6, 1746, thirty Indians came 
to Winchester and waylaid the road over against 
Benjamin Melvin's house. Several men had 
occasion to pass by, not knowing of the ambush, 
and were fired upon, and Joseph Rawson was 
killed and Aniasa Wright wounded. On Oc- 
tober 22, 1746, the Indians captured Jonathan 
Sartwell near Fort Hinsdale. Fort Hinsdale 



stood on what is now known as the Marsh j)Iace 
in Hinsdale. Its exact locality is very readily 
found, just a few rods south of the dwelling- 
house now standing on said plac€. On October 
16, 1747, Lieutenant Perie Rambout, a young 
Frenchman, came as far south as the south bank 
of the Ashuelot River, about two miles below 
the village, where he and his Indians halted. 
Rambout, taking his gun, passed alone over a 
neighboring hill to the southward, where he was 
discovered by Captain Alexander, of Northfield, 
Major Willard, of Winchester, and Dr. Hall, of 
Keene, who were all going towards Northfield. 
They met some cattle running as though pur- 
sued. Captain Alexander, being foremost, saw 
a Frenchman in the path ciming tow.irds him. 
When he (Rambout) saw them, he jumped out 
of the path, behind a tree and asked for quarter, 
in French ; but Captain Alexander, not under- 
standing that language, fired, shooting him in 
the breast and he fell. He recovered himself 
and came up to Captain Alexander, whom he 
saluted handsomely, but he soon grew faint and 
they thought him mortally wounded, if not dying. 
They being afraid the Indians were near, 
and fearing pursuit, though they saw no one 
but Rambout, they knew he was not alone, and, 
taking his arms, hastened towards Northfield. 
The Indians, hearing the report of Alexander's 
gun, started directly a;id soon found Rambout 
alive and brought him to the river, where he 
had previously left them. Thinking him to be 
mortally wounded, and fearing the jiursuit of 
the English, they left him here and returned to 
Canada and reported him dead. The next 
morning: Rambout revi\ed and wandered to- 
ward Northfield. The first person he met was 
Captain Alexander, who had shot him. To 
him he surrendered. Alexander took him to 
Mr. Doolittle, in Northfield, who was a physi- 
cian and surgeon as well as a clergyman, who 
kept him till he recovered. After his wound 
was healed he was carried to Boston, where he 
was kindly entertained until he was exchanged, 
in February, 1748, for Samuel Allen, of Deer- 



556 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



field, who was captured in 1746. In 1747 the 
Indians burned Fort Bridgmau, killed several 
and took others prisoners. 

On June 16, 1748, fourteen men were way- 
laid near the mouth of Broad Brcok in going 
from Colonel Hinsdale's to Fort Dummer, and 
Joseph Richai'dson,- William Bickford, Nathan 
French and John Frost were killed. William 
Bickford was only wounded, but died of his 
wounds later. William Blanchard, Benjamin 
Osgood, jMathew Wyman, Joel Joliuson, Heury 
Stevens and Mark Perkins were captured. 
Daniel Farmer and three others escaped. One 
of the prisoners was killed by the Indians 
where they camped for the night. 

Ufton one side of the monument erected in 
memory of Taylor and his men is this in- 
scription : 

" In memory of fourteen men who were ^^aylaid by 
the Indians, near this place, June 16, 1748." 

July 3, 1748, the Indians waylaid the mill 
near Fort Hinsdale, where Colonel Willard, 
with a guard of twenty men, had come to grind 
corn. Colonel Willard having placed his 
guards, they wtu'e soon fired upon. The colonel 
gave such loud and repeated orders to attack 
the enemy that they fled, leaving their packs 
and provisions, and he and his command re- 
turned to Fort Dummer in safety. 

On July 14, 1748, Sergeant Thomas Tay- 
lor, with a party of sixteen men, whilst on 
their way from Northficld to Keene, through the 
westerly part of Winchester, were attacked by 
about a hundred French and Indians, who, af- 
ter a sharp fight, killed Joseph Rose, Asail 
Graves, James Billings and Henry Chandler, 
and captured Sergeant Thomas Taylor, Jona- 
than Lawrence, Thomas Crison, Reuben Walk- 
er, John Edgel, David How, Ephraim Pow- 
ers, John Henry and Daniel Farmer. Robert 
Cooper and three others whose names are un- 
known, escaped. Two of the prisoners had 
been wounded in the fight and soon after tiieir 
capture were killed by the Indians with tlieir 
clubs. The Indians took their prisoners up the 



east side of the Connecticut River and crossetl 
to the west side about three miles above where 
West River empties into the Connecticut, and 
then made their way direct to Cahada. This 
fight was about one mile below Fort Dummer, 
on the east side of the Connecticut. As near 
as may be to the exact spot of the attack has 
been erected a neat monument in memory of 
the event, which bears this inscription : 

" In memory of Sergeant Thomas Taylor, who, with 
a party of sixteen men, was here overpowered by one 
hundred Freneh and Indians, after heroic and bloody 
resistance, July 14, A.D. 1748. Four of their number 
were killed. Sg' Taylor, with eight others, several of 
whom were wounded, were taken prisoners, and four 
escaped." 

Tiiough peace was dec]ar(;d between France 
and England October 7, 1748, quiet in the Con- 
necticut Valley settlements did not ensue till 
several years later, for on July 22, 1755, the 
Indians attacked a party of men near Fort 
Hinsdale and killed and cajjtured several of 
them. 

July 27, 1755, as Caleb Howe, Hilkiah Grout 
and Benjamin GafBeld, who had been hoeing 
ct)rn in the meadow west of the river, were 
returning home a little before sunset to Brids- 
man's Fort, they were fired upon by twelve In- 
dians who had ambushed their jjath. Howe 
was on horseback with two young lads, his 
children, behind him. A bail broke his thigh 
and brought him to the ground ; his horse ran 
a few rods and fell likewise and both lads were 
captured. The Indians, coming up to Howe, 
pierced his body with a spear^tore off his scalp, 
stuck a hatchet in his head au<l left him. He 
was found alive the next morning by a j)arty of 
men from Fort Hinsdale ; and being asked by 
one of tlie party whetlier he he knew him, he 
answered : " Yes, I Icnow you all." These 
were his last words, tiiough he did not die till 
after his friends had arrived with him at Fort 
Hinsdale. Grout was so fortunate as to escape 
unhurt. But Gaffield, in attempting to wade 
throuoh the river at a ford, was unfortunatelv 



WINCHESTER. 



557 



drowned. Flushed with suoc&ss, the Indians 
went directly to Bridgtnan's Fort and found 
only Mrs. Jemima Howe, Mrs. Submit Grout, 
Mrs. Eunice CJuffield and some children. The 
women had heard the g'uns, but did not know 
■what had happened to their husband.s. Ex- 
tremely anxious for their safety, they eagerly 
awaited their coming; at length concludiug, 
from the noise they heard without, that they 
had come, tliey unbarred tlie gate in a hurry to 
let them in, when lo! to their disappointment 
and surprise, instead of tiieir husbands, iu 
rushed a number of hideous Indians, to mIhiui 
they and tiieir children became an easy prey, 
and from whom they had nothing to expect but 
a sorry captivity or death. Fourteen persons 
were made captives. 

On June 7, 1756, the Indians captured Jo- 
siah Foster, his wife and two children about 
one mile south of the jiresent village of Win- 
chester. Foster's house was upon the norther- 
ly side of Ore Mountain and in plain view of 
the village. Foster was at work on the bridge 
near the mouth of Alirey Brook where the 
present bridge now stands, when the Indians 
made their attack. They made prisoners of his 
wife and two chiklren, ransacked his house and 
killed his pigs. Whether it was the noise made 
by the pigs in their struggles for their liberty, 
or whether it was the featiiers from the feather- 
beds that the Indians ripped open and scattered 
from an attic window, that attracted Foster's 
attention, is not certainly known, but he in 
sfime manner became aware of the condition of 
his family, and hastening home, surrendered 
himself as a prisoner that he might share with 
his wife the burdens of captivity. 

He and his ftxmily were taken to Quebec, in 
Canada, where they were met by Eenjanun 
Twitchel, who was cajitured in Keene in 1755, 
and after mouths of privations and trials were 
set at liberty and sent to Boston, from whence 
they returned to their home in Winchester, 
where several of their descendants are now liv- 



The Indians who jiad given the settlers so 
much troul)le and had caused them such anxie- 
ties was the St. Francis tribe, that live just over 
the Canadian border, near the head-waters of 
the Connecticut River, living with whnm was 
the remnant of the Squakhoags, the tribe that 
had formerly occupied tlie valley of (he Ashue- 
lot. Tlicir territory extended to the south, to 
the head-waters of the Miller's River ; eastward 
to the Monadnoek Mountain, where tliey met 
the Nashua Indians ; n<n'thward to the head- 
waters of the Ashuelot, and wcstwartl cibout 
nine miles west of the Connecticut. 

This tribe had sold this, their iidieritance, — 
a tract of countrj' eml)racing about sixty-five 
thousand acres,— to the whites, and had con- 
veyed the same by a deed bearing date of 
August 13, 1687. This deed was executed by 
Nawdet, who was the chief at that time of the 
tribe. The price [laid these sons of the wilder- 
ness for tiieir home, their hunting; and fishing:- 
grounds, was the munificent sum of " forty-five 
pounds sterling in trades-goods," — a sum equal 
to one hundred and ninety-nine dollars and 
eighty cents in our money. It must be said, in 
Justice to this tribe of Indians, that after this 
sale of their lands to the whites, that, whilst 
they ditl not fully abandon the territory till 
1720, a period of thirty-three years, they lived 
in peace and harmony with the whites to whom 
they had sold, and that it was only during a 
time of war that they acted as guides to the 
French and Canadian Indians in their expedi- 
tions against the English. Traditions declare 
them to have been firm iu their friendships to 
individual settlers, often warning them iu ad- 
vance of threatening dangers. 

This tribe of Indians w"ore enterprising, war- 
like and skilled in all the devices of Indian 
strategy. In size they were small giants, 
skeletons having been exhumed more than six 
and a half feet tall. They lived in separate 
villages, at such points as were most fiivorable 
for obtaining subsistence. They lived princi- 
pally upon the fruit of the chestnut-tree, 



558 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ground-nuts^ corn, pumpkins which were cut in 
strips and dried in the sun, and the flesh of 
animals taken in the cliase or by trapping. 
They cooked their iish just as they were taken 
from the water, and small animals were roasted 
whole, the entrails being considered an indis- 
pensable part of the roast. They understood 
the process and made maple sugar, and they 
also raised and used tobacco to some extent. 
They set frequent fires in certain portions of 
their domain to keep down the underbrush for 
cultivable fields. 

These were generally set in the fall after the 
leaves aud seeds had fallen, and in this way not 
ouly the smaller trees were destroyed, but the 
larger ones were soouer or later killed. Thus 
they kept quite large areas treeless for the pur-^ 
poses of cultivation. It would seem, from the 
remains of their villages and defensive works, 
their granaries and cultivated fields, together 
with the large n>unbei' of their burying-places 
discovered, that they must have been a prosper- 
ous and numerous people, and that they had 
occupied the country for many generations. 
AVe find them upon the war-path as early as 
1675, when they had made successful attacks 
upon Deerfield and Northfield, following which 
they went into winter-quarters at a place called 
" Coasset," a little above the railroad station at 
South Vernon, Vt. Their successes had been 
so great that they deemed themselves secure from 
attack, — so secure that they sent a large party to 
the falls (Turner's) on the Connecticut River, 
below the mouth of Miller's River, to fish for 
shad, when, on the morning of May 19, 1676, 
about daybreak. Captains Turner and Holyoke, 
with about one hundred and sixty men, fell 
upon their camp and killed a great number of 
the Indians. But just as the soldiers were re- 
turning to their horses, which they iiad con- 
ceiUed " a little way back," it vvas reported that 
King Philip, with a largo foi'ce of Indians, were 
coming to the rescue.- This rumor greatly 
alarmed the whites and caused them to fall into 
disoi-der, when the Indians immediately attacked 



them and killed Captain Turner and thirty- 
seven of his men. The name of the tribe, 
"Squakheags," is a contraction of Namus- 
Scjuam-aug-khige, and signifies spearing-place 
for Siilmou, and, from the peculiarities of their 
language and tribal affiuities, they would seem 
to have been very closely related to the Nasha- 
ways, whose hunting-grounds joined theirs at 
" the Great Monaduock." 

At last the province of New Hampshire de- 
termined to recede from the unjust, if honor- 
able, position it had taken, when, just prior to 
the abandonment of the settlement. Colonel 
Willard wrote Governor Benning Wentworth : 

"Almost every man is upon the move in this part 
of the country. I have had no sleep these three 
nights, and have now nine families stope'' at my 
house. We have persuaded the bigger part of the 
people to tarry a little longer." 

He then asked that the settlements might re- 
ceive assurances of protection ; to which the 
province of New Hampshire replied, under date 
of May 3, 1745, through her General Court : 

"Fort Dummer is Fifty miles distant from any 
towns which have been settled by the Government of or 
the people of New-Hampshire. That the people had 
no rights to the lands which, by the dividing line, 
had fallen within New-Hampshire, notwithstanding 
the plausible arguments that had been used to induce 
them to bear the expence of the line, namely, that the 
land would be given to them or be sold to pay the ex- 
pence. That the charge of maintaining that Fort at 
so great a distance, and to which there was no com- 
munication by roads, would excede what had been the 
whole expence of the Government before the line 
was established, and, finally, that there was no dan- 
ger that these parts would want support, since it was 
the interest of Massachusetts, by whom they were 
erected (the Forts), to maintain them as a cover to 
their frontiers." 

They thus refused to protect their own, either 
from mercenary motives or a want of humanity, 
or an absolute inahilitij to do what was required. 
Let us all believe it was the latter reason ; for, 
on Monday, July 2, 1753 : 



WINCHESTER. 



559 



" At a Council and General Assembly holden at 
Portsmouth. Present — His Excellency, Benning 
Wentwortb, Esq., Governor, Theodore Atkinson, Rich- 
ard Wibird, John Downing, Samuel Sulley, Daniel 
Warner and Sampson Sheatfe, Esq". His Excellency 
hiid before the Board the petition of Josiah Willard, 
Esq., for himself and in behalf of the settlers and 
claimers of a tract of land bounding partly on the 
Province line, partly on Northfield (so called) and 
partly on the Connecticut River, called by the name 
of Winchester as the same was granted by the Mas- 
sachusetts Government. Praying for a grant of the 
said tract or township agreeable to their former sur- 
veys, divisions and partitions, &c., which being read 
at the Board by His Excellency, put tlie question to 
the Council when they would advise him to make a 
Charter agreeable to the petition. To which the 
Council did consent and advise." 

Upon whicli His Excellency issued the fol- 
lowing: 

"Province of New Hampshire. 

"George the Second, by the Grace of God of Great 
Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the 
faith &c. 

" To all persons to whom the presents shall 
come. Greeting: Whereas sundry of our loving 
subjects before the settlement of the dividing line 
of our Province of New Hampshire aforesaid and 
our other Governments of the Massachusetts Bay, be- 
gan a settlement of a tract of land lying partly on 
Connecticut River and partly on our said dividing 
line, pnd made sundry divisions of and improvements 
upon the said tract of land and there remained until 
the Indian war forced them off and our said subjects 
being desirous to make an immediate settlement on 
the premises and having petitioned our Governor and 
Council for His Majesties Grant of the premises to be 
so made as might not subvert and destroy their 
former surveys and laying out in severalty made 
thereon as aforesaid. 

" Now know ye that we of our especial grace, cer- 
tain knowledge, and mere motion for answering the 
end above said, and for the due encouragement of 
settling the said Plantation by and with the advice of 
our trusty and well beloved Benning Wentworth, 
Esq'., our Governor and Commander in Chief of our 
said Province of New Hampshire in America, and of 
our Council of the said Province. Have upon the 



conditions and reservations hereafter made, given and 
granted, and by these presents for us our Heirs and 
successors, do give and grant unto our loving subjects. 
Inhabitants of our said Province of New Hampshire 
and His Majesties other Governments and to their heirs 
and a.ssigns ibrever wliose names are entered upon this 
Grant, to be divided to and amongst them into so 
many and such shares and proportions as they now 
hold or claim the same by purchase, contract, vote or 
agreement, made amongst themselves. All that tract 
or parcel of land lying and being within our said 
Province of New Hampshire containing liy admeas- 
urement, twenty-three thousand and forty acres, 
which tract is to contaiu six miles square and no 
more, out of which an allowance is to be made for 
highways and unimprovable Lands, by rocks, moun- 
tains, ponds and rivers, one thousand forty acres 
free, according to a plan thereof made and presented 
by our said Governor's order and hereunto annexed, 
butted and bounded as follows, viz. : bigining at a 
beach tree marked for the southwest corner of Rich- 
mond; from thence running west 10' N. on the Prov- 
ince Line four miles to the easterly line of North- 
field (so called); thence runs Northerly on said line 
to the northeast corner of Northfield aforesaid; 
then runs west on the aforesaid line of Northfield 
to Connecticut River ; thence running up said 
River to the southwest corner of Chesterfield ; then 
runs south 73' East until that point intersects a 
line running North by the needle from the first 
mentioned found tree, and the same be and hereby 
is incorporated in Town by the name of Winches- 
ter, and the inhabitants that do or shall hereaf- 
ter inhabit said township are hereby declared to be 
enfranchised with and entitled to all and every 
the privileges and immunities that other towns 
within our said Province do exercise and enjoy. And 
furthermore, that the said town, as soon as there shall 
be fifty families residing there, shall have the liberty 
to open and keep a market one or more days in each 
week, as may be thought most advantageous to the 
inhabitants. Also, that the first meeting for the 
choice of town officers and other aflairs, agreeable to 
the laws of our said Province, shall be held on the 
third tuesday in August next, which meeting shall be 
notified by Josiah Willard, Esq., who is hereby ap- 
pointed the moderator of the said meeting, which he 
is to notify and govern agreeable to the laws and cus- 
toms of our said Province, and that the annual 



560 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



meeting forever hereafter, for the choice of such 
officers for the said Town, shall be on the first tues- 
day of March, annually. 

" To have and to hold the said tract of land as 
above expressed, together with all the priviledges and 
appurtenances to them and their respective heirs and 
assigns forever, upon the following conditions, viz. : 
That every Grantee, his heirs and assigns, shall plant 
or cultivate five acres of land within the term of 
five years for every fifty acres contained in his or 
their share or proportion of land in the said Town- 
ship, and to continue to improve and settle the same 
by additional cultivations, on penalty of the forfeit- 
ure of his grant or share in said Township, and its 
reverting to his majesty, his heirs and Successors, to 
be by him or them regranted to such of his subjects 
as shall effectually settle and cultivate the same. 
That all white and other pine-trees within the said 
Township fit for masting our royal navy, may be 
carefully preserved for that use, and none to be cut 
or felled without his majesties especial license for so 
doing first had and obtained, upon the penalty of the 
forfeiture of the right of such Grantee, his heirs or 
assigns to us, our heirs and successors, as well as be- 
ing subject to the penalty of any Act of Parliament, 
that are or shall be hereafter enacted. 

'■ Also, reserving the power of adding to or dividing 
the said Town, so far as it relates to incorporations, 
only to us, our heirs and successors, when it shall be 
necessary or convenient for the benefit of the inh.abit- 
ants thereof Also, subjecting the unimprovable 
lands within this Grant to an annual tax of one 
penny to an acre, for two years from the date here- 
of, for the building a meeting-house, and settling a 
Gospel minister in said town. That before any 
further divisions of the land be made to and amongst 
the Grantees, a tract of land in the most commodious 
place the land will admit of shall be reserved and 
marked out for town lots, one of which shall be 
allotted to each Grantee of the contents of one 
acre yealding and paying therefor to us, our 
heirs and successors for the space of ten years, 
to be computed from the date hereof the an- 
nual rent of one ear of Indian corn only com- 
mencing on the first day of January next ensuing the 
date hereof, if lawfully demanded, and every Proprie- 
tor settled or inhabitant shall j'ield and pay unto us 
our heirs and successors yearly and every year forever 
from and after the expiration of the ten years from 



the date hereof namely on the first day of January 
which will be in the year of our Lord Christ, one 
thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, one shilling 
Proclamation money for every hundred acres he so 
owns settles or possesses, and so in proportion for a 
greater or lesser tract of the said land. Which money 
shall be paid by the respective persons above said, 
their heirs or assigns in our Council Chamber in 
Portsmouth, or to such Officer or officers as shall be 
appointed to receive the same and this to be in lieu 
of all other rents and services whatsoever. In wit- 
ness whereof we have caused the seal of said Province 
to be hereunto affixed. 

"Witness Benning Wentworth, Esq. Our Governor 
and Commander in Chief of our said Province. The 
second of July in the year of our Lord Christ 1753 
and in the 27" year of our reign. 

" B. Wentworth. 

" By his Excelencys command with advice of Coun- 
cil. 

"Theodore Atkinson, Sect. 

"Province of New Hampshire July 2'' 1753, re- 
corded in the Book of Charters 169 page. 

"Theodore Atkinson, SW-h/." 

The names of the.se grantees of Winoliester 
were : 



" Josiah Willard 
Samuel Ashley 
Joseph Ashley 
Simon Willard 
Nathaniel Kockwood 
Ebenezer Alexander 
Elias Alexander 
William Syraus 
Benjamin Melvin 
John Ellis 
Jonathan Morton 
William Orvis 
John Summers 
Henry Bond 
William Temple 
Jonathan Parkest 
Samuel Whitemore 
Samuel Chickley Jr 
Benjamin Bird 
Francis Coggwell 
Nathan Willard 
Wilder Willard 



Elisha Root 
Jacob Davis 
Samuel Taylor 
Davis Field 
James Jewell 
John Peirce 
Anthony Peirce 
Simon Peirce 
John Saylerman 
Thadeus Mason 
Nathaniel Foster 
Josiah Foster 
Thomas Greemon 
The Heirs of Joseph 
Lemons, deceased. 
Sarah Martin 
Joseph Burchard 
Daniel Lewis 
Benjamin Lynds 
Oliver Willard 
William Willard 
Valentine Butler 



WINCHESTER. 



561 



John Brown 
Moses Belding 
Joanna Pierce 
Ebenezer Hinsdale 
William Hancock 
William Neagos 
Ephraim Tuttle 
Samuel Stone 
Martin Ashley 
Joseph Bliinehard 
Timothy Minot 
Joshua Lyman 



Jonathan Edwards 
James Rider 
Joseph Marrifield 
Nathaniel Hastings 
Jabez Hills 
Moses Chamberlain 
John More 
Hezekiah Wright 
Thomas Swetman 
Samuel Field 
Samuel Hunt 



"His Excelency Beuning Wentworth, Es(|'^, a 
tract of Land containing five Hundred acres. One- 
seventieth part of s'' tract of Land for theincorporated 
Society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign 
parts. One-seventieth part of the s'' tract for the lirst 
settled minister of ye Gospel iu the s*" Town. One-seven- 
tieth part of s'' Granted tract for a Glebe for the 
Church of England by law Established. 
" Thomas Hancock Gaius Field 

Palatia Webster John Allen 

Thomas Taylor 
"Province of New-Hampshire July 2'' 1753 entered 
& recorded in the Book of Charters page 171 & 172. 
" Per " Thec)' Atkissojj Secri/." 

Having rect'ivcd these assurances of recogni- 
tion and protection from the provincial govern- 
ment (if New Hampshire, the grantees and 
proprietors of Winchester, under date of August 
21, 1753, proceeded to reorganize their town 
government, whch liad been interrupted for a 
jieriod of about seven years. The record of 
the meeting is as foHows : 

"At a Legal meeting of the Inhabitants and 
Grantees of the township of Winchester, held at the 
house of Major Josiah Willard Esq ' in Winchester on 
tuesday the twenty-first day of August agreeable to 
the Direction of the Charter of Said township where- 
by s** Josiah Willard Esq is appointed moderator of 
Sai'^ meeting. 

" Voted and Chose Maj Josiah Willard Esqr Colo" 
William Symes Mr Samuel Ashley Selectmen and as- 
sessors for the remaining part of this year. Voted 
and chose Nath" Eockwood, Town Clerk. Voted and 

' Col. Josiiih Willard died December 8, ]7oO. 



chose Lieu' Simon Willard Town Treasurer. Voted 
and chose Benjainin Melvin Con.stable. 

" Voted, and chose Ebn' Alexander & Elias Alex- 
ander, Surveyors of Highways. Voted, and chose 
Josiah Foster and William Temple, fence-viewers. 

Voted, and chose John Ellis, hog-reeve. Voted, and 
chose Nath' Rockwood, Sealer of Waights and 
Measures. Voted, to adjourn this meeting for the 
sjiace of an hour, and then met and T'ftted, raise the 
Sum of Seventy-five Pounds forPreeching and Mend- 
ing High-wayes and other Necessary Charges. Voted, 
that for high way worke four shillings and six pence 
to a man [>' day, and two shillings for a Yoke of Oxen ■ 
per day. Voted, that the proprietary affairs of this 
town be for the future transacted and carried on Sep- 
erately and Distinct, from Town affairs, and to this 
End, that Proprietary Meetings be Held from time to 
time, as shall be necessary, and all needful Proprie- 
tary officers be chosen. Voted, and cho.-e Major Josiah 
Willard, Esq', Proprietors' Clarke. Voted, and chcise 
Lieutenant Simon Willard, Proprietors' Treasurer. 

Voted, and chose Major Josiah Willard, Nath' Rock- 
wood, Oliver Willard, assesors to assess the Penny 
Acre tax, Enjoyned by Charter on unimproved Lands. 

Voted, an<i chose William Willard Collector of S** 
Tax. Voted, and chose Major Josiah Willard, C<d' 
William Symes, Lieu' Simon Willard, Lieu' Nathan 
Willard, Lieu' Ellas Alexander, Samuel Ashley, Wil- 
liam Temple, or any three of them, to examine and 
Settle Claimes of the Grantees mentioned in the 
Charter. Voted, and chose Major Josiah Willard, 
Co'" Symes, Lieu' Simon Willard, Nathan Rock- 
wood, Samuel Ashley, Lieu' Elias Alexander and 
AVilli.-im Willard or any three of them a committee to 
Com]ilete the Laying-out the divisions formerly 
granted, and to Lay out Suetable ways and Roods. 

Voted, that no plan be put upon Record without being 
signed by at Leest fouer of Said Com'"' Chosen, Com- 
pleat the Laying-dut The Said divisions formerly 
granted. Voted, that Maj' .Tosiah Willard be desired 
to Convey the Charter of the Township of Winches- 
ter Granted us, and Request that Gaius Field, and 
all others who can make out a fair Claim to any of 
the Lands Contained in Said Charter May have their 
names Entered Therein. 

Voted that all former acts and proceedings of the 
Proprietors, or those esteemed Proprietors, Respect- 
ing the Divisions of the Lands Contained in the 
township of Winchester be Ratilicd and Confirmed, 



562 



HISTORY OP CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



and be esteemed valid as tho' Now Transacted. 
Voted that House-Lot No. 6 at tlie Bow, being a 
Publick, be for the first Minister that shall be settled 
in the ministry in Winchester, together with all y' 
after Divisions, what have been or may be Granted 
to s^ house and do in anywise belong to Said house- 
Lot. Voted that House Lott No. 2 at y" Great Kiver, 
with all after Rigts and divisions to the same apper- 
taining, be ffir a Glebe for the Church. Voted that 
House Lott No. 20 at the Great Eiver, be for the 
Incorporated Society for Propogating the Gospel in 
foreign parts. Voted to Give to the Hon""'"" Theodore 
Atkinson, Esq', three hundred acres of the Lands 
Contained in y" Charter Granted us of the 
Township of Winchester, and that the Com'" 
appointed to Complete y' Laying out y' Divisions 
Granted be impowcred to Lay out Said three 
hundred acres and return a plan to be Recorded. 

" Voted, that the Com'" appointed to settle y" 
Claims of the Grantees be desired to Examine and 
find out what of Rates formerly Granted & made are 
yet unpaid and not allow the Claims of such Parsons 
to be Recorded as are found to have been deficient in 
y° Payment of s;iid Ta.xes & Rates, as one y"" Claims 
of Such .Lands as the former Claimes and owners 
thereof are found to have been deficient untill y' Re- 
spective Rates be paid. Voted and Chose Maj" 
Josiah Willard & Col'" W"' Symes a Com'" To pro- 
vide a Minister. Voted that any Seven of the Pro- 
prietors of Winchester Requesting the Proprietors 
Clarke to Call a meeting, The s'* Clarke Posting up 
a notifycation in Said Winchester for a Meeting of 
Said Proprietors at Least fourteen Dayes before 
y' time Specified for Said Meeting Shall be Legal 
Warning and any Meeting in Consequence of such 
Warning Shall be a legal Meeting." 

At this i)oii]t the meethig was evidently dis- 
solved, though the record does not state it. 

It ought not to be suppo.sed that, though ab- 
sent from the settlement during the seven years 
last preceding the above recorded town-meeting, 
the proprietors were inactive or neglectful 
of their interests in the grant. Several meetings 
were held, evidently at which officers and com- 
mittees were chosen to protect their interest, as 
the following shows : 

"At a Meeting of the Proprietors of the Towship of 



Winchester in y' Province of New Hampshire, held 
at y" House of Moses Marsh inholder in Hadley on 
Tuesday the Tenth Day of April 1750 according to 
Notifycation published in one of y" weekly news Pa- 
pers agreable to a vote of S'' Proprietors at their last 
meeting. Voted and Chose Maj"' Josiah Willard 
Moderator for S"" Meeting. Voted that Maj" Josiah 
Willard be desired to take y° Proprietors Book of 
Records into his care and keep it at his House in Win - 
Chester till y" further order of S'' Proprietors. Voted 
that the Consideration of y* several articles contained 
in S'' Notifycation be refered till the Time to which 
this Meeting Shall be adjourned. Voted that this 
Meeting be adjourned to Tuesday the Eighth day of 
May next to be holden at the House of Maj"' Josiah 
Willard in Winchester at Ten Oclock fore noon then 
and there to act upon the above mentioned articles. 
"Attest Josiah Willard Moderator. 

"And then met again upon S"" adjournment May 8"" 
1750 at time and plase. Voted on the second Article 
and Chose Josiah Willardjr Proprietors Clerk Voted on 
the 4 and 5 Articles and chose Colonel Josiah Willard, 
Josiah Willard Jun' Capt William Syms, Le' Elias 
Alexander, Sam' Ashley and William Willard as a Com- 
mitte to complete the house Lots at the great River, 
and all other Divisions that are to lay in s'' Township 
and to lay out highways and to make such alterations 
as shall be thought needfull and Return Plans of the 
Same and no Plan to put on Record without four of 
the Committe Signing s* Plan. Voted on y= G'" Arti- 
cle, that any five of the Proprietors Requesting a 
Meeting of the Proprietors in writing sitting forth the 
articles, the Clerk be Directed to set up a Notifyca- 
tion in sum Publick Place in Said Township, Fourteen 
Days before Said meeting. Then Voted to Dismiss 

this meeting. 

" Josiah Willaed Mode'." 

" Hampshire, 8. S., Jan'? 18th, 1751. 

"Then Major Josiah Willard, Esq., was sworn to 
the faithful Discharging of the office of a Proprietors' 
Clerk of Winchester, to which office he was Chosen 
by the s'* Proprietors at their meeting in May 8'", 
1750. 

" Before me, 

" Seth Field, Just. Peace. 

" Entered and Examined 

" P' Josiah Willaed, Pro"* Clerk." 



WINCHESTER. 



563 



"(_)ii the 2' i)t' July, 1753, a petition of Ebenezer 
Hinsdale, Esq., in behalfof himself & Sundry persons 
inhabiting at a place called Northfield, lying on the 
north of the dividing line of the Province of New 
Hamp' and the Massachusetts Bay, praying that the 
Petitioners, &"., may be incorporated & invested with 
town privilcdges, &•-'., & in case such a charter is in- 
consistent with his Maj"'" Instructions that then the 
said tract with an adition of his I\Iaj'-' unappropri- 
ated lands adjacent thereto, may be granted to the 
Petitioners, &"., agreeable to his Maj"" s'' Instructions, 
which petition was read, and also at the same time a 
letter signed by the Selectmen of that part of Xorth- 
lield aforesaid, that lyes in the Massachusetts Govern- 
ment, on the South side of the said dividing line sett- 
ing forth that they were informed that sundry persons 
were designing to petition for the above said lands 
lying on the north of the s'' dividing Line in which 
they W'ere also interested, and praying they may be 
allowed time to petition for the said lands, &'., which 
the Council took under consideration i*t passed the 
following resolve, viz. : that his Excellency be desired 
to suspend the making any grant of the premises for 
two months, and that the inhabitants of Northfield 
that live on the south side of the dividing Line, & in 
the Massachusetts Government be advised of this 
resolve by a letter from the Sec''' that they may, if 
they see cause, petition for the said lands, & that if 
they do not, that then & in such case his Excellency 
be desired to make out charters for the same, agreeable 
to the above-mentioned petition of the inhabitants on 
the north side of said dividing Line. 

" At a Council, holden at Portsm", on Saturday, 
September 1", 1753. Present, — His Excellency B. 
Weutworth, Esq.jGov', Henry Sherburne, Esq., John 
Downing, Es(i., Theodore Atkinson, Esq., Sami)siin 
Sheafte, Esq., Rich'' Wibird, Esq., Daniel Warner, Esq. 
A petition of the settlers and claimers of land in the 
north part of Northfield, so-called, who live on the 
south side of the Province Line, and also the petition 
of Ebeuez' Hinsdale in behalf of himself & others 
claimers of Laud in said Northfield, who live on the 
north side of the said dividing line as entred the 2'' 
day of July last, praying for a grant of the said tract 
of land lying on the North side of the s'^ dividing 
Line, agreeable to his Maj"™ Instructions, &''., both of 
wliich was read at the Board as was also the king's 
attorney, & solicitors' opinion relating to these sort of 
grants, &"., and then his Excellency asked the Coun- 
36 



cil weither they would advise him to make out 
charters of grant for the same in such a manner that 
the present settlers & claimers may be invested in 
their rights, as they imagined they held the same 
before the running the said Province Line, to which 
the Council did advise and consent, as also that a 
strip of the King's Land should be added on the west 
side of the Connecticut River so as to include the 
farms of Sargeaiit and South, so-called. At a Council 
holden at Portsm", on Wednesday, September 5"', 
1753. Present, — His Excellency Benning Wentworth, 
Esq., Governor, Henry Sherburn, Esq., Theodore 
Atkinson, Escj., Rich' Wibird, Esq., Sam' Smith, 
Esq., Sami)son Sheatfe, Esq., Daniel Warner, Esq. 
Upon reading the petition of Ebenez' Hinsdale, 
Esq"', praying to have an alteration made in the 
dividing Line between the towns of Winchester & 
Hinsdale, for the better accommodating the inhabit- 
ants of both towns, with respect to the incorporation 
only, agreeable to the charter of the said townes, to 
which the Council did agree & consent, and advised 
his Excellency to grant a charter of Incorporation 
accordingly, agreeable to a plan exhibited, to begin 
eighty rods easterly on the Province Line from Con- 
necticut River, & there to run north by the Needle." 

Thi.s new grant of September o, 1753, cnt 
oiffrom the town of "Winchester all that por- 
tion of tiie original grant of April 4, 1733, 
lying above the original bounds of Northfield 
as granted by the province of Massachusetts, 
or purchased from tiie Indians in 1672 (the 
lands of "Me.ssamet") and 1(!,S7 (the lauds 
of " Xawlet ") that lay between the point 
of intersection of tiie north bound of Xorthfield 
witii this new line, " due nortii by tiii' needle," 
commeneiug at a point eighty rods on the 
" Xew Province Line " from the Connecticut 
River, and said river. It added to Winchester 
a strip of territory on tlie sonfhwest corner, 
from the territory of Xorthfieid, al)Out three 
and a half miles in width on the new province 
line, four miles and one hinidred and ninety- 
seven rods in length north, and about one and 
one-half miles in width at the old Northfield 
corner on the northeast, which was three and 
three-fourths miles from the Connecticut River, 
as oriiJ-inallv established bv the (leneral Court 



564 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of Massachusetts, June 21, 17.j3. This new 
line servcfl as the hase for the survey of the 
town of Winchestei- in 1797. This survey is 
reeoriled as foUows : 

"N. 2' W., Eight iuul oiR'-half miles to Cliestcr- 
fic'ld e-(iiiiiT; thence E. 8° S. on Chesterfiehl line, five 
miles and ninety rods to Swanzy. On Swanzy and 
Richmond line Eight and one-fourth miles, South on 
Warwick, Mass., and Norlhfield, Mass., W. 10° N. 
Six and one-iimrth miles to Hinsdale corner on the 
State Line between New Hampshire and Miwsa- 
chusetts." 

Tills survey includes that pcirtion of Ro.\- 
l)urv, or (ianlin(;r's Canada (now ^\'arwi(■k, 
Mass.), that lay above the new province line in 
17r)3, and was, by the express terms of Win 
cliestcr's grant of that, included in said Win- 
chester's territory. This strip was two and 
one-half miles in length on the province line, 
and two miles and fifty-two rods on the Rich- 
mond line, the north bound being parallel 
with the pr(nince line. 

Hinsdale was thus established September 5, 
1753, partly from the old Northfield grant 
above the province line, and only in small 
part, whilst much the larger part was from the 
territory of AN'incJiester, — territory tliat had 
been granted to her in 1733 by Massachusetts, 
and again in 1753 by New Hampshire. No 
formal action seems to have been taken by the 
proprietors or freeholders of ^\'in(■ll(■ster in 
rea'ard to this loss of or addition to her terri- 
tory, all the records of her town or 2)ro- 
prietors' meetings being silent upon the subject. 

Having had her boundaries adjusted and 
her vesti'd rights recognized \>\ New Hamji- 
shire, her citizens immediately applied them- 
selves to the reconstruction of their dwellings, 
clearing new lielils and improving the means of 
connnunication with each other and with the 
outside settlements. 

.Vt their annual meeting held on Tuesday, the 
.'"ith day of ^larch, Anno Domini, 1754, they 
voted " to raise the sum of seventy-five pounds, 
New Tenor, to defray y° charge of y" Ensuing 



year, to I'ay for Preaching. Voted, that y 
Seventy-five pounds. New Tenor, Raised at our 
Meeting Last august, be Laid out in blending 
highways, and the same allowance for Men and 
Teams as was then Voted them at S" meeting, 
and that there be a Rate made by it Self for 
the S** Sum." The sum voted to be paid for work 
on the highways, August 21, 1753, was "Four 
shillings and sixpence to a Man p' Day, and 
two Shillings for a yoke of oxen jier Day." 
They also voted at a meeting held at the house 
of Major Josiah Willard, on April 22, 1754, to 
" Ruikl a meeting-house, forty-four feet long, 
thirty-four feet wide and twenty feet posts, and 
to set the IMeeting-house where it was before, 
upon the same hill ; and they chose jNIajor Jo- 
siah A\'illard, Colonel William Syms; Lieu' 
Simon Willard, Ebenezer Alexander, Sam' 
Ashley, a Com'" to build the Meeting-house." 
No decisive action was taken under this vote, 
and the settlers remained without a meeting- 
house till 1760, when, at tlieir annual meeting, 
held at the house of Col. Josiah Willard, March 
4, 17G0, they voted again "to Build a Meeting- 
house, forty-four feet in length and Thirty-four 
feet in Bredth, and Tweuty feet between 
joy nts," " anil to be shingled and Inclosed be- 
fore the next winter." They then chose Colonel 
Josiah Willard, Esq., Colonel ^\'illiam Synies 
and Lieutenant Samuel Ashley a committee to 
do the same. The c(jmmittee eviilently im- 
mediately proceeded to carry into effect the 
vote of the town, and to a certain extent ac- 
com[>lished their purj)ose, for the notification of 
the annual meeting of March 3, 17(il, warns 
"all the freeholders and other Inhabitants of 
the Town of Winchester, duely (jualitied to vote 
in Town affairs, to Meet at the Meeting-house 
in Said M'ini'hester," etc. This building was 
never fully completed, am) was abandoned in 
171)5 for the building wdiich now stands in our 
[)ublie sipiare, and is occupied in part by the 
town as a town hall, antl in part for religions 
purposes by the Universalist Church. Till 17t)4 
all the officers chosen by the proprietors, and 



WINCHESTER. 



566 



at tlic different town-nieetings, were, and were 
obliged to be, members of the Ortliodox Chureh, 
else they could not be qualified to j)erforni their 
official duties ; but at a town-meeting held on 
the 6th of March, 17C4, the right <if men to 
hold office in ^^ incliester regardless of creed 
was recognized ; for the warrant under which 
this niectiuo; was held reads : 

" Province of New Hampshire. 

"To Reuben Alexander, Constable tor the Town of 
Winchester, in the Province of New Hampshire, 
Greeting: — In His Majesty's Name you are hereby 
required forthwith to warne all the freeholders and 
other Inhabitants of the Town of Winchester to meet 
at the Meeting-House in S'' Town of Winchester on 
Tuesday, the Sixth day of March next, at Ten of the 
Clock in the forenoon, to Chose Town Officers of All 
Denominations, to serve the Town this present 
year. . . 

"JOSIAH WiLLAED, j 

"Samiiei, Ashley, [ *^^c""<"' "/ 
" Nath'l RoCKWoon, | "''■«c^««<«--" 

At this meeting Colonel Josiaii W illanl was 
chosen moderator ; Nathaniel llockwood, town 
clerk; Colonel Josiah Willard, Esq., liieuten- 
ant Samuel Ashley and John Gnuld, selectmen 
and assessors; Cohmel Josiali Willard, town 
treasurer; Samson Millard, constable; Joseph 
Dodge, Samson Willard and Hilkiah (irout, 
surveyors of highways ; Ensign Ebcnezer 
Alexander, tithingman ; W^illiam Temple, John 
Peirce and Nathaniel Brown Dodge, fence- view- 
ers ; John Gould, deer-reeve ; Reuben Alexan- 
der and Isaac Temple, hog-reeves ; Ensign 
Ebenezcr Alexander to take care of meeting- 
house ; all of whom were on the same day 
sworn "to the faithful discharge of their several 
offices. Before Josiah Willard, Justice of 
Peace." From the date of this meeting to the 
present time a man's religious belief or want 
of belief has not been made a critical test as to 
his fitness to serve the town of Winchester in 
an official capacity. 

Up to this date, from Xoveml)er 12, 1736, 
when the Rev. Joseph Ashley was settled as a 



minister of the gospel by vote of the pmpric- 
toi-s, and for many succeeding years, the minis- 
ter was chosen by a direct vote in open town- 
meetings, and their compen.satiou provided for 
by general taxation, in the same manner as 
other town expenses. In fact, the " minister " 
was one of the town officials. 

It was not till 1770 that the town found it- 
self able or in a situation to require a division 
of its school money, or the establishnu'nt of 
school districts in different sections of the town ; 
but this year a school was established near the 
meeting-house, one near Echoliod Franklin's, 
and the other near where Mircy Brook road 
comes into the Country road, " Each District 
to Draw their own Proportion of money 
Granted for Schooling if laid out in Schooling. 
The Neighbourhood of Cap' Samuel Smith was 
also allowed to draw their proportion of money 
if thev will lav it out in schooling' ; (iranted for 
schooling."' " If these Partit's do not lav out 
their money in schooling, they shall pay it to 
party or i)arties that do keep," was the vote, 
and " Twenty pounds, Lawful money," wei^e 
appropriated for the support of scliools, and 
John Gould, Ebenezer -Mexander and Captain 
Samuel Smith were chosen a committee to 
" Transact the whole Business of the Schools." 
The first representative to the General Asscmlilv 
of New Hampshire, which was convened at 
Portsmouth, May 22, 1771, was chosen in the 
person of Colonel Josiah AVillard, Es(j., at a 
meeting of the freeholders held on May 20, 
1771. Colonel William Ashley was the next 
representative, and he was elected in 1774. In 
this year was also established the prai-tice of 
exempting from the payment of poll-tax per- 
sons of seventy years of age and upwards. 

W^inchester bore zealously and generously all 
the burdens that fell to her share of the expen- 
ses of the Revolution and its war. She com- 
menced her active support of the Continental 
Congress by a vote, on September 19, 1774, 
directing that " Two pounds be taken out of the 
Treasury," and to be used " ti)r the support of 



566 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the Delegates that are gone to Pliiladelpliia." 
On the rith of Ma)', 1775, Captain Samuel 
Smith, Ensign Reuben Alexander, Nehemiah 
Houghton, Philip Goss, Jeremiah Pratt and 
John Alexander were chosen a Committee of 
Inspection. This committee was chosen under 
an article in the warrant, — " To see if the town 
would provide a con\-enient stock of powder 
and lead." Article 2 in the warrant for a 
meeting held Monday, June 1, 1775, reads, — 
" To see if the people \\'ill concur with what 
our Provincial Congress has done in bearing our 
proportion of money iu the support of the 
war," and the vote was " to pay the two thou- 
sand men agreable to the Congress, and to 
comply with what they have done." 

On the 7th of September, 1775, the se- 
lectmen, Reuben Alexander, Joseph Stowel 
and Nehemiah Houghton, issued a public re- 
quest, directed to John Stearns, one of the 
constables, in the following language: 

" Whereas, as the Provincial Congress lias re- 
quired us to take an exact account of the fire-arms 
and powder that belongs to the town, wee therefore 
desire that each man would return the same to us." 

At a meeting licid on the 12tli day of De- 
cember, 1775, " Col. Samuel Ashley was chosen 
to represent the said Town of Winchester in 
general Congress, to be holden at Exeter on tiic 
21st Day of December, 1775, and for the year 
insuinsr " and voted that he be instructed to do 
what is set forth in the warrant, viz. : Article 
2d,- 

" To Elect one person having a Real Estate of the 
Value of two hundred Pounds, Lawful money, in 
this Colony, to Represent them in general Congress, 
to be held at Exeter ou the Twenty-tirst day of De- 
cember Next, at three of the Clock in the afternoon, 
and to inipower such Representative for the Term of 
one year. Their first meeting to Transact Such Busi- 
ness & Pursue Such measures as they may Judge 
Necessary for the publick good, and in Case there 
Should be a Recommendation from the Continental 
Congress that this Colony assume Government in any 
Particular Form wliiih will Reciuire a house of Rep- 
resent.atives, that they Resolve themselves into such 



a house as the said Continental Congress Shall Rec- 
ommend, and it is Resolved that no person be 
allowed a seat in congress who shall, by himself or 
any person for him, Before the Said Choice, Treat 
with Liquor any Electors with an apparent View of 
gaining their votes or afterwards on that account." 

This resolution incorporated in this warrant 
by the selectmen has a very familiar look ; 
for iniluencing voters by offers of liquor, 
money or other prized or valuable considera- 
tions has been considered one, if not the 
greatest l)ane of modern politics. But we can- 
not otlierwise than believe from the above- 
quoted language that our forefathers were given 
to the saiue weaknesses and wickedness as our- 
selves in this resjject, for had not the evil been 
observed, and its pernicious etfects noted, 
Reuben Alexander, Nehemiah Houghton and 
Joseph Stowel, as selectmen of Winchestei' in 
1775, would never have resolved against its 
practice. 

The second article in the warrant for the 
meeting of January 20, 1778, reads, — " To see 
what method the Town will Come into Respect- 
ing Raising men to fill up our C'otto in the 
Continental army." 

The tiiird, — "To see what method the Town 
will take Respecting the Vote of tlie House of 
Representatives, Passed Dec. 17, 1777, of call- 
ing a free Representation of all the Peo]ilc of 
this State for tlie Sole Purpose of Framing and 
laying a Permanent 2>lan or System for the 
future Government of This State," and tiiey 
" voted tiiat the Town will make a Rate to hire 
our (^uotto of men iu the Continental Army, 
and that those that have been in the Service 
Shall Be alowed out of S" Rate as much P'" 
month as we are obliged to give now P" month," 
and then " voted to Chuse a Commeetys to 
transact the business of hiring the above men 
and to make this Rate." Then "voted that 
this commety consist of Seven, and Lieut. 
Nehemiah Houghton, Joseph Stowel, Mr. 
Enoch Stowel, L'. lienjamin Willson, Mr. 
Josiah Stebbins, Cap'. Rheuben Alexander and 



WINCHESTER. 



567 



Mr. Abraham Scott were oliosen." Tliey also 
" voted to instruct our lleprescutative to call a 
free Representation of all the People in this 
State to Lay a Plan of (iovernnient for the 
future." 

On the Gth of April, 1778, they chose 
Colonel Samuel Ashley as a delegate to sit in 
the convention at Concord to form a j)lan of 
government for the State. 

At a meeting held on tiie 10th day of June, 
177S (which had but two days' notice), they 
voted "that those men that ingagc for the Ser- 
vise agoing to Rhodisland State Shall be alowed 
as much jjer month as the Continental Soldiers, 
and to be alowed in the Rates in Like man- 
ner." 

On the 8th of July, 1779, the town " voted to 
raise the five men sent for from our Court for 
the Continental Service, and two for to go to 
Rhodisland State," and " to Hire these or the 
above men as the Continental men was in tlie 
year 1778, and the hire to be made into a Rate 
as was done then." 

On the 16th of September, 1779, the town 
voted on the question of " Excepting the Plan 
of Government Sent us by the Convention at 
Concord; 35 voted in the affirmative and IS 
in the negative," — showing a voting population 
of fifty-three, which was probably the full vote 
of the town, as a question of such magnitude 
as the formation of a permanent State govern- 
ment, and one involving such ([uestions of utmost 
moment as renouncing' allegiance to one ruler 
and government, through rebellion, and accept- 
ing a new form of government and new rulers, 
establishing a new nation amongst the family 
of nations, would create such an interest as 
would be suffioieut to cause every jierson en- 
dowed with the right of suffrage to exercise 
that right if it were possible f >r him to do so. 

On June 29, 1780, the town " voti^d to Hire 
the Continental men (Now sent for) In the 
same way and manor as formerly- they was 
Hired, viz. : by a Town Tax," and Mr. Simon 
Willard, Lieutenant Abraham Scott and Lieu- 



I tenant John Alexander were chosen " a committe 
for the Purpose of Hireing Said Continental 
men." On the oth of August they " Voted to raise 
the Reef sent for as our Quoto from our General 
Court." Also, " that the Selectmen should class 
the People of the town into classes in order for 
each class to i)rovide their Quoto of s'' Beef." 
Another re([uisition for soldiers having been 
made by Congress, it was " Voted, February 
0, 1781, to raise the Continental men seat for 
by our Court, and to raise the above soldiers 
By a Rate as formerly, and Mr. Samuel Wright, 
Lt. Enoch Stowel, IVIr. Daniel Smith, Lt. 
Abraham Scott and Mr. Nat*" Brown Dodge 
were chosen a committee fi>r the above purpose." 
On the 28tli day of March, 1781, the town 
" voted not to join with the State of Vermont." 
This vote was an answer to a request that liad 
been presented to the voters of Winchester to 
join with Cornish, Lebanon, Enfield, Dresden, 
Canaan, Cardigan, Oxford, Lyme, Piermont, 
Haverhill, Bath, Jyynian, Gunthwait, Apthorp, 
Landaff and Morristown, and form a union 
with Vermont. These towns, lying on the east 
side of the Connecticut River, had, on iSIarch 
11, 1778, petitioned the new State of A^ermont 
to be united with that State. Evidently this 
reply was not satisfactory to Vermont, for it 
ap[)ears by the fourth article of the warrant for a 
meeting to be held on April 21, 1781, that Ver- 
mont sought to exercise jurisdiction over Win- 
chester notwithstanding her emphatic refusal 
to join the attemjrt at union. The article 
reads, — " To see what notice the town will take 
of tlie warrant sent to our Constal^le from the 
State of Vermont." The vote was expressed 
in terse, euq)hatic languago\ " Voted not to 
join the union with Vermont." The towns 
that did vote to join the Vermont union were 
Hinsdale, Charlestown, Claremont, Plain field, 
Grafton, Lyme, Gunthwait, Surry, Acworth, 
Newport, Grantham, Dresden, Dorchester, Lan- 
caster, Gilsum, Lempstcr, Cornish, Marlow, 
Hanover, Haverhill, Piermont, Westmoreland, 
Savillc, C'ardigan, Lyman, Morristown, Bath, 



568 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Croytloii, Laiulaff, Liucoln, Richmond, Leb- 
anon, Alstead, Chesterfield, — tliirty-four in all. 
On tlie 28th of May, 1781, the town " voted to 
liaise six men Lately .sent for from the Conrt 
of New Hampshii'e, and to pay tlie above six 
soldiers forty shillings a month, silver money, 
or other money eqnivalent, upon their giving 
their orders upon the iState Treasurer for the 
same, oi' anv Part thereof, for the Town's se- 
curity, and that they ^\'ould })ay the six months 
& three mouths (men) with the money that is in 
the Constable's hands that was raised, and for 
which the Town was Taxed as Continental & 
State Tax, for the year 1780, and they are to 
Secure the Town as aforesaid." Evidently the 
town had besrun to feel the burdeu of the war 
seriously, and to find it difficult to secure the 
men needful to fill her (piotii;. for in the war- 
rant for a meeting to be held on June 13, 1781, 
article second reads, — ■" To see what measures 
the town will come into to get our Proportion 
of Beef for the use of the Continental Army." 
The third, — " To see if the Town will take any 
further measures in getting our (the) Soldiers 
for the Continental Service, and six months' 
men ;" and it was voted "to Raise the Con- 
tinental Beef By a tax on the Inhabitants of 
the Town." A committee was chosen " to Look 
up Some Beef for the Present Necessity of the 
Army." Lieutenant John Alexander and Mr. 
Samuel Wright were chosen. Then it was 
voted " that the Committee that was Chosen in 
a former meeting fir to hire the Continental 
Soldiers should still Remain in that Station 
with some alteration, viz. : Droping Mr. N. 
Brown Dodge, and voting and chusing Ensg" 
John Curtis in his Room." This action did not 
seem to secure the desired result, as a meeting 
called for July 11, 1781, was to determine if 
" the Town will Hire the Continental men for 
six months if they cannot be got for a longer 
time," and "to see what method the town will 
take to supply the Town Treasury, seeing our 
monev is Dead." At this meeting it was voted 
to " Raise the men sent for from the Court of 



New Hampshire for six months if they cannot 
Be had for a Longer time, and Ens" John 
Curtis, Mr. N. Brown Dodge, D". Asahel 
Jewell, Mr. Sam' Wright and Mr. James 
Franklin were (chosen a committe to hire 
said men." It was then voted to hire the 
above men, " money at the Rate of Rye 
being '.]s. 4(1. p' Bushel." On the lltii 
of December, 1781, the town voted to accept 
the new plan of government sent to us " fi)r 
Exceptance or Amendment." At a meeting 
held on April 22, 1782, it was voted to hire a 
committee for the purpose of hiring the town's 
quota of Continental soldiers for three years. 
This committee consisted of Lieutenant Nath- 
aniel Oaks, Mr. Asa Alexander, Mr. Francis 
Verry and Mr. Moses Chamberlain. It would 
seem that not all the citizens of Winchester 
were considered thoroughly loyal to the cause 
of the new government, for we find Reuben 
Alexander, Samuel Wright and Simon Willard, 
selectmen, issuing their precept to James Frank- 
lin, constable, as follows: 

"State of New Hampshire, ") To James Franklin, 
"Cheshire, S. S. J one of the Constables of 

the Town of Winchester, greeting : In the Name of 
this' State you are hereby Required fditlr.vith to warn 
out Roger Hill, .Jonathan Hill, Anthony Combs, 
Lydia Combs, Daniel Combs, George Hill, Joseph 
Hill, Barnabus Hill, Stephen Combs, Lydia Hill, 
Rnsilla Hill, Phebe Combs, Prudence Combs, Rosilla 
Edmonds and the Widow, Anna J\issett, to Depart 
out of this Town within fourteen Days, or otherwise 
they will be Dealt with as the Law Directs ; and see 
that you make Return of this Warrant to the Clerk 
of the Court of the Quarter Sessions. 

"Given under our hands and Seal this tenth Day 
of Feb. A. D., 1783. 

" Rheuben Alexander. 



■1 



" Samijel Wright, V Sekctmen. 

" Simon Willard, j 

"Winchester March 11, 1783. — This may certify 
that I have warned out all the Persons in the' War- 
rant herewith conunitted to me. 

" James Franklix, 
" Constable. 
" Attest, Paul Richardson, Totvn Clerk." 



WINCHESTKR. 



569 



Oil the 24th of March, 178^, the town was 
called upon to see if it would still continue the 
old Constitution till the 10th day of June, 17S4, 
and they voted to eontiiuie the ohl form of gov- 
ernment till that date, or until a more perma- 
nent plan should take place. On the IStli of 
September, 17S.'>, a new plan of govei'nment 
having been submitted, it was voted to adopt 
the same by a vote of forty-two. It is evident 
from the above that the close of the War of the 
Ivevolntion found Winchester, both as to men 
and money, impoverished. Their i|Uotaof men 
for the Continental army had not l)een com- 
pletely filled, and the State had issued an " ex- 
tent " against her for a "very considerable sum 
of money," which the State had offered to com- 
promise and accept payment of in beef at " twen- 
ty-four shillings Ij" (lawful money) per hundred- 
weight," to secure her just dues, l)csides large 
amounts of admitted and contested claims in the 
hands of private individuals. 

The subject of a new meeting-house began to 
be agitated very soon after the close of the Rev- 
olutionary A\'ar, and it was decided, by vote of 
the town on October 1, 1792, "to build a new 
Meeting-House,"and that it should be built "at 
the bottom of the Hill where the New School- 
House now standetli." Colonel Renljen Alex- 
ander, Captain ]\Ioses Chamberlain, Captain 
Daniel Hawkins, Cai)tain Noah Pratt and Lieu- 
tenant John Butler were chosen a committee to 
inspect the building of said meeting-house, and 
they were instructed " to have it completed 
within three years from this Hay." So much 
dissatisfaction having arisen in regard to the 
location of the new meeting-house, the question 
of re-locating \vas brought before the town on 
the 2d of December, 1793, and it was deter- 
mined by vote " to Set tlie meeting-house on 
the Neai'est Spot to the Center that is Con- 
venient for the Inhabitants," and a couimittee 
consisting of Captain Daniel Hawkins, Mr. 
Francis Very and Captain William Humphrey 
were chosen "to see where the Center of the 
Town is." This committee reported that the 



centre was "a Spot Northerly of and Near INIr. 
Ezra Conant's." This location was very near 
the location of a new house just erected l)y Mr. 
James E. Coxeter, at the junction of the roads 
leading from Mr. Asahel Jewell's and the one 
leading from Mr. Charles Jackson's to Wiu- 
cliester. But this report and location was not 
accepted, and it was voted, December 24, 1 79.'>, 
by a vote of sixty-seven yeas to forty-six nays, 
"to locate the new meeting-house where the old 
meeting-house now stands." This last location, 
though the vote seems very decisive, did not 
give .satisfaction, and the whole subject of loca- 
tion again came liefore the town on their meet- 
ing on the 24th of March, 1794, when Sanfoid 
Kingsbury, Es(|., John Hubbanl, Esq., and 
Colonel Samuel Hunt were chosen a committee 
" to say where the Fleeting-House should stand," 
and they voted to raise money suflicieut to build 
a meeting-house. This committee I'eported, 
April 14, 1794, that "the new Meeting-House 
Shall stand where the Red School-House now 
stands," and it was voted " to sell the Pews 
at Publick A^andue to the highest Bidder, and 
that if the Pews Sell for any more than to build 
Said Meeting-House and under-Pining and 
Raising and Ijiveling the Ground about said 
Meeting-House, Then the Remainder to be re- 
turned back to the Pew-holders in Proportion 
to what Each Pew cost," and Caiitain Daniel 
Hawkins was chosen " Vandue-master." 

Colonel Reuben Alexander bought Pew No. 
35, at £37 ; Lieutenant Abraham Scott, No. 44, 
at £35 ; Captain John Alexander, No. 47, at 
£27 10s.; Elijah Dodge, No. 1, at £2(j ; Deacon 
Moses Chamberlain, No. lo, at £2() lO.s-.; Dea- 
con Joseph Stowell, No. 14, at £24; Mr. John 
Butler, No. 16, at £26; ]\rajor Philip Goss, No. 
17, at £24 l().s.; Caleb Alexamler, No. 37, at 
£25; Mr. Stephen Hawkins, No. 39, at £2-"); 
Asa Alexander, No. 34, at £24 10*-.; John 
Erskin, No. 45, at £23; Jeremiah Pratt, No. 
46, at £2.">; William Humphey, No. 11, at 
£21 lt».v.; John Curtis, No. 27, at £22; Ezra 
Parker, No. 38, at £23; Daniel Hawkins, No. 



570 



HISTORY OF CHP:SHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



lit, at £22; Justus Jowul, No. 2(j, at .£22; 
Saimiel Wood, Xo. 33, at .£22; Waitstill Field, 
No. 12, at £21 ; Ehenezer Scott, No. 18, at 
£20 10^-.; Jiavid Maiuuiond, No. 13, at ,£20 lO.v.; 
Rl'v. Ezra (Viuaut, No. 22, at £20; Xoali rmtt, 
No. 40, at f2n; Samuel \\aiTeii, No. 2, at £l.S ; 
Johu Hutehins, No. ;!I, at £15; Daniel Hawk- 
ins, Jr., No. 4.3, at £17; Benjamin Kingman, 
No. 28, at £17 ; Henry Tliaver, No. 29, at £1G 
lO.s.; John Follett, No. 42, at £l(i lO.s.; Nu- 
tliauiel Jiawrenee, .Ir., No. 41 , at £1 (J ; Iveu- 
bcn Alexander, Jr., No. 4, at .£1(1 10.s\; /il)a 
Ware, No. i», at £1() 10s.; Tlieodotius Moore, 
No. 32, at £l(i lO.s-.; Heujamiu Doolittle, No. 
24, at£l(i; Francis Very, No. 10, at £l(i; 
Joslma and I'liiueas Lyman, No. 20, at £1 fi ; 
James Scott, No. 30, at £17; Ehenezer Dodge, 
No. 21, at £1() r),s-.; Noah Pratt, No. 25, at 
£1G; Benjamin Melvin, No. 8, at £1() ; Caleh 
Alexauder, No. (), at £10; Mi.ss .\I)igil Hos- 
kins, No. 23, at £16 ; Tertius Lyman, No. 3, 
at £16 ; Jeremiah Pratt, No. 5, at £1<) ; El)en- 
czer Killam and Jonah French, No. 7, at £l(i. 
Tlie.se pews were all in the body of tlu; house. 
The pews in the gallery were sold to Abraham 
Scott, No. 11, at £17 10.s.; Noah Pratt, No. l(i, 
at £6 lO.s.; John Curti.s No. 4, at £13; John 
Erskin, No. 2, at £(> 12,v.; Justus Jewel, No. 
13, at £12 lO.s.; John Hatch, No. 20, at £(> 12.s.; 
Daniel Hawkins, No. 9, at £11 KK.; James 
Scott, No. 7, at £11; Noah Pratt, No. <!, at 
£5 14«.; Elijah Butler, No. 15, at £11 ; Tlieo- 
dotius Moore, No. 5, at £5 ll.^-.; Ziba ^Val•e, 
No. 14, at £10 lO.s.; Noah Pratt, No. 1, at 
£10; Johen Er.skin, No. .3, at £10 ; Asa Alex- 
ander, No. 21, at £10; Jonas Hunt, No. 17, 
at £9 ; Mo-ses Chamberlain, No. 19, at 9 ; John 
Follett, No. 18, at £S lO.v.; John Hutehins, 
No. 10, at £8 10*'.; Daniel Ilawkin.s, No. 12, 
at £.S ; William Ri.xford, No. S, at £8 ; the 
whole aggregating, £1139 4.s , or, in dollars, 
^5058.05. On the 12tli of October, 1795, 
Captain Samuel Smith made a donation to the 
town of a liell for the new meeting-house 
which weighed 837 pounds. ln)r this the town 



publicly and uiianiiiiously voted him their 
thanks. At this meetinii' the town voted to 
purchase a clock for the new meeting-house, and 
appropriated the money " that the old meeting- 
house sold for to pay for it, with what may be 
subscribetl." It .seems that no great success at- 
tended the efforts of those interested in the pur- 
chase of a town clo(!k for .several years, for at a 
meeting held on the 5tli of March, I 799, the 
suliject \\as again bcifore the toM'ii for action, 
and it was voted "that the monty that the old 
meetiug-house sold for should go towards jiay- 
ing for a clock for the new meeting-hou.se if 
made within one year," and as no further action 
is shown to have been had on the subject, it is 
fair to ])resume that the clock was marking 
time for the good peojJe of Winchester by the 
morning of the New Year of 1800, as the old 
clock is well remembered by the writer, as well 
as by most of the older citizens now living. At 
this same meeting, in 1799, Samuel Smith, p].sq., 
who had previously given the bell, tendered the 
town an organ, and it was " voted to accept 
the same and to provide a place in the Meeting- 
House for the organ, and to hire an organist." 
The town also voted ^Mr. Smith their thanks 
for the gift. This organ is now in existence, 
stored away in the loft (connected with the town 
hall. It furnished music for Salibath services 
till during the present generation. A proper 
a])j>reciation of the gift ; the hi.^torical recol- 
lections surrounding it ; the pride in the fact 
that it is one of the veiy first cliui-ch organs, 
if not the first ever constrneted, in this country ; 
that it was constructed in A\'incliester and by a 
citizen of ^\'ilu•heste^, Henry Pratt, Es(|., — all 
suggest its immediate removal from the dust 
and cobwebs that now cover and surround it, 
and the jilaciiig it in some secure yet accessible 
position, where it may be preserved for the edi- 
fication and veneration of succeeding genera- 
tions. Jt will be ob,<erved that the name of the 
second Colonel .losiali Willard has disappeared 
from amongst the names of those who were 
jiroiiiiiient in the munieijial affairs of Win- 



WINCHESTEE. 



571 



Chester. The observhig who frequent Ever- 
green Cemetery have noticed, standing near the 
centre of the little two-acre hnryiiig-gronnd, 
set apart l>y the original |iro|)i-ietors as the final 
earthly resting-place for tlieii- dcpartcMl friends, 
a nioiuinient differing in all resi)eets from any 
erected either before or sint'e, — a slate stone 
slab, five inches in thichness, three feet in 
width by six feet in length, resting npon 
granite jiosts. These supports were originally 
of brick, but were I'cplaced M'ith stone a few 
years ago by the town, as the brick were fast 
crumbling in pieces. This slab bears upon its 
upper face the following inscri|)tion : 

"Col. Josiah Wilhinl. wlm (lifd Apiil y'' 1!»"', 178(i, 
in the 72"'* year of his age. His birtli and education, 
which were honoralile, he dislionoi-ed not in liis 
youth. At an early period of his existence he be- 
gan to figure on the stage of life. His disposition 
and manners were engaging. His connexions 
numerous and respectable. His vocations various 
and important. His usefulness and influence equally 
extensive, and the present populous and flourishing 
state of the Western Terratories may be attributed, 
in a great measure to his vigorous and laudable exer- 
tions in promoting y" settlement & cultivation of y* 
wilderness. His principals & morals were unim- 
I)eachable. His Faith and ]iractice truly Evangelical. 
Sensible, social & lieloved, his heart and doors were 
always open to his friends in general, and to y'' 
learned, regular & reputable among y*^ clergy in par- 
ticular. He lived and died in a firm belief of y" 
Gospel. Supported and sustained to y'' End of his 
course by a hope and prospect of an immortal Crown. 
His family and friends, in his death, sustain a loss 
irreparable. He will be held long in remembrance. 
The wise will immitate his virtues and fools lament 
they did not, when he shall rise immortal." 

Thus he rests in the beautiful valley, " The 
Sheomet," that he had given almost the 
whole years of his life, and all the energies <jf 
his being, to reclaim from the wilderness. All 
that surround this treasure house of greatness 
testify in honor of the man, of his character 
and his abilities. It was to him, more than to 
his father, that the settlers all turned in their 



difficulties for advice, and to him in their dis- 
tress for comfort. He was the friend and 
counselor in all private matters, who was the 
consulted as well as the trusted adviser and 
manager in all the public affairs of the town- 
ship and town. 

From early iu ihe connnenecnient of the 
settlement till the year I, SIC the Orthodox or 
Couoreoationalists were the established church. 
Its ministers had been called by the town and 
dismissed by the town in open town-meeting, 
and they had been supported by the town and 
paid their salary from the ])ublic treasury, as 
all other demands against the town were paid. 
But ditferences of opinions upon religious sub- 
jects had gra<lual!v (lcvi'lo|i((l in the minds of 
the people, and it was felt by many a grievous 
hardship and an injustice to suffer taxation for 
the support of and the teaching of religious 
opinions that were repugnant to their own, and 
when, in 1804, it was desired to settle the Rev. 
Experience Porter, a pi'otest, as follows, was 
spread upon the records of the town : 

" We the Subscribers, Tnhabents of the town of 
Winchester, Respectfully Shew to the Selectmen and 
other Inhabents of Said Winchester that in matters of 
Religion we are and have been for Considerable Time 
difl'erent in sentiment from those who are now about 
to Setel a minister, viz., Mr. Porter, for their Teacher 
in Morality & Religion, & as we are not fully in Sen- 
timent with said Porter & those of his Profession we 
take this early oportunity in this Public way to de- 
clare our Decent from joining or in any way agreeing 
to the Settlement of said Porter as our minister, or to 
be any way competed to contribute towards the settle- 
ment or maintenance of said Porter, and whereas we 
are willing our Neighbors sliould injoy all their Priv- 
eleg with ourselves which the Constitution of this 
State so wisely Provides for the free enjoyment of 
all its citizens, that no one Sect or Denomination of 
Religious Sentiment Sh(mld be in any Subordination 
to another, and Claiming that Wright to ourselves, we 
doe Now in the fulest manner Protest against being 
any way chargable in our Persons or Estates Towards 
Settling, Supporting or Dismissing Said Porter, wish- 
ing at the same time you may enjoy all that Christian 
liberty and enjoyment which the Gospel of our blessed 



572 



HISTOKY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



lord Jesus Christ gives to its true Believers; and that 

we may all be so hajipy as to studdy that which will 
make for peace and where by one may Edyt'y a 
Nother. 

"We still hold and reserve our Prcvelise in the 
meeting house with the rest of the Town. 



" Daniel Hawkins. 
Jeremiali Hatch. 
Daniel Holman. 
Abiather Dean. 
Benjamin Linkfield. 
Elisha Holman. 
Jona French. 
Peter Robinson. 
Brown Taft. 
Francis Verry. 
David Verry. 
Daniel Verry. 
Sam' Hammond. 
Oliver Marble. 
John Willis. 
Asa Willis. 
Timothy Willis. 
Joshua Willis. 
Oliver Capron. 
Amos Adams. 
Daniel Adams. 



Johnathan Howard, .Jr. 
Benj. H. Whipple. 
Caleb Holbrook. 
Stephen Randall. 
Elisha Allen. 
Benj. J^ollet. 
Eliab Howard. 
John Howard. 
Amos Willard. 
Paul Willard. 
Amos Willard, Jr. 
Peter Willard. 
Joseph Marble. 
Levi Marble. 
John Cai>ron. 
F'rancis Cooke. 
Stephen Franklin. 
Isaac King. 
Eldad Wright. 
Azariah Wriglit. 
Daniel Wise. 



Johnathan Howard, Far- John Morse. 



mer. 

Johnathan Howard, Car- 
penter. 

William Ripley. 

Levi Ripley. 

Mathew Bartlet. 

John Evans. 

John Curtis, Jr. 

John Erskin, Jr. 

Solomon Holton. 

Ebenezer Franklin. 

Samuel Goss 

Abraham Foster. 

Joel Miles. 

David Kelly. 

Walter Follet. 

John Duncan. 

Thomas Wheelock. 

Thomas Wheelock, Jr. 

Asa Wheeler. 

Charles Mansfield. 



William Carlton. 
Rufus Burt. 
Bohen Holton. 
Luther Lawrence. 
Enoch Davis. 
Elihii Field. 
Leonard Field. 
Zachariah Field. 
Zachariah Field, Jr. 
Solomon Field. 
Elias Field. 
Nathan Bent. 
Aseph Hall. 
Ebenezer Hutchins. 
Simeon Wheelock. 
Seth Willard. 
David Tourtelot. 
Prentice Field. 
Peletiah Pomroy. 
Samuel Warren. 
Samuel Bond. 



Thomas How. 

Sylvanus Stowell. 
Jeremiah Bullock. 
William Young. 
William Young, .Tr. 
Ejihraim Taft. 
Micha Bent. 
Elisha Gunn. 
Caleb Alexander. 
John Taylor. 
Nathan Fassett. 
Philip Goss. 
D.iniel Twitchel. 
Daniel Coon. 
Daniel Hawkins, Jr. 
Daniel Ashley. 
Thompson Thayer. 
George Farrington. 
Ebenezer Taylor. 
Moses Alton. 
Benjamin Flint. 
George Farrington, 
Asahel Jewel, 



Thomas Curtis. 

Joshua Cook. 

Reuben Bartlet. 

Abel Oldham. 

.Jonathan Hill. 

Ephraim Hawkins. 

Noah Cadwell. 

Stephan Hawkins. 

Anthony Combs. 

Joseph Tuttle. 

John Erskin. 

Joseph Goodeuough. 

Elisha Knapp. 

Daniel Severance. 

Jessa Brown. 

Ama.sa Woolley. 

Welcome Bartlet. 

Ebenezer Taylor, Jr. 

Cyrus Taylor. 

Ebenezer French. 

Thomas Gould. 
Guardians for John, Juliet, 
Persis andSusanah Butler." 



The towu liaviiig conceded that it was un- 
just to levy a tax on sucli of her citizens for the 
maintenance of religious observances and cere- 
monies as were objectionable to them and 
tliat protested against such levy, were directly 
ciilled upon to equalize the privileges of the 
diiferent sects or denominations in the use of 
the town's meeting-house, and an article was in- 
troduced into the warrant for the meeting of 
Januaiy 5, 1810, as follows : 

" To See if the town will pass a vote to make a di- 
vision of the meeting-honse to each denomination for 
their occupation according to the proportion of Taxes 
which they pay in said town, or act thereon as the 
town may see proper." 

Upon which article the town " Voted to di- 
vide the meeting-house according to their taxes, 
and to chose a Committee out of each denomi- 
nation to alot to each Denomination their pro- 
portion of the meeting-house," and they then 
chose Daniel Hawkins, Jr., Caleb Alexander, 
Elijah Stowel, Samuel Fassett and Enoch kStow- 
ell their committee for said purpose. This ar- 



WINCHESTEK. 



573 



raugement continued until 1815, when the town 
refused by vote to settle the Rev. Mr. White, 
and then voted tliat the town consent tliat the 
Cougregatioual Society of Christians in this 
town be incorporated as a Society. This act 
fully divorced the town from church affairs. 
Though the Universalists have continued to 
occupy some portion of the house, with slight 
interruptions, to the present time, it has been 
thus occupied under a rigiit ol)taincd by con- 
tract, for whicli tiiey pay a valuable naoney 
consideration. Thus the Universalists saved 
the body (retaining the meeting-house), whilst 
the Congregationalists took cliarge of the spirit 
(having retained the churcli organization and 
records), whilst the Methodists, which were a 
gi'owing sect, were left to provide both the body 
and spirit in constructing their own house of 
worship and iu making their own records. The 
Congregational Church was formed November 
12, 1736, with a membership of twelve, and 
the Rev. Jose|)h Ashley was ordained as pastor 
on the same day. He was a graduate of Yale 
College of the class of 17.30. 

His pastorate continued until the settlement 
was abandoned on aci'ount of the war between 
France and England in 1 747, a period of eleven 
years. During this pastorate there were added 
to the church membership fifty-one, making, 
with the original tweU^e, sixty-three names on 
the church-rolls. The Rev. Micha Lawrence, 
the second pastor, was ordained November 14, 
1764, and was dismissed February l!l, 1777. 
In politics Mr. Lawrence belonged to the King's 
party rather than to Congress, and he became 
known as a Tory. Plis dismissal was mainly 
because of his politics, Winchester being tlior- 
oughly loyal to Congress. His pastorate con- 
tinued for a little more than twelve years. At 
its commencement tlie church membership had 
fallen to twenty-seven, and of these only eight 
were of the sixty-three members at the close of 
Mr. Ashley's ministry. The third pastor was 
the Rev. Ezra Couant, who was ordained Feb- 
ruary 19, 1788, and dismissed November 11, 



1807. His pastorate covered a period of a little 
more than eighteen years, during which the 
names of forty-seven members were added to 
the church rolls. Mr. Couant was a graduate 
of Harvard College in the class of 1784. ^Ir. 
Couant took the pastorate of the church under 
very trying circumstances. His predecessor 
had been dismissed almost in disgrace for po- 
litical reasons, and he found the sentiments of 
the people over whom he was called to jjreside 
still divided, and tlie great questions of national 
and State government undecided. ^Ir. Conant 
felt the gravity of the situation in all its com- 
pleteness, and that his position in accepting the 
call to tlie ministry might not be misunderstood, 
lie addressed a formal letter t(j the church and 
people of Winchester, iu language as follows : 

"To the Church and People of Winchester. 

" Brethren and Friends : 

"As I have Kec'' an Invitation to Settle within the 
work of the Gospel ministrey, I have taken it in 
Serious and Deliberate Consideration ; have Sought 
that Wisdom from above which is Profitable to Direct 
and have endevered thoroughly to weigh all Circum- 
stances attending it ; have also Consulted Judicious 
and Disinterested Persons on the important Occa- 
sion, and finally Considering the unanimity of the 
Church and People in giving the invitation and the 
encouragements tliat have been offered, I think it my 
Duty to accept and do now declare my acceptance of 
your invitation and shall endeavour faithfully to Dis- 
charge the duty of my office, but Sensible of my weak- 
ness to Discharge so arduous a task, I ask your I-'ray- 
ers for me that I may be enabled to Perform Accept- 
ably and that by our mutualy Persevering in Holey- 
ness and Righteousness and Cordially adheariug to 
the Doctrines of Christ we may Rejoice together in the 
Good Success of my Endeavours and that we through 
the whole Course of our lives may incessantly Strive 
to live according to the exact Rules of Christianity 
in endeavouring to advance tlie Redeemer's King- 
dom and in Spreading Peace and Tranquility 
around us, that so we may Finally be transmitted 
from the militant to the Church triumphant with a 
True testimony of our having advanced tlie Gospel of 
our Great Redeemer. 



574 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" I am Bretheren and Friends yuur humble ser- 
vant 

" Ezra Coxant, Jux'. 

" P.S. — My Friends living at a distance tis necessary 

that I Reserve (as I expect to be indulged) three or 

four Sabbaths yearly and which 1 doubt not you will 

Readily Grant. Yours as above. 

" E. C, Je." 

Notwithstanding the prayerful efforts of Mr. 
Conaut throughout his whole pastorate, lie was 
dismissed in as deep, if not deeper, disgrace 
than his predecessor, Mr. Lawrence, for Mr. 
Lawrence's failure was purely political, whilst 
]\Ir. Conant's was entirely of a religious nature. 
He had been selected as a large and liberal- 
minded gentleman of learning, wisdom and 
piety, as a pastor to preside over a distracted 
congregation, one divided in politics and torn 
by dissenting beliefs. He had outgrown, as 
had many of his congregation, the bigotry of 
the past — a jiast that had })laced an armed officer 
of the town at the meeting-house door, M'hose 
duty it was to arrest every pei-son passing ex- 
cept upon an errand of extreme mercy, and 
compel them to listen to the prescribed theology. 
Mr. Conant sought, as he believed, a better way 
to reach the hearts of his hearers than by the 
exercise of arbitrary authority, though it had 
the sanction of civil law, or of the no less odious 
pressure of theological authority. For liiis 
dereliction of duty from the church stand-point, 
Mr. Conant was dismissed, charged, as we arc 
informed by one of his successors, with having 
pursued such a course " that the spirituality of 
the church had nearly departed." The -fourth 
settled pastor was the Rev. Experience Porter. 
He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, of the 
class of 1803, and he was ordained Novem- 
ber 12, 1807, and was dismissed February 20, 
1810. During his pastorate forty-four names 
were added to the church-rolls. He represented 
the theological views of those who opposed 
those held by Mr. Conant, and he failed signally 
in securing the ajjprobatiou of the best religious 
intelligence of that day. The additions to the 
Congregational Church during his ministrations 



were the result of the efforts made by the E.ev. 
Mr. Conant and associates, particularly the 
Rev. Jesse Lee, who was a Methodist prior to 
the dismissal of Mr. Conant. This religious 
denomination, when placed in the same position 
as the Methodists and ITniversalists regarding 
the use of the town meeting-house, vacated the 
same and held their meetings in the hall of the 
school-house, which stood near by. The society 
agitated the subject of a meeting-house exclu- 
sively their own for several years, till finally, 
in 1834, they had one completed, and it was 
dedicated November 25th, in that year. This 
building is now standing, and is occupied for 
the purposes and by the society that erected it. 
This society has the names of 167 members on 
its rolls. The Methodists commenced to be a 
power in religious ntatters in Winchester about 
1 800. The first settled minister of that denom- 
ination in town was Rev. Jesse Lee. In 180o 
they commenced to build a house for them- 
selves, though it was never comjjleted. It was 
never seated, and had no conveniences for warui- 
ing. In 1826 this society built a meeting- 
h(juse, which they occupied for about sixteen 
years, \\lien they constructed the present church 
now occupied by them. The liuildiug erected 
in 1826 is now standing, having been removed 
from the site of the present church to the east, 
just across the road. It is now occupied in part 
l)y the town as an (>ngine-house, the balance 
for storage piu-poses by private individuals. 
This society has the names of one hundred and 
twenty-seven members now on its rolls. The 
ITniversalists have contiuued to worshij) in the 
town meeting-house, though under a contract. 
About 1842 they extensively repaired the build- 
ing, filling in the open space between the gal- 
leries, which ^\■ere upon the east and west ends 
of the house and ujion the south side, in a 
manner to divide the old meeting-house into an 
upper and lower room. The upper room thus 
secured they have occupied for church purjjoses 
since. The Universalist denomination had its 
beginning in Winchester with the beginning 



WINCHESTER. 



575 



of the present century, and from the fact 
that the Universalists uf Xew England held 
a convention here in ISO."), at which they 
adopted " Articles of Faith," and christened 
them " The Winchester Confession of Faith/' 
this society and Winchester have always and 
are at the present of historical interest to this 
denomination. This society has the names of 
two hundred and thirty nieral)ers on its rolls. 
The Catholics have a church edifice at Ashue- 
lot, which they erected in 1X71, and have con- 
tinued to occupy till the present. This denomi- 
nation numbers two hundred and fifty upon its 
rolls of church membership. In 1810 dis- 
cussions upon the aggressions of England, par- 
ticularly upon the sea, had developed a feeling 
of retaliation throughout the whole country, 
but nowhere so strong as in New England, 
and the General Court of New Hampshire 
called upon the towns within her borders to 
provide themselves with military stores and 
ammunition. In response to this demand, 
Winchester voted, at a meeting held on the l-!tli 
day of June, 1810, " To raise one huiidr(Ml and 
twenty dollars to ]irovide amniunition and 
camp-kettles agreeable to an act of Court," and 
then voted to set the house to deposit town 
stores in front of the burviug-g-round. But no- 
where does it appear that she was called upon 
further than to provide these materials against 
an emergency. No matters of liistorical interest 
transpired in Winchester from the date of the 
church controversy and its settlement till July 
2, 1850, though the town had made constant 
progress in wealth, population and business 
enterprises. At this date an addition was made, 
largely at the instance of Alvin Scott, whose 
interests would be better served and whose 
property would be enhanced in value, to the 
territory of Winchester from the northwest 
corner of Richmond. The act of annexation 
reads as follows : 

" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives in General Court convened, That the tract 
of land contained within the fohowino; boundaries, to 



wit: Beginning at the northwest corner of the town 
of Richmond and running southerly on the line di- 
viding Richmond from Winchester, three hundred 
and forty rods to the south line of the road leading 
from Hollis Narromore's house ; thence north 58° 
east to Swanzey line, south, at the north side of the 
new road leading I'roin Swanzey to Winchester ; 
Thence on Swanzey south line three hun'drcd and 
forty rods to the corner between Swanzey and Rich- 
mond, be and hereby is disannexcd and separated 
from the town of Richmond and is annexed to and 
made a part of said town of Winchester as fully and 
amply to all intents as though it had been contained 
in and comprehended by the original grant, charter 
or incorporation of said Winchester," 

From this date the boundaries of Winchester 
have remained unchanged. Recapitulating, we 
find Winchester as it now is, to be made up of 
a portion of the original grant, a portion of what 
was originally Northfield, a smaller portion 
of what was originally W^irwick (Roxbury or 
Gardiner's Canada) and a still smaller portion 
annexed from Richmond. 

From tills date to the commencement of the 
War of the Rebellion Winchester's history was 
uneventful, I'.ut w lien it became manifest that 
treason, with arms in its hands, threatened the 
existence of the general government, and was 
determined at all hazards to secure a dismem- 
berment of the republic, A\'incliester, true to 
herself and in keeping with her traditions, took 
an advanced position amongst her si.ster toM'US 
in the State, to sustain and for the maintenance 
of the general government. At a meeting held 
on May 11, iSlil, she adopted the following 
resolutions, which were presented by Marshal 
Kingman : 

" Resolce.d, That the present crisis of our country's 
history calls for the united eflbrts of every loyal and 
patriotic citizen to sustain our State and National 
governments in their most active and energetic ef- 
forts to suppress treason, now existing in a portion of 
the United States, 

" Resolved, That we hail with joy the alacrity with 
which some of our young men have responded to the 
call of our Governor, for the enlistment of a military 



576 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



force to assist in the maintenance of our National 
Government. 

" Resolved, That tlie Selectmen of this town be in- 
structed to furnish each soldier now enlisted or that 
may hereafter enlist in the military service of the 
State, who are citizens of this town, with such a com- 
plete outfit as they shall deem necessary, and furnish 
each with such an amount of ready money as they 
may deem necessary, not exceeding ten dollars. 

" Resolved, That all soldiers who are citizens of 
this town, who have already enlisted or may here- 
after enlist in the service of the Government, shall be 
paid eight dollars [ler month during their time of 
service, and that this town will support and main- 
tain the families of all such as may enlist in the 
Country's military service, during their absence on 
duty. 

" Resolved, That the selectmen are hereby author- 
ized to borrow, for the use of the town, .such sum or 
sums of money as shall be necessary to carry out 
fully the above resolutions." 

It was voted unanimously to adopt the reso- 
lution, thus pledging the town to an active 
and energetic .support of such measures as the 
State might adopt for the support of the general 
srovernment in this issue. On the 9th of Au- 

o 

gu.st, 1862, the town adopted the following 
resolution : 

" Resolved, That the town of Winchester pay to 
each Volunteer the sum of two hundred dollars when 
mustered into service, that may enlist to fill up 
our quota for the first call for 300,000, and one hun- 
dred and twenty-five dollars when mustered into 
service to each Volunteer tluit may enlist to fill u]i 
our quota for the second call for 300,000 men and 
provide that there is a company formed for one 
year so as to prevent a draft, each Volunteer shall 
receive two hundred dollars when nuistered into 
the service of the United States." 

A committee of five was chosen to solicit 
enlistments. This committee consisted of 
George W. Pierce, Ellery Albee, Theodore 
Eipley, H. A. Murdt)ck and Ira W. Russell. 
On the 2;3d of August, 1862, the town voted to 
increase the bounty heretofore voted to be paid 
the nine months' men by the sum of seventy-five 
dollars, thus making the bounty two hundred 



dollars to each volunteer for nine months. 
September 19, 1863, it was "Voted, that the 
town pay drafted men or their substitutes three 
hundred dollars each ten days after they are 
mustered into the United States service, or fur- 
nish substitutes ^vho are accepted and sworn in- 
to the service," and on December 5, 1863, it 
was further voted to '' pay a bounty of three 
hundred dollars to Volunteers to fill the quota 
of the town." On the 25th of the same mouth 
it was voted " to advance the town, State and 
United States bounties to those who may enlist 
to make up our quotti under the last call, and 
that the selectmen l)e instructed to borrow 
a sufficient .sum of money to carry out the 
above vote," and at this meeting the .selectmen 
were instructed to buy or hire substitutes 
enough to fill the quota of .said town under the 
last call of the United States for volunteers. 
On February 27, 1864, the town voted to pay 
the re-enlisted men from the towu who were 
accredited to our quota the sum of three hun- 
dred dollars. On the 16th of June, 1864, the 
town " Voted that the Selectmen be authorized 
to procure the enlistment of as uiany volunteers 
as they may think neces.sary to aj)ply on the 
anticipated call of the (iovernment for more 
soldiers from this town, auil pay such bounties 
as they think necessary," and on September 1, 
1864, it was voted that the town pay three hun- 
dred dollars for one year's men, six hundred 
dollars for two years' men and nine hundred 
dollars for three years' men (citizens) to fill the 
quota of the town on the last call of the Presi- 
dent. Under the several calls of the general 
government for soldiers, the followiug enlisted 
to fill the town's quota and were mustered and 
assigned to regiments: 

Nathaniel D. Davis, Company A, Second Regiment. 

George G. Davis, Company A, Second Regiment. 

Jno. W. Hammond, Company A, Second Regiment. 

Elbridge E. Jewell, Company A, Second Regiment. 

Geo. L. Pickett, Company A, Second Regiment. 

Chas. H. Shrigley, Company A, Second Regiment. 

Wm. H. Thorning, Company A, Second Regiment. 

Amasa W. Bowen, Company D, Second Regiment. 



WINCHESTER. 



577 



Myric M. Burpee, Company D, Second Regiment. 
Abel W. Colegan, Company E, Second Regiment. 
Wm. Calkins, Company D, Second Regiment. 
Lorenzo Calkins, Company D, Second Regiment. 
F. H. Chamberlain, Company E, Secon<l Regiment. 
Herbert E. Cook, Cum])any D, Second Regiment. 
Asa Demiug, Company E, Second Regiment. 
Wm. Downing, Company C, Second Regiment. 
Jas. W. Felt, Company B, Second Regiment. 
Luther W. Fassett, Company E, Second Regiment. 
Eli Thayer, Company E, Second Regiment. 
Wm. L. Sprague, Company D, Second Regiment. 
Albert E. Sholes, Company I, Second Regiment. 
Clias. P. Hill, Company I, Third Regiment. 
George Bell, Company I, Third Regiment. 
Mitchell Bridge, Company 1, Third Regiment. 
Elijah Hammond, Company I, Third Regiment. 
Arthur Hammond, Company I, Third Regiment. 
L. D. Hammond, Company I, Third Regiment. 
Freeman A. Lewis, Company I, Third Regiment. 
Wm. L. Weeks, Company I, Third Regiment. 
James Cooney, Company H, Third Regiment. 
Patrick S. Farren, Company C, Third Regiment. 
Geo. W. Newbold, Company I, Third Regiment. 
Edward O'Han, Company D, Third Regiment. 
.Fohn Hughes, Com{)any C, Fourth Regiment. 
John Nichols, Company A, Fourth Regiment. 
Emers Gould, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Samuel E. Goss, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Frederick Barrett, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Orrin B. Curtis, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
James T. Eaton, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Gregory Henfin, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
George Hubbard, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Chas. B. Lawrence, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Nelson Wood, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Amasa Amidon, Company H, Fifth Regiment. 
Adrian Arew, Company G, Fifth Regiment. 
Joseph Booth, Company B, Fifth Regiment. 
John C. ClitTord, Company H, Fifth Regiment. 
James Hagan, Company E, Fifth Regiment. 
Caswell J. Hall, Company I, Fifth Regiment. 
Charles Myers, Company H, Fifth Regiment. 
John Murphy, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Rienzi 0. Rich, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Thomas Riley, Company E, Fifth Regiment. 
.Tames Sullivan, Company F, Fifth Regiment. 
Joseph Woodard, Company E, Fifth Regiment. 
John L. Winch, Company B, Fifth Regiment. 



E. P. Pierce, assistant surgeon. Sixth Regiment. 
John Hays, Company F, Si.xth Regiment. 
James Hnuligan, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 
James Mulligan, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 
Joseph Worrell, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 
J. Whittemore, Company H, Sixth Regiment. 
Stephen Franklin, Company K, Sixth Regiment. 
Henry Blake, Company A, Sixth Regiment. 
John Burns, Company G, Sixth Regiment. 
James O. Oonnell, Company A, Sixth Regiment. 
William Davis, Company F, Sixth Regiment. 
Louis E;idred, Company C, Sixth Regiment. 
Henry Geoti'ray, Company A, Sixth Regiment. 
James Haven, Company I, Sixth Regiment. 
William Hill, Company I, Sixth Regiment. 
Edward Howard, Company A, Sixth Regiment. 
Patrick Lynch, Comi)any A, Sixth Regiment. 
John Murphy, Company F", Sixth Regiment. 
William Martin, Company I, Sixth Regiment. 
Peter Glson, Company B, Sixth Regiment. 
Paul Syne, Company A, Sixth Regiment. 
William Stevens, Company A, Sixth Regiment. 
William Smith, Company C, Sixth Regiment. 
Henry Thompson, Company A, Sixth Regiment. 
Michael Willey, Company G, Sixth Regiment. 
Mathaias Evans, Company I, Seventh Regiment. 
Fred. C. Festland, Company I, Seventh Regiment. 
John Bridges, Company C, Ninth Regiment. 
Edward Crosby, Com[)any E, Ninth Regiment. 
Richard Daley, Company E, Ninth Regiment. 
John B. Duchand, Company C, Ninth Regiment. 
Francis Granville, Company H, Ninth Regiment. 
John Glancy, Company C, Ninth Regiment. 
Ruldof Hintman, Company K, Ninth Regiment. 
George H. Marsh, Company G, Ninth Regiment. 
Lucan Martenelle, Company K, Ninth Regiment. 
James Roberts, Company F, Ninth Regiment. 
Michael Sweuey, Company A, Ninth Regiment. 
Henry Underwood, Company B, Ninth Regiment. 
W. A. Fosgate, Company B, Fourteenth Regiment. 
T. A. Ripley, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
C. L. Combs, Company C, Fourteenth Regiment. 
Wm. Combs, Company C, P^ourteenth Regiment. 
G. G. Marden, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
J. F. Hunt, Company F, J^ourteenth Regiment. 
G. Norwood, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
C. G. Howard, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
N. Graves, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
N. B. Fosgate, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 



578 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



F. H. Wood, Company F, Fourteeuth Regiment. 
H. E. Baldwin, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

D. T. Swan, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

C. O. Colburn, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
J. H. Bolton, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
J. Buftum, Jr., Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

F. H. Buftum, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
C. W. W. Ball, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
C. A. Ball, Company F, Fcmrteenth Regiment. 

L. E. Bent, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
L. Eaton, Jr., Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
P. Hays, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
H. E. Hutchins, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
L. E. Howard, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
W. A. Morey, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
J. H. Moore, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
V. Q. D. Murdock, Company F, Fourteenth Regt. 
R. E. Murdock, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

G. H. Nims, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
C. Pratt, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

G. F. Perry, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

C. P. Reede, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
F. Roark, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

E. O. Smith, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

D. H. Thompson, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment 
H. F. Thayer, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
H. L. Wilbur, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
H. A. Wood, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
H. F. Pratt, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 

J. H. Doolittle, Company G, Fourteenth Regiment. 
H. Colburn, Company F, Fourteenth Regiment. 
W. A. Doolittle, Com])any C, Fourteenth Regiment. 

F. B. Shepherd, Company G, Fourteenth Regiment. 
S. P. Fairbanks, Company A, Eighteenth Regiment. 
L. S. Pickell, Company D, Eigliteenth Regiment. 
C. W. Verry, Company F, Eighteenth Regiment. 

G. W. Pierce, surgeon. First Cavalry. 

L. A. Thayer, Company B, First Cavalry. 
A. H. Bolles, Company C, First Cavalry. 
N. A. Bryant, Company C, First Cavalry. 
James H. Eaton, Company C, First Cavalry. 
George H. Munn, Company C, First Cavalry. 
John E. Morse, Company C, First Cavalry. 
Lucius P. Scott, Company C, First Cavalry. 
S. E. Hines, Company A, First Heavy Artillery. 

This list doe.s not include all who enlisted 
from Winchester during tlie war, as many are 
known to have enlisted in neighboring States, 



and othei's were unassigned to regiments, and 
for the prt'sent their official records cannot be 
found. 

From the close of the War of the Re- 
bellion there has been uo special matter of 
historical importance in the affairs of the 
town of \\'inchester. She has paid a debt 
of forty-two thon.sand dollars, a legacy of 
the war. She has improved her highways, 
bridges and public buildings. Her population 
lias increased, whilst her citizens have ad- 
vanced in wealth, prosperity and intelligence. 
Her jiopulation in 17G7 was 428 ; in 1773, 
(il(i ; in 17.S0, 1103; in 1790, 1209; in 1800, 
1413; in ISIO, 1478 ; in 1820, 1849; in 1830, 
20.")2; in 1840, 206-5; in 1850, 329() ; in 
1860, 2225 ; ill 1870, 2097; in 1880, 2444. 

The first po,st-office was established in town 
in 1811, with Henry Pratt as postmaster. 
Jonas Bruce succeeded him April 10, 181.3. 
Henry Pratt was reappointed December 1, 
1817. Philip Ripley was appointed March 27, 
1820. Calvin Burnap was appointed Febru- 
ary 19, 1831 ; Horace Peirce, July 10, 1841 ; 
Calvin Burnap, August 29, 1842; Allen Cross, 
April 9, 1849 ; Abel Hammond, November 26, 
1852;Joiiu Severance, April 2, 1853; John 
A. Powers, December 22,1856; ^yilliam H. 
Gurn.sey, June 28, 1861 ; George H. Snow, 
September 8, 1885. 

A post-office was established at West Win- 
chester January 4, 1833, with Horace Chapin 
as postmaster. He was succeeded by John G. 
Capron, September 1, 1836. Alvin W. Ball 
was appointed September 30, 1841 ; Jotham 
W. Finch, May 4, 1847; Samuel P. Fair- 
banks, January 19, 1849 ; John G. Capron, 
June 4, 1849 ; De Los C. Ball, April 8, 1852. 
The name of the office was changed to " Ashue- 
lot" February 10, 1854, at which date De Los 
C. Ball M'as reappointed. Edwin L. Putnam 
was appointed August 14, 1855; Horace 
Chapin, October 26, 1855 ; Jason C. Plummer, 
Augu.st 19, 1857; John L. Thayer, November 
12, 1860; John L. Nickerson, May 5, 1862; 



WINCHESTER. 



579 



William Dickenson, Novenihcr 7, 1864; 
Wright W(io(l, February 1-^, 1859; and Henry 
H. Pratt, April 20, 1882. 

The town supports twenty sehoois, under the 
town system, at a cost of six thousand dollars, 
including the expenses of the High School. 
Tliis last is conducted under the pnjvisions of 
the so-calleil ('lareniont ^Vct. Its graduates are 
qualified to enter any of the higher institutions 
of ie^irning in the country. It has two public 
libraries, — one at Winchester village pr<ij)er, witii 
three thousand v<ihnnes, that are being increased 
each year by town appropriations ; the other, a 
free library, called the " I)ickenson Free Lib- 
rary," located at West Winchester. This has 
over five liundred vohinus, and it is being 
increased each year by subscriptions and dona- 
tions. 

The Masonic fraternity have I'hilesian 
Lodge, No. 40, located at Winchester village; 
also, Prohibition Division S. T., No. 1, and the 
Grand Army of the Kei)ublic, " Edward N. 
Tafft Post, No. lit." The Winchester Na- 
tional Bank is located at this village. It was 
first chartered as a State bank, under the title of 
the Winchester Bank, July 3, 1847. It was 
converted to a national bank, under the title of 
the Winchester National Bank, in 1865. As a 
State institution, its ca[)ital was one hundred 
thousand dollars, and it commenced operations 
with this amount as its capital when it 
became a national bank. In 1884 it in- 
creased its capital to two hundred thou- 
sand dollars. It was rechartered in 1885 
for twenty years. The Security Savings-Bank 
is also located in this village. It was chartered 
by the State August :?, 1881. Its deposits 
and surplus amount to one hundred and fifteen 
thousand dollars. Its treasui'er, Miss J. Grace 
Alexander, is probably the first lady ever en- 
trusted with such a position. The Ashuelot 
Railroad, which was in process of construction 
in 1850, and was the cause of the large increase 
of population, as shown by that census, pa.sses 
through the town, following the course of the 
37 



Ashuelot River. It has stations at Winches- 
ter, Ashuelot and I'isgah. 

It runs inw mixed train each way daily from 
Keeue to South Vernon, Vt., and two passen- 
ger trains. The road is owned and controlled 
by the Connecticut Railroad Coinpanv. The 
American Telegrapli Company have oihces Ixitii 
at Winchester and Ashuelot, as also has the 
New England Telephone Company. Winches- 
ter village has twenty stores, eight manufactories 
of boxes, pails and Iniekets, three blacksmith- 
shoj)s, two livery slaliles, one hotel, two lawyers, 
one dentist and four physicians. The factory 
of Messrs. Dickenson, Seaver A: Co. is located 
there; its products consist of pails and l)uckets. 
They employ thirty-five hands and consume 
about two thousand cords of second-growth 
pine per annum. The mills of Dickenson ct' 
Baker are located on the Ashuelot River at 
this place. Their products are dimension lum- 
ber of pine, oak, hemlock and chestnut, and 
amounts to about six liundred and fifty 
thousand feet annually, employing twenty 
men. A. M. Howard's Box Manufactory 
employs thirty hands, with an animal out- 
put of four hundred thousand boxes. C. M. 
Norwood & Company's Box Manufactory also 
gives emjiloyment to fifteen hands, producing 
three hundred thousand boxes annually. The 
Winchester Box jManufactory employs twelve 
hands and produces annually two hundred and 
fifty thousand boxes. Dickenson & Munsel 
manufacture boxes, giving employment to fifteen 
hands, who produce three hundred thousand 
boxes yearly. Smith & Metcalf give employ- 
ment to eight men, and annually produce one 
hundred and fifty thousand boxes. Ashuelot, 
two miles west of AVinchester village, has 
two stores, one hotel, a steam saw-mill, 
two blacksmith-shops and two livery stables. 
The Ashuelot Manufacturing Company is 
located here, and manufactures Union and 
Moscow beavers. The mill is of twelve sets 
of cards and gives employment to two hundred 
and fifty hands ; they produce four hundred 



580 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



thousand yards of cloth each year. The 
Ashiielot Union Milly arc located at Lower 
Ashuelot. They run four sets of cards and 
eni|doy seventy-five hands; producing one 
hundred thousand yards Union beavers annu- 
ally. The Ashuelot Warj) Company runs tiu-ee 
thousand four hundred spindles, producing 
cotton thread, used as the warp in satinet and 
shoddy goods. Tliey give eni|)loynient to fifty 
hands. Thesteam saw-mill of Amos P. Tutfts, 
at Ashuelot, employs twelve men, producing 
two hundred tliousMud feet of pine, hendo(^k 
and chestnut lumber annually. The luml)er 
mill of Ansel Dickenson, at Pisgah Station, 
gives employment to twenty-five IuiikIs, pro- 
ducing one million feet of dimension hunber 
aimually. A box manufactory at this mill 
employs fifteen hands, producing three hundred 
and fifty thousand bo.xes annually. It is under 
the control of Mr. DicUensou. KolK'rtson 
Bros.' paper-mills are located at Pisgah Sta- 
tion. 

They produce annually 7()0,t)l)0 poundsof tis- 
sue, manilla and toilet paper, giving employ- 
ment to fourteen hands. The Broad Brook 
Steam Lumber-Mills, locatetl about two and 
one-half miles north of Pisgah Station, give 
emjdoyment to thirty-five hands, who produce 
an annual out])ut of lath, shingles, boards and 
dimension lumber amounting to one million 
feet. At varions other localities in the town, 
small lumber-mills, both steam and water, are 
in constant operation, twenty at least finding 
either a market or an outlet fi)r their products 
at Winchester. The Ashuelot River enters the 
town near its northeast corner, and runs in a 
general southwesterly direction till it passes the 
village of ^Vin(^hester, when it curves " The 
Bow " somewhat abruptly, and runs to the 
west and north, passing out of town very nearly 
in the middle of its western boundary. This 
river is one of the largest streams that flow into 
the Connecticut (" y" Great Kiver ") from the 
New Hampshire side. It takes its rise in 
Washington, and drains that town, Stoddard, a 



portion of Antrim, Sullivan, Nelson, Surry, 
Keene, Ivoxbiny, Harrisville, Marlborough, 
Swanzey, Troy, Richmond, a portion of Chester- 
field, AVinchcster, Hinsdale and a large portion 
of Warwick, Mass. It receives during its course 
through town the waters of Broad Brook, which 
rises in Chesterfiekl, runs through the west part 
of town southwardly, draining the eastern 
slope of Mount Pisgah ; Mirey Brook, that 
rises on the east side of Mount (irace, in War- 
wick, Mass., and luns northwardly, receiving 
the waters of Hoai'ing Brook about two miles 
from its mouth, and empties into the Ashuelot 
about one-half a mile below the centre of Win- 
chester village, and the waters from many other 
smaller streams, 'i'hcre are four lakes, or ponds, 
within the limits of the town ; the largest is 
Round Pond, located in its northwest corner. 
This body of water is of irregular form, alxint 
two and a half miles long by one mile in 
width. Near this pond is the Kilburn Pond 
and North Round Pond. Forest Lake, or 
Ilumjjhrey's Pond, as it was called jirior to 
188;^, is situated about two miles nortiiward 
from the Centre village. This body of water 
is about one mile in length by three-fi)urths of 
a mile in width. This lake has, within a few 
years, become a favorite resort during the sum- 
mer season for many of our citizens, who have 
erected several fine cottages upon its western 
bank. The streams and ponds of Winchester 
are well stocked with trout and other fish com- 
mon to New England waters, whilst, through the 
efforts of some of our citizens, seconded by the 
State Fish Commissioners, land-locked salmon 
and black bass have been introduced. The 
last have developed wonderfully, and it is not 
unconnnon to take fish of this variety weighing 
from two to three pounds each. In the days 
of the early settlers the true salmon, shad, ale- 
M'ives and herring were abundant, frequenting 
the Ashuelot and its tributaries in large num- 
bers during the spawning season, returning to 
the sea in the autumn, only to return again 
in the spring. But private enterprise, through 



WINCHESTEK. 



581 



the building of dams upon the river for 
manufacturing purposes, about and during the 
time of the Revokitiou, prevented tlie return 
of the fisli to th(ur accustomed breeding-places, 
and effectually excluded them from the river. 
This so disturbed (he settlers who were not 
personally interested in the mills that they ad- 
dressed a petition in the following words to the 
General Assembly of the State : 

" To tlie Hon'", the General Assembly now sitting at 

Concord ; 

"The petition of the Selictmen of the town ol' 
Winchester, honible sheweth, that the Itiver ealleil 
Ashewilet formerly i)roduce(l a large nuniher of 
Salmon and shad, with a variety of hook fish ; but of 
late, the corse of s"* fish is intirely stopd by Reson of 
three Dams aerost said River, viz, — one in Hinsdale, 
one in Winchester, and one in Swanzcy, whieh is a 
Create Damage to this and the Neighbouring towns, 
and notwithstanding the Repeated Requests of the 
people in this Town to the owners of Said Dams to 
open a Corse for Said Fish, they still Refuse to Do it, 
which very much Disspleases the people in general, 
and if there is nothing dun to prevent it, there is a 
prospect of the people Rising in a hostile manner and 
puling Down Said Dams; to prevent which, and to 
establish a free course for Said Fisli, we beg your 
Honnours to take this matter under your wise con- 
sideration, and pass such an act as you in your 
wisdom shall think i)iopcr, and we in Duty Bound 
will ever pray. 

"Winchester, June 1st, 1784. 

'•Sl.MON Wri.L.^KD, 1 
"John ALKXANDUit, 
" Paul RicirARDsoN, 
"Prentice WiLrAiti 



r Selecfmen." 



Upon which petition the(ieneral Assembly 
took the following action : 

"State of New Hampshire, 

"In the House of Representatives, Feb. 11, 1785, 
Upon Reading & Considering the foregoing petition, 
Voted, that the petitioners be heard thereon before 
the Gen' Court, on the Second Thursday of their next 
Session, & that in the Meantime the petitioners serve 
the Owners of the several Dams on Ashawillat River, 
in Winchester and Hinsdale, with a copy of the peti- 



tion & order of Court thereon, that they, or either of 
them, may then appear and shew cause (if any they 
have) why the prayer thereof may not be granted. 
"Sent up for Concurrence. 

" Geo. Atkinson, Speaker. 
" In Senate the same day read & concurred. 

" E. Thompson, Seci/." 

This mcn'enicut evidently mi.scarried, for we 
iind a petition couched in almost the same 
identical language on June 3, 1786. This 
petition was signed by Daniel vVshley, Moses 
( 'haiiiberlain ami Asa Alexander, as selectmen 
of Winchester; and again another dated May 
;')(>, 17<S<S, signed by Ezra Parker, Daniel Haw- 
kins and Asahel .lewell, selectmen of Winches- 
ter. The whole matter evidently ended in the 
cool Cf)urtesy offered by the Legislatin-e, when 
they, 

" Upon reading and considering the foregoing peti- 
tion. Voted that the prayer thereof be Granted and 
that the petitioners have leave to bring in a Bill Ac- 
cordingly. 

"Sent up for Coneurreiice. 

"John Langpon, Speaker. 
" In Senate June 14, 178G,read and Non-concurred. 
" J. Pearson, Sec;/." 

The dams stood an<l the fish came not back 
from the sea. 

In the early years of settlement wild animals 
were abundant, — bears, deei-, the lynx, wolves, 
wildcats, foxes, raccoons, hedgehogs, skunks, 
woodchiK^ks, weasels, squirrels (black, red, gray, 
striped aiul flying) — on the land, whilst the 
.streams were frequented by the beaver, otter, 
mink and muskrat. Of these animals, only 
foxes, raccoons, hedgehogs, skunks, wood- 
chucks, weasels, and the gray, red, striped and 
flying squirrels remain. Occasionally an otter 
is seen, whilst mink and miiskrats are quite 
abundant. The last bear of which there is 
record was killed in ISo.j near Hound I'oiid. 
The forests afforded and now afford resting- 
places for owls, hawks, crows, pigeons, par- 
tridges (the ruffed grouse), and all the song 
birds of New England. Wild geese and ducks 



582 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



used to be abuudaut, but at the present only a 
few geese are seen, and those only that, having 
become weary in their migratory flight, alight 
for a period of rest. A few black and wood 
ducks still annually rear their broods of young 
in the most secluded nooks of the ponds and 
streams. 

The main agricultural productions are hay, 
corn, oats, rye, potatoes, some wheat, barley and 
buckwheat. Tobacco was at one time during 
the war a profitable crop, but ceased "to pay" 
when the Southern States were able to jilace 
their crop upon the market. Gaixlen crops of 
peas, beans, turnips, carrots, cabbage, scpiash 
and melons are abundantly grown, whilst the 
orchards [)roduce the apple, pear, peach, quince, 
red cherries and other small fruits. Grapes, 
blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blue- 
berries and the strawberries grow, both native 
and cultivated, in great abundance. The forests 
are almost exclusively of second growth, and 
consist of pine, hemlock, oak, ash, beech, nniple, 
birch, elm and walnut, whilst all tlu' forest 
growths common to New England are to be 
found here. 

Winchester lies in what is believed to have 
been the bed of a lake that, some distant day 
in the past, included a large portion of what is 
now Cheshire County, and that found an outlet 
to the south in ^\'arwi(•k, Mass. But in some 
convulsion of nature the mountain chain that 
bound it in on the west was ruptured, and a 
new outlet \\'as formed, draining what had been 
before a sulimerged territory, leaving only the 
bed and course of the Ashnelot River in its 
stead. The town is hilly, with very little plain 
or level land, such as there is being found near 
the Centre village (" Pine Plain "), in the val- 
ley of Mirey Brook, on the banks of the river 
and in the southwesterly part of the town near 
the Connecticut River. The ranges of hills on 
the west, north and east of the Ashuelot extend 
in a northwardly and southwardly direction, 
whilst the range of hills ujjon the south of the 
river extend more nearly east and west. The 



valley of the Ashuelot here is about four hun- 
dred feet above sea level, and several of the 
mountain peaks in Winchester rise to an alti- 
tude of from six hundi'cd to one thousand feet. 
The soil is such as is common to most New 
England hill towns. Upon the sides of the 
mountains and u])on her cultivatable hills it is 
generally strong; l)ut it is very strong and re- 
tentive of fertilizers, and when brought under 
cultivation produces large crops for many suc- 
cessive years. In the valleys and about the 
Centre village the soil is of a lighter character, 
and, being free from stones, is much easier to 
cultivate, producing as good crops as the hill 
lands, though it recpiires closer attention and 
more fretpient cultivation. The bottom lands 
on the Ashuelot and Connecticut Rivers are 
very fertile and only require slight attention to 
secure abundant returns year after year. 

Winchester, in the one hundred and fifty-three 
years of her existence, has developed from an 
unbroken wilderness into a thriving and pros- 
perous town. Siie has always been loyal to her 
State and the government to which she belonjj-ed. 
She has always been loyal to her convictions of 
right in all matters pertaining to education, 
politics, religion and morals, and where her 
heart has been, there her purse has been also. 
She has never hesitated to stand with out- 
stretched jiands, palms upwards, bearing in 
them the shining coins of her treasury, that she 
has showered in abundance on every cause 
where her sense of duty or patriotism called. 
The foundations of her prosperity are struck as 
deep as the granite that underlies her, whilst 
the structure she has and is building towers 
upward and upward, keeping pace with the 
hopes and the aspirations of her citizens. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



DAVID BALL. 

Prominently identified with the active lousi- 
ness life of the town of ^^'incllester, as well as 



■> 




<,,>^^^_,_J^ /2=-^^z 



WINCHESTER. 



583 



every enterprise haviufr for its object the gen- 
eral good of the community, may be found tlic 
name of Ball. 

In 1 7i)il we find that Stephen Ball, a resident of 
^\"ar\vick, Mass., married Betsey Weld, of the 
same place, and to them was born David Ball, the 
subject of this sketch, October 7, 1801, and was 
the eldest of the family. Ills boyhood, like most 
youths of those days, was spent mainly at the 
homo of his parents until about 1817 or 1818, 
wlicn he came to Kcenc, N. H., and engaged as 
a clerk in mercantile business with Mr. Whee- 
lock ; from there he removed a i'ew years later 
to the village of West Winchester, continuing 
in the same line of business with William 
F. Pulsifer, later as I'ldsifer cV: Ball, Ball & 
t"a]>ron and D. & A. W. Ball. He married 
Fanny P. C'apron, December 29, 1825. He 
was also identiiied with other kinds of business, 
being interested in purchasing real estate, the 
lumber business and later in manufacturing. 

Mr. W. F. Pulsifer, his partner, died Febru- 
ary 22, l.s;!7, leaving for that time quite a large 
estate, of which ilisposition was made liy will to 
his heirs in Boston. Mv. Pulsifer showed his 
confidence in Mr. liaW by making him executor 
of his will. 

About the year ].S;18 he, with his brother, John 
P., formed a co-partnership and commenced 
the manufiicture of linseed oil, locating a I)ranch 
of their works in I'ittstown, N. Y. This part - 
nersjiip was continued acfivily for over twenty 
years, David attending the mill in West Win- 
chester, while his brother John gave his time 
and attention to the one in Pittstown. In 1.S40 
David ISall purchased the woolen-mill located 
at what has since been known as Scotland, and 
which had been owned by Cyrus Greenwood. 

He continued to operate this until it was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1x47, and it was not rebuilt by 
him, but a few years later he disposed of his 
interest in the power to a company who rebuilt 
the woolen-mill. 

In 1860 he again engaged in the manufacture 
of woolen goods in tonnection with another 



j)arty, having put the necessary machinery into 
the mill formerly used by D. & A. W. Ball as a 
pail-factory. In 1 8(i2 he purchased the interest 
of the other ]>artner fov fifteen thousand dollars 
and continued the business under the firm-name 
of D. Ball it Son. His death occurred Aug. 4, 
1864. His children were D. L. C. Ball, Mrs. ^\'. 
E. Thayer and .Jennie K. Ball, all of whom sur- 
vived him. His wife died September 6, 1863. 

In reviewing the outlines of an active life 
such as Mr. Ball's has Ijeen, we cannot but ob- 
serve the energy and perseverance of the man 
in the many interests with which he was contin- 
ually occuj)icd. At one time in the mercantile 
business with his brother under the firm-name of 
D. & A. W. Ball, the manufacture of oil at 
two different points, an ii-on foundrv, a coop- 
erage, a ])ail-factory, a saw and stave-mill 
and a woolen-mill, liesides being activelv en- 
gaged in all that pertained to the general bene- 
fit of the town where he resided. 

He was one of the original instigators of the 
Ashuelot ]\ailroad and the Winchester Bank. 
The name of the village was changed to " Ash- 
uelot " thi'ough the efforts of his son, I). L. C 
Ball, postmaster, in 18o2, and has since been 
known l)y that name. 

The residts of a life of this character speak 
more eloquently of its real worth and value to 
a ('((mmnnity than any words of commendation 
which we might add, and the example of his 
integrity and upriglitness will be long remem- 
l)ered bv those who knew him. 



THE TURNKlt FAMII,Y. 

The first ancestor of James B. Turner to 
come to this country was William H. (1), who 
left England, with his widowed mother, when 
he was a small boy, and settled in Gla-stenbury. 
Conn. He married Mercy, oldest daughter of 
Reuben Risley. From this union there were 
two girls, who died single, and seven boys, — 
William H., (2) Jr., James B. (2), Chauncey 
Alanson (2), Robert (2), Sanford (2) and George 



584 



HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



(2). These boys all married, reared families 
of children and lived eadi to advanced age. 

James B. Turner (2), the suhject of this sketch, 
who was liorn February 16, 1791, passed his 
childliood in Glastenbury, Coun., and attending 
the district school of that place, he obtained a 
fair education. Young Turner early developed 
a fondness for the water, and his first business 
was that of a sailor on a coasting vessel that 
plied between ilartfoi-d and New York, chiefly, 
though he occasionally voyaged as far south as 
" the Carolinas " and elsewhere, as the neces- 
sities of the coasting trade demanded. He was 
a voung man of good habits, and, by industry 
and frugality, he, while yet quite young, had 
saved a consideralile sum of money. Alanson (2), 
a younger brother of James B., was early ap- 
prenticed to learn the trade of a clothier, and, 
l)v diligence and I'are, mastered all the details 
of the business, as carried on at that time. 
About the year 1817, these brothers, the one 
with considerable money and the other with a 
practical knowledge of tiie business, formed a 
copartnership for tlie manufacture of woolen 
cloth, and, coming to Ashuelot, N. H., bought 
a water privilege, on the Ashuelot River, and a 
small l)tiilding, in which the clutli business 
had been carried on in a small way, and, en- 
larging the buildings to meet their recpiirements, 
went to work. They soon established them- 
selves tirnilv in the business, and carried it on 
successfully for nearly forty years, adding im- 
proved machinery and, from time to time, 
enlarging their miil as the necessities of an 
increasing and profitable business demanded. 

Mr. Turner was prominent in the civil affairs 
of the town and filled nearly all of the various 
town offices and also represented the town in 
the Genei'al Court. In j)olitics Mr. Turner wa-s 
a Whig, and at the time of the organization of 
the llc]>ublican ]iarty he joined it and acted 
with it up to the time of his death. He was 
a consistent member of the Methodist Church 
and was liberal in the support of public wor- 
ship. May 10, 181 5, he married Milly, daughter 



of James and Jemima Galjiin, and she l)ore 
him eight children, — 

Martha J. (3), born July -5, 1816; William 
G. (3), boru June 4, 1818, died August, 184(1 ; 
Chauncey A. (3), born June 13, 1820, died 
August, 1821 ; Eunice H. (3), born November 
30, 1822; Theresa A. (3), born February 1, 
1826, died September, 1832; Aurelius B., (3), 
born June 23, 1828; James E. (3), born No- 
vember U), 18.30, died August, 1833; Arietta 
A. (3,) boru February 28, 1834, died Decem- 
ber, 1847. 

Aurelius B. (3), (who furnished the engra\ing 
of his father for this work) learned the business 
of cloth manufacture in the mills of liis father 
and uncle and finally succeeded them and be- 
came file proprietor of large manufacturing in- 
terests iu the vicinity of the old mill. His 
educational ad\-antages were such as were at 
that time found in the district schools. His 
first business was that of a manufacturer of 
satinets, in 1858, uuder the firm name of Turner 
& Raymond. In 1862 Mr. Raymond died, and 
the reorganized firm was Buell, Pratt & Turner, 
and they made union beavers, cotton-warp, 
wool and shoddy filling. The enterprise has 
been carried on under various firm changes up 
to the present time. The firm is now Tliayer & 
Turner. Messrs. Thayer, Pratt and Turner, 
Captain Ansel Dickinson and D. L. C. Ball 
bought till' property of the Ashuelot Company, 
and, after running it five years, formed a Htock 
Company of it and carry it on as sucli at the 
])resent time. 

Felmiary !t, 1864, he married Matilda M., 
daughter of Miles and Martha D. Mitchell, and 
lives iu a beautiful home on a bluff overlo(jking 
the mills, in the village of Ashuelot. 



AXSEL DICKIXSOX. 

Among the families of New England that 
have shown energy, force of character and per- 
sistent industry, and by the force of indom- 
itable will impres.sed itself on the present era 



/ 




cAn^^i ^A-. 



1 



WINCHESTER. 



585 



by the perpetual labors of several generations, 
is the Dickinson family, of whom, in the 
fourth generation from Jsaithaniel (1), Nathan- 
iel (2), William (.3), is Ansel (4), the subjeet 
of this sketch. Nathaniel (1) came from 
England early in the seventeenth century, anrl 
settled in Deerfield, Mass., and was a farmer. 
He was a soldier in the Indian ^V^^r, sta- 
tioned at the garrison fort at Northfield, 
Ma.ss., and was killed by the Indians April 1-"), 
J 7 17. Ifis son, Nathaniel (-!), with his brother 
Josej)h, left the home firm after the death of 
tlieir father, and pushing northward, they lo- 
cated in the wilderness, on a tract of four hun- 
dred acres, in what is now the nortlu-rn part of 
the town of Swanzey. . Later they divided 
their tract of land, and each built residences 
thereon, in which they lived during the re- 
mainder of their lives. 

Nathaniel was twice married and was the 
father of six sons and one daughter. The sons — 
William (.3), Asa, Al)el, Uriah, Aaron and Na- 



thaniel 



rrew to manhood. The daugrhter 



died in infaniy. The mother of these children 
was Caroline Cnnmiiugs, of Swanzey. Wil- 
liam (.3) was a farmer, and married Lucinda 
Gardner, by whom he had eleven children, four 
of whom died young. The seven who lived 
to grow up were Erastus, Caroline, Nathaniel, 
Arvilla, David S., Ansel (4) and Kollin.s. Of 
this family, the eldest, Erastus, demands espe- 
cial mention. He Mas born December, 1800, 
and attended the district school. He married 
Esther, daughter of Moses Hills, Esq., of 
Swanzey, and removed to Winchester, where lie 
engaged extensively in the business of lumljer- 
ing, buying large tracts of timber-lauds. He 
had no taste for politics, but represented the 
town of Wiuoh&ster in the Legislature in 
LS52. Early in life he showed a fondness for 
military atfairs, and when he became a man 



joined a local military company as a private. 
He was promoted through all the grades of 
office to that of major general of volunteers. He 
died July 22, 18(i5. 

Ansel (4) was born in Swanzey February 22, 
1822. His boyhood was spent on the farm, 
wiicre his life was not ludikc liiat otVither lioys 
ol' this pcri(i<l in tiie history of New Hamp- 
shire. His educational advantages were such 
as wore afforded l)y the common schools t)f that 
time, l)ut by close attention lo his studies lie 
made progress much Ixyond thi; average. 
Showing considerable capacity liir business he 
came to M'inchester and was associated with 
his brother, (xenei'al l<]rastus, at the age of 
seventeen. .Vusci (4) was twice marrieil — first, in 
1852, to Jane L. Holey n, of Hinsdale, N. H., 
who died shortly after marriage ; second, to 
Mary Theresa I'^'ldi, from wliidi latter luiion 
there have been Ixirii La Fell, Milan A., John 
H. and William Eugene. 

Captain DiekiTison has accjiiired large i>usi- 
ness exjjerience, and is engaged in a great num- 
ber of business enterprises in his town and vi- 
cinity, and furnishes em])loyment to a large 
number of workmen, each one of whom has 
the most implicit faith in his word and entire 
confidence in his business judgment. In 
politics Cajjtain Dickinson is a Democrat. In 
religion a Methodist. For many years he has 
been a director in the Winchester National 
Bank, and is also president of the Seciu-ity 
Savings-Bank, of Winchester. He has reiire- 
sented the town of \\'inchester (which is largely 
Republican) tour terms in the General Court, 
has been a member of the School Board, luid is 
sure to be found as an active participant in 
labors of love for the good of the many. Such 
a life, earnest, vigorous, true, successful, has a 
value not to be easily measured, but siu-c to make 
the world better and faith in man more firm. 



HISTORY 



OF 



SULLIVAN COUNTY, 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



HISTORY 



7' 



Oi' 



SriLlYAiN COUNTY, NEW IIAMI'SIIIUE. 



C HAP T J-; R I . 

fiENKHAL HISTORY. 



BY .lOSEI'H W. I'AH.MELEl;. 



Previous to the year 1771 (here were no coiiiily 
divisions in the State of New Hani|)shire. The 
courts for the adjustment of all lefral matters were 
held at Portsmouth. 

In 1771 the State was tlivided into five counties. 
Of these was the county of Cheshire, which e.\- 
tended north from the State line of Massachusetts 
some sixty-five miles, and east from the C'on- 
necticut River, which wa.s its western boundary, 
about twenty milos, making an area more than 
three times as long as it wa.s broad. 

It consisted of thirty-eight towns, and the courts 
were held alternately at Keene and ("harles- 
town. Jails were erected at each place, and that 
at Charlestown did good work in Kcvolutionary 
times as a hostelry for the " ottensive partisans " 
of His Majesty George HI. 

The increase in business and importance of 
Keene, which was central to the lower [)art of the 
county, and of the northern towns, of which New- 
port was the most central, and the fac-t that Charles- 
town was not convenient to either section, in 



connection with changes that had occurred during 
the fifty years since the county was organized, in- 
dicated the necessitv of a readjustment of county 
afiinrs, and on Decemiter ><, 1824, the Legislature 
enacted that the May term of the Supreme C<iurt 
of Judicature should be removed from Charles- 
town to Newport. 

This alii)rd('<l onlv a partial relief from llic gene- 
ral inconvenience, as the facilities for the trans- 
action of other county business remained the .same 
as before. It was ap[)arent that the only remedy 
for this state of things was in the erection of a new 
county. The matter came before the Ijcgislature 
on June 'L\, 182fi, and by an appropriate act the 
question of division was submitted to the several 
towns in Cheshire ('ouuty, and also the ipiestion 
whether Newport or Claremont should be('orae the 
shire-town of the new ci)unty. The result of 
the election was a vote to diviihi the county, 
and Newport was adopted as the shir(!-town of tjie 
uew' countv l)y a majority of :)728 vott^s over 
Claremont. 

The uew county was named in honor of one of 
New Hampshire's most distinguished Revolutionary 
patriots and so'diers, — General John Sullivan, — 
and comprised the towns of Acworth, Charlestown, 
Claremont, Cornish, Croydon, (irantham, Goshen, 
Lempster, Langdou, Newport, Plaiulield, Sunapee, 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Springfield, Uuity and Washiugtou, — in all fifteen 
towns. 

The county of iSullivan, thus organized, has an 
average length of about thirty miles, with (Jraftou 
County on the north, and a Ineadth of some twenty 
miles, with Merrimack County on the east. Its 
somewhat irregular eastern hoiuidary lino traverses 
the great ridge between the Connecticut and JNIerri- 
mack Valleys, the surface of a part of Sunapee 
Lake, and the crest of the iSunapec range of high- 
lands, southward to the Cheshire line. Its western 
l)orders are washed l)y the waters of the Connecti- 
cut River. It is estimated that the elevation of 
iSunapee Lake is <S20 feet higher than the waters 
of the Connecticut at the mouth of Sugar River, 
twenty miles distant. The altitude of Sunapee 
Mountain is 2688 feet above mean tide-water at 
Boston, ^^'ith these statistics in view, it will be 
easy to estimate the extent to which the entire 
area of Sullivan County becomes a water-shed 
to the Connecticut River. Central to this 
area of about six hundred sijuare miles flows 
the Sugar River, tiie main nutlet of Sunapee 
Lake, to its confluence with the Connecticut River, 
in Claremont, receiving in its course the waters of 
its northern and southern branches, from the 
northern and southern extremities of the county, 
with many lesser affluents. 

Flowing from this watershed are streams in 
Plaintield and Cornish, Little Sugar River, in 
Lenity and Charlestowu, and Cold River, that has 
its source in the ponds of Lempster and Hows 
through Acworth and Langdon. 

The highest point of land in Sullivan is Croydon 
Mount, the altitude of which is 2789 feet above 
sea-level. From its sunuuit a large portion of the 
countv is visible. 

The scenery of Sullivan County, while not as im- 
posing as that of the more northern part of the 
State, is picturesque and delightful. Its climate, 
soil and productions vary with the distances from 
the Connecticut Valley. 



CHAPTER II. 

BENCH AND BAR. 

Hon. Simeon Olcott was the first memlter of 
the legal i)rofe.ssion who settled in Charlestown, 
and the first who opened an office in New Hamp- 
shire west of the Merrimack River. He was the 
son of Timothy Olcott, Jr., of Bolton, Conn., and 
Eunice AVhite, of Hatfield, Mass., and was born 
October 1, ITS."). He was educated at Yale College, 
at which institution he graduated in 1761, and, as 
it is suppo.sed, conunenced immediately the study 
of law. The exact date of his establishing himself 
in Charlestdwn has not been ascertained, but it 
eoidd not have been later than 1764. The earliest 
date at which his name a|)pears in the proprietors' 
records is December 9, 1768, at which time he was 
chosen chairman of a committee, witii John Hast- 
ings, Jr., and William Heywood, to proportion the 
amount of (juit-rent due from each proprietor to 
His JMajesty's government, agreeable to their 
charter; and also to receive and pay the same to 
the Receiver-General at Portsmouth. 

The public record of Mr. Olcott shows that after 
establishing him.self in Charlestown he grew in 
f'av(u- with the people to such a degree that he was 
very soon elected to some of the most honctrabie 
offices in the gift of the town. In 1769, 1770 and 
1771 he was one of the selectmen. In the latter 
year he was also elected delegate to the Assembly 
at Portsmoutii, which office he held for three years. 
In 1770 and 1772 he was, moreover, unanimously 
chosen to direct the deliberations of the town as 
their moderator. In 1773 he received the appoint 
nient of judge of Probate, with a salary of twenty- 
four pounds sterling, in addition to which his 
business had so increased that he deemed it suffi- 
cient to allow of the admission of a partner ; and 
in July of that year Benjamin West, who became 
subsecjuently one of the most distinguished lawyers 
in New Hampshire, was admitted to that connec- 
tion. 

Mr. Aleott was elected judge of the Supreme 
Court on ( Jctober 26, 1781, and his letter of resig- 
nation was dated Januarv 28, 1782, and was laid 



BENCH AND BAR. 



5 



by Goveruor Chittenden before the General As- 
sembly at Bennington, on the 11th of February 
following, with numerous other papers relating to 
the eastern and wcstei'ii unimis. 

December 25, 1784, he was appointed chief 
justice of the Court of Common Pleas. In this 
position he served a little over six years, when, on 
the 25th of January, 17!tO, he was elevated to 
the position i_)f associate justice of the Superior 
Court. Tins office he contiiuied to hold till the 
28th of Marcli, 1795, when he was given the chief 
justiceship, wliicli he held till .lune, 1801, when 
he was electeil to represent the State as a Senator 
in Congress. He was elected, not for a full term, 
but to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation 
of Hon. Sanuiel Livermore, of Holderuess. The 
time for which he was elected expired in March, 
1805. After this he retired to private life, in 
which he continued till the 22d of February, 1815, 
wl'.eu he died at the age of seventy-nine years, 
greatlv lamented by the ]iublic at large and a very 
extensive circle of personal friends, leaving a sha- 
dow on the home whose enjoyments were always 
greatly heightened by his presence. 

Hon. Ben.ia.min Wkst. — At tiie tiuie of the 
organization of Cheshire County, in 1771, it con- 
tained two lawyers, both subsequently distinguished 
in their profession. One was Simeon Alcott, of 
Charlestown, the other Daniel Jones, of Hin.sdale. 
Mr. Olcott liad been in practice some five or six 
years, and Mr. Junes nearly the same time. They 
were both educated men, and probably about the 
same age, as Mr. Jones giaduated at Harvard 
College in 17511, and Mr. Olcott at Yale College 
in 1761. jNlr. Jones was the first chief justice of 
the Common Pleas a[)pointed after the organiza- 
tion of the county, and became a person of exten- 
sive influence. Three other members of the 
profession al.so settled very soon in the county, — 
John Sprague and Elijah Williams, at Keene, 
and Benjamin West, at Charlestown. After a 
brief residence at Keene, Mr. Sprague removed to 
Lancaster, in Massachusetts, where he became an 
eminent lawyer and civilian. Mr. Williams, who 



settled in Keene in 1771, in consequence of his 
taking sides with England in the Revolutionary 
War, was also soon obliged to leave. He died in 
Deerfield, Mass., his native town, in 1784, and 
was buried by the side of his ancestors. 

Benjamin West was the son of Rev. Thomas 
West, of Rochester, Mass., and was born on the 
8th of A]iril, 174(j. He graduated at Harvard 
College in 176<S. He studied law in the office of 
Abel Willard, at Lancaster, Mass., and cunnnenced 
practice in Charlestown, N. H., in 1773. He took 
high rank in the |)rofession, and was one of (.'harles- 
town's most esteemed citizens. He was member 
of Congress, and held other official positions. He 
died July 27, 1817. 

Fkedehick AuGi'STL's SuMNKR, SOU of Benja- 
min and Prudence (Hubbard) Sumner, of Clare- 
mont, was born in 1770. He fitted for college 
and entered at Dartmouth in 1789, but after re- 
maining at that institutii.in a [lart of the course, 
took up his connection with it and entered at 
Harvard College, where he graduated in 179.S. 
(_)n graduating, he decided on pursuing the legal 
profession, and immediately commenced the study 
oflawinthe office of Hon. Benjamin West, of 
Charlestown, and was a fellow-student, as he hail 
been in his collegiate course, with Hon. John C 
Chand^erlain. On being admitted to practice in the 
courts of the State, in 1790, he opened his office 
in Charlestown, where the remainder of his life 
was spent. 

He held various town offices and also was post- 
master at Charlestown. He died August 13, 1834. 

George Olcott, second son of Hon. Simeon 
and Mrs. Trypheua (Terry) (.)lcott, was born No- 
vember 22, 1785. His early education was care- 
fully conducted, the most assiduous attention 
having been paid, on the part of his parents, not 
only to the discipline of his intellect, but to the for- 
mation and cidtivation of his habits and manners. 
He was fitted for entering Yale College a little 
before he was sixteen years of age, and graduated 
at that institution the autunni before he was 
twenty. On leaving college he commenced im- 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



mediately the study of the hiw, and was admitted 
to tlie practice of tlie profession iu the usual 
time, in which practice he successfully continued 
till 1824, when, on the charter of the Connecticut 
River Bank, he was elected its first cashier, which 
office he continued to hold till iiis death, Fehruary 
4, 18(U. 

Mr. Olcotthad no and)ition flu- public office, but 
always preferred, whereduty would allow, to remain 
in a private staticm. He was still t're(|Uently lioii- 
ored liy his fellow-citizens, as tlic following rec- 
ord of the offices to which he was elected will 
show : He was chosen moderator in the years 
1842, '4.S, '44; town clerk in 181!), "20, '21, '22 
and '24 ; one of the selectmen in 1819, '20, '21 
and '22, and town treasurer from 1.S37 till the 
time of his decease, which was, in all, twenty-six 
years. Though frequently urged, he would never 
consent to become a candidate feu- the Legislature, 
nor for any office that would take him away for 
an)' considerable time from his duties in connection 
with the bank. 

Hon. Henry Hubbard was born Jfay ;>, 1784, 
and graduated at Dartmouth College iu 180;?. 
He studied law iu the office of Hon. Jeremiah 
Mason, at Portsmouth, aiid commenced the prac- 
tice of law at Charlestown. From the time of his 
establishing himself iu the town he took an effi- 
cient part in all its affairs, and was soon honored 
bv his townsmen by election to important offices. 
In 1810 he was chosen moderator, which office he 
held, in all, sixteen times. He was first selectman 
in the years 1819-20 and '28, in which last year 
he was also moderator and town clei'k. He repre- 
sented the town in the Legislature in 1812, '13, 
'14, '15, '19, '20, '23, 24, '2r>, '26 and '27,— eleven 
times in all. dime 10, 1825, he was chosen 
i-^peaker of the House of Re])resentatives, in place 
of Hon. Levi Woodburv, who had been elected to 
a seat in the United States Senate. He was also 
chosen to the same office in the years 1826 and 
1827. In 1823 he was apjiointed solicitor for 
Cheshire County, in which capacity, exhibiting 
rare qualities as an advocate, he served the term 
of five years. On the incorporation of Sullivan 



County he was appointed judge of Probate, the 
duties of which office he continued to discharge 
till 1829, when he was chosen a representative to 
Congress. 

In 1834 he was elected to the Senate, where, 
for the period of six years, he had the im[)licit 
confidence of the administration and the Demo- 
cratic party. In 1842 and 1843 he was elected 
Governor of New Hampshire. With this office 
his jiolitical career closed, although, at everj- suc- 
cessive election, no one in the State rendered more 
efficient service to the Democratic cause. 

Soon after leaving the gubernatorial chair he 
was appointed sub-treasurer at Boston, to which 
city lie for a time removed. He died June 5, 
1,S57. 

CI1I15F JisTicE John Jame.s Gilchrist was 
born in Medford, Mass., February 16, 1809. 
His father, James Gilchrist, was a master <if a 
vessel, and is yet well reniemliered by many as a 
man of powerful frame, vigorous understanding 
and great energy of character. He early accpiired 
a competence, and removed, while his son was yet 
a child of tender years, to the beautiful village of 
Charlestown, in New Hamjishire, where he bought 
a farm and occupied himself in rural pursuits for 
the remainder of his life, which was brought to a 
close in the |)rime of his manhood from the effects 
of an accident. Here the boyhood of Judge Gil- 
christ was mainly passed, and here he pursued, 
under the guidance of the Rev. Dr. Crosby, a por- 
tion of the studies preparatory to a collegiate 
course. He entered Harvard College in the au- 
tumn of 1824. 

After leaving college he commenced the study 
of law at Charlestown, under the guidance of the 
late William Briggs, an eccentric but very well- 
read lawyer, who possessed a much larger and bet- 
ter collection of law-books than country practi- 
tioners usually accunudate. Of these books — in 
that quiet village, in which there was so little to 
disturb or distract the mind of the student — 
Judge Gilchrist made most excellent use, and, by 
a wide range of elementary readiug, laid the foun- 
dations of his ample stores of legal learning. 



BENCH AND BAR. 



From the office of Mr. Briggs he went to the Law 
School in Cambridge, where he wa.s kuovvu as a 
most diligent .student, ranging over the whole do- 
main of the common law, and letting none of his 
opportunities pas.s by unimproved. Upon iiis admis- 
sion to the bar, he formed a connection in l)usiness 
with the late Governor Hubbard, whose daughter 
he afterwards married, thus finding himself at 
once in good employment and escaping the disci- 
pline of that dreary pericxl between the expecting 
of clients and the coming of them. The next few- 
years were passed in the diligent and successful 
practice of the law. He took some ])art iu the 
politics of his State and was for more than one 
year a member of the Legislature (1836-37) ; but 
he always made the politician subservient to the 
lawyer, and his aspirations were professional and not 
political. When, therefore, in 1840, at the early 
age of thirty-one, he was ajipointed one of the as- 
sociated justices of the Supreme (_'ourt of New 
Hampshire, it was with the general and hearty ap- 
proval of the bar and the public. He was a very 
young man for such a post, — a year younger than 
Judge Story was when he was made a judge, and 
also a year younger than ^[r. Justice Buller when 
he was elevated to the King's Bench, at an age 
which startled all the venerable proprieties of 
Westminster Hall. 

When, in 1848, the place of chief justice was 
made vacant by the resignation of Judge Parker, 
Judge Gilchrist had ]3roved himself to be a man 
of such high judicial excellence, and to be pos- 
sessed of such a principle of intellectual growth and 
progress, that the eyes of all were at once turned 
towards him as to one in natural succession to the 
dignity ; and his appointment gave general satis- 
faction and equal a.ssurance. In this high jjlace 
he remained until the Court of Claims was created 
by Congress, when he was placed at the head of 
this tribunal by President Pierce, who was his 
warm pei-sonal friend, who had often appeared be- 
fore him at the bar, and thus knew at first baud, 
and of his own knowledge, how eminently quali- 
fied he was for the responsible and laborious 
duties which were to be devolved up(.in him. 



Thus, !>{ the twenty-seven years which elapsed 
between his atlmission to the bar and his lamented 
death, eighteen were passed in the discharge of 
judicial duties. 

His learning was ample, various and service 
able. In depth and extent of legal lore many of 
his judicial contemporaries may have equaled 
him, and a few may have excelled him. He had 
no professional pedantry, no vanity of legal auti- 
(|uarianism, no taste for the ob.solete curiosities of 
black-letter learning. But he had a sufficient 
knowledge of the history, principles and spirit of 
the common law to view every subject that arose 
from a proper point of view and in its just re- 
lati(ras to kindred and collateral branches ; and 
his patience of labor enabled him to investigate 
ever}- question that required research, thoroughly 
and completely. He had in a high degree that 
fine legal perception which distinguishes the living 
principle from the accidental and temporary 
ti)rnis through which it has been manifested. Hav- 
ing early taken a wide survey of the whole field 
of legal learning, and made an outline map of the 
region, it was a matter of course that his after-ac- 
quired knowledge .should naturally and easily have 
fallen into ])!ace, been duly classified and ar- 
ranged, and k<'pt within easy reach and ready for 
use. 

He was a man of warm afiections, social sym- 
pathies and genial tastes. He had the usual com- 
pensation that accompanies a life of hard and tran- 
quil work, in the freshness of feeling maintained 
by him to the last. There was never a younger 
heart buried in the grave of a man of forty-nine. 
The natural pleasures which spring upon the lap 
of the common earth never lost their relish to him. 
He needed not the sting of strong excitements to 
rouse and animate him. His temperament was 
quiet, but not torpid ; his mind was always active 
and his sympathies always ready. 

Ed.muxd L. (,'iTSHixfi was born in Lunenburg, 
JNIass., iu 1807. He entered Harvard I'liiverisity 
in the fall of 1823, at which institution he also re- 
ceived his degree in due couise in the fall of 1827. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1834, and in the 



8 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



spring of 1840, on the retirement of the late Chief 
Justice Gilchrist from practice, on account of his 
appointment as one of the justices of the Superior 
Court, he established himself in his profession at 
Charlestown. 

Mr. Cushing was successful iu practice and 
gained such a respectable standing at the bar that, 
in the spring of 18');"), he was ajipointed one of the 
justices of the Circuit Court, which office he ac- 
cepted, but had held it only about four mouths 
when the court was abolished. Subsequently, how- 
ever, he was teudei'cd an aj)pointment in the new 
Court of Common Pleas, which, from consitlerations 
unnecessary to mention, he felt it his duty to de- 
cline. From tliat time until his appdintmeut as 
chief justice he continued in the diligent and un- 
remitting practice of his profession, having only 
taken tiuie enough from it to hold the office of 
representative in the Legislature for the years 
1850, 1852, 1853. 

In the sunmier of 1874, when the courts were 
remodeled, he received the a]ipfiintment to the 
chief ju.sticeship of tlie Superior Court 

Hon. Caleb Eli-ls was born at Walpole, Mass., 
in 1767 ; graduated at Harvard College in 1793 ; 
read law in the office of Hon. Joshua Thomas, of 
Plymouth, Mass. ; settled in Claremont about 
1800. In 1804 he was chosen a member of Con- 
gress from New Hamp.shire, and was re-elected in 
1806. In 180!) and 1810 he was a member of the 
Executive Council. In 1811 he was elected 
State Senator; in 1812 he was elector of President 
and Vice-President, and in 1813 he was appointed 
one of the judges of the Supreme Judicial C'ourt of 
New Hamj)shire, which office he held until .his 
death. May 9, 1816. In February, 1816, he 
married Nancy, daughter of Hon. Robert Means, 
of Amherst, N. H. He built the house near the 
south end of Broad Street, which was purchased 
by Colonel J. S. Walker in 1860, by whom it was 
greatly improved to con forui to the requirements of 
the times, making it one of the handsomest resi- 
dences in town. 

At his death Judge Ellis left a will, in which he 
bequeathed " five thousand dollars to the Congre- 



gational Society of Claremont, for constituting a 
fund, the interest of which shall be annually ap- 
propriated to the support of the Christian minis- 
try." Rev. Stephen Farley, minister of the Con- 
gregational Church, delivered a sermon on the 
occasion of the funeral of Judge Ellis, taking for 
a text Proverbs x. 7 : " The meuiory of the just is 
blessed." Iu the course of this elocjuent, and some- 
what remarkable sermon, the preacher said, — 

" Although he has left the world, his memory con- 
tinues in it, and will long survive his decease. His 
memory is blessed. It there be any justice in the 
present and succeeding generations, the name of the 
man whose remains are now before us will belield in 
most cordial, grateful and honorary remembrance. 

"The Hon. Caleb Ellis was a man distinguished 
for native vigor and capaciousness of mind. The God 
of nature formed him capable of high mental attain- 
ments and great intellectual eli'ort. For strength of 
intellect, accuracy of discrimination, soundness of 
judgment and propriety of taste he attained an ex- 
traordinary eminence. His native superiority of mind 
was improved by very extensive cultivation. His 
learning was various, profound and general. . . . 

"Concerning his jirofessional character, I shall not 
attempt a [larticular delineation. It is sutiicient that 
I say, as an attorney, as a legal counselor, as an advo- 
cate, as a statesman, and as a justice of the Supreme 
Judicial Court,his worth is generally known, acknowl-" 
edged and admired. 

" In private life Mr. Ellis was eminently inoffen- 
sive, amiable and exemplary. He wronged no one ; 
he corrupted no one ; he defrauded no one ; he 
slighted no one; he injured none. His treatment 
and attention toward persons of different classes were 
marked with the strictest propriety, justice and liberal 
generosity. He gave them all satisfaction and en- 
joyed their cordi.al esteem. In freedom, not only 
from all vice, but also from common faults, he attained 
an eminent distinction. There were no censurable 
excesses, no despicable deficiencies, no unamiable 
habits about him. His moral integrity was like tried 
gold. Many of the most frequent imperfections of 
human nature were but faintly discovered in his 
heart and life." 

At the opening of the trial term of the Supreme 
Judicial Court for Grafton County, at Haverhill, 
in May, 1816, Chief Justice Jeremiah Smith read 



BENCH AND BAR. 



9 



ii sketch of the character of Judge Ellis, in which 
he said, — 

"Since tlie commencement of the present circuit it 
lias pleased the Ahnighty Disposer of all cventHto 
remove one of the jiidgcs of this court by death. If 
living, lie would have filled the place I now occupy. 
It is believed that this is the first instance of the death 
of a judge of the Sui)reme Court, while in oflice, 
since the adoption of the present Constitution, and. 
Indeed, since the Revolution. Though the whole 
number who have served, during this period, has 
been nearly thirty, and more than half that number 
have paid the debt of nature, yet they have generally 
quitted the office before age had made retirement 
from the active scenes of life necessary. 

" Nature endowed .Judge Ellis with a mind at once 
ingenious, discriminating and strong. Without edu- 
cation he would doubtless have attracted no small 
share of the esteem and confidence of those within the 
circle of his acquaintance. But his great modesty 
would probably have concealed him from public 
notice. Fortunately, it was otherwise ordained ; and 
he received the best education our country could 
give. He was graduated at Cambridge in 1793, and 
left that distinguished university with a high charac- 
ter for learning, morals and general literature. 

" Perhajis no student ever left a lawyer's office with 
a larger and better stock of law knowledge. He com- 
menced the practice in this State. Soon after his ad- 
mi.'^sion to the bar of the Supreme Court, in the county 
of Cheshire, I well recollect his argument in a case 
of some difficulty and importance, and the remark of 
a gentleman, then at the head of the bar, and who 
seldom errs in his judgment of men, ' that Mr. Ellis 
would soon be numbered among the most valuable 
and respectable members of the profession.' 

"When the new judiciary system was formed, in 
1813, the best informed of all parties named Mr. Ellis 
for the office of judge of this court. The merit of the 
executive of that day, in relation to this appointment, 
was in concurring with that nomination. Mr. Ellis 
was an independent and impartial judge. . . . 

" His mind was too lofty to enter into any calcula- 
tions foreign to the merits of the cause in the discharge 
of his official duties ; neither the merits nor demerits 
of the parties nor their connections, however numer- 
ous or powerful, could have any influence with him. 
I am sensible that this is very high praise, — a praise 
' which could not, in truth, be bestowed on all good 



men, nor even on all good judges. But it is praise 
which Mr. Ellis richly merited.'' 

Hon. Samuel Amiilky came to Claremont in 
1782. He was in the war of 1745 and 17.05. He 
held several civil offices, and was jud;^e of tlie 
Court of Common Pleas. He died in February, 
1792. 

Hon. GivOhok B. UrnAM, son of Captain 
Phineas Upham, bom at Brookfield, Mass. ; gradu- 
ated at Harvard College in 1789 ; came t^j Clare- 
mont to live about 1799 ; served a number of years 
in the New Hamjjshire Legislature, and was 
Speaker of the House of Itepresentatives in 1809, 
and again in 1815. He was a representative in 
Congress from 1801 to 180-'}. He was considered 
one of the best lawyers and safest counselors in 
this part of the State for many years. He was 
president of the old Claremont Bank, and by his 
practice and economy accumulated a large fortune 
for his time. He died February 10, 1848, at the 
age of seventy-nine years. 

Hon. \V. H. H. Allen was bom in Ver- 
mont, December 10, 1829 ; removed to Surry, 
X. H., when quite young, and lived there until 
1858, when he removed to Newport ; thence to 
Claremont in 1868, where he still resides. He 
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1855 ; read 
law with Wheeler & Faulkner anrl F. F. Lane, 
at Keene, and Burke & Wait, at Newport ; ad- 
mitted t^j the bar at Newport in 1858 ; clerk of 
courts for Sullivan County from 1858 to 1863 ; 
paymaster in the army from 1863 to 18C6 ; judge 
of Probate for Sullivan County from 1867 to 1874. 
He was in the practice of law at Newf>ort and 
Claremont from 1866 Uj Augu.st, 1876, when he 
was appointed associate judge of the Supreme 
Court of New ELamjjshire, which position he still 
holds. (For a more extended notice see appendix.; 
I Hon. Hosea W. Pakkek.' — The town of Lenii>- 
I ster, among the hills of " Little Sullivan," is one 
of the most unpretending in the State. Without 
railway facilities, and destitute of water-power to 
any considerable extent, the inhabitants depend, 

in the main, for a livelihood, upon the products of 

i 

I > By H. H. Metcalf. Arranged from the GraniU Montldy. 



10 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



a rugged soil, of less tliau average fertility, from 
which they gain a comfortable subsistence only by 
constant industry and the jiractice of close economy. 
No man ever accumulated more than a moderate 
competency in Lempster, and few have suffered 
from extreme poverty ; while crime is compara- 
tively unknown within the limits of the town. A 
more industrious, law-abiding, and, withal, a more 
intelligent community than the people of this 
town, cannot be found in New Hampshire. Its 
schools have always been the best in the county, 
and it is a generally conceded fact that it has 
reared and sent out more teachers and preachers 
in projiortiou to its population than any other 
town in the iState, together with a goodly number 
of lawyers, physicians and journalists. Rev. 
Alonzo A. Miner, D.D., of Boston, is the most dis- 
tinguished of the numerous clergymen which 
Lempster has produced, while the subject of this 
sketch (a kinsman of Dr. INIiner) is the most prom- 
inent of her sous at the bar and in public life. 

Hosea W. Parker was born in Lempster May 
30, 1833. His father, Benjamin Parker, a fanner 
in moderate circumstances, and one of the numer- 
ous descendants of Captain Joseph Parker, now 
scattered over New England, was among the most 
esteemed citizens of the town, holding many posi- 
tions of trust and responsibility, and enjoying the 
confidence and respect of his townsmen regardless 
of sect or party. He died in 1845, at the age of 
forty-seven years, leaving a widow and three chil- 
dren, — two sons and a daughter. The widow, a 
lady of rare gifts and great intelligence, yet sur- 
vives at the age of eighty-six years. The eldest 
sou, Hiram Parker, is a successful farmer and 
leading citizen, residing upon the old homestead 
in Lempster. He is a man of sterling character 
and wide influence, has represented the town in 
the Legislature, and held various other responsible 
positions. He ranks among the most enterprising 
and progressive farmers in the county, and has 
been for several years a member of the State 
Board of Agriculture, participating actively in its 
work. The daughter, Emily L., who also resides 
in Lempster, is the widow of the late Hansom 



Beckwith, a prominent citizen of the town, who 
died some years since. Hosea W., the youngest 
son, was twelve years of age when his father died. 
With his brother he engaged diligently in the < 
work upon the farm, attending the district school 
during its limited terms, with an occasional term 
at a select school, until about eighteen years of 
age, when he determined to enter upon a course of 
study preparatory to a professional life. After 
attending Tubbs' Union Academy, at Washington, 
then under the charge of that famous teacher, Pro- 
fessor Dyer H. Sanborn, for a few terms, he entered 
the Green Mountain Liberal Institute, at South 
Woodstock, Vt., where he completed the full class- 
ical course. He entered Tufts College in 1855, 
but did not remain to complete the course in that 
institution, leaving during the second year to com- 
mence the study of law, upon which he entered in 
the office of Hon. Edmund Burke, at Newport, 
where he completed his legal studies, and was ad- 
mitted to the Sullivan County bar in 1859, engag- 
ing, meanwliile, in teaching school in the winter 
season, as he had also done while gaining his pre- 
paratory education. 

He commenced practice in his native town, but 
removed to Claremont in the fall of 1860, where 
he has since remained, and has succeeded in estab- 
lishing an extensive practice. He has had ex- 
cellent success in the trial of causes, and as a jury 
lawyer ranks with the first in the State, excelling 
hoth in management and as an advocate. He has 
been admitted to the United States Circuit and 
District Courts in this State, and in 1873 was ad- 
mitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
in Washington. 

Mr. Parker has been a Democrat from youth, 
and has ever taken a deej) interest in political 
affairs, laboring eai'nestly for the success of the 
party to whose principles he is attached. Few 
men in the State have devoted more time and 
effort to advance the interests of the Democratic 
cause, and none have gained more fully the con- 
fidence and respect of the party. He has served 
almost constantly for the past twenty-five years as 
a member of the Democratic State Committee, 



BENCH AND BAR. 



11 



Mini ill nearly every campaign during that time 
liis voice has been heard with effect upon the 
stump in advocacy of the priiici|)les and policy of 
his party. His first political speeches were made 
ill opposition to the so-called Know-Nothing organ- 
ization, which gained ascendency in the State in 
1835. He has long been prominent in the State 
Conventions of his party, and has presided at the 
same on three occasions. He was a delegate from 
this State in the National Democratic Convention 
at New York, in 1868, in which he voted through- 
out for General Winfield 8. Hancock for can- 
didate for President, and was again a member of 
the New Hampshire delegation in the Cincinnati 
Convention, in 1880, when General Hancock was 
made the standard-bearer of the party. In 1884 
he was a member of the delegation at Chicago, 
and an earnest advocate of Governor Cleveland's 
nomination. 

In 1859 he was chosen to rejiresent the rieople 
of his native town in the State Legislature, and 
re-elected the following year. He served in the 
House as a member of the committees on education 
and railroad.-?, aud took an active part in the work 
of legislation in all its stages, both in the committee- 
room and in debate upon the floor. He was sub- 
sequently the candidate of his party for State 
Senator in the old Tenth District, but failed of 
election, the district being overwhelmingly Re- 
publican. In 1869, Mr. Parker was nominated for 
Congress, but was defeated by Hon. Jacob Benton 
by a small majority, and in 1871 was again 
nominated by the Democracy of the Third Con- 
gressional District as their candidate for represen' 
tative in Congress, aud, in an active and exciting 
campaign, defeated his Republican competitor. 
General Simon G. Griffin, of Keene, although the 
district was unquestionably Repul)lican at the 
time. His personal popularity added largely to 
his strength, very many Republicans in the lower 
part of the district giving him their votes, includ- 
ing about one hundred in his own town of Clare- 
niont. He served in the Forty-second Congress, 
and was re-elected in 1873 to the succeeding 
Congress by an increased majority. He is the 



only Democrat who has been chosen in. that dis- 
trict since the last election of Hon. Harry Hibbard, 
in 1853, aud the only man of any party residing 
in Sullivan County who has occujjied a seat in 
Congress since the incumbency of his legal pre- 
ceptor, Hon. Edmund Burke, of Newport, whose 
last term ended in March, 1845. 

During the period of his Congressional service 
he was promptly and continually at Ihe post of 
duty, and was assiduous alike in his devotion to 
the interests of the peo[)le at large and in respond- 
ing to the personal .solicitations of his constituents 
for aid in matters connected with the various dej)art- 
nients. Corruption was rife at Washington during 
the time of his service, but jobbery aud extrava- 
gance in every form found in Mr. Parker a persistent 
opponent. The Congremional Record will show his 
vote recorded against every job, subsidy and 
plunder scheme of whatever description brought 
before Congress during his term of .service, and in 
support of every measure calculated to promote 
the interests of the masses of the people, and espe- 
cially in the direction of revenue reform. There 
aud everywhere he has been earnest and outspoken 
in opposition to those features of the tariff laws 
calculated to enrich the few at the expense of the 
many. He was a member of the committee on 
education and labor, aud also of the committee on 
patents, rendering valuable service in both com- 
mittees. He took decided ground in favor of 
reimbursing William and Mary College, Virginia, 
for losses sustained in the destruction of property 
during the war, and made a strong speech in the 
House in adv<jcacy of the bill to that effect. His 
speech upon the distribution of the jaroceeds from 
the sales of public lands for educational purposes 
is also cited in evidence of his devotion to the cause 
of popular education, and his desire for the adop- 
tion of a liberal policy on the part of the general 
government in that direction. 

It was as a member of the committee on patents 
in the Forty-third Congress, however, that Mr. 
Parker rendered his constituents and the people of 
the entire country a service of inestimable value. 
It was at this time that the patents held by the 



12 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



great sewing-machine monopoly — a combination 
of the leading companies entered into for the pur- 
])0se of keeping up the enormous prices of the 
machines — were about expiring, and a determined 
effort was made to secure an extension. A power- 
ful l(jbliy was employed and mone}' without stint 
was at its command. Every possible argument 
and appliance was brought to bear upon the com- 
mittee to secure a report iu favor of extension. 
Mr. Parker, with his unyielding hostility to mo- 
nopoly and special privilege in every form, was un- 
alterably opposed to such action from the start, 
and it was largely through his persistent efforts 
that the committee finally rejjorted against the 
extension by a majority of one vote, and the com- 
mittee's report was sustained by the House. A 
reduction of nearly fifty ])er cent, in the price of 
sewing-machines soon followed, — a result hailed 
with joy in almost every family in the land. Had 
Mr. Parker yielded to the pressure, or the seductive 
influences brought to bear in the interests of this 
monopoly, as too many men have done in our 
American Congress under similar circumstances, 
he might have retired at the close of his term with 
an independent fortune, but without the self- 
respect and the universal i>ublic esteem which he 
now enjoys. 

Since the close of his Congressional service Mr. 
Parker has devoted himself exclusively to his large 
and constantly-increasing law practice. 

As a citizen he is eminently public-spirited, 
heartily supporting all schemes of local improve- 
ment, and all public enterprises calculated to ad- 
vance the interests of the town and the welfare of 
the community. He is liberal to a fault, and 
never hesitates to contribute to any object for 
which his aid is sought, unless convinced that 
there is hypocrisy and sham, or some sinister jjur- 
pose involved. For hypocrites and pretenders, 
whether iu politics or religion, in public or in private, 
iu business or in social life, he has a thorough and 
ardent contempt. In the cause of education he 
has taken a strong and active interest from youth. 
He served for two years as superintending school 
committee in his native town, entering enthusias- 



tically into the discharge -of his duties in that 
capacity. He has also been for several years a 
member of the Stevens High School committee 
and a trustee of the Fiske Free Library. 

In religion, Mr. Parker adheres to the liberal 
faith, being a constant attendant upon the services 
of the LTniversalist Church in Claremont, and 
superintendent of the Sunday-school connected 
therewith, which position he has holden continu- 
ously for the past twenty-four years. He is 
recognized as a prominent member of that de- 
nomination in New England, and in 1872 and 
1873 was president of the New Hampshire State 
Convention, and is at the jir&sent time president of 
the State Sabbath-School Convention of Univer- 
salists. He also presided at the New England 
anniversary festival in Boston in 1873. In 1883 
Tufts College conferred the honorary degree of 
A.M. uj)0u him, and at the same time elected him 
one of the trustees of the college, which position he 
now holds. 

He is and has been for many years a prominent 
member of the Masonic fraternity in this State, 
being an active member of the Grand Lodge and of 
the various local organizations. He is now, and 
has been for the past fourteen years. Eminent 
Commander of Sullivan Commandery of Knights 
Templar, at Claremont. 

In 18(51, Mr. Parker was united in marriage 
with Miss Caroline Lovisa Southgate, of Bridge- 
water, Vt., a lady of culture and refinement, en- 
dowed with rare social graces and domestic virtues. 
They have one child, a daughter, — Lizzie South- 
gate Parker, — born June 17, 1865. Their resi- 
dence on Broad Street is one the finest iu the 
beautiful village of Claremont, and is in the fullest 
sense the abode of domestic hap2)iness and the seat 
of a generous hospitality. 

Few men iu the State of Mr. Parker's age have 
won equal success in professional and political life ; 
fewer still have gained, in equal degree, the per- 
sonal regard and friendship of their fellow-men. 
This success has resulted in no small degree fi-om 
the predominance of the democratic element iu his 
nature, his social good-fellowship and perfect 



BENCH AND BAR. 



13 



frankness and sincerity in all things. In his inter- 
course with men he bestows the same consideration 
upon the poorest and hiunldest as upon the rich 
and exalted, and his hatred of the false distiuctious 
set uj) in society is only etjualed by his general 
contempt for all classes of hypocrites, bigots and 
pretenders. Yet comparatively a young man, 
having scarcely attained the meridian of his phys- 
ical and intellectual powers, he may look forward 
to a long career of usefulness and honor, supple- 
mentary to the eminent success which he has 
already achieved. 

Arthur Chase was born at Bellows Falls, 
Vt., October 21, 1835. He is a son of Bishop 
Carlton Chase ; graduated at Norwich University 
in 1856 ; read law with George Ticknor, in 
Claremont ; graduated at Cambridge Law School, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1859. He has 
never been much in the j)ractice of his profes- 
sion. 

Herman Holt was born at Woodstock, Vt., 
September 7, 1845 ; fitted for college at Kimball 
Union Academy ; graduated at Dartmouth Col- 
lege in 1870 ; read law with Judge B. H. Steele, 
of Vermont; was admitted to the bar in 1873, 
and has since been in practice in Claremont. 

Hon. Ralph IMetcalf was born at North 
Charlestowu November 21, 17IIG, and was the 
oldest son of Jt)hn jNIetcalf, a thrifty farmer. He 
graduated at Dartmouth C'oUege in 1823 ; studied 
law witii Henry Hubbard, of Charlestown, after- 
ward Governor of New Hampshire, Richard Bart- 
lett, of Concord, and George B. Upham, of Clare- 
mont ; was admitted to the bar in 1826, and 
opened an office at Newport. In 1828 he went to 
Binghamton, N. Y., where he was in practice 
until 1830, wlien he returned to Claremont. In 
1831 he was elected Secretar_y of State, which of- 
fice he held until 1838. He then went to Wash- 
ington, D. C, and was in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, un<ler Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the 
Treasury, until 1840. when he returned to New 
Hampshire, and went into practice at Plymouth, 
where he remained a few months, and then came 
to Newport, where he had his home until 1855, 



when he came to Claremont, built a fine residence 
on Broad Street, vov! owned by William Breek, 
and sjient in it the remainder of his life. He 
represented Newport in the New Hampshire Leg- 
islature in 1852 and 1853. In 1845 he was ap- 
pointed register of Proliate, which office he held 
until 1851. In 1S52 he was chairmau of a com- 
mittee to revise the laws of the State. He was 
elected Governor of New Hampshire in 1855 by 
the peoj)le ; was a candidate for the same office in 
1856, when there was no choice by the people, and 
he was elected by the Legislature. He died at 
Claremont on August 26, 1858. 

Frank H. Brown is a son of Oscar J. Brown ; 
was brvrn in Claremont February 2, 1854 ; was 
educated at W ircester Military Academy and 
Dartmouth College ; studied law with Judge W. 
H. H. Allen ; graduated at the Boston University 
Law School ; was admitted to the Suffolk County 
bar ; practiced two years at Concord, since which 
he has had an office at Claremont 

Ira Colby was born at Claremont, N. H., Jan- 
uary 11, 1831. His parents came from Hcnniker, 
N. H., and settled in Claremout iuimediately 
upon their marriage, which took place April 17, 
1827. His fr.ther was a native of Henniker, and 
his mother of Essex, Mass., from which place, 
when she was eleven years of age, her father re- 
moved to Henniker, to jirevent his sons from be- 
coming sea-faring men. Tlie family ou both sides 
are of purely English desceut, and nuudjers, in 
its various branches, many persons of distinction. 
His mother's family-name is Foster. They are 
the descendants in direct line from Reginald Fos- 
ter, who came from Exeter, Devonshire, England, 
and settled in Ipswich, Essex County, Mass., in 
1638. It is said, in the Granite Monthly, July, 
1882, in an account of the descendants of Joseph 
Stickuey, paragraph 220, that the family of this 
Reginald is honorably mentioned in " Lay of the 
Last Minstrel" and " Mai-mion." His father was 
one of the most successful and enterprising farm- 
ers of his town ; was honored by his town as one 
of its selectmen and representatives ; was a most 
useful citizen, and died at the age of seventy 



14 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



years, with no stain upon his character or reputa- 
tion. 

The subject of this sketch was brought up ujjon 
the farm, — that best of all schools in which to 
learn industry, frugality and self-reliance. He 
early developed a love for books, but had no ad- 
vantages beyond the old-fashioned district school 
until seventeen years of age. When about twenty 
years of age, and while attending school at Mar- 
low Academy, he began to turn his attention to 
a college course of study. He comjileted his 
academical course at Thetford, Vt., and entered 
Dartmouth College in 1853, graduating in the 
class of 1857. Duriug the winters from the time 
he began his academical course to his graduation 
from college and for one year thereafter he was 
engaged in teaching, fii-st in his own State, after- 
wards in Massachusetts and in Waukesha, Wis. 
In September, 1858, he was duly admitted, as a 
student, into the office of Freeman & McClure, at 
that time the leading lawyers of Claremont. Af- 
ter two years of study he was admitted, on exami- 
nation, to the bar of Sullivan County. He com- 
menced practice in the office where he had studied, 
made vacant by the death of Hon. IM. C. Mc- 
Clure and the retirement of ]Mr. Freeman from 
business. With the exception of a partnership) of 
three years at the first, with Lyman J. Brooks, 
Esq., and about four years afterwards, with A. T. 
Batchelder, Esq., now of Keeue, he has been alone 
in business, and has occupied the same office for 
twenty-seven years. He has numbered among 
his students now in the successful practice of their 
profession, Hermon Holt, now of Claremont, A. 
T. Batchelder, of Keeue, N. H., F. Perry, of Des 
Moines, Iowa, and G. E Perley, of Moorhead, 
Minn. He was always a Republican in politics, 
and, in the times of the Rebellion, was an active 
and zealous supporter of the cause of the Union. 
He was a representative in the Legislatures of 
1864-65, a member of the State Senate in 1869-70, 
of the Republican National Convention in 1876, 
and again a representative in the Legislature of 
1881-83. For the entire time since 1864, by ap- 
pointment and election, with the exception of two 



years, he has held the office of solicitor of Sulli- 
van County. He has for many years been one of 
the loaning agents of the Sullivan Savings Insti- 
tution, located at Claremont ; has, for ten years, 
been one of the committee of Stevens High School, 
and is one of the trustees of Fiske Free Library. 

June 20, 1867, he married a most excellent lady, 
Miss Louisa M. Way, daughter of Gordon Way, 
Esq. , of Claremont, and sister of Dr. O. B Way, 
of that place. They have one child living, Ira 
Gordon Colby, now thirteen years of age. In re- 
ligion, Mr. Colby is a Methodist, as was his father. 
For many years the lather was one of the board of 
trustees of his church, and the son, upon his 
death, succeeded to, aud still holds, the same 
office. 

Mr. Colby stands high in his profession through- 
out the State. As a lawyer he has always been a 
hard worker and a close student. Being an easy 
and natural speaker, he addresses the court and 
jury with great ability and success. His practice 
has been extensive, and he has been engaged in 
most of the important trials in Sullivan County 
for many years. 

He is now actively engaged in a large and lu- 
crative practice. It is not alone in the practice 
of the law that Mr. Colby excels, but as a popular 
speaker he has few equals in the State. He ex- 
hibited marked ability in this respect in the Leg- 
islature of New Hampshire during the several 
sessions when he was a member. As a Republican 
he has always commanded the respect of the lead- 
ing men of his party. 

As a citizen Mr. Colby has always taken a lively 
interest in the prosperity of his town aud State. 
He is public-spirited, a friend of all educational 
movements and an earnest worker in behalf of all 
institutions that tend to advance and elevate the 
people. 

Philandkr Chase Freeman was born in 
Plainfield, N. H., August 27, 1807. He was a 
sou of Benjamin Freeman, born in Plainfield in 
1782. His grandmother, on his mother's side, 
was a daughter of Dudley Chase, one of the first 
settlers of Cornish, N. H. She was also a sister 




^""$ ^'^^ '"i Fa-tcK.-' 





^rf/^^^^^^K^ 



/ / 



16 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



(third generation), born April 27, 1719, married 
Lois Gilbert, November 24, 1747. They had 
nine children, — Henian, Anna, Deborah, John, 
Oliver, Abigail, Lois, Delight and Lydia. 

Heman (4th) was taken prisoner by the British 
at New York, September 15, 1776, with one Joel 
Smith, and after three months' confinement both 
died of small-pox. Heraan died January 21, 
1777, at the age of twenty-nine years. 

Oliver Baker (4th) was born at Tolland, Conn., 
October 5, 1755. He received a medical educa- 
tion, purchased a farm in Plainfield, N. H., where 
he was one of the earliest settlers, and practiced 
medicine and managed his farm during his life. 
He married Dorca? Dimick, March 23, 1780, and 
had eleven children, — Heman, Diantha, Zina and 
Lina (twins), Oliver, Semantha, Dimick, Dorcas, 
Lodema, Elizabeth and Mary. Dr. Oliver 
Baker died October 3, 1811. Dimick Baker was 
born in Plainfield, N. H., March 18, 1793. While 
some of his brothers became physicians, he became 
an extensive and successful farjner. Married 
Hannah Colby, and had five children, of whom 
Edward D. was the second. 

Edward Dimick Baker was born at Meriden 
village, in the town of Plainfield, N. H., April 21, 
1827. His father's farm being within half a mile 
of Kimball LTnion Academy, Edward had the ad- 
vantage of five years' attendance at this popular 
school, of which he made good use, working upon 
the farm during vacations and teaching winters. 
When twenty-one years of age the subject of this 
sketch began the study of law at Eufield, N. H., 
with Hon. Nathaniel W. AVertgate, now of Haver- 
hill, N. H. He taught district schools winters and 
a High School autumns, and attended a telegraph- 
office, making the most of his time. He com- 
jjleted his legal studies in the office of Hon. Henry 
A. Bellows, late chief justice of New Hampshire, 
and was admitted to the bar in Sullivan County 
in July, 1851 ; very soon after which he opened 
an office at Cornish Flat, where he continued in 
practice until October, 1855, when he removed to 
Claremont and formed a law partnership with 
Hon. A. F. Snow, which continued until Septem- 



tember, 1857. He passed the summer of 1857 
near Topeka, Kan., then returned to Clai-emout, 
where he has since been in the active practice of 
his profession. He married, November 12, 1851, 
Elizabeth Ticknor. They have no children. 

Mr. Baker is a well-read, painstaking, careful 
and able lawyer He is earnest and industrious in 
the preparation and trial of causes entrusted to 
him. He prefers to keep his clients out of law- 
suits rather than involve them in protracted liti- 
gation. He always advises a fair and honorable 
adjustment of difterences between parties, rather 
than the certain expense and the uncertain results 
at the hands of courts and juries. He has some of 
the Quaker elements of thrift and adherence to 
well-formed opinions, inherited from his ancestors, 
in his composition. Mr. Baker has considerable 
taste for literary pursuits, has read extensively 
and has been an occasional contril)utor to the pub- 
lic prints. 

In politics, Mr. Baker was always a Republican, 
though he was a delegate from New Hampshire to 
the mass convention, in 1872, which nominated 
Horace Greeley for President, his associate dele- 
gates being Colonel Henry O. Kent, of Lancas- 
ter, and Hon. Wm. H. Gove, of Weare. He has 
three times been chosen one of the representatives 
of Claremont in the New Hampshire Legislature, 
and is one of the present members ; has been a 
member of the Stevens High School committee 
and held some other minor offices. Mr. Baker is 
a large owner of real estate ; has been a successful 
financier ; has been always ready to accommodate 
his neighbors in want of pecuniary or other aid, 
and seems to take pleasure in heljjing those in 
need of assistance. 

Albert Scripture Wait was boru at Chester, 
Vt., April 14, 1821. He is a son of General 
Daniel and Cynthia (Read) Wait. His father 
was an en.sign in the War of 1812, a major-gen- 
eral in the Vermont militia, and before the Mor- 
gan excitement a prominent Free-Mason. The 
subject of this sketch studied law with the late 
Hon. Daniel Kellogg, at Saxton's River village, 
Vt.; wasi admitted to the bar in Windham County, 




I ^ 




^^c^/7 



BENCH AND BAR. 



17 



Vt., in April, 1846, and soon commenced the prac- I 
tice of Ills profession at Alstead, N. H., where he i 
continued until ^lay, IJ^ST, when he removed to 
Newport, N. H., and was tlie hiw partner of the 
late Hon. Edmund Burke until 1807, when the 
partnership was dissolved, since when he has con- 
tinued the practice alone, and has been engaged in 
the trial of many important causes. In June, 
1865, he received the honorary degree of A.M. 
at Dartmouth College. As a studious, pains- 
taking and profound lawyer he has but few equals 
in New Hampshire. During the ten years that he 
was a partner with Mr. Burke he argued orally 
the law points of most of the cases in which the 
firm was employed and which were carried before 
tlie full bench. His briefs have been considered 
able and exhaustive. A chief justice of the New 
Hampshire Supreme Court once said to the writer 
of this sketch, that his court was very careful 
when Mr. Wait stated a legal proposition or laid 
down a principle of law, before antagonizing his 
positions. 8ome years ago the British govern- 
ment ordered the publication of a new edition of 
the work of Bractou upon the laws of England. 
On the issue of the lirst volume, Mr. Wait de- 
tected an error in the rendering of the original 
Latin into English, which not only misrepresented 
the author, but misstated the law. He addressed a 
letter to Sir Traverse Twiss, the editor, at London, 
suggesting the error. In the sixth and last vol- 
ume of the work there appeared in the Introduc- 
tion a very liandsome and courteous acknowledg- 
ment of Mr. Wait's suggestion and also of the 
error to which it called attention. Bracton's 
work was written in the reign of King Henry 
III., and is the earliest general treatise upon the 
English law. The author is styled " The Father 
of the English Law." 

Mr. Wait has a decided taste for literature and 
science, and has given considerable attention to 
these subjects and pursuits, in some of which he is 
an enthusiast. He has a large collection of rare 
and valuable books devoted to these matters. 
From an early age he has been especially interested 
2 



in the science of geology and has an extensive 
ca'nnet of choice mineral specimens, the collec- 
tions of niauy years, illustrating this most fasci- 
nating science. He has written a great number 
of essays and delivered lectures upon various sub- 
jects. His lectures upon " American Antiquities," 
"Spectrum Analysis" and "Greek Character" 
have been highly commended. They have been 
delivered iu Newport, Claremont and some other 
places, and that on " Greek Character " was de- 
livered before the New Hampshire Antiquarian 
Society. He delivered the historical address at 
the Centennial Celebration of the Congregational 
Church, at Newport, on October 28, 1879, which 
was considered a very able performance, showing 
much patient labor and research. 

For many years Jlr. Wait has been a Free- 
Mason and has a great love for the principles in- 
culcated by the order and an admiration for the 
work in its dirterent degrees. He has been one 
of the most active and devoted members, and is 
said to be one of the most accomplished ritualists 
in the State. He has been (Jrand High Priest of 
the Grand Royal Arch Chapter, and, iu 1878, 
was Grand Commander of the Grand Com- 
mandery of Knights Templar of New Hamp- 
shire. For several years he has been chairman 
of the committee on foreign correspondence 
of the Grand Chapter and Grand Lodge, and 
has written the repoi-ts of these committees, in 
which was discussed at con.siderable length the 
progress, the judicial aspect and the literature and 
improvement of the institution, established as it is 
in almost every section of the world, and as an- 
cient almost as civilization itself. These reports 
are among his most finished productions and have 
attracted much attention. He is regarded as an-, 
thority in Masonic law in New England, if not 
throughout the entire country. 

In religion, Mr. Wait is a Congregationalist ; in 
politics, always a Democrat. He has three times 
been a candidate of the Democratic party for rep 
resentative for Newport in the Legislature, and 
twice for State Senator for his district. Each 



u 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



time he received the full vote of his party, which, 
however, was not sufficieut to elect him. lu 18G4 
he was a delegate to the Democratic National 
Convention at Chicago. 

Mr. Wait is a member of the New Hampshire 
Historical Society, the New Hampshire Antiqua- 
rian Society, the Webster Historical Society, lo- 
cated in Boston ; the New Harajjshire Club and 
the American Bar Association. 



Mr. Wait has been three times married,— Octo- 
ber, 1849, to Caroline, daughter of Rev. Seth S. 
Arnold, of Acworth, N. H. She died in May, 
1851. 

June 23, 1854, to Harriet E. Kingsbury, of 
Alstead, New Hampshire, who died February 21, 
1873. 

December 22, 1880, to Ella 0. Eno, of West- 
field, Mass., by whom he has one daughter. 



HISTORY OF ACWORTH. 



CHAPTER I. 

The towu of Acwortli lies in the southern part 
of the county, and is boiuKied as follows: North, 
by Unity ; east, by Lenipster ; south, by Cheshire 
County ; and west, by Charlestown and Langdon. 

This town was first granted by Governor Ben- 
ning Wentworth, December 28, 17-j2, to Colonel 
Sampson Stoddard, of Chelmsford, Mass., and 
sixty-nine others, by the name of Burnet, prob- 
ably in honor of Governor William Burnet. At 
this time white people could not live safely in this 
vicinity at any great distance from the fort at No. 
4, (now Charlestown), on account of the Indians ; 
and the town, with others, was probably granted by 
Governor Wentwortli with a view of asserting New 
Hampshire's claim to the territory, which was 
also claimed by jNIassachusetts, and at that time in 
dispute. No attempt was made to settle under 
this grant, and it was regranted, September 19, 
1766, to Colonel Stoddard and sixty-four others, 
by the name of Acworth, probably in honor of the 
Governor's friend, Lord Acworth, of England. 

In 1767 three young men from Connecticut — 
William Keyes, Joseph Chatterton and Samuel 
Smith — located here and commenced clearing 
farms. The grant of 1766, being forfeited by the 
non-fulfillment of some of its provisions, was ex- 
tended l)y Governor John Wentworth, May 30, 
1772, and was bounded as follows : 

" Beginning at a stake and stones & runs North two 
degrees West six miles and an half to a stake and 
stones, the South West corner of Unity, from thence 
running East by the needle five miles & three quar- 
ters to a stake and stones, from thence South by the 
needle six miles & an half to a stake and stones, from 



thence West by the needle five miles & J to the 
bounds first mentioned." 

In 1772 the town contained fourteen houses. 

lieasoHS for not wanting to he Classed for Representa- 
tive, and Vote of Town. 

"The reasons why we do not join with Towns of 
Unity, Acworth, Lemster, Saville, Croydin & New- 
port as we did the last year in chusing a Representa- 
tive is this : viz : then we Supposed they was to act 
only upon the present Exigencies of the Government, 
but now the case is much altered, the Honourable 
Contintal Congress has declared their independence of 
Great Britain therefore we think that the present as- 
sembly has not taken right methods in issuing out 
their precepts for the choice of Representatives and 
Counsellors for the year Ensuing, for in the first 
place they have as to Representatives in Some incor- 
porated Towns allowed two or three representatives, 
to others they have joined five or six towns togather, 
whereas we think every incorporated town ought to 
be represented by themselves. Then as to Counsel- 
lors in one Conty they have ordered five, in Some 
others two, and in one County but one, which we 
Look upon not according to liberty, for as this State 
is but one body we think they ought to be Chose by 
the people at large, and also they have ordered that 
neither of these Shall have a Seat in the assembly 
without they have Real estate to the value of two 
hundred pound Lawful money, whereas we think 
every Lawful! elector is a Subject to be elected. 

" Voted that the above resons be Sent to the Coun- 
sell and assembly of this State which is to Convene 
togather at Exeter the third Wednesday of this instant 
and that the town Clerk Shal Sign it in behalf of the 
town. This done at a Legal town meeting. 

"Acworth December O* A D 1776 

" Tho' Putnam Mod' 

" A true Coppy attest Sam" Silsby town Clerk." 

19 



20 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Certificate of non-receipt of Precept by the Selectmen. 
"To WlKime it may Conciern. 

" This may Sertily tliat there wase No precept 
Come to us or to this towu So fare as we know to rais 
one of the New Emmision taxes for the year 1781 
also one of the specie taxes & there wase no act come 
to us or to this town to rais aney beef in the year 
1781. 

" attest " Daniel_ Gkout ] Sekct- 

" I8.\AC Foster i men. 

" acworth febu'''- ye 12"' 17S1. 

Petition of John Duncan in belmlf of the Town. 
"To the Hon"" the Counsil & House of Representa- 
tives for the State of Newhampshire Convened at 
Exeter, Feb'^ 26* 1783. 

" The petition of John Duncan of Ackworth in said 
State in behalf of said town Humbly Sheweth. 

"That Wheras your Petitioner finds That there is an 
Extent issued against Said Town for nonpayment of 
a New Emmision Tax for the year 1781 as also for a 
specie Tax for the Same year Likewise for a Beef 
Tax for that year, for all which your Petitioner beg 
Leave to inform the Hon'*' Counsil that we never 
Received any Precept lor assessing any of said Taxes : 
as will more fully appear by a Certifieate under the 
Hands of the Selectmen of Said Town. 

'• Wherefore your Petitioner prays That new pre- 
ceipts may Issue to the Sellectmen of Said Town for 
the assessment of the above said Taxes and as in 
Duty Bound Shall pray. 

" John Duncan. 

"State of 1 In the house of Representatives Feb- 
New Hamp. I ruary 20"' 1783. 

" Upon Reading & considering the foregoing Peti- 
tion Voted that the prayer thereof be granted. 

" Sent up for Concurrence. 

" John Dudley, Speaker. 

" In Council the same day read and Concurred. 

" E. Thompson, Sect/." 

Memorial of John Duncan relative to Taxes of 1781. 

"To the Hon**" the Council & House of Represen- 
tatives for the State of Newhampshire Convened at 
Concord on the third wensday of December 1783. 
The memoriel of John Duncan in behalf of The 
Town of Acworth in Said State humbly Sueth That 
your memorialeat on Feb'^' ye 26"" 1783 Did Petition 
the Hon'''" Court Laying before them the Dificulties 



we Labor under in having Extents issued against 
Said Town : when we Never had aney act or Precept 
to inable the Selectmen to asses the Town in Said 
Tax. 

" One New Emmision for the year 1781 also a Spe- 
cie tax for the Same year Likewise for a Beef tax for 
the Same year, all that your memorialest then praid 
for wase to heave the present Selectmen iuabled to 
asses the town in the above three taxes all which 
wear granted, as will apair Reference being had as to 
the above petition which is Now in heaud & we pro- 
ceeded accordingly & ordered the Colector to pay 
unto the treasurar of Said State the three aforesaid 
taxes but altho we heave Colected State Securities to 
pay Said beef tax with interest according to Law yet 
the trcshurar says he is Not willing to discount Said 
tax untill we fetch a resolve of Cort to inable him to 
take the State Securities in Lu of the beef & if this 
resolve is Not granted to us we shal be obleged to take 
the State Securites from the Colector & rais another 
tax in Specie to pay for the beef tho we Never had 
aney pour to rais it which we are in Now ways able 
to do at Present altho our wills weare ever so good. 

" Therefore we pray your Honors to take our Case 
into your wise consideration & grant us Releef and as 
in duty bound Shall Ever pray. 

" Acworth Dec""' ye 13"" 1783. 

" John Duncan." 

Petition for the Right to Ta.r Non- Residents for Repair 

of Highways, etc. 
"Stateof New Hampl To the Hon. the Council & 
Ches'" ss. I House of Representatives in 

Genneral Assembly at Con- 
cord Convened. 

"The petition of us inhabitants of Lemster, Unity 
and Acworth humbly Shews that your petitioners 
Living in a hill country where there is several Large 
Streams to Bridge and Roads to be made and main- 
tained at a Verry Great cost and charge, several of 
which is made through large tracts of L^nimproved 
lands the Owners of S'' lands must Reap Great advantage 
our labor in advancing their interest yet they are 
freed by law from aney tax to highways whil your 
Petitioners Unimproved lands is Subjected thereto 
which is Surely unjust and oppressive. 

" Wherefore we pray your Honnors to take the 
matter under your wise consideration and Grant us 
Relieffby Passing an Act that S'' Unimproved lands 



ACWORTH. 



21 



pay their proportion of all Highway taxes, otherwise 
that Roads and Bridges may be made and maintained 
through Unimproved Lands at the Charge of the 
Owners or in Such other w'ay as to your hon" may 

appear just &c and your Petitionars as in Duty 

Bound Shall Ever pray 

" JoHx Duncan 
" ill be/ialf of the petitioners." 

Selectmen's Petition about Beef, 1786. 

"AcwoSTH June ye 1 1786 
"To the Hon"'' the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives Convened at Concord The first Wednesday in 
June instant 

" The Petition of the Selectmen of Acworth in be- 
half of said Town Humbly Sueth that in obedience to 
an act of Law Passed in this State the 27'" of June 
1780 calling on the Towns to furnish the States Col- 
lector with beef for the use of the army And on de- 
livering S'' beef & taking the Collectors recpt for The 
same (which is to S'' Acworth 3,415 pounds) we should 
be Credeted for the Same in the Next years tax of New 
Emision Accordingly we Delivered 3425 pounds of 
beef and produced Our Recpts to the Treasurar But 
he tels us that the Collector Did not Return aney But 
1925 pounds of beef and he will not Give us Credet 
without an order from this Hon""' Cort and as we in 
obedience to your Hon" did deliver the full Sum of 
3425 Pounds of Beef as doth apear by Recpts Now in 
hand and Likewise John Hubbard Esq" Testemony 
Theirfore We pray your Honers to take our Case into 
your Serious Consideration and as we are not to be 
accontabl for the Neglect of the States Collector in 
not Returning all the Beef he Collected, theirfore 
we Trist your Honers will Direct the Treshurar to 
Give us Credet for all the Beef we delivered and for 
the Remendar of the beef more than setls the New- 
emision tax we desier To have it Reducted from the 
Beef we ow in the Next year which is the year 1781 or 
aney other way in your wisdoms you shall think pro- 
per and we as in duty bound Shall Ever pray. 
" John Duncan 
" Daniel Grout 
" Ayios KiYES, 

The allowance was granted. 
Petition for Authority to Tax Noyi-resident Lands. 
" Acworth September 18'" 1787 
" To the honorable Senate and house of Represen- 
tatives now sitting at Charlestown. The petition of 



Select- 
men." 



James Campbell in behalf of the inhabitants of the 
town of Acworth Humbly Sheweth That your Peti- 
tioner has been at great Expeuces in repairing roads 
and Building a Meeting-house which has greatly In- 
creased the value of lands belonging to Nonresidents, 
Granting this to be the Case your honors will Con- 
clude they Ought to contribute a small moity to de- 
fray the Charges that has or may arise. And we are 
further incouraged to ask, and expect your honors 
hearing and Assistance, as we had one bridge over Cold 
river burnt with fire, And another Carried off by Water, 
the buttmans of which cost us Sixty pounds, as we 
have been great Sufferers, therefore we pray your 
honors to consider our case and Grant that we may 
be enabled to asses and Collect Two pence on the 
acre of all lands lying in said Acworth belonging to 
Nonresident Owners. And we as in duty bound Shall 
ever pray. 

" James Campbell in behalf the 
inhabitants of the town of Acworth." 

" To the Honorable General Court of the State of 

New Hampshire. 

" The Petition of Matthew Wallace of Acworth 
humbly Sheweth that he was commited to Goal in 
Keene the tenth day of June last and not being able 
to pay the contents of the Execution — the Honorable 
the Justice of the Superior Court in October last ad- 
mited him to the Oath prescribed in an Act entitled 
an act tor the ease and relief of Prisoners for Debt 
and ever since your Petitioner hath been and is now 
detained in the Goal in Keene aforesaid by his Mer- 
celiss creditor — and that your Petitioner hath a large 
family of small children who are in a suffering con- 
dition even for the Necessaries of life and your Peti- 
tioner in his present situation can afford no relief 
which must be peculiarly depressing to a Husband 
and a father and more easily felt than described — and 
your Petitioner is worth nothing and never like to be in 
his present situation and without a friend to pay the 
Debt and no one to Shew mercy to him in that way — 
Wherefore he most earnestly prays that this Honble 
court would pass an act to relieve poor prisoners in 
this Situation after they have paid the uttermost far- 
thing that creditors may not be suffered to triumph in 
the distress of an honest Debter and in the entire de- 
struction and Deaths of his Wife and Children- 

"and as in duty bound will ever pray. 

" Keene prison June ye 1" day 1792. 

" Matthew Wallace." 



9? 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The Congregational Church in Aeworth was or- 
ganized March 12, 1773, with eight members, as 
follows : Henry Silsby, Bethiah Silsby, Thomas 
Putnam, Rachel Putnam, Samuel 8ilsby, Elizabeth 
Silsby, Dean Carlton, Anna Cross. 

During the first fifteen years the church was 
supplied by George Gilmore, David Goodale, 
Isaiah Kilburn and others. The first pastor was 
settled on the second Tuesday of November, 1789. 
The first meeting-house, erected in 1784, iu front 
of the present house, was not ready for use till 
1789. The pressent edifice was built in 1821. The 
Confession of Faith and Covenant were revised by 
direction of the church, and adopted in their pre- 
sent form by vote of the church, on the 13th of 
April, 1884. 

The following is a list of the pastors and min- 
isters : 

Rev. Thomas Archibald, ordained November 
1789, dismissed June 13, 1794 ; Rev. John Kim- 
ball, ordained June 14, 1797, dismissed May 4, 
1813; Rev. Phiueas Cooke, ordained Sei^tember 



7, 1814, dismissed February 18, 1829, died April 
28, 1853, buried in Aeworth ; Rev. Moses Gros- 
venor, installed October 14, 1829, dismissed Ajiril 
25,1832; Rev. Joseph Merrill, installed October 
16, 1833, dismissed July 11, 1838; Rev. Thomas 
Edwards, installed August 19, 1841, dismissed 
February 16, 1843 ; Rev. R. W. Fuller, acting 
pastor, 1843-1845 ; Rev. Edwin S. Wright, or- 
dained January 7, 1846, dismissed March 10, 
1856 ; Rev. Amos Foster, installed February 18, 
1857, dismissed June 13, 1866 ; Rev. J. L. Mer- 
rill, installed June 13, 1866, dismissed March 1, 
1870; Rev. S. V. McDuffee, acting pastor, June 7, 
1870-71 ; Rev. Nathan R. Nichols, ordained 
February 1, 1872, dismissed September 30, 1873; 
Rev. James Marshall, installed June 9, 1874, dis- 
missed April 25, 1877 ; Rev. Benjamin H. Laba- 
ree, D.D., acting pastor April, 1877 — November, 
1878; Rev. Albion H.Johnson, acting pastor, 
November, 1878 — September, 1882 ; Rev. Edward 
G. Stone, acting pastor, November 26, 1882 to pres- 
ent time. 



HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN. 



CHAPTER I. 

Geographical — Original Grant — The First Settlements — 
Names of Pioneers — The French and Indian War — Ex- 
posed Condition of the Settlement — Fort Erected — French 
and Indian Raid — The Town Attacked — Seth Putnam 
Killed — Later Troubles — Incorporation of Town — Named 
in Honorof Commodore Sir Charles Knowles — First-Town 
Meeting — OfScers Elected. 

The town of Charlestown lies in the western 
part of the county, on the Connecticut River, and 
18 bounded as follows : 

On the North by Claremont ; East, by Unity 
and Acworth ; South, by Langdon ; West, by 
Connecticut River, which separates it from Ver- 
mont. 

The first grant of the town was made by Massa- 
chusetts December 31, 1735. The first settlement 
was made in 1740 by David, Samuel and Stephen 
Farnsworth. They were, however, soon after fol- 
lowed by Isaac Parker and sons, Obadiah Sartwell, 
John Hastings, Moses Willard and Phineas Stev- 
ens, all of Massachusetts. Only three of the orig- 
inal proprietors became settlers. Captain Phineas 
Stevens, Lieutenant Ephraim Wetherbe and Ste- 
phen Farnsworth. In consequence of its location 
on the frontier, and Ifable to Indian incursions, 
the settlement of the town was very slow. In 1774 
there were not more than ten families. 

The town had been settled only about three years 
when it became apparent that a war was imminent, 
and the settlers began to adojjt measures for their 
defense. 

A meeting was therefore notified on the petition 
of the following proprietors, viz.: David Farns- 



worth, Moses Willard, Phineas Stevens, Isaac Par- 
ker, Jr., Obadiah Sartwell, John Avery and 
Charles Holden, for the purpose of " considering the 
present circumstances of affairs and the danger we 
are in of being assaidted by an enemy, in case a 
war should happen between the kingdoms of Eng- 
land and France ; and to consider and transact 
what is proper to be done in respect of building and 
furnishing a fortification or fortifications in said 
township, for the defense and better security there- 
of" This meeting wiis notified by Dr. John Hast- 
ings, proprietors' clerk, and was held at the house 
of John SpaflTord, Jr., November 24, 1743. 

At this meeting, the erection of a fort having 
been decided upon, the following votes relating to 
the election of committees and other matters essen- 
tial to the carrying out of their design were 
passed : 

"1st. Vofed — That John Hastings, Lieut. John 
Spafibrd and John Avery be a Committee to take ac- 
compts of men's labor at the Fort and to see the Fort 
comjjleted. (To this Committee John SpafFord, Jr., 
and Samuel Farnsworth were subsequently added.) 

" 2nd. Voted — That a Carpenter be allowed 98., 
Old Tenor, per day; each labcrer 73., per day, and 
a pair of oxen 3s. Gd., per day, Old Tenor. 

"4th. Voted — that the above Committee be Im- 
powered to finish or complete the Fort so far as they 
shall judge necessary and convenient. 

"5th. Voted — That the charge of building the 
Fort shall be assessed upon and paid by the proprie- 
tors. 

" Gth. Fote?— That the Committee be allowed £5, 
lOs. Od., for setting up the house at the North- West 
corner of the Fort and Completing the same. 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" 7th. Voted.— That the sura of .£12 be allowed the 
Committee to be laid out to such workmen as they 
shall agree with to fit up the house that was Lieut. 
Witherby's, so that it may be suitable to meet in, in 
such manner as the Committee shall thiulc conve- 
nient. 

" 8th. Foto/— That tlie sum of £300, Old Tenor, be 
assesssed on the proprietors of the Township, for the 
charge that lias arisen in building a Fort, and for 
paying the charge that shall arise in completing the 
Fort so far that it may be convenient and defensible, 
and if all the £300 be not needful to be expended for 
finishing the Fort, the overplus to be laid out for 
other necessary uses for the good of the proprietors. 

"9th. Voted— That Capt. John Spafford, Lieut. 
Phineas Stevens and John Hastings be assessors to 
proportion the aforesaid sum of £300 on the proprie- 
tors of the Township. 

" 10th. Voted — That Samuel Farnsworth be a Col- 
lector to collect the aforesaid sum of £300, and de- 
liver it into the hands of the proprietors' treasurer. 

" 11th. Voted — That John Hastings be allowed 12 
pounds for the benefit of his house, and the damage 
of his land, and the use of one of the rooms in the 
house now building on the east of the Fort, so long as 
it holds peace. He not to take his house from the 
Fort. 

" 12th. Voted— That Capt. John Spafibrd, Lieut. 
Stevens and John Hastings be appointed aCommitee 
to keep the Fort in repair, and take care that no per- 
son come to dwell in any of the houses within the 
Fort, but such as they, the said Committee, shall ap- 
prove. 

"13th. Voted— That Ensign Obediah Sartwell, 
Moses Willard and Lieut. Stevens be a Committee to 
pass accompts and order money out of the treasury to 
suph persons to whom it may become due." 

Immediately subjoined to these votes there is found 
in the proprietors' records the following, but at 
what meeting passed is not apparent : 

■ " An acc't of wliat is allowed for houses and mate- 
rials for the Fort. 

" Voted — Capt. Spafford for his house and timber, 
£23-0-0. 

" Voted—To Lieut. Stevens for his house, £35-0-0. 

" Voted — To Isaac Parker for stone, 46s.; Mantle- 
trees, 6s.; Clay, 8s.=£3-0-0. 

" Voted— To Moses Willard for his house, £8-0-0 ; 
Stone,£l-6-0=£9-6-0. 



" Voted — To Lieut. Witherby for his house, £35-0 
-0." 

The fort is said to have been built under the direc- 
tion of Colonel John Stoddard, of Northampton, 
Mass., who was for many years the principal military 
engineer on the Connecticut River frontier, and 
had twenty years before superintended the build- 
ing of the block-hou.se at Fort Dumnier. That 
Colonel Stoddard was consulted and his counsel 
obtained is jirobable, though the fact does not 
ajjpear in the proprietors' records. The fort was con- 
structed in the manner of other fortifications of the 
time, which were only intended to afford a defense 
against musketry. It covered, says Rev Dr. 
Crosby, iu his "Annals of Charlestown," about 
three-quarters of an acre, which dimensions, in 
the absence of any more definite measurement, we 
are under the necessity of receiving. This would 
make it about the size of Fort Dummer, which was 
one hundred and eighty feet on a side, it being 
built in the form of a square. The walls were 
made of large squared timbers, laid horizontally, 
one above the other, and locked together at the 
angles in the manner of a log cabin. Within the 
iuclosure were buildings called province houses, 
These, before being inclosed in the fort, liad been 
the houses of Captain John Spafford, Captain 
Phineas Steven.s, Lieutenant Mo.ses Willard, Lieu- 
tenant Ephraini Wetherbe and John Hastings. In 
the inclosurc was also a house, which was newly 
built, and which was situated in the northwest 
corner. 

Such was the preparation for their defense which 
the inhabitants of No. 4 took the precaution to 
have in readiness against the time of war, which 
they correctly anticipated jvould very soon come. 

The town remained unmolested until April 19, 
1746, when it was visited by a party of about forty 
French and Indians, under the command of En- 
sign De Neverville, who took Captain John Spaf- 
ford, Lieutenant Isaac Parker and Stephen Farns- 
worth prisoners, and burnt the saw-mill and grist- 
mill which the proprietors had encouraged Cap- 
tain Spafford to erect, and which had been iu op- 
eration only about two years. The following ex- 



CHARLESTOWN. 



25 



tract of a letter from Upper Ashuelot (now 
Keeue), dated April 23, 1740, relates to this affair : 
" We hear from No. 4, a new township to the 
westward, that three men, with a team of four oxen, 
having been at a saw-mill to feteh boards, were 
surprised by a party of Indians, and the men 
being missing are supposed to be either killed or 
made prisoners; the oxen being found dead with 
their tongues cut out." They had been to the mill 
and were returning with their load, when an am- 
buscade was form d for them, into which they fell 
and were taken rai)tive. They were conducted to 
Canada, and, after a considerable time, W'ere per- 
mitted to return to Boston under a flag of truce. 

The savages (says Rev. H. H. Sanderson, in hi.^ 
"History of Charlestown "), having thus prosper- 
ously commenced their incursions, continued, dur- 
ing the remainder of the spring and summer, to 
make freijuent inroads upon the frontiers ; and 
calamities followed many of the settlements thick 
and fast. The Indians were constantly on the 
alert to do all the mischief in their power, and no 
sooner had they done all the evil they could in 
one settlement, than they ^\ere otf, in some unex- 
pected direction, to fall upon another. On the 2d 
of May, in less than two weeks from the time of 
the first inroad into No. 4, having attacked, in the 
meanwhile, the fort of I'pper Ashuelot and vis- 
ited the neighborhood of Northfield and prowled 
around New Hopkintou, they again appeared in 
the place, and Seth Putnam, the first victim of In- 
dian vengeance, was killed. 

The following are the ciroum.stauces under 
which this happened : As the women, towards 
evening, were going out to do their accustomed 
milking, they were attended by Major Josiah Wil- 
lard, the son of the commander of Fort Dummer, 
and several soldiers as a guard. On approaching 
the booth or barn, where the cows were stalled, 
they were immediately fired upon by a party of 
eight Indians, who were lying in concealment and 
awaiting their arrival. One shot took fatal ett'ect 
on Mr. Putnam, but none of the others were in- 
jured. But as they saw Mr. Putnam fall, and, 
according to their custom, sprang forward tlr the j 



purpose of scalping him, the major and his men 
fired upon them in turn, mortally wounding two 
of their numlier; when, dragging their dying 
companions after them, thcv made a precijiitate 
retreat. 

This event overspread the settlement with 
gloom, and excited in the minds of the inhabitants, 
as it well might do, the most anxious forebodings 
in relation to what was to come, and led them to 
reali'/.e, what was the fact, that there was to be, 
thenceforth, no safety, not even in the jjresence of 
an armed guard. 

For three weeks from this event the utmost ex- 
citement prevailed ; for, as the garrison was small 
and unequal to the rei)elling of any considerable 
force, the inhabitants stood waiting in constant ex- 
pectation of another of their incursions. But 
though the Indians were still active, and made 
their presence felt, during this time, at Contoocook, 
Ijower and Upper Ashuelot, Bernardston, Cole- 
rainc and F(jrt Massachusetts, they did not appear 
again at No. 4. 

For a long .series of years this settlement was 
the .scene of Indian and French depredations, 
which greatly retarded the settlement of the 
place. 

I.M'oRroRATiON Of' Town. — A petition for the 
incorj)oration of the town, signed by Phineas 
Steveus, was presented to the Governor and Coun- 
cil, although at what date is not stated in the 
petition. But in answer to this ]ietition the town 
was chartered by the government of New Hamp- 
shire July 2, 1753. 

They named Charlestown in honor of Commo- 
dore Sir Charles Knowles, of the English navy. 
The name was probably suggested by Captain 
Phineas Steveus, in conse(|uence of his having 
been presented with an elegant sword by the Eng- 
lish officer, as a tribute to his bravery in defending 
the fort at No. 4, April 4, 1747. 

The First Town-Meeting was held at the 
" fort," with Captain Phineas Stevens as modera- 
tor, August 14, 1753, wheu the following officers 
were elected : 



26 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



"Voted, First: that John Hastings be the town 


rendezvous for the arm 


y of General John Stnrk. 


clerk. ' 


It was also, early in the 


war, a recruiting station. 


" 2nd. Voted, that there be tliree selectmen chosen 


The following i.s a list of 


Revolutionary soldiers : 


for the present year. 


The following persons 


held offices : 


"3d. Fo<ei?, that Captain Phinea.s Stevens, .John 






Hastings and Ca)itain .Tohn Spafford be selectmen for 


Lieutenant-Colonel Sam- 


Captain Samuel Wether- 


the present year. 


uel Hunt. 


be. 


"4th. Vntol, that Captain Phineas Stevens be 


Lieutenant-Colonel Sam- 


Captain Abel Walker. 


the town treasurer for the present year. 


uel Stevens. 


Captain William Holden. 


" 5th. Voted, that Deacon Thomas Adams be con- 


Major William Heywood. 


Lieutenant Bradford 


stable for the present year. 


Quartermaster Jonathan 


Spafford. 


" 6th. Voted, that Ebenezer Putnam be tithing 


Willard. 


Lieutenant Scth Walker. 


man for the present year. 


Quartermaster Jotham 


Lieutenant Peleg Wil- 


" 7th. FoW, that there be a suliicient i)ound built 


White. 


liams. 


and set up in this town. 


Captain Isaac Farvvell. 


Elijah Grout, commissary. 


"8th. Voted, that John Hastings, jr., and Moses 


Cajjtain Peter Page. 


Dr. David Taylor, sur- 


Wheeler be surveyors for the highways for the pres- 


Captain Simon Sartwell. 


geon. 


ent year. 


Captain James Farns- 


Dr. William Page, sur- 


" 0th. Voted, that Nathaniel Parker and William 


worth. 


geon. 


Heywood be fence viewers for the present year. 


Privates. 


" 10th. Voted, that James Farnsworth and Ben- 


Josei)h Farwell. 


Joseph Wood. 


jamin Allen be the field drivers for the present year. 


William Leighton. 


Samuel .\tkins. 


" 11th. Voted. That Lieutenant Isaac Parker be 


Abner Powers. 


William Osgood. 


the pound keeper. 


Simeon Powers. 


Comfort Towner. 


"12th. Fote/, that Nathaniel Parker and Sylvanus 


Nathaniel Powers. 


Moses S[)atrord. 


Hastings be hog-reeves for the present year. 


Benjamin Powers. 


John Hart. 


" 13th. Voted, that the hogs in town shall have 


Whitcomb Powers. 


Asa Walker. 


liberty to run on the common, for the space of three 


Lemuel Royce. 


Josiah Reed. 


weeks, provided that they be yoked and ringed. 


Matthew Crier. 


Joseph Spencer. 


" 14th. Voted, that this meeting be adjourned to 2 


Joseph Powers. 


Oliver Hastings. 


of the clock, afternoon." 


Seth Putnam. 


Samuel Remington. 




Thomas Putnam. 


Oliver Farnsworth. 




Timothy Putnam. 
Lewis Putnam. 


Daniel Elmore. 




Thomas Rose. 




Jedidiah Rice. 


Moses Wheeler. 


CHAPTER II. 


John Sartwell. 


.Tohn Hastings, Jr. 


CHARLESTOWN— (C'o»(n)»fr7). 


John Beckwith. 
Oliver Cook. 


Eleazer Heywood. 
John Simonds. 


MILITARY HISTORY. 


Eliab Gleason. 


Robert Rand. 




Levi Simonds. 


Thomas Dutton. 


War of the Revolution — -Military Heinlezvoiiy — The Town 


John Cross. 


Calvin Judevine. 


a Recruiting Stntion — Ust of Revolutionary Soldiers — 


Amiisa Grout. 


Oliver Farwell. 


War of 1812— List of Soldiers— War of the Rebellion- 


Noah Porter. 


Prentice Barrows. 


List of Soldiers. 


Phineas Page. 


Samuel Gunnison. 




Nathaniel Holden. 


Gilbert Caswell. 


CllARLEsTnwN warmly csjiuused the colonial 


Ebenezer Geer. 


Silas Porter. 


cause, and responded nobly both in men and 


Silas Simonds. 


William Willard. 


mouey. In consequence of its location it was 


Nathan Allen. 


Sylvanus Johnson. 


made a dejiot for military supplies, and was the 


Ebenezer Farnsworth. 


Richard Holden. 



CHARLESTOWN. 



27 



Moses Willard. 
Aaron Adams. 



Peter Labaree, Jr. 
Julius Sil.sbv. 



War of 1812. — The following are tlie uames 
of soldiers of C'aptain Nathan Gliddeu's company, 
belonging to Charlestown, enlisted September 13, 
1814, for three mouths : 

Nathan filidden, captain, Moses Judeviue, first lieu- 
Unity, tenant, Charlestown. 

Priimies. 

Guy Adams, Charlestown. W.Delano, Charlestown. 

J. F. Allen, Charlestown. J. Wheeler, Charlestown. 

C. Corbin, Charlestown. C. Miller, Charlestown. 

E. Darling, Charlestown. H. Bartlett, Charlestown. 

Moses Carpenter, Charles- Guy Carlton, Charles- 
town. town. 

In Captain James M. Warner's company : 

Jas. M. Warner, captain, P. Richardson, Charles- 

Acworth. town. 

L. Boutell. Charlestown. S. Steel, Jr., Charles- 
G. Hilton, Charlestown. town. 

S. Hunt, Charlestown. H. Spaulding, Cliarles- 
E. Henry, Charlestown. town. 

C. Perry, Charlestown. L. Willard, Charlestown. 

In Captain Josiah Bellows' com])auy, enlisted 
September 26, 1814, for sixty days: 

Lewis Hunt, lieutenant, Levi Abbott, sergeant, 

Charlestown. Charlestown. 

Royal Bellows, Q. M. Ser- Nathan Putnam, coriioral, 

geant, Charlestown. Chai'lestown. 

Prhmfes. 

Seth Hart, Charlestown. J. Labaree, Charlestown. 
S. Y. Carlisle, Charles- John Dunsmoor, Charles- 
town. town. 
A. Watkins, Charlestown. E. Putnam, Charlestown. 
J. Adams, Charlestown. W. Henry, Charlestown. 
W. Powers, Charlestown. L. Osgood, Charlestown. 
S. Powers, Charlestown. L. Huntoon, Charlestown. 
J. Simonds, Charlestown. Wilber Andrews, Charles- 
H. Baldwin, Charlestown. town. 

The aljove company was stationed at Ports- 
mouth. 

Tlie only person who enlisted in the Mexican 
War was John J. Moody, who was in the Ninth 
United States Infantry. 



War of the Rebellion. — The following is a 
list of soldiers from this town during the late Re- 
bellion : 

FIRST REGIMENT CAVALRY. 

David W. Parks, mustered in Troop A INIarch 29, 
1SG4. 

Edgar S. Wolf, mustered in Troop A IMarch 19, 1864 ; 
wounded slightly August Vt, 18G4. 

John Williams, mustered in Troop A February 5, 
lSi;4 ; mustered out July 15, 1865. 

Enos P. Trussell, mustered in Troop C April 9, 1864 ; 
wounded and missing at Kearneysville, Va., Au- 
gust 25, 1864; lives in Richmond, Va. 

Royal H. Kendall, mustered in Troop C March 31, 
1804; wounded severely August 25, 1864; mus- 
tered out July 15, 1865. 

Martin Maddigan, umstered in Troop H August 19, 
1864 ; mustered out August 14, 1865. 

William H. Keen, mustered in Troop L February 13, 
1864. 

George H. Frost, mustered in Troop L February 13, 
18(!4 ; missing at Winchester, Va., August 17, 
1864 ; gained from missing ; mustered out June 
5, 1865. 

Richard R. Robertson, nmstered in Troojj L March 
19,1864; promoted to corporal June 30, 1865; 
mustered out July 15, 1865. 

Sidney Way, mustered in Troop L August 29, 1862 ; 
promoted to corjioral. 

THIRD INFANTRY. 

George W. Constantine, enlisted in Company A, 
Third New Hampshire, August 22, 1861 ; re-en- 
listed February 22, 1864. 

Charles H. Derby, enlisted in Company A August 23 
1861 ; promoted to corporal ; mustered out Octo- 
ber 26, 1864. 

Sylvester Judd, enlisted (!)ctober 8, 1863, tor three 
years; out July 20, 1865. 

FIFTH INFANTRY. 

(" No regiment," says tlie adjutant-general, " fought 
better, and few, if any, fought oftener. Wherever 
the Army of the Potomac met the enemy there lie 
the bones of men of the Fifth New Hampshire. No 
regiment from the State had so long a list of battles 
or mourns the loss of so many men. Its story is sad, 
but glorious !") 
John G. Simonds, enlisted Company B, Fifth New 



28 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Hamjishire, October 2, 18I5H; jiromoted to first 
lieutenant October 28, 1804. 

Charles Jenkins, Company B, D or S, for three years, 
October 2, 1863; promoted to corporal ; wounded 
June 3, 1864; promoted to sergeant; promoted 
to first lieutenant October 28, 1864. 

Winfield 8cott Hassam, Company C, D or S, for three 
years, August 9, 1864; mustered out .Tune 28, 
1865. 

Edmund B. Chadborn, enlisted in Company G Octo- 
ber 12, 1861, died atShiji Point, Va., April 24, 
1862. 

George W. Brooks, veteran, re-enlisted in Company 
G February 19, 1864; promoted to corporal; 
captured .Tune 2, 1864 ; mustered out .Tunc 17, 
1865. 

A. C. Bemis, eidisted October 12, 1861, in Com[)any 
G; volunteer; \V(iun<led slightly .Tune 23, 1864; 
discharged for disability, no date. 

Joseph Brisland, enlisted Deeeinlier 10, 1863, for 
three years; transferred from Company G to 
Ninth New Hampshire Volunteers June 1, 1865; 
promoted to corporal July 1, 186.") ; mustered out 
July 17, 18(!5. 

James Dolon, .Tr., enlisted in Company G October 12, 
1801 ; discharged for disability at Concord, N. H., 
July 25, 1862. 

George H. Hackett, enlisted in Company G Octolier 
12, 1861 ; enlisted Fifth New Hampshire Volun- 
teers; wounded at Gettysburg ; died of wounds 
at Fort Schuyler, N. Y., November 12, 1863. 

Webster Nash, enlisted in Company G, October 12, 
1861 ; instantly killed at Fair Oaks, Va., June 
1, 1862. 

William Blake Robertson, enlisted in Company G, 
October 12,1861; discharged March 25,1862; 
died of consumption at Charlestown, N. H., Sep- 
tember 17, 1871. 

Otis Thompson, enlisted in Company G, under Cap- 
tain Long ; was instantly killed at Gettysburg, 
July 2, 1863. 

William Woods, enlisted in Company G, February 
19, 1864 ; promoted sergeant ; killed at Peters- 
burg, Va., June 17, 1864. 

Daniel Pierce, enlisted in Company G, October 12, 
1861 ; discharged for disability January 8, 1863. 

George A. Wheeler, enlisted in Company G, October 
12,1861; wounded December 13, 1S62; died of 
wounds December Iti, 1862. 



Lewis Holden, enlisted in Company G, March, 1862, 
for three years ; discharged soon after the seven 
days' retreat ; he then enlisted in the Eighth 
Connecticut Volunteers for three years ; served 
two ; was one of the first to enter Richmond ; 
after being discharged he enlisted in the [Jnited 
States Infantry ; served three years on Texas 
Frontier; he was promoted to sergeant and dis- 
charged as such at I'^irt Ringgold, 1868. 

James C. Parrish, enlisted in Company H, Fifth 
Regiment, October 19, 1861 ; re-enlisted January 
1, 1864. 

SIXTH INFANTRY. 

William Milliken, enlisted in Comiiany F, November 
28, 1861 ; discharged for disability November 3, 
1862. 

William Burns, enlisted .Tanuary 4, 1864, in Company 
H ; nuistered out July 17, 1865. 

.lohn Conley, enlisted February 9, 1864; transferred 
from Comi>any E to Eleventh New Hampshire, 
June 1, 1805; absent, sick, July 17, 1865. 

SEVENTH INFANTRY. 

(The Seventh New Hamiisliire was in the terrible 

charge at Fort Wagner.) 

William C'ofi'rin, veteran, eidisted in Company K, 
Seventh New Hampshire, February 29, 1864; 
promoted to corporal December 9, 1864 ; pro- 
moted to sergeant May 3, 1865 ; mustered out 
July 20, 1865. 

Henry G. Webber, enlisted August 26, 1862 ; pro- 
moted to adjutant ; died at Cincinnati, O., April 
12, 1873. 

NINTH INFANTRY-. 

George R. Peasley, enlisted in Company G, September 

18, 1862 ; wounded .lune 21, 1864. 
J(din R. Peash>y, enlisted August 13, 1862 ; transferred 

to Veteran Reserve Corps July 1, 1863. 
Charles N. Goodwin, enlisted in Company G, August 

13,1862; three years' volunteer; promoted to 

corporal; wounded June 25,1864; absent and 

sick afterwards. 
Horace G. Kendall, enlisted in Company G, August 

13,1862; three years' volunteer; wounded May 

12, 1864; died of wounds at Washington, D. C, 

June 5, 1864 ; interred in National Cemetery, 

Arlington, Va. 
Frederic Royce, enlisted in Company G, June 13, 

1862; three years' volunteer ; mustered out June 

10, 1865. 



CHARLESTOWN. 



29 



William H. Royce, enlisted in Company G, June 13, 
1802; three years' volunteer ; promoted to cor- 
poral ; wounded May 12, 1864; aho wounded 
July 30, 1864; died of wounds at Fort Schuyler, 
N. Y., August 17, 1864. 

Michael Torpy, enlisted in CoMijianyd, August 13, 
1863, three years; mustered out June 10, 1865. 

George W. Gihsou, recruit and volunteer, enlisted in 
Company G, Decemlier 10, 1863; ca|itured at 
Poplar Grove Church, Va., Septemher 30, 1864; 
paroled October 7, 1864; nuistered out May 22, 
1860. 

George T. Ward, enlisted in Company G, August 14, 
1862. 

Napoleon B. Osgood, enliste<I August 19, 1862, for 
three years ; mustered out June 0, 1865. 

FOUETEEXTH INI AXTRY. 

John Ashey, enlisted January 4, 1864, in Company I, 
for three years ; mustered out July 8, 1865. 

Lewis Ashey, enlisted January 5, 18(!4, in Company 
G, for three years ; mustered out July 8, 1865. 
The following were in Company B : 

Emanuel D. J. Bailey, enlisted May 12, 1864, three 
years' volunteer ; mustered out July 8, I860. 

Henry E. Barrett, enlisted September 22, 1862 ; pro- 
moted to first sergeant September 24, 1862 ; to 
second lieutenant April 4, 1863 ; honorably dis- 
charged March 22, 1864. 

Frederick B. Andrews, enlisted September 22, 1862; 
was instantly killed in battle near Winchester, 
Va., September 19,1864; he tills an unknown 
grave. 

Warren Abbott, enlisted September 22,1862; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1865. 

Norman L. Adams, enlisted September 22, 1862; pro- 
moted to corporal Ai)ril 14, 1864 ; mustered out 
July 8, 1805. 

John Loren Adams, enlisted December 22, 1863 ; re- 
cruit, three years' volunteer ; mustered out July 
8, 1865. 

James Bowman, enlisted December 23, 1863; wound- 
ed September 19, 1804; died of wounds at Win- 
chester, Va., Noveudjer 4, 1804. 

William J. Bosworth, enlisted September 22, 1862; 
died in hospital of disease, at Washington, D. C, 
January 19, 1864. 

Patrick O'Brien, enlisted September 22, 1862; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1805. 



John F. Cooley, enlisted September 22,1862; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1805. 

John Casey, D. or S., December 22, 1803, for three 
years ; mustered out June 6, 1865. 

Charles N. Corbin. December 22, 1863; drafted for 
three years ; mustered out July 8, 1865. 

Oliver Mitchell, enlisted December 29, 1863, for three 
years; wounded September 19, 1804 ; discharged 
for disability at Manchester, N. H., May 8, 1865. 

Richard B. Coruwell, enlisted Seirtember 22, 1862 ; 
wounded Sept. 19, 1864, mustered out July 8, 1865. 

James W. Corbin, enlisted September 22, 1802 ; trans- 
ferred to Company A, November, ISti'J ; mustered 
out July 8, 1805. 

Chauncy L. Corbin, musician, enlisted Septendjer 22, 
1862; honorably discharged at Concord, N. H., 
.January 19, 1804, for disability. 

Henry Easter, enlisted September 22, 1802 ; mustered 
out July 8, 1865. 

Hiram Green, enlisted September 22, 1862 ; mustered 
out July 8, 1865. 

John Hassam, enlisted October 9, 1802; died of dis- 
ease at Washington, D. C, July 31, 1863. 

Charles E. Holbrook, enlisted October 9, 1802 ; second 
lieutenant, promoted to first lieutenant, April 4, 
1863; honorably discharged April 23, 1804. 

John King, enlisted September 22, 1S(',2; musti'red out 
July 8, 1805. 

.John Kelly, enlisted September 22, 1802 ; mustered 
out July 8, 18(55. 

Charles H. Kn.ajip, enlisted January 4, 1801 ; three 
3'ears' volunteer; mustered out July 8, 1805. 

(reorge R. Kuapp, enlisted September 22, 1802; pro- 
moted to corporal, February 1, 1802; mustered 
out July 8, 1805. 

Patrick McKean, enlisted September 22, 18(>2; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1805. 

Willard Lawrence, enlisted September 22, 1862; 
wounded Septeml>er 19, 1.864; died of wounds at 
Winchester, Va., September 20, 1804. 

Van Buren Lelaud, enlisted September 22, 1802; pro- 
moted to corjioral December 9, 1804 ; mustered 
out July 8, 18l!5. 

George H. Lynds, enlisted .January 12, 1804; three 
years' volunteer; mu.stered out July 8, 1805. 

Charles H. Melville, enlisted October 7,1802; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1805. 

Michael McMahon, enlisted September 22, 18<)2 ; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1865. 



30 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



William McMahon, enlisted Oetober -l, 180'2 ; mus- 
tered out July 8, 18<)5. 

Harlan P. Marshall, enlisted September 22, 1862; 
promoted to corporal June 1, 1865; mustered out 
July 8, I860. 

George W. Parks, enlisted September 22, 1862 ; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1865. 

Fred. S. Parks, enlisted September 22, 1S62 ; mustered 
out July 8, 1865. 

Orson D. Putnam, enlisted September 22, 1862; died 
of disease at Natchez, Miss., July 22, 1864. 

Levi G. Richardson, enlisted September 22, 1862; 
died of disease in New York City October 22, 
1864. 

Lucius Rumrill, enlisted September 22, 1862 ; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1865. 

Stephen A. Spooner, enlisted September 22, 1862 ; 
promoted to corporal May 1,1863; honorably 
discharged at Concord, N. H., January 16, 1865, 
for disability. 

Thomas O'Sullivan, enlisted September 22, 1862; 
honorably discharged at Concord, N. H., July 7, 
1864, for disability. 

Erastus Smith, enlisted September 22, 1862 ; wounded 
slightly September 19, 1864 ; mustered out July 
8, 18t;5. 

George A. White, enlisted Septemlier 22, 1862; mus- 
tered out July 8, 1865. 

Albert H. Tyrell, enlisted September 22,1862; pro- 
moted to sergeant May 1, 1863; wounded Sep- 
tember lil, 1864; mustered out July 8, 1865. 

Charles H. Wright, enlisted September 22, 1862 ; 
wounded Sei^tember 19, 1864 ; mustered out May 
24, 1865. 

Charles Smith, enlisted December 22, 1863 ; three 
years' volunteer ; mustered out July S, 1865. 

FIEST EECaMENT VOI.UNTEEE HEAVY ARTILLERY. 

Sylvester A. Hamlin, first sergeant, enlisted Sejitem- 
ber 7, 1864, for one year ; wounded at Fair Oaks ; 
mustered out June 15, 1865. 

William S. Gibson was two years in Massachusetts 
Second Regiment and two years in First Con- 
necticut. 

Nelson A. Rich, enlisted July 10, 1861, in a Vermont 
regiment; discharged September 16, 1864; re- 
enlisted February 7, 1865; discharged February 
6, 1866; was in the Army of the Potomac. 



CHAPTER III. 

CHARLKSTOWN— (CoHdHKcrf). 
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTOKY". 

urch — Congregational CI 
Episcopal Church — St. Luke's Church. 

Unitarian Church. — The first church in this 
towii was organized December 4, 1754, with Rev. 
John Dennis as pastor. His salary was fifty 
pounds So great were the fears of the people of 
invasions by the Indians that his ordination was 
at Northfield, Ma.ss. May 13, 1754, the town 
voted as follows : 

" Voted — 1st, that they will apply to Mr. John 
Dennis to settle in the work of the gospel ministry in 
this town ; and for the encouragement of the said 
Mr. Dennis to settle in this town, in the work of the 
gospel ministry, as aforesaid, 

" Voted— T\\&i the town will build lor the said Mr. 
Dennis, a log-house of hewn timber, of the following 
dimensions; viz. — the house to be thirty-six lectin 
length, and nineteen feet in width, and sixteen feet 
stud; and to be jutted at the chamber in the common 
manner; and also to build, and setup a stack of brick 
chimneys, and a good convenient cellar; and also to 
lay the lower floors, and find boards for the upper 
floors, and setup the partitions and doors to the lower 
rooms ; and also to board and shingle the roof of said 
house. 

" Voted — That the town will clear up a three-acre 
lot. No. 14, in the great meadow, fit for mowing; and 
that they will plough, fit and sow with wheat four 
acres of a five-acre lot, No. 59, lying in the great 
meadow. 

" FoCerf— That the town will pay to Mr. Dennis the 
sum of fifty pounds, annually, lawful money, to be 
paid equal to silver at six shillings and eight pence 
per ounce, if he shall see cause in the work of the 
gospel ministry in the town, and also to provide his 
firewood, brought to his house and cut cord-wood 
length. 

" Voted — That there be five men chosen to carry 
and otter the proposals of the town to Mr. John Den- 
nis, and to receive his answer, and make return there- 
of to this meeting. 

" Voted — That John Hastings, Phineas Stevens, 
Esq., Mr. Andrew Gardner, Lieutenant Isaac Parker 



CHARLESTOWN. 



31 



and Ensign David Farnsworth be a committee to 
carry tl;e proposals of tlie town to Mr. Dennis, and 
receive Iiis answer as aforesaid.'' 

At an adjourued meeting held May 22, 1754, 
the lollovving was added : 

" Voted — That the town will raise the sum of eight 
pounds, lawful money of the Province of Massachu- 
setts Bay, to defray the charjje of transporting Mr. 
Dennis' family to this town, if the said Dennis shall 
accept the proposals the town has made; and shall 
see cause to come and settle in the work of the gospel 
ministry among us." 

Mr. Dennis was dismissed March .Sl^^lTSli. 

The second minister of the town was Rev. Bulk 
ley Olcott. The following is the first account of 
him in connection with his ministry in Charles- 
town : 

"At a legal meeting of the town, held at the Old 
Fort, on the 11th day of August, 17G0, it was voted, 
that the town will choose a Committee to go and dis- 
course with Mr. Olcott, and see whether he will be 
prevailed upon to stay and preach with us a longer 
time ; and that Lieutenant Isaac Parker, John Hast- 
ings, Seth Walker, Lieutenant John Sawyer, Mr. 
Scth Putnam, Captain John Si)all'ord, Peter Labaree, 
(and) William Hey wood, be a committee to discourse 
with Mr. Olcott on the premises." 

The salary ottered was the whole of tiie right 
of land commonly called the ministerial right, 
which Mr. Dennis had relinquished, and one 
hundred pounds, lawful money of the province of 
Massachusetts Bay. But this salary was not satis- 
factory ; and, in addition to the ministerial right, 
in the place of the one hundred pounds, the fol- 
lowing votes were substituted : 

" Voted, that the town give Jlr. Olcott the sum of 
forty-five pounds sterling, or silver or gold equivalent 
thereto, for the first year ; after the first year the town 
will add to his salary the sum of thirty shillings per 
annum, until his salary shall amount to the sum of 
sixty pounds sterling, or silver or gold equivalent ; 
which sum to be his stated or standing salary during 
the time he shall continue to be our minister ; the 
one-half of the above-mentioned salary to be paid him 
at the end of half a year after he shall accept of our 



proposals ; the other half at the year's end and so 
yearly, the time he shall continue our minister." 

In addition to the above, it was " Vnted. that the 
town will give or provide Mr. Olcott thirty cords 
of wood, annually brought to his door during the 
time he shall continue to be our minister : to begin 
to provide him his wood, as above said, at the time 
he shall keep house by himself" 

His ordination took place on the 28th of May, 
ITiil. 

Such had been the changes in Charlestown, 
owing to the war and the circumstances of the dis- 
mission oi'Mr. Dennis, that it was deemed best, at 
the ordination and installation of Mr. Olcott, that 
a new church .siiould be organized, which was 
accordingly done. This consisted, so far as males 
were concerned, of 'Mv. < )lcott and nine others, viz. : 
Isaac Parker, Seth Walker, Seth Putnam, Stephen 
Farnsworth, Ebenezer Putnam, Thomas Putnam, 
Joel Matthews, William Hey\\ood and John 
Spafford. Of this church Ebenezer Putnam was 
installed the first deacon. The female members, 
owing to the loss of the church records, cannot now 
be ascertained. 

On the 11th of August, ITfiO, befiu-e the settle- 
ment of Mr. Olcott, the town voted to build a log 
house for public worshij), of the following dimen- 
sions, viz. : thirty-four feet long, twenty feet wide, 
and eight feet between joints ; and to place it on 
Meeting-House Hill. They voted twenty pounds, 
lawful money, to be levied on the inhabitants for 
building the hou.se, provided so much should be 
needed A committee was appointed to see to and 
forward the building, with dii-ections that it should 
be completed by the last day of the following Sep- 
tember. On the 17th day of the following October 
the town voted to raise the further sum of ten 
pounds, lawful money, for the purpose of " finishing 
the house so far as to build seats, glaze the house, 
finish the pulpit, so far as needful, make window- 
shutters and calk the said house." 

The house was completed in 1768. 

Mr. Olcott became an efficient agent in helping 
forward the prosperity of the jilace. Under the 



32 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIKE. 



influence of liis guiding and dii'ecting mind the 
church prospered, education made progress, and 
society became both more cultivated and orderly ; 
and he did much in every respect by his instrumen- 
tality for laying that fountlation of prosperity and 
respectability which the town for a long series of 
years so abundantly enjoyed. He died June 2G 
1793. 

During a j)eriod of seventeen years the parish 
remained tlestitute of stated preaching. During 
the latter |)ortion of this ])eriod, however. Rev. 
Daniel Foster supplied. He died in 1809. 

His successor was Ilcv. Jaazaniah Crosby, D.I)., 
who was installed Octobci- 17, LSIO. He became 
a ITnitarian, and in 18;>') a number of the church 
members, who could not follow his teachings, with- 
drew and organized what is now the Contjreffational 
Church. Dr. Crosby officiated until 1855, when 
he resigned the main charge of the parish, and had 
the following colleagues : Revs. Adam Ayer 
Edward Baker and L. Stone. He, however, as- 
sisted occasionally until 18tio He died December 

00, 1864. He was succeeded by Rev. John M. 
Merrick, who commenced his labors April 1, 1879, 
and continued until his death, March 19, 1870. 
Rev. Eugene De Normaudic became pastor July 

1, 1871, and remained until April 1, l.ST(i. He 
was succeeded by Rev. A. S. Nickerson, who began 
his ministry June 1, 1876, closed June 1, 1878; 
Rev. A. E. Mullett, began his ministry October 1, 
1878, closed January 1, 1880 ; Rev. T. D. Howard, 
began his ministry March 1, 1880, and is the 
present j)astor. 

Congregational (jHurch. — The Congrega- 
tional Church was formed August 1, 1835, with 
thirty-five members who had withdrawn from the 
old church in consequence of the Unitarian views 
expressed by Dr. Crosby. The first pastor was 
Rev. Joseph Curtis, who remained about one j'ear. 
His successors were Rev. John C. Wilder, J. De 
Forest Richards, from 1841 to 1851 ; Worthington 
Wright, from 1851 to 1855. After the dismission 
of Mr. Wi'ight the church was without a settled 
pastor until 1874. The pulpit was supplied, how- 
ever, during this time by stated supplies, among 



whom were Revs. J. G. Wilson, Joseph Garland, 
F. Shattuck,S. G. Tenney and Henry H. Saunder- 
son, from October 10, 1864, to October 10, 1873. 
Rev. George W. Kinne was installed April 29, 
1874, and remained until A]iril, 1876; Benjamin 
Labaree and Rev. Ezra Alden were temporarv 
supplies until Rev. George H. Dnnlap, from August 
23, 1877, to March, 1881. Rev. George H. French 
has been the minister since April, 1881. 
^ The first services of this church were held in the 
old court-hou.se until the erection of the church 
edifice, in 1839. 

Mkthodist Episcopal CiiuRcn.^The first 
Methodist Society in this town was formed in 
l''^01. A society was incorporated July 3, 1827, 
with the following members : Jacob Wright, 
Nathan Howard, John Metcalf, J. B. Hubbard 
and Thomas Whipple. 

The following is a list of jiastors of the church : 

183(5, Kev. Zeb. Twitchel ; 1837-38, Kev. Amos 
Kidder ; 1839, Rev. Silas Quimby ; 1840-12, Rev. 
Henjamin C. F.astman ; 1843, Rev. Samuel A. Gush- 
ing; 1844, Rev. Amon S. Tenney; 1845, supplied by 
Rev. a. W. Y. Rogers ; 1846, by Rev. Thomas H. Rood ; 
1847, Stcplien Eastman ministered ; 1848, Rev. Jared 
Perkins ; 184il, Rev. Richard Newhall ; 1850-51, Rev. 
Matthew Newhall ; 1852-53, Rev. Simeon P. Heath ; 
1854, Rev. Charles H. Chase ; 1855-50, Rev. Nelson 
Martin; 18.-)7, Rev. John English; 1858-5;), Rev. R. 
Edmund Danforth; 1800-61, Rev. Joseph Faucet; 
18(12, sui)plicd by the Rev. A. C. Dutton ; 1863-65, 
Rev. Silas Quimby ministered to them; 1800-67, Rev. 
Lucien W. Prescot ; 1808, Rev. Samuel J. Robinson ; 
1869-71, Rev. .loseph H. Hilman ; 1872, Rev. Andrew 
L. Keiidall ; 1873-74, Rev. Charles E. Rogers ; 1876- 
77, Rev. George F. Wells; 1878-80, Rev. Joseph 
Hayes; 1881-83, Rev. George N. Bryant; Rev. A. R. 
Lunt, from April, 1884, to present time. 

St. Luke'.s Church. — The Episcopal Church 
in this town was organized April 18, 1822, the 
chief movers in the enterprise being Roys Jones, 
Dr. Putnam Barron, Shaler Towner, Thomas and 
Daniel Whipple, James Meacham, David Parker 
and others. 

In 1829 the name of the church was changed to 
St. Luke's. 



CHARLESTOWN. 



33 



The first rector was Rev. James B. Howe. His 
successors were Revs. George Richardson, Edward 
Ballard, Darius Barker, Henry S. Smith and 
Edward Livermore. 

From 1841 to 1860 there were no regular services 
held in town. In that year services were com 
menced, and March 23, 1863, a parish organization 
was effected with the following officers: Porter 
Spencer, senior warden ; George Olcott, Jr. , and 
Richardson Robertson, vestrymen. The church 
edifice was erected in 1863, and consecrated De- 
cember 11 th of that year. It was beautified and 
enlarged in 1869. The first rector of the church 
was Rev. Fi-ancis Chase, who remained until May, 
1874 He was succeeded by Rev. R. M. Berkeley, 
who officiated until May 30, 1882 ; Rev. Charles 
F. Sweet was rector from October 1, 1882, to May 
1, 1883; Rev. Henry L. Phillips was in charge 
from July 1, 1883 to September 9, 1884 ; since 
which time the parish has had no settled rector. 

" WooDSiDE " — Charlestown is, as a town, not 
only of interest on account of the reminiscences of 
the exploits of earlj' (^33^3, when the valor of its 
inhabitants saved it from extermination by the 
merciless savages ; not only from the stern integ- 
rity, the industry, the perseverance and the intel- 
ligence of its settlers, the wealth of its productive 
farms, the charms of the picturesque mountain 
scenery and ever-changing views which so _divers- 
ify the lovely Connecticut Valley ; not only from 
the massive intellects which, reared under the 
shadow of its hills and on the borders of its waters, 
have attained the fullness of ripe maturity and 
gone forth to occupy prominent positions of honor 
and distinction in the service of the State, and in 
the fields of law, literature, religion and science, 
among whom the names of Gilchrist, Cushing, Ol- 
cott and Hubbard are conspicuous, but on account 
of the cultured taste that, combined with the kiiad 
profusion of nature, have made it a summer re- 
sort which those who are " to the manor born," 
and the stranger, tarrying for a brief period amid 
its beauties, alike pronounce one of the most en- 
joyable and attractive to be found in many a mile 
of distance, and to combine many of the lovely 



•features found by Dr. Johnson in his fabled "Val- 
ley of Rassclas." The magnificent elms, towering 
in arching columns of strength and beauty over 
the broad, clean streets, the quiet calm and restful- 
ne.ss that here comes to soothe the tired spirit, the 
perfect healthfulness of the climate and the taste- 
ful residences and their artistic surroundings, all 
blend in painting upon the canvas of the mind a 
picture of rural joy and sylvan happiness which 
will not soon be obliterated. 

Among the loveliest of the homes so pleasantly 
and thickly scattered through the village is 
" Woodside," the residence of Sherman Paris, a 
business man of New York City, who, while 
traveling in 1867, pa.s.sed a few days in Charles- 
town, became acquaincd with its beauties and pur- 
chased the " Old Olcott Place," with the view of 
keeping it as a country-seat, but, perceiving the 
rare advantages of the locality, he remodeled and 
enlarged the house for a permanent residence, laid 
out the grounds according to the most approved 
methods of modern landscape gardening, built ex 
tensive green-houses and graperies, a " jiavilion," 
or summer-house, which, for lightness, neatness 
and beauty of its architecture, is, perhaps, unsur- 
passed by any structure of its kind in the country ; 
and, with his artistic tastes and the means to grat- 
ify them, he has made "Woodside" audits sur- 
roundings " a thing of beauty and a joy " to every 
passer-by. 

Floriculture is here brought, as near as possible, 
to perfection, and the garden is not surpassed by 
any in New Hampshire. Imagine thousands upon 
thousands of the finest green-house flowers and 
plants, with their varied hues, placed into the open 
ground, and one may get something of a concep- 
tion of the sight which awaits the visitor. The 
luxuriant hedges are the wonder of the country — 
rivaling those of England — and are an object of 
interest to many English tourists, who are drawn 
to Charlestown especially to see them. But the 
pen of the writer cannot, in any adeijuate manner, 
describe the beauties and i;erfections of " Wood- 
side." It shouhi be seen and enjoyed by every 
lover of the picturescpie. 



34 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHARLESTOWN— (CoiKi'jmerfJ. 

Educational — First Schools— Early Votes of the Town — 
Private Schools — Masonic History — Faithful Lodge, No. 
12 — List of Physicians — Lawyers — Connecticut River 
Bank — Connecticut River National Bank — Robbery of 
Bank— The Town Hall— Civil History— Town Clerks 
from 1753-1885— Representatives from 1768-1885. 

Educational. — The first reference on the old 
town records to the subject of schools is under date 
of August 12, 1763, when it was 

" Voted 1st, on the 4th Article that the town will 
pay for schooling psust, viz. : Doct. Taylor and Samuel 
Stevens, Esq. Dissent entered, viz. : James Porter, 
Seth Walker, Jr., Simon Sartvvell, Jos. Willard, Lieut. 
John Sawyer, James Nutting Willard, Moses Willard 
and James Farnsworth, all appeared and objected 
against the foregoing vote and paid for entering the 
same. 

" Voted 2d, on the 4th Article that there shall be a 
school kept in the town for the future. 

" Voted 3d, on 2d Article that the school shall be 
kept in different parts of tlie town, in proportion to 
what each part shall pay towards said school. 

" Voted 4th, on 2d Article, that Messrs. Ebenezer 
Putnam, Samuel Stevens, Esq., and Simon Sartwell 
be a committee to see that the school be proportioned 
agreeable to the foregoing vote. 

" Voted 5th, on the 4th Article th.at the aforesaid 
committee be empowered to provide such school mas- 
ters or mistresses from time to time in the several 
parts of the town as shall be needful till our next an- 
nual meeting." 

In October, 1764,— 

" Voted that the school shall be kept in the differ- 
ent parts of the town, in proportion to what each part 
shall pay towards said school. Voted, that John Hast- 
ings, Jr., James Porter and Thomas Putnam be a 
committee for regulating the above said school." 

There was a school by the vote of the town also 
in 1765. There is no further record of any school 
till 1769, when the following votes were passed at 
the annual town-meeting : 

" Voted on the 4th Article, thatthere shall be a school 
kept in the town. 



" Voted 2d, on said Article, that the school be kept 
in the different parts of the town, in proportion to 
what each part shall pay towards said school. 

" Voted 3d, on said Article, that it shall be left with 
the selectmen to proportion the school in the different 
parts of the town, and also to provide a school-mas- 
ter." 

In March, 1770, the sixth article in the town 
warrant was " To see if the town will provide for 
a school the wliole or part of the ensuing year and 
to vote on any other matter that shall be thought 
(u- found necessary." 

On this it was voted that a school be kept and 
the sum of twenty-seven pounds should be raised 
and assessed on the inhabitants for its benefit ; and 
that the town should be divided into three districts, 
each of which should draw its projjortion of the 
money raised according to its other assessment, 
and, provided either district should fail to appro- 
priate its proportion to the use of a school, such 
proportion as was not thus appropriated was to be 
forfeited to such district or districts as should ap- 
propriate it to that object. Simon Sartwell, Cap- 
tain John Church and Elijah Grout were the 
committee to divide the town into districts. Messrs. 
Ebenezer Putnam, Elijah Grout and Peter Laba- 
ree were appointed a committee to provide a school 
for the north district ; Messrs. Simon Sartwell, 
Seth Walker and Joseph Willard for the south 
district, and Messrs. John Church, Lemuel Hast- 
ings and Abel Walker for the middle of the town. 

In the November following these votes the mid- 
dle district took measures to provide themselves 
with a school-house. The following is a list of 
persons employed upon the house from November 
5 to November 12, 1770, and also an account of 
some materials furnished by individuals for the 
building : 

On this house Abel Walker worked eight days ; 
Joseph King, bricklayer, six ; Lemuel Hastings, 
four and a fraction ; Sylvanus Hastings, four ; John 
Simons (Sinionds), Jonathan Wetherbe and Taylor 
Spencer, three each ; Peter Page, Elijah Parker, 
Peleg AVilliams, Landou Priest and Aaron Wil- 
lard, two each ; Bradstreet Spaftljrd, Barrat (pro- 



CIIARLESTOWN. 



35 



biibly John Barrett) and Elisha Farrt'ell, one 
eacli ; Stephen Alvord, three hours ; Samuel Hunt 
found five hundred feet of boards. 

In 1772, £50 were voted for schools ; in 1773, 
£40; 1774, £40; 1775, £45 ; 1777, £45; 1778, 
£100; 1780, £45; 1781, £45; and 1782, £60 
The schools have been lilierally su))j)ortcd from 
that time to the present. 

Among the private schools which have existed 
in the town were those of Rev. Samuel Crosby, 
Rev. Daniel Foster, Mrs. Gilchrist and Mi.ss Pratt. 

MASONIC. 

The first Masonic body in this town was called* 
Vermont Lodge, which met for the first time here 
November 2(5, 1781. It was moved to Springfield, 
Vt, in 17«8. 

Faithful Lodge, No. 12, was chartered by the 
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts February 23, 1788. 
A second charter was granted by the Grand Lodge 
of New Hampshire April 30, 1800. It was in- 
corporated June, 1821. No convocations of the 
lodge were held from 1828 to 1862. The lodge 
was revived in 1862. 

List of Physicians. — Jolin Hastings was one of 
the early inhabitants, and the earliest physician 
and surgeon of the township, and also one of its 
most distinguished and useful citizens Among 
others were David Taylor, William Page, Oliver 
Hastings, Thomas Bliss, Joseph Roby, Edmund 
Pelouze, Putnam Barron, Jacob Adams, John 
Duncan, Dr. Webber, Horace Saunders, Pliny 
Safl^jrd, Alexander Campbell, Hiram Hoyt, John 
W. Furbur, S. E Hale, Otis Russell Freeman, 
David H. Marden, Daniel Pierce, James Monroe 
Whitaker, David Comstock Moore, N. Grout 
Brooks, Dr. Frink, Dr. Leech, Dr. Pollard, Dr. 
Hall and Dr. Chandler. 

Lawyers. — Simeon Olcott, Benjamin West, Jo- 
seph Denuie, (a short time), Frederick A. Sumner, 
John C. Chamberlain, Samuel West (a short time), 
Samuel Hunt, Jr. (a short time), William Briggs, 
Henry Hubbard, George Olcott, John James 
Gilchrist, Edmund L. Cushiug, Henry Hubbard, 
Jr., Alfred T. Batchelder (firm of Colby & Bat- 
•chelder, since May 1, 1874). 



Banks.' — The first bank in Charlestown was 
chartered July 2, 1823, to continue until March 
1 , 1844, under the name of " The President, 
Directors and Company of the Connecticut River 
Bank." Capital, $60,000, in one thousand shares of 
860 each. The first meeting of the corporators 
was held in Hassam's Hotel July 10, 1824. The 
bank commenced business September 1, 1824. 
September 11, 1824, William Briggs was appointed 
a committee to build the vault and stone-work, 
and Horace Hall, Enos Stevens and Vyrling 
Lovell a committee to build the building, which 
was completed in 1825, and cost in all, including 
the vault, about $2100. 

George Olcott was cashier during the existence 
of the bank. He was appointed August 21, 1824. 

Presidents. 

Aaron Dean, from July 24, 1824, to December 5, 
1824. 

Horace Hall, from December 5, 1824, to March 16, 
1842. 

Enos Stevens, from March 10, 1842, to March Ki, 
1843. 

Samuel Crosby, from March 16, 1843, to the end. 

Directors. 

Aaron Dean, from July 10, 1824, till 1829. 

Horace Hall, from July 10, 1824, to March 16, 
1842. 

Robert Rand, from July 10, 1824, to the end. 

William Briggs, from July 10, 1824, to the end. 

Henry Hubbard, from July 10, 1824, to March 7, 
1842. 

Enos Stevens, from July 10, 1824, to March 3, 
1845. 

Vyrliug Lovell, from July 10, 1824, to March 10, 
1843. 

Samuel Crosby, from March 1, 1830, to the end. 

Isaac H. Wetherbe, from March 7, 1842, to the end. 

David Holton, from March 6, 1843, to the end. 

Samuel Webber, from Jlarch 6, 1843, to the end. 

Henry Hubbard, re-elected March 3, 1845, and 
served to the end. 

Seven directors were required by the charter. 
The average dividends of this bank during the 

' By George Olcott, Esq. , 



36 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



time it was in operation were 7.10B per cent, per 
aununi. On final settlement it returned to the 
stockholders its capital and twenty-four and seven- 
tenths per cent, surplus profits. 

At the time of the general suspension, in 1837, 
the bank determined not to suspend, and redeemed 
all its notes in specie — reducing their circulation 
to $3000, re-issuing their bills in August and Sep- 
tember, 1838. Bills of a new impression were 
issued in the latter month. 

The second bank in Charlestown was chartered 
June 18, 1844, under the name of the " Connecti- 
cut River Bank," to continue until January 1, 
1865. In approving the charter Governor John 
H. Steele says, " I have signed the charter with 
reluctance — a reluctance arising from a doubt as 
to the constitutional right of any State to create a 
banking company. See Article 1, Section 10, of 
the United States Constitution." The capital stock 
was originally $60,000 in one hundred shares of 
$600 each, which was increased in 1848 to $90,- 
000, and in 1855 to $100,000. The bank com- 
menced operations January 1, 1845. 

George Olcott, Esq , was cashier from the be- 
ginning until his death, February 4, 1864. His 
son, George Olcott, Jr., entered the bank as clerk 
in August, 1853, was elected assistant cashier in 
1862, and at the death of his father was appointed 
cashier in his place, which office he held to the end 
of the charter. 

Prenidenti. 

William Briggs, from July 11, 1845, to , 1847. 

John W. Tappan, from I\Iarch 1, 1847, to March, 
1848. 

Henry Hubbard, from ]March G, 1848, to March 5, 
1851. 

Samuel Webber, from March 5, 1851, to March 5, 
1855. 

Hope Lathrop, from March 5, 1855, to the end. 

Directors. 

William Briggs, February 11, 1845. 

Samuel Hubbard, from February 11, 1845, to March 
4, 1850. 

John W. Tappan, from February 11, 1845, to March 
6, 1848. 



Roswell Robertson, from February 11, 1845, to 
March 1, 1852. 
Samuel Webber, from February 11, 1845, to March 

5, 1855. 

Henry Hubbard, Jr., from February 11, 1845, to 
March 3, 1851. 

Samuel Walker, from February 11, 1845, to Marcli 

6, 1854. 

Samuel St. John, Jr., from March 1, 1847, to March 

0, 1848. 

Hope Lathrop, from March 6, 1848, to the end. 
Henry Hubbard, from March 6, 1848, to March 1, 
1851. 
Joseph W. Colburn, from March 4, 1850, to March 

1. 1852. 

Royal Shumway, from March .3, 1851, to March 1, 
18.52. 

Lanson Robertson, from March 3, 1851, to March 
1,1852. 

Ansel Glover, from March 1, 1852, to the end. 

Ashbel Hamlin, from March 1, 1S52, to the end. 

Robert Elwell, from March 1, 1852, to the end. 

George M. Dickinson, from March 1, 1852, to 
March 6, 1854. 

Roswell Robertson, from March 0, 1854, to March 

1, 1868. 

Jonathan Baker, from March 5, 1855, to the end. 
John W. Tappan, from March 5, 1855, to March 

2, 1857. 

John M. Glidden, from March 2, 1857, to the end. 
Samuel Walker, from March 1, 1858, to April 21, 
1S58. 
Edmund L. Gushing, from April 21, 1858, to March 

6, 1864. 

Charles Willard, from March 6, 1864, to the end. 

The number of directors was seven. 

November 1, 1845, a dividend of $10 a share 
was declared; March 2, 1846, $20; September 

7, 1846, $24; March 1, 1847, $27; September 
6, 1847, 4J per cent.; March 6, 1848, 4* per cent. 

From this time to March 3, 1851, the semi- 
annual dividends were four per cent. From Sep- 
tember 1, 1851, to the end, in September, 1864, 
they were three per cent. The bank, on final settle- 
ment, returned to the stockholders the full amount 
of the capital stock. 

The third bank in Charlestown was organized 



f'HARLESTOWN. 



37 



under the laws of the Uuited States as " The Cou- 
necticut River National Bank," October 21, 1804. 
Capital, §100,000. President, Hope Lathroj) ; 
Cashier, George Olcott. 

Robert Elwell was president from January, 
14, 1879, to Januar.y, 1884 ; John G. Dinsmore 
president since January 23, 1884 ; Richard Rob- 
ertson, vice-president since January 2.'), 1884. 

Directors. 

Hope Lathrop, September 28, 18G4; died December 
31, 1878. 

Ansel Glover, September 28, 18(54 ; died ]March, 
1879. 

Ashbel Hamlin, from September 28, ISlU, to .Taii- 
uary 18, 1873. 

Jonathan Baker, from September 28, 18(54, to Feb- 
ruary 2(5, 18(57. 

John M. Gliddeu, I'rom September 28, 18(54, to 
October, 1872. 

Joseph G. Briggs, Jr., from September 28, 18G4, to 
March 20, 186r); re-elected January 9, 1872; resigned 
in 1877. 

Enoch Hammond AVest, from September 28, 18(54, 
to January 10, 1865. 

William Dana, from January 10, 1865, to Novem- 
ber 18, 1870. 

Benjamin Whipple, January 9, 1866; died May 
1879. 

George Olcott, April 8, 1867. 

Charles Willard, January 9, 1877, to Octolier 29, 
1883. 

John G. Dinsmore, .January 14, 1879. 

Robert Elwell, .January 14, 1879; died January, 
1884. 

William A. Band, January 13, iS80. 

Richard Robertson, October 29, 1883. 

Roswell Huntoon, January 23, 1884. 

The dividends up to and including July, 1880, 
vrere ten per cent, per annum. Since that time 
they have been eight per cent. 

The charter of the third bank expired Septem- 
ber 15, 1884, and on that same day the bank 
started on its fourth twenty years' charter with the 
same officers, viz. : John G. Dinsmore, president ; 
Richard Robertson, vice-president ; George Olcott, 
cashier ; John G. Dinsmore, Richard Robertson, , 



George Olcott, William A. Rand and Roswell 
Huntoon, directors. 

This bank was broken into on the night of the 
loth of June, 1850, and all the money abstracted 
from the vault. The robbery was committed by 
Aiiijah Larned and his brother, the former of 
whom was subsequently arrested by Sheriff Baker, 
of Grafton, and Hon. Henry Hubbard, who was 
president of the bank that had been robbed. 
Larned was brought to Charlestown, where he 
found the evidence against him to be so strong 
that he concluded it would be the part of wisdom 
to make confession of his guilt to the officers and 
directors of the bank, which he did. 

The burglars arrived at Charlestown about nine 
o'clock on the evening of the 10th, and at about 
midnight their work was done. In this time they 
had picked four locks and secured in money about 
twelve thousand dollars. The premises were 
thoroughly searched, and every trunk and box that 
had been deposited in the bank for safe keeping 
was broken open, and all that was valuable to them 
in its contents taken. On leaving, both the doors 
of the vault and the l)ank were re-locked, and 
there was no appearance, on entering the building, 
that anything had been disturbed, and it was only 
when they found the locks so out of order that 
they could with difficulty be opened that jMr. 
Olcott suspected the evil that had been done. 

But tlie remarkable part of the matter is to 
come. After securing their booty, aided by an 
exceedingly fast horse, they started for home and 
intended to arrive there in the shortest possible 
space of time, so that no suspicion should be excited 
by their absence. 

When reaching the base of a hill between Drews- 
ville and Marlow they both alighted to walk up 
the hill and so ea.se their horse; while one walked 
much faster than the horse, the other fell some 
distance behind. The foremost arrived at the top 
of the hill, and after waiting some minutes the 
brother emerged in sight through the darkness, 
but t'le horse was not there. 

They retraced their steps, but horse, buggv and 
money had disappeared. They perceived a light 



38 



mSTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



from a neighboring fariii-hoiise, but uo tracks 
could be discovered whereby they could trace the 
truant animal. Daylight coming on, they were 
obliged to give up their search and seek their own 
safety. It seems that the horse, after toiling some 
time in ascending the hill, discovered a narrow 
path leading from the main road at right angles, 
and, having no one to guide him, followed his in- 
clination and took the side track rather than pur- 
sue his course up the hill. A man in Marlow who 
had been out to watch with a sick neighbor, and 
was riding home with his brother at about four 
o'clock in the morning, was surprised to see ahorse 
and buggy without any driver coming up behind 
them. He said to his lirother, " Some one has lost 
his horse and wagon ; let us hitch them in sight, as 
the owner will be along soon." But as they led 
the horse along they saw in the bottom of the 
wagon some loose pieces of gold, and upon ex- 
amination they found all the money which had 
been taken from the bank, with a number of bags 
of tools and false keys, which immediately led 
them to suspect a robbery. The alarm was given, 
and at Paper-Mill village they found runners who 
had come from Charlestown, to whom they com- 
municated the news of what they had discovered, 
and, moreover, that the money was safe at the 
house of their informant, at Marlow. This infor- 
mation was soon communicated to Mr. Ulcott and 
Governor Hubbard, who, as soon as possible, took 
measures to identify the money and restore it once 
more to the vault of the bank. 

The burglars paid all the expenses of the bank 
and were put under two thousand five hundred 
dollars bonds, which were forfeited. Abijah 
Larned was afterwards arre-ted and tried for rob- 
bing the bank at Cooperstown, N. Y., and was 
sent to State's Prison, where he died before the ex- 
piration of the sentence. 

The Town Hall was erected in 1872 at an 
expense of about twenty thousand dollars. It is 
forty-two feet by ninety, two stories high, and is 
a neat and commodious structure. 

Town Clerks. — The following is a list of town 
clerks from 1753 to 1885 : 



John Hastings, 1753 to 1762. 

William Haywood, 1762 to 1803, except 1788. 

Elijah Grout, 1788. 

F. A. Sumner, 1803 to 1819, and 1823. 

George Olcott, 1819 to 1823 and 1824. 

Henry H. Sylvester, 1825. 

William Gordon, 1826, '27, '33, '34, '35, '36, '37, '38. 

Henry Hubbard, 1828. 

Enos Stevens, 1829, '30, '31, '32. 

Simeon O. Cooley, 1839, '40, '42, '43, '44. '45, '4G, 
'47, '48. 

George Hubbard, 1841. 

S. L. Fletcher, 1849. 

S. L. Wilder, Jr., 1850, '51, '52, '53, '55, '56, '57. 

Charles Messenger, 1854. 

Charles C. Kimball, 1858, '59, '67, '68, '69, '70, 71, 
'72, '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, '81. 

F. W. Putnam, 1860, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66. 

Sumner C. Foster, 1882, '83, '84. 

Herbert W. Bond, 1885. 

Representatives. — The following is a list of 
representatives from 1768 to 1885: 



1768. Simon Stevens. 

1769. Simon Stevens. 

1770. Simon Stevens. 

1771. Simeon Olcott. 

1772. Simeon Olcott. 

1773. Simeon Olcott. 

1774. Samuel Hunt. 

1775. William Heywood. 

1776. Elijah Grout. 

1777. David Taylor. 

1778. Samuel Hunt. 

1779. William Haywood. 

1780. Benjamin West. 

1781. Elijah Grout. 

1782. John Hubbard. 

1784. Elijah Grout. 

1785. Elijah Grout. 

1786. John Hubbard. 

1787. John Hubbaid. 

1788. William Page. 

1789. William Page. 

1790. William Page. 

1791. William Page. 

1792. Benjamin Moore. 

1793. Samuel Stevens. 

1794. Samuel Stevens. 



1795. Elijah Grout. 

1796. Samuel Stevens. 

1797. Samuel Stevens. 

1798. Samuel Stevens. 

1799. Samuel Stevens. 

1800. Eph. Carpenter. 

1801. Eph. Carpenter. 

1802. Samuel Hunt. 

1803. Oliver Hastings. 

1804. Oliver Hall. 

1805. Oliver Hall. 

1806. Oliver Hastings. 

1807. Benjamin Labaree. 

1809. Benjamin Labaree. 

1810. Horace Hall. 

1811. Horace Hall. 

1812. Henry Hubbard. 

1813. Henry Hubbard. 

1814. Henry Hubbard. 

1815. Henry Hubbard. 

1816. Enos Stevens. 

1817. Enos Stevens. 

1818. J. C. Chamberlain. 

1819. Henry Hubbard. 

1820. Henry Hubbard. 

1821. Enos Stevens. 



CHARLESTOWN. 



39 



1822. Enos Stevens. 

1823. Henry Hubbard. 

1824. Henry Hubbard. 

1825. Henry Hubbard. 

1826. Henry Hubbard. 

1827. Henry Hubbard. 

1828. Vryling Lovell. 

1829. Enos Stevens. 

1830. Enos Stevens. 

1831. Joseph Heaton. 

1832. Jonathan L. Mack. 

1833. Jonathan L. Mack. 

1834. William Gordon. 

1835. Isaac Silsby. 
1830. John J. Gilchrist. 

1837. John J. Gilchrist. 

1838. Putnam Barron. 

1839. Seth Meacham. 

1840. Seth Meacham. 

1841. Ashbel Hamlin. 

1842. Ashbel Hamlin. 



1843. Benjamin Challis. 

1844. Benjamin Challis. 

1846. William McCrea. 

1847. William McCrea. 

1848. William A. Rand. 

1849. William A. Rand. 

1850. Edm. L. Gushing. 
Richard Holden. 

1851. Richard Holden. 
Brooks Kimball. 

1852. Edm. L. Gushing. 

1853. Edm. L. Gushing. 

1854. John M. Glidden. 
1855. John M. Glidden. 

S. L. Wilder, Jr. 

1856. S. L. Wilder, Jr. 

1857. S. L. Wilder, Jr. 
Brooks Kimball. 

1858. Brooks Kimball. 
Gyles Merrill. 

1859. William McCrea. 



1860. 
1861. 
1862. 
1863. 
1864. 
1865. 
1866. 
1867. 
1868. 
1869. 



Samuel Walker. 


1870. 


George Olcott. 


John 


J. Hanson. 




Abel Hunt. 


Chas. 


C. Kimball. 


1871. 


George W. Hoyt. 


Harvey Abbott. 




Herbert B. Viall. 


Chas. C. Kimball. 
Harvey Abbott. 
Benj. Whipple. 
Benj. Whipple. 
John M. Glidden. 
John M. Glidden. 


1873. 

1874. 
1875. 

1876. 


Ira M. Perry. 
Matt. W. Green. 
No Kep. elected. 
Chas. C. Kiml)all. 
Nath. W. Howard. 
Chas. C. Kimball. 
Nath. W. Howard. 


Horace Hubbard. 


1877. 


Lorin H. Royce. 


Horace Hubbard. 




Brooks Kimball. 


Charl 


es H. West. 


1878. 


Lorin H. Royce. 


William Dana. 




Brooks Kimball. 


Charl 


es Gay. 


1879. 


Samuel Walker. 


William Dana. 


1880. 


Robert R. Allen. 


Charl 


es Gay. 


1881. 


Robert "R. Allen. 


William Dana. 


1882. 


George H. Messer. 


Nath 


W. Howard. 


1883. 


George H. Messer. 


Nath. 


W. Howard. 


1884. 


R. W. Robinson. 


F. W 


. Putnam. 


1885. 


R. W. Robinson. 



HISTORY OF CLAREMONT. 



ISY OTIS F. U. WAITE. 



CHAPTER I. 

The town of Claremont is boundud on the north 
by Coniisli, east by (Iroydon and NewiRirt, south 
by Unity and Charkstown and west l)y Wcatheis- 
field, Vl. The priueipal vilhige is sitiiattd about 
three and a halt' miles due east from C'onneeticut 
River, occupies a hirge anil varied area, and through 
it runs Sugar River. It is not pretended that the 
following is a complete history of this town. The 
space allowed in this work, lli<iugh liix'ral in com- 
parison with that given to some other towns, does 
not admit of a full history. Many topics arc not 
touched upon at all, while others are pretty I'ully 
treated. The facts havt^ been gathered from rec- 
ords, public documents, traditions and every avail- 
able reliiible source, all of which has boon freely 
used — many times without credit being given. 
With old records iiicomplete and imperfect, and 
many traditions lost or buried with the remains of 
the earlier inhabitants, this sketch is perhaps as 
accurate as any that could be nuide at this time. 

The territory on th(! westerly side of Conn(,'cticut 
River, which had been granted by Governor Went- 
worth, having been declared to be beyond the 
jurisdiction of the province of New Hamj)shire, 
the government of New York resorted to many 
methods to dispossess all those who had derived 
their titles from Governor Wentworth. Otticers 
were sent among them, connnanding them to de- 
liver up their premises ; landlords claimed rent, 
and attempted to collect it ; actions wen' c(}iu- 
meneed against the occupants, which, being brought 
40 



in the courts of New York, were invariably decided 
against the defendants. Long and bitter contro- 
versies arose, and the sturdy settlers, determined 
not to yield, resorted to arms in defense of their 
estates. Acts of violence were frequent, and the 
officers of New York often found the physical 
power was on the side of the settlers. There were 
among the inhabitants many daring, intrejiid men, 
ready to encounter danger, if necessary, and by no 
means scrupulous of the observance of " points of 
law," as settled by the courts of New York. 

The early settlers of New Hampshire, especially 
the western portion of the province, as well as 
those of Vermont, were not, like the Plymouth 
colonists, actuated solely in their enterprises by 
religious motives. Their association consisted pri- 
marily more in the regulations of mercantile com- 
panies than in civil legislation ; though, fi-om the 
necessity of the case, the latter became their con- 
dition in the process of time. Speculation and the 
ac(iuisition of wealth formed the basis of their move- 
ments ; and it is thought that, judged in accord- 
ance with the ])rinci])les of sound morality and 
law, their acts would in some instances have been 
considered opjiressive and unjust. The institutions 
of religion were not disregarded. In many cases, 
among the first of their legislative corporate acts 
was the [)roviding for a minister " to come and 
settle among" them. Particidarly was this the 
case with the first settlers of Claremont. 

Soon after the Declaration of American Inde- 
pendence the inhabitants of the territory in ipics- 
tion assembled to take into ccmsideration their 



CLAREMONT. 



41 



peculiar condition, and to provide means of safety. 
The situation of the country created, as they be- 
lieved, a radical change in their political connec- 
tions. By the dissolution of the bonds which had 
subjected America to the rule of Great Britain, 
they imagined that all acts sanctioned by the 
authority of the mother-country were abrogated, 
and no longer binding ; and hence, concerning 
themselves free from the government of New York, 
to which they had never willingly submitted, and 
being, as they declared, " reduced to a state of na- 
ture," they insisted that they had a right to form 
such ass elation as was agreeable to themselves. 
Accordingly, they made the declaration that " they 
would at all times consider themselves as a free 
and independent State, capable of regulating their 
own internal police ; that they had the sole, ex- 
clusive right of governing themselves in such man- 
ner as they should choose, not repugnant to the 
resolves of Congress ; and that they were ready to 
contribute their proportion to the common de- 
fense." Guided by these principles, they adopted 
a plan of government, established a code of laws 
and petitioned Congress to receive them into the 
Union. 

The inhabitants of the eastern valley of the 
Connecticut Kivcr, both on account of location 
and sympathy, were strongly inclined to unite 
with those on the western side in the formation of 
a new State. They claimed that the original 
grant to Captain John Mason was limited by the 
line drawn at a distance of sixty miles from the 
sea ; that all the lands westward of that line were 
royal grants, which, being under the jurisdiction 
of New Ilampshiie merely by the force of the 
royal commission, were vacated by the assumed 
independence of the American colonies, and 
therefore, that all the inhabitants of this territory 
had " reverted to a state of nature." By this it 
was understood that each town retained its 
corporate unity, but wws wholly disconnected 
from any superior jurisdiction. They made a dis- 
tinction between commissions derived from the 
King, revocable at his pleasure, and incorpora- 
tions granted on certain conditions, which con- 



ditions having been performed, the powers and 
privileges incident to or resulting from the 
corporate bodies were perpetual. 

They asserted that when the power of the King 
had been rejected and no longer recognized, the 
only legal authority remaining was vested in their 
town incorporations, and that the majority of each 
town had a right to control the minority. These 
views, however, did not meet with universal 
approval. Sixteen of the towns along the eastern 
bank of the Connecticut were in favor of the 
union with those on the western, and, having 
presented a petition to the new State, which had 
a'isumed the name of Vermont requested that they 
might be received into union with it, and alleged 
that " they were not connected with any State 
with respect to their internal ])olice." After 
much .strife these sixteen towns were received, the 
Assembly of Vermont having passed a resolution 
that other towns on the eastern side of Connecti- 
cut River might be admitted on procuring a vote 
of a majority of the inhabitants, as in the election 
of a re])resentative. 

In ITTiS great effort was made to secure the 
favor of Claremont and other towns below in 
behalf of this movement, but without success. The 
towns thus admitted gave notice to the govern- 
ment of New Hampshire, and expressed their 
desire for an amicable adjustment of a jurisdic- 
tional line and a friendly interchange. Bitter 
animosities and confusi(m were the offspring of 
this act. The President of New Hampshire, as 
the Executive was then styled, resorted to per- 
suasion and threats in order to reclaim the 
seceders. Vermont was slow to give up an 
acquisition so valuable, and at last both parties 
appealed to Congress for aid. After long delay, 
Congress declared it an " indispensable prelimi- 
nary " to the admission of Vermont as a member of 
the United States, that she should " explicitly 
relinquish all demands of lands and jurisdiction 
on the east side of Connecticut River and on the 
west side of a line drawn twenty miles eastward of 
Hudson's River to Lake Chami^lain." 

This resolution being laid before the Assembly 



42 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of Vermont, iu sessif)n at Charlestown, they voted 
to " reniaiu firm iu the priociples on which they 
had firet assumed goverumeut, and to hold the 
articles of union inviolate ; that they would not 
submit the question of their independence to the 
arbitrament of any power whatevei- ; but they 
were willing at present to refer the question of 
their jurisdictional boundary to commissioners 
mutually chosen ; and when they should be ad- 
mitted into the American Union, they would 
submit any such disputes to Congress." 

This state of things produced, as it naturally 
would, deep resentment between the people of 
New Hampshire and Vermont, which, on slight 
occasion, would break forth in acts 6f hostility. 
An example is furnished in an affray which had 
its beginning at Chesterfield in 1781. A 
constable, under authority of Vermont, had a 
writ against a man favorable to the interests of 
New Hampshire, and went in pursuit of him. He 
found him in a dwelling-house, surrounded by his 
friends, and attempted to arrest him. The owner 
of the house interfered and ordered the officer to 
depart. The constable produced a book, which he 
said contained the laws of Vermont, and began to 
read. The householder commanded him to desist. 
Threatening words followed, and, finally, the 
officer was compelled to retire. Under a writ 
issued by a Vermont justice, the householder and 
another of the company were arrested and com- 
mitted to prison at Charlestown. The prisoners 
sent a petition to the Assembly of New Hamp- 
shire for relief. The Assembly authorized the 
Committee of Safety to direct the sheriff of 
Cheshire County to relieve the prisoners ; and, 
further, empowered the committee to cause to be 
committed to prison, in any of the counties, all 
persons acting under the pretended authority of 
the State of Vermont, to be tried by the courts of 
those counties where they might be confined ; and 
for this purpose sheriffs were directed to raise the 
posse corfiitatus. 

The sheriff of Cheshire County, in the attempt 
to release the two prisoners, was himself arrested 
and imprisoned by the Vermont sheriff. The 



impris ned sheriff now appealed to a brigadier- 
general of New Hampshire to raise the militia for 
his liberation. The Vermonters were aroused, 
and the Governor immediately issued orders to 
his militia to repel the "invaders." A committee 
from Vermont was sent to Exeter " to agree on 
measures to prevent hostilities." One of the com- 
mittee was the Vermont sheriff, who was immedi- 
ately arrested, thrown into prison at Exeter and 
held as a hostage for the release of the sheriff of 
Cheshire. 

There were many instances of collisions and 
open violence, in attempts of officers from each of 
the two States to collect the taxes and enforce 
other restrictions upon the people. Such was the 
menacing aspect of affairs at this juncture that 
Congress, from motives of general policy, deter- 
mined to settle the difiiculties, if possible. General 
Washington wrote the Governor of Vermont, ad- 
vising the relinquishment of the late extension of 
boundary, as an indispensable pre-requisite to the 
admission of Vermont into the Union, and inti- 
mating that, upon non-compliance, coercion on the 
part of Congress, however disagreeable, would be 
necessary. The effect of this letter was salutary. 
The Assembly of Vermont, in the absence of the 
members from the east side of Connecticut River, 
passed a vote approving the " preliminary," and 
resolved that " the western bank of Connecticut 
River, on the one part, and a line drawn from the 
northwest corner of Massachusetts northward to 
Lake Champlain, on the other part, be the eastern 
and western boundaries of the State of Vermont ; 
and that they relinquish all claim of jurisdiction 
without these limits." 

The members of the Assembly from the east 
side of the river, finding themselves thus virtually 
cut off from the legislative body, took their leave 
with chagrin and feelings of resentment. Though 
excluded from their recent connection, the excluded 
towns did not at once peaceably place themselves 
under their former jurisdiction, but for some time 
continued to keep alive the difficulties and ani- 
mosities which had so long existed. During these 
strifes the courts of New Hampshire had held 



CLA11E3I0NT. 



43 



their regular sessions, with but little opposition, 
though the officers of Vermont claimed and exe- 
cuted jurisdiction in the same territory; but when 
the latter were deprived of authority by the act of 
the Assembly of Vermont, a spirit of resistance 
against the former became apparent. 

In September, 1782, during the sitting of the 
Inferior Court at Keeue, several persons attempted 
to stop its proceedings, and succeeded in effecting 
an adjournment. Three of the leaders were 
arrested and bound over to the Superior Court. 
Meanwhile, efforts were being made to resist and 
overpower the Superior Court. Reports were 
circulated that two hundred men had combined 
and armed themselves for that purpose. On the 
morning of the opening of the court several of the 
leaders went to the chambers of the court and 
presented a petition, praying " that the court 
might be adjourned, and that no judicial proceed- 
ings might be had while the troubles in which the 
county had been involved still subsisted." They 
were told that the judges could come to no de- 
cision upon the subject but in open court. The 
court was opened in due time, the petition was 
publicly read and its consideration postponed to 
the next day. The court then proceeded to its 
business. The grand jury were impaneled, and, 
with open doors, the attorney-general laid before 
them the case of the rioters at the Inferior Court. 
A bill wa.s found against thcni ; they were 
arraigned, pleaded guilty and threw themselves 
upon the mercy of the court. The court remitted 
their punishment on condition of future jseaceable 
behavior. 

This method of firmness and lenity at once dis- 
armed the disturbers, and they quietly dispensed. 
From this time the spirit of insubordination 
gradually died away, and the jieople quietly 
returned to their allegiance to New Hampshire. 

New Hampshire was first settled in 1628, by 
Edward and William Hilton, brothers, from 
London, and David Thompson, from Scotland. 
For eighteen years after the first settlement the 
people in the several plantations were governed 
by agents appointed by the jiroprietors, or by 



magistrates chosen by themselves. In 1641 they 
were united with Massachusetts, and so continued 
until 1680, when New Hampshire became a royal 
province, and continued a provincial government 
until the Revolution, with the exception of the 
interim from 1688 to 1692, when the people, in 
consequence of the disorders and confusion which 
attended the short but oppressive administration 
of Sir Edmund Andros, again placed themselves 
under the protection of Massachusetts. Massa- 
chusetts was made a province in 1692, and the 
same person was Governor of both provinces from 
1699 to 1741, when a separate Governor was ap- 
pointed for New Hampshire; and this was the 
beginning of Governor Benniug Weutworth's 
administration He was a son of Lieutenant 
Governor Wentworth, " was a merchant of good 
reputation in Portsmouth, and well beloved by his 
people." He had represented his town in the 
Assembly several years, and had been a member 
of the Council. 

During the commotions excited by the Stamp 
Act he was careful not to make liimself con- 
spicuous in the ranks of either party. At that 
time he had been in the executive chair twenty- 
five years, and expected that his successor would 
soon be appointed. The long terra of his adminis' 
tratiou gives reason to believe that his acts, as a 
whole, were not oppressive or dissatisfactory to the 
people. He had become quite wealthy, though it 
was not charged that he filled his coffers by 
extortions from the people. His grants of land, 
profuse and unauthorized, perhaps, in some 
instances, proved to be of great advantage to New 
Hampshire in filling up her waste places with 
industrious and enterprising men, and in laying 
the foundation for that prosperity which, ever 
since his day, has marked the jirogress of the 
State. Under his admiuistratiou the town of 
Claremont was incorporated. 

It is stated in the New Hampshire Gazetteer, 
published at Concord, by Jacob B. Moore, in 
1823, that Claremont was granted, October 28, 
1764, to Josiah Willard, Samuel Ashley and 
sixty-eight others, and received its name from the 



44 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIEE. 



country-seat of Lord Clive, an English general. 
The following is a verbatim copy of the charter 
from the proprietors' book of records : 

"Province of New Hampshire. 
" George /he Third, by the Grace of God of Great 

Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the 

Faith, d'o. 

" To all persons to whom these Presents shall come 
greeting, know ye that we of our Especial Grace 
certain knowledge and mere Motion for the Due 
Encouragement of Settling a New Plantation within 
our s'd Province, by and with the Advice of our 
Trusty and well Beloved Benning Wentworth, Esqr., 
our Governor and Commander-in-chief of s'd Prov- 
ince of New Hampshire, in New England, and of 
our Council of the s'd Province, have, upon the Con- 
ditions and Reservations hereinafter made, given and 
Granted, and, by these presents, for us, our heirs and 
Successors, Do give and grant in Equal Shares unto 
our loving subjects, Inhabitants of s'd Province of 
New Hampshire and our other Government, and to 
their Heirs and Assigees forever whose names are 
entered in this Grant, to be divided to and amongst 
them into 75 Equal Shares, all the Tract or Parcel of 
Land Situate, Lying and Being within our s'd Prov- 
ince of New Hampshire, containing, by adineasure- 
ment, 24,000 acres, which Tract is to Contain about 
Six Miles square and no More, out of which an 
allowance is to Be made for highways and unim- 
proved Lands, by Rocks, Ponds, Mountains and 
Rivers, 1040 acres, free, according to a Plan and 
Survey thereof made by our Said Governor's order 
and returned into ye Secretary's office, and hereunto 
Annexed, Butted and Bounded as Follows (viz.): 
Beginning at a marked Tree Standing on the 
Easterly Bank of Connecticut River, which is in the 
Northwesterly Corner bounds of Charlestown ; from 
thence running South 78° Easterly about 6 miles, 
and one-half mile to the Southwesterly angle of New- 
port; from thence Turning off and running North 8° 
Easterly about 5 miles, and seven-eighths of a mile 
by Newport, aforesaid, to the Southwesterly angle of 
Cornish; thence turning off again and running North 
77° Westerly about (> miles, by Cornish, aforesaid, to 
Connecticut River, aforesaid ; thence Down the said 
River, as that runs, to the Bound Begun at, together 
with the Islands lying in the Said River opposite to 
the Premises, and that the same be and hereby is 
Incorporated into the Township by ye name of 



Claremont, and the Inhabitants that Do or shall 
henceforth Inhabit the said Township are hereby 
Declared to be Enfranchised with and Entitled To, 
all and Every, the Privileges and Immunities that 
other Towns within our Province by Law Exercise 
and Enjoy, and Further, that the s'd Town, as soon 
as there shall Be iifty Families Resident and Settled 
thereon, shall have the Liberty of holding two Fairs, 

one of which shall be on the and the other 

in the , annually, which Fairs are not to be 

continued longer than the . Following the said, 

and that, as soo:; as the said Town shall consist of 
Fifty Families, a market May be opened and kept 
one or more Days in Each Week, as may be thought 
most advantageous to the Inhabitants ; also, that the 
First meeting for the choice of Town Officers, agree- 
able to the Law of our said Province, shall be held 
on ye Second Tuesday of March Next, which s'd 
Meeting shall be Notified by Samuel Ashley, who is 
hereby appointed the Moderator of s'd first Meeting, 
which he is to Notify and Govern agreeably to Law 
and Customs of our s'd Province, and that the annu.al 
Meeting forever hereafter for the Choice of such 
officers for the said Town shall be on the Second 
Tuesday of March, annually. To Have and To 
Hold the s'd Tract of land as above Expressed, 
together with all the Privileges and Appurtenances to 
them, and their Representative Heirs and Assigees 
forever, upon the following conditions (viz.) : 

" Istly. That every grantee, his heirs or assigees, 
shall plant and cultivate Five acres of Land within 
the Term of Five years for every fifty acres Con- 
tained in his or their .share or proportion of Land in 
said Township, and Continue to Improve and Settle 
the Same By additional Cultivations, Penalty of the 
Forfeiture of his grant or Share of Land in said 
Township, and of its Reverting to us, our heirs and 
Successors, to be by us or them Regranted to such of 
our Subjects as shall Effectually Settle and Cultivate 
the same. 

" 2dly. That all white and other pine Trees within 
ye s'd Township fit for Masting our Royal Navy be 
Carefully Preserved for that use, and none to be Cut 
or Felled without our Special License for so doing 
first had and obtained, upon the Penalty of the 
Forfeiture of the Rights of such grantee, his heirs 
and assigns, to us, our heirs and successors, as well 
as being subject to the Penalty of any act or acts of 
Parliament that now and hereafter shall be Enacted. 



CLAREMONT. 



45 



" 3dly. That before any Division of s'd Land be 
made to and among the Grantees, a Tract of Land, as 
near the Centre of ye s'd Township as the Land will 
admit of, shall be Reserved and marked out for Town 
Lots, one of which shall (be) allotted to each Grantee 
of the Contents of one acre. 

"4thly. Yielding and paying, therefore, to us, our 
heirs and successors for the Space of Ten Years, to 
be Computed from the Date hereof, the rent of one 
ear of Indian Corn only, on the Twenty-fifth day of 
December, annually, if Lawfully Demanded, the 
First payment to be made on ye 25th Day of De- 
cember, 1764. 

" r>thly. Every Proprietor, Settler or Inhabitant 
Shall Yield and pay unto us, our heirs and successors, 
yearly and every year forever, from and after the 
expiration of Ten Years from the above s'd 25th Day 
of December, namely, on the 25th Day of December, 
which will be in the Year of our Lord 1774, one 
Shilling Proclamation Money for every hundred 
acres he so owns, settles or Possesses, and so in pro- 
portion for a greater or lesser Tract of ye s'd Land, 
which money shall be Paid by the Representative 
Persons above s'd, their heirs or assigns, in our 
Council Chamber at Portsmouth, or to such officer or 
officers as shall be appointed to Receive the same, 
and this is to be in Lieu of all other rents and 
services whatsoever. 

" In Testimony whereof, we have caused the Seal 
of our s'd Province to be hereunto affixed. 

" Witnet^s Benning Wentworth, Esq., our Governor 
and Commander-in-Chief of our said Province, the 
Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our 
Lord Christ 1764. 

" (Signed), B. Wentworth. 

" By his Excellency's command, 

" With advice of Council, 

"T. Atkinson, Jun'r, Sec'ij." 

Names of the Grantees of Claremont. 

Josiah Willard, Esq., Samuel Ashley, Jeremiah 
Hull, Josiah Willard, Jr., Thomas Frink, Esq., John 
Ellis, Samson Willard, Abraham Scott, Henry 
Foster, Solomon Willard, Jonathan Hammond, 
William Heaton, Prentice Willard, Samuel Ashley, 
Jr., James Scott, Samuel Scott, Oliver Ashley, Abijah 
Willard, Micah Lawrence, Abel Lawrence, Michael 
Metcalf, Ephraim Dorman, James Lord, William 
Willard, Jeremiah Powers, John Arms, David Field, 



Jonathan Hawks, Samuel Field, Henry Bond, Simon 
Chamberlain, Elijah Alexander, Ebenezer Dodge, 
Jonathan Cass, Joshua Hide, Nathaniel Heaton, 
Gideon Ellis, Jonathan Grimes, Joseph Cass, John 
Scott, William Richardson, John Pierce, Thomas 
Lee, Stephen Putnam, Timothy Taylor, Benjamin 
Freeman, Oliver Fairwell, John Searles, Oliver Fair- 
well, Jr., Ephraim Adams, Phineas Wait, Samuel 
Wells, John Hunt, William Smead, Colonel John 
Goffe, Esq., Daniel Jones, Esq., Hon. John Temple, 
Esq., Mark H. Wentworth, Esq., Theodore Atkin- 
son, Jr., Colonel William Symes and Solomon Davis. 

The Governor's reservation, which he invariably 
made in his grants, and also reservations of lands 
for other purposes, as appears by the records, were 
as follows : 

"His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., a 
Tract of Land to contain 500 Acres, as marked B. W. 
in the Plan, and also a small Island lying in the 
River, opposite s'd 500 acres, which are to be 
accounted two of the within Shares ; one which 
shares for the Incorporated Society for the propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in foreign parts ; one whose share 
for a Glebe for ye Church of England, as by law 
established ; one whole share for ye first settled 
(minister) of the Gospel, and one share for the Benefit 
of a school forever, in said Town forever." 

Governor Wentworth's share was located in the 
southwesterly corner of the town, and included 
what has long been known as the Isaac Hubbard 
farm, now owned and occupied by Isaac H. Long, 
a grandson of Isaac Hubbard, and by the widow 
of the Rev. Isaac G. Hubbard, D.D., who was. a 
son of Isaac Hubbard, Esq. The island referred 
to in Connecticut River is known as Hubbard's 
Island. A portion of the school lands are situated 
on the east side of Broad Street, beginning at 
Sugar River, and extending southerly to and 
including the present residence of the widow of 
George \V. Blodgett. Of the land reserved for 
the Society " for the propagation of the gospel in 
foreign parts," one hundred acres lie in the north 
part of the town, and are owned by Solon C. 
Grannis, Esq., and others. About one hundred 
acres of the glebe land are located on the northerly 
side of what is called the new road from Clare- 



46 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



niont to Newjrort, about three miles from Clare- 
mont village, and was purchased several yeare ago 
by the Monadnock Mills Corporation. Another 
portion of the glebe lands lies near Union 
Church, West Claremont. 

As appears by the records, the first meeting of 
the proprietors of Claremont was held at " ye 
house of Lieutenant Hilkiah Grout, inn-holder, in 
Winchester, on Monday, ye second day of Febru- 
ary, A.D. 1767." An organization was formed, 
as provided by the charter. The first act is 
recorded as follows : " Voted, Istly, and choose 
Secretary Samuel Ashley Moderator for this meet- 
ing. 2d, Voted and chose Colonel Josiah 
Willard proprietors' clerk." They then laid out 
the Governor's two shares : 

"Beginning at j-e southwest corner of ye Town, on 
the bank of ye river, running East 12 deg. south 
on ye line between Claremont and Charlestown, 360 
rods, to a pillow of stones ; then runs West 12 de- 
grees North, 260 rods to ye river, and then runs 
down ye river as that runs to where it begins, includ- 
ing the Island in said river opposite ye two shares 
aforesaid." 

It was afterwards ascertained that the tract 
thus laid out did not contain the required 
quantity of five hundred acres, and an addition 
was accordingly made of a triangular jjiece of 
land on the easterly side of the lot first set off. At 
this meeting shares were set off by metes and 
bounds to many of the proprietors. They then 
appointed William Parker, of Portsmouth ; 
Samuel Livermore, of Londonderry ; Josiah 
Willard, of Winchester ; 

" all of ye Province of New Hampshire, Esqs. and 
Samuel Ashley, of Winchester in s'd Province, agents 
and attorneys for ye Proprietors in all suits and 
Controversies moved or to be moved for or against 
s'd Proprietors and in their behalf to appear, plead 
and pursue to find judgment and Execution, with 
full power of Substitution and power to compound 
and settle such actions and controversies wherein s'd 
Proprietors are or may be concerned, the s'd Pro- 
prietors hereby ratifying, confirming and holding 
valid whatever s'd Agents and Attorneys, or any two 



of them, shall legally do or cause to be done in or 
about the Premises." 

This precautionary step was, doubtless, taken to 
meet whatever difficulties might arise in the 
progress of the settlement of the town. So far as 
records or traditions inform us, there was no im- 
mediate prospect that the proprietors would be 
molested in the settlement and disposal of the 
township. There were but few squatters, and 
these were generally content to receive, as full 
compensation for all improvements each might 
have made, a deed of sixty acres of land in such 
locations as the proprietors might select. Among 
the squatters were David Lynde and Moses 
Spafford, who were the first settlers within the 
limits of the town as described by the charter. In 
1763, Elijah, son of Moses Spafford, was born, 
being the first native English child born in town, 
according to the New Hampshire Gazetteer. Ac- 
cording to the same authority, Lynde and 
Spafford settled in Claremont in 1762. In 1763 
and 1766 several other inhabitants arrived, and in 
1767 a considerable number of the proprietors, 
and others from the towns of Farmington, Hebron 
and Colchester, in Connecticut, made settlements 
in different parts of the town. Lynde and Spaflx)rd 
built a rude cabin in the easterly part of the town, 
and began the work of clearing the forest, and 
continued to make improvements for several 
years, until they were induced to accept sixty 
acres each from the proprietors for their improve- 
ments. Lynde's tract was in the vicinity of 
Green Mountain, so called, and Spafford's was in 
the west part of the town, which is now owned 
by Mrs. Charles Leland. 

Since the termination of the French and Indian 
War, in 1760, the Indians had not troubled the 
settlements along the Connecticut River. Game 
and fish were very abundant, and occasionally they 
resorted in small numbers to their old hunting and 
fishing-grounds, but their visits were few and short. 
Probably they never occupied the territory in this 
vicinity as a permanent or habitual abode, as no 
relies of the race have ever been discovered in the 
neitrhborhood which would indicate it. At the 



CLAREMONT. 



47 



time I'eferred to a single Indian still lingered in 
tlie neighborhood. Tradition has it that he had 
been chief of a tribe, who were once lords of the 
soil, but now were either exterminated or had re- 
moved to Canada. But he seemed determined not 
to relinquish the possessions of his ancestors to the 
aggressive paleface. Though he continued to re- 
main here for several years after the settlement of 
the town, and at last died on what he termed his 
own soil, 3'et he sought no intercourse or friendship 
with the new occupants, but followed his favorite 
pursuits — fishing and hunting. It was known that 
he had borne a consjiicuous part in the lilood}' and 
devastating expeditions against Charlestown, Keene 
and other English colonies, and it was feared that 
he might be still lurking about, watching an op- 
portunity to enact similar scenes. The story of 
his tragical end was furnished by Mr. L. A. Grannis 
to George Ticknor, Esq., who prepared with great 
labor and pains several chapters of the annals of 
Claremont, which were printed in the National 
Eagle in 1854, then being published by the author 
of this history, who has drawn largely from them, 
believing them to be as reliable as anything attain- 
able at this day. 

Though a solitary Indian, he seemed inflated 
with that jealousy against the whites so peculiar to 
his race. When the frame of Union Church was 
being raised, in 1773, he was present, and expressed 
great displeasure at the presumption of the new- 
comers in thus erecting so large a building, and 
threatened to shoot any white hunter who should 
intrude on his hunting-ground. At last he became 
so furious, maddened, probably, by a too free use of 
" strong water," that it became necessary to con- 
fine him. Be that as it may, the threat proved his 
destruction. Among the strong and vigorous men 
assembled there was one of gigantic size and 
matchless strength, and, more than all, whose 
spirit felt no fear. His quick ear caught the 
threat of Tonsa, and he at once resolved to hunt 
on his ground, and it is said that previous to this 
day they were enemies. Shortly after this scene 
the white hunter, with loaded gun in hand, visited 
the forbidden ground alone. As soon as he had 



arrived at the spot he gave a shrill whistle, which 
was quickl)' answered by a whistle which, from its 
peculiar sound, he knew came not from a white 
man. The same sound was repeated and an- 
swered. Rapidly he advanced in the direction of 
the sound, and soon came in sighl of his foe. At 
the same time he was seen by Tonsa. And now 
began the struggle for victory. Each summoned 
all his art and skill to secure an advantage which 
would betray the life of one to the other. Fiercely 
they rushed forward, leaping over fallen trees and 
now dodging behind standing ones, and using those 
stratagems so familiar to the backwoodsman and 
the savage. Now they had come within shooting 
distance. At once they raised their guns and 
simultaneously fired. The shot of the white man 
took effect, and Tonsa fell. Beneath one of the 
tall pine-trees which grew luxuriously on his 
beautiful hunting-ground the victor buried him, 
and his resting-place no man knew precisely until 
May, 1854. 

On the twentieth day of that month Mr. Josiah 
Hart, while digging on land of John Tyler, Esq., 
discovered a skeleton, which, from its immense 
size, was supposed to be that of Tonsa. It is hinted 
that the more timid hunters, on being assured by 
their strong brother that Tonsa would trouble them 
no more, breathed more freely, and even ventured 
to go to his favorite haunt. This was on the north 
side of Sugar River, where the farms of Messrst 
John Tyler, Dr. S. G. Jarvis and the late Dan- 
ford Rice are situated. The strong hunter, to 
those acquainted with the men of those times, and 
who have heard the story, will be remembered as 
being a man by the name of Tim Atkins. Thus 
fell Tonsa, the last Indian of Claremont, a noble 
specimen of his race. 

In 1767 the proprietors, as we have already seen, 
began to take active steps toward the settlement of 
Claremont. At a meeting of the proprietors at the 
house of Colonel Josiah Willard, on the eighteenth 
day of March, Captain Enos Atwater, Captain 
Benjamin Brooks, Colonel Josiah Willard, Es(i., 
Jotham Hitchcock and Asa Lent were appointed a 
committee to " lott out ye remaining part of said 



48 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Town in such manner as they shall judge proper, 
and return a plan thereof to the proprietors." It 
was also " Voted and agreed that Benjamin Tyler 
have two acress of Land for a Mill Yard and Con- 
venience for Building Mills in the most conve- 
nient Place on Sugar River in Claremont, with 
ye Privilidge of s'd Stream, on Condition the said 
Tyler doth Build a Mill or Mills and Keep the 
same in Repair for ye space of Ten Y"ears." In 
the same year Mr. Tyler erected a saw-mill and 
grist-mill in what was then " the most Convenient 
Place on Sugar River in Claremont." The mills 
and dam were built on the same spot where sim 
ilar works have since been maintained in West 
Claremont. This enterpri.se was a very important 
one, and imparted new vigor and gave a decided 
impetus to the progress of the settlement. Aii yet 
there were but few inhabitants, and these lived in 
rude cabins scattered along Sugar River and about 
'' Jarvis Hill." Both houses and barns were built 
of logs roughly hewn and hastily put together ; the 
floors of earth, pounded hard, and their chimneys 
made of sticks laid in clay. These habitations, 
however, quickly gave place to more convenient 
and inviting ones. Excellent timber was abundant, 
and the activity of Mr. Tyler was soon apparent in 
the erection of framed houses. The proprietors 
had not generally taken up their residences in 
town, and it does not appear that the principal 
«ne, Colonel Josiah Willard, was ever a resident 
here for any considerable length of time. He was 
a large landholder in Keene and Winchester, 
where the first meeting of the proprietors of Clare- 
mont was held. 

The Willard and Ashley line, beginning on the 
easterly line of the town, at a distance of five hun- 
dred and fifty rods from its southern extremity, 
extended westerly, parallel with the south line of 
the town, to Connecticut River. Ashley's tract 
was limited on the south by the share of John 
Temple, and on the north by the line just de- 
scribed. It comprised a tract varying not much 
from four hundred rods in width through the town 
from east to west ; Willard's claim was all that 
part of the town north of the '' Willard and Ash- 



ley line." Thus it will be seen that, with the ex- 
ception of the shares of the Governor and Council, 
Willard and Ashley wei-e the actual owners of the 
entire township, and their object was to find pur- 
chasers, which, it seems, was not difficult, as settle- 
ments were made quite rapidly after the year 1767. 
But as late as 1787, Willard was the owner of 
fifteen shares, ecjual to four thousand eight hun- 
dred acres. This is on the supposition that the 
town was divided into seventy-five equal shares, 
according to the provisions of the charter. Whether 
such division was ever actually made does not ap- 
perr from any known record, though the shares 
set off to the Council included each three hundred 
and twenty acres. 

The method first adopted by the proprietors in 
laying out the township into lots, was to set off 
fifty acre meadow-lots for tillage, the same quan- 
tity of upland for pasturage and three-acre lots 
for house lots. They next proceeded to draw by 
lot, taking care to have several more lots of each 
kind than there were persons to draw, so that if 
any were dissatisfied with the result, they might 
relinquish those assigned by the drawing, and se- 
lect from those remaining. The first meeting for 
the selection of lots was in Winchester, April 14, 
1767. The committee appointed at the former 
meeting, having performed the duty imposed upon 
them acceptably, were " desired by a vote to lay 
out ye Glebe for ye Church of England and ye 
Schvool in some Convenient place, ye whole Right 
together." This was accordingly done, and the 
whole were located in the west part of the town. 
Exchanges were afterward made, so that we now 
find the glebe lands and school lands situated in 
various parts of the town. A tract was also set off 
for a fair and market-ground. This included the 
buryingground in the West Parish, and, it is be- 
lieved, the grounds about Union Church. 

On the eighth of March, 1768, was held the first 
town-meeting in Claremont, not exactly in accord- 
ance with the terms of the charter, which provided 
that " the first meeting for the choice of Town 
Officers agreeably to the Laws of our said Prov- 
ince shall be held on ye Second Tuesday of March 



CLAREMONT. 



49 



next [17t)5], which s'd nieetiug shall be Notified by 
Samuel Ashley, who is hereby also appointed the 
Moderator of s'd first meeting." But in view of the 
mutual interest of the Governor and Willard and 
Ashley in the town, the latter two gentlemen 
probably felt secure in acting when and in such 
manner as their convenience and interest might 
suggest. They were in no hurry for the settle- 
ment of the town, as they looked upon it as a val- 
uable acquisition, both for the purpose of agricul- 
ture and manufacturing, and they therefore deter- 
mined to be governed in their proceedings by the 
degree of earnestness manifested by those who 
sough I to purchase. Another object was to in- 
duce such jjersons to settle as would be sure to be 
Iciyal and faithful subjects of the Crown. 

The first town-meeting, above-named, was held 
at the house of Captain Benjamin Brooks, in the 
vicinity of Jarvis Hill. Ten voters were present. 
There were twelve families in town ; but, as their 
number was small, their needs were few, and by 
choosing one man to fill several offices they suc- 
ceeded in forming a proper town organization. 
This is the record : 

''At the same meeting. Captain Benjamin Brooks 
was chosen Moderator. At the same meeting, Joseph 
Ives was chosen Town Clerk. At the same meeting. 
Captain Benjamin Brooks, Ebenezer Skinner, Ben- 
jamin Tyler, Thomas Jones and Amos York were 
chosen Selectmen. At the same meeting, Benjamin 
Brooks, Jr., was chosen Constable." 

At a subsequent adjourned meeting, " Amos 
York and Benedick Roys were chosen tithing- 
men. At the same meeting, Asa Lent and Eben- 
ezer Skinner was chosen Surveyor of Highways. 
At the same meeting, voted to raise a Kate of Ten 
Pounds, Lawful money ($13.33), to defray Town 
charges. It was also voted to take off tw'o acres 
of land from North-west corner of the Fair for a 
Burying-Place." 

One of the first acts of a public nature was the 
laying out of a highway to Newport, and Captain 
Benjamin Brooks and Benjamin Sumner were 
chosen a committee for that purjxise. They began 
about half a mile south of the middle point of the 



west line of the town, and jiroceeded easterly in a 
straight line to Sugar River. The course was not 
varied by hills or valleys. The width of the 
highway was uniformly ten rods. This road 
passed through what is now the south part of the 
village, near the Stevens High School building. 
It was the custom to reserve strips of land ten 
rods in width between adjacent tiers or divisions 
of lots, with the intention that whenever lands 
might be taken for actual highways, the owners of 
lands so appropriated could be compensated from 
the " reservations." Hence it is found that the 
one-hundred-acre lots generally contain one hun- 
dred and five acres each. 

In 17(3!) the settlement of the town had so fin- 
progressed that husbands, w'ho had provided coin- 
fi^rtable cabins, sent for their wives and children, 
and single men began to consider the subject of 
matrimony. Mr. Barnabiis Ellis and Miss Eliza- 
beth Spencer were the first eoujile married in the 
town of Clareiuont, in accordance with the usages 
of civilized society. There being no magistrate or 
minister in town, the Rev. Bulkley Olcott, of 
Charlestown, was sent for and oflSciated at the 
nuptial ceremonies. As there were no roads 
through the wilderness, the messenger who was 
sent for Mr. Olcott, being a brother of the bride, 
was to act as pioneer for the clergyman, and to 
procure a quantity of new rum to be used on the 
occasion. " The whole town were invited to the 
wedding, and as many as could come with con- 
venience attended." The place of assembly was a 
log cabin, which, though rude, seemed to claim 
some degree of prominence over the surrounding 
habitations, from the fact that it contained three 
rooms, besides a clean spruce ladder, which con- 
ducted to a chamber above, carpeted with brush 
poles. The loving couple were seated in two 
plain oak chairs, while the guests occupied 
benches, stools and blocks. In front of the 
happy pair was a chair and stand, upon which 
was placed a Bible and hymn-book and a full 
glass of the sealing beverage. The j)arties being 
seated in order, the minister approached the stand, 
and, taking up the glass with becoming dignity, 



50 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



lessened it of its contents, adding graciously, — " I 
wish you joy, my friends, on this occasion." A 
chapter from the Bible was read, after which a 
hymn was sung, the minister reading a line, and 
those present singing each line as read. The mar- 
riage knot was then tied, a long prayer wa< of- 
fered and the ceremonies closed. Toasts, jokes 
and merriment followed, interspersed with black- 
strap. Mr. Ellis was one of the first inhabitants, 
having settled here in 1767. He purchased a 
tract of land in the west part of the town, where 
he lived until 1837. His house was nearly on the 
same spot on which that of the late William Ellis, 
his youngest son, stands, and where the latter 
died, on September 29, 1880, at the age of sev- 
enty-three years. Barnabas Ellis was a man of 
some prominence, and filled several offices in the 
town. He held a lieutenant's commission in the 
Continental army, and performed service in the 
expeditions against Forts Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point, beside taking the lead of several scouting- 
parties in search of Tories and Indians. William 
Ellis represented Claremont in the New Hamp- 
shire Legislature two years, and held several town 
offices. 

In August of that year (1761)), at a meeting of 
the proprietors, it was, — 

" Vvted to lay out a third Division of upland, con- 
taining one hundred acres in Each Lot in the best 
Lands and in the best manner they can. 

" Voted and chose Misures Jeremiah Spencer, Ben- 
jamin Sumner and Asa Jones a committee to lay out 
y"' Lotts. Voted, that the afore said Committee shall 
have full power to Rectifye any mistakes in the for- 
mer Layings out Bouth in Lotts and in Highway." 

In October, 1770, Governor Benning Went- 
worth died, leaving no children, and bequeathing 
to a young wife, whom he married in his declining 
years, nearly all of his estate, instead of constitu- 
ting his nephew, John Wentworth, a son of Mark 
Hunking Wentworth, his ^n-incipal heir, as it was 
generally supposed he would do. John Went- 
worth succeeded his uncle in the office of Gover- 
nor. Being thus cut off from his uncle's estate, 
he determined, if possible, to oust the latter's 



widow from the possession of property and rights 
bequeathed to her by the will of her husband. 
Long-forgotten claims against the late Governor's 
estate were revived, suits at law were commenced, 
and, in some instances, forcible entries were made 
upon the lands devised. Soon the new Governor 
began to turn his attentitm to the reservations 
made by his deceased uncle in his grants of town- 
ships. He at last submitted the question to the 
Council, "whether the reservations of five hun- 
dred acres in several townships, made to the late 
Governor Benning Wentworth, in the charter 
grants, conveyed the title to him." The Council 
determined this question in the negative. The 
Governor then asked whether they would advise 
him to grant the said tracts to such of His Majes- 
ty's subjects as should settle and culiivate the 
same? To this they gave their assent. Seven of 
the councilors ou this occasion were relations of 
the Governor. 

The next steji was to dispossess all those who 
had derived their title to the reserved lots through 
the late Governor. The occupants of the disputed 
lands at once determined to defend their estates at 
whatever cost. The officers of the government 
who were enqaloyed used every artifice in their 
power to accomplish the object of their mission, 
but the settlers remained firm and uncomjiromis- 
ing. A few, alarmed at the j^rospect of a lawsuit 
and intimidated by the measures of the officers, re- 
linquished their titles, and at no slight expense 
repurchased their pos.sessions. Comphiints at last 
were sent to the Lords of Trade in England and 
the acts and conduct of the Governor were in- 
quired into, and it declared before the King in 
Council that the lands granted to the Governor 
were granted in the name of the King, which was 
sufficient to empower him to convey a title, and 
that the Council was mistaken in deciding other- 
wise. 

In accordance with this decision, the Governor 
was directed not to disturb the title or interest of 
those who had purchased their lands of the late 
Governor and had complied with the conditions of 
the charter by actually occupying and improving 



CLAREMONT. 



61 



the land. Lieuteuant George Hubbard, father of 
Isaac Hubbard, Esq., before named, was the 
owner of the Governor's reservation in this town. 
He was an early settler and had made considera- 
ble improvements upon his lauds. The possession 
of these was considered by the Governor and his 
emissaries of jiaraniouut importance. They were 
favorably lo ated, and the common jwediction that 
Claremont was destined to be a wealthy and im 
])ortant town rendered them cjuite desirable. 
Hence great efibrts were made to oust the occu- 
pant of this particular tract. Mr. Hubljard was 
not to be deluded, driven or persuaded to an ac 
eeptauce of the terms or inducements held out to 
him to vacate in favor of the Governor. His re- 
ply, when approached upon the subject, almost 
invariably was : " The law sustains nie, if -law is 
common sense, and neither the Governor nor His 
Majesty King George shall drive me from the 
soil." Mr. Hubbard had early been informed by 
Peter Leivins, Esq., one of the Council, that prep- 
arations were making to lay this matter, with 
others, bef irethe Kings's Council, and doubtless felt 
qujte sure that the acts of the late Governor, un- 
less clearly illegal, would not be discountenanced 
by the King- The title of the late Governor to 
the lands in question being confirmed by the King 
in Council, the owners were relieved from further 
anxiety. 

In 1771 the entire number of the inhabitants of 
the town was less than fifty, and of these only a 
]K)rtion remained here during the winter. Up to 
this time no steps had been taken to secure the 
IK'rraaneut settlement of a minister. The greater 
part of the settlers belonged to the Congregational 
Church, the prevailing theological system of New 
England, and unless a person was connected with 
some ecclesiastical body of a different denomina- 
tion, he was compelled to pay taxes for the sup- 
port of this society, and was considered as under 
its spiritual guidance, and to some extent subject 
to its jurisdiction, and the authority was exercised 
to enforce the collection of taxes without regard to 
the condition of membership. 

From an early period of the settlement of the 



town a portion of the inhabitants had formed 
themselves into an ecclesiastical body and observed 
religious services regularly on the Sabbath. 
Samuel Cole, Esq., who came here in 1767, was 
appointed their reader, and to some degree sup- 
plied the lack of a settled minister. He was a 
graduate of Yale College, and lor many years was 
very useful as an instructor of youth. At a meet- 
ing of a few of the inhabitants interested in the 
Congregational denomination early in the sjiring 
of 1771, Thomas Gustin suggested that it was a 
duty binding upon all to adopt immediate meas- 
ures for the settlement of a minister of the gospel ; 
that the settlement was sufficiently large and able 
to sujjport a religious teacher ; and, besides, the 
share of land reserved by the charter for the first 
settled minister W'Ould enable him to furnish him- 
self with a portion of his subsistence, and to some 
extent lighten the burden of the community. He 
urged immediate action, lest the share of three 
hundred and twenty acres of land should fall to 
some other society by a prior compliance on its 
part with the terms of the charter. 

Accordingly, at a town-meeting held May 9, 
1771, it was voted that " we will call a minister to 
come and preach the gospel among us on probation, 
in order to settle in the gosjiel ministry among 
us." Nineteen voted in favor of the call and 
three against it. Captain Benjamin Sumner, 
Thomas Gustin and Samuel Ashley, Esq., were 
appointed " a committee to invite a minister to 
come and settle among them." They also voted 
" to apjjly to Mr. Elijah Parsons to come and 
preach the gospel among us, on probation. But 
if he fails, to apjjly to Dr. Whealock Ibr advice 
who to apply to in his room." 

At a town-meeting held December 10th, of that 
year, it was voted " to give Mr. George Wheaton a 
call, and do call Mr. Wheaton to settle among us 
in the work of the gospel ministry, agreeable to 
the Congregational or Camljridge platform. " " For 
encouragement for Mr. Wheaton to settle with us, 
we do agree and vote to give Mr. Wheaton the 
ministerial right of laud, given to the town by 
charter for the first settled minister, and also fifty 



52 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



pounds, lawful mouey — fifteen to be joaid in money 
and the rest to be paid in spruce for building at 
money price." It was also voted to give Mr. 
Wheatou a salary of fifty-five pounds per annum, 
and to increase the sum five pounds annually until 
it should amount to eighty pounds, one-half of 
which must be paid in money, the remainder in 
provisions at " mouey price." 

Messrs. Phineas Fuller, Captain Benjamin Sum- 
ner, Ebeuezer Skinner and Dr. William Sumner 
were chosen a committee to lay before Mr. Whea- 
ton the doings of the town, to make suitable 
arrangements for his immediate settlement, and at 
a future day to make a report of their proceedings 
to the town. " Then voted to adjourn this meet- 
ing until next Tuesday, Come seven night, at ten 
o'clock in the morning." At the time of adjourn- 
ment the committee were ready to report, and laid 
before the meeting Mr. Wheaton's acceptance of 
the call. 

Mr. Wheatou was quite a young man, is said to 
have been pure and upright, and possessed of con- 
siderable talent. He was ordained February 19, 
1772, and died June 24, 1773, aged twenty-two 
years. 

At the ordination of Mr. Wheaton the sermon 
was preached by Rev. Abiel Leonard, of Wood- 
stock, Conn. The exercises were performed in the 
"South School-house," a building forty feet long 
by thirty wide, on land now owned by Col. Russell 
Jarvis, and near his residence. It was a frame 
building covered with rough boards, with rude 
benches for seats and a floor of earth. It was used 
both for a school and a place of worship by the 
Congregational Society until 1770, when a meeting- 
house was erected on a phjt of ground on the road 
from Claremont village to the junction of the Sul- 
livan and Concord and Claremont Railroads, and 
about three-quarters of a mile from the latter. 
Owing to local divisions, meetings were held in 
various parts of the town prior to the erection of 
this meeting-house. 

At the annual town-meeting of 1772 it was 
voted "to raise a rate of £35, lawful money ($116.- 
55), towards the amendment of highways, and to 



allow three shillings" — equal to about fifty cents — 
" per diem for labor." 

By a law then in force it was imperative upon 
the selectmen to take due care that tithingmen 
be aunually chosen at the general meeting for 
the choice of town officers, " whereof at least two 
shall be in each town, and not above ten in any," 
whose duty it was to inspect all licensed houses, 
and to inform of all disorder therein committed ; 
and also to inform of all idle and disorderly per- 
sons, profane swearers and Sabbath-breakers. Each 
was " to carry a black staff two foot long, tip'd at 
one end with brass or pewter about three inches, 
as a badge of their office, the same to be provided 
by the selectmen at the expense of the town." 
Either by virtue of their office or by common con- 
sent, they seemed to have been invested with 
power to inflict punishment at once upon such as 
they might find engaged in any misdemeanors dur- 
ing public worship, or between the morning and 
afternoon services on the Sabbath. They were 
vigilant and, if tradition may be relied upon, rigid 
iu their notions of order and sobriety, especially on 
Sundays. On one occasion when meetings were 
held in the South School-house, John, a son of Mr. 
Thomas Gustiu, was obliged "to stand strate upon 
the bench during the singing of the last p.salm, and 
there to remain until the meeting is dismissed and 
the people have left the house, for turning round 
three times, and for not paying attention to Mr. 
Wheaton while he is preaching." It was not usual 
for the tithingman to call out the offender, pro- 
nounce sentence u])on him and put it iu execution 
during the performance of the various exercises of 
public worship, but it seems it was sometimes 
done. 

It does not appear that any appropriation was 
made by the town for the support of schools until 
the annual town-meeting of 1773. It was then 
" Vofed to i-aise a rate of twenty pounds, lawful 
money," for that purpose, which would be about 
$66.66 in our currency. At this time there were 
two school-houses iu town, viz.: the South School- 
house, before referred to, and the other was situa- 
ted near Union Church, at the West Parish. At 



CLAREMONT. 



53 



this meeting it was voted " that swine may go at 
large yockt and ringd as the law directs." 

As before stated, Kev. Mr. Wheaton died on the 
li4th of June, 177-'>. His death was a source of 
deep and sincere regret to his pecjple, by whom he 
was very much beloved, and he enjoyed the respect 
<if' tlie entire population. The death of j\Ir. 
Wheaton raised the question as to whether or not, 
as the first settled minister in town, he was the ab- 
solute owner of the three hundrcjl and twenty 
acres of land provided for in the charter, (^nthis 
subject there was much discussion and various 
opinions, which, however, it did not become neces- 
sary to settle, as Mr. Wheaton, in his last will and 
testament, gave to the town of Claremout " all his 
real estate in the town, and all that was due him 
from particular persons, for the use and support of 
the Congregational minister in the town forever.'' 

Clareujont received the following, and made the 

following return : 

"Portsmouth, October \'>th, 1773. 
" i^ir, — 

" I am to request an exact list of the luuuber of in- 
habitants in the town of Claremout, distinguished int<j 
difl'erent Ranks or Chisses, according to the schedule 
below, which I shall be glad to have returned to mc, 
authenticated, as soon as ])ossilile. 

"John Wentworth. 
" Unmarried men IG to GO years of age . 41 

Married men 10 to GO years of age GG 

Boys IG yearsand under 121 

Men GO years and u|iwards 2 

Females unmarried 125 

Females married ...■ GG 

Widows , 2 

Male slaves 

Femaleslaves 

T<ital 423 

" Asa Jones, ] 

"Ben.iamin Brooks, i Sc7erlmcii." 
"Joseph Tavi,or, J 

On August lb, 1773, Phineas Fuller " was chosen 
grand juror to serve in His Majesty's Superior 
Court, to be holdeu at Keen on the 3d day of 8ep- 
teniber next." 

In 8epteml)er of that year the peojile a.ssembled 



in town-meeting for the purpose of making a public 
expression of resi)ect for the late Mr. Wheaton. 
They voted " to send a letter of condolence to Dr. 
George Wheaton, of Mansfield, Mass., the father 
of the Rev. George Wheaton, deceased," and to 
" present the thanks of this town to Dr. Wheaton 
for his goodness in counseling his son to prose- 
cute his good intentions respecting us," and also 
to erect " a respectful monument on the grave 
of our late Rev. Pastor with an inscription 
thereon expressing his worth, character and our 
atlection f)r him, at our cost and expense." In 
the warrant calling that meeting an article was 
inserted, "To see if the town will raise money for 
the defraying of the debts of the late Rev. George 
W^heaton." 

Reports had been circulated that the estate of 
Mr. Wheaton would be insufficient for the payment 
of his debts, but it was deemed imprudent to as- 
sume responsibilities which would be beneficial to 
none but a few creditors, the greater part of whom 
were not residents of the town. The proposition 
was therefore rejected. Facts subsequently brougiit 
to light proved that the re])orts of his indebted- 
ness were not true. His debts were but trifling, 
compared with the amount of property devi-sed by 
him to the town for the benefit of the C(ingrega- 
tional Church. Mr. Wheaton named Mr. Beuj. 
Summer, an active and intelligent business man, as 
his executor. To meet deceased's small liabilities 
and expenses of settling the estate, it was found 
necessary to sell his lands, and they were accord- 
ingly advertised and sold at auction. Land was 
very cheap at that time, and there had been several 
adjournments of the sale, for various reasons ; so 
that the people had lost interest in it, and the 
estate was sold for l)arely sufficient to cover the 
expenses of administration A friend of Mr. Sum- 
ner was the purcha.ser, and soon after the settle- 
ment of the estate the land fell into the possession 
of Mr. Sumner, and the town did not derive any 
benefit from the generosity of the testator. The 
conduct of Mr. Sumner in the settlement of this 
estate was considerai)ly criticised, but no irregulari- 
ties were discovered in his proceedings; he retained 



54 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



his influence in the community and was subse- 
quently elected to othces of responsibility in town. 

Early in January, 1774, measures were taken 
l)y the town to secure the services of Rev. 
Augustine Hibbard. It was voted in town- 
meeting to engage him to preach among them 
six Sabbaths, on trial. The perplexities attending 
the settlement of Mr. Wheaton's estate were the 
occasion of discord and divisions among his flock, 
and it was found diflicult to collect taxes and sub- 
scriptions, which were cheerfully made in his 
behalf before his death. 

By the records, copied verbatim, it appears that 

" Att a legal Town meeting of the Inhabitants of the 
Town of Claremont, hoklen at the meeting House 
[South school house] in said Town on the 16th day 
of May, 1774, Mathias Stone was chosen moderator. 
Voted to adjourn this meeting for the space of half an 
houre, to witt, nntill ten niiuits after foure o'clock, 
then to meet att this place. Voted to neglect the 
second article in the Warning att the same meeting. 
Voted to give Mr. Augustine Hibbard A regular Call 
to Settle with us in the Wcu'k of the Gospel ministry. 
Att the same meeting Fote/ to appoint a Committee 
to acquaint Mr. Augustine Hibbard of the Doings of 
this meeting and make their Returns to the Town as 
soon as may bee. Deak. Mathias Stone, Deak. Jacob 
Keyes and Capt. Benj. Sumner waire appointed a 
Connnittee for the purpose aforesaid. 

" Test Mathias Stone, Moderator." 

" Att a legal Town meeting of the Inhabitants of 
the Town of Claremont, holden at the meting house 
in said Town on June the 7, 1774, — Deak. Mathias 
Stone was chosen Moderator. Voted to give Mr. Au- 
gustine Hibbard, for his Incouredgement to settle 
with us in the Work of the Gospel ministry one Hun- 
dred Pound, £. m'y; to be paid in following manner, 
viz.: Fifty Pounds, £. m'y, to be paid within si.t 
months, the one-half of itt in Cash, the other half of 
itt in Graine att Cash Price, and the other fifty 
Pounds to be paid within Twelve months, one-half of 
it in Cash, the other half of itt in Grain at Cash price. 
Thirdly, Voted to give Said Hibbard for a further In- 
couredgement to settle with us in the work of tlie 
Gospel ministry, fifty Pounds, £. m'y ($133.20), for 
the first year, and to rise five Pounds, £. m'y, Pr year 
till it shall amount to seventy-five Pound, £. m'y, and 



that to be his Stated Salery Per anmim as long as he 
continues to bee our minister; the aforesaid Salery to 
be paid in the following manner: namely, the one- 
half of itt to be Paid yearly in Cash; the other half 
of itt in Provisions att money Price, Said Salery to 
begin from the Day of the Date of this meting. 
Fourthly, Voted that Cajit. Benj. Sumner, Deak. 
Mathias Stone, and Deak. Jacob Keyes, be appointed 
a Committee to Waite on Mr. Hibbard, Present the 
Doings of their Town to him, Receive his answer and 
make returne to the Town aforesaid as soon as may 
be. Fifthly, Voted to reserve to ourselves the Bene- 
fits of the use of all the Lands that was the late Rev. 
George Wheaton, for the Suport of a Congregational 
Minister in this Town, and ajiply itt yearly for the 
lessening the annual Salery in favor of said Town. 
Si.vthly, Voted to adjourn this meeting to hear the re- 
ports of the Committee aforesaid that we appointed 
to Wait on the aforesaid Mr. Hibbard, till the first 
Tuesday in July next, att three o'clock p.m., then to 
meet att this place. 

"Tuesday, July 5th, 1774. — Mett according to the 
above adjournment. The meeting was opened by Ma- 
thias Stone, moderator. Voted to adjourn this meet- 
ing till the first Tuesday in August next, at 3 o'clock 
P.M., then to meet att this place. Tuesday, August 
3d, 1774. — The above meeting was opened according 
to adjournment, by Mathias Stone, Moderator, then 
voted Reconsider the time for the beginning of the 
Salery of Mr. Augustine Hibbard as above said ; itt 
being fixed to begin the seventh of June Last. Itt is 
now voted and agreed that the said Sallery shall be- 
gin on the Day of said Hibbard's ordination, which is 
to be on Wednesday the 18th day of October next. 
Att the same meeting voted and chose Captain Benja- 
min Sumner, Doct, Thomas Stiner and Asa Jones to 
be a Committee to provide for the ordaining Counsell 
on said 19th of October next, at the Town's cost. 
Voted to dissolve this meeting after the Answer of 
Said Hibbard was publicly Red. 

"Test Mathias Stoxe, Moderator." 

The following is Mr. Augustine Hibbard's 
answer to the town of Claremont: 

"Gentlemen: Whaire as you have seen fitt to give 
me a call to settle with you in the work of the Gos- 
]>el ministry, I do hereby accept of your Generous 
call, Relying upon Divine (Jrace for :issistauce in so 
Grate and so glorious a W<irk. 

" August 3d, 1774." 



CLAREMONT. 



65 



The ordination of Mr. Hibbard took place, 
agreeably to the vote of the town. Although the 
connection thus formed continued eleven years, it 
proved of no very great benefit to the flock. In 
intellectual strength and in social (jualities and 
intluence for good he proved inferior to his prede- 
cessor. He was eccentric in his character and 
stern and morose in his disposition and deport- 
ment. 

During the Kevolutiouary War lie was very 
loud in his i»rofessions of loyalty and devotion to 
the .cause of liberty ; yet, soon after the war was 
closed, lie removed to Canada, where he remained 
until his death. So fearful was he lest iu some 
way in his ministerial acts he should give coun- 
tenance to the Tories, that, on one occasion, when 
an infant was brought to him for baptism, he 
refused to administer the rite, because he had 
suspicions that the father — one of the most 
respectable citizens of the town — was a Tory, and 
yet it is said that he did not scruple to seize the 
last cow of a poor widow as payment for the tithe 
secured to him by law, although the cow was more 
than double the widow's tax. He could refuse to 
partake of a blackberry pudding at his Sunday 
dinner, because the fruit of which it was made, 
growing in his own yard, was gathered on that 
day, and yet he did not hesitate to desert his wife 
and children and elope with his maid-servant to a 
neighboring State, where he resided several years 
in degrading and criminal relations. This con- 
duct on the part of their minister was a deep 
mortification to the members of his church and 
congregation, from the demoralizing efiects of 
which it took a long time to recover. 

All who were not actual members of some other 
religious denomination were obliged by law to pay 
taxes for the support of the Congregational Society ; 
and the power to tax gave to the taxed a voice in 
the deliberations of the body. It is easy to see, 
that in a society made up in part of those who 
were compelled, against their will, to contribute to 
its maintenance, many things would be done ad- 
verse to its true interests. The position of this 
church, while under the guidance of Mr. Hibbard, 



could not be otherwise than weak, and its move- 
ments retrograde. 

In the fall of 1773, Kev Raima Cossitt com- 
menced his labors a.s rector of the Episcopal Church 
in the West Parish. During the year previous 
he took a voyage to Englantl and was ordaiuf d by 
the Hishop of London. He was a firm Royalist, 
and when difficulties arose between the American 
colonies and the mother-countrj-, he at once took 
the side of the latter, and was unwearied in his ' 
efforts to instil into the minds of the people the 
doctrine of the divine right of Kings, and his ser- 
mons were often but discourses upon the duty of 
obedience to the Crown. He became so entangled 
in the meshes of political controversy iis in a great 
measure to impair his usefulness and to render 
himself odious, even to tho.se who believed that 
opposition to the soverign power was, if not treason, 
at least dangerous. The church prospered but 
little under his charge, and in the summer of 1775, 
at his ow'n request, he was recalled by the Bishop 
of London and sent to the Isle of Cape Breton. 

For more than a year the oppressive acts of the 
British Parliament, which led to the Revolutionary 
War, had agitated the public mind. It was now 
the general belief that war with the mother-country 
was unavoidable, and to this sentiment was added 
a firm determination to resist further encroach- 
ments upon the sacred rights of liberty, and also 
to demand and regain the enjoyment of those 
privileges which had been taken away. Although 
the greater part of the people were in favor of 
open hostility with England, yet there were some 
who not only regretted the existence of difficulty, 
but also regarded violent resistance as dangerous 
and probably unavailing. A stnall portion avowed 
themselves Tories, and labored to furnish aid and 
comfort in various ways to the King and his army. 

In Claremout the two latter classes were larger 
than in most towns in New Hampshire, of the same, 
or nearly equal, population. The town was com- 
paratively new, and many of the settlers were 
either recently from England or the sons of English- 
men, and their attachment to the old country would 
naturallv be stronger than that of tho.se who could 



56 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tlieu behold in their midst the graves of their an- 
cestors covered with the tui-f of a century. 8till, 
the spirit of resistance against the tyranny of Eng- 
land was jjopular, and the neutrals fud Tories were 
greatly in the ininoi'iiy. About this time many 
families, some of whose descendants are now in- 
habitants of this town, disgusted with the opposition 
of the Whigs, removed to a large township in 
Canada, called Shipton, in which is now a parish 
or borough bearing the name of Claremont. 
Thither also many who remained here during the 
war resorted after its close. Many also removed 
to New York State, keeping themselves under the 
protection of the British until the war was ended, 
soon after which most of them returned to Clare- 
ninnt. 

In accordance with an order of the Provincial 
Congress, the census of New Hampshire was taken 
in 177'"). The following is the verbatim return of 

" Claremont. 

" Males under 1(5 years of age 148 

Males from 16 to 50 — not in the arjny ... 125 

All males above 50 years of age IS 

Personsgone in the army 1 

All females 231 

Negroes, and slaves for life 

Total 523 

" The number of tire-arms in the Town of Clare- 
mont fit for actual service, 60 stand ; 65 wanted. 

" Colony of New Hampshier, Claremont, (Jct'r 13th, 
1775. 

" A true Number. Attest, 



"Matthias Stoxe, | 
"Oliver Ashley, ( 



Selectmen.'' 



The order for this census required a return of 
"The Number of Fire Arms in the respective Dis- 
tricts fit for use, and the Number wanting to com- 
plete one for every person capable of using them," 
and it was " further strictly enjoined upon all 
Selectmen and Committees to endeavor to prevent 
all persons from burning their Powder in shooting 
at Birds and other Game." 

The records are very meagre in relation to the 
movements which now agitated the country. It 



appears that Oliver Ashley, of Claremont, was a 
member of the first Provincial Congress, which 
assembled at Exeter, May 17, 1875. He was an 
ardent W^hig, and during the sitting of that boily 
was active in devising niea.sures for the defense of 
the colony, and suggested methods for raising and 
equipping men for military service. At a town- 
meeting, holdeii on the 15th of June following, a 
vote was i)assed " That the town is fully satisfied 
with the doings of oure member, Mr. Oliver Ash- 
ley, at the Provincial Congress, holden at Exeter, 
on the 17th of May last." Captain Joseph W^aite, 
Ensign Oliver Ashley, Thomas (nistin, Asa Jones 
and Jacob Roys were appointed a Committee of 
Safety. This comnuttee was invested with almost 
absolute power in certain ca.ses. In a sudden 
emergency, they might adopt such measures as 
they should deem conducive to ])ublic safety, take 
arms and ammunition, wherever found, when 
needed for the ecpiipment of soldiers, arrest and 
imprison all Tories, without warrant, and communi- 
cate with the (General Committee of Safety in all 
matters pertaining to the public welfare. So far 
as Tories were concerned, the labors of this com- 
mittee were not slight 

On the 15th of December following. Captain 
Joseph Waite was chosen a representative to the 
Provincial Congress, to be held in Exeter in a few 
days. It was voted that he should have full power, 
with the other citizens of the colony who might be 
members of that Assembly, " to resolve themselves 
into such a house as the Continental Congress shall 
recommend, for the taking up Government lands 
in this Colony." In 1776, Captain W^aite was 
appointed lieutenant-colonel of a regiment raised 
for the purpose of invading Canada. The com- 
mand of the regiment devolved upon him, the 
colonel with a small nundier of soldiers being de- 
tailed from the main body, and sent in another 
direction. Lieutenant Joseph Taylor, afterward 
captain, who had taken an active part in the 
French and Indian War, was taken prisoner, in 
the summer of 1775, by the Indians, carried to 
Montreal, and there sold to the French. For a 
long time he was closely confined, so that his 



CLAKEMONT. 



57 



friends could learn nothing of him. After many 
fruitless attempts, he at last succeeded in effecting 
his escape. He wandered through the woods, sub- 
sisting as he could, and after an absence of several 
months reached his home in safety. 

In this year the number of inhabitants in Clarg- 
mont was five hundred and twenty-three. In the 
year 1776 the number of new settlers fell so far 
short of the number of removals that in the win- 
ter of 1777-78, according to tradition, there were 
only forty families in town, which, being estimated 
at eight persons in each family, — considerably 
more than the subsequent and present average, — 
■we find a reduction of two hundred in the popu- 
lation in the short space of two years. Among 
those who left about this time was Colonel Ben- 
jamin Sumner, who took up his residence on 
Long Island. He was suspected of being on 
friendly terms with the Briti.sh. He occasionally 
made short visits to this town, when on his jour- 
neys to and from Canada, carefully avoiding any 
contact with his former townsmen, excepting cer- 
tain known and well-tried friends. Several at- 
tempts were made by the Committee of Safety 
and other ardent Whigs to arrest him when on 
his flying visits, but without success. One Wil- 
liam McCoy, a noted Tory, was his confidential 
friend and adviser. So artful and shrewd was 
this McCoy in this sort of shy diplomacy, that it 
was impossible to fasten upon him any act of a 
treasonable nature, although the effort was often 
made to do so. Among others who left town 
about this time were Captain Benjamin Brooks, 
one Spencer, several by the names of Lent and 
Nutting, and John Brooks, son of Captain Benja- 
min Brooks. John Brooks actually joined the 
British army, and served during the war. His 
farm and all his property in town was confiscated 
and sold ; but, after the close of the war and the 
treaty with Great Britain, his property, or the 
value of it, was restored to him. No favor was 
shown to the Tories, or those suspected as such, 
by the mass of the people. Public indignation 
■was aroused to so great an extent that Tories and 
suspicious persons ■were continually in imminent 



danger of the loss of liberty, and even life itself, 
without the formality of legal proceedings. 
There was in existence a small company of reso- 
lute men, among whom were Timothy Atkins 
and two or three of his brothers, — all men of un- 
usual size and remarkable strength and activ- 
ity, — who had formed a determination to rid the 
town entirely of Tories. 

These men solemnly promised to give each 
other immediate information if a Tory was dis- 
covered to be lurking about, and to pursue him 
instantly; and if capture was impossible, to shoot 
him, if that could be done. In the neighborhood 
of such men there could be but little repo.se or 
security for the enemies of freedom. Summer 
was the season when the secret agents of the 
British were scouring the remote parts of the 
country, picking up, here and there, whatever in- 
formation they could find respecting the condition 
and movements of the people, and carefully 
noting everything which they judged important 
to the interests of their employers. Scattered 
along the route, from New York to Canada, were 
certain places of rendezvous, where any one of 
them on his mission might be safely concealed 
and find ready means of communication with his 
confederates in his neighborhood. About fifty 
rods below what is known as the Rich Place, on 
the right-hand side of the road as you go toward 
Red Water Brook, is a place famous in Revolu- 
tionary times as a favorite resort for Tories, and 
has since been known as " Tory Hole." So per- 
fectly adapted was this spot to the purposes and 
wants of its occupants that, for a long time, they 
had assembled there without exciting the least 
suspicion among the active and vigilant Whigs. 

Inaccessible on three sides by a swamp covered 
with a thick growth of alders, and pi'otected, on 
its fourth side, by a steep bank about thirty feet 
high, it was, notwithstanding, easily approached 
by those who were familiar with the ground. 
The side of the precipice toward the retreat was 
nearly circular in form, and was intersected by a 
deep ravine, which aflbrded means of access from 
one direction. Another way began a little below 



58 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the Rich Place, and wound along the foot of the 
bank. The surface of the ground, including the 
spot, was irregular and slightly elevated. A few 
yards distant was a cool, bubbling spring of water. 
It was customary for the Tories in the neighbor- 
hood to convey thither provisions and whatever 
else might be needed by the transient visitors to 
the place. The performance of this important 
duty led to the discovery of the retreat. One 
night, in the autumn of 1780, a man, with a huge 
pack on his shoulders, was seen passing along the 
road by the Rich Place. His singular movements 
attracted attention, and he was closely watched. 
Turning into the woods a short distance from the 
house of Mr. Rich, he was instantly out of sight. 

Information of the fact was quickly communi- 
cated, and soon many persons were collected at 
the spot. The grounds were carefully reconnoi- 
tered, and the secret was discovered. As the night 
was very dark, the further search was postponed 
until the next morning. A watch was posted by 
the path, with instructions to seize or shoot any 
one who should attempt to pass. Several hours 
before sunrise a party had assembled and renewed 
the search. As they approached the rendezvous, 
two men suddenly started up, and ran toward the 
ravine ; and now the race began. The pursued 
had several rods the start of the pursuers, beside 
the advantage of the dense forest and the scanty 
light. The course of theformer was toward Con- 
necticut River. It required much time and close 
attention and scrutiny t.) keep on their track, and 
the Whig party were often on the point of giving 
up the search as fruitless. Then some uew trace 
would be discovered, and they would go forward 
with renewed vigor. At length they had reached 
Connecticut River, where they found that the 
fugitives had swam across. Fastening their arms 
upon their backs, they plunged into the stream, 
and on gaining the opposite side, they found the 
tracks of the other party. At night they en- 
camped in the woods at the base of Ascutney 
Mountain, and in the morning began its ascent 
from different points. On arriving at the sumnjit 
they discovered the fugitives asleep. They were 



easily captured, and gave their names as Johns 
and Buel. Having arms with them, they could 
not, according to the rules of war, be treated as 
spies, and were therefore held under the more 
honorable distinction of prisoners of war. They 
were taken to Charlestown, from thence to Bos- 
ton, and afterward exchanged. One Kentfield 
was also pursued from the " Tory Hole," and 
driven across Connecticut River. He managed 
to escape from his pursuers at this time ; but in a 
few days after was discovered by Isaac Hubbard, 
Esq., then but a child, while re-crossing the river 
into New Hampshire He was again pursued, 
captured after a fierce resistance, and taken to 
Charlestown. He was confined for some time ; 
but as it was impossible to prove him a spy, he 
was released. Afterward he joined the Conti- 
nental army, deserted in a few days, was captured 
and hung. 

On April 12, 1776, the Committee of Safety for 
the Colony of New Hampshire issued the follow- 
ing mandate, as appears from documents arranged 
by John Farmer, Esq., agreeably to an order of 
the Legislature of New Hampshire, in 1837. We 
copy verbatim from "State Papers of New Hamp- 
shire," vol. viii. : 

" Colony of New Hampshire. 
In Committee of Safety, April 12, 177(). 
" In order to carry the underwritten Resolve of the 
Hon'blo Continental Congress into Execution, you 
are required to desire all Males above Twenty-one 
years of age (Lunaticks, Idiots and Negroes excepted), 
to sign the Declaration on this Paper; and when so 
done, to make Return thereof, together with the 
Name or Names of all who shall refuse to sign the 
same, to the General Assembly or Committee of 
Safety of this Colony. 

"M. VVeare, Chairman. 

In Coxgeess, Jlarch 14, 1776. 
"Resniceil, That it be recommended to tlie Several 
Assemblies, Conventions and Councils, or Commit- 
tees of Safety of the United Colonies, immediatebj to 
cause all Persons to be disarmed, within tbeir respec- 
tive Colonies, who are notoriously disatfected to the 
cause of America, or who have not associated and re- 
fuse to associate, to defend by Arms, the United 



CLAREMONT. 



59 



Colonies against the Hostile attempts of the British 
Fleets and Armies. 

(Copy) '' Extract from the Minutes. 

" Charles Thompson, Secrefari/. 

" In consequence of the above Resolution of the 
Hon. Continental Congress, and to show our Deter- 
mination in joining our American Brethren in de- 
fending the Lives, Liberties and Properties of the 
inhabitants of the United Colonies. 

" We the Subscribers, do hereby Solemnly engage 
and promise, that we will to the utmost of our Power, 
at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms 
oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets 
and Armies against the United American Colonies." 

REMAEKiS CM THE FOREGOING BY THE LATE JOHN 
FARMER, ESQ. 

"The preceding text was the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence by the People of New Hampshire. It was 
a Similar act to that of the Patriots who signed the 
National Declaration on the Fourth of July, 1776. 
It preceded that event, and seems to have been a 
sanction or an encouragement to those who contem- 
plated it. It was a bold and hazardous step in sub- 
jects thus to resist the authority of one of the most 
powerful Sovereigns in the world. Had the cause in 
wiiich these men pledged their Lives and Fortunes 
failed, it would have subjected every individual who 
signed it to the pains and penalties of treason — to a 
cruel and ignominious death. 

" It is not to be understood that all who declined 
signing it were Tories or were disaffected to the 
American cause ; Some of them were Friends, whose 
]irinciples forbade their signing a pledge to oppose 
their enemies with Arms ; others who were really 
friends to the cause of opposition to the British, had 
conscientious scruples, and others doubtless were in- 
fluenced by their timidity. Among those whose con- 
scientious scruples prevented them from giving such a 
pledge, was Eleazer Russell, Esq., of Portsmouth, 
(?) who, in a letter to President Weare, says, ' It was, 
and is, merely to secure the morality of my mind that 
I was reluctant to put my name to it. Solemnly to 
bind myself to the performance of what nature and 
necessity rendered impossible, 'I started at the 
thought of, and though my health is mended, so 
wrecked are my nerves, that I could not do one 
hour's military duty to save my life. The article of 



shedding blood, in me is not a humor, but a princi- 
ple — not an evasion, but a feet. It was received in 
early life, and has "grown with my growth, and 
strengthened with my strength." Not a partiality for 
British more than Savage blood ; for, all circumstan- 
ces considered, I think the latter more innocent than 
the former.'" 

.SIGNERS IN CLAREMONT. 

" CLAREMONT, May 30th, 1776. 
" In compliance to the above Declaration, we have 
Shone the Declaration to All the Inhabitants of this 
Town, and the Associate are those who have signed 
to this paper. 

" Matthias Stone, 
" Asa Jones, 



Sefecftnen. 



" The following Names of those who are twenty- 
one years of age and upward : 



" Thomas Goodwin, 
Joseph York, 
Matthias Stone, 
.Jacob Rice, 
William Osgood, 
Asa Jones, 
John Spencer, 
Lemuel Hubbard, 
Christopher York, 
David Bates, 
T. Sterm, 
Barnabas Ellis, 
Joel Roys, ? 
Samuel Tuttle, 
Stephen Hige, ? 
Charles Higbe, 
Edward Goodwin, 
Ephraim French, 
Joseph Ives, 
Elihu Stevens, Junior, 
Ichabod Hitchcock, 
Ebenezer Dudley, 
Daniel Curte,? 
Josiah Rich, 
Oliver Ellsworth, 
.Jonathan Parker, 
Edward Ainsworth, 
Nathaniel Goss, 
Joel Matthews, 
Oliver Tuttle, 
Amos Conant, 
Samuel Ashley, 
John Sprague, 
Adam Alden, 
James Alden, 



David Lynd, 

Oliver Ashley, 
Eleazer Clark, 
Eleazer Clark, Junior, 
Joseph Hubbard, 
Ama.sa Fuller, 
Jerime Spencer, 
Patrick Fields, 
Gideon Lewis, 
Josiah Stevens, 
Seth Lewis, 
John Kilborn, 
John Peake, 
John West, 
David Rich, 
Ebenezer Washburn, 
Bill Barnes, 
John Adkins, 
Amaziah Knights, 
John Goss, 
Ezra Jones, 
William Sims, 
David Adkins, 
Timothy Adkins, 
Moses Spaford, 
Benjamin Towner, 
Samuel Lewis, 
Abner Matthews, 
Elihu Stephens, 
Jonas Stuard, 
Beniah Murry, 
Thomas Duston, 
Timothy Duston. 

Total, 84. 



' N. B. — These are the Names of those wdio have 



60 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



actually taken up arms and are now in the Continen- 
tal Army : 

"Lieut. Col. Joseph Waite, Benjamin Towner, Jr., 

Lieut. Joseph Taylor, David Laynes, Jr., 

Ens. Thomas Jones, Charles Laynes, 

S. Abner Matthews, Jr., Henry Stephens, 

James Gooden, Jonathan York, 

Jonathan Fuller, Joseph York, Jr., 

Peter Fuller, The Rev. Augustin Hib- 

Eeuben Spencer, bard, Chaplain, &c. 



Gersham York, 



Total, 16. 



Rev. Mr. Hibbard was appointed chaplain on 
Colonel David Hobart's staff, by vote of the New 
Hampshire Legislature, April 4, 1777, and subse- 
quently of General Stark's brigade. 

" The Names of those who Refuse to sign the Decla- 
ration : 

"John Thomas, William Coy. 
Capt. Benjamin Brooks, Enoch Judd, 

Barnabas Brooks, Ebenezer Judd, Jr., 
Capt. Benjamin Sumner, Lieut. Benjamin Taylor, 

Rev. Ranna Cosset, Timothy Granis, 

Cornelius Brook, Hezekiah Roys, 

Samuel Cole, Esq., Asa Leat, 

Daniel Warner, Benjamin Leat, 

Levi Warner, Ebenezer Judd, 

James Steal, Benjamin Peterson, 

Amos Snow, Benjamin Brooks, Jr., 

John Hitchcock, Doct. William Sumner, 

David Dodge, Ebenezer Roys, 

Samuel Thomas, Joseph Norton, 
Amos Cole, Total, 31. 

Ebenezer Edson, 

"Claremont, May 30th, 1776. 
" The Declaration having ben shone to the within 
named persons, they Refuse to Sign. 
'' Attest, 

"Matthias Stose, | 

„ . ^ > Selectmen." 

" Asa Jones, j 

When the returns were all in, it was found that 
there were 8999 names upon the Declaration, and 
the names of 773 persons who had refused to sign 
it were mentioned. 

The following papers are copied from the 
original minutes of the Episcopal Church, and are 
given as published in " The History of the Eastern 
Diocese : " 



"The joint Com'tee of Safety from the Towns of 
Hanover and Lebanon, having received a Letter from 
the Com'tee of Safety for Claremont, requesting the 
assistance of said Com'tees in examining sundry Per- 
sons in said Claremont who were suspected of being 
inimical to the Liberties of America, convened with 
said Com'tee of Claremont and the Com'tee of Safety 
for the Town of Cornish, at the House of Mr. Joseph 
York, in said Claremont, on Tuesday the 5th day of 
December, A. D. 1775. At which time and place 
were present — 

" Captain Oliver Ashley, Captain Joseph Waite, 
Lieutenant Asa Jones, Lieutenant Joseph Taylor, 
Ensign Ebenezer Clark, Deacon Jacob Royce, Com'- 
tee of Claremont : 

" Samuel Chase, Esq., Colonel Jonathan Chase, 
Deacon Hall, Mr. Commins, Captain Spalding, 
Com'tee of Cornish : 

" Deacon Neheh Estabrooks, Major John Griswold, 
Mr. Silas Waterman, Lieutenant Jedah Hibbard, 
Com'tee of Lebanon : 

" Captain Edmond Freeman, Lieutenant David 
Woodward, Lieutenant John Wright, Com'tee of 
Hanover. 

" On which the Com'tee of said Claremont re- 
quested that all these Com'tees might (for sundry 
reasons) form into one general meeting for the exam- 
ination of sundry Persons whom they had previously 
cited to appear before this Board for that Purpose, 
which request being complied with : 

" 1st. Chose Deacon Nehemiah Estabrook, Chair- 
man. 

" 2d. Chose Lieutenant Jede'ah Hibbard, Clerk. 

" Sam'l Cole, Esq., Captain Benjamin Sumner, Rev. 
Ranna Cossit, Captain Benjamin Brooks, Lieuten*nt 
Benjamin Tyler, Asa Leet, Eben'r Judd, Eben'r Judd, 
Ju'r, Enoch Judd, Ebn'r Royce, Hez. Royce, John 
Thomas, Sam'l Thomas, Benjamin Brooks, Jr., Barne 
Brooks, Ebenezer Edson, Joseph Naughton, Daniel 
Warner, Jr., Benjamin Leet, James Steel, Ephraim 
Peterson, John Brooks, Azel Brooks, Levi Warner, 
Zebal Thomas, all of said Claremont. After which 
the Persons whose names are annexed appeared be- 
fore said Com'tee in consequence of the aforemen- 
tioned Citation, who on examination testify and 
declare, as follows : 

"1. The Rev'd Ranna Cossit on examination says, 
' I believe the American Colonies in their dispute 
■with Great Britain, which has now come to blood, 



CLAREMONT. 



61 



are unjust, but will not take up arms either against 
the King or Country, as my office and circumstances 
are such that I am not obliged thereto;' respecting 
whom the following evidence further appears, viz. : 
Dr. Thomas Sterns testifies and says that the Rev'd 
Mr. Cossit says: 'We (meaning the Americans) are 
in a state of Rebellion and are altogether in the 
wrong, and that if we should give up our Head man 
to justice, we should do well, and that the King and 
Parliament have a right to make laws and lay taxes 
as they please on America both internal and external.' 

"Captain Oliver Ashley testifies the same, and adds 
that such like language is frequent. Mr. Cossit in 
presence of this meeting agrees to the foregoing depo- 
sition respecting him, and adds : ' I mean to be on the 
side of the administration and I had as lives any 
person should call me a damned Tory or not, and 
take it as an affront if people don't call me a Tory ; 
for I verily believe the British troops will overcome 
by the greatness of their ])ower and justice of their 
cause.' 

" 2d. Sam'l Cole, Esq., on examination, says: ' It is 
a rebellion to take up arms or fight against the King 
or his Troops in the present dispute; yea, 'tis more ; 
it is Treason to fight against the King, in addition to 
which, that he is bound by his oath not to fight 
against the King.' Sam'l Chase, Esq'r, testifies and 
says, ' That about a fortnight ago, Esq'r Cole was at 
his house and he offered said Cole a bill of paper 
money of the Congress in payment of a debt ; on 
which said Cole says, I will not take said bill for it is 
of no more value than if you or I had made said bill.' 
Esq'r Cole finally consented to the above, and adds, ' I 
don't value the Congress money more than the sole of 
an old shoe.'" 

"3d. Captain Benjamin Sumner, on examination, 
says, ' As to the proceeding and conduct of the 
American Colonies in their contest with Great 
Britain, upon the whole I cannot agree with them, 
but I will not take up arms on either side, and if 
any of you gentlemen can in private or publick 
debate convince me of my error no man on earth 
shall be more ready to hear than myself.' 

" 4th. Sam'l Thomas, James Steel, Daniel Warner, 
Jr., Asa Leet, John Thomas, Benjamin Leet, Ebn'r 
Royce, Levi Warner, Ebne'r Edson, Azel Brooks and 
Zebal Thomas, on examination declare their senti- 
ments the same as those exprest by Capt. Benjamin 
Sumner. 



" 5th. Hez Royce, on examination, shews great 
contempt in equivocating in regard to questions 
asked him by the Cora'tee, but in reply to one query 
says he likes the King's Proclamation hxst issued. 

"(5th. Captain Benjamin Brooks, on examination, 
says ' I am not settled with regard to the dispute be- 
tween Great Britain and her Colonies. But accord- 
ing to what I understand of the dispute, I rather 
think the Americans are in the wrong, but will not 
take up arms on either side.' 

" 7th. Ephraim Peterson, Barne Brooks and Joseph 
Naughton on examination concur with Captain Benj. 
Brooks. 

" 8th. Leiut. B. Tyler on examination says 'I am of 
the prevailing sentiment that the American Colonies 
in tlieir contest with Great Britain are not just, but 
will not take up arms on either side.' 

" 9th. Cornelius Brooks and Ebenezer Judd on 
examination say that tliey will not take up arms on 
either side. 

" 10th. Benjamin Brooks, Jr., Enoch Judd and 
Ebenezer, Jr., on examination say that America is 
unjust in her contest with Great Britain, and we will 
not take up arms on either side. 

"lltli. John Brooks, when asked how he feels when 
he thinks of the quarrel between Great Britain and 
her Colonies that has caused the blood of our Amer- 
ican Brethren to be shed as well as Briton's, says ' I 
feel for the King's troops and against the Colonies.' 

"Adjourned till to-morrow moining nine o'clock. 

" December 6th, met according to adjournment. 
Present as yesterday. Voted that it appears to us on 
examination that Captain Benjamin Sumner, Samuel 
Cole, Esq., and the Reverend Ranna Cossit have been 
chief advisors and dictators to those other persons 
who have been under examination, and it is our 
opinion that they might with propriety be confined, 
as having endeavoured to stir up sedition in said 
Claremout, and also were against the united Colonies ; 
and their names ought to be returned to the Honor- 
able Provincial Congress for their determination, 
which the Clerk is hereby directed to do, which we 
believe may as well serve the general cause as to 
confine all these persons examined by us. Motioned 
to those persons who have been examined that they 
voluntarily resign their fire-arms and ammunition 
into the hands of the Com'tee of said Claremont ; 
which they unanimously agreed to comply with, and 
proposed to bring them in to-morrow morning. 



62 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



"3dly, at the request of the Com'tee of Claremont, 
voted that the above mentioned arms and ammuni- 
tion be deposited in the hands of Mr. Barne Ellis, of 
said Claremont, and said Ellis is not to let any person 
have any of s'd arras without order from the Com'tee 
of said Claremont. Voted to adjourn till to-morrow 
morning, nine o'clock. Dec'r 7th, met according to 
adjournment. Present as yesterday. 

" 1st. Received the fire-arms and ammunition of 
those persons who have been examined, and delivered 
them to the custody of Barne Ellis agreeable to the 
vote passed yesterday, for each of which the Com'tee 
of said Claremont gave their receipt to the owners. 

" 2dly. Voted That this meeting be dissolved and it 
was dissolved accordingly. True copy from the 
minutes. 

"Attest: Nath'l S. Prentice." 

"In Congress at Exeter, Jan'y 3d, 1776: Voted, 
That Benjamin Giles, Esq'r, Major John Bellows, 
Capt. Nath'l Sartel Prentice, Mr. Thomas Sparhawk 
and Mr. Elijah Grout, be a Committee to Examin 
and Try Capt. Benjamin Sumner, Sam'l Cole, E^q'r, 
the Rev'd Ranna Cossit and Eleazer Sanger — persons 
reputed to be enemies to the Liberties of this Coun- 
trey, and, on conviction thereof, to inflict such Pen- 
alties or Punishments as they shall see fit — not to 
exceed Fine or Imprisonment, saving an appeal to 
this House or General Court." 

EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE CONGRESS. 

" Colony of New Hampshire 
Chesire, ss. 

"Pursuantto the fourgoing resolve, I do hereby give 
notice to the above mentioned Benjamin Sumner, 
Samuell Cole and Ranna Cossit of Claremont in said 
county and Eleazer Sanger of Keene in s'd county to 
appear at Charleston at the House of Abel Warner, 
Innholder in said Charleston on the second Wednes- 
day of April next at one of the clock, P. M., to an- 
swer the allegations brought against them by sundrie 
Evidences before the Commities of Saftie for the 
Towns of Claremont, Cornish, Lebanon and Hanover, 
on the 5th day of Decem'r last as appears by an ex- 
hibition thereof, to the late Congress at Exeter. 

" Benj'n Giles, PresldH, 

" In behalf of the Committ. 



"Charleston, March 28, 1776." 



" Charlestown, April 10th, 1776. 

" Colony of 
New Hampshire, ss- 

" Aregreeable to a resolve of the Hon'ble Congress 
appointing Benj'a Giles, Esq'r, Major John Bellows, 
Capt. Nath'l Sartell Prentice, Mr. Thomas Sparhawk 
and Mr. Eliiah Grout a Com'tee to examine and try 
Capt. Benj'a Sumner, Sam'l Cole, Esq'r, Rev'd Ranna 
Cossett and Eleazer Sanger, persons reputed to be 
Enemies to the Liberties of this Country, etc. 

" We, the subscribers, having notified the aforesaid 
Sumner, Cole, Cossett and Sanger to meet at time 
and place above mentioned, for the purpose afores'd, 
and Mr. Ranna Cossett, Sam'l Cole, Esq'r, and Capt. 
Benja. Sumner, appearing upon examination, by 
their own Confession and Evidences in the Case, 
having maturely considered the same. Judge that the 
evidence and fact exhibited by the Joint Com'tees of 
Claremont, Cornish, Lebanon and Hanover unto the 
afores'd Congress against the afores'd Cossett, Cole 
and Sumner are well supported. 

" We, the Subscribers, are of Opinion that the s'd 
Mr. Ranna Cossett and Sam'l Cole, Esq'r, be, from 
and after the 12th day of this, instant, April, con- 
fined within the Limits of the Township of Clare- 
mont, in s'd Colony, during the present Contest 
between Great Britain and the Colonies, unless they 
or either of them shall be released by certifying their 
good Behaviour in future to the Com'ee of Clare- 
mont, or the Subscribers, or upon Application, if 
they see Cause, to the Hon'ble Council and Assembly 
of this Colony. 

" Also, that Capt. Benj'a. Sumner be subjected in 
the same manner and within the same Limits as 
Cossett and Cole above mentioned, or give sufficient 
bonds, to the acceptance of the Com'tee of Clare- 
mont, for the time being, obligididing and binding 
him to his good behaviour, and that neither of the 
above named persons be seen conversent together 
ujjon any occasion whatever, except meeting together 
at Publick Worship. 

" Furthermore, if either of the above named per- 
sons shall not strictly and uprightly keep the above 
Determination, and, being fairly convicted thereof 
before the Com'tee of Safety of Claremont, that they 
l)e and hereby are directed to committ the offender to 
the Common Goal, there to abide untill released by 
Order of this Com'ee or the General Assembly of this 



CLAREMONT. 



63 



Colony, and that their fire arms be still retained in 
Custody of the Com'ee of Claremont, afores'd ; 

" Provided, Nevertheless, that if the afores'd Mr. 
Ranna Cossett shall be call'd by any of the people of 
his perswasion specially to officiate in his ministerial 
office in preaching, baptizing and visiting the sick, 
this order is not intended to prohibit him therefrom. 

"A Coppy Exam'nd. 

"Attest. Nath'l S. Prentice, Clerk." 

In the month of February, 1778, Elihii Stevens, 
Esq., was chosen Representative. At this meet- 
ing Articles of Confederation, " appointed by the 
Honorable, the Continental Congress," were 
adopted. 

It was also voted that " said Stevens proceed 
with justice to use his influence to call a full 
and free representation of the people of the 
State of New Hampshire to meet in convention, 
has been desired by the House of Representatives 
of said State." " Voted and chose Lieutenant 
Joseph Ives selectman in the room of Captain 
Joseph Taylor, as he expects soon to join the 
American army." 

Elihu Stevens came to Claremont in 1775. He 
was an active and ardent Whig;, and being; a 

t 

justice of the peace, an office of considerable dig- 
nity in those days, was frequently called to sit at 
tlie trial of persons arrested on suspicion of being 
Tories. So bitter were bis feelings toward that 
class of persons, that according to his judgment it 
did not require the most conclusive proof to 
convict a person charged with being a traitor to 
his country. It often happened, therefore, that of 
the many trials and convictions before him, nearly 
all were discharged at the highest courts. 

Complaints were often made against the 
purest patriots in town. A complaint having 
been once entered, it was thought that no other 
course could be taken than to arraign and try the 
party accused. Among others thus complained 
against was Ichabod Hitchcock, an early settler in 
town. He was a thorough working Whig, and al- 
though engaged in no actual service himself, yet he 
had on certain occasions employed and paid at the 
same time no less than three persons for service in 



the war. At that time he was the only master-car- 
penter and builder in town, and his services in 
this line being very much in demand, he chose to 
send others in his stead. Some evil-minded person 
circulated the report that Hitchcock had turned 
Tory. The report having reached the ears of Mr. 
Stevens, he immediately determined to arrest him. 
Accordingly, he started out very early one morning 
in company with his .son, both being well armed, 
in pursuit of Hitchcock. A few rods beyond 
Hitchcock's house liveil a man who was also sus- 
pected and had been complained against. It was 
the intention to arrest both at the same time and 
march them to the village, where they were to be 
tried. On arriving at the house of Hitchcock they 
found him at breakfast, and arrested him in the 
name of the Continental Congress. The son wae 
stationed as guard before the only outsiile door, 
and the prisoner was safely confined. The father 
went to secure the other person. Hitchcock, having 
finished his breakfast, asked the guard if he had 
eaten anything that morning, who answered that 
he had not, and he was politely invited to come in 
and partake of the good cheer of his prisoner, 
which invitation he readily accepted, laid aside his 
gun and sat down at the table ; whereupon Hitch- 
cock seized the gun and coolly observed to his 
astonished guest that he might eat all he wanted, 
for nobody should molest him, a.s he had been 
taken prisoner while in the discharge of his duty 
to his country as well as himself 

Soon the father returned with the other pcr9on, 
and seeing Hitchcock pacing to and fro before 
the door in true military style, immediately ordered 
him to lay down his arms. Hitchcock being some- 
thing of a wag, assumed an air of innocent igno 
rauce, suddenly replied, " Oh, yes, I made him 
surrender arms some time ago, and I've got him 
safe. I'm satisfied he is a Tory and wish that he 
may be taken from my house as soon as possible. " 
It required considerable explanation before he 
could be convinced that he was the person actually 
under arrest ; but after having received satisfactory 
evidence, as he termed it, that such was the fact, 
he at once yielded and accompanied his captors to 



64 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the village. The ceremonies of a trial resulted in 
the discharge of the prisoners, who, as before, 
availed themselves of every opportunity to aid in 
the struggles for the couutry. A few days after 
this trial the people were alarmed by loud reports, 
in rapid succession, apparently of fire-arms. Mes- 
sengers were at once dispatched in the direction of 
the sound.?, with orders to ascertain the cause and 
return as quickly as possible. Meeting with two 
or three of their townsmen, the messengers in- 
quired of them if they had heard the noise, and if 
they knew the cause. They replied that they 
heard it, that it proceeded from British scouts, and 
that a large body of the enemy were encamped at 
Cavendish, Vt., and before noon would be in Clare- 
mont. The messengers turned their horses and 
hastened back with the news. Among some of the 
families great consternation and confusion pre- 
vailed. Hastily they gathered up their movables 
and hurried away to the fort at Number Four 
(now Charlestown). But the majority of the 
people determined to await the result. It was 
subsequently ascertained that the noise which had 
occasioned the alarm was caused by some one 
diishing one upright board against another lying 
flat on the ground. 

At the annual town-meeting in March, 1778, it 
was voted to divide the town into school districts, 
and accordingly a division was made, constituting 
seven school districts. Hitherto, as we have seen,» 
there were ouly two school-houses in town, and this 
state of things existed until near the close of the 
war; the Whigs patronizing the school on Jarvis 
Hill, and the Tories sending their children to the 
house situated near Union Church. 

In 1779 the prosperity and growth of the pop- 
ulation had been such that a new meeting-house 
for the Congregational Church was required. 
Upon this point there seemed to be no difference 
of opinion, but as to the best location there was 
much diversity of sentiment, and was the occasion 
of considerable feeling and controversy. The 
matter was agitated in several town-meetings. At 
one it would be voted that the meeting-house should 
be located in a particular sp t, and at the next 



meeting the vote would be reconsidered, and a 
committee would be chosen to select a spot and 
report at a subsequent meeting, and, when the time 
arrived, the people would refuse to accept the re- 
port. Then it was agreed to refer the matter to a 
committee comprised of men from neighboring 
towns. This committee appeared and discharged 
their duty, and made a report, which the town 
voted not to adopt. The main cause of these dif- 
ficulties was that among the church-members 
themselves there was a division ; and, of those 
compelled by law to pay taxes for the support of 
tlie " standing order," there were not a few who 
had at heart no interest of the welfare of the Con- 
gregational Society, and were ready to give their 
influence to promote confusion and increase the 
already existing difficulties. From 1779 to 1792 
a large portion of the records of the town consists 
of memoranda of the votes and acts of the town 
respecting the selection of a spot " to sett the new 
meeting-house on." In 1791, Deacon Matthias 
Stone, at his own expense, erected a meeting-house 
on a spot of ground near what was known as the 
Harvey Draper house, on the road from the vil- 
lage to the Junction. In the petition for a 
town-meeting, called at Deacon Stone's request, 
was the article — " To see if the town will accept 
of the new meeting-house as a present." Although, 
from anything which appeared to the contrary, 
this oflfer was made with motives of pure benevo- 
lence, the town refused to accept the gift. 

In the records of a town-meeting held August 
23, 1779, is the following: 

"Then red the Proclamation of the Cnntiaeutal 
Congress; att the same meeting red the Bill of rights 
and Rejected the same by a vote." 

In town, at this time, was one William 
McCoy, before mentioned, shrewd, cunning 
and active, who was more than suspected 
of rendering service to the spies and emis- 
saries of the British, and was a source of an- 
noyance and vexation to every good Whig. Many 
efforts had been made to detect him in the com- 
mission of some treasonable act, but he succeeded 
in keeping beyond the reach of his persecutors. 



CI.AREMONT. 



65 



Finally, one evening, he was discovered going in 
the direction of " Tory Hole," in company with a 
strange, suspiciouslookiug person. This was 
enough. He was arrested and brought before Elihu 
Stevens, Esq., for trial. Notwithstanding that he 
succeeded in making the principal witness against 
hira contradict himself in several important par- 
ticulars, yet he was found guilty of treason and 
ordered to be imprisoned to await trial at the next 
term of the Superior Court. When the sheriff, 
Ichahod Hitchcock, who had, a short tiuie before, 
been arrested for the saiue offence and discharged, 
was about to start off with the prisoner for jail, 
lie asked the justice if he had prepared the mitti- 
mus. The justice, with some impatience, replied, 
" Take my hoi'se and carriage. If they will hold 
out long enough to get him to jail, it will be all 
the miHiniiis he deserves." It seems, however, that, 
in addition to the team, the court furnished the 
requisite papers of committal, as will ap])ear from 
the following : 

" To Ichahod Hitchcock in Claremont : 

"Cheshire ss. Claremont, August 16, A. u. 1779. 
" att a Justice Court held in Claremont Before me 
one of the Justices of the Peace for ye Couuty of 
Cheshire, at the house of Edward Goodwin upon a 
Complaint made to me by Edward Goodwin of s'd 
Claremont against one Wm. McCoye of s'd Clare- 
mont of Being (luilty of treason against the States of 
America; and the judgment of the Courtis that ye 
said Wm. McCoye be committed to Goal for tryal att 
Nc.\t Superior Court to be held in s'd County. 

" E. S., J. P. 

" [LS] Cheshire SS. to the Constable of Claremont 
iu tlie Cnunty of Cheshire; and to the keeper of the 
(rDal att Charlestown in s'd County: these are to 
Comand in the name of the Governor and people of 
the State of New Hampshire: forthwith to convey 
and deliver into the custody of the keeper of the said 
(( roal) the Body of Wm. McCoye ; charged Before me 
witli being Guilty of Treason against the States of 
.\inerica; the sd keepers are hereby Required to Ee- 
ceive the sd McCoye into yourcustody in thesd Goal: 
and him the sd Wm. McCoye their safely to keep 
until the Next Superior Court to be heb:l at keen. 
Unless he shall before that time lie tlience Delivered 



by Due Corse of Law : hearof fail Not as you will 
answer for your Contempt at your peiul. Given under 
my hand and Seal att Claremont this Sixteenth Day 
of august in the year of our Lord one thousand seven 
hundred and seventy nine. 

" E. S., J. r./orsd County." 

" Wai.pgle, augst ve 17, 1774. 
" Sir,— 

" M. How-ard lias Wm. McCoye : Delivered him to 

Confine in ye Goal at Charlstown, theGoal professant 

to hold him: I have advised him to Convey him to 

you to be Confined in the Goal at Keen, the mittimas 

is Not very well drawn : but if you will take him into 

your Custody and Indever to keep him Safe, You 

shall come to no harm I vour Humble Servant 



B. B. 



" to Mr. Si/as Cook at keen." 



In the month of ^lay of ITTK the people were 
alai'med by the intelligence of a messenger from 
Vermont, that a party of Indians, Tories and- 
English had made an attack upon Royalston, where 
they had destroyed several houses and taken a 
number of prisoners; that their course, so far as 
could be ascertained, was toward Connecticut River. 
The prospect of the approacli of a large body of 
men friendly to the Tories, who infested this town 
in considerable numbers, could not but excite un- 
pleasant feelings in the breasts of those who would 
be treated as rebels by the advancing army. The 
Tories, on the other hand, were in high sjiirits. 
For a long time they had anxiously looked for the 
complete triumph of the British, and now they 
regarded the wished-for event as near at hand. 
But the weak and defenseless condition of the 
Whigs by no means diminished their courage. 
Immediately a party of men was selected and sent 
off, with Lieutenant Barnabas Ellis at their head, 
in the direction of the rendezvous of the enemy. 
They had not ]jroceeded far, however, when news 
came that the foe had retreated to Canada. Before 
the company started on the expedition it was very 
prudently determined to examine "Tory Hole," 
where a considerable (piautity of provisions were 
found concealed. These discoveries led to the be 
lief that the movements at this spot had some 



66 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



conuection with the designs of the party which 
made the descent upon Royalston. 

It appears, by a vote passed in town- meeting in 
April, 1781, that the inhabitants of Claremont, for 
a sliort time, at least, took sides with those towns 
which had seceded from New Hampshire and 
formed a union with Vermont. The apportion- 
ment of the State tax for Claremont had been 
made by the proper authority and sent to the se- 
lectmen of the town for collection. The selectmen 
neglected to comply with these directions, alleging 
that they owed allegiance to another State. Still, 
they did not feel safe in assuming such a position, 
and, accordingly, the town voted that " the inhab- 
itants of Claremont will indemnify the selectmen 
of s'd Town from cost or damages arising on ac- 
count of their neglect to make up rates for the tax- 
bills now on hand, or that shall hereafter come to 
hand from the State of New Hampshire." 

Claremont was not one of the sixteen towns 
which had petitioned for admission into the union 
with Vermont, and had been received as early as 
1778. It will be recollected that the original 
territory of New Hampshire consisted of various 
grants to John Mason from the Council of New 
England, a body made up of several of the 
pnncii)al nobility of Great Britain, to whom, 
under that corporate name, " all the land in 
America, lying between tlie fortieth and forty- 
eighth degree of north latitude" had been 
granted. These grants were made between the 
years 1621 and 1635, and were limited on the 
west by a line sixty miles from the sea. This line, 
being straight, would pass through the towns, of 
Effingham, Wolfborough, Concord and Rindge. 
The territory between this line and Connecticut 
River was granted suhseipiently to the Governors 
of New Hampshire. As soon as Vermont had a 
government, which took place in 1777, a strong 
desire was manifested on the part of many of the 
inhabitants of the territory between the Mason 
line and Connecticut River to unite with the 
people of this new State. To justify a separation, 
they contended, as we have already seen, that all 
the lands west of the Mason line, being royal 



grants, were subject to the government of New 
Hampshire by force of the royal commissions, 
which were rendered null by the assumed inde- 
pendence of the American colonies. They, there- 
fore, claimed that their social condition was but 
" a state of nature," and that they had a right to 
form a separate government, or connect them- 
selves with such others as would consent to a union 
with them. 

Accordingly, sixteen towns on the east side of 
Connecticut River, on the 12th of March, 1778, 
presented a petition to be admitted into the union. 
The matter having been submitted to the people 
at large, a majority were found to be in favor of 
admitting the petitioners. As soon as this question 
was settled, the sixteen towns took a formal leave 
of New Hampshire. The step, however, was not 
without its troubles and embarrassments to the 
State of Vermont as well as to these sixteen towns. 
An address of Meshech Weare, president of the 
Council of New Hamjjshire, to Governor Chitten- 
den, of Vermont, seemed to bring the Assembly of 
the latter State to a stand in the union measure. 
They saw at once that, at most, it was a hazardous 
experiment, Iraught with all the evils and in- 
justice exhibited by New York in her oppressive 
acts toward their own State, when struggling for 
birth. By a series of votes they declared their de- 
termination to give up further encouragement to 
these sixteen seceding towns. Such address excited 
the jealousy of the members from these towns, who, 
seeing that they were in danger of being sent back 
to their former allegiance, drew up the following 
protest, which is copied from the " Vermont State 

Papers : " 

" Windsor, October 22d a.d. 1778. 

" State of Vermont ss. — We, whose names are 
under written, members of the Council and general 
assembly of said State, beg leave to lay before the as- 
sembly the following as our protest and declaration 
against their proceedings on Wednesdaj', the twenty- 
first instant in passing the following votes or resolu- 
tions : ' First, that the counties in this State shall re- 
main as they were established by the assembly of this 
State in March last.' 

" Second, ' That the towns on the east side of the 



CLAKEMONT. 



67 



river, included in the union with this State, shall not 
be included in the county of Cumberland.' 

"Third, 'That the towns on the east side of the 
river shall not be erected into a distinct county by 
themselves.' As by said votes, on the journal of the 
house may appear, which votes are illegal, and in 
direct violation of the Constitution of the State and 
the solemn engagements and public faith, pledged by 
the resolutions of said assembly ; as by the following 
ol)servations will plainly appear, viz. : 

" 1. That as the towns on the east side of the river 
were never annexed to any county in said Slate, they 
are consequently, by said votes, entirely excluded 
the liberties, privileges, protection, laws and jurisdic- 
tion of said State ; all which were granted them by 
the State, by an act or resolve of assemlily, passed at 
Bennington, in June last, containing the union and 
confederation of the State and said towns ; by which 
act or resolve of assembl)', every town included in 
the union received by grant from the then State of Ver- 
mont, all the rights, powers and privileges of any other 
town in said State; which they cannot be deprived 
of without their consent, as it is a maxim that the 
grantor or grantors cannot reassume their grant with- 
out the surrendry of the grantee or grantees. 

" 2. That said votes are in direct opposition to a 
solemn resolution of this assembly, passed on the 20th 
inst., establishing the report of the committee of both 
houses, in which report the assembly have solemnly 
covenanted to defend the whole of the State, entire, 
as it then was, including said towns. 

" 3. That the Constitution of the State, especially 
the sixth article in the bill of rights, Government is 
instituted or declared to be a right of every part of 
the community, and not a part only; said votes are 
therefore a violation of the Constitution. 

" 4. That, so far as the assembly have power, they 
have, by said votes, totally destroyed the confedera- 
tion of the State by depriving those towns included 
in the union of the exercise of any jurisdiction, power 
or privilege granted them in the confederation; by 
which the towns in the State are combined and held 
together as one body. And as no political body can 
exercise a partial jurisdiction, by virtue of a confed- 
eration, or agreement of the people to exercise gov- 
ernment over the whole, it is therefore either void or 
destroys both the confederation and the Constitution. 
We do, therefore, hereby publicly declare and make 
kniiwn that we cannot, consistent with our oaths and 



engagements to the State, so long as said votes stand 
and continue in force, exercise any office or place — 
either legislative, executive or judicial — in this State; 
l)Ut look upon ourselves as being, thereby, discharged 
from any and every former confederation and associ- 
ation with the State." 

This protest was signed by the Lieutenant- 
(ioveriior of Vermont and twenty-six others, most 
of whom were residents upon the east side of the 
river. The protesting members immediately with- 
drew, leaving in the A.ssenibly hardly enough to 
form a quorum. However just may have been 
their grounds for this bitter comj)laiut, the As- 
sembly of Vermont, now fully aware of the 
danger, as well as the injustice of aiding in the 
dismembenneut of New- Hampshire, determined to 
retrace their steps and rid themselves wholly of 
the connection. Accordingly, it was decided in 
session, February 1'2, 1779, that "the said union 
ought to be considered as being null from the be- 
ginning." This decisive step only added to the 
excitement and chagrin of the protesting members, 
who immediately took measures for calling a con- 
vention at Cornish, to which they invited all the 
towns in the vicinity of Connecticut River to send 
delegates. The convention met as suggested, but 
nothing important was done, and the i'eeling of 
resentment soon died away. 

Doubtless, this would have been the end of the 
difficulty, had New Hamp.shire, after having re- 
claimed her revolted territory, nuinifested the 
same regard for justice toward \'ermout which 
she had demanded and received from that State. 

Although the former union had been recently 
dissolved through the agency of Vermont people, 
yet many towns east of the river were desirous of 
forming a second connection. 

" At a convention of delegates from the several 
towns in the county of Cheshire, in the State of New 
Hampshire, held at Waljiole, in said county, on the 
15th day of November, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand seven hundred and eighty, 

" Voted, That Dr. Page, Colonel Hunt, Captain 
Holmes, Daniel Jones, Esq., and Colonel Bellows be 
a committee to confer with gentlemen from any parts 
of the territory called New Hampshire grants, con- 



68 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ceniiug the jurisdiction of said grants, and to con- 
sider what is proper to be d<ine liy the inhabitants 
tliereof relative to their jurisdiction, that the same 
maybe ascertained and established." 

This committee, after due consideration, reported 
favoring the union with Vermcmt, and in conclusion 
said : 

"We, therefore, earnestly recommend as the only 
means to obtain a union, preserve peace, harmony 
and brotherly love and the interest of the community 
in neutral, that a convention be called from every 
town within the said grants, to be held at Charlestown 
on the third Tuesday of January next, at one of the 
clock in the afternoon ; and that one or more mem- 
bers from each town be ajjpointed with proper in- 
structions to unite in such measures as the majority 
shall judge most conducive to consolidate a union of 
the grants and effect a final settlement of the line of 
jurisdiction." 

This report was signed by B. Bellows, S. Hunt, 
D. Jones, L. Holmes and W. Page, as committee, 
and was accepted by the convention. 

In accordance with the recommendation of this 
report, a convention was held at Charlestown, 
January 16, 1781, consisting of delegates from 
forty three towns. In this movement Claremont 
played a part, and for a .short season was regarded 
as within the jurisdiction of Vermont. On the 
10th of February following, tlie convention made 
application to the Assembly of Vermont for a 
union of the grants on both sides of Connecticut 
River, .setting forth the importance, necessity and 
justice of a permanent union of the grants on both 
sides of the river. They had good reasons for 
urging such measures. And, among others, it is 
to be remembered that only those towns which 
had been granted by Governor Benning Went- 
worth were engaged in the conflict with New 
York, which, ever since 1764, had attempted, not 
only to swallow them up in her jurisdiction, but 
also to compel them to rei)urchase their own fire- 
sides and acres, for the purj)ose of gratifying the 
insatiate avarice of the greedy minions of arbi- 
trary power, at which time these towns were 
cordially received by the State of Vermont, whose 
policy it certainly was at that time to gain such 



valuable accessions, in order to prevent the tear- 
ing asunder of what she already possessed. 

The Assembly of Vermont determined to 
receive the forty -three towns into her jurisdiction, 
and report was made as follows : 

"That this assembly is willing to receive the in- 
habitants of the New Hampshire grants, east of Con- 
necticut River and west of the Mason line, into union 
with this state, if we can agree on terms that shall I'c 
safe for the State and beneficial to the whole." 

A minority of the delegates to the convention 
at Charlestown, among whom were Oliver Ashley 
and Matthias Stone, the delegates from Claremont, 
protested against the action of the conventiiin as 
follows : ' 

" IX CONVEXTIOX AT CHARLESTOWN, Jan. 18, 1781. 

" We, the subscribers, delegates from the several 
towns to which our names are affixed, wishing for 
and endeavoring to fcjrm a union of the New Hamp- 
shire grants on both sides of Connecticut River, and 
contented that they be annexed to New Hampshire 
or be a separate State, as Congress may judge proper; 
but thinking ourselves not authorized by our constit- 
uents to unite with the said grants, in the method re- 
solved by the said convention, and being of opinion 
that their proceedings have a tendency to weaken the 
reins of government — to retard the exertions of those 
who are engaged to oppose the public enemy — to in- 
troduce irregularity and disorder in the county of 
Che-shire, and not conducive to the end proposed ; 
think it our duty to protest against the proceedings of 
said convention." 

The other delegates, besides Messrs. Ashley and 
Stone, of Claremont, who signed this protest, were 
those from AViuohcster, Walpole, Charlestown, 
Richmond, Keene, Alstead and Newport. 

About this time a petition was presented to the 
Vermont Assembly, by inhabitants living to the 
west of Vermont, for a like union with that State 
of the territory lying to the east of Hudson River. 
In this tiie petitioners prayed for protection against 
their enemies in Canada. It was the evident de- 
sign of the Assembly of Vermont to form a large 



' Copied from " Provincial and State Papers of New 
Hampshire," vol- x-, p. 39.3. 



CLAREMOXT. 



G9 



and powerful State out of their own territory, all 
the territory situated east of Counecticut Kiver, 
uorth of Massachusetts and south of latitude forty- 
Hve, and all the territory north of the line of Mas- 
sacliusetts, and extending to Hudson River. 

Vermont having asiced for admission to tiie 
Union, Congress did not look favorably upon her 
reijuest while her controversies with New Hamp- 
shire and New York were unsettled, and, accord- 
ingly, on the 7th of August, 1781, passed the fol- 
lowing: 

" Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to 
confer with such person or persons as may be ap- 
pointed by the people residing on the New Hampshire 
grants, on the west side of the Connecticut River, or 
by their representative body, respecting their claim 
to be an independent State ; and on what terms it 
may be proper to admit them into the Federal Union 
of these States, in case the United States, in Congress 
assembled, shall determine to recognize their inde- 
pendence, and thereof make report. 

"Resolved, That in case Congress shall recognize the 
independence of the said people of Vermont, they 
will consider all the lands belonging to New Hamp- 
shire and New York, respectively, without the limits 
of Vermont, aforesaid, as coming within the mutual 
guarantee of territory contained in the articles of 
confederation ; and that the United States will, ac- 
coi-dingly, guarantee such lands, and the jurisdiction 
over the same, against any claims or encroachments 
from the inhabitants of Vermont, aforesaid." 

The committee chosen under the foregoing reso- 
lutions were jNIr. Boudinot, of New Jersey; Mr. 
\'andyke, of Delaware ; Mr. Carroll, of Maryland ; 
Mr. Montgomery, of Pennsylvania ; and Mr. Ran- 
dolph, of Virginia. Mr. Madison was on the com- 
mittee who had drafted the resolutions. 

About the middle of August, Messrs. Jonas Fay 
and Ira Allen, representing Vermont west of the 
Connecticut River, and Bazaleel Woodbury, of 
Dresden (Hanover), representing the towns of the 
eastern union, who, on the 22d of June, immedi- 
ately after the formation of the western union, had 
been ajjpointed agents to apply to Congress for the 
admission of Vermont into the Federal union, ar- 
rived in Philadelphia to gain their tirst knowl- 



edge there of what had been going on. The con- 
ference took place on the 18th of August, and, 
after a hearing upon and consideration of the sub- 
ject, the committee recommended to the adoption 
by Congress of the following: 

" Resolved, That it be an indispensable preliminary 
to the recognition of the independence of the people 
inhabiting the territory called Vermont, and tlieir ad- 
mission into the Federal Union ; that they explicitly 
relinquish all demands of lands or jurisdiction on the 
east side of the west bank of Connecticut River, and 
on the west side of a line beginning at northwest cor- 
ner of the State of Massachusetts ; thence running 
twenty miles east of Hudson river, so far as the river 
runs northeasterly in its general course ; thence by 
the west bounds of the townships granted by the late 
Government of New Hampshire to the river running 
from South Bay to Lake Champlain ; thence along 
the said river to Lake Champlain ; thence along the 
waters of Lake Champlain to latitude 45 degrees 
north, excepting a neck of land between Massiskoy 
bay and the waters of Lake Champlain.'' 

This resolution was adopted by Congress, twelve 
States, being all except New York, voted for the 
adoption of the resolution. 

The Legislature assembled at Charlcstowu in 
October and in committee of the whole for the 
consideration of the Congressional resolutions, the 
subject was discussed for three days, when the fol- 
lowing resolution was adopted : 

" i?eso/ref/, That this committee recommend to the 
Legislature of this State to remain firm in the princi- 
ples on which the State of Vermont first assumed 
government; and to hold the articles of union which 
connect each part of the State with the other invio- 
late." 

Tliey then afHrmed for the information of Con- 
gress that they would not submit the question of 
their independence to the arbitrament of any power 
whatever; but that they were willing, at present, 
to. refer the question of their jurisdictional bound- 
ary to commissioners mutually chosen ; and when 
the State should be admitted into the American 
Union they would submit any such disputes to 
Congress. They elected nine commissioners on 



70 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tlu-ii- ]):irt to meet with siiiiilar cdmniissioners from 
New Hainpshii-e and New York. 

A long and, at time.*, bitter controversy fol- 
lowed, with but little prospect of a settlement of 
the difficulties. Finally, Governor Chittenden 
wrote a long and confidential lettei', dated Decem- 
ber 14, 1781, to General Washington, giving a full 
history of the troubles and the causes of them. On 
January 1, 1782, General Washington rejjlied at 
length, which had the etiect to bring about a full 
and final settlement, and the admission of Ver- 
mont into the Federal Union, substantially on the 
basis of the resolution of Congress above quoted. 

The following is copied i-rrbatim from " Provincial 
and State Papers of New Hampshire," vol. x. page 
483. 

PETITION OF SUNDRY INHABITANTS OF CLARE- 
MONT, PRAYING FOE SPEEDY RELIEF FROM DIF- 
FICULTIES OF VERMONT INTERFERENCE. 

" To the Honorable General Assembly or Committee of 
Safety for the State of Neiv Hampshire : 

" We, the Inhabitants, as individuals, of the Town 
of Claremout Laboring under great difficulties on ac- 
count of the pretended claim of Vermont, & not 
being able to Hold Town meetiugsunder New Hamp- 
shire, we Humbly Eequest Directions how to proceed, 
as we are threatened in person & property, by their 
taxes and Laws, which we utterly refuse to sul)mit 
too, they carry so high a hand that we must have 
speedy relief or must submit to their jurisdiction 
which will be very grievous to your petitioners and 
therefore we Humbl}' pray for a speedy answer. We 
are short in words & particulars as l^eing sensible 
you are in some measure knowing to our circum- 
stances, & we your petitioners iu Duty Bound shall 
ever pray. 

" Claremout, Jan'y 14, 1782. 
" Elihu Everts 



Henry Stevens 

Roswell Stevens 
Reuben Petty 
Josiah Rich 
John Peck ens 
W". Strobridge 
Gideon Lewis 
David Rich 



Josiah Stevens 
Elihu Stevens 
T. Sterne 
.Jesse Matthews 
Thomas Jones 
Joseph Ives 
Bartlitt Hinds 
John West." 



The VeruKuit Legislature met at Bennington, 
and on the 11th of February, 1 782, the business 
relating to the east and west union was brought up 
for consideration, and Governor Chittenden laid 
before the House the letter of General Washiufftou 

o 

and other papers relating to the subject. On the 
19th the Governor and Council and House of Rep- 
resentatives met in committee of the whole to take 
into consideration the resolution of Congress of the 
20th of August and other matters relating to the 
union controversy. 

While in committee of the whole a motion was 
made — " That the sense of the committee be taken 
upon the following question, viz. : Whether Con- 
gress, in their resolutions of the 7th and 21st of 
August last, in guaranteeing to the respective 
States of New York and New Hampshire all ter- 
ritory without certain limits therein expressed, has 
not eventually determined the boundaries of this 
State?" 

AVhich ([Ucstion, being put, was carried iu the 
affirmative. The committee of the whole reported 
its doings to the House, which report, being read, 
was accepted and adopted, when on motion it was 
then resolved, " That this House do judge the Ar- 
ticles of Union completely dissolved. 

" And thereupon it was Resolved, That the west 
bank of the Connecticut River, and a line beginning 
at the northwest corner of the Massachusetts State 
from thence northward twenty miles east of Hudson's 
River, as specified in the Resolutions of August last 
shall be considered as the east and west boundaries of 
this State ; and th.at this Assembly do hereby relin- 
quish all claims and demand to and right of jurisdic- 
tion in and over any and every district of territory 
without said boundary lines ; and that authenticated 
copies of this Resolution be forthwith officially trans- 
mitted to Congress and the States of New Hampshire 
and New York respectively." 

Thus by the act of the Vermont Assembly the 
unions east and west were dissolved, under circum- 
stances and in such a manner as to preclude the 
prospect of their being again renewed. 

There were some in Clarenu)ut who were 
chagrined at the turn matters had taken in Ver- 



CLAREMONT. 



71 



mont, and the Tories were ever ready to play upon 
any emergency which gave the least indication of 
discord and disunion among the Whigs. Four 
different times in 1782 — the first March 12th, and 
the last July 1st, — did the people meet before the 
husiness usually transacted at the annual meeting 
in March was fully accomplished. The last meet- 
ing was held in " ye barn of Msrs. Thomas and 
Timothy Dustin in said town after being legally 
warned." Elihu Stevens, Esq., was chosen mod- 
erator. Here it was " Voted to look into ye state 
of ye treasury." 

In 1784, by the treaty of peace with Great' 
Bi'itain, the Tories were allowed the privilege of 
returning to this country to collect their debts and 
dispose of their property. This was a favor valua- 
l)le to many in Claremout, who had left in the be- 
ginning of the war and had kept themselves alooi 
or out of public view during its continuance. 
John Brooks, l)cfore spoken of, returned early this 
year, lor the jiurpose above named. But he found 
no friends among his former acquaintances. In- 
sults and ridicule were heaped upon him whenever 
he went abroad. Disappointed, humbled and, it 
may be, vexed at this reception, he disposed of his 
ettects and quickly left town. 

At the annual town-meeting this year Captain 
Benjamin Sumner was chosen to represent the 
town in General Assembly to be held at Concord, 
on the first Wednesday in June following. At a 
town-meeting held August 9, 1784, it was voted to 
appoint a committee " to treat with Captain Oliver 
Ashley to know of him whether he has fulfilled 
the demands of the State upon him for soldiers, 
and likewise to desire him to make out the pa}'- 
roll for the sudden alarm to guard the Frontier in 
the late war." 

At a town-meeting held in December, 1785, it 
was voted to " give the Rev. Augustine Hihbaid a 
dismission from his church, and recommendation 
as a gospel minister." Also that " all his estate, 
l)oth real and personal that he now po.?.se.«ses be 
freed from all taxes during his residence in Clare 
mont." 

The Baptist Society was first formed in this 



town during this year, but there was no stated 
preaching until the following year, when Rev. 
John Feckins was ordained. The formation of 
this new religious .society increa.sed the l)itterness 
of feeling against the ministerial tax system. The 
members of the new society firmly but calmlv re- 
fused to conform to this requirement of the law, 
pleading that they were of a different denomina- 
tion. It was therefore deemed advisable to strike 
them from the grand list, and a vote was passed at 
a town-meeting " that those people that call them- 
selves Baptists pay no more rates to the Congrega- 
tional order for the fewter." 

At a town-meeting held in August, 17'S0, it was 
voted that " we lay our claims for our private ex- 
penditures in the late war on special claims in- 
cluding our Vermont services." The town also 
voted that the " State make a bank of paper cur- 
rency." A committee of five was also chcsen to 
give instructions to Sanford Kingsbury, Esq., the 
Representative to the General Court," how and in 
what manner s'd money shall be made to answer 
the public best and also in what manner s'd 
money shall be drawn out of the treasury to 
answer the most valualde purposes." These steps 
were in accordance with a plan proposed by the 
" General Court Committee for emitting a paper 
currency." It would seem that there was not per- 
fect unanimity in regard to this plan, for on the 
21st day of November a town-meeting was held in 
which the question was again tried and settled in 
favor of the plan, eighteen voting for and five 
against it. At this period the general govern- 
ment, as well as the States, wa.s deeply involved in 
debt. '■' Silver and gold, which had been exten- 
sively circulated during the last years of the war, 
were now returning by the usual course of trade 
to those countries whence large quantities of nec- 
essarv and unnecessarv commodities had been im- 
ported." 

The country was entirely drained of specie, and 
Congress then possessing no power to lay imposts, 
there was no check to this universal flow from the 
public treasury. To remedy existing evils, taxa- 
tions upon polls and estates were resorted to, and 



72 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



thus almost insupportable burdens were thrown 
upon the husbandman and the laborer. 

Hence arose a clamor tlirougliout the State for 
the establishment of a paper currency. In every 
town was a party in favor of this measure. It 
was insisted that through this method life would 
be imparted to commerce and encouragement to 
agriculture, that the poor would thereby be pro- 
vided with means for the payment of their debts 
and taxes, and finally that it would work as an 
effectual check to the operations of speculators avd 
monopolists. 

In conformity with a resolution of the New 
Hampshire Legislature, passed March 3, 178(i, 
calling upon " the selectmen of the several towns, 
districts and parishes in this State" "to make a 
return of all the inhabitants within this State, on 
or before the second Wednesday of June next, 
viz. : the whole number of white and other free 
citizens ; inhabitants of every age, sex and condi- 
tion, including those bound to servitude for a term 
of years ; and also in a separate column, or class 
all other persons not comprehended in the foregoing 
description, except Indians not paying taxes." The 
following was the return from Claremont : 

"Males 4S7 

Females 427 

Slaves 3 

Not inhabitants — transient persons now 
residing in said town. 

Males 23 

Females 2.5 

Total 0(!5" 

To still the clamor and ascertain the real sense 
of the people upon this .subject, the (leneral As- 
sembly, in session at Exeter, September 13, 1786, 
formed a plan for the emission of fifty thousand 
pounds, to be loaned at fotir per cent, on land se- 
curities, and this to be a tender in payment of 
taxes, and for the fees and salaries of public offi- 
cers. The plan was sent to the several towns, and 
the people were requested to give their opinions in 
town-meeting for and against it, and to make re- 
turn of the votes to the Assembly at its next ses- 



sion. The plan did not meet with public appro- 
bation, a majority of the people having voted against 
it. The uneasiness grew to disturl)ance and riot, 
even so fiir that a band of men, armed with swords 
and muskets, attempted to intimidate the Legisla- 
ture during its session at Exeter. A few of the 
ringleaders were seized, the mob dispersed, and the 
people gradually settled down with the conclusion 
that industry in developing the resources of the 
country would soon aflfijrd adequate relief from 
present embarrassments and insure prosperity and 
|)ermanent wealth. 

• In 1787 the difficulties respecting the location 
of the Congregational meeting house were still 
unsettled. The town voted this year to hold public 
worship in the school-house that stands a few rods 
south of Atkins' Bridge. This is now. and fi)r 
many years has been, known as the Upper Bridge. 

About this time Josiah Stevens, fi;ither of Josiah, 
Alvah and Paran Stevens, commenced trade in a 
little shed or temporary out-building, near where 
the Keyes house, now owned by Henry C. Noyes, 
stands. Young Stevens came to town with his 
father, Elihu Stevens, Esq., in 1775. He com- 
menced business with a very small stock of sucli 
goods as he thought would be most needed by the 
settlers, and increased his stock from time to time 
to meet the requirements of his customers. The 
bringing of the first hogshead of molasses and chest 
of tea into town was the occasion of wonder and 
excitement throughout the neighborhood, and some 
of the more prudent settlers, as tradition has it, 
declared that " it was a piece of foolish extrava- 
gance that would certainly come to no good." But 
the new merchant still kejit on meeting with a 
moderate degree of success. In a few years, the 
tide of business having shifted, Mr. Stevens moved 
his small store building across Sugar River on tlic 
ice, ami located it near the Atkins Bridge, on the 
site now occupied by George N. Farwell's large 
brick block. Mr. Stevens built up a large busi- 
ness, and in many ways contributed to the growtli 
and pros|)erity of the towu, and for many years 
was the leading merchant of this vicinity. 

This year the town voted to raise " 80 pounds for 



CLAREMONT. 



73 



the repair of highways, and to allow 3 shillings per 
diem to able-bodied men, 18 pence per diem for a 
yoke of oxen, 8 pence for a plow, and 8 pence for 
a cart." 

Sauford Kingsljury was a prominent citizen of 
Claremont, and in 1789 was a member of the Ex- 
ecutive Council, of the State Senate in 1790 and 
1791, and of the convention to revise the Consti- 
tution in 1791 and 1792. 

From the " Town Papers of New Hampshire " 
we copy the following petition for the incorporation 
of the Episcopal Society, verbatim : 

"To the honorable the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives in General Court convened Humbly 
shew 
"Benjamin Sumner & Ebenezer Rice — Members 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Chiremont in 
the County of Cheshire that said Church has laboured 
under many and great inconveniences for want of an 
incorporation, they therefore pray yimr hdnors to in- 
corporate said society by law and make them a body 
politic capable of receiving and holding property both 
real and personal and to have & enjoy all the privi- 
leges and immunities belonging to a corporate body, 
and as in duty bound will ever pray 
" Claremont December 26th, 1793. 

"Benj. Sumnee, ) in behalf o; 
" Ebenezer Rice, f the Church." 
" State of New Hampshire. 
" In the House of Representatives Jany 21 1794. 
" Upon reading and considering the foregoing peti- 
tion & the report of a Committee thereon, Voted that 
the prayer thereof be granted and that the Petitioners 
have leave to bring in a Bill accordingly. 
"Sent up for Concurrence. 

" Nathl. Peabody, Speaker. 
" In Senate the same Day Read and Concurred. 
"Nathl. Parker, Z'e/jy. Seni/." 

In 1790 a complete census of the State was made 

by towns, and the following is the return from 

Claremont, as appears by the " Town Papers of 

New Hampshire:" 

" Males above 16 years of age 348 

Males under 10 j'ears of age 391 

Females 692 

Other free persons 2 

Slaves 2 

Total 1435" 



In 1783 the whole number of ratable polls in 
Claremont was 163. In 1885 the whole number 
of voters on the check-list in town was 1250. 

The steady but gradual growth of the town will 
be seen from the census of population each decade 
since 1775, when it was 523. In 1790, it was 
1435; in 1800,1889; in 1810, 2,094; in 1820, 
2,290 ; in 1830, 2,526 ; in 1840, 3,217 ; in 1850, 
3,606 ; in 1860, 4,026 ; in 1870, 4,053 ; in 1880, 
4,704. 

WATER-POWER AND MANUFACTURES. 

One of the great advantages and sources oi 
wealth of Claremont is its superior water-power, 
derived mainly from Sugar River. This river is 
the outlet of Sunapee Lake, which is nine and a 
half miles long and from half a mile to two and a 
half miles wide, and is eight hundred and twenty 
feet above Connecticut River, into which it empties 
in the town of Claremont. Sugar River is about 
eighteen miles long from its source to its mouth. 
It passes through the towns of Sunapee, Newport 
and Claremont. It is fed by what is called South 
Branch, which has its source in Lempster, Unity 
and Goshen ; the North Branch, coming from 
Springfield, Grantham and Croydon, both of which 
it receives in the town of Newport after passing 
the village of that town ; and other smaller streams 
along its course. But the river is chiefly supplied 
with water from Sunapee Lake, especially in dry 
times. The Sunapee Dam Company was incorpor- 
ated by the New Hampshire Legislature, Decem- 
ber 4, 1820. This company is composed of mill- 
owners in Claremont, Newport and Sunapee, who 
derive their motive-power from Sugar River. 
Among the rights granted by the Legislature was 
the right " to sink the outlet of Sunapee Lake at 
the sjurce of Sugar River to the depth of ten feet 
below the low-water mark of said Lake, and to 
erect and maintain a dam there, with suitable gates 
and flumes, to the height of said low-water mark, 
for the benefit of the mills and mill privileges." 

For many years Sugar River has furnished the 
power for a very large nundjer of mills, represent- 
ing very many different industries in the towns 
through which it runs, and, at the present time, is 



74 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the principal source of their ■wealth. Upon this 
water-power they depend for their future growth 
and prosperity. As above stated, the fall of this 
river is eight hundred and twenty feet. In the 
town of Claremont it falls three hundred feet or 
more, and there are thirteen excellent mill privi- 
leges on these falls. Upon many of these privileges 
are mills upon both sides of the river, thus afford- 
ing opportunity to utilize the whole power. It is 
estimated that each foot of fall is capable of turn- 
ing one thousand spindles. There is a fall of two 
hundred and twenty-three feet in these thirteen 
privileges. The Sunapee Dam Company was duly 
organized immediately after the charter was 
granted, and suitable dam and other appliances 
were erected for the purpose of holding the water 
of Sunapee Lake in reserve for use at times of low 
water in the river, by mills along its course. This 
corporation has been kept up and the dam and 
other appliances erected have been maintained and 
improved from time to time. Whenever the lands 
about the lake have been flowed, cr other damage 
accrued from the erection of this dam, those in- 
jured have been compensated by the company, 
and in not a few instances the right to flow has 
been purchased. Without this great natural res- 
ervoir and the right to use it, granted by the Leg- 
islature, neither Claremont, Newport or Sunapee 
could have reached their present condition of 
wealth and consequent importance. 

Although this company has the right to draw 
the lake down ten feet below low-water mark, it 
has never been drawn to anything like that extent. 
The capital stock in mill property in Claremont is 
$685,000. The annual product from the different 
mills and manufacturing establishments is $1,2.56,- 
000. The number of hands employed — males, 
females and children — -is 912, and the annual pay- 
rolls amount to $275,000. Since 1820, when the 
Sunapee Dam Company was incorporated, the 
manufacturing business of Claremont, dependent 
upon water-power, with a few pauses and lapses, 
has gradually, but steadily, grown to its present 
proportions. The first real, earnest start in man 
ufacturing business did not occur until 1832. 



In 1879 the venerable Simeon Ide, who for many 
years — from 1834 — was prominently identified with 
the manufacturing interests of Claremont, pre- 
jjared and published a little book, entitled, " The 
Industries of Claremont, New Hampshire, Past 
and Present," containing many valuable statistics, 
and but for him, probably, would not have been 
preserved for the benefit of present and future 
generations of such as are interested in the history 
of the growth of the town. From this publica- 
tion we gather many facts, it being the most relia- 
ble known source of information upon the subject 
embraced in it. 

Mr. Ide says, speaking of the water-power : 

" From the statistics I have at hand, it would seem 
there was comparatively but very little use made of 
it previous to the year 1833-34. There was then at 
the upper fell. No. 1, a grist-mill on the south side of 
the river; on the third fall. No. 3, south side, a 
wool-carding and fulling-mill, carried on by Wood- 
man & Elmer, and a furnace by Roswell Elmer ; 
and on the north side a small hand-making paper- 
mill, having two 120 lb. pulp-engines, and other 
necessary appliances of that day, in proportion, for 
making paper, owned and operated by Fiske & Blake, 
successors of the first paper-maker in Cheshire 
County, Colonel Josiah Stevens. On Fall No. 4 was 
a seven-feet dam, and till the 1st of January, 1833, 
only water enough was drawn from it to move 
Timothy Eastman's bark-grinding machine. The 
Claremont Manufacturing Company's stove-fac- 
tory, on the south side, had recently been put in 
order to receive its machinery. On the fifth fall, east 
side of the river, was the Tyler saw and grist-mill; 
on the west side, a wool-carding, spinning, weaving and 
cloth-dressing factory. On the sixth fall, west side, 
Farwell's cotton-factory, with Billings' machine-shop 
in the basement or L, first put in operation in 
1831; and on the west side, in 'the gully,' a small 
slate-sawing and planing-mill, operated by Curtis 
Stoddard. On Falls Nos. 7, 8 and 9, in 1832, not even 
a dam had been built, so far as I can learn. 

"Following the above order in a more minute 
historical descriptive view of the several present and 
former mill-sites in the village proper of Claremont 
the earliest date at which I find there had been any 
use made of that at Fall No. 1, norihside of the river, 
was about the year 1800, when Stephen Dexter erected 



CLAREMOxNT. 



75 



a small building there, and he and his brother, 
Colonel David Dexter, carried on in it a scythe-making 
concern till about 1824. They also owned grist, saw 
and oil-mills, located on and near where the Monad- 
nock Mills Company's saw-mill now stands, which were 
run by water drawn from a low dam then standing 
about midway between Dams Nos. 1 and 2. On the 
decease of Colonel Dexter, in 1830, his son-in-law, 
Moses Wheeler, in 1831, succeeded the Messrs. Dexter 
in the several branches of business above stated, ex- 
cept the scythe-factory, as sole proprietor, and carried 
them on for several years. 

"In 1837-38 a two-story brick building took the 
site of the old Dexter scythe-shop, and was owned 
and occupied by the ' Claremont Carriage Company ' 
two or three years. Hard times finally put a stop to 
this company's operations, and soon afterwards their 
Iniildings were destroyed by fire. Paran Stevens, 
Timothy Eastman, Moses Wheeler, A. J. Tenney, 
T. J. Harris (agent), were of the company. In 1843- 
44 the present three-story brick building was erected. 
It stood empty a few years, when John Fiske put into 
it cotton machinery ; run it two or three years ; then 
a Mr. Cozens bought the property, continued business 
but a short time, when the Monadnock Mills Company 
bought and continued its use as a cotton-mill until 
1863, and then substituted the woolen for the old 
cotton machinery. This is the only factory on the 
north .side of the river operated by power from Fall 
No. 1. 

"On the south side, in olden time, Colonel Josiah 
Stevens, it is said, built a one-story wooden building at 
the south end of the upper bridge, and put it into 
m.achinery for making paper." This must have been, 
according to Mr. Ide, prior to 1810. The building 
was burned about 1812, and the present two-story 
wood structure erected there, which, in 1831, was 
owned and occupied by David W. Dexter as a grist- 
mill. It was afterward used for various purposes, and 
is now the repair-shop of the Monadnock Mills Com- 
pany. 

Monadnock Mills Company.— This company 
was organized and commenced business in 1844. 
According to Mr. Ide, in 1831, Dr. Leonard Jar- 
vis obtained a charter from the Kew Hamp.shire 
Legislature for a manufacturing company in Clare- 
mont, called the " Upper Falls Company." This 
company expended about twenty-five thousand 



dollars in the purchase of land, water-power, the 
erection of a large four-story factory building, 
tenement-houses, etc. They liad only put up the 
walls, put on the roof and put in the windows and 
doors of the factory building, when their capital 
was exhausted. Then followed several years of 
discouraging times for all kinds of business, and 
these expensive buildings were unoccupied and 
were, of course, going to decay until 1843, when 
the whole property was sold to Messrs. Parker, 
Wilder & Co., of Boston, who organized the 
Monadnock jVIills Company, put cotton nachinery 
into the mill and commenced business in 1844. 
Henry Russell was agent and general manager for 
this company about two years ; he was succeeded 
by Jonas Livingston, who filled the place for 
seventeen years, when he resigned, and was suc- 
ceeded by Daniel W. Johnson, the present agent. 
This company has had a general prosperity from 
its first organization, subject, of course, to fluctu- 
ations in trade, with other similar establishments. 
Its business facilities have been very greatly ex- 
tended by the purchase of water-power and land, 
the erection of new buildings and making improve- 
ments from year to year to meet the requirements 
of the times, until it is now the largest manufac- 
turing establishment in this part of the State. It 
manufactures cotton-goods, sheetings from a yard 
to three yards wide, and Marseilles quilts. An 
extensive bleachery was added to the establishment 
in 1875. In addition to their own, they bleach 
large quantities of goods sent here from other 
States. This mill produces annually 2,255,500 
yards of cotton cloth, from one to three yards wide, 
ninety-four thousand Marseilles quilts, employs 
five hundred hands, and its average pay-roll is ten 
thousand dollars per month. 

The Sullivan Machine Company. — This 
company occupies the water-power from Fall No. 3, 
thirteen feet, which was formerly owned by Ros- 
well Elmer, who carried on a small iron-foundry, 
making castings for plows, stoves, potash kettles, 
etc. Mr. Elmer was succeeded by George W. 
Emerson, in a similar kind of business up to 1850, 
when he built a machine-shop, now a part of one 



76 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



of the buildings occupied by the present company. 
In 1851, D. A. Clay & Co., consisting of D. A. 
Clay and James P. Upham, leased the machine- 
shop and started a general machine business. Sub- 
sequently James P. Upham purchased the water- 
power and real estate, including the foundry of 
Mr. Emerson, made extensive additions to the 
buildings and facilities for doing business, which 
was continued for a few years by D. A. Clay & 
Co. In 1868 the Sullivan Machine Company, 
with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, 
was organized, and purchased this property, — J. P. 
Upham (president), R. W. Love (tre^urer), and 
Albert Ball (superintendent). These gentlemen 
owned most of the stock of the company. Mr. 
Love subsequently sold his interest to Charles B. 
Rice, who took Mr. Love's place as treasurer, and 
such is the organization at the present time (1885). 
This is an extensive and important establishment ; 
its buildings occupying an area of three or four 
acres. They manufacture a great variety of ma- 
chinery and machine tools. They manufacture the 
Diamond drill, extensively used for quarrying 
marble and other stone, and take contracts for 
quarrying. They also manufacture the Tyler and 
Witmore turbine water-wheels, water-wheel regu- 
lators, shafting, gearing, pulleys, and all kinds of 
mill irons, paj)er roving-cans, flexible cop-tubes, 
and do mill iron repairing. They generally give 
employment to about seventy-five men, most of 
them first-class skilled workmen. 

The Claremont Maxufacturing Company. 
— This company's factory building, are located at 
Fall No. 4, twelve feet. Authorized capital, one 
hundred thousand dollars. It was chartered by the 
New Hampshire Legislature in 1832, and was 
the first company for manufacturing purposes 
organized by citizens of Claremont, and has been 
in continuous operation since its organization. 
Its factory buildings and tenement-houses were 
erected in 1832 and 1833. The walls of the 
factory buildings and a large two-story tenement- 
house are of stone, quarried within a few rods of 
their location. The original largest stockholders 
and most active managers of this company were 



Austin Tyler, Dr. Timothy Gleason, William Ros- 
siter and Timothy Eastman. They purchased 
about fifteen acres of land on the south side of the 
river. The business originally contemplated by 
this company was the manufacture of cotton and 
woolen goods, and printing and writing-papers, 
and about the 1st of January, 1833, they 
■were prepared, with the requisite machinery and 
other appliances, to commence the manufacture of 
satinets and printing and writing-papers. In De- 
cember, 1834, Simeon Ide, then a bookseller, printer 
and publisher of a weekly paper at Windsor, Vt. , 
sold to the Claremont Manufacturing Company 
his entire stock of books and the printing establish- 
ment, taking his pay in the stock of the company 
and came to Claremont and took the agency and 
general management of the concern, which he 
continued until 1858, and was succeeded by his 
brother-in-law, Edward L. Goddard. Mr. Ide 
sold his stock to his two sons, George G. and 
Lemuel N. Ide. Mr. Goddard continued iis agent 
until 1867, when George G. Ide succeeded to the 
place, and continued in it until his death, in 1883, 
and he was succeeded by his brother, Lemuel N. 
Ide, who has since occupied the position of agent 
and manager. To make room for presses and 
other printing apparatus, the satinet machinery 
was sold to the Sullivan Manufacturing Company, 
an outgrowth of this company, then just started, 
at the lower fall. No. 8. After Mr. Simeon Ide took 
the management of the Claremont Manufacturing 
Company's affairs, its business was the manufacture 
of books, — making the paper and doing the printing 
and binding. This business was continued until 
1880, when the paper-mill building was destroyed 
by fire, since which it has not been rebuilt, but 
the printing and book-binding has been continued. 
For many years from fifty to eighty hands were 
emploj'ed in this establishment, but of late years 
the number has been considerably less. 

Sl'gar River Mills Company.— The mills of 
this company are at Fall No. 5, on the east side of 
the river. 

From the LTpper Bridge, or from Fall No. 1, 
Sugar River runs nearly due west, but, between 



CLAREMONT. 



77 



the Claremont Manufacturing Company's privi- 
lege and the next one below it, the river turns and 
runs nearly due south ; hence the reader will un- 
derstand why a part of the privileges named are 
said to be on the south and a part on the north 
side of the river, and so of those named as being 
on its north and west side. This Fall No. 5 has 
been known for several generations as the old 
" Tyler Mills " privilege. Benjamin Tyler, before 
reierred to, one of the first settlers of the town, 
once owned all the water-power from Fall No. 1 to 
No. 9, both inclusive. He erected the first grist 
and saw-mills in town, at the west part, in 17G(J, 
and the old " Tyler Mills " on this privilege in 
178.5. He gave the latter to his son Ephraim on 
his coming of age, who continued to own them un- 
til 1836, when a company, consisting of three gen- 
tlemen of Keene and three of Claremont, bought 
the mills and mill-yard and appurtenances with 
the intention of removing the buildings, which 
were very old and dilapidated, and putting in 
their place suitable buildings for a first-class calico- 
printing establishment. In the spring of 1837 they 
commenced their preparations for building, but 
before they had proceeded far the financial panic 
struck the country, and the project was abandoned, 
never to be resumed. The old nulls remained 
standing, and were rented to Mr. Tyler, their for- 
mer owner, and, by his administrator, to Lewis W. 
Randall and others until 1854, when the property 
was purchased by E. W. Sanborn, of Boston, and 
Abner Stowell, Aaron Dutton, Edward Brown and 
George Hart, of this town. In 1855 they erected 
the large three-story brick building for a grist- 
mill, and the saw-mill adjoining, now standing and 
in active operation. They put into the grist-mill 
eight run of stone, four flou ring-bolts, and, to pro- 
pel them, eleven Tyler turbine water-wheels. The 
work was done under the superintendence of John 
Tyler, then of West Lebanon, but now of this 
town, patentee and manufacturer of the Tyler tur- 
bine water-wheel. This mill was designed for cus 
tom grinding and to manufacture flour from West- 
ern wheat, and it was said to be capable of making 
ten thousand barrels of flour per annum. These 



mills have been leased to various parties since 
they were built. The saw-mill is now leased and 
run by Messrs. Freeman, O'Neil & Tilden, and the 
grist-mill is being run by its owners. 

The Sugar River Paper-Mill Company. — 
This company (cajjital stock, one hundred thousand 
dollars), owned mostly by citizens of Claremont, 
erected mills on Fall No. 6, twenty- two feet, east side 
of Sugar River, for the manufacture of print-paper, 
and commenced business in 1868. Since then some 
of the surplus earnings of the company have been 
ustd for extending their works and adding modern 
improvements. It is now one of the most com- 
plete establishments of its kind in New Hamp- 
shire, and is capable of producing eight tons of 
excellent print-paper per day. This mill is now 
(June, 1885), filling a contract for four of five hun- 
dred tons of paper for J. C. Ayer & Co., of Lowell, 
Mass. They have had this contract for several 
years. The paper made by this mill is of such ex- 
cellent quality that it finds a ready market. John 
Tyler, before referred to, is a large stockholder, 
superintended the erection of the mill, and is pres- 
ident of the company ; John L. Farwell, trea.surer; 
John T. Emerson, agent. These gentlemen have 
occupied their positions since the organization of 
the company. This company has recently jiur- 
chased of Reuben Shtpardson what has been 
known as the Lafayette privilege, on the " Gully " 
on the west side of the river, and have tunneled 
through the rock of the island, formed by the main 
stream and this "Gully," two hundred and four 
feet, the tunnel being six feet square, taking the 
water that runs in the gully into their j)ond, thus 
getting the use of all the water that runs in the 
river. The Lafayette privilege had the right to 
take from the river, above the dam on privilege 
No. 6 and down this gully, one-half the water of 
the river, and return it to the main stream below 
the paper-mill dam. By this arrangement this 
company obviate, to a considerable extent, the use 
of steam to supplement their water-power. 

The Emerson-Heyward Privilege. — On Fall 
No. 7, south side — the river has taken another 
turn and runs westerly — about 1842, George W. 



78 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUxXTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Emerson put up a one-story brick building, carried 
on the furnace business a few years, when it passed 
into the hands of Simeon Heyward, who did some 
furnace work, made horse and hand-rakes and va- 
rious other farm implements. The building was 
destroyed by fire in 1866, and the dam connected 
with it by flood soon afterward, since which no use 
has been made of this privilege. 

The Sullivan Manufacturing Company. — 
This company's drills are located on Fall No. 8, 
south side of the river. It was chartered about 
1833 for manufacturing woolen goods, and its 
buildings erected the next year. The machinery, 
as before stated, was taken from the Claremont 
Manufacturing Company's mill, and they com- 
menced the manufacture of satinets In 1836 Or- 
mond Dutton, of Keene, was appointed agent of 
the company, and continued as such about three 
years. During the hard times, from 1836 to 1840, 
goods did not sell readily ; a large stock was accu- 
mulated, which was sold for less than it cost to 
produce it, and the mill was closed. Its capital, 
fifty thousand dollars, was exhausted, and the com- 
pany settled with its creditors in the best way 
it could. In 1844 Thomas Sanford and William 
Rossiter got possession of the real estate and some 
of the machinery, and manufactured satinets and 
cassimeres until 1857, when the entire property was 
purchased by George L. Balcom, who has manufac- 
tured woolen goods there ever since. During the 
late war Mr. Balcom was very successful, and one 
year, under the United States internal revenue 
law, he paid the largest income tax of any man in 
New Hampshire. 

The Old Knife-Factory Privilege. — This 
privilege is on the north side of the river, on Fall 
No. 8. The large three-story wooden building on 
this privilege was erected in 1836-37, by Dr. 
John S. Spaulding, but for what purpose it was to 
be used is not known. It stood empty, its inside 
but partially finished, until 1853, when Thomas 
Sanford, William Rossiter and some other gentle- 
men formed a company and manufactured table 
cutlery there for about five years, without pecuni- 
ary advantage to those engaged in the enterprise, 



and the business was abandoned Next, in 1866, 
the "Claremont Linen Company" put in ma- 
chinery for making linen toweling from the raw 
material, by a new process, but this was not a 
success, and, after two or three years of experi- 
ment, this business was closed up, and the mill 
was unused until 1877, when Herbert Bailey, of 
Enfield, this State, bought the property and en- 
larged, repaired, fitted the buildings and put in 
machinery for manufacturing knit-goods, employ- 
ing about forty hands and turning out goods to 
the amount of one hundred thousand dollars 
annually. Mr. Bailey has made this property 
into a fine establishment. 

The Lower Falls Company. — In 1836 this 
company, composed of gentlemen from out of 
town, bought a small farm of Jonathan Read, 
located below Fall No. 8, with the design of mak- 
ing a ninth fall of about twelve feet, by taking 
the water from the river by a canal. The canal 
was dug, a good foundation for a large factory 
building put in and building materials got upon 
the ground, when, in view of the threatened hard 
times for manufacturers, the enterprise stopped, 
the building materials were disposed of, and the 
ninth privilege has never been utilized. 

The Lafayette Privilege. — Going up the 
river, on the west side, the next privilege is at 
Fall No. 7, on the " Gully." In 1828 Arad 
Taylor bought this privilege of Bill Barnes. In 
1836 the property was put on the market in 
thirty-two shares, of one hundred dollars each, 
which were soon taken, but it was not improved 
until 1844, when Chester Dunkley bought most of 
the shares and erected upon the privilege a two- 
story wood building, which was used for various 
purposes until 1866, when Reuben Shepardson 
bought it, made extensive improvements, used it 
for various manufacturing purposes until the fall 
of 1884, when he sold it to the Sugar River Paper- 
Mill Company, as before stated. 

The Old Meacham Factory was on Fall No. 
5, opposite the Tyler Mills, and this factory is said 
to have been the first one built in Sullivan 
County for the manufacture of woolen goods. It 



CLAREMONT. 



79 



was built in 1813, by Asa Meacham. It was a 
two-story wood building, and was occupied suc- 
cessively by Asa Meacham, Asa Meacham, Jr. 
Woodman & Rockwell, Wilson & Earl, and 
William Earl, all of whom manufactured woolen 
goods, until the spring of 1854, when the main 
building was destroyed by fire. The following 
year Simeon Ide bought the property ; a dry-shop 
and store-house escaped the fire ; the first he fitted 
up with water-power and rented it for various 
mechanical purposes, while he converted the other 
into a dwelling-house to rent. In 1859 Mr. Ide 
erected, on the site of the old factory building, a 
round brick structure, two stories high, and fitted 
it up with machinery, printing-presses, etc., for the 
making of books on contract fur city publishers. 
The breaking out of the war in 1861, and other 
unforeseen events, operated against this enterprise, 
and the building was rented for different mechan- 
ical purposes. It was purchased by Reuben 
Shepardson in 1883. What was the dry-shop was 
purchased by Ira Proctor and occupied by him as 
a sash, blind and door-shop until about 1873, 
when it was destroyed by fire. 

Freeman & O'Neill Manufactory. — In 
1874 Messrs. Charles N. Freemen and David W. 
O'Neill purchased the site of the Ira Proctor 
shop and erected upon it extensive wooden build- 
ings, and fitted them up with the most approved 
machinery and other appliances at an expense of 
about ten thousand dollars, for the manufacture of 
stair-builders' supplies, of black walnut and other 
expensive woods, and telegraph pins and brackets 
of oak. They did a large and prosperous business, 
employing about forty hands, and marketing their 
products in almost every part of the country, until 
December 23, 1882, when their main building, 
valuable machinery, stock of foreign and domestic 
woods, manufactured goods, etc., were destroyed by 
fire. The loss was twenty-five thousand dollars ; 
insurance, twelve thousand dollars. They im- 
mediately commenced the erection of new build- 
ings, which were completed and ready for occu- 
pancy in August, 1883. Byron T. Tilden was 
taken into the firm soon after. They employ 



about seventy men, and do a business of one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars per 
annum. The style of the firm is Freeman, O'Neill 
& Tilden. 

The Home Mill. — The three-.story brick 
building now standing at Fall No. 4, north side of 
the river, was erected by the Claremout Mauu- 
faciuring Company in 1836, with the intention of 
using it for making fine writing-papers. The 
times did not favor the completion of the project, 
and the building was only so far finished as to 
protect the walls with roof and windows, until 
1849, when a few of the stockholders of the Clare- 
mont Manufacturing Company bought it, together 
with one-half of the water-power, fitted it up with 
machinery for manufacturing cotton cloth, and 
sold the whole to George D. Dutton, of Boston. 
In 1852 Mr. Dutton sold a part interest to Arnold 
Briggs, a practical cotton manufacturer, of Woon- 
socket, R. I., and under the firm style of Arnold 
Briggs & Co. The business of manufacturing 
cotton goods was carried on until 1875, when, by 
reason of there being but a limited demand for the 
goods made by this firm, the business was stopped. 
In 1876 Mr. Briggs died, subsequent to which the 
interest of Mr. Briggs' estate in the mill was pur- 
chased by Pierce, Harding & Co , of Boston, who 
ran it but a few months. In 1883, Messrs. May- 
nard and Washburn, gentlemen from Massachu- 
setts, bought the property, repaired the buildings, 
put in machinery for the purpose and have since 
been manufacturing shoes there. 

The Eastman Tannery. — In 1811, Timothy 
Eastman established a tannery on Fall No. 4, north 
side of the river, continued the business there un- 
til his death, in 1859, and was succeeded by his 
son, Charles H. Eastman. In 1870 the old build- 
ings were burned and new and larger ones were 
erected on the site. Charles H. Eastman con- 
tinued the business until his death, in 1879, since 
which the property has been unused. The real 
estate is now owned by Lyman Barnes. 

At Fall No. 1, north side of the river is the saw 
mill of the Monadnock Mills Company, and what 



80 



HISTOliY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



was known as the " Suuapee Mill," on the site of 
the Claremont Carriage Company's works, before 
referred to, which is now owned and operated 
as a cotton-mill, by the Monadnock Mills Com- 
pany. 

Between Fall No. 9 and the confluence of Sugar 
River with the Connecticut it is claimed that the 
former river falls about one hundred 'eet. On the 
north side of Sugar River, a mile or so below Fall 
No. 9, in 1852, Henry Russell and Dr. F. T. 
Kidder built a dam twenty feet high, erected a 
large one-story brick mill, put into it machinery 
for the purpose, and manufactured carpets there 
for a few months, wlieu the business ceased and 
dam and buildings have disappeared. 

At West Claremont, Sugar River furnishes ex- 
cellent water-power. The fall there is about nine- 
teen feet. On the south side of the river, at this 
fall, about 1813, Dr. Leonard Jarvis erected a two- 
story wood building, and in it manufactured 
broadcloth for about fifteen years. After his 
death, which occurred in 1848, this property 
passed into the hands of his son, Russell Jarvis, 
who is its present owner. The broadcloth-factory 
was converted into a paper-mill more than twenty- 
five years ago ; it has been operated by the Clare- 
mont Manufacturing Company, N. Whitney, J. 
Peirce & Co., and is now run by its owner, making 
hanging and some other kinds of papez'. On the 
same side of the river, and on the same privilege, 
Russell Jarvis has a saw mill and a grist-mill, now 
operated by H. W. Frost. 

The Farrington Paper-Mill. — On the same 
privilege, and drawing water from the same pond, 
but on the north side of the river, is a large, well- 
appointed paper-mill, owned and operated by the 
S. T. Coy Paper Company. This mill has been 
built within the last two years, on the site occupied 
fifty years ago, more or less, by Leonard and 
Hiram Gilmore, brothers, for a blacksmith-forge 
and triphammer shop, where they made axes and 
other edge-tools, carried on a general blacksmith- 
ing business and made heavy mill-irons for many 
years. Subsequently on this same spot was a 
paper-mill where straw wrapping-paper was made. 



owned and operated successively by Daniel F. 
Maynard and John S. Farrington. 

CoLo>fEL Benjamin Tyler's Smelting and 
Iron- Working Establishment. — Simeon Ide is 
authority for the statement that " soon after build- 
ing his grist mill, in 176fi, as before noted. Colonel 
Benjamin Tyler put a dam across the river, a few 
rods where the Sullivan Railroad Company's 
' High Bridge ' now stands, and built a small 
shop in which he had a forge, a trip-hammer and 
other tools for manufacturing mill irons and other 
heavy articles, from iron ore, which (I am told by 
one of his grandsons) he drew from a lot of 
ground just below the sc-called ' Dry Saw-Mill,' 
two or three miles north of Charlcstown Street. 
Here he did a large and lucrative business for 
twenty years or more, employing (my said in- 
formant says), a great part of the time, some 
twenty or thirty hands. He died in 1814, aged 
eighty-one. 

" In 1800 Colonel Tyler put in operation, at or 
near the site of the Jarvis paper-mill, what 
was known as the ' Flax-Mill' in those days, 
the use of which was to prepare flax for the 
old hand spinning-wheel." 

banks. 

The Claremont Bank, capital, $fiO,000, 
was in operation as early as 182(i. The date 
of its charter is not known to the writer. Geo. 
B. Upham was president ; James H. Bingham, 
cashier ; directors, Gjo. B. Uphara, John Tap- 
pan, Samuel Fiske, Leonard Jarvis, David Dex- 
ter, Phiueas Haiiderson, Godfrey Stephens. 
About 1842 Erastus Glidden became cashier. 
His business was wound up between 1844 and 
1846. The officers at that time were George B. 
Upham, president ; Erastus Glidden, cashier ; 
Directors, George B. Upham, George N. Farwell, 
Ambrose Cossit, William H. Farwell, John W. 
Tappan, Nicholas Farwell, Samuel Glidden. 

Claremont Bank, chartered and organized 
in 184S. Ambrose Cossit, president ; Uriel 
Dean, cashier ; Directors Nicholas Farwell, Am- 
brose Cossit, Issac F. Weshorbe, William Ros- 



CLAREMONT. 



81 



siter, George N. Farwell, Worchester Jones, 
Thomas Sanford. In April, 1851, Mr. Dean 
resigned and George N. Farwell was elected 
cashier in this place, and in March, 1853, 
his son, John L. Farwell, was elected assistant 
cashier. In March, 1856, Mr. Farwell resigned 
and John L Farwell was elected cashier. 

On November 22, 1864, the organization was 
changed to the Claremont National Bank, under 
the laws of the United States. George N. Far- 
well, president ; John L. Farwell, cashier; Di- 
rectors, George N. Farwell, Thomas Sanford, 
Nathaniel Tolles, Aureliiis Dickinson, Lewis Perry, 
Jotham G. Alkls, Charles H. Eastman. Present 
capital, 8150,000. In October, 1881, provision 
Wius made for a vice-president, and John L. 
Farwell was elected to that jxisition, and his 
S(m, George N. Farwell (2d), was elected cash- 
ier. 

Nicholas Farwell, who was a director in 
the old bank, was the father of George N., 
grandfather of John L., and great-grandfather 
of George N. Farwell 2d. It will thus be 
noticed that four generations of the Farwell 
family have been successfully and prominently 
connected with the financial history of Clare- 
mont ; and that at the present time the un- 
usual record is made of three generations occupy- 
ing official positions in the Claremont National 
Bank, viz. : George N. Farwell, president ; his 
son, John L. Farwell, vice-president, and his 
grandson, George N. Farwell (2d), Cashier. 

Sullivan Savings Institution was chartered 
by the New Hampshire Legislature in 1838; 
organized in 1847, and commenced business in 
1848. President, Ambrose Cossit ; Treasurer, 
George N. Farwell. After the institution was 
organized and well started in business, Mr. Far- 
well resigned and Samuel C Bailey was elected 
treasurer in his place. January 7th, 1882, Mr. 
Cossit resigned the presidency, and Timothy East- 
man was elected president, and George N. Far- 
w^ell was again chosen treasurer. On January 
2d, 1856, John L. Farwell was elected trea.surer. 
At that time the deposits amounted to $134,265.24. 



January 5th, 1859, Albro Blodgett was elected 
president, in place of Timothy Eastman, deceased. 
Jannary 2d, 1861, Albro Blodgett resigned and 
Jonas Livingston was chosen in his i)lace. Mr. 
Blodgett was re-elected January 4th, 1865. Dan- 
iel W. Johnson was elected president January 
5th, 1870. February 7th, 1874, Mr. Farwell 
resigned the treasurership, and Albert Rossiter 
was elected in his place. December 27th, 1882, 
Mr. Rossiter resigned, and John L. Farwell was 
re-elected. 

At the last annual meeting, January 7, 1885, 
the report of the treasurer showed Deposits, $1,- 
116,932.91 ; surplus, $10,065.64 ; guaranty fund, 
$60,000. The whole number of depositors was 
2852. 

These banks were originally located on Broad 
Street, on the site of the present residence of 
Geo. L. Balcom. In 1853 they were removed to 
the north end of Farwell's Block, Tremont Square. 
In 1870 these corporations united in erecting the 
building now occupied by them at a cost of $28.- 
000. This was constructed with esi)eeial reference 
to the needs of the banks, and they took posses- 
sion in 1877. 

ECCLESIASTICAL. 

Congregational Chuech. —As has been stated 
the first denomination to have stated i)reaching 
and to settle a minister in Claremont was the 
Congregational, and the inhabitants of this faith 
were by far the most uuttierous when the town was 
first settled. Rev. George Wheatou was ordained 
and settled here Februar}- 19, 1772; died 
June 24, 1773. Rev. Augustine Hibbard was 
settled October 19, 1774; dismissed December 28, 
1785. 

The most reliable account we have of the first 
meeting-house is, that a building to be used as a 
Congregational meeting-house was erected near 
what is known as the Harvey Draper place, on the 
road to the Junction, in 1785 ; that in 1790 it was 
taken down and removed in pieces to the location 
of the present town-house, and there put together 
again, and the next year was finished inside. In 
1808 the east tower and the front, or circular por- 



82 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



tion were added. From that time until 1835, when 
the new Congregational Church, on Pleasant Street, 
Avas erected, this building was used both as a church 
and town-house. After that date its use for a 
church was abandoned. 

There was no settled pastor from the time of ISIr. 
Hibbard's dismission until March 9, 1796, when 
John Tappan was ordained. He was dismissed iu 
1802. He was excommunicated from the church 
the following year, entered mercantile life, and 
remained in town until his death. For about two 
years, from August, 1803, Rev. Elijah Brainerd 
was acting pastor. Under him the church was re- 
organized by the adoption of more explicit articles 
of Faith and Covenant, and Rules of Discipline. 
The members of the church were enrolled for the 
first time, so far as appears, in 1 804. The names 
of sixteen male meuil)er8 and of twenty female 
members are recorded at that time. 

Rev. Stephen Farley was installed December 24, 
180G. His pastorate closed April 4, 1819. The 
" Church Manual," published in 1879, says: 

"The first marked revival occurred in 1816 ; as a 
result fifty-four were added to the church on pro- 
fession of faith in that year. This work of grace, 
however, brought no peace. The pastor's attitude iu 
relation to it was not satisfactory to those most active 
in promoting it, and he seems not to have enjoyed the 
confidence of the new converts. The result was 
divisions in the church and a painful want of har- 
mony between tlie church and the society, the latter 
sympathizing strongly with the pastor. During the 
years 1819 and 1820 no new members were received. 
Not long after his dismission Mr. Farley became 
openly a Unitarian." 

The Claremont Congregational Society was 
formed February 20, 1806, and held its first meet- 
ing June 9th of that year. Up to this time parish 
meetings were called by the selectmen of the 
town, and the records kept by the town clerk. 
" The Congregational Society of Claremont " was 
incorporated June 20, 1815. 

" The society took the lead in calling the next 
pastor, Rev. Jonathan Nye. He received and accepted 
the society's call in the autumn of 1820. But it was 
not until the May following that the church was pre- 



vailed upon to accept him, and then not without 
many misgivings. He was installed June 6, 1821, 
not, however, to enjoy a quiet ministry. Those were 
day of discipline in more than a single sense, of which 
the aged speak with sorrow. The misgivings of the 
church proved too well founded. Mr. Nye was dis- 
missed in 1828." 

Tradition has it that after Mr. Nye was dis- 
missed from his pastorate, charges were preferred 
against him as an unworthy member of the church, 
and he submitted to a trial of considerable length. 
The charges seemed to have been substantiated by 
proof, and Mr. Nye was called upon for auy 
answer which he might have to make. He arose, 
and in a very cool and respectful manner said, in 
substance, that he had listened very attentively 
to the proceedings, and while doing so it had oc- 
curred to him that if he was to be turned out of 
the church, it might be necessary for him to join 
first. The fact was that he had never been 
admitted as a member of the Congregational 
Church. 

Difficulty arose again iu the choice of a new 
minister. In a meeting of the society forty-two 
votes were cast in favor of calling Mr. Moses 
Thomas, a Unitarian, and but forty-four against. 
Mr. Elijah Paine was finally called by the church 
with the concurrence of the society, and ordained 
April 1st, 1829. His ministry was marked by 
earnest, evangelical preaching, and eighty were 
added to the church on profession of faith in 
1830 and 1831. Strong ground was taken in the 
cause of temperance. It was voted iu 1833, 
" That this Church admit no more members to 
her Commuuiou as regular members, unless they 
first sign a pledge to abstain from all use of ardent 
spirits as a beverage." Mr. Paine was dismissed 
Nov. 14th, 1833. 

Rev. Tertius D. Southworth was installed June 
18th, 1834. A Mr. Burchard was laboring as 
a revivalist at this period with neighboring 
churches, and Mr. Southworth was opposed to 
his methods, and was thought to have hastened 
the termination of his pastorate, which occurred 
July 31st, 1838. 



CLAREMONT. 



83 



Rev. Robert F. Lawrence was installed January 
16tli, 1839. His labors seemed to be crowned 
with success, and more than forty were added to 
the cluireh in that year. In 1842, in union 
meetings, the entire town was moved, and forty- 
one were added to this church. Another revival 
occurred in 1853. 

In 1840 twenty- eight members of the church, 
many of whom were thought to be good Christians, 
were suspended from church privileges, on ac- 
count of their having subscribed to a " Covenant 
of Christians, who, irrespective of religious denomi- 
nations, decide on cultivating unitedly holiness of 
heart and a millenial spirit." Some were sub- 
sequently restored, but thirteen were finally ex- 
communicated September 15th, 1841. ^Ir. Law- 
rence's ministry continued until January 24th, 
1863, twenty-four years. 

Rev. Edward W. Clark was installed February 
25th, 1864, and on account of failing health was 
dismissed June lOtb.lsyo. The following year 
the meeting-house was remodeled inside, and 
newly fui'nished. Rev. Levi Rodgers was or- 
dained and installed pastor October 19th, 1871. 
Mr. Rodgers resigned April 10th, and was dis- 
missed May 5th, 1880. Rev. A. J. McGown was 
called April 19th, 1881 ; installed pastor Novem- 
ber 10th, 1881 ; resigned on account of the death 
of his wife, September 24th, 1882 ; dismissed 
October 24th, 1882. 

Rev. Frank P. Tompkins was called to the 
pastorate December 26th, 1881, and was installed 
June 19th, 1883, since which he has labored with 
this church. 

Episcopal Church. — On the 28th of April, 
1769, a memorial of the inhabitants of Clare- 
mnnt, addressed to the " Reverend Clergy of 
the Church of England and Missionaries of 
the venerable S. P. G. F. P., to be con- 
vened at New Milford, in the Colony of Con- 
necticut in Trinity week," and signed by Abel 
Bachehir, Her. Rice, Micah Potter, Cornelius 
Brooks, Benjamin Tyler, Ebeuezer Price, Daniel 
Warner, Levi Warner, Asa Leet, Benjamin 



Brooks, Benjamin Brooks, Jr., and Benjamin 
Rice, it was represented that 

" The land here is exceedingly bui'dened with tim- 
ber, which renders the cultivation of it very laborious. 
However, the little wo have brought under cultivation 
is abundantly fruitful, so that (God willing) most of 
the necessaries of life will be plentiful. That some 
of us have numerous families of small children fit 
for schooling. The number of children under 16 
years of age is 35. There are about two families of 
dissenters to one of ours. AVe are grieved at the 
thought of having them brought up in ignorance, 
and dread their becoming a prey to enthusiasts and 
being carried away by every wind of doctrine. We 
believe a good school lays the foundation for a sober, 
godly and righteous life; and since Samuel Cole, 
Esq., has been much employed in keeping school and 
is an inhabitant and proprietor among us (wliose 
character and qualifications some of you know well), 
we humbly desire you would be jileased to represent 
our state to the venerable Society, and endeavor that 
he may be appointed Catechist and Schoolmaster 
among us a few years till we have got over the first 
difficulties and liardships of a wild, uncultivated 
country." 

During the two years preceding the date of this 
memorial the [lopulation had largely increased. 
The accessions were mainly Congregationalists, 
and that continued to be the rule in after-vears. 
The first minister of the Episcopal Church, who is 
known to have officiated here, was the Rev. Sam- 
uel Peters, of Hebron, Conn. He was a mission- 
ary of the Society fin- the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel, and, several years subsequently, was chosen 
Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, though never 
consecrated. As early as 1768 he made an exten- 
sive missionary tour through Vermont, and, in the 
fall of 1770, be visited the towns along the Con- 
necticut River, both in New Hampshire and Ver- 
mont. Of the latter journey he gave the follow- 
ing account : 

" Upon the 10th of September I left Hebron, taking 
my clerk with me. We arrived among the poor im- 
migrants upon the 16th of .said month. The hank of 
the west side of the river is in the government of 
New York, lately taken from New Hanqishire gov- 
ernment — a territory now suflicient for two large 



84 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



counties, viz.: Cuiuberland and Gloucester; tlie latter 
having only one independent teacher (poor enough), 
the former without any kind of a teacher. Yet in both 
counties are several thousand souls, who live without 
the means of grace, destitute of knowledge, laden 
down with ignorance and covered with poverty. On 
the east side of the river are many settlements begun 
whose inhabitants much resemble their neighbors in 
every uncomfortable property. Among these people 
I spent four weeks, traveling from place to place, 
preaching and baptizing, the people being careful to 
attend divine service, many waiting for a clergyman 
to reside among them, viz.: in the towns of Clare- 
mont, Strafford, Thetford, Moretown, Windsor, Orford, 
Haverhill, and being so nigh one another that one 
clergyman might accommodate the whole." 

There is no meution iu this narrative of hi.s 
having organized tlie church in Claremont at that 
time. In an article iu the Churchman's Marjazine, 
of August, 1805, it is stated that " this church 
was organized by the Rev. Samuel Peters, in or 
about the year 1771," and in the documentary 
history of the church in Vermont, it is positively 
asserted that iu " 1771 he was ou missionary duty 
iu the western part of New Hampshire and organ- 
ized the church in Claremont." 

The first record of a parish or vestry-meeting 
iu this town is as follows : 

" November, 1773. Being the first Vestry-meeting 
holden after the Rev. Ranna Cossit returned from 
England with Holy orders, at which Samuel Cole, 
Esq., was appointed clerk ; Captain Benjamin Brooks 
and Lieutenant Benjamin Tyler were chosen war- 
dens ; Daniel Warner, Asa Leet and Ebenezer Rice 
were chosen vestrymen." 

The late Rev. Isaac G. Hubbard, D.D., then 
rector of Trinity ('luirch, Claremont, in an histor- 
ical address, delivered at Uniou Church, West 
Claremont, ou the occasion of the centenary of 
the Protestant Episcojial Church iu Claromout, 
September 27, 1871, and from which address 
nuicli of our data is derived, said : 

"The discouragements and privations attending 
the position of a missionary over such an outpost in 
the wilderness may readily be conceived. They 
must have been great enough in periods of ordinary 
quietness, for his ])eople were struggling, with small 



resources, under the necessity of lifting oif, before 
they could mark the ground from which to derive 
their support, the burden of a dense forest, the growth 
of centuries. They had, also, first to pay their rate 
or tax, as did all the people of the town, for the sup- 
port of the Congregational order." 

Mr. Cossit said : 

" Dr. Hubbard was surrounded by constantly in- 
creasing numbers who were hostile to their taith and 
worship, which he was commissioned to uphold and 
defend. And, as for support for himself and family 
(to say nothing of the lu.xuries with which ministers, 
in those days, were in no danger of being pampered), 
he might pray for his daily bread, but, so far as human 
eye could see or human help appeared, the prospect 
was very dismal. We find, in the records, no men- 
tion, at the time of his settlement, of any salary be- 
yond the sum of thirty pounds sterling .allowed him 
as missionary by the venerable society. But in 1777, 
at the Easter meeting, it ' was agreed by the Vestry to 
give the Rev. Ranna Cossit thirty pounds lawful 
money for preaching the last year.' This proved too 
heavy a burden, and in 1778 they ' agreed to give Mr. 
Cossit fifteen pounds for the year ensuing.' " 

Iu January, 1781, they " agreed with the Rev. 
llanna Cossit to give him thirty ]iounds for a year 
ending at Christmas, allowing him four Sundays 
to visit vacant churches. And the Rev. Rauna 
Cossit agrees to throw by all other business and 
apply himself to the work of the ministry." This 
|)robably continued to be his salary until he left. 

" The support, however, proved inadequate, with 
the utmost economy, to protect him from the galling 
bondage of debt. An anecdote is related of him, 
which appears authentic, and which I give as show- 
ing the power of patient endurance to develop a 
noble magnanimity. He liad given his note to a 
prominent man and landholder in the town, to an 
amount about equal to his yearly income. He had 
already paid some small instalments upon the note, 
together with the interest, when, one day, his 
creditor called upon him and demanded the whole 
amount. Mr. Co.ssit replied that it was out of his 
power to pay any portion of it immediately, but that 
when his salary became due he would pay a definite 
sum, which he named. This answer was not satis- 
factory ; the whole sum must be paid at the time 



CLAKEMONT. 



85 



mentioned. The minister replied that it would be 
impossible. He must reserve enough to buy bread 
for his family. 'Unless you promise to pay me <Ae«,' 
said the creditor, ' I shall sue you at once and take 
all you have.' ' You can do that,' he answered. ' You 
can attach my furniture, my library and my horse; 
you can confine me in jail. But you will not obtain 
nearly enough from my effects to satisfy your claims, 
and you will put it out of my power, not only to sup- 
port myself and those dependent upon me, but to re- 
deem my pledge to you, which, God being my helper, 
shall certainly be fulfilled in a reasonable time.' 
But the creditor clung to the pound of flesh, and, as 
he departed, he loudly proclaimed his intention to 
bring an execution that very night. Seeing him 
inexorable and blank ruin staring him in the face, 
the good man went to the door and called back the 
hard usurer, and said, ' My friend, if you are deter- 
mined to carry out this purpose you will need your 
note. When you were here to get the last payment 
which is indorsed on it, you inadvertently left it on 
my table. I have kept it safely. Here it is, sir.' It 
is hardly necessary to say that the note was not sued, 
and that the minister took his own time in which to 
pay it. But greater trials than these awaited both 
minister and people. 

" We can hardly estimate aright at this distant 
day, and in the midst of circumstances so greatly 
changed, the position in which churchmen found 
themselves at the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
War. The period of religious toleration had not 
arrived, and the spirit of ancient contests, whicli had 
raged for centuries in the old world and in a measure 
spent their force, was here revived in all its intense 
bigotry and malignity.' It was not any fear of such 
men as Samuel Cole and Ranna Co.ssit, in a civil 
point of view, that led to their cruel persecution and 
abuse. Doubtless, they were loyal to the government, 
and most warmly attached to the Church of England. 
But they were peaceable, law-abiding men. There 
was no treachery or sedition in them. Their own 
principles taught them to obey the powers that be. 
While the great struggle was going on they could not 
be hired nor driven to take up arras against the 
King, neither would they take up arms, nor ])lot nor 
conspire against the lives and happiness of their 
fellow-citizens. They desired to remain quiet and 
await the deci.sion of Providence. And when that 
decision came, if it were adverse to their hopes, they 



would be as faithful and obedient to the new govern- 
ment as they had been to the old. 

" The sjieaker is not attempting to defend their 
political position. His own ancestors, though church- 
men, were on the other side. The blood of a Revolu- 
tionary soldier flows in his veins, and he has been 
nurtured from infancy on the bread of liberty. It 
was not incompatible with church principles to 
espouse the cause of the Republic. When the civil 
power was shaken, under which they had reposed in 
safety, when the Provincial Governor had fled to the 
northern dominions of the Crown, then the storm 
burst on their defenseless heads.' " 

Dr. Hubbard read two letters, the first from 
Colonel John Peteis to his brother, the Rev. Sam- 
uel Peters, in London, and the other from the Rev. 
Ranna Cossit. Colonel Peters' letter was dated 
Quebec, July 20, 1778, and was as follows: 

"Rev. Dr. Wheelock, President of Dartmouth Col- 
lege, in New Hampshire, in conjunction with Deacon 
Bayley, Mr. Morey and Mr. Hurd, all justices of the 
peace, put an end to the Church of England in this 
State, so early as 1775. They seized me, Capt. Peters 
and all the judges of Cumberland and Gloucester, the 
Rev. Mr. Cossit and Mr. Cole, and all the Church 
people for 200 miles up the river (Connecticut), and 
confined us in close goals, after beating and drawing 
us through water and mud. Here we lay some time 
and were to continue in prison until we abjured the 
king and signed the league and covenant. Many died ; 
one of which was Capt. Peters' son. We were re- 
moved from the goal and confined in private houses 
at our own expense. Capt. Peters and myself were 
guarded by twelve rebel soldiers, while sick in bed, 
and we paid dearly for this honor ; and others fared in 
like manner. I soon recovered from my indisposi- 
tion, and took the first opportunity and fled to Cana- 
da, leaving Cossit, Cole, Peters, Willis, Porter, Sumner, 
Paptin, etc., in close confinement, where they had mise- 
ry, insults and sickness enough. My flight was in 1776, 
since which my family arrived at Montreal, and in- 
form me that many prisoners died; that Capt. Peters 
had been tried by court-martial and ordered to be 
shot for refusing to lead his company against the 
King's troops. He was afterwards reprieved, but still 
in goal, and that he was ruined both in health and 
property ; that Cossit and Cole were alive when they 
came away, but were under confinement, and had 



86 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



more insults than any of the loyalists, because they 
hail beeu servants of the Society, which, under pre- 
tense (as the rebels say) of propagating religion, had 
propagated loyalty, in opposition to the liberties of 
America." 

Mr. Cossit's letter to the secretary of the Society 
for tlie Prof)agation of the Gospel was as follows : 

New York, June 6, 1779. 
" I arrived in this city last Sunday, by permission, 
with a flag, and am to return in a few days. I trust 
the Society cannot be unacquainted with the perse- 
cutions the loyalists have endured in New England. 
I have been by the committee confined as prisoner, 
in the town of Claremont, ever since the 12th of 
April, 1775; yet God has preserved my life from the 
people. I have constantly kept up public service, 
without any omissions, for the King and royal family, 
and likewise made use of the prayer for the high 
court of parliament, and the prayer to be used in 
time of war and tumults; have administered the 
Lord's Supper on every first Sunday in the month, 
except two Sundays that we could' not procure any 
wine. The numbers of my parishioners and commu- 
nicants in Claremont are increased, but I have been 
cruelly distressed with fines for refusing entirely to 
fight against the King. In sundry i>laces where I 
used to officiate, the church people are all dwindled 
away. Some have fled to the King's array for protec- 
tion ; S3Q1J were banisheJ ; and many died." 

Notwithstanding these persecutions, many of the 
most prominent inhabitants of Claremont sought 
the society and communion of the Episcopal 
Church. Amongst these were Benjamin Sumner, 
Daniel Dodge, John Marsh, John Marsh, Jr., 
John and Ichabod Hitchcock, James Steel, Bill 
Barnes, Joseph Norton, Abner Cole, Asa Jones, 
Timothy Grannis, AVilliam McCoy, Daniel Curtis, 
Abuer Meiggs and Ambrose Cossit — sixteen fam- 
ilies. 

In 1785 the Rev. Rauua Cossit left this church 
and was appointed missiouary at Sidney, in the 
Island of Cape Breton, where he remained until 
his death, in 1815. 

Union Church was erected in 1773, two years 
before the war. 

" It was built according to a plan furnished by 



Gov. John Wentworth. The Master Carpenter was 
Ichabod Hitchcock. The Governor promised to fur- 
nish the glass and nails when the work had reached 
a certain point. He also pledged them a good bell 
and organ. But the state of the country compelled 
him to flee before his promise was fulfilled. It also 
interrupted the work of building. Only the frame 
was erected and the roof and outer boarding put on, 
the floor laid and some temporary arrangemeuta made 
for holding service in it in summer. And so it re- 
mained until August, 1789, when, according to a pre- 
vious vote, twenty-five pews were sold, in order to 
purchase the nails and glass wherewith to finish it. 
Tlie frame of the church, constructed of the mighty 
forest trees then abundant, is exceedingly heavy and 
powerful, made of the strongest and best kinds of 
timber. It is said that on one occasion, in the early 
part of the present century, a tornado swept over the 
country while the people were assembled for divine 
worship. Among them was a Mr. Dodge, who had 
been employed as a carpenter when the frame was 
raised. He was a very large and strong man and had 
a seat near the door. When the trees began to fall 
about the building, many were greatly alarmed, and 
rushed for the door, where they found Mr. Dodge 
defending the passage, denying all egress, and with 
his brawny arm pushing back the crowd, saying : ' I 
know this frame. No wind can demolish it. Your 
only safety lies in keeping beneath its shelter.' I 
may as well mention here that the tower and belfry 
were added in the year 1800, and the whole church 
was re-covered, except the north side and part of the 
east end, and the entire exterior was painted. A 
bell weighing six hundred and eighty-two pounds Wi(s 
procured and hung in 1806, and an organ, whose 
whistling pipes were the wonder of our childhood, 
was subsequently placed in the gallery. In 1820 an 
addition of twenty feet was made at the east end of 
the church, to accommodate the increased congrega- 
tion. The original size of the church was fifty 
feet in length, and one hundred in width, with posts 
twenty feet high. 

"After the departure of the Rev. Mr. Cossit the 
church continued vacant several years, but the ser- 
vices were kept up by lay reading. Mr. Ebenezer 
Rice was chosen to keep the records, and also to read 
prayers and sermons, witli liberty to call in what as- 
sistance he should think proper. 

" In 1784 the town voted to lay out four acres for 



CLAREMONT. 



87 



the use and benefit of the Episcopal Church, com- 
monly called the Church of England, for a church- 
yard, including the ground on which the Church now 
stands. In 1785 a service for the Holy Communion 
was ])rocured, of pewter, which continued to be used 
until another of more valuable material was pre- 
sented by Hon. S. Kingsbury and Mr. Dustin in 1822. 
In 1787 an agreement was made with Mr. Abraham 
Towmlinson, a clergyman as I suppose, to read prayers 
and preach for a term of seven months, from the 8th 
of September to the next Easter. 

■' July 14, 1785. It was voted to send letters to the 
clergy of Connecticut for better satisfaction about 
their connection with Bishop Seabury. October, 
1785. Voted, to choose Mr. Bill Barnes to represent 
the Church of Claremont at the adjourned Conven- 
tion to be holden at Boston on the 26th of October 
inst. Voted to send our united thanks to the Conven- 
tion for taking pains to send us their doings. Voted 
a concurrence with their progress. April 28, 1791.' 
Voted not to accede to the Constituti<m formed at 
Boston. Voted to adopt the doings or alterations of 
the Book of Common Prayer as proposed at Phila- 
delphia. In 1788 an arrangement was made with 
the Kev. Solomon Blakeslee to officiate as minister of 
the Church, on a salary of fifty-two pounds, with the 
use of the glebe, together with the rents then due 
thereon." 

Mr. Blakeslee is represented as au eloquent 
preacher, of easy address and exemplary conduct, 
possessing an unusual faculty for attracting peojjle 
to him and the church. Such was his influence 
that thirty families from the Congregational So- 
ciety conformed to the Episcopal Church in one 
day. Mr. Blakeslee, at his own request, obtained 
a dismission in 1791, and removed to Ea.st Had- 
dani. Conn. 

In the town records of 1796 are certificates of 
the following gentlemen, most of whom professed 
to have united with the Episcopal Church, protest- 
ing against paying any more taxes for the sujsport 
of the Rev. John Tappan, then minister of the 
Congregational Society, viz. : 

Elisha Shelden, Francis Chase, John Cotton, Peter 
Russell, Benj. Swett, Walter Ainsworth, Matthias 
Stone, Jonathan Emerson, John Stone, Asa Duns- 
more, Samuel Atkins, Joseph Wilson, Abel Dustin, 



Jonathan Shaw, Jr., Nicholas Carey, Christopher 
York, Josiah Rich, Stephen Barber, Roger Philips 
and Lemuel Dean. 

In the year 1794 this church was incorporated 
by act of the New Hanipsliire Legislature, with 
tlie name of Union Church. The records show 
tiiat a parish meeting was warned for May 13, 
1794, " to take into consideration a proposition 
made to them by Congregational people to join 
with them in hiring Mr. Whiting to be the min- 
ister for both Congregationalists and Episcopa- 
lians." Mr. Whiting was a Congregational min- 
ister. At the meeting referred to it was voted 
that they " would join with the Congregational 
people, provided they could agree upon the 
terms." Then it was voted to choose seven men 
as a committee to meet the other committee. 
" Chose Messrs. Bill Barnes, Ebenezer Rice, Am- 
brose Cossit, David Dodge, Sanford Kingsbury, 
John W. Russell and Captain George Hubbard. 
Voted, to authorize them to hire Mr. Whiting to 
officiate for s uch term as they should agree upon, 
as a candidate for settlement over the whole town, 
on the following conditions, viz. : ' 1st, That he re- 
ceive Episcopal ordination ' (as he had done Con- 
gregational), and ' 2d, That he officiate alternately 
at the church and at the meeting-house. That 
on these terms this society will agree that Mr. 
Whiting be settled over the whole town, and that 
the town reap the benefit of the public lands be- 
longing to the church so long as he continues to be 
our minister." The meeting was adjourned to the 
20th of I\Iay. It then met and heard the rejiort 
of the committee, which was, in substance, that the 
Congregational Society would not comply with the 
terms. 

The Rev. Daniel Barber became rector of this 
church in 1795, and continued here as such until 
1818. He was a native of Symsbury, Conn., the 
birth-place of Bishop Griswold. ]Mr. Barber was 
born and educated a Congregationalist. He was 
ordained by Bishop Seabury at Middletown, Conn., 
October 29, 1786. He is reported to have been an 
eccentiic character, doing and saying many queer 
things, and quite wanting in dignity. It is due to 



88 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



him to say, however, that he kept the church to- 
gether for many years, and that it increased very 
considerably under his ministry, 

The rectorship of Mr. Barber ended disastrously 
to himself. In 1817 his son, Virgil Barber, who 
had been already ordained both deacon and priest, 
joined the Roman Catholic Church. Soon the 
father began to use what influence he had in favor 
of that church, and to try to unsettle the minds of 
the jjeople. While Mr. Barber still remained rec- 
tor — but rumors having arisen respecting his de- 
fection, and not a little dissatisfaction existing in 
consequence — at a meeting called for this purpose 
expressly (September 29, 1818), it was " Voted that 
the Rev. James B. Howe be hired to preach 
among us for such time as he will agree to, not ex- 
ceeding one year." November 12, 1818, " Voted to 
dismiss the Rev. Daniel Barber from the rectorship " 
April 19, 1819, called the Rev. James B. Howe to 
the rectorship, on a salary of seven hundred dollars. 

Mr. Barber remained here a few years and then 
went to Connecticut, and, finally, to Georgetown, 
D. C, where his daughter-in-law and two grand- 
daughters were in a convent. 

"His son, Virgil, came here as a Romish priest, 
with tlie evident design to proselyte and build the 
chapel opposite this cluirch, with a school-room 
above, where he officiated on Sundays and taught the 
sons of his father's former parishioners during the 
week, for a number of years, without fruit:* so far as 
conversions to Romanism were concerned : the only 
family from this Church, I believe, that followed Mr. 
Barber in his apostacy was that of Mr. Noah Tyler, 
whose wife was a sister of Mr. Barber. The son of 
Mr. Tyler, William, became a Roman Catholic Bishop, 
and the daughter, Rosetta, the Lady Superior of a 
nunnery. Sanford Spaulding, also, who had married 
an Irishwoman, concluded to join his wife, and two 
ladies by the name of Alden wont to the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

"The Rev. James B. Howe, who succeeded Mr 
Barber, was born in Dorchester, Mass. He had 
been a successful classical teacher in Boston for some 
years previous to his ordination, which took place not 
long before his call to this parish. He was recom- 
mended by the Rev. Dr. Eaton, the venerable and 



excellent Rector of Christ's Church, Boston. About 
the time he assumed the rectorship, a large, round 
brick building, erected by a sort of ecclesiastical union, 
in which I believe Universalism was the predominant 
element, standing on the present site of Trinity 
Church, Claremont village, was purchased as a chapel 
of Union Church, and therein, during the greater part 
of Mr. Howe's ministry, services were held alter- 
nately, one Sunday in this church, and the next in 
Trinity Chapel. Mr. Howe was a man of very differ- 
ent quality from his predecessor. He was truly a 
gentleman of the old school. Like Bishop Griswold, 
he continued to wear as long as he lived the long 
stockings and short clothes of the olden time. He 
was open, frank, hearty, courteous, sincere, true to his 
convictions of duty, earnest in his religious feelings. 
In short, he was a man to win the confidence and 
affection of his peojde. Until the unfortunate strife 
arose as to the rights and interests between the two 
^arts of the pari.sh, in which, from his position and 
residence, he was necessarily involved, no parish was 
more united or more cordially attached to their Rec- 
tor. There may have been individual exceptions, 
but they were rare. I believe that those who in the 
heat of controversy were bitterly opposed to him, will 
now, when these feelings have subsided, be ready to 
acknowledge his good qualities, his high-minded and 
noble Christian character. Very soon after he com- 
menced his ministry a large number of persons, 
headed by Colonel Josiah Stevens, a deacon in the 
Congregational Society, joined this parish. I find the 
uames of over forty men, mostly heads of families, re- 
siding in or near Claremont village, enrolled in 1819 
among the voters in the parish meeting. The first 
confirmation during the rectorship, September 15, 
1819, numbered forty-six. In 1824 this parish came 
into possession of a fund amounting to over five thou- 
sand five liundred dollars, devised by will of Major 
Oliver Ashley, one of the original proprietors of the 
town. The income of this fund was given for the 
support of a clergyman of this church. Thus this 
church, with the Ashley fund and the income of 
church lands, was provided with the means of abun- 
dant self-support, amounting to more than eight 
hundred dollars." 

There were local and other causes which finally 
resulted in a division of the parish. Mr. Howe's 
connection with the controversy which preceded 



CLAREMONT. 



89 



the division was such that the last years of his rec- 
torehip was made very unpleasant fur liim and un- 
profitable for the church. He was dismissed 
peremptorily by the majority, who sympathized 
with the western portion of the parish, because they 
supposed him to sympathize wholly with the vil- 
lage portion, and, after a hearing before the stand- 
ing committee of the diocese, he was advised, on 
certain conditions, to resign. A new parish was 
formed in the village, and the Rev. H. S. Smith 
was called as assistant to the rector of Union 
Church Parish, and began his services there after 
Easter in 1838, officiating alternately there and in 
Trinity Church, Cornish, and so continued four 
years. After the resignation of ]Mr. Howe, Mr. 
Smith was elected rector of Union Church, which 
he held twenty-eight years, ending in 1871. He 
resigned on account of his age. 

Trinity Church. — The subject of a division of 
Union Parish, and establishment of a church at 
the village having been agitated for some time, 
at a special meeting at Union Church, August 26, 
184.3, it was " Voted that the Wardens are hereby 
authorized and directed in the name of Union 
Church, to convey by assignment of lease or other- 
wise, all the right, title and interest of Union 
Church, and all privileges and appurtenances 
thereof, to Trinity Church in Claremont, in pur- 
suance of an article in the warrant." 

On September 20, 1843, the parish of Trinity 
Cliurcli, Claremont, was duly organized. Thirty- 
seven gentlemen, at that time, signed the Articles 
of Association ; others signed at later dates. Sep- 
tember 30th, of the same year, having adopted a 
code of bylaws, the parish proceeded to elect the 
following officers : James P. Brewer being clerk; 
Charles M. Bingham and Lewis Perry, wardens ; 
Philander C. Freeman, James M. Gates, Josiah 
Richards, David W. Dexter and Charles Mitchell, 
vestrymen ; John W. Tappan, treasurer; Thomas 
Leland, delegate to the Special Convention of the 
Diocese, at Concord, October 4, 1843. It was 
then "}' cited, That the Wardens of this Church 
procure if they think practicable, from Union 
Church, a conveyance of Trinity Chapel and the 



land and all the appurtenances belonging to the 
same, to Trinity Church." April 8, 1844, P. C. 
Freeman was appointed by the parish meeting " an 
agent to attend to the transfer of Trinity Chapel, 
to the society of Trinity Church, from the mem- 
bers of Union Church, Claremont, N. H." The 
transfer was made prior to June 26, 1844. 

According to the " History of the Eastern Dio- 
cese," Trinity Church was received into union 
with the Diocese of New Hampshire, at the Spe- 
cial Convention at Concord, October 4, 1843, and 
it.s delegate took part in the election of the Rev. 
Carlton Chase, D.D., Bishop. 

The Rev. Eleazer A. Greenleaf officiated at 
Trinity Church from November, 1843, to Easter, 
1844. On December 30, 1843, at a special 
meeting of the parish of Trinity Church, the fol- 
lowing resolution was offered by Thoniiis Leland, 
Esq , and was unanimously adopted : 

" Resolced, As the sense of this Society, that the 
Wardens and Vestiy of this parish be instructed to 
invite the Rev. Carlton Chase, D.D., to become Rec- 
tor of said parish, and to make such contract for his 
salary as they may think for tlie best interest of the 
Society. And, in case he accepts of such a call, to 
make all other arrangements proper for raising means 
for his salary, and for his institution as Rector." 

Dr. Chase accepted the rectorship of Trinity 
Church, and entered on its duty at Easter, 1844. 
His salary from the parisli was five hundred dollars. 
At the annual convention in June, 1844, he re- 
ported sixty families, three baptisms and eighty- 
four communicants. 

The old Trinity Chapel, after having been used 
for the church service thirty-four years, was taken 
down in the early part of 1852. The corner-stone 
of the present edifice, on the same site, was laid on 
June 16, 1852, by Bishop Chase, assisted by the 
Rev. Henry S. Smith, rector of Union Church, 
Claremont, and the Rev. Marcellus A. Herrick, 
rector of St. James' Church, Woodstock, Vt. 
Under the corner-stone the following-named 
articles were deposited: 

1. Printed copies of the journals of the Diocese 
of New Hampshire from 1843 to 1851, inclusive. 



90 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



2. A list of the communicants of Trinity Church 
from its organization in September, 1843, to June, 
1852 — the whole number being one hundred and 
seventy two. 

3. One number each of three religious newspapers 
published severally on or near the 12th of June, 1852, 
to wit: The Churchman, The Christian ]Vifness and 
Advocate and The Calendar. 

4. One number each of the newspapers published 
in Claremont village — the National Eagle and the 
Northern Advocate. 

5. A declaration, of which the following is a copy: 
" I, Carlton Chase, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of 
New Hampshire, in the fifty-ninth year of my age, 
and in the eighth year of my episcopate — Millard 
Fillmore being President of the United States, and 
Noah Martin being Governor of New Hampshire — 
this sixteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord, 
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, 

LAY THIS CORNER-STONE OF 
TRINITY CHURCH, 

and with my own hand make this deposite." 

6. A schedule of donations from churches and in- 
dividuals abroad, to aid in the erection of Trinity 
Church. 

7. An account of the organization of the parish, 
with a list of officers for the year 1852. Also, the 
names of the architects, Messrs. Wills & Dudley, 
of the city of New York; of the builders, Messrs. 
Washburn & Nichols, of Albany, N. Y.; of the 
Building Committee, Messrs. Charles M. Bingham, 
Lewis Perry, Charles F. Long and Alvah Stevens. 

8. A paper coataiaing the names of subscribers 
and donors to the Building Fund, and stating gener- 
ally the terms of the contract for erection. 

t 

The chancel window was the gift of All Saints' 
Church, New York. The cost of this church edi- 
fice was about seven thousand dollars. Additions 
and alterations since made have added consider- 
ably to that sum. It was duly consecrated by 
Bishop Chase, in the presence of the Convention 
of the Diocese, May 25, 1853. 

Bishop Chase resigned the rectorship of this 
church June 1st, 1868, as follows: 

" Diocese of New Hampshire. 
" To the Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church. 
"Dear Brethren : — Proceedings in the late Conven- 



tion, by which the Diocese assures my full support, 
and solicits for itself my undivided cares and labors, 
make it my duty to resign the Rectorship of your 
Church. This I beg leave now to do. And in doing 
it, I assure you. Brethren, that my connection of 
nineteen years with Trinity Church has afforded me 
innumerable occasions of happy and grateful remem- 
brance. As your Bishop I shall still be in your 
service, and shall be most happy at all times to do 
what I can for Trinity Church. 

" With much affection and respect, 

"Yours in most holy bonds, 

" Carlton Chase." 

At an adjourned meeting of the raembei's of 
Trinity C'hureh corporation, June 22, 1863, it was 
" Voted that the ^Vardens and Vestry be author- 
ized to tender the Rev. John M. Peck, of Warren, 
R. 1., an invitation to officiate in this church as 
Pastor one year for the consideration of 800 Dol- 
lars as Salary." Mr. Peck accepted this invitation, 
and entered on his duties August 2, 1863. Subse- 
quently his salary was increased to one thousand 
dollars and the use of the rectory. He resigned 
in June, 1867. Mr. Peck reported to the con- 
vention in June, 1867, twelve baptisms, twenty 
confirmations and one hundred and sixty commu- 
nicants. 

On the 1st of August, 1867, the Rev. L G. 
Hubbard, D.D., took charge of Trinity Church. 
In 1871 the parish sold its rectory for three thou- 
sand dollars, and purchased the Dr. Robert Glea- 
son house and grounds adjoining the church lot 
for four thousand five hundred dollars. In 1884 
the old buildings on this lot were sold for about 
one hundred and fifty dollars, to be removed, pre- 
paratory to building new. To the Convention of 
1868, Dr. Hubbard reported ten baptisms, eleven 
confirmations, two hundred and one communi- 
cants and one hundred Sunday-school scholars. 

In September, 1866, George G. and Lemuel N. 
Ide presented to Trinity Church a bell weighing 
one thousand and fifty-seven pounds, and costing, 
with mountings, etc., five hundred and thirty-one 
dollars and sixiy-two cents, "for religious and 
church uses only." 

The following explains itself: 



CLAREMONT. 



91 



"Claremost, N. H., Dec. 19, 1871. 

" To the Rector^ Wardens and Vestry of Trinity Church : 

"Gentlemen: — I bave had prepared a Memorial 
Tablet in memory of Et. Rev. Carlton Chase, D. D., 
our late worthy Bishop and Rector, which I herewith 
offer for your acceptance, to be placed in the Chancel 
of the Church. 

" Very truly your associate in the Vestry, 

"Geo. L. Balco.m." 

Dr. Hubbard, on account of ill health, was 
granted a vacation, his place being supplied by 
the society, and went to Europe, bis expenses 
being paid by contributions of membere of his 
parish and others. 

By reason of continued ill health. Dr. Hubbard 
resigned his rectorship March 31, 1875, to take 
effect the 1st of the following May. The Rev. C. 
R. Batchelder, Rev. Mr. Pearson and othei-s sup- 
plied until the Rev. Henry Ferguson was called 
and comraenced his labors as rector the 3rd of 
March, 1878. On account of the poor health of 
Mrs. Ferguson, Mr. Ferguson resigned in Decem- 
ber, 1880. The Rev. Charles S. Hale w is called, 
and commenced his rectorship at Easter, 1881. 
He resigned March 9, 1885, his resignation to 
take eflect after Trinity Sunday, May 31, 1885. 

In February, 1882, a new organ was placed in 
the church, at an expense of $3150. In 1881 a 
choir-room was added to the church, which, with 
furnishing, cost $1375. A chancel choir of men 
and boys was organized in February, 1882. In 
August, 1884, a legacy of §8000 was received 
from the estate of Mrs. Carrie Evans, of Boston, 
with which to build a rectory for Trinity Parish, 
and it will be erected, at no very distant period, 
on the site adjoining the church lot. 

First Baptist Church. — In 1785 a Baptist 
society was formed in Claremont. There was no 
stated preaching, however, until the following 
year, when Rev. John Pickens was ordained. 
The formation of this new religious society in- 
creased the bitterness of feeling against the minis- 
terial tax system. The members of the new 
society refused to conform to the requisitions of 



the law, pleading that they were of a different 
denomination. 

The town records show that on September 6, 
1785, "The Inhabitants of the Town of Clare- 
mont assembled at the dwelling-house of Mr. 
Ebenezer Rice in s'd Town," and " Voted on the 
fourth article in the warning that those people 
that call themselves Baptists pay no more rates to 
the Congregational order for the fewter." 

This secured from taxation, by the terms of the 
law, such persons as were conscientiou.sly of a dif- 
ferent persuasion, and attended constantly public 
religious worship on the Lord's day. 

In July, 177(;, a church of seventeen members 
was constituted and recognized. Mr. Pickens re- 
mained but a few months, under whose ministry 
the society flourished ; but after his removal, and 
for various reasons, it became extinct in a few 
years. In the fall of 1820, Rev. John Kimball 
labored three months as a missionary in Clare- 
mont. In January, 1821, the scattered members 
were brought together, and a church with seven- 
teen members was constituted. The names ot 
these members were as follows : Joseph Cum- 
mings, Thomas Warner, Ezra Smith, Jesse Bun- 
nel, Mehitabel Dodge, Milly Bunnel, Eunice 
Smith, Prudence Sweet, Betsey Bunnel, Ruth 
Bond, Prudence Richards, Hannah Cummings, 
Betsey Patrick, Lydia Wilkins, Sally Draper, 
Mehitabel Bunnel, Charlotte Petty. 

Under Mr. Kimball's labors the church mem- 
bership increased to fifty-fbur. The six following 
years the 'church was without a pastor and wor- 
shiped in a hall connected with Clark's tavern, on 
the north side of Sugar River. Notwithstanding 
the disadvantages endured in this time, there was 
an accession of several men of standing and 
wealth. In 1827 the First Baptist Society was 
formed, and a small chapel was built on the east 
side of High Street, which was occupied six years. 

In January, 1829, the Rev. Leonard Tracy was 
settled as the fii-st pastor of the church, and his 
connection with it continued eight years, during 
which the " Manual," published in 1884, from 
which much information is derived, says " the 



92 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



foundation of much of its future prosperity were 
laid." In 1833-34, encouraged by the growth of 
the church and society, a lot at the junction of 
Main and Central Streets, where their handsome 
house of worship now stands, was purchased, and 
the erection of the building was commenced, 
which was completed and dedicated in November, 
1834. 

The Rev. Darwin H. Ranney succeeded Mr. 
Tracy, and began his labors in March, 1838, and 
continued them until September, 1839, after 
which the pastorate was vacant until September, 
1840, when Rev. J. M. Graves became pastor. 
He held the office about three years, during 
which it is recorded that " the church gained in 
strength and efficiency, although it did not 
increase in members." 

The Rev. William B. Jacobs succeeded to the 
pastorate in November, 1843, and "filled the 
office with fidelity for about three years." His 
successor was Rev. Thomas G. Wright, who 
began his labors in July, 1847. "Though the 
number of members decreased during this period, 
yet the character of the church was greatly im- 
proved, and a foundation was laid for future suc- 
cess. Some long-standing difficulties were settled, 
disorderly members were removed, and the body 
became more homogeneous and harmonious." He 
closed his labors with this church in June, 1851. 

The Rev. Oliver Ayer was settled in July, 1851. 
" His pastorate was the longest the church has yet 
enjoyed, — thirteen years, — and was blessed with 
seasons of refreshing from on high. The year 
1858 was especially memorable in the number of 
accessions by baptism." Mr. Ayer, though not a 
noisy or very attractive preacher to the generality 
of hearers, was a man of culture and refinement ; 
his sermons were finished, sound and logical, 
setting forth in no questionable terms his belief in 
the doctrines he preached. No one who heard 
him could doubt his sincerity ; and no one who 
knew him, whether they subscribed to his peculiar 
doctrines or not, could fail to respect him as a 
citizen and clergyman. 

In October, 1864, Francis W. Towle was called 



to the pastorate of this church and ordained the 
following month. " During his pastorate the 
church enjoyed steady growth in numbers and 
resources. Early in 1872 the society began the 
work of enlarging and repairing its house of 
worship. A new vestibule, tower and chapel were 
built, the interior of the main house remodeled, 
refurnished and frescoed. The whole cost of the 
repairn exceeded nine thousand five hundred 
dollars. The service of dedication was held 
January 2, 1873." Mr. Towle resigned in July, 
1873. 

Charles A. Piddock served as supply from 
October, 1873, became pastor in March. 1874, and 
was ordained the same mouth. His pastorate ex- 
tended to July, 1877; and " was characterized by 
revival spirit and work, and by numerous acces- 
sions to the church." 

Rev. Joseph S. Swaim was called to the pas- 
torate in October, 1877, and, having been ordained 
in Cambridge, Mass., " continued his labors until 
February, 1883, the church during this time being 
united and prosperous and steadily increasing in 
numbers." 

Rev. T. G. Cass was next called, and began his 
labors as pastor in April, 1883, and resigned, and 
was dismissed March 27, 1885. He was succeeded 
by Rev. Joseph H. Robbin, who was settled June 
7, 1885. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. — The follow- 
ing facts are gathered mainly from a " Historical 
Sketch " by Rev. M. V. B. Knox, published in 
1882: 

On the strength of hearsay, it is reported that 
the first sermon preached in Claremont by a 
Methodist was by Rev. Mr. Daniels, the first 
Methodist preacher who died in New England. 
He was buried in the adjoining town of Unity. 
Others say that the eccentric Lorenzo Dow, at 
the age of nineteen years, preached the first 
sermon delivered by a Methodist in this town, in 
the neighborhood known as Packershire. It is 
known that in the winter of 1798 Lorenzo Dow 
preached once in four weeks in what is called the 
Green Mountain District, and that his labors 



CLAKEMONT. 



93 



resulted in some conversions and the formation of 
a class at the house of Mr. Robertson, who some- 
times acted as leader. Dow's eccentricities were 
finally thought unbearable, and " be was advised 
to leave the town, which he did in quite a charac- 
teristic manner. Kiding to its line, with thoughts 
and maledictions, the results of which it may be 
inipo.ssible to tell, and the nature of which the last 
day alone may reveal, he dismounted and, rapping 
his shoes together, shook the dust of Clareraont off 
them, solemnly declaring that he should never 
enter the town more until solicited by those who 
were anxious for his labors as a minister of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Never being invited, he never 
did return, and his testimony thus feelingly given 
still remains." 

The first organized Methodism in Claremont 
was a class formed of those who were converted 
under the labors of Dow, in the Green Mountain 
District. The leader was Eliakim Stevens. In 
1801 Claremont was included in the new circuit 
of Hanover. A Quarterly jNIeeting is reported in 
Claremont, May 7, 1801, connected with which 
were nine baptisms. In 1802 the membership in 
Claremont consisted of Eliakim Stevens, Prudence 
Stevens, Eliphalet Robertson, Mary Robertson, 
Susanna Stevens, John Amidon, Dorcas Tolmau, 
Susanna Stoddard, Cynthia Fiske, Hezekiah Mills, 
Phebe Farrington, Amos Stoddard and Betsey 
Howell. 

Under Rev. Elijah Willard's preaching a re- 
vival of religion occurred at Draper's Cornera, 
several families being converted. Mrs. Mason, an 
influential lady, encouraged the work by opening 
her house to meetings. She became a Methodist, 
as also her daughter Ethana, afterward the wife 
and widow of Rev. Caleb Dustin. A class was 
formed under the leadership of Jacob Smith, of 
Unity, a local preacher. 

In 1806 Rev. Caleb Dustin labored here suc- 
cessfully. From this time up to 1815 the Method- 
ists held theij meetings at private houses, and 
wherever else they could find accommodations. 
In that year the Methodists, Universalists and 
Baptists united and erected a meeting-house on 



the spot where Trinity Church now stands. Dur- 
ing the year 1821 the Baptists and Universalists, 
who had owned and occupied this meeting-house 
jointly with the Methodists, sold their shares to 
the Episcopalians, who at once put the house 
under alterations and repairs. This was a great 
disappointment and inconvenience to the Method- 
ists, as the Episcopalians, owning two-thirds — a 
controlling interest — refused its occupancy to the 
Methodists for their fourth Quarterly Meeting, 
which was appointed for the 18th of August. As 
the day approached, Mr. Chase, of the Sullivan 
House, tendered the use of a large, new horse- 
barn, which he had just finished, for the meeting, 
and his dance-hall for the love-feast, and they 
were accepted. 

After this meetings were held for a time at 
Draper's Corner ; then in an old, red cabinet-shop 
at the north side of the Upper Bridge, on Wash- 
ington Street, and finally in the hall of the " Old 
Clark Tavern," on North Street, which was occu- 
pied about two years. " In this hall Wilbur Fisk 
and other able, godly men preached the word." 

In 1826 the Methodists of Claremont undertook 
to build for themselves a meeting-house, and in 
Quarterly Conference, held January 4tli, it was 
" voted to raise a committee of three to estimate 
the sum and obtain subscriptions to build a meet- 
ing-house in Claremont." Nathan Howard, 
Thomas Davis and EH Draper were appointed 
said committee. Eliakim Stevens, Nathan 
Howard, Thomas Davis, Asa Dinsmore and Eli 
Draper were constituted trustees. The enterprise 
was at once begun. 

A subscription paper, dated January.,26, 1826, 
and headt d as follows, was circulated : 

" Whereas, it is the duty of all that have means and 
opportunities to promote the public worship of Al- 
mighty God, and, whereas, the Society of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church in Claremont, N. H., labors 
under many inconveniences and embarrassments for 
want of a house of public worship, therefore we, the 
subscribers, promise to pay the sum set against each 
of our n.imes, respectively, to the said Methodist So- 
ciety, or a committee which they shall appoint, to be 
by them appropriated for the erecting a free house of 



94 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



public worship in or near the village, in said Clare- 
mont, of such dimensions as shall by them be judged 
suitable, and upon such principles as shall accord 
with the discipline and usages of their church." 

At an adjourned meeting held January 26, 
1826, the following board of oiBcers was chosen : 
Eliakim Stevens, president ; Nathan Howard, 
secretary ; Thomas Davis, treasurer and agent ; 
Asa Dinsmore, Nathan Howard, Eliakim Stevens, 
Thomsis Davis, Harvey McLaughlin, trustees. At 
this meeting the society " voted to proceed to 
build a chapel for public worship," and that 
" Thomas Davis, Eliakim Stevens and Nathan 
Howard be a committee, whose duty it shall be to 
purchase a site for and superintend the building 
of said chapel." 

Mr. Austin Tyler, a man of no particular de- 
nominational affinities, magnanimously offered 
them a very eligible site on Sullivan Street, as a 
gift, which was gratefully accepted. '' When the 
timber was collected, the brethren, desirous of 
securing the blessing of God upon their humble 
effort, solicited the services of the Rev. Mr. Nye, 
the Congregational preacher, as their own was too 
remote on other parts of the circuit to be con- 
veniently called. Mr. Nye met them in the lot 
containing the scattered materials for the chapel, 
and solemnly invoked the divine aid on the 
workers and work." The meeting-house was 
raised, partly finished, and occupied for service 
through the summer season in this condition, the 
congregation sitting on rough seats, men on one 
side of the house, women on the other, while the 
carpenter's bench made the minister's pulpit. The 
house wae finally completed and dedicated in De 
cember, 1829, the sermon being preached by Rev. 
B. R. Hoyt. 

The official members of Claremont voted, in 
1833, a request to be separated from the other 
places, and constituted a separate appointment. 
At a Quarterly Conference, held at Unity, June 29, 
1833, it was " voted that Charlestowu and Clare- 
mont become stations." But the Quarterly Con- 
ference included Unity, Claremont and Charles- 
town until the Conference year of 1835-36. 



At the first Quarterly Conference the new sta- 
tion had formed itself into a missionary society. 
The first stationed preacher was C. W. Levings, 
but matters were not prosperous, and, at the 
Quarterly Conference of June 25, 1836, his dis- 
mission from the charge, at his own request, was 
assented to, and he left. 

John Jones, who followed Mr. Levings, " was 
successful in his work, but was greatly impeded 
by a long course of sickness. The people helped 
him in a characteristic manner. To meet the ex- 
penses of his illness, the sum of seventy-three dol- 
lars and eighteen cents was raised, over and above 
his regular salary, and awarded him as a gift — 
this being the whole amount of expenses incurred 
by his sickness. He reported one hundred and 
nineteen members." 

The next year Moses Chase was the preacher, 
" and the place was favored with a revival of great 
power. So many were the additions, that he re- 
ported the membership at two hundred and twenty- 
one." 

At the annual meeting of the society, Septem- 
ber 4, 1837, " Charles H. Mann, Erastus Clark 
and Frederick A. Henry were made a committee 
to see how a house-lot could be bought and a par- 
sonage-house built." An adjourned meeting, held 
September 16th, of the same year, " Voted to proceed 
in the building of a house as soon as four hundred 
dollars should be raised." This sum was soon 
pledged, and Samuel Tutherly, William Proctor 
and Frederick A. Henry were appointed a build- 
ing committee. It was found necessary to enlarge- 
the meeting-house, and it was decided to abandon 
the parsonage project for that time. 

The Quarterly Conference, in January, 1838, 
resolved itself into a domestic missionary society, 
auxiliary to the Domestic Missionary Society of 
New Hampshire. In that year Rev. William 
Hatch succeeded Mr. Chase in the pastorate. The 
Quarterly Conference, in May, "Resolved, in the 
opinion of the Quarterly Conference, that our Dis- 
cipline prohibits the use of intoxicating liquors, 
except as a medicine, and that no person ought to 
be received into the church unless he will live up 



CLAKEMONT. 



95 



to this rule." The same Conference, in April, 
1839, resolved, — 

"1. That iu our opinion the use of intoxicating 
drinlcs as a beverage is sin. 

"2. Tliat if any member of our cliureli in tliis place 
shall be guilty of so doing, such member or members 
ought to be dealt with according to the rules of disci- 
pline, unless speedy reformation renders it unneces- 
sary." 

Rev. James M. Fuller, in 1839, succeeded Mr. 
Hatch, and, at the close of the fiist year, reported 
a Sunday-school, with twent}' four officers and 
teachers, one hundred and eleven scholars, and 
three hundred volumes in the library. 

Mr. Fuller stayed two years, and reported the 
number of members of the church at two hundred 
and one. He was succeeded by Rev. Eleazer 
Smith. 

About this time the Second Advent or Miller ex- 
citement, manifested itself, threatening the interests 
of the church. In a Quarterly Conference, April 
15, 1843, it was " Voted that those brethren who 
sustain meetings abroad are requested to refrain ; 
if not, they are invited respectfully to withdraw 
from the church,'' and G. W. Wilson, E. Clark, 
A. M. Billings and others immediately withdrew. 
At the close of his second year Mr. Smith reported 
two hundred and ninety members of the church. 

The New Hampshire Annual Conference — then 
including Vermont as well as this State — met at 
Claremont, for the first time, in June, 1843. The 
public services were held in the town hall. " On 
the Sabbath an immense audience assembled, fill- 
ing not only the town hall, but the grounds 
about it. The venerable Bishop Waugh, standing 
on a platform erected for that purpose at the south 
door, proclaimed with masterly effect, in behalf of 
the ministry, ' We preach not ourselves, but Christ 
Jesus the Lord.'" 

Mr. Smith was succeeded in 1843 by Rev. Elihu 
Scott. " His first year's pastorate was greatly in- 
jured by the desolating influence of Millerism, 
defections in the membership multiplying so that 
he reported but one hundred and eighty members 
at the close of that year." At the end of his sec- 



ond year, Millerism having collapsed, Mr. Scott 
reported two hirndred members of the church. 

At the close of Mr. Scott's term the (Quarterly 
Conference, having tested the station system, 
" Voted to request the bishop to form CI reinont 
Station into a circuit, by adding oire or more towns, 
and to send two or more pr'eachers." But the ex- 
perience of a year or two under this plan reversed 
the request, and Claremont has since remained a 
station. 

In 1845 Rev. Silas Quimby siteceeded Mr. Scott, 
and at the end of the year reported the member- 
ship at two hundred and thirty-three. Rev. Jus- 
tin Spaulding succeeded Mr-. Quimby, remaining 
one year, and was succeeded by Rev. Jacob 
Stevens, in 1847, remaining on the chai'ge about 
three-quarters of the year, when he retired on ac- 
count of poor health, and the year was filled 
out by Rev. Matthew Newhall, a supernumerary 
preacher. This year the Quarterly Conference 
" Voted to adopt a number of resolutions against 
the circus soon to be exhibited in this place." It 
also voted to admit " a seraphim in the gallery." 

Rev. Joseph C. Cromack was the next preacher 
During his pastorate the church bought the house 
on Pleasant Street, now owned and occupied by 
Dr. F. C. Wilkinson, for a parsonage. In 1850 
Rev. Lewis Howard succeeded Mr. Cromack, and 
in 1851 the Quarterly Conference ordered twenty- 
five dollars to be " paid to Jonathan Miner for 
leading the singing." On February 23, 1852, the 
society " Voted to build a new meeting-house, and 
that Samuel Tutherly be a committee to obtairr 
subscriptions. Plans for the house were presented 
and adopted, and, at a meeting on March 6th, it 
was " Voted that the rent of pews go toward the 
preaching ; " and, at another meeting, a week later, 
" T. Sanford, S. Tutherly and James Sperry were 
made a committee to dispose of the old meeting- 
house and lot, pui'chase a new lot, raise subscrip- 
tions and build a new meeting-house." This 
committee was also authorized to sell the parsonage, 
and the trustees were directed to hold the funds 
arising from that sale until they could build or 
purchase another, which was to be done within six 



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l\i>v vlulm Nlcluili ii»iiiu'(linliilv lli|li>yyi>il Mr 



98 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NK\V IIAMrSHIRE. 



Adiinis mid remained here until 184o. Rev. R. 
8. Snuboru followed jNIr. Adams, and was imme- 
diately succeeded in July, 1844, by Rev. O. H. 
Tillotson, who roniained one year. Hev. Sanuiol 
Willis was settled in Jlay, 1S45, and remained 
about five yeai-s, during which special attention 
was given to Sunday-school work and to the per- 
fection of the organization of the church. Ac- 
cording to the records, " The form of church 
government contained in the Univei'salist.'*' (iuide, 
was adopted December 7, 184r), as the Constitution 
of the Uuiversalist Church, of Claremout." Mr. 
Willis closed Ids jiastorate in the fall of 184i). 
Flip the next few months the jnilpit was supplied 
by Kevs. A. A. jMiner, (.). 11. Tillotson, AV. S. 
Baleh and Mr. Clark. Rev. J. D. Pierce was 
settled iu February, 185t), and continued until 
May, 1855, juid for about a year and a half the 
church was without a regular pastor, the pulpit 
being supplied by Revs. H. A. Philbrook, S. A. 
Spencer and some othei-s, and by lay reading. 

Rev. Giles Bailey was settled in 1857 and 
continued until 18110. Rev. Carlos Marstou fol- 
lowed iu the spring of 1861. Rev. E. S. Foster 
was pastor I'rom 1863 to 1865, and Rev. ^Ysher 
Moore from July, 1867 to 1870. For a while 
Rev. T. Barron preached here and at North 
Charlestown, half the time at each place : and 
in the early part of 1871 Rev. Eli Ballou occu- 
pied the pulpit. 

On ^lay 7, 1871, Rev. C. E. Sawyer, having 
accepted a call to settle, preached his first sermon 
as pastor, and, on the morning of June 2Sth of the 
same year, he, with bis young wife and wife's 
father, Mr. Sylvauus Gushing, of Abiugtou, Mass., 
was drowned at Ashley's Ferry, iu Connecticut 
River. 3Ir. Cushing came here to visit his 
daughter, who had been but a few weeks married, 
and on that morning,, the skies being bright and 
the air balmy, Mr. Sawyer took a two-seated, cov- 
ei"ed ciU'riage, with one hoi-se from a livery stable, 
and set out witli his wife and father-in-law for a 
drive. They I'rosscd Claremout Bridge into Ver- 
mont, drove down tiie river to Weathei-sfield Boro', 
and, it is supposed, attempted to ford Connecticut 



I River at Ashley's Ferry with the sad result above 
stated. No one saw them enter the river, and no 
1 one of the party survived to tell how the distress- 
ing calamity happened. It was only left for con- 
jecture. The hoi-se was also drowned. 

The following November Rev. S. P. Smith began 

a pastorate, which continued until Scjitember, 

1873, and was followed iu June, 1874, by Rev. 

Edward Smiley, who remained until March, 1881. 

During his pastorate special and elective work 

was done in the Sunday-school. Rev. J. M. 

j Johns was pastor from August, 1881, to October, 

I 1883, "and was instrumental in causing the 

church to be remodeled at an expense of over 

seven thousand dollars, so that now it is one of the 

I most complete church edifices in the State." The 

I dedicatory services took place August 1, 1883, and 

j were participated in by Di"s A. A. ^liner and 

O. L. Demarest and Reverends J. M. Johns, E. 

Smiley, J. Eastwood and R. T. Polk. 

On .lanuary 6, 1884, Lee S. M'Collester 
preached here for the first time, and soon after 
received and accepted a call to settle as pastor. 
He was then pui-suing his theological course, which 
was not completed until the following June, when 
he came here and settled pernumently. The New 
Hampshire Univei-salist Sunday school and State 
Conventions met here on September 2!)th, contin- 
ued in session until October 2, 1884, and con- 
cluded with the ordination of Mr. il'Collester, 
who has since continued a most acceptable pastor. 
The church has given much care and attention 
•to the Sunday-school connectetl with it. It was 
fii-st inaugurated in 1832, during the pastorate (if 
Rev. W. S. Balch, and for several yeai-s was kept 
up only during the warm seasons. In 1861 it 
began to hold its sessions through the whole year, 
I and has so continued without intermission, whether 
I the church had a settled pastor or preaching, or 
I not, and is one of the valued institutions of the 
town. 

St. M.\kys Chukch, (Catholic.) — An eligible 
lot on the north side of Central street was pur- 
chased and ground was broken in 1870 for the 
, Church of St. Mary, under the pastorate of Rev. 



CLAREMONT. 



99 



G. Deronie. lu 1S71 Father Derome was suc- 
ceeded by L. L'Moer, who in 1872 wii.s replaced 
l)y Kev. M. Goodwin. Futiu'r Goodwin remained 
in Clareniout but four mouths. Kev. M. Laporte 
took charge of the parish in .Inly, 1X72, and re- 
mained a.^ pastor until Novenihcr, 187.'!, at which 
time Rev. Cornelius O'Sullivan was appointed 
pastor. Rev. P. J. Finnegan has been in charge 
of the ])arish since that date. The church is not 
vet conipietcd. It lias alrca<ly cost fully thirty 
thousand dollars. It is of brick. The style of 
the church is gothic, one hundred and forty-five 
feet long and forty-five feet Avide. Within the 
last few years it has been thoroughly renovated ; 
new pews have replaced the old ones; nc\v altars 
have been built and set in place and the whole in- 
terior painted in fresco; ga,s fixtures have been 
put in and the whole interior woodwork remodeled 
under the supervision of Architect Hira K. l?eck- 
with, of Clareniout. Under the pastorate of 
Father Finucgau this church seems to be very 
prosperous and nsel'ul. 

MiVSONIC OR(!A^'lZATION.S. 

Hiram Lodok, No. !), F. and A. M., instituted 
June 25, 1798. The first officers of tiiis lodge 
were Ithamer Chase, W. M. : Daniel J5arber, 
S. W. ; Ebenezer Rice, J. W. ; Stephen Dexter, 
Treas. ; Ambrose Cossitt, Sec. The officers for 
1885 are Levi Johnson, W. M. ; Iviward F. 
Houghton, S. W. ; W. A. Redficld, J, W. ; A. W. 
Hawkes, Treas. ; John W. Collins, Sec. ; Dudley 
T. Chase, Rep. to Grand Lodge; Herbert E. 
Fitch, S. D. ; James Richardson, ,1. D. ; Jacob 
Woodbury, Chap.; Charles H. Long, Mar.; Nor- 
man S. Bryant, S. S. ; Fi'cderick M. I'armelee, 
J. S. ; George O. Woodcock, Tiler. Number of 
members, one hundred and twenty-one. 

Union Mark Lodge, No. 1, held by di.speusa- 
tion from De Witt Clinton, G. G. H. V. of Gen. 
G. K. A. Chapter of U. S. A. First meeting 
July 13, 1818, at Zeuas Hitchcock's Hall. 
Present, Stephen Blanchard, M. ; Stephen Rice, 
S. W. ; Natnan Bingham, J. W. ; T. T. Saxton, 
M. O. ; Zenas Hitchcock, S. O. ; R. Elmer, J. O. ; 



J. Rice, Treas. ; J. Alden, Sec; Charles Higbee, 
Jr., John Hitchcock, Jr., Stwds. ; John Tyler, 
Tiler; B. Tyler, S. Higbee, J. H. Anilrews. 

Wkhh Royai. Arch Chai'tek, instituted July 
i 11, 1821, by Thomas S. Bowles, G. II. V. of 
G. R. A. ('hapter of New Hampshire. Jonathan 
Nye ap])ointed liiuh Priest; Nathan Bingham, 
King ; Godfrey Stevens, Scribe. The officers fitr 
1885 are Francis F. Haskell, 11. 1'.; Wyllys A. 
Redficld, E. K. ; Levi Johnson, E. S. ; Frederick 
Hanbrich, Treas. ; John W. Collins, Sec. ; Mollis 
A. Jenne, C. IT. ; Roswell W. Silsbee, P. S. ; Her- 
bert E. Fitch, R. A. C. ; Edward F. Houghton, 
Cha]). ; Austin M. Webster, M. 8d V. ; Byron T. 
Tilden, M. 2(1 V. ; Frederick M. I'armelee, M. 1st 
v.; (icorge H. Stowell, S. S. ; ,Iohn Lynch, J. S. ; 
George O. Woodcock, Tiler. Number of uicin- 
bers, seventy-eight. 

I'oi.tlMBIAN CoHNCII,, No. 2, R. AND S. M., iu- 
stitute<l April 15, 1822. Tlu^ following is a copy 
of the record of the organization of (-olumbian 
Council at Claremont, on the 15th of April, 1822, 
and of the meeting held May 20, 1822: 

"At a iiieeling held in Masonic Itall, Claremont, on 
Monday, 15tli April, A. L. 5822, for tlie imrpoHo ofcs- 
talilishing a Council oC Royal and Select JIasters, the 
following Select Masters being present, viz.: James 
F. Dana, James Poole, (iodfrey Stevens, Roswell 
Kbner, Nathan liingliani, .fonathan Nye, Joseph Al- 
den, Stephen Rice ami ('Iiarlcs JFifjlx! — James F. 
Dana presiding, 

"Voted, That it is expedient to form a Council of 
Royal and Select Masters at this place, in connexion 
with Webb Chapter, by the name of Columbian 
Council. 

"Opened a Council of Select Masters in due and 
ancient form. 

"Conferred the Degree of Royal Master and Select 
Master on C<inip. Stephen Starhird and Daniel Taylor 
in due ibrm. Received $;i each from (Jonip. Slarbird 
and Taylor. 

" Proceeded to choice of Officers — result was as fol- 
lows, viz.: Companion Jonathan Nye, T. I. G. M; 
Nathan Bingham, D. I. G. M.; Godfrey Stevens, P. C. ; 
Roswell Elmer, C. of G. ; Stephen Starhird, G. S. ; 
Stephen Rice, Recorder ; Daniel Chase, Treasurer. 



100 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Voted, To choose a Committee of Three to prepare 
a Code of By-Laws. 

"Jonathan Nye, Nathan Bingham and Godfrey 
Stevens were chosen. 

"Voted, That the Fees for the Degrees conferred by 
this Council be Three Dollars — One Dollar for the | 
Royal Master's and Two Dollars for the Select Mas- 
ter's Degree. [ 

" Conferred the Degrees of Royal Master and Se- 
lect Master on Comps. Daniel Chase and Daniel Bond, 
Jr., in due form. 

"Received Three Dollars each from Chase and 
Bond— $6.00. 

" Comps. Stevens, Nye and Bingham were chosen a 
committee to return thanks to Companions Dana and 
Poole for their assistance in establishing this Council ; 
also, to make them such compensation as shall be 
deemed proper. 

"Closed the Council in due form, and adjourned to 
the third Monday of May next. 

"Attest, G. Stevens. 

" May 20, 1822. — Met according to adjournment, and 
opened the Council in due form. 

" Present— J. Nye, T. I. G. M. ; N. Bingham, D. I. 
G. M.; G. Stevens, P. C. ; R. Elmer, C. of G.; S. 
Starbird, G. S. ; D. Chase, Treasurer ; S. H. Sabiu, 
Recorder, ^ro tern.; also, Daniel Bond, Jr., and Sam- 
uel S. Mather. 

" Conferred the Degree of Royal and Select Master 
on Peter Niles, David Parker, James A. Gregg, Joel 
Goss and William F. Munger in due form. 

"Conferred the Degree of Select Master on David 
Hale in due form. 

" Voted, to accept the code of By-Laws presented by 
Comp. J. Nye. 

"Closed the Council in due form. 

" Recorded by Godfrey Stevens." 

The officers of Columbian Couucil for 1886 are 
Edward F. Houghton, T. L M ; Leland J. 
Graves, D. M. ; Hollis A. Jenue, P. C. W. ; Fred- 
erick Haubrich, Treas. ; John W. Collins, Recor- 
der ; Hiram G. Sherman, C. G. ; Wyllys A. Red- 
field, C. C. ; James Holt, Chap ; Hosea W. 
Parker, Mar. ; James Y'oung, Stwd ; George O. 
Woodcock, Sent. Number of members, thirty- 
uine. 



Sullivan Commandery, No. 6, instituted 
January 23, 1866, by Charles A. Tufts, G. C. of 
Grand Commandery of New Hampshire. Leland 
J. Graves, appointed E. C. ; Henry A. Redfield, 
Generalissimo ; Rev. A. K. Howard, C. G. The 
officers for 1885 are Hosea W. Parker, E. C. ; 
George H. Stowell, G. ; Fred erick Hanbrich, 

C. G. ; James Holt, Prel. ; Charles H. Long, 
S. W. ; Hollis A. Jenue, J. W. ; John T. Emerson, 
Treas. ; John W. Collins, Recorder ; Henry Tubbs, 
Std. Br. ; Hiram G. Sherman, Std. Br. ; George 

0. Woodcock, Warder ; Edward F. Houghton, 
3d G. ; John J. Dudley, 2d G. : Hira R. Beck- 
with, 1st G. ; Edward H. Jaques, A. and S. 
Number of members, ninety-three. 

ODD-FELLOWS. 

Sullivan Lodge, No. 12, I. O. O. F., insti- 
tuted October 23, 1845; resuscitated March 21, 
1872. On the 13th of October, 1845, C. Williams 
and five others, members of White Mountain 
Lodge, No. 5, of Concord, and residents of Clare- 
mont, petitioned S. H. Parker, M. W. G. W., 
praying for a dispensation to form a lodge in 
Claremont, and on the 23d of that month the 
Most Worthy Grand Master deputized the R. W^. 
Grand Secretary, G. H. H. Silsby, to open said 
lodge, by the name of Sullivan Lodge, No. 12, 

1. O. 0. F. Among the early members of the 
order in towu were W. O. C. Woodbury, Joseph 
Weber, Stephen Carleton, John Hendee, F. A. 
Henry, William Clark, Daniel J. Livingston, 
Lewis W. Randall, S. F. Redfield, John M. 
Gowdey, Philemon Tolles, Milon C. McClure and 
Nathaniel Tolles. The lodge continued in active 
and prosperous work for about twelve years, when, 
for various causes, the organization was abandoned. 

On March 21, 1872, the lodge was resuscitated 
by Amos Jones, the Most Worthy Grand Master 
at that time, and a new charter was granted to W. 
O. C. W^oodbury, John Hendee, Joseph Weber, 
Stephen Carleton, F. A. Henry, William Clark, 

D. J. Livingston and L. W. Randall; and the 
lodge has been in good and prosperous condition 
since then. In the summer of 1885 its hall was 
remodeled and refurnished, at an expense of about 



CLAREMONT. 



101 



twelve hundred dollars, aud it has $2427.55 cash 
ou hand. The officers, Jul}', 1885, were H. E 
Whipple, N. G. ; W. E. Griffin, V. G. ; George 

D. Wolcott, Sec. ; Frederick Jewett, Treas ; C. 
M. Leet, Conductor ; E. H. Woodman, Warden ; 

E. S. Carleton, I. G, ; M. B. Carjienter, O. G. ; 
C. E. Peabody, R. S. N. G. ; George H. Walling 
ford, L. S. N. G.; T. R. McQuade, R. S. V. G. ; 
S. I. L. Woodbury, L S. V. G. ; G. F. Spaulding, 
R. S. S. ; S. G. Straw, L. S. S. ; F. M. Par- 
melee, Chap. 

GRAXD ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC. 

Soon after the close of the War of the Rebellion 
Jarvis Post, Xo. 12, G. A. R., was organized in 
Claremont, but after a few years was disbanded. 
It was reorganized June 29, 1880, by W. H. D. 
Cochran and J. C. Linehan and comrades from 
Post No. 10, of Newport. It started the second 
time with twenty charter members. It had, in the 
summer of 1885, between seventy and eighty 
members ; owned the furniture of their hall ; 
had a good historical library, and a fund of about 
three hundred dollars. 

SCHOOLS. 

New school districts have been formed from time 
to time in town, as the population ha.s increased. 
There are now, or rather were before the union of 
Nos. 1, 15 and 17, in the village, by majority 
vote of each district, in 1884, nineteen districts, ' 
which supported twenty-hve schools ; the three 
districts now consolidated had graded schools, j 
viz. : a primary, intermediate and grammar 
school each. In many respects the educational 
advantages of the town of Claremont are ex- 
cellent. 

Stevens High School. — In the summer of 
186fi, Paran Stevens, Esq., of New York City, a 
son of Josiah Stevens, one of the early inhabitants 
of Claremont, whose ancestors and relatives spent 
their lives here, and whose graves are in our 
cemeteries, proposed to donate the sum of ten 
thousand dollars to aid in founding a High 
School, provided that the town would appropriate 
a like sum for that purpose. In the autumn of 
that year a town-meeting was called to consider 



and act upon the subject, and the citizens, with 
great unanimity, voted to accept the donation 
offered by Mr. Stevens, with the conditions named, 
and voted to raise and appropriate fifteen thou- 
sand dollars, which, with the ten thousand dol- 
lars from him, was to be used to purchase 
a lot and erect a school building. Samuel P. 
Fiske, George N. Farwell, Nathaniel Tolles, Au- 
relius Dickinson and Benjamin P. Gilmau were 
chosen a committee to carry out this object. The 
homestead lot of the late Hon. George B. Up- 
ham, corner of Broad aud Summer Streets, and 
running back to Middle Street, containing nearly 
two acres, on which was then no building except 
a small law-office, which had been for many years 
occupied by the late Mr. Upham — one of the 
most eligible and valuable lots in town — was 
selected for the school buildiug, and purchased of 
Col. John S. Walker, a son-in-law of Mr. Upham, 
for the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars. 
Materials were bought and other preparations 
made for the speedy erection of a brick High 
School building, forty-four by sixty-four feet on the 
ground, two stories high, with a French or Man- 
sard roof, which, as completed, is one of the most 
elegant, substantial and convenient edifices for the 
purpose for which it was built in the State. In 
it are four large school-rooms, large vestibules, 
basement for ftirnaces, fuel, etc., and an elegant 
hall in the upper story, the size of the whole 
building. The building is ample for the accom- 
modation of two hundred students. When com- 
pleted, the cost for site, grading, buildiug, furni- 
ture and iron fence was $27,225.27. It was 
finished, furnished, and ready for occujiancy the 
1st of September, 1868. It is a credit as well 
to the wisdom and skill of the committee as to 
the town and its generous patron. 

Mr. Stevens, not to be outdone by the town, 
paid for the bricks for the building, for a portion 
of the iron fence, and in other ways contributed 
full half of the cost of the High School building 
and the lot on which it stands. Soon after the 
completion of the building he gave to the town 
ten thousand doUai's towards a permanent fund 



102 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



for the suppoit of the school, and also presented 
full life-size oil portraits of George Washington 
and Daniel Webster, painted by the best artists 
in this country and considered very valuable, 
which now hang in the hall of the school building, 
and a Chickering full concert grand piano. At 
his death, which occurred on the 25th of April, 
1872, Mr. Stevens by his will bequeathed forty 
thousand dollars, to be paid within two years of 
the time of his death, to be added to the ten 
thousand dollars before given, for a fund, the 
interest of which is to be used for the support of 
the school. This forty thousand dollars has not 
yet been paid over to the town by the executors 
of the will, but it is said that it will be at no very 
distant day. Thus, it will be seen that Mr. Stevens' 
donations for the school which bears his name 
will amount to $65,000, .$50,000 of which must 
forever remain as a fund for its benefit. 

At the annual town-meeting in March, 1868, 
Edward L. Goddard, John S. Walker, Ira Colby, 
Jr., H. W. Parker and Hiram Webb — one 
from each religious society in town — were chosen 
the High School committee ; and it was voted 
to give to this new institution of learning the 
name of the Stevens High School. It was the ex- 
pressed wish of Mr. Stevens, and indeed of the 
people of the town generally most interested in its 
welfare and permanent success, that the school 
should be kept entirely free from anything like 
sectarianism, and that its exercises, instruction 
and management should be alike acceptable to all 
religious denominations. The committee accord- 
ingly made a regulation that " The morning 
sessions shall begin with reading the Bible, singing 
and repeating the Lord's Prayer in concert by the 
whole school." 

The first term of the Stevens High School com- 
menced on the 7th of September, 1868, with nine- 
ty-eight scholars who had reached the age of 
thirteen years, and had passed the re(juisite exam- 
ination, all but sixteen of whom belonged in town. 
There is a regulation that scholars from other 
towns may be admitted to this school by paying a 
moderate term fee. The teachers were Dr. N. 



Barrows, of Berwick, Me., principal, assisted by 
Miss Mary J. Wightman, of Claremont, and Miss 
H W. Preeley, of Springfield, Vt, and Mr. A. 
P. Wyman, as teacher of vocal music. At the 
close of the first term Miss Freeley resigned, and 
Miss Ruth P. Perkins, of Pomfret, Vt., filled her 
place, and she was succeeded in the third term by 
Miss A. H. Carleton, of Haverhill, N. H. At 
the close of the school year, in June, 1869, there 
was an examination by a committee consisting of 
the Rev. I. G. Hubbard, D.D., Hon. W. H. H. 
Allen, Rev. Francis W. Towle, Rev. Francis Chase 
and James P. Upham, Esq., which was creditable 
to teachers and scholars. 

Dr. N. Barrows continued as principal, with 
several different assistants, three years, and was 
succeeded by Mr. A. J. Swain. The course 
prescribed in this school is four years, at the end 
of which scholars who graduate and receive 
diplomas are fitted to enter almost any college. 
At the close of the fourth school year the examin- 
ing committee reported the school to have been 
eminently successful. The faithfliluess of the 
teachers and the deportment and diligence of 
the scholars were mentioned in highly complimen- 
tary terms. Seven scholars — one boy and six 
girls — had not been absent or tardy during the 
year. 

A. J. Swain resigned October 4, 1880, his res- 
ignation to take effect the middle of the fall 
term. His resignation was accepted, and R. S. 
Bingham was elected principal, and occupied the 
position to the end of that school year. In Sep- 
tember, 1881, L. S. Hastings took charge of the 
school as principal and has continued in that 
capacity since. The whole number of scholars 
who have graduated and been awarded diplomas, 
is one hundred and fifty-six, viz : 



BOYS. 



GIRLS. 



TOTAL. 



1871 2 boys 10 girls 12 



2 boys., 

....2 boys., 
....3 boys., 
....1 boy.. 
1876 8 boys.. 



1872.. 
1873., 
1874., 
1875., 



girls. 

6 girls. 

7 girls., 
9 girls. 

8 girls. 



10 
10 
16 



CLAREMONT. 



103 



YEAR. BOYS. GIRLS. TOTAL. 

1877 5 boys 7 girls 12 

1878 5 boys 5 girls 10 

1879 2 bovs 4 girls (i 



1880.. 
1881.. 
1882., 
1883.. 
1884., 



.5 boys. 
.4 boys., 
.4 boys. 
.1 boy.. 
..5 boys.. 



6 jrirls 11 



... girls. 

... ;• girls. 

,... G girls. 

... girls., 

1885 10 boys 5 girls.. 



10 

13 

7 

14 



Mrs. Mar)- B. Alden, ol' C'liireraont, who died 
on the 11th of November, 18(i9, by her will be 
(jueathed her entire estate, iiniounting to about 
three thousand dollars, which, at the death of her 
husband, which occurred in 1874, was to make a 
fund, the interest of which is paid annually in 
three prizes to graduates of the Stevens High 
School. In 1872, Samuel P. Fiske, Esq., a brother- 
in-law of Paran Stevens, donated three hundred 
dollars, which, together with one hundred and fifty 
dollars appropriated by the Umn, was expended 
for the purchase of needed apparatus and books 
for the school. Others have made valuable dona- 
tions to the library and cabinet belonging to the 
school. 

Mrs. Harriet E. Tappan, of Claremont, who 
died October 3, 1873, left a will, in which was 
this clause : 

" To the Town of Claremont, iu said County of Sul- 
livan, to be Kept Safely invested by said town, and 
the income thereof paid over annually to the Pruden- 
tial Committees of the several school districts in said 
town in proportion to the number of scholars, to be 
expended by said Committees in their discretion for 
prizes for best scholarship and to enable indigent 
scholars to attend the Higli School in said town." 

The amount thus bequeathed and jaaid over to 
the town by the executor of Mrs. Tappan's estate 
was thirty thousand dollars. This amount has 
been kept at interest, and the income exjiended 
according to the terms of the will. Prudential 
committees have generally given prizes in money 
to scholars iu their several districts, for excellence 
of scholarship, deportment and constancy and 
punctuality of attendance upon school, so that 



an}' child, however backward or dull as a scholar, 
may get a share of this prize money. 

Union School Dlstrict. — As has been before 
stated, the three districts in Claremont village, by 
their own' act, were consolidated and made one 
district in 1884, and called " Union School Dis- 
trict." It is under the management of a Board of 
Education, composed of six gentlemen, chosen by 
the district. In 1884, O. B. AVay, L. S. Has- 
tings, H. C. Fay, I. I>. Hall, E. Vaughau and 
C. H. Weed were elected. The scholars are, un- 
der the present arrangement, which may be 
changed any time by the Board of Education, in 
five primary, three intermediate and one grammar 
school. The money apportioned to these three 
districts in 1884 was three thousand three hun- 
dred and seventy dollars and eighty cents, and of 
the Tappan fund for prizes one thousand two 
hundred and ninety-two dollars and sixty-seven 
cents. 

FisKE Fr.EE LiBR.iRv. — In 1873, Samuel P. 
Fiske, a native citizen of Claremont, founded a 
free library in the following manner: 

" Deed of Samuel P. Flske to the Town of 
Claremont. 

"Know all men hy these presents, That I, Samuel P. 
Piske, of Claremont iu the County of Sullivan and 
State of New Hampshire, do hereby give, grant and 
convey unto the town of Claremont, in said county, 
in trust forever. Two Thousand volumes of Books, 
named and described in a Catalogue or Schedule, 
hereafter to be made, to constitute, with such other 
books as may hereafter be added by the donor, a lib- 
rary for the benefit of all the inhabitants of said town, 
and the members of Stevens High School in said 
Claremont, and to be known as Fiske Free Library. 

"This gift is made on condition that the said town of 
Claremont shall accept the same ; shall furnish a suit- 
able building, room or rooms in which to keep the 
same, and the same shall be kept in the upper hall or 
room of Stevens High School, until a more suitable 
place shall be provided therefor; shall at all times 
keep the same well insured against lo.ss from fire ; 
shall keep said books in a good state of repair, and 
shall replace with books of equivalent value any that 
may be worn out, lost or otherwise destroyed. And 



104 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the Committee of Stevens Higli School shall have the 
custody, control aud management of said Library; 
purchase, arrange aud catalogue the books, appoint 
a Librarian and make all needful rules and regula- 
tions for the management of said Library and the use 
of the books, all at the expense of the Town of Clare- 
mont ; and the said Town shall in like manner keep 
and care for and replace losses in all additions to or en- 
largements of said Library by said donor. 

" In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand 
and seal this seventh day of August A. P. 1873. 

" Samuel P. Fiske [L.S.] 

(Witness) " Ira Colby, Jr. 

" W. H. H. Allen." 

The above deed was read at a town-meeting, 
held August 15, 1873, wheu the following resolu- 
tion was passed : 

" Raolred by the town of Claremont that we cor- 
dially accept the munificent gift of Two Thousand vol- 
umes of valuable books from Samuel P. Fiske, Esq., 
upon the conditions and terms of his deed of trust to 
said town of Claremont, dated August 7, 1873, hereby 
pledging to the donor that such conditions shall be 
faithfully complied with, on the part of the town, for 
the use and perpetuation of the Fiske Free Library." 

The following resolution was offered by Pren- 
tis Dow, and passed : 

" Resolved, That the Selectmen, of the town of 
Claremont are directed to pay the bills of Stevens 
High School committee for the insurance of the books 
donated by S. P. Fiske, Esq., and for any expense in- 
curred in providing a suitable location for the same, 
not exceeding in all the sum of one hundred dollars 
per annum." 

The location of the library in the upjier story 
of the Stevens High School building, away from 
the centre of business, was found to be inconve- 
nient for readers, and, as a consequence, was un- 
satisfactory to Mr. Fiske. Early in January, 
1877, Mr. Fiske invited gentlemen supposed to be 
most interested in the library to meet him for con- 
sultation as to the best means for making it more 
accessible to readers, and accomplish more fully 
tlie donor's wishes. 

A committee, consisting of John S. Walker, 
Otis F. R. Waite and Charles A. Piddock, was 



appointed to recommend a plan at a subsequent 
meeting, who made a report, recommending the pur- 
chase of the Bailey building, at the junction of Main 
and Sullivan Streets,for four thousand five hundred 
dollars, and that the second story be fitted up for 
the library at an expense not exceeding one thou- 
sand dollars ; the money for the purpose to be 
borrowed from the Tappan School fund at six per 
cent, interest. The committee stated that the 
building was then rented for four hundred and 
ninety dollars ; that, after taking what would be 
required for the library, the remaining part of the 
building would rent for more than enough to pay 
the interest on the debt incurred After some dis- 
euission the meeting voted to recommend to the 
town, at its next annual meeting, to purchase the 
Bailey building for four thousand five hundred 
dollars, aud fit it up and alter and repair it at an 
expense not exceeding two thousand five hundred 
dollars. 

At the annual town-meeting, in March, 1877, it 
was 

" Voted, that a board of five Trustees be chosen by 
the Town, and be authorized to purchase in behalf of 
the Town the Bailey Building, so called ; to fit up 
such portion of the second story as may be necessary 
for the accommodation of the Fiske Free Library. 
Such purchase not to exceed Forty-five Hundred 
Dollars, and such alterations not to exceed the sum of 
twenty-five Hundred Dollars. And that the said 
Trustees be authorized to draw from the Tappan 
Fund for the requisite sum to carry out this order, 
and pay therefor from the rents of said building 
interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum. And 
that said Board of Trustees, and their successors 
hereafter, have the custody of the Fiske Free Library, 
instead of the High School Committee. Or that said 
Board be further authorized, if in their judgment 
they think proper, to purchase and fit up some other 
building, not to exceed the sum heretofore named for 
said purpose." 

At the same meeting Daniel W. Johnson, Otis 
F. R. Waite, Alfred T. Bachelder, Ormon B. 
Way and Algernon Willis were elected and 
qualified as trustees of the Fiske Free Library. 

The trustees at once took a deed in the name 



CLAREMONT. 



105 



of the tiiwn of the Bailey building, paying there- 
for four thousand five hundred dollars. Before 
anything had been done by them toward altering 
and fitting up the building for the Library, a 
special town-meeting was held on the 28th of 
April, 1877, at which the following resolution was 
passed : 

" Resolved, That the Town Treasurer and Select- 
men be authorized and instructed to give the note or 
notes of the Town, at six per cent, interest, to the 
Trustees of the Tappan Fund, for the sum appro- 
priated at the last annual Town-Meeting for the 
purposes relating to the Fiske Free Library, not ex- 
ceeding in all the sum of Five Thousand Dollars." 

The tru.stees did not call for the five hundred 
dollars authorized to be expended for alterations, 
etc., and made no essential changes in the build- 
ing, and the Library remained in the High School 
building. At the annual town-meeting in March, 
1878, the trustees reported : 

Received and will be due for rents of 

Library building, .A.pril 1st, 1878, S-420.00 

Interest on $4500, one year, . . $270.00 
Paid water rent and repairs, . . 12.74 282.74 



Leaving a balance over interest, water 
rent and repairs of, . 



$137.26 



At this meeting the town, on the recommenda- 
tion of the trustees, re-enacted its vote of 1877, 
and appropriated two thousand five hundred 
dollars to alter and repair the Library building. 
The trustees procured plans and specifications, 
and let the contract to do the work to IMessrs. 
H. R. Beckwith and Levi R. Chase, of Clare- 
mont. The work was very satisfactorily done by 
them for a little more than two thousand three 
hundred dollars. The balance of the two thou- 
sand five hundred dollars was expended in furnish- 
ing the Library rooms 

Early in September, 1878, the books were 
moved from the High School building to the new 
rooms, about six hundred new books added, re- 
arranged and catalogued. At a meeting of the 
trustees on the 16th, Miss Abbie Field was chosen 
librarian, and has served faithfully in that 



capacity ever since. Messrs. Batchelder and 
Willis removed from town, and their places were 
filled by Mes.srs H. W. Parker and Ira Corby. 
Mr. Fiske made a will, giving to the town of 

Clareniont nine thousand dollars — five thousand 

» 

dollars to be expended in books as they should 
be needed, and as he pleiised, should he live to 
expend that sum ; the balance, if any, at his 
death, to go into the hands of the trustees, to be 
expended by them for the same purpose, and the 
other four thousand dollars to be a fund to be 
invested by the trustees, the interest of which 
was to be used for the purchase of books. His 
wife, Miranda S. Fiske, in her will added one 
thousand dollars to this fund, making it five 
thousand dollars. Mr. Fiske died February 8, 
1879, and Mrs. Fiske deceased May 27, 1882. 
At the death of Mr. Fiske there was found by 
a detailed account left by him, to be unexpended 
for books $1194.68. 

Books have been added to the Library from 
time to time by Mr. Fiske and by the trustees, 
so that the whole number of volumes is about 
four thousand volumes, many of them expensive 
books for reference. The advantages of such an 
institution as this can be realized only by those 
fortunate enough to enjoy them. 

War OF 1812. — Soon after the declaration of 
war, in 1812, President Madison ordered the Sec- 
retary of War to request Governor Plumer, of 
New Hampshire, to order into the service of the 
United States, upon requisition of General Dear- 
born, such part of the quota of the militia of this 
State as he should deem necessary for the defense 
of the sea-coast of New Hampshire. During 
this war many Claremout men served for different 
periods, most of them in defenses of Portsmouth, 
and as minute-men, stationed at Concord and 
other places. 

The rolls of the officers and soldiers during 
this War of 1812-15 are very imperfect and in 
such a confused state that they are not to be 
relied upon, and town records are equally un- 
reliable ; therefore, it would be vain for any one, 
however diligent in research, or careful in giving 



106 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



results, to undertake to vouch for the complete- 
ness or accuracy of any record which he might 
make of any town's participation in the scenes 
of that war. 

By the New Hampshire Adjutant-General's 
report, it therefore a])pears that Captain Joseph 
Kimball, of Plaiufield, commande I a company, in 
which were the following-named men put down 
as of Claremont. They were all volunteers, and 
enlisted on the 12th of September, 1814, for three 
months : 

David Dean, ensign; James Osgood, sergeant; 
Isaac F. Hunton, Samuel Stone, John McDaniels, 
Charles C. Stewart, Benedict Taylor, Shaler Buel, 
Andrew Bartlet, Henry G. Lane, Benj. Perkins, 
privates; Abijah Dean, waiter. 

Captain Reuben Marsh, of Chesterfield, com- 
manded a company, in which were the following 
men from Claremont, who enlisted September 
26, 1814, for sixty days: Charles A. Saxton, 
Asa Baker, James McLaffin, James Fisher, and 
Samuel Petty. 

George W. Fargo, of Claremont, enlisted in 
Captain Samuel Aiken, Jr.'s company, for sixty 
days, September 26, 1814, and was a waiter. 
Captain Aiken was of Chester. Where these 
companies served is not stated. 

WAR OF THE REBELLION. 

The War of the Rebellion in the United States 
of America opened with an assault upon Fort 
Sumter on the 12th of April, 1861, and closed 
with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, then 
serving his second term as President of the United 
States, on the 14th of April, 1865. It is not 
necessaiy now to recount the causes, running 
through many years, which led to the insurrec- 
tion of the people of a portion of the States of the 
Union against the general government, and ar- 
rayed more than a million citizens in arms, invol- 
ving the expenditure of immense treasure and the 
loss of the lives of hundreds of thousands of the 
country's bravest and best men on either side, car- 
rying sorrow and mourning to many hearth-stones 
and multitudes of loving hearts. The causes have 



passed away ; the eifects remain to be recorded on 
the page of history. 

While all these momentous events were trans- 
piring, the people of Claremont had their share in 
them. Their coffers were opened ; their young 
men were sent forth with a blessing — some of them 
never to return, others to come home maimed or 
broken in health for life, and a few to return at 
the end of the great struggle, weary and worn, 
crowned with victorious wreaths. With great 
unanimity the men raised their voices in behalf of 
the cause of their country, and the women gave it 
their unbidden tears. 

On the 12th of April, 1861, South Carolina, 
having a few mouths previously, by her Legis- 
lature, passed an act seceding from the Union of 
States, commenced open hostilities by firing from 
James' Island upon Fort Sumter, garrisoned bj' 
Major Robert Anderson and about seventy men 
under his command. Fort Sumter was besieged 
for two days, her sources of supply cut oif, 
when, on the 14th of April Major Anderson sur- 
rendered the fort to the rebels, himself and his 
command marching out and embarking on board 
the United States ship " Baltic " for New York. 

On the 15th of April President Lincoln issued a 
proclamation, stating that an insurrection against 
the government of the United States had broken 
out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- 
bama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, 
and declared the ports of those States in a state of 
blockade. On the same day the President issued 
a call for seventy-five thousand three months vol- 
unteers, to aid in suppressing the rebellion against 
the government, and called upon New Hampshire 
for a regiment of militia. 

In response to this call of the President, on 
April 17th, Ichabod Goodwin, then Governor of 
New Hampshire, issued an order to Joseph C. 
Abbott, adjutant-general, to make proclamation, 
calling for volunteers from the enrolled militia of 
the State for one regiment of ten companies, each 
company to consist of three commissioned officers, 
four sergeants, four corporals and sixty-four pri- 
vates, with the requisite number of field and staft' 



CLAREMONT. 



107 



officers, to be uniformed, armed and equipped at 
the expeuse of the State, and to be held in readi- 
ness until called for by the United States govern- 
ment. 

Claremont was all on fire to do her share toward 
putting down the Rebellion. On the 18th of April 
William P. Austin enrolled his name as a soldier, 
took the oaths prescribed, and was on that day ap- 
pointed recruiting officer for the town of Clare- 
mont and vicinity. He at once opened an office 
for recruits, and entered upon his duties. Young 
men flocked in faster than they could be examined 
and sworn. 

Notice was issued for a meeting of citizens at the 
town hall on Friday evening, the 19th. At the 
hour appointed the building was filled to overflow- 
ing, ladies occupying the galleries. It was such a 
meeting of the citizens of Claremont, without dis- 
tinction of party or sex, as had seldom been held. 
The meeting was called to order by the venerable 
General Erastus Glidden, and Hon. Jonas Living- 
ston was chosen president ; Ambrose Cossit, Eras- 
tus Glidden, Walter Tufts, Thomas J. Harris, A. 
F. Snow, Josiah Richards and Albro Blodgett, 
vice-presidents ; Edward L. Goddard and John 
M. Whipple, secretaries. On taking the chair 
Mr. Livingston made an enthusiastic and patriotic 
speech. Patriotic speeches were also made by H. 
W. Parker, Ira Colby, Jr., A. F. Snow, Benjamin 
P. Walker and Samuel G. Jarvis, who deposited 
one hundred dollars as the nucleus of a fund for 
the support of the families of those who should en- 
list. Rev. Messrs. R. F. Lawrence and R. S. 
Stubbs, William P. Austin and Henry G. Web- 
ber, of Charlestown, made stirring speeches. A. 
F. Snow, Otis F. R. Waite, John S. Walker, 
Joseph Weber, Simeon Ide and George W. Blod- 
gett were chosen a committee to prepare and re- 
port resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the 
town in regard to the Rebellion. The meeting was 
adjourned to the next evening. 

On Saturday evening the town hall was again 
crowded, and the excitement was on the increase. 
The meeting was opened with prayer by the Right 
Rev. Carlton Chase, D.D., Bishop of New Hamp- 



shire. The young men just enlisted by William 
P. Austin were marched into the hall, where 
front seats had been reserved for them, and met 
with an enthusiastic reception. As they entered, 
the audience rose to their feet and gave three 
hearty cheers. The president, Mr. Livingston, 
led the speaking, and was followed by Otis F. R. 
Waite, from the committee on resolutions, who 
reported the following, which were unanimously 
adopted : 

" Resolved, That all other considerations aud issues 
are now absorbed in the one vital question, ' Shall 
our Government be sustained?' — a question of national 
life and independence, or of ignominious submission 
to the reign of barbarism and anarchy, or of unmiti- 
gated despotism. 

" Resolved, That the issues forced upon us by the 
South, and the only one presented, is the existence of 
any Government, — and more directly of that Govern- 
ment under which the American people have lived 
and prospered for a period of eighty years. 

"Resolved, That for the maintenance and perpetuity 
of the priceless boon of civil and religious liberty, 
bequeathed by our forefathers in the Constitutiou of 
ibis Union and the free institutions it guarantees, we 
would imitate their example in Unitedly and unre- 
servedly tendering to the Government, if need be, 'our 
lives, our firtunes and our sacred honors.' 

" Resolved, That in this first call to defend the Con- 
stitution and the laws at the point of the bayonet, we 
view with patriotic pride the ready response of the 
noble sons of New Hampshire and of New England, 
and the Middle and Western States. 

"Resolved, That while our neighbors .are called to 
defend our flag abroad, we will fill their baskets 
and their stores, and protect their hearth-stones at 
home." 

Spirited and patriotic addresses were made by 
Charles H. Eastman, Thomas J Harris, Arthur 
Chase, Simeon Ide, Thomas Kirk, Otis F. R. 
Waite, Rev. Carlos Marston, Herman H Cum- 
mings, Oscar J. Brown and Edward D. Baker, 
when, after three rousing cheers for the " Stars 
and Stripes," and three more for the brave young 
recruits who were present, on motion of Ambrose 
Cossit, a committee, consisting of Ambrose Cossit, 



108 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Simeon Ide and Thomas J. Harris, was appointed 
to petition the selectmen to call a town-meeting 
for the purpose of making an appropriation of two 
thousand dollars, or more, " for the support of the 
families of those of our fellow-citizens who have or 
who may enlist in defense of the countr}'." The 
meeting then adjourned to the following Tuesday 
evening. 

On Tuesday evening, the 23d of April, the 
people again assembled at the town hall, which 
was densely crowded, and many were unable to 
gain admittance. This seemed to be the culmina- 
ting point of the excitement. General Erastus 
Glidden, in the absence of the president, occupied 
the chair. Patriotic songs were sung and fervent 
speeches made by John S. Walker, Chase Noyes, 
George W. Blodgett, William P. Austin, Henry 
Fitch and Rev. R. F. Lawrence. Frank S. 
Fiske, of Keene, special aid to the adjutant- 
general in the recruiting service, was present, and, 
being called upon, made an eloquent and stirring 
speech. Mr. Austin was present with fifty 
recruits. 

Immediately after the call of the President for 
troops, the ladies of the town bought large 
quantities of flannel and yarn, and went to work 
vigorously, making shirts and drawers and knit- 
ting socks for the soldiers. Forty or more met 
daily for this purpose at Fraternity Hall. 

George N. Farwell and Edward L. Goddard 
authorized William Clark, chairman of the Board 
of Selectmen, to furnish the families of volunteers 
with such provisions as they might need, in his 
discretion, and they would hold themselves per- 
sonally responsible for the same. Under these 
instructions families were helped to the amount of 
$222.27, which was afterward assumed by the 
town. 

On the 20th Otis F. R. Waite, of Claremont, 
was appointed by Governor Goodwin general re- 
cruiting agent for the western part of the State, to 
act under orders from the military headquarters 
of the State. On the 29th he received the follow- 
ing telegram from the adjutant-general : " Close 
up the stations and come on with the recruits to- 



morrow, as proposed. Telegraph me that you will 
do so. Cars will be for you at Nashua." The 
recruits from other stations having been sent for- 
ward. Major Waite started from Claremont, on 
the morning of the 30th, with eighty-five men 
enlisted by William P. Austin. They left the 
village at six o'clock, and marched to the Sullivan 
Railroad station, followed by large numbers of 
relatives and friends of the recruits and other 
citizens. At seven o'clock, after a most touching 
leave-taking, which will not soon be forgotten by 
those who participated in or witnessed it. the 
company went on board the cars, which moved off 
amid the cheers of the three or four hundred 
people who had assembled to see their friends and 
fellow-citizens depart for the war. They went by 
way of Bellows Falls, Keene, Fitchburg, Groton 
[now Ayer] Junction, Nashua and Manchester, 
arriving at Concord about three o'clock in the 
afternoon. At every considerable railway station 
multitudes of people were assembled, who gave the 
men their blessing and cheered them on their way. 
Before leaving Claremont our citizens had pro- 
vided the recruits with a full day's rations of cold 
meats, bread, pickles, etc. 

It was understood tiiat the men enlisted at 
Claremont would go in a company by themselves, 
and would have the privilege of choosing their 
own officers from their own number. Accordingly, 
when the company was full, they elected William 
P. Austin, captain ; John W. Lawrence, first 
lieutenant ; John Dean, second lieutenant ; Ziba 
L. Davies, third lieutenant ; Homer M. Crafts, 
Baron S. Noyes, George H. Weber, Selden S. 
Chandler, sergeants; Edward E. Story, Charles 
H. Parmalee, Chester F. Tebbits and Joseph 
Richardson, corporals. The privates of this com; 
pany from Claremont were 



Oscar C. Allen. 
Lyman F. Parrish. 
Alfred Talham. 
Everett W. Nelson. 
Edwin M. Gowdey. 
Ralph N. Brown. 
Joseph Levoy. 



Charles H. Sprague. 
George P. Tenney. 
Henry W. Patrick. 
Joseph Peno. 
William H. Nichols. 
Ebenezer E. Cummings. 
Andrew J. Straw. 



CLAREMONT. 



109 



Charles W. Wetherbee. 
John W. Davis. 
John F. Wheeler. 
John Straw. 
Wyman R. Clement. 
George W. Straw. 
Alba D. Abbott. 
Charles M. Judd. 
Heman Allen. 
Henry S. Morse. 
Albert P. Russell. 
Charles E. Putnam. 
Charles F. Colston. 
Edward Hall. 
Jerome B. Douglass. 
James Dumase. 



William E. Parrish. 
Henry F. Roys. 
William H. Pendleton. 
Julius E. Haywood. 
Alanson F. Wolcott. 
William H. Blanchard. 
Anson M. Sperry. 
Warren W. Howard. 
Dennis Taylor. 
Lewis W. Ladneer. 
Albert E. Parmalee. 
Matthew T. Towne. 
J. Parker Read. 
Napoleon B. Osgood. 
Sylvester E. H. Wakefield. 



The other members of this company were from 
Acworth, Charlestown, Cornish and Unity. 

A finer company of men than those enlisted by 
Captain Austin did not enter the army as volun- 
teers. They enlisted from a sense of duty, the 
pay of privates being then but eleven dollars per 
month, and there was no offer of bounty from the 
town, State or United States. 

Before leaving town, citizens presented the dif- 
ferent recruits with dirk knives, revolvers, etc. 
At a large meeting at the town hall, on the eve- 
ning of the 29th, Lieutenant John ^Y. Lawrence 
was presented with a sword by Sherman Living- 
ston. The presentation speech was made by H. 
W. Parker, and responded to in behalf of Lieu- 
tenant Lawrence by Ira Colby, Jr. George G. 
Ide, in behalf of the Qaremont Manufacturing 
Company, presented each member of the company 
with a handsomely bound pocket Testament. 
The ladies gave to each two pairs of flannel 
drawere, two flannel shirts, woolen socks, towels, 
pocket handkerchiefs and needle-book well filled 
with useful articles. 

On arrival at Concord the company was sent to 
Camp Union ; but, being more than men enough 
already there for one regiment, they were sent to 
Camp Constitution, Portsmouth, where the Second 
Eegiment was being organized. Under the call 
of the President for one regiment from New 
Hampshire, in ten days men enough had been i 



enlisted and sent to rendezvous at Concord and 
Portsmouth for more than two. 

On the 3d of May the President issued a call 
for twenty thousand volunteers for three years, 
and New Hampshire was immediately ordered to 
take no more volunteers for three months, but to 
enlist, uniform, arm and hold, subject to orders 
from the War Department, a regiment of three 
years' men. In consequence of this order the 
alternative was presented to the recruits then at 
Camp Con.stitution to re-enlist for three years, or 
be discharged. Before this alternative was of- 
fered, however, the recruits were all re-examined 
by a surgeon, and those found physically disqual- 
ified for service were discharged. Among these 
were Edwin M. Gowdey, Charles F. Colston and 
Joseph F. Garfield, from Claremont. 

During the organization of the Second Regi- 
ment a misunderstanding arose between Captain 
Austin and one or two of the other ofiicers and 
some of the men, and the company was broken up. 
None of the officers chosen before the company 
left Claremont were commi.ssioned. Captain Aus- 
tin and Lieutenant Lawrence returned home, and 
Lieutenants Dean and Davis re-enlisted for three 
years as privates. Forty-three of the men also 
re-enlisted for three years, and were put into dif- 
ferent comjjanies, while the remainder were either 
discharged or sent to Fort Constitution, Ports- 
mouth Harbor, to serve out the term of their en- 
listment. 

On the 8th of May, agreeably to warrant, a 
town-meeting was held, at which a vote was unan- 
imously passed to appropriate a sum not to exceed 
twenty-five hundred dollars, to be paid to soldiers' 
families wherever and whenever it may be needed, 
and Albro Blodgett was chosen, with discretion- 
ary power, to carry out the vote. Up to March, 
1862, he paid out for this purpose two thousand 
seven hundred and ninety-seven dollars and twen- 
ty three cents. 

In most of the churches in town sermons were 
preached against the Rebellion, and prayers offered 
for the success of our arms in putting it down. 
There was an almost unanimous expression oi 



110 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



condemnation of the South, and political party 
lines seemed for a time to be almost obliterated. 
Every man of influence encouraged enlistments, 
and favored all reasonable projects for rendering 
aid to the families of such as had gone or might 
go to the war. Among the most zealous in the 
work of raising recruits and aiding families were 
many who, as Democrats, opposed the election of 
Abraham Lincoln for President. 

The ladies kept at work making articles needed 
by soldiers in hospitals and in the field ; frequent 
meetings were held during the summer, and a 
most patriotic spirit was manifested among the 
people. 

In July a company, called the Home Guard, 
was organized, consisting of over a hundred men, 
many of them past middle age, and among the 
most prominent citizens of the town, all desirous 
to do something for the cause of the country. 
The company chose the following officers : Arthur 
Chase, captain ; Edwin Vaughan, first lieutenant ; 
John M. Whipple, second lieutenant ; Ira Colby, 
Jr., Francis F. Haskell, Henry S. Parmalee, 
William D. Rice, sergeants ; Joseph Weber, John 
S. M. Ide, D. C. Colby and John Geer, corporals. 
The company had frequent meetings for drill, and 
made quite an imposing appearance. 

In June, 1861, the Legislature passed an act 
authorizing towns to raise money by vote to aid 
families of volunteers. 

About the 20th of July Governor Berry issued 
an order for enlisting, arming and equipping the 
Third Infantry Regiment for three years, or 
during the war, and Dr. E. C. Marsh was ap- 
pointed recruiting officer for Claremont and vicin- 
ity. He soon enlisted thirty-two men, twenty-two 
of whom belonged in Claremont. These men left 
Claremont for the rendezvous at Concord on the 
19th of Augu.st. These recruits attended the 
Methodist Church on Sunday afternoon, the 18th, 
and the Rev. R. S. Stubbs preached a sermon 
from the text, — " Stand fast in the faith ; quit you 
like men ; be strong." On other occasions Mr. 
Stubbs had, through his sermons, shown forth his 
unconditional loyalty and his entire devotion to 



the country ; but, on this occasion, when address- 
ing men who were about to take their lives in 
their hands and go forth to do battle for the coun- 
try, he was particularly eloquent and impres- 
sive. 

On the 20th of August the Governor issued an 
order to raise the Fourth and Fifth Regiments. 
Dr. E. C. Marsh was ordered to recruit for the 
Fourth, and Charles H. Long was authorized to 
raise a company for the Fifth Regiment, the men, 
when enlisted, to choose their own company offi- 
cers. All the men accepted and mustered into the 
service under this call were to receive from the 
State a bounty of ten dollars. The men enlisted 
by Mr. Long, making nearly a full company before 
leaving Claremont, made choice of the following 
officers : Charles H. Long, captain ; Jacob W. 
Keller, first lieutenant ; Charles O. Ballou, second 
lieutenant, who were subsequently commissioned 
by the Governor. 

The last of September Edwin Vaughan was ap- 
pointed recruiting officer, and enlisted several men, 
who were put into diSerent regiments then being 
organized. 

On the 17th of February, 1862, news was re- 
ceived by telegraph of the capture of Fort Donel- 
son. The bells of the village were rung and the 
joy of the people was manifested in other ways. 

At the annual town-meeting in March, 1862, it 
was voted that the selectmen be authorized to bor- 
row a sum of money on the credit of the town, not 
to exceed five thousand dollars, as it may be 
needed, to aid the families of resident volunteers. 

Edward L. Goddard, Aurelius Dickinson and 
Alexander Gardiner were appointed a committee 
to designate what families were entitled to aid, and 
Sumner Putnam was chosen agent to pay out 
the money without compensation. 

On Sunday afternoon, June 22, 1862, a public 
meeting was held in the town hall as a demonstra- 
tion of respect for the brave Claremont men who 
had been killed at Fair Oaks and in other battles, 
or died in hospitals, and of condolence with their 
surviving relatives and friends. A committee of 
arrangements had been chosen, and other prepara- 



CLAREMOXT. 



Ill 



tions made, at a previous meeting of citizens of 
the town. Otis F. R. Waite, chairman of the 
committee, called the meeting to order, briefly 
stated its objects and presided throughout. Rt. 
Rev. Carleton Chase, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese 
of New Hampshire, read selections from the Scrip- 
tures ; Rev. Carlos Marston made the oj)euing 
prayer ; Rev. H. H. Hartwell delivered an address 
which had been carefully prepared, giving some 
account of each of those soldiers who had been 
killed in battle or died in hospitals, together with 
circumstances connected with the death of each. 
Short addresses were made by Rev. Oliver Aver, 
Rev. R. F. Lawrence and Rev. Mr. Marston, of 
Clareraont, Rev. Mr. Piper, of Vermont, Rev. Mr. 
Greeley, a native of Claremont, then settled at 
Methuen, Mass., Rev. Paul S. Adams, of Newport, 
and others. 

On motion of Bishop Chase, Otis F. R. Waite was 
chosen historiographer to keep a record of events 
in Claremont, which had or should transpire dur- 
ing the war, having connection with it, with a 
view to its being published in book form after the 
war had closed. . During the meeting several ap- 
propriate pieces were sung by members of the dif- 
ferent church choirs in town. The relatives and 
friends of deceased soldiers were assigned front 
seats, and this was made a kind of funeral occa- 
sion. The town hall was packed, and, being on 
Sunday, and clergymen of the several churches 
taking leading parts, made this one of the largest 
and most impressive meetings held in town during 
the war. 

Early in July E. W. Woodell was appointed a 
recruiting officer to enlist volunteers for regiments 
then being formed. On the 14th, in the evening, 
a meeting was held for the purpose of encouraging 
enlistments. Walter Tufts was chosen chairman 
and Joseph Weber secretary. Spirited speeches 
were made by D. C. Colby, Rev. Messrs. Lawrence 
and Marston, E. W. Woodell, George R. Lathe 
and others. 

Pursuant to a call by the selectmen, a 
meeting was held on the evening of the 
19th of July. Jonas Livingston was chosen 



chairman and C. C. Church secretary. E. W. 
Woode'l offered a series of resolutions reaffirm- 
ing confidence in the people, the Executive 
of the nation and in the army, and calling upon 
the people to aid in all practicable ways in raising 
men to fill the regiments in the field, and form 
new ones as they may be needed to meet the exi- 
gencies of the country. Patriotic speeches were 
made by Rev. Messrs. Marston and Lawrence, E. 
D. Baker, C. C. Church, E. W. Woodell and 
others. 

On the 25th of the same month another meeting, 
with the same object in view, was held. C. H. 
Eastman presided. It was voted to hold a general 
county war meeting at the town hall in Clare- 
mont, on the afternoon of the 2d of August 
following, and a committee was appointed to make 
the necessary arrangements. 

On the 2d of August the town hall was crowded 
to its utmost capacity, and the village was full 
of citizens of the county. Henry Hubbard of 
Charlestown, son of the late Governor Henry 
Hubbard, presided, who, on taking the chair, made 
some patriotic and well-timed remarks in relation 
to the state of the country and the duty of loyal 
men. Nathaniel S. Berry, Governor of the State, 
James W. Patterson, member of Congress, James 
W. Nesmith, United States Senator from Oregon, 
A. H Cragin, United States Senator for New 
Hampshire, Peter Sanborn, State Treasurer, Cap- 
tain T. A. Barker, of the Second New Hampshire 
Regiment, Major H. B. Titus, of the Ninth New 
Hampshire Regiment, and other distinguished 
gentlemen from abroad, were present and made 
speeches. The hall was handsomely decorated 
with flags and other emblems appropriate for the 
occasion. This was one of the largest and most 
enthusiastic meetings ever held in town. 

At a legal town-meeting on the 7th of August, 
the following votes were unanimously passed : 

" Voted, That the Selectmen be authoiized to bor- 
row a sum of money, not exceeding five thousand dol- 
lars, to pay a bounty to citizen volunteers — the sum 
of fifty dollars to each — to fill the quota of three hun- 
dred thousand, when mustered into the United States 
service. 



112 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Fo^erf, That the Selectmen be authorized to borrow 
asum of money, not to exceed three thousand dollars, 
to pay a bounty of fifty dollars to each citizen volunteer 
who has or may enlist and be mustered into the 
United States service, to fill the last quota of three 
hundred thousand." 

During the month preceding August 12, 
1862, recruiting had been opened in town by 
Orville Smith, of Leinpster, Sylvanus Clogston, of 
Washington, and E. W^ Woodell, of Claremont. 
Up to that date tliey had enlisted — Mr. Smith, 
thirty-five men ; Mr. Clogston, twenty-six men ; 
and Mr. W^oodell, ten, a large share of whom 
■were residents of the town. They were taken 
to Concord to fill old and help to form new regi- 
ments, as the men themselves might respectively 
elect. 

About the middle of August William H. 
Chaffin was authorized to recruit men in this town 
for regiments then being raised in the State, and 
opened an office that purpose. 

At a town-meeting on the 17th of September, 
1862, it was " Voted to pay all resident citizens 
who have enlisted under the two last calls of the 
President, and previous to August 11, 1862, 
fifty dollars each when mustered into the United 
States service. Also all those who have enlisted 
since August 11, 1862, one hundred dollars each, 
■when mustered into the United States service," 
and the selectmen ■were authorized to borrow a 
sum not exceeding eight thousand dollars to carry 
this vote into effect. 

At the annual town-meeting in March, 1863, 
the selectmen were authorized by vote to borrow 
not exceeding five thousand dollars, to aid families 
of soldiers, the selectmen to designate who were 
entitled to aid, and Sumner Putnam was chosen 
to pay out the money without remuneration. 

On Sunday, May 10th, a telegram was received 
in town anuounciug the capture of Richmond. It 
was read in the churches, bells were rung, cannon 
fired and other demonstrations of joy made. But 
it turned out that the telegram was not quite 
true. 

The surrender of Vicksburg was celebrated in 



Claremont, July 7, 1863. by the ringing of bells, 
firing of cannon, etc Edward F. Johnson, a son 
about twenty years old of Edwin Johnson, while 
assisting to fire the cannon, in Dexter Hill, was 
very severely injured by the premature discharge 
of the gun, losing the right hand and having the 
other badly mutilated, beside other injuries. Sub- 
sequently a considerable sum of money was con- 
tributed by citizens of the town for his benefit. 

On the 5th of August what was left of Company 
G, Fifth Regiment, came home on furlough. Out 
of eighty-one men who left town under Captain 
Long, in September, 1861, less than two years 
before, only twelve came home. Twenty-four had 
been killed in battle or died of disease, and the 
balance had either been discharged or were left 
behind in hospitals An ovation was given these 
twelve men at the town hall ; addresses were 
made by several gentlemen, and a handsome 
supper was provided at the Tremont House, to 
which about fifty citizens sat down. After the 
eating had been finished spirited speeches were 
made, sentiments ottered and the whole affair 
passed off very pleasantly. 

On Thursday, the 6th of August, the President's 
thanksgiving for the success of our arms was 
observed. Business was generally suspended. 
Religious services were hold at the Baptist Church, 
the Congregationalists and Methodists uniting. 
All three of the clergymen took part and made 
addresses. 

On the 27th of August, 1863, the first draft in 
this Congressional District took place at West 
Lebanon. Ninety-seven men were drafted for 
Claremont, only four of whom, are — William S. 
Sturtevant, Jotham S. Toothaker, Charles H. 
Parmalee, and his brother, Edward A. Parmalee — 
entered the army. All the others were either 
rejected by the examining surgeon as unfit for 
duty, paid commutation or furnished substitutes. 

On the 21st of September, in town-meeting, it 
was voted to pay drafted men, or their substitutes, 
three hundred dollars each, and the selectmen 
were instructed to borrow the money therefor. 

On the 7th of December the town offered a 



CLAREMONT. 



113 



boiint}' to her citizens who shouhl enliist of three 
hundred dollars iu addition to other bounties. At 
a previous meeting it had been voted to pay to each 
volunteer six hundred dollars, the town taking an 
assignment of the State and government bounties. 

At the annual town-meeting, in March, 1864, 
the selectmen were authorized to borrow a sum, 
not exceeding six thousand dollars, to aid the fam- 
ilies of volunteers and drafted men. Sumner Put- 
nam, as agent, had paid to families of soldiers the 
preceding year the sum of ^.5,558.31). 

In May, 1865, there was another draft at the 
[irovost-marshal's office. West Lebanon, to make 
up all arrearages, and thirteen men were drafted 
for Claremont, all of whom were exempted by the 
examinino; surgeon or furnished substitutes. In 
June eight more men were drafted for this town, 
to make up deficiencies in her quota under all 
calls, none of whom entered the army. 

At a towu-meeting, on the 2.3d of June, it was 
voted to instruct the selectmen to " pay a sum not 
exceeding six hundred dollars to any person who 
has, or may hereafter, enlist and be mustered into 
the service of the United States, and counted on 
the quota of this town for the present or any future 
call." The selectmen were also instructed to bor- 
row a sum, not exceeding six thousand dollars, for 
this jiurpose, and to proceed forthwith to enlist 
men, as opportunity may offer, in anticipation of 
future calls. 

In August, 1864, the selectmen offered, for men 
to enlist into the army, bounties as follows: Two 
hundred dollars for one, and three hundred dollars 
for three years, besides the bounties offered by the 
State and United States, amounting in all, for 
three years' men, to eleven hundred dollars. 

At the annual town-meeting, in March, 1865, 
by vote, the town treasurer was authorized to bor- 
row a sum, not exceeding seven thousand dollars, 
to aid the families of volunteers and drafled men. 

William E. Tutherly was appointed military 
agent to provide soldiers to fill all quotas of the 
town the ensuing year. 

On the morning of the 14th of April, 1865, 
news of the taking of Richmond came by tele- 



graph, followed on Monday morning, the 19th, by 
this telegram : 

" Official. Lee and his whole army surrendered on 
Sunday afternoon. Gloria!" 

This was soon follow'ed by a telegram from Gov- 
ernor (4ilmore to the selectmen, ordering them to 
fire one hundred guns, at the expense of the State, 
in honor of the overthrow of the Rebellion. Busi- 
ness was immediately suspended ; the stores closed; 
men, women and children were upon the streets ; 
all the church, mill and school bells were rung ; 
and the order of the Governor was executed em- 
phatically upon the common. Everybody rejoiced 
at the final overthrow of the greatest rebellion on 
record. A meeting was notified to be held at the 
town hall in the evening. 

At the appointed time the town hall was filled 
as it had seldom been filled before. The multi- 
tude was called to order lay Charles M. Bingham, 
and Moses R. Emerson was chosen chairman, who 
stated the objects of the meeting and made some 
pertinent remarks. Rev. Edward W. Clark, 2)as- 
tor of the Congregational Church, opeued the 
meeting with prayer. The congregation then 
united in singing, iu a most thrilling manner, 
" Praise God from whom all blessings flow," to the 
tune of " Old Hundred." The glee club, under 
the direction of Francis F. Haskell, next sang a 
patriotic piece. Spirited addresses were made by 
Rev. Messrs. J. M. Peck, Edward W. Clark and 
E. S. Foster, Hosea W. Parker, Edward D. 
Baker, Ira Colby, Jr., and others. The audience 
arose and joined in singing "America," as it is 
sung only when its eloquence and beauty are fully 
felt by those who sing it. The meeting dissolved 
to witness a display of fireworks outside. Many 
of the public buildings and private residences were 
hand.somely illuminated, and Jefferson Davis and 
.John C. Breckinridge were burned in effiegy on 
the common. 

On the morning of the 15th of April came a 
telegram announcing the assassination of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, President of the United States, the 
night before. This news turned the rejoicing of 
the loyal people of the North to sincere and deep 



114 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



mourning. On Wednesday, the 19th of April, in 
accordance with recommendation from Washing- 
ton, and special proclamation of the Governor of 
New Hampshire, the funeral obsequies of the 
President were observed. Business of every kind 
was entirely suspended ; at twelve o'clock the 
church bells were tolled ; minute-guns were fired, 
and the people assembled at the town hall to jjay 
their respects to the memory and worth of the 
murdered President, Abraham Lincoln. Never 
did the people of Claremont more sincerely mourn 
than on this occasion. Rev. Edward W. Clark 
read the Governor's proclamation and made the 
opening jjrayer. An appropriate piece was sung 
by the choir, under the direction of Francis F. 
Haskell. Rev. E. S. Foster read selections from 
Scripture ; Rev. F. W. Toole offered prayer ; ad- 
dresses were made by Rev. Messrs. S. G. Kellogg, 
Moses Kimball, of Ascutueyville, Vt., Foster and 
Towle, of Claremont, Albert Goss, of Auburn, 
N. Y., and Clark, of Claremont. The choir sang 
the hymn commencing " Why do we mourn de- 
parting friends?" to the tune of "China," and 
Rev. Mr. Kimball pronounced the benediction in 
the most solemn manner. 

SUMMARY. 

Whole number of volunteers from Claremont 370 

Whole number of drafted men who entered army.. 5 
Whole number of drafted men who furnished sub- 
stitutes 74 

Whole number killed in battle 33 

Whole number who died of wounds 14 

Whole numljer who died ot'disease 20 

Whole number who served to the end of the war... 85 
Number of families who received aid from the 

town and State 173 

Amount of town and State aid furnished to fami- 
lies $2fi,219.61" 

This summary includes all the Claremont 
soldiers who were connected with New Hamp- 
shire and other regiments whose history is known. 
Many re-enlisted, while others served in more 
than one organization, — some in three or four, — 
which, with substitutes furnished and commutation 
paid by men who were drafted, make the whole 



number four hundred and forty-nine, of soldiers 
put down to the town during the war. 

Clakemont's Quota. — The enrollment in 
Claremont, in April, 1865, embracing all male 
citizens of the age of eighteen years, and under 
the age of forty-five years, liable to do military 
duty, was four hundred and thirteen. The whole 
number who entered the army and navy, from 
April, 1861, to April, 1865, was four hundred and 
forty-nine. This includes all enlistments, some of 
the men having enlisted two or more times, the 
drafted men who furnished substitutes and those 
who entered the army. The quota required to be 
sent from each town in the State under all calls 
for troops, from July, 1863, was proportioned to 
the number of enrolled militia, as above. Clare- 
mont's quota was set at one hundred and seventy- 
seven, and she furni.shed two hundred and six 
recruits, being an excess of twenty-nine over what 
she was required to furnish. 

Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Societies. — Immedi- 
ately after the assault upon Fort Sumter and the 
call of the President for seventy-five thousand 
volunteers, the ladies of Claremont manifested 
their zeal in the cause of their country by meeting 
at the house of Mrs. Susan J. Adams, to prepare 
bandages and other articles needed in army 
hospitals. 

In May, 1861, an urgent call came to the ladies 
for hospital stores and garments suitable for sick 
and wounded soldiers. A notice was published in 
the village papers inviting the ladies to meet in 
Fraternity Hall. At the appointed time a large 
number assembled. The meeting was called to 
order by ]Miss Elizal>eth Sprague. Remarks were 
made urging tiie importance of organized and 
earnest effort to minister to the comfort of sick 
and wounded soldiers, and to give to our men 
articles of clothing not furnished them by the 
government. 

A society called the Ladies' Union Sewing 
Circle was organized by the choice of the follow- 
ing officers: Mrs. M. A. Metcalf, president; Mrs. 
Edward L. Goddard, vice-president ; Miss Eliza- 
beth Sprague, secretary and treasurer ; Mrs. Obed 



CLAEEMONT. 



115 



D. Barnes, Mrs. Otis P. E,. Waite, Mrs. Lewis 
Perry, Mrs. Charles H. Eastman, IMrs. Edward L. 
Goddard and Mrs Mary Blanchard, committee to 
have special care and direction of the work. 

This society met at Fraternity Hall daily. The 
work at first was upon flannel garments and other 
articles for the men enlisted by Captain William 
P. Austin, a large portion of whom belonged in 
Claremont. Each man was furnished by this 
society with a pair of woolen drawers, undershirt, 
towels, pocket-handkerchiefs, woolen socks, pin- 
flat and needle-book, well filled with useful 
articles. By .special contribution they raised 
$7.5 for rubber blankets, $8.38 for havelocks, and 
$13.29 for extra pairs of woolen hose. 

The ladies kept at work as well at home as at 
their stated meetings, throughout the sununer, for 
soldiers and hospitals. In September Charles H. 
Long enlisted a company of one hundred men for 
the Fifth Regiment, all belonging in Claremont 
and vicinity, and each was furnished with bed- 
sack, towels, handkerchiefs and woolen hose. 

Auxiliary Sanitary Commission. — Early in 
October, 1861, the United States Sanitary Com- 
mission sent an appeal to the ladies of Claremont 
to organize an Auxiliary Sanitary Commission, in 
order the better to systematize their labors and 
the manner of sending forward and appropriating 
to their proper uses the fruits of their liberality 
and labor. In response to a call, the citizens met 
at Fraternity Hall on the 11th of October for this 
jjurpose. Simeon Ide, Tliomas J. Harris, Joseph 
Weber, Mrs. Edward L. Goddard, Mrs. M. A. 
Metcalf and Mrs. Charles H. Ea.stman were ap- 
pointed a committee to canvass the town and 
secure the co-operation of all loyal women in this 
movement. 

An adjourned meeting was held on the Ifith of 
October, when the committee submitted a plan of 
organization, making every lady in town, who 
would jjay into the trea.sury one dollar, a member, 
and proposed the following list of oflicers, which 
l)lan and report were adopted : Simon Ide, presi- 
dent ; Mrs. Samuel P. Fiske and Mrs. Leonard P. 
Fisher, vice-presidents ; Thomas J. Harris, treas- 



urer ; Cyrenus S. Parkhurst, secretary ; Edward 
L. Goddard, Frederick T. Kidder, Arthur Chase, 
Mrs M. A. Metcalf, Mrs. G. W. Lewis, Mrs. Obed 
D. Barnes, Mrs. Edward L. Goddard, Mrs Charles 
H. Eastman and Mrs. Jotham G. Allds, directors. 

The directors appointed Mrs. Lewis Perry, Miss 
Marion Richards, Mrs. Francis Whitcomb, Miss 
Diantha Sargent, Miss Alice Jones, Mrs. James 
Goodwin, Mrs. James Brickett, Mrs. Otis F. R. 
Waite, Mrs. Stephen F. Rossiter, Mrs David F. 
Tuterly, Miss Stella Wallingford, Miss E. M. Bond, 
Mrs. Albert O. Hammond, Mrs. Freeman S. Chel- 
lis, Mrs. Amos I). Johnson, Mrs. Robert R. Bun- 
nell, Mrs. Anson S. Barstow, Mrs. George W. 
Lewis and Miss Isabella D. Rice to solicit money, 
hosjiital stores— such as preserves, jellies, pickles, 
etc., or clothing — to fill a box which the society 
wished to send forward. 

For a time this organization received the active 
co-operation of the gentlemen holding the princi- 
pal offices, after which they seemed occupied with 
other mattei-s, and early in the winter of ISfil the 
ladies took the management and funds of the soci- 
ety, Mrs. Samuel P. Fiske acting as president and 
Mrs. Edward L. Goddard as secretary and treas- 
urer. 

The Sewing Circle was a Union Sewing Circle 
in the fullest acceptation of the term. Love of 
country, love of the brave and noble soldiers who 
left their homes to fight our battles, to suffer and 
die in prison or hospital, helped these patriotic 
women to surmount every obstacle and forget all 
opposition and discouragement. 

A few ladies of Unity sent valuable contribu- 
tions, which were forwarded in the first boxes .sent 
to Washington. 

The meetings were frequent, well attended, 
seemed to be pervaded by a solemn sense of the 
importance of the utmost diligence in the perform- 
ance of the work in hand, and pleasant to all in- 
terested in their object. jMany ladies, whose 
names do not appear as having any special charge, 
were among the most active and efficient workers. 

Among the gentlemen in town most active and 
enthusiastic in aiding the ladies in their work, en- 



116 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



couraging enlistments and helping soldiers and 
their families, was Rt. Rev. Carlton Chase, Bishop 
of the Diocese of New Hampshire. He opened 
his house to the ladies, attended and addressed 
public meetings, and in other ways showed how 
much he had the cause of the country at heart. 

The ladies engaged in this society enlisted for 
the war, nor did they cease their efforts until 
Richmond was taken and the rebel armies had 
surrendered. During the existence of this auxil- 
iary society they sent thirty-three large boxes to 
the United States Sanitary Commission rooms in 
Washington and Boston, containing the following 
articles : 15.3 pairs woolen drawers, 195 woolen 
shirts, 373 cotton shirts, 29 pairs cotton drawers, 
1029 towels, 901 handkerchiefs, 84 needle-books, 
624 pairs of woolen hose, 221 woolen blankets, 
333 quilts, lfi9 sheets, 244 pairs nuttens, 39 com 
fort bags, 45 vests, 59 pillow-sacks, 139 bed-sacks, 
261 pillows, 241 pillow-cases, 198 pairs slippers, 
189 dressing-gowns, 51 havelocks, 2 collars, 1 mil- 
itary overcoat, 1 military dress coat, 1 pair mili- 
tary pants, 1 blouse, 1 linen jacket, together with 
larse (quantities of dried and canned fruits, pick- 
les, bandages, lint, linen and cotton pieces, 75 
quarts of wines and 50 pounds of corn-starch, 
books and other reading matter, all of which was 
most generously given by the friends of the soldiers 
in every part of the town. They also sent to the 
Boston and Baltimore fairs, for the benefit of the 
soldiers, about one hundred and fifty dollars' 
worth of fancy articles, all of which were contrib- 
uted by the ladies of this society. 

The society received of its members and other 
individuals about twelve hundred dollars, four 
hundred dollars of which was realized from exhi- 
bitions, festivals and concerts. When they closed 
their labors, in the spring of 1S65, there remained 
in the treasury one hundi-ed and sixty dollars, 
which was placed at interest, to be apj)ropr'iated 
for the erection of a monument in commemoration 
of Claremont's brave soldiers, who gave their lives 
for the country when she needed such sacrifice. 

At the commencement of the war the ladies of 
West Claremont formed themselves into a working 



band for the soldiers, and met together occasionally 
for work, though much was done at their homes. 
Large numbers of articles were sent to their desti- 
tation during the first few months through the so- 
ciety at the village, after which they sent the 
articles of their industry and benevolence direct to 
Washington. As no officers were chosen, no 
record of the money expended was kept for any 
length of time. The money used and articles 
given were from residents at West Claremont, ex- 
cept fifty dollars from the Sanitary Commission in 
the village in the winter of 1864-65, placed in the 
hands of Mrs. Wyllys Redfield, and expended for 
materials which were made up by the ladies. 
During the war not less than eight or ten barrels 
and boxes, filled with quilts, shirts, dressing-gowns, 
socks, dried fruit, jellies, wines and many other 
articles, were sent by the ladies of West Clare- 
mont. 

Thanksgiving to Soldiers' Families. — In 
November, 1864, Charles M. Bingham, Nathaniel 
Tolles, Otis F. R. Waite, Samuel G. Jarvis and 
Walter H. Smith were cliosen a committee to col- 
lect contributions, and distribute to families of 
soldiers, and others in town who were considered 
needy, provisions for Thanksgiving. Citizens 
cheerfully contributed from their stores what was 
valued in money at $30.31, and, in money, $120.45, 
making a total of $150.76. The money received 
was carefully expended for jirovisions, which were 
distributed to one hundred and three families, ac- 
cording as the committee judged of their several 
needs. The articles carried to the difierent dwell- 
ings consisted of one hundred and fifty chickens, 
seventy-five roasts of beef, weighing from seven 
to fourteen pounds each, several pieces of fresh 
pork, a large quantity of butter, cheese, vegetables, 
groceries, etc. 

Soldiers' Monument. — At the annual town- 
meeting, in March, 1867, it was voted to appropri- 
ate one thousand dolhirs for the erection of a monu- 
ment to those Claremont men who had been killed 
in battle or died in the army in the War of the Re- 
bellion, on condition that five hundred dollars 
should be raised by subscription, or otherwise, for 



CLAKEMONT. 



117 



the same purpose. The Ladies' Sanitary Commis- 
sion appropriated the funds — about one hundred 
and sixty dollars, which they had on hand at the 
close of the war — to this object; and the committee 
of arrangements for the Fourth of July celebra- 
tion in 1865 also appropriated about fifty dollars, 
which they had after paying expenses. In addi- 
tion to this, the ladies obtained in subscriptions 
not exceeding one dollar each — heads of families 
generally paid one dollar, and children of all ages 
twenty-five cents each — a sufficient amount to se- 
cure the town af)propriation ; and these several 
sums, except the thousand dollars appropriated by 
the town, were placed at interest. At the annual 
town-meeting, in ]Mareh, 1868, the further sum of 
two thousand dollars was voted for this object, 
provided that one thousand dollars should be 
I'aised by contribution or otherwise. 

At the same meeting Samuel P. Fiske, Benja- 
men P. Oilman, Edward L. Goddard, Charles H. 
Long and John L. Farwell were chosen a com- 
mittee to have the whole matter of the monument 
in charge. Early in August, 1868, Frederick A. 
Briggs, Oliver A. Bond, Hosea W. Parker, A. 
George Boothe, Wm. P. Farwell, James A. Cowles, 
Austin C. Chase and some other gentlemen, 
assisted by several young ladies, gave two very 
creditable dramatic exhibitions in aid of the Sol- 
diers' Monument Fund. A string band extem- 
porized for the occasion, and under the joint 
leadership of Messrs. George W. Wait, of this 
town, and Henry A. Chiistie, of Christie and 
Wedger's Band, Boston, who had his home in 
Claremont, furnished some excellent music and 
contributed very much to the entertainment. The 
receipts from this source were about one hundred 
and fifty dollars. Subscription-papers were cir- 
culated, without limiting the amount that each 
might pay, and other means used to obtain a 
sufficient sum to secure the last two thousand 
dollars voted by the town — making up the whole 
sum of forty-five hundred dollars. Many gentle- 
men subscribed very liberally, while others gave 
according to their means, and the recpured amount 
was secured. 



The committee decided to place the monument 
in the Park, and made a very favorable contract 
with Martin Milmore, of Boston, for a bronze 
monumental statue of an infantry soldier, at rest. 
When the monument and grf)uuds were so nearly 
completed that a day could be fixed for the dedi- 
cation, the committee called a meeting of the 
citizens of the town, at the town hall, on the even- 
ing of July 17, 1869, to take measures for the 
arranging and carrying out of proper exercises. 
At this meeting Edward L. Goddard was chosen 
chairman, and Hosea W. Parker secretary. The 
following gentlemen were chosen a committee to 
have the whole subject of dedicating the monu- 
ment in charge : Sanuiel P. Fiske, Benjamin P. 
Gilman, Edward L. Goddard, Charles H. Long, 
John L. Farwell, Oscar J. Brown, John S. Walk- 
er, John F. Cossitt, Nathaniel Tolles, Hosea W. 
Parker, J. W. Pierce, Sherman Cooper, Henry 
Patten, Charles H. Eastman and William H. 
Nichols. 

At a meeting of the committee of arrange- 
ments, it was voted to dedicate the monument on 
the anniversary of the battle of Cedar Creek, 
October 19, 1864, when General Phil. H. Sher- 
idan, by his timely arrival on the field, changed a 
defeat of our arms into a glorious victory, taking 
fifty guns from the enemy. It was also voted to 
invite Dr. J. Baxter Uphani, of Boston, a native 
of the town, and a son of the late George B. Ui> 
ham, to pronounce an oration. The committee 
appointed the following officers for the day of 
dedication: President, John S. Walker; Vice- 
Presidents, Edward L. Goddard, George N. Far- 
well, Samuel G. Jarvis, Albro Blodgett, Daniel 
W. Johnson, James P. Upham, Arnold Briggs, 
Daniel S. Bowker, Edward Ainsworth, Charles 
M. Bingham, William E. Tutherly, Sylvanus S. 
Redfield, William Ellis, Fred P. Smith, Hiram 
Webb; Secretaries, Joseph Weber, Arthur Chase ; 
Chaplain, Edward W. Clark ; Marshal, Nathaniel 
Tolles, who appointed for Assistants, Edwin W. 
Tolles, Edwarcl J. Teuney, Sherman Cooper and 
George H. Stowell. He also appointed Otis F. R. 
Waite, Hosea W. Parker, William H. H. Allen 



118 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



and Francis F. Haskell to receive and attend to 
the comfort of the invited guests. 

Invitations were extended by circulars to many 
prominent gentlemen, and by posters to the peo- 
ple generally, to be present and join in the cere- 
monies. The day was ushered in by a salute of 
thirty-seven guns and the ringing of bells at sun- 
rise. A large concourse of people, variously 
estimated at from five to ten thousand — among 
them many distinguished ladies and gentlemen 
from the eastern and middle portions of the State, 
assembled to do honor to the occasion. 

At half-past nine o'clock a.m. the invited 
guests were met at the station of the Sullivan 
Railroad and conveyed in carriages to the village. 
At ten o'clock a procession, consisting of invited 
guests and officers of the day in carriages, fire 
companies, Posts of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public and citizens, was formed on the Common 
under the direction of 'the marshal, and escorted 
by the Stearn Guards of Claremont, headed by the 
Claremont Cornet Band, marched through Broad, 
North, Maple, Elm, Union, Sullivan, Pleasant, 
Summer and Broad Streets, to the speaker's 
stand, at the east side of the Common, and facing 
the monumental statue to be dedicated. There was 
also a stand for the baud and choir erected against 
the south wall of the Universalist Church. 

Arrived at the stand, the band performed a 
national air. The marshal, Nathaniel Tolles, 
called the assemlily to order, and introduced 
Samuel P. Fiske, chairman of the committee of 
arrangements and also chairman of the monument 
committee, who made a short address, giving an 
account of the inception of the soldiers' monument 
to be dedicated and the work upon it to comple- 
tion, announced the officers and introduced the 
president, John S. Walker. The president called 
upon the chaplain, Rev. E. W. Clark, who in- 
voked the Divine blessing in fitting and eloquent 
terms. 

The jsresident delivered a short address, wel- 
coming, in well-chosen words, all who were 
present, as well those of the town anil country 
as from more distant parts. He said that General 



Philip H. Sheridan had accepted an invitation to 
be present, and had been expected until that 
morning, when a telegram was received from him, 
explaining his inability to be with us. It con- 
cluded : 

" Please .say to my old comrades and the good peo- 
ple in attendance how deeply I regret not being pres- 
ent with them to do honor to the memory of the 
gallant men from New Hampshire who fell in 
defense of the miion and their rights." 

At the close of the j) resident's address, the 
signal being given, the American flag, which had 
enveloped the bronze statue, was skillfully lifted 
therefrom by Samuel P. Fiske, chairman of the 
monument committee, assisted by Benjamin P. 
Gilman, raised to the top of the pole to which it 
was attached, and floated in the breeze over the 
monument. 

The oi-ator. Dr. J. Baxter Upham, was then 
introduced, and delivered a very appropriate 
oration, in a voice that could be heard by those of 
the vast crowd most remote from the speaker. It 
was a most touching and eloquent tribute to the 
dead heroes commemorated by the monument. 
The speaker said, — 

"On the marble tablets in yonder Town Hall, 
which, from henceforth, shall be a memorial hall as 
well, we may trace the names of seventy-three 3'oung 
men wlio fought in these armies and voluntarily laid 
down their lives upon the altar of their country — 
more than a seventh part of the four hundred and 
forty-nine, who, from first to last, enlisted here — so 
many, alas, in number, that there is not room for 
them upon the entablature of this or any common 
monument. I could wish it were possible to write 
them, one and all, in letters of living light, on the 
sides of those everlasting hills that they might be 
known and read of all men." 

After the oration, " America " was sung by the 
choir, under the leadership of Moses R. Emerson, 
The president then introduced Governor Onslow 
Stearns, who made a .short address, followed with 
addresses by ex-Governors Walter Harriman, 
Frederick Smyth, United States Senator James 
W. Patterson, Colonel Mason W. Tapjjan and 
Hon. Jacob H. Ela. The exercises closed by the 



CLAREMONT. 



119 



singing, by the choir and all present, of that 
grand old ascription, " Be thou, O God, exalted 
high." 

The procession was then re-formed and marched 
to the Tremont House, where the invited guests, 
the committee of arrangements, officers of the dav 
and citizens, in all about eighty, ladies and gentle- 
men, at four o'clock partook of a sumptuous 
dinner. Members of fire companies and posts of 
the Grand Army were liberally provided for b\- 
contributions of citizens, at the town hall, where 
tables were laid for about five hundred. After 
these had eaten, the doors were thrown open to 
the multitude, and not less than one thousand 
were fed in this way. There was a great quantity 
of food left, which was carefully gathered up and 
distributed to such as needed it. 

The Monument. — The monument consists of a 
handsome granite pedestal, seven feet high, sur- 
mounted by a bronze statute of an infantry 
volunteer soldier, in full regulation uniform, lean- 
ing in an easy and graceful way upon his gun. 
Beneath the statue, on the granite die, is the 
following inscription : 

" ERECTED 

IN HONOR OF THE SOLDIERS 

OF 

CLAREMONT, 

WHO DIED 

IN THE REBELLION OF 1861-65, 

BY THEIR GRATEFUL 

FELLOW-CITIZENS, 

1869." 

FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 

Receipts. 
E. L. Goddard, for Fourth of July committee 

of 1865 : principal, $47.00 ; interest, 

113.00 $60 00 

Mrs. E. L. Goddard, Treasurer Auxiliary 

Sanitary Commission : principal, §1.50.00; 

interest, $41.25 I'Jl 25 

From subscriptions of 1867 : princijial, 

$642.72; interest, $95,37 738 09 

Dramatic company 04 00 

Subscriptions, 1869 970 63 

Town appropriations for monument and park 

improvements, as per vote of 1867-68 3500 00 



lUsbursements. 

Martin Milmore, for monument 4000 00 

E. Batchelder, for granite curbing.... 250 00 

Concrete walk and grading 807 23 

Fence, $337.14; labor, $159.60 496 74 



Total $.5553 97 



Total $5,553 97 

AIemorial TABLET.S. — The large number of 
those ClarenKint men who were killed in battle 
and died of wounds or disease while in the service, 
rendered the inscription of their names ujion the 
monument impracticable ; therefore, marble tab- 
lets were erected in the town hall — bearing the 
following Roll of Honor, except that the date 
and manner of the death of each is added hei-e, 
to perpetuate more fully their record : 

Citizen Soldiers of Claremont who died for their Country 

in the War of the Reheltion, 1861-65. 

Colonel Alexander Gardiner. 

14th Regt, N H. Vols. Mortally wounded at the 

battle of Cedar Creek, near Winchester, Va., 

Sept. 19,1864. Died of wounds Oct. 8, 1864. 

Captain William Henry Chaffin. 
Co. I, 14th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
Ced-ir Creek, near Winchester, Va., Sept. 19, 
1864. 

Lieutenant Euel G. Austin. 
Co. A, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Wounded at the battle 
of Getty-sburg, Pa., July 6, 1863. Died of his 
wounds at Baltimore, Md., July 26, 1863. 
Lieutenant Charles 0. Ballou. 

Co. G., 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. 

Lieutenant Robert Henry Chase. 
Co. G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
Ream's Station, Va., August 25, 1864. 

Lieutenant Samuel Brown Little. 
Co. G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Wounded at the battle 

of Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. Died 

of wounds at Falmouth, Va., December 24, 1862. 
Co. G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Wounded at the battle 

of Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. Died 

of wounds December 2.3, 1862. 

Lieutenant Henry S. Paull. 
Co. I, 14th Regt. X. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
Cedar Creek, near Winchester, Va., September 
19, 1864. 



120 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 





Lieutenant Henry D. Rice. 




Albert G. Dane. 


Co. G, 9tli Regt. N. H. Vols. Supposed killed at Poplar 


Co. 


A, 3d Regt. N. H. Vols. Died while prisoner at 




Grove Church, Va., September 30, 1864. 




Salisbury, N. C, February 3, 1865. 




Daniel S. Alexander. 




ZiBA L. Davis. 


Co 


F, 3d Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 


Co. 


H, 2d Regt. N. H. Vols. Died of disease at Fal- 




Drury's Bluff, Va., May 13, 18G4. 




mouth, Va., January 12, 1863. 




Oscar C. Allen. 




Jajies Delmage. 


Co. 


H, 2d Regt. N. H. Vols. Died of disease at Phila- 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 




delphia, Pa., October 2, 1862. 




Fair Oaks, Va., June 1, 1863. 




James P. Bascom. 




Edward E. French. 


Co. 


G, 0th Regt. N. H. Vols. Died of disease at Fal- 


Co. 


E, Berdan's Sharpshooters. Wounded at the 




mouth, Va., December 25, 1862. 




battle of Cold Harbor, Va., June 19, 1864. Died 




Samuel 0. Benton. 




of wounds September 7, 1864. 


Co. 


E, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed in battle at 
Ream's Station, Va., August 16, 186-i. 


Co. 


John Gilbert. 
F. 3d Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 




Horace Bolio. 




Deep Run, Va., August 16, 1864. 


Co. 
Co. 


F, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863. 

Amos F. Bradford. 

G, 9th Regt. N. H. Vols. Died of diphtheria at 


Co. 


Frederick W. Goddard. 
H, 44th Regt. Mass. Vols. Died of disease at 
Pemberton Square Hospital, Boston, .July 3, 1863. 




Paris, Ky., November 10, 1863. 




Lieutenant George Nettleton. 




JosiAH S. Brown. 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Wounded at the battle 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 




of Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1863. Died 




Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. 




of wounds at Falmouth, Va., December 24, 1862. 




James Burns. 




Charles B. G randy. 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 


Co. 


A, 62d Regt. N. Y. Vols. Died of disease at 




Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863. 




Washington, D. C, October 16, 1861. 




Charles F. Burrill. 




David H. Grannis. 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 


Co. 


A, 3d Regt. N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 




Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863. 




Hilton Head, N. C, March 4, 1863. 




Charles E. Ballou. 




Chester F. Grinnels. 


Died at Washington, D. C, of disease, February 18, 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 




1864. 




Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. 




Samuel S. Carleton. 




Charles A. Hart. 


Fourth Battalion, Mass. Rifles. Died at Claremout, 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 




N. H., January 23, 1867, of wounds received in 




Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. 




battle. 




Elisha M. Hill. 




Luther A. Chase. 


Co. G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Died of wounds received 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 




in battle, October 27, 1862. 




Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1863. 




Damon E. Hunter. 




Wyman R. Clement. 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Mortally wounded at 


Co. 


H, 2d Regt. N. H. Vols.. Died of disease at 




the battle of Fair Oaks, Va., June 1, 1862. Died 




Washington, D. C, August 1, 1861. 




June 22, 1862. 




Joseph Craig. 




William L. Hurd. 


Co. 


G, 5th Regt. N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 


Co. 


F, 3d Regt. Vermont Vols. Killed at the battle 




Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863. 




of Lee's Mills, Va., April 16, 1862. 



CLAREMONT. 



121 



John S. M. Ide. 
Co. E, Berdan's Sharpshooters. Killed in an en- 
gagement at Yorktown, Va., April 5, 1862. 

Joseph W. Kelly. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease on pas- 
.sage from Fortress Monroe to Washington, in 
May, 1862. 

Walter B. Ke.vd.vll. 
Co. F, 3d Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed in front of Peters- 
burg, Va., June 16, 1864. 

J. Fisher Lawrence. 
Co. H, 7th Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Port Royal, S. C, August 8, 1862. 
Charles B. Marvin. 
Co. G, 9th Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed in the battle 
of Antietam, September, 17, 1862. 
Noah D. Merrill. 
Co. D, 2d Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of wounds received 
in battle, September 16, 1862. 

Edward F. Mooee. 
Troop L, First New England Cavalry. Killed in the 
battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863. 

Horatio C. Moore. 
Co. F, 3d Regt., N. H. Vols. Mortally wounded in the 
battle of James Island, S. C, June 16, 1862. Died 
June 19, 1862. 

Ransom M. Neal. 
Co. A, 3d Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease at Hil- 
ton Head, S. C, October 30, 1862. 
Everett W. Nelson. 
Co. H, 7th Regt., N. H. Vols. Wounded and taken 
prisoner at Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863. Died 
July 24, 1863. 

Charles H. Nevers. 

Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed in battle at 

White Oak Swamp, Va., June 30, 1862. 

Frederick A. Nichols. 

Co. F, 3d Regt., N. H. Vols. Mortally wounded near 

Bermuda Hundred, June 16, 1864. Died next 

day. 

Lyman P. Pareish. 

Co. H, 2d Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Manchester, N. H., February 20, 1863. 
William E. Parrish. 

Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Wounded and taken 
prisoner in the battle of the Wilderness, and is 
supposed to have died at Andersonville. 



Joel W. Patrick. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Claremont, N. H., August 15, 1862. 

Joseph Peno. 
Co. C, 3d Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
James Island, June 16, 1862. 

Charles E. Putnam. 
Co. H, 2d Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed in the battle of 
Williamsburg, Va., May 5, 1862. 

George H. Putnam. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed in the battle 
of Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1S64. 

George Read. 
Co. G. 5th Regt,, N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Newark, N. J., Sei)tember 9, 1862. 

Henry W. Patrick. 
Co. H, 2d Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Claremont, N. H., August 20, 1868. 

Edgar T. Reed. 
Co. G, 6th Regt., N. H.Vols. Shot while attempting 
to arrest a deserter in the autumn of 1864. 

Willis Redfield. 
15th Regt., Connecticut Vols. Died of yellow fever 
at Newbern, N. C, October 11, 1864. 
Charles D. Robinson. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed in the battle of 
Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. 
George E. Rowell. 
Co. H, nth Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Baltimore, Md., April 10, 1864. 
George W. Russell. 
Co. G, 9th Regt., N. H. Vols. Mortally wounded at 
the battle of Antietam, Va., September 17, 1862, 
and died next day. 

Ard Scott. 
Co. F, 3d Regt., N. H. Vols. Taken prisoner at 
Darbytown, Va., October 1, 1864. Died of star- 
vation and exposure at Salisbury, N. C, Novem- 
ber 20, 1864. 

Charles N. Scott. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
Fair Oaks, Va., June 1, 1862. 

Edward E. Story. 
Co. G. 6th Regt,, N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Hatteras Inlet, :\[arch 4, 1862. 



122 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Andrew J. Straw. 
Co. H, 2d Kegt., N. H. Vols. Wounded at the battle 
of Bull Eun, Va., July 21, 1861, and is supposed 
to have died in the hands of the enemy. 

RoLAXD Taylor. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Mortally wounded at 
the battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863, and 
died a few days afterward. 

Horace A. Tyrrell. 
2d Regt., Mass. Cavalry. Died of disease on his way 
home, after discharge, December 30, 1866. 

Harvey M. Wakefield. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease in hos- 
pital, July 5, 1862. 

George O. Webb. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease at 
Camp Fair Oaks, Va., June 15, 1862. 

Charles W. Wetherbee. 
Co. G, 5th Regt., N. H. Vols. Killed at the battle of 
Fair Oaks, Va., June 1, 1862. 

John F. Wheeler. 
Co. A, 2d Regt., N. H. Vols. Taken prisoner at the 
battle of Bull Run, Va., July 21, 18G1. Exchanged, 
and died on shipboard, between Salisbury, N. C, 
and New York. 

Norman F. Whitiiore. 
Co. A, 3d Regt., N. H. Vols. Died of disease, occa- 
sioned by wounds, at Jacksonville, Fla., June 9, 
1864. 

Augustus E. Woodbury. 

Co. H, 7th Regt., N. H. Vols. Taken prisoner at 
Olustee, Fla., February 10, 1864. Died at Ander- 
sonville, Ga., June 23, 1864. 

NEWSPAPERS. 

The National Eagle. — This paper was estab- 
lished ill October, 1834, under the direction of a 
comniittee appointed at a Whig Sullivan County 
Convention, the year before. The first number 
was issued by John H. Warland, editor, and 
Samuel L. Chase, printer. In 18,36 the establish- 
ment was purchased by John H. Warland and 
Joseph Weber. In 1842 Mr. Weber bought Mr. 
Warland's interest, and became sole' proprietor 
and editor, and continued the publication of the 



paper until October, 1846, when Charles Young 
and John S. Walker bought the establishment, 
Mr. Walker taking charge of the editorial depart- 
ment. In 1849 Mr. Walker sold his interest to 
John H. Brewster, and the paper was published 
by Young & Brewster until April, 1854, when 
Otis F. R. Waite bought the establishment, and 
continued the business until 1860, when he sold 
out to John S. Walker. Mr. Walker sold to 
Simon Ide, whose successors have been Arthur 
Chase, Thomas J. Lasier, Hiram P. Graudy and 
H. C. Fay, its jjresent editor and owner. 

The Northern Advocate. — This paper was 
started in Claremont, in June, 1849, by Joseph 
Weber, as a Free Soil 2>aper, who continued its 
publication until November, 1881, when, by rea- 
son of advancing age, he sold the establishment to 
the jDresent editor and proprietor, 11. E. Mussey, 
who changed the title of the paper and called it 
The Claremont Advocate. 

The Compendium. — The publication of a liter- 
ary paper with this title was c(unmenced in May, 
1870, by S. H. Story, and printed one year as a 
weekly. The publication was then discontinued 
until January, 1872, when it was resumed and 
published fortnightly until January, 1875. It 
was then changed to a monthly and called The 
Narrative, under which arrangement it has since 
been continued by Mr. Story. 

railroads. 

Sullivan Railroad, from Bellows' Falls, 
through Charlestown and Claremont, to Wind- 
sor, Vt. It connects at Bellows' Falls with the 
Cheshire Railroad for Boston, via Keene and 
Fitchburg; the Valley Railroad for New Y'ork, 
via Springfield and Hartford ; the Rutland for 
Montreal and the West; at Claremont Junction 
with the Concord and Claremont Railroad for 
Concord and Boston, anil at W^indsor with the 
Central Vermont Railroad for St. Albans, Mon- 
treal and the West. The Sullivan Railroad 
was finished and opened for business in the fall 
of 1849. It is owned and operated by the Con- 
necticut River Railroad Company, ar is also the 



CLAREMONT. 



123 



Valley Railroad. It has a double track from 
Bellows' Falls to Charlestovvu. 

Concord and Claremont Railroad, from 
Claremont Junction, via Newport and Bradford, 
to Concord, where it connects with the Concord 
Railroad for Boston, and with the Northern and 
Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroads. At 
Contoocook it connects with the Monadnock, Pe- 
terborough and Hillsborough Railroad for Win- 
chendon, Mass., via Hillsborough and Peterbor 
ough. The Concoi'd and Claremont Railroad was 
opened to Claremont in September, 1872. 

Windsor and Forest Line Railroad. — At 
the session of the New Hampshire Legislature, in 
1870, a charter was granted for a railroad from 
Windsor, Vt., to Greenfield, N. H., there to con- 
nect with the Nashua and Wilton Railroad. Soon 
a company was organized by the grantees, and a 
route has been surveyed through Cornish, Clare- 
mont, Unity, Acworth, Lerapster, Washington, 
Marlow, Stoddard and Hancock, to Greenfield, 
pronounced feasible, and it has been thought that 
a road would be built over this line at no very 
distant period. 

Claremont and White River Junction 
Railroad. — In 1872 the New Hampshire Legis- 
lature granted a charter for a railroad from Clare- 
mont to White River Junction ; the grantees 
organized a company, and a route was surveyed 
from Claremont village through Cornish, Plain- 
field and Lebanon to White River Junction, Xi. 
It was found that a road could be built over the 
route surveyed at very moderate cost, and it has 
been thought that the many advantages to be 
gained by this road would ensure its construction. 
obituary. 

Brief notices are here given of a few Claremont 
men who were prominent in their time. Many 
others might be given of those equally deserving 
of them but for lack of room. Many have been 
spoken of in other connections in this history. 

Samuel Cole, Esq., graduated at Yale College 
in 1731, was among the early settlers of the town 
of Claremont, read the Episcopal service for 
several years, and was an instructor of youth for 



a considerable period. He died at an advanced 
age. 

Dr. William Sumner came from Hebron, 
Conn., to Claremont in 1768. He was a usefiil 
and influential citizen. He died in town in 1778. 

Colonel Benjamin Sumner, one of the early 
settlers, was a civil magistrate for many years ; 
died here in May, 1815. 

Colonel Joseph Waite was engaged in the 
French and Indian War, was captain of one of 
Rogers' company of rangers, and commanded a 
regiment in the Revolutionary War, died in 
October, 1776. 

Captain Joseph Taylor, who was engaged in 
the Cape Breton, the French and Indian and 
Revolutionary Wars, was taken pri.soner by the 
Indians in the summer of 1755, carried to Canada 
and sold to the French, resided in Claremont and 
died here in March, 1813, at the age of eighty- 
four years. 

The Rev. Daniel Barber was born in Sims- 
bury, Conn., October 2,1756. He was ordained 
deacon by Bishop Seabury October 29, 1786. He 
officiated in different parishes in New York and 
Vermont until 1795, when he removed to Clare- 
mont and became the rector of what was subse- 
quently called Union Church. In 1801 he re- 
ceived the degree of Master of Arts from Dart- 
mouth College. He continued rector of this 
church until 1818. He then avowed himself a 
Roman Catholic, and conformed to that church. 
He remained in Claremont a few years and then 
went to Connecticut, and from there to George- 
town, D. C, where he spent the remainder of his 
days. 

The Rev. James B. Howe was born in Dor- 
chester, Mass., March 31, 1773. He graduated at 
Harvard College in 1794. He was ordained 
deacon November 25, 1817, by the Rt. Rev. 
Alexander V. Griswold, and jiriest by the same 
May 14, 1819. He was instituted rector of 
Union Church, Claremont, September 15, 1819, at 
a salary of seven hundred dollars. He resigned 
his parish August 4, 1843. He then resided in 
Boston about a year with his children, often 



124 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



officiating in Christ Church and in other churches 
where his services were needed. He died of 
apoplexy in a railroad car at Albany, N. Y., 
September 17, 1844, while on a journey to 
Indiana to visit his children. 

Colonel David Dexter was born in Smith- 
field, R. I., was a lineal descendant of Gregory 
Dexter and Rev. Chas. Brown of Providence R. 
I. He was a Captain in 1776 of Colonel Lip- 
pitt's regiment. Soon after the close of the war, 
probably between 1780 and 1790, he came to 
Claremont, married and had several children. In 
1800 he and his brother Stephen erected a dam 
across Sugar River, at the upper fall, put up 
suitable buildings for grist, saw and oil mills and 
a scythe shop, all of which were run by water. 
This scythe shop was the first established in these 
parts, and was a great wonder in those days. The 
scythe business was continued until 1824, and the 
other branches of business above named by the 
brothers until the death of David in 1831, when 
they were succeeded by the late Moses Wheeler, 
a son-in-law of David. The Dexters subsequently 
became interested in other manufacturing enter- 
prises in Claremont. Colonel David Dexter was 
an enterprising and influential citizen of the town 
for about fifty years. He was one of the Select- 
men of the town for thirteen years, between 1800 
and 1818, and chairman of the board every year 
from 1810 to 1818, both years included; repre- 
sentative in the New Hamjashire legislature in 
1814, and each succeeding year up to and includ- 
ing 1820 ; moderator of town-meeting many 
times, and a Director in the Claremont Bank 
several years. 

Colonel Benjamin Tyler, one of the first 
settlers of Claremont, before mentioned in con- 
nectiuu with water power, etc., was a man of 
great jjromiuence in various ways, was the in 
ventor and patentee of the Tyler Tub Wheel, 
the first Tub Wheel ever made, it was the only one 
that could be used under low heads of water. At 
one time he owned all the water power of Sugar 
River in Claremont. There was a demand for grist- 
mill stones, and in looking about for rock suitable 



for making them, he found it on Ascutney mountain, 
in Vermont, and bought a large tract of land on 
the south side of that mountain where was an 
abundance of the rock required, and entered into 
the manufacture of mill-stones, which he carried 
on for several years. He also manufactured 
scythes most extensively for those days. His 
works were on the south side of Sugar River, at 
West Claremont. After his death his two sous, 
Benjamin, Jr., and John succeeded to the business. 
They invented and manufactured a machine for 
thrashing grain and rice, and went south with it. 
This was the first threshing machine ever made. 

Austin Tyler, son of Ephraim Tyler, Jr., and 
grandson of Colonel Benjamira Tyler before men- 
tioned in this history, was born in Claremont, 
January 6th, 1790. He was one of the most 
active, enterprising and public spirited men in 
town in his time. He was several times a repre- 
sentative in the legislature, chairman of the board 
of Selectmen, and held other important town 
offices. He died August 12th, 1844. 

Dr. Leonard Jarvis was born in Boston, 
June 22, 1 774 ; graduated at the Boston Latin 
School and studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. 
Charles Jarvis, of Boston. He came to Clare- 
mont and commenced the practice of his profession 
in the fall of 1795. He was quite famous as a 
physician and surgeon, and, for about twenty 
years, had a large practice in Claremont and sur- 
rounding towns. After that he engaged exten- 
sively in sheep breeding, wool growing and manu- 
facturing, but was often called in consultation with 
other physicians as long as he lived. He died 
February 9, 1848. 

Ambrose Cossit, was born in C'laremont on 
August 28, 1785 ; was a son of Ambrose Cossit, 
and, at the time of the Centennial celebration, 
July 4, 1865, the subject of this notice was the 
oldest native citizen in town. He was president 
of the Claremont Bank from its organization, in 
1848, until the organization was changed to Clare- 
mont National Bank, in 1864. He was appointed 
side or county justice of the courts for Sullivan 
county, January 8, 1833, and held that position 



CLAREMONT. 



125 



until the office was abolished by the remodeling of 
the courts in 1855. He died April 7, 1866. 

Isaac Hubbard, sou of George HublMud, a 
Revolutionary soldier, was born in Tolland, Conn., 
July 28, ]770. In 1778 he came with hi.s parents 
to Claremont and settled on the farm in the south- 
west corner of the town, now occupied by Isaac H. 
Long, a grandson of Isaac Hubbard, and the 
widow of Dr. I. G. Hubbard, a son of the subject 
of this notice. Isaac Hubbard spent his whole 
life, after eight years old, on that farm. He was an 
extensive and successful farmer and stock raiser. 
He raised a celebrated ox, called Olympus, of the 
Short Horn Durham breed, which, when .six years 
old, January 4, 1838, weighed four thousand 
pounds. The following fall this ox was taken to 
England by a Mr. Niles, of Boston, his name 
changed to " Brother Jonathan," and put on exhi- 
bition. From England he was taken to France 
and exhibited there for a time, and then returned 
to England, where he was slaughtered. Mr. Hub- 
bard was several times elected to represent his 
town in the New Hampshire Legislature ; many 
years one of the selectmen of Claremont; wa.-- 
prominent in the Episcopal Church, and was re- 
garded as one of the solid and strong men of the 
town. He was a brother of Judge J. H. Hub- 
bard, of Windsor, Vt. He died January 2cS, 
1861. 

Rt. Rev. Carlton Chase, D. D., sou of 
Charles Chase, a well-to-do farmer, was born at 
Hopkinton, N. H., February "20, 17U4. He grad- 
uated at Dartmouth College, second in his class, in 
1817. During the last year of his college course 
he was baptized at Hopkinton, and united with the 
Episcopal Church. He read theology at Bristol, 
R. I., under the direction of Bishop Griswold ; was 
made a deacon in December, 1818 ; from May tt) 
July, 1819, he officiated at Springfield, Mass., and 
in September of the same year commenced his 
work at Bellows' Falls, Vt., officiating one-third of 
the time in St. Peter's Church, Drewsville, N. H., 
for a year or more, after which his whole time was 
given to Imraauuel Church, Bellows' Falls. He 
was ordained priest by Bishop Griswold in Trinity 



Church, Newport, R. I., on September 27th, 1820. 
In 1839 he received the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from the University of Vermont. He 
continued rector of Immanuel Church until April 
7, 18-14. On October 4, 1843, Dr. Chase was 
elected Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. 
He removed to Claremont early in 1844, and com- 
menced his duties as rector of Trinity Church the 
first Sunday after Easter of that year. He was 
consecrated Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the State of New Hampshire, in Christ 
Church, Philadelphia, by the Rt. Rev. Philander 
Chase, D. D., on October 20, 1844. By reason of 
advancing age and the requirements of the dio- 
cese, he resigned the rectorship of Trinity Church, 
June 1, 1863. He died at his residence in Clare- 
mont, on January 18, 1870. 

The Rev. Henry Sumner Smith was born in 
Nashua, N. H., March 15, 1801. He entered 
Kenyou College, at Gambler, O., but on account 
of the disorgauized state of that institution, he did 
not graduate. He studied theology at Gambler ; 
was made deacon by Bishop Mcllvaine at Gam- 
bier, September 7th, 1833; ordained j'l'iest at 
Cleveland, O., September 11, 1836, by Bishop 
Mcllvaine. Following his ordination, Mr. Smith 
officiated in sevei'al small parishes in the diocese 
of Ohio. x\t Easter, 1838, he became the assistant 
of the Rev. James B. Howe in Union Church, 
Claremont, one-half of the time ; the other half he 
officiated in Trinity Church, Cornish. In 1842 
Mr. Smith officiated in Cornish and Plainfield. 
He became rector of Union Church, Trinity 
Church havine been organized at the villasre, in 
1843, and continued in this office until his death, 
February 16th, 1872 — twenty-nine years. 

Dr. Silas II. Sabin, was born at Pomfret, 
Conn., July 3d, 1777. At an early age he went 
with his parents to Windsor, Vt., and worked on 
his father's ftirm until twenty years of age, after 
which he fitted for college, at Haverhill, N. H., 
and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1803. 
He studied medicine with Dr. Trask, at Windsor. 
He commenced practice at Strafford, Vt., in 1807, 
subsequently at Windsor, until 18111, when he 



126 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



came to Claremont aud continued in practice until 
1834, at which time he retired from active prac- 
tice. When in Vermont he was examining sur- 
geon in the war of 1812. In Claremont he was 
superintendent of schools several years. He was 
a man of fine literary acquirements and wrote and 
published many essays on various medical t02)ics. 
He died in Claremont July 29, 1850. 

Hon. Aloxzo B. Williamson was born at 
Woodstock, Vt, December 20, 1815. He was 
educated at Woodstock, Vt., academy ; studied 
law in Claremont with P. C. Freeman ; admitted to 
the bar in 1837; practised in Claremont from 
1842 to 1844 ; then in Cornish, N. H., about a 
year, when he was appointed Postmaster at Clare- 
mont, which office he held four years, at the end 
of this time he resumed the 2:)ractice of his pro- 
fession and continued it in Claremont until his 
death. In 1850 he was appointed solicitor for 
Sullivan County, which he held five years. He 
was elected State Senator in 1852, and re-elected 
in 1853. He died March 19, 18(!0. 

The Rev. Isaac G. Hubbard, D.D., was 
born in Claremont, April 13, 1818, and was a 
son of Isaac Hul)bard, Esq. He graduated at 
Trinity College in 1839. He passed from college 
into the General Theological Seminary, New 
Y'ork, where he spent two years, and finished the 
prescribed course of study with Bishop Carlton 
Chase. While studying with Bishop Chase he 
officiated as lay reader at Drewsville and Bellows' 
Falls, Vt He was ordained deacon in Trinity 
Church, Claremont, June 25, 1845. He served 
his deaconate at Vergennes, Vt., and received 
priest's orders from Bishop Chase in March 1847. 
The first four years of his priesthood he was rector 
of a church at Potsdam, N. Y. Then for several 
mouths he was assistant of the venerable Dr. 
Muhlenburg, in the Church of the Holy Com- 
munion, New York. In March 1852, he became 
rector of St. Michael's Church, Manchester, N. H., 
where he remained until February, 186(i. The 
field was a missionary one, demanding great self- 
denial, patience, energy and wisdom, and affording 
a larjre amount of work. The growth of the 



parish was real and lasting. The great visible 
work of Dr. Hubbard was the erection of a beau- 
tiful stone church and a comfortable jjarsonage, 
to accomplish which he wrought with his own 
hands and superintended every detail. The strain 
ui)on him was very great and produced the usual 
result, and in the spring of 1866, by reason of 
mental and bodily exhaustion, he was compelled 
to resign his jiarish, and retired to his portion of 
his late father's farm in Claremont for rest. In 
August, 1867, he was sufficiently restored to ac- 
cept the rectorship of Trinity Church, Claremont, 
where he remained until Easter, 1875. During 
this period he was forced, by a recurrence of his 
former trouble to take a rest of six months, aud 
through the kind instrumentality of a few friends 
he visited Europe. Again his health failed, and 
when he resigned and returned to his farm he 
did not expect to resume priestly labors. How- 
ever, in October, 1876, he began services at Union 
Church, without making any permanent engage- 
ment. The Easter following he felt able to accept 
the post of minister in charge for a year, and re- 
newed the engagement at Easter, 1878. On 
Passion Sunday, March 30, 1878, he drove to 
church with his family as usual, but on his arrival 
did not feel able to perform service, and started to 
return home in a sleigh, and expired very sud- 
denly on the way. Dr. Hubbard was one of the 
trustees of St. Paul's School, Concord, for twenty 
years immediately preceding his death. 

Paran Stevens, a son of Col. Josiah and Ma- 
tilda Stevens, was born in Claremont, September 
11th, 1802. He pursued with great energy and 
perseverance whatever business enterprise he under- 
took. He had much to do from 1835 to 1837, in 
starting the improvement of the fine water-power 
aflx)rded by Sugar River. One of the first of his 
business enterprsies was the keeping of the Tremont 
House in Claremont, which was destroyed by fire, 
aud the loss of four or five lives, in March, 1878. 
He made it famous for the excellence of its enter- 
tainment for travelers. In 1843, when thirty years 
old, Mr. Stevens leased the New England House. 
Boston, and kept it several years. Subsequently, 



CLAREMONT. 



127 



wlien the Revere House was built by the Massa- 
chusetts Charitable Association, he was selected to 
manage it. At that time the Revere House was the \ 
most magnificent hotel in the country, and Mr 
Stevens made it a success. He soon became inter- 
ested in the Tremout House, Boston, Battle House, 1 
Mobile, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, and Con \ 
tinental, Philadelphia, all coming under his general 
management, and he became known iis the great 
hotel man of America, and accumulated a large 
fortune out of these enterprises. In 1855 and 1866 
he traveled extensively in Europe. In 1867 he 
was ajipointed one of the ten Commissioners to rep- 
resent the United States at the grand Paris Expo- 
sition. The last part of his life was spent in New 
York. For his endowment of the High School, see 
notice of that institution. 

Carl A. Volk, j\I.D., was born in Hamburg, 
near Frankfort, Germany, June 18, 1812. He 
came to America in 1834, and settled in Ohio. He 
came to Claremout in 1844, and had a large prac- 
tice as long as he lived Dr. Yolk studied in Hei- 
delberg, and took the degree of M.D., from Dart- 
mouth College in 1859. He died in Claremont 
March 3d, 1883. 

Colonel Alexander Gardiner was born at 
Catskill, N. Y., July 27, 1833 ; fitted for college 
at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden ; studied 
law with Shea & Richardson, New York City ; 
admitted to the bar in that city in 1856 ; was in 
Kansas about two years during the political 
troubles there ; came to Claremont in the spring 
of 1859, and opened a law-office with Edwin 
Vaughan ; continued in j)ractice until September, 
1862, when he was commissioned lieutenant in the 
Fourteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volun- 
teers ; promoted to major September 12, 1863, and 
to colonel of that regiment September 12, 1864. 
In the battle of Cedar Creek, near Winchester, 
Va., September 19, 1864, Colonel Gardiner was 
mortally wounded ; he remained in the hands of 
the enemy five hours, when the Union troops re- 
gained the ground and recovered the dead and 
wounded. He died of his wounds October 8, 
1864, and his remains were buried in Claremont. 



Thomas Leland was born at Grafton, Mass., 
August 5, 1784 ; graduated at Middlebury, Vt., 
College in 1809 ; studied law in the office of Judge 
J. H. Hul)bard, at Windsor, Vt. ; was admitted to 
the bar in 1812 ; was in practice at Windsor until 
1M34, when he came to Claremont and continued 
in practice until his death, March 3, 1849. He 
represented Windsor in the Vermont Legislature 
one or more terms. 

Charles Leland was a son of Thomas 
Leland; born at Windsor, Vt., July 28, 1817; 
was educated in the schools of his native town ; 
studied law with his father ; was admitted to the 
New Hampshire bar, and was in the practice of 
his profession at Claremont a few years. For the 
twenty-two last years of his life he was salesman 
for a New York drug-house. He died at Clare- 
mont March 28, 1884. 

John Kimball was born at Haverhill, N. H , 
September 30, 179(i. He graduated at Dartmouth 
College, and studied law at Bath, N. H , in the 
office of Hon. Moses Payson, and was admitted to 
the bar at Haverhill. He was in practice at 
Claremont from 1830 to 1839, and at Putney, Vt., 
from 1839 to 1870. He was twice elected to the 
New Hampshire Senate while he lived in Clare- 
mont. He represented Putney in the Vermont 
Legislature several years ; was twice State Senator 
for his district, and once president of the Senate. 
He died at Putney Februaiy 23, 1884. 

Hon. Philander C. Freeman was born at 
Plainfield, N. H., August 27,1807. He gradu- 
ated at Kenyou College, Gambler, Ohio ; studied 
law in the office of Judge J. H. Hubbard, at 
Windsor, Vt. He came to Claremont about 
1838, opened an office and commenced the practice 
of his profession. He was a representative in the 
legislature from Claremont, and for several years 
was justice of the police court. He died Ajiril 20, 
1871. 

Hon. Milon C. McClure was boi'ii in As- 
worth ; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1846 ; 
taught in the Claremont Academy two years ; was 
admitted to the bar in 1849 ; formed a law partner- 
ship with P. C. Freeman in Claremont, which was 



128 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



continued until liis death in 1860. In 1855 and 
1856 he was a member of the Governor's council ; 
in 1857 and 1858 he was a representative from 
Claremont in the New Hampshire Legislature. 

Dr. William M. Ladd was born in Unity in 
the year 1813. He graduated at Kimball Union 
Academy studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. 
Charles Perry, in Rutland, Vt.; attended lectures 
at the Vermont School of Medicine, where he took 
his degree of M.D. For the next ten yeai-s he 
was in the active p)'actice of his profession at 
Townshend, Vt. He then came to Claremont. 
continued practice . for a time, and then opened a 
drug store and continued in that business until his 
death, June 29, 1885. He was postmaster of 
Claremont for nine years, being appointed by Pres- 
ident Pierce. He was also commissioner of schools 
for Sullivan county for several years. 
BIOGRAPHICAL. 

De. Alvah R. Cummings was born in Aeworth, 
August 27, 1826. He fitted for College at Marlow 
and Hancock academies. He studied medicine 
with Dr. William Grout at Camden, Ohio, and 
Dr. J. N. Butler at Lempster. He attended lec- 
tures and took the degree of M.D. at Dartmouth 
College in 1852. He practiced at Topsham, Vt., 
and Washington, N. H., three years ; in the winter 
of 1855-56 he attended a cour.se of lectures at the 
New Y^ork Medical College, and came to Clare- 
mont in March, 1856, and has been in practice 
here since that time. 

Dr. T. Elwood Parker was born near West 
Chester, Chester county. Pa., December 16, 1854 ; 
he graduated March 10, L880, from Hahnemann 
Medical College, Philadelphia. He practiced at 
Parkerville, Pa., nearly four years, and came to 
Claremont in 1.S.S4. He formed a business con- 
nection with Dr. F. L. Mcintosh. 

Dr. Fred. L. McIntosh was born at New 
Marlboro', Mass., November 17, 1S58 ; was edu- 
cated in Augusta, Me.; graduated at Hahnemann 
Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1880. He prac- 
ticed two years before he received his degree, came 
to Claremont in October, 1881, and in January, 
1884, associated with him Dr. T. Elwood Parker. 



Dr. James P. Holt was born in Claremont, 
June 19, 1853, and is a son of James Holt, late 
sherifl' of Sullivan county. He graduated at 
Stephens High School in June 1873. He entered 
the drug store of Dr. W. M. Ladd and remained 
there about four years, the last two years of which 
time and the following year he studied medicine 
with Dr. O. B. Way. He took a medical course 
at Dartmouth College and graduated there Octo- 
ber 30, 1877. He then commenced practice in 
Claremont and continued until September, 1880, 
when he entered the Hartford Hospital, Hartford, 
Conn., and was there one year — six months as as- 
sistant and six months as house-physician and sur- 
geon. At the end of this time he returned to 
Claremont and resumed practice. In May, 1884, 
he bought a half interest in the drug store of Dr. 
W. M. Ladd. Dr. Ladd having died he became 
sole proprietor in July, 1885, and continues the 
practice of his profession. 

John Tyler is a son of Benjamin Tyler, Jr., 
and a grandson of Colonel Benjamin Tyler, before 
alluded to in different connections in this history. 
He (John Tyler) was born in Claremont, April 8, 
1802, and is in his eighty-fourth year, hale and 
hearty, with memory clear, especially of events 
occurring sixty years ago. He is by trade a mill- 
wright, though he has not worked at it for several 
years. He lives upon his farm at West Clare- 
mont, within fifty rods of the spot where he was 
born, and in the first frame house ever built in 
Claremont. 

John Tyler (2d) is a son of John Tyler, and 
grandson of Colonel Benjamin Tyler. He was 
born in Claremont March 26, 1818. He learned 
the trade of millwright, serving an apprenticeship 
of seven years, and was then for eight years fore- 
man of the shop where he learned his trade. He 
then came to West Lebanon in 1850, for several 
years did a large business buOding mills, some- 
times employing fifty men. He returned to 
Claremont, where he has since resided, in 1872. 
In 1856 he invented and got patented the Iron 
Tyler Turbine Water Wheel, the first iron water 
wheel ever made, since which he has been granted 



CLAREMONT. 



129 



nine patents for improvements on it. These 
wheels met with great favor from mill owners, 
and soon took the place of the old cumbrous and 
expensive wheels. More than five thousand of 
these wheels have been sold, and they are now 
running in most of the States and territories in 
the Union and in the Canadas. He is also the 
inventor and patentee of Tyler's Copper Cylinder 
Washer, for washing paper stock, and they are 
going into pretty general use. In 1872 Mr. Tyler 
built what is known as the Bible Hill Aqueduct, 
to supply Claremont village with pure spring 
water. It runs to over two hundred families. 

Dr. Samuel G. Jarvls, was born in Claremont, 
September 30th, 1816, and is a son of the late Dr. 
Leonard Jarvis. He studied medicine with the 
late Dr. Thos. B. Kittridge, then in jjractice in 
Claremont, and graduated at Jefferson Medical 
College, Philadelphia, in 1838. Dr. Jarvis com- 
menced practice in Claremont in 1840, which he 
has since continued. 

De. Oemon B. Way, son of Gordon Way, was 
born in Lempster, N. H., March 2'2d, 1840 ; came 
to Claremont with his parents when four years 
old, and has since been a resident here, except two 
or three short intervals. He was educated at 
Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H. ; stu<l- 
ied medicine with the late Prof. A. B. Crosby, 
M.D., of Hanover, N. H., and the late Dr. Nath. 
Tolles, of Claremont, and graduated at Dartmouth 
Medical College in 1865, receiving the first prize 
for scholarship. He was in practice about eighteen 
months at South Acworth, N. H., and returned to 
Claremont in 1867, where he has since continued in 
the practice of his profession. In December, ] 873, 
he was appointed U. S. Examining Pension Sur- 
geon, and resigned in May, 1882. He was twice a 
member of the New Hampshire Legislature, and 
has served more than twenty years as Superinten- 
ding and High School Committee 

Dr. Clarence W. Tolles, son of the late Dr. 
Nathaniel Tolles, was born in Claremont, April 
30th, 1845. He studied medicine with his father ; 



graduated at Bellevue Medical College in 1868 ; 
studied one year at University Medical College, 
London ; was associated with hLs father in prac- 
tice until the latter's death, in June, 1879, when he 
succeeded to the practice of the firm. 

Edwin Vaughan was born at Chelsea, Vt., Sep- 
tember 14th, 1832. He graduated at Kimball 
Union Academy, Meriden, N. H., in 1855; com- 
menced study of law in 1854 ; entered the Law 
University at Albany, N. Y., in 1856, was admitted 
to the bar from that institution in 1857, and to the 
bar of the U. S. District Court for New Hamp- 
shire, in 1870. He commenced practice at Clare- 
mont, in company with the late Col. Alexander Gar- 
diner. Was married on the 20th of June, 1860, 
to Elizabeth L., daughter of the late Rev. S. G. 
Henry, of Springfield, Vt. ^Ir. Vaughan enlisted 
in the New Hampshire Cavalry in December, 1861, 
passed through the -several grades and was com- 
missioned Captain of Co. A., of his regiment, in 
March, 1864. He was Assistant Provost Marshal 
of the 8th Army Corps the last six months of 
his service, and was stationed at Baltimore. He 
was discharged June 7th, 1865, and returned to 
practice in Claremont. He was a member of the 
New Hampshire Legislature in 1866 and 1867 ; 
U. S. Revenue Inspector in 1867 and 1868 ; mem- 
ber of the Chicago Republican Conveution which 
nominated Gen. Grant fur President in 1868 ; was 
appointed U. S. Consul at Contoocook, Canada, in 
April, 1869, which office he held until 1881, when 
he returned to Claremont, and was appointed Judge 
of Probate for Sullivan County, June 7th, 1883. 

Dr. Leonard Jarvis, second son of Dr. Sam- 
uel G., and grandson of the late Dr. Leonard Jar- 
vis, was born in Claremont on July 29th, 1852- 
He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1873, and 
at Harvard Medical School in 1882. He was 
House Physician at the Lying-in Hospital, Boston, 
four months, and House Surgeon at Rhode Island 
Hospital, Providence, fifteen months. He com- 
menced practice in Claremont in May, 1884.' 



130 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



GEORGE N. FARWELL. 

The Farwells of America, in a great measure, 
descended from Henry Farwell, the English emi- 
grant, who was one of the first settlers of Concord, 
Mass., where he was made " freeman " May 22, 
1639. About 1655 he removed to Chelmsford, 
where he died in 1670. He had five children, — 
John, Joseph, Mary, Olive and Elizabeth. 

Nicholas Farwell, the first of the family in 
Claremont, N. H., was born May 5, 1781, 
probably in Marblehead, Mass., and removed 
with his parents w'hile very young to Pickers- 
field (now Nelson, N. H.). His father was in 
greatly straitened circumstances, and the large 
family of boys were scattered in places that 
afforded them chances for labor. Nicholas was 
apprenticed to a shoemaker, and, with very little 
opportunity to avail himself of the meagre educa- 
tional adyantages afforded in that day, came up to 
manhood with a strong physique, a good knowl- 
edge of his trade, and habits of industry, stead- 
fastness and frugality — a worthy inheritance for 
his descendants. He married, April 20, 1803, 
Susan, daughter of Oliver Corey, and settled on a 
farm in the west part of Claremont, but, in 1813, 
he moved into the village and began the manu- 
fixcturing of ladies' shoes, and, by perseverance, 
energy and close application, was successful, 
building up an industry of large proportions for 
that time and adding much to the prosperity of 
the community. 

He was also interested in merchandising and 
the manufacturing of cotton cloth at the Lower 
village. 

He erected a residence on Broad Street, now 
owned and occupied by Hermon Holt, Esq., who 
married a granddaughter, and lived there until 
his death, which occurred October 13, 1852, from 
heart-disease. His widow died September 25, 
18G0. 

George N. Farwell, the oldest of thirteen chil- 



dren born to Nicholas and Susan (Corey) Farwell 
(only three of whom are living), was born in West 
Claremont February 18, 1804, attended the 
public schools until he was fourteen, then com- 
menced learning his father's trade and receiving 
the benefits of the public schools in the winter 
season. At his majority he went to St. Albans 
and engaged in the business of shoe manufactur- 
ing, but, after fifteen months, was induced by his 
father to return and enter into copartnership with 
him, after which he acquired the whole business, 
which he successfully followed for over thirty-five 
years, steadily increasing his productions, the 
standard of which was maintained and the reputa- 
tion of Farwell's shoes throughout Vermont and 
Northern New Hampshire, where his products were 
marketed by the country merchants, was well 
known. He gave employment to about one hun- 
dred persons. He married Sarah A., daughter of 
Louis and Rhoda Rathbone McDonald, of Mid- 
dlebury, Vt., December 25, 1827, at Middlebury, 
the late Kt. Rev. Benjamin Bosworth Smith, 
Bishop of Kentucky, officiating. Their children 
are James H., born June 25, 1829 ; John L., born 
March 1, 1834; and Susan L., born May 27, 1841. 
James H. is single. John L. married Martha 
Cooper, of Newark, Ohio, March 3, 1857. Their 
children are George Nicholas (2), born January 3, 
1858; Belle, born May 28, 1860; John L., Jr., 
born May 26, 1865; Sarah Caroline, born June 
11, 1868. 

George Nicholas (2) was married, April 18, 
1880, to Anna L. Grosvenor, of Dubuque, Iowa, 
to whom was born Susan Breck, February 5, 1885. 
Susan L., youngest child of George N., married 
William Breck, October 7, 1868, to whom was 
born Sarah McDonald, born January 14, 1873. 
It will be noticed that, at the present time, four 
generations are living and all residing in Clare- 
mont. 

Sarah A., wife of George N., died February 11, 
1876. She was a woman of superior strength and 
beauty of character, abounding in good works, 
generous, gentle and loving, a Christian wife and 
mother. A reverend acquaintance wrote of her. 




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CLAREMONT. 



131 



" A lady of rare excellence and loveliness of 
character. God endowed her with superior 
natural powers. She possessed quick discernment, 
sound judgment, good taste, wise discretion, well 
educated, refined, intelligent, amiable, sympa- 
thetic, hospitable and a true Christian woman, 
taking large Scriptural views of Christ, the re- 
demption of sinners and the atonement." 

In 1849 the Claremont Bank was incorporated. 
Mr. Farwell, being one of the incorporators, pro- 
cured the stock subscriptions and took a leading 
part in its organization ; afterwards was its cashier, 
and at this present time is its president, his son 
John L. being the vice-president and George N. 
(2), his grandson, iis cashier. Mr. Farwell is the 
oldest director living of the original board. He 
was active and prominent in the organization of 
the Sullivan Savings Institution, was its first 
treasurer, and has been an active director since its 
organization, in 1848 (see chapter on Banks). 
Mr. Farwell has built several buildings in Clare- 
mont, — his present homestead on Broad Street in 
1851, built on the lot his family only have occu- 
pied since 1828 ; also built the business block 
which bears his name in 1852; was treasurer 
of and one of the committee to erect the Stevens 
High School building. He has been one of the 
leading members of the Congregational Church 
for over half a century, represented the town in 
the State Legislature in 1868-69, acceptably filled 
many offices of trust, and occujjies an exalted 
jjosition in the esteem of a large circle of friends, 
who honor him for his many sterling qualities. 
Mr. Farwell is a man of dignified yet pleasant 
appearance, with clear intellect, happy tempera- 
ment, carries his more than four score years 
lightly, and, surrounded by his children, grand- 
children and great-grandchildren, who delight in 
doing him honor, he is passing the evening of his 
life, beloved and reverenced by the whole com- 
munity. 

GEORGE LEWIS BALCOM. 

In the words of an old philosopher, — " All men, 
whatever their condition, who have done anything 



of value, ought to record the history of their 
lives," and one who, entirely by his own efforts, 
has attained affluence and social position, and 
through all the changing events of a long business 
life has preserved his integrity unimpaired, well 
deserves the pen of the historian. 

George Lewis Balcom, son of Jonas and 
Mary (Richardson) Balcom, was born in Sud- 
bury, Mass., October 19, 1819. At the age of 
four years he removed, with his parents, to Low- 
ell, and received instruction in the private and 
High Schools of that place, and subsequently at- 
tended Westminster Academy (Mass.), where he 
acquired an education, which enabled him to 
enter Harvard University, at the early age of 
fifteen, in the class of 1839. At this time he had 
a powerful incentive to study, as his desire w-as to 
fit himself for professional life, and with his love 
for knowledge and natural taste for literary pur- 
suits, he might have been successful as a lawyer 
or theologian ; but, after two years of college life, 
the development of an affection of the throat 
obliged him to relinquish reluctantly his chosen 
life-work, and he left college to put himself in 
training for business. He must have possessed a 
brave heart, in the midst of a successful collegiate 
cour.:e, to break off from all the associations and 
habits peculiar to the student and scholar, and 
commence at the foot of the ladder of business. 
At the age of seventeen, in 1837, he went to Bos- 
ton and entered a hard ware- store, and was the 
youngest in rank, although by education amply 
•qualified for a higher position ; yet, with the thor- 
oughness which was a strong characteristic with 
him, he preferred to pass through all the grada- 
tions from an errand boy to that of salesman, and 
mastering all the details of the trade. 

Thus prepared to enter the world of activity, on 
attaining his majority, Mr. Balcom left Boston, 
and went to Philadelphia, where he found em- 
ployment in the hardware business, and remained 
until 1846, when he returned to his native State. 
In 1847 he went to Proctorsville, Vt., and engaged 
as bookkeeper in the woolen-mill of Gilson Smith 
& Co , and held that position until 1848, when. 



132 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



through assiduous attention to his duties and a 
marked fidelity to the advancement of the inter- 
ests of his emjjloyers, he was soon promoted to the 
office of superintendent of the mill, and two years 
subsequently (1850) he became an owner and 
junior partner in the firm, under title of " Smith 
& Balcom," and continued business as such for 
seven years. 

Mr. Balcom married, October 20, 1845, Anna, 
daughter of Samuel and Anna West, of Philadel- 
phia. Their children were, — Samuel West, born 
in Philadelphia, June 2fi, 1849, died July 26, 
1849 ; William Smith, born in Proctorsville, Vt , 
August 3, 1850, and Mary Anna, born April 28, 
1854, died October 21, 1854. William Smith 
Balcom married, first, Mary Euffner Bellas, Octo- 
ber 8, 1874; she died July 21, 1879, leaving one 
child, Bessie Richardson, born August 31, 1870. 
He married, second, Cecilia Chollett Sower, Janu- 
ary 17, 1883. They have had one child, George 
Lewis Balcom (2d), born August 20, 1884, died 
October (5, 1884. 

In 1857 Mr. Balcom purchased the woolen-mill 
of Sanford & Rossiter (see chapter on Manufac- 
tures), and became a resident of Claremont. 
Since the mill passed into his ownership until the 
present time, — a period of twenty-eight years, — it 
has beeu run without cessation, — a notable and 
praiseworthy fact. He has, from time to time, 
entirely replaced the old with new and improved 
machinerj', and has now truly a model mill. For 
several years during and after the War of the 
Rebellion, he also carried on his former manufac-* 
tory in Proctorsville, Vt., and for a year or two, 
under the United States internal revenue laws, he 
paid a much larger income tax than any other 
individual in the State, though doubtless there 
was more than one person whose real income ex- 
ceeded his. It is not too much to say that the 
successful condition of this manufactory, which 
for more than a quarter of a century has given 
employment to a large number of workmen, is 
due, in a great measure, to the financial ability 
and untiring energy of Mr. Balcom. He takes a 
kindly interest in his employes, as they can attest. 



giving them friendly counsel and advice, and 
often very substantial proofs of his care. He is 
not only a just, but thoughtful employer. 

Politically, Mr. Balcom affiliates with the Re- 
publican party. He represented Cavendish in the 
Legislature of Vermont in 1855 and 185G, and the 
extra session of 1857. He was also member from 
Claremont in the New Hampshire Legislature of 
1883. In 1868 he visited Europe, traveling 
through France, Italy, Switzerland and Great 
Britain. He is a member of the Episcopal 
Church, is a generous and intelligent su](])orter of 
its afiairs, and has been one of the trustees of 
Holderness School from its organization. He was 
a member of the Episcopal General Convention of 
1871, and an alternate or member of all held 
since that year. His early predilections and 
tastes yet remain ; he is a student and a discrim- 
inating reader ; he takes a great interest in his- 
torical research, is a member of New Hampshire 
Historical Society, and is making a specialty of 
works on American history, of which he has a 
large number. His collection of New Hampshire 
historical works is, with a few exceptions, the 
largest in the State, and he has one of the most 
extensive and most valuable private libraries in 
Sullivan County. 

Although his life has been one of continuous 
business activity, Mr. Balcom has not remained a 
silent observer of events, or of the growth or pros- 
perity of Claremont, but has borne his part in all 
enterprises tending to promote the causes of mo- 
rality, religion and education, to further the inter- 
ests of society and to advance the sway of law and 
the prevalence of order. He has always acted 
upon the principle that whatever is worth doing 
at all should be done thoroughly and well. Un- 
ostentatious and unassuming, Mr. Balcom stands 
high in the esteem of the leading men in the com- 
munity and State, as one of New Hamjjshire's 
representative manufacturers. 



JUDGE WILLIAM CLARK. 

Among the sons of Claremont, for many years 
identified with her mercantile, political and social 



:^-0^=^' 



■ :.f vT- 



CLAKEMONT. 



133 



relations, must be mentioned Judge Clark, who 
died in the town of his nativity. May 30, 1883. 

Judge William Clark descended from two 
early and prominent families of New Hampshire, 
being the son of Moses and Fanny (Patterson) 
Clark. His paternal and maternal ancestors were 
among the pioneers of Londonderry, his father 
removing from that town to Claremout, where 
William was born March 6, 1819, on the home- 
stead, situated about three miles from the village, 
on the old Newport road His father was 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, and William 
passed his time until he became of age working 
on the farm and acquiring a good education 
from the district schools of the town. The in- 
struction he received was not seed thrown on 
stony soil ; his mind was active, inquiring, 
retentive and particularly receptive, and his 
future career showed that his advantages were 
well improved. At the age of twenty-one, pre- 
ferring mercantile life to that of a " tiller of the 
soil," he apprenticed himself to Rufus Carlton, 
in the meat business, and continued with him 
one year, after which he worked for Colonel Phil- 
emon Tolles, remaining with him three years, 
attending to his duties with a faithfulness which 
always characterized him. Having a good knowl- 
edge of the business, and being energetic and 
self-reliant, he entered trade for himself and con- 
tinued in this line for twelve years. His enter- 
prise was prospered, and he built up the largest 
business of the kind in the section ; had his 
meat-wagons running through all the neighbor- 
ing towns the entire year, and in the winter he 
drove from Claremont to Concord each week 
with supplies. In 1857, Mr. Clark disposed of 
his interest to Henry C. Cowles, whom he had 
taken as a partner a few years previously, and 
soon after entered into partnership with Albert 
H. Danforth, a wholesale ilour and grain dealer, 
and continuing in trade until 1871, when he 
retired from a mercantile life of thirty years. 

During these years, however, Mr. Clark had 
found other channels for his active nature. He 
took a warm interest in political and public afiairs, 



and his judgment, discernment and business abil- 
ity were recognized by his fellow-townsmen, and 
he was called upon to fill various offices of trust. 
In 1853 he was appointed selectman, and held 
that office fifteen years, ten of which he was 
chairman. In 1871, 1872 and 1873 he was town 
clerk, and the neatness and correctness of the 
records attest his care. He was appointed deputy 
assessor of internal revenue for this district in 
1863, which position he held nine years. From 
1851 he was largely engaged in probate business, 
and was entrusted with the administration of 
some of the largest and most important estates in 
Sullivan County, among them the " Cheshire 
Bridge Estate," the estate of Hon. John M. Glid- 
den and that of .John Tappan. His good judg- 
ment, sagaciousness and keen insight of the char- 
acters of men, their tastes, sympathies, tempera- 
ment and prejudices, were of great advantage to 
him, and his administration in all cases was 
eminently successful, and he acquitted himself 
with credit, and to the approval of the interested 
parties. His adjustment of the Tai>pan estate 
some fourteen years since, whereby the town of 
Claremont came into the pos es.sion of the " Tap- 
pan Fund," was especially reputable. He was 
appointed judge of Probate for Sullivan County 
in 1876, and held the office at the time of his 
death. His twenty-five years of experience in 
similar business was a fine preparation, and he was 
an able officer in his judicial capacity, and in 
no instance did the Supreme Court overrule his 
decision when appeal was taken. 

Judge Clark was for many years interested in 
the banking institutions of Claremont, was a large 
stockholder in them, and familiar with the details 
of their business. He was a director in the Clare- 
mont National Bank for fourteen yeai-s, and in 
the Sullivan Savings Institution for twenty-nine 
years, besides being for many years one of the 
loaning agents, and was first on the list of vice- 
presidents at the time of his death. 

Judge Clark married, January 15, 1855, Esther 
A. Bosworth, an estimable lady, who survives him. 
In the death of Judge Clark, Sullivan County 



134 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



lost one of her best men, and Claremont a man 
who probably was more conversant with the 
affairs and history of the town than any other per- 
son. In his official capacity he was courteous, 
gentlemanly and dignified, and in the settling of 
complicated cases gave great satisfaction. In pri- 
vate life he was social and of pleasing manners. 
He did not make friends hastily, but a friendship 
once formed was lasting. He was kind to all, and 
his counsel and advice were sought and valued by 
many. For his prolonged business activities, his 
faithfulness to large responsibilities, his quick re- 
ply to the demauds of charity or public weal, his 
unostentatious manner, his cordial and gentlemanly 
bearing, Judge Clark will be long held in kindly 
remembrance by the community of which he was 
so useful and worthy a member, and may his 
record prove a wholesome model to a rising gener- 
ation. 



HON. CHARLRS H. EASTMAN. 

Hon. Charles H. Eastman, only child of 
Timothy and Eunice (Barnes) Eastman, was born 
in Claremont, N. H., June 20, 1819, and died in 
that town, August 4, 1879. Timothy Eastman 
was a resident of Claremont for many years, com- 
ing to the town in 1811. He was actively engaged 
in tanning and other important industries for 
nearly half a century, and, by the energy of his 
character and devotion to business, accumulated 
a fortune, and acquired the esteem and friendship 
of the community. During his latter years he 
was president of the Sullivan Savings Institution. 
He died in 1859, aged sixty-eight. 

Charles received the educational advantages of 
the schools of Claremont and vicinity, and, inher- 
iting the business characteristics of his father, 
early became a valuable assistant to him. From 
his mother, a deeply pious and devoted Christian, 
the young lad received lessons of piety which 
brought early and abundant fruit. When but 
twelve years old he united with the Congregational 
Church, and ever after was a worker in the King- 
dom of the Lord. When a little past his major- 
ity, Mr. Eastman became impressed with the con- 



viction that it was his duty to enter the ministry, 
and, when he was twenty-four, he had qualified 
himself for that labor, was ordained and became a 
member of the New Hampshire Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. For over five years, 
in Manchester and elsewhere, until m aflPection of 
the throat caused his withdrawal from continuous 
ministerial labor, Mr. Eastman did earnest and 
faithful service in his chosen field. At his father's 
urgent request, Mr. Eastman then returned to 
Claremont and became a partner in the tanning 
business. This was a flourishing industry, employ- 
ing numerous people, and added greatly to the 
prosperity of the town. After his father's death, 
Mr. Eastman inherited the property and became 
extensively known as a leather manufacturer. He 
was prominent among the business men of this 
section and . was a director of Sullivan Savings 
Institution. 

Mr. Eastman was early identified with the Re- 
publican party and did much to aid in the dissem- 
ination of the principles of that organization, and 
was pronounced in the support of the Union in 
the great Civil War. The duties of a member 
of the State Legislature at that period were ardu- 
ous and full of responsibility, and he did good ser- 
vice for his town as representative during the dark 
years of 1861-62 In the estimation of the people 
he Wiis qualified for a higher position and greater 
trus s, and, in 1863-64, he was a valued member of 
the Executive Council of Governor Gilmore. 

But it was not alone as a man of business and 
public office that we must speak of Mr. Eastman. 
His activity reached into other channels and his 
benevolence found many objects for his ready sym- 
pathy and liberal hand. In Methodist circles he 
was recognized as one of its strong pillars in Sulli- 
van County. As superintendent of the Sabbath- 
school of that church in Claremont for many 
years, he impressed himself upon the rising gener- 
ation in such a manner that the lessons of his life 
will not soon be forgotten. In everything looking 
toward the elevation of mankind and the better- 
ing of the world Mr. Eastman was an earnest 
participant. In temperance circles his voice and 




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A^/^y7-7 /"^^i^ 




ZL'C^Z (S2<^^.^^^ 



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CLAKEMONT. 



135 



his means were equallj' given to aid the good work, 
and his eye was quick to mark and his heart ready 
to relieve suffering. 

He was three times married, — first, to Harriet 
King, by whom he had one son, Charles E., an 
estimable young man, who died in the early prime 
of a life which promised a career of more than 
ordinary usefulness. As a teller of the Claremont 
National Rank for six years, the business men of 
the place had ample opportunity to know his value, 
and he was universally considered a thorough gen- 
tleman, of pleasant companionship, uprightness of 
character and strict integrity. Mr. Elastman's 
second wife was Abby King, a sister of his first 
wife. January 1, 1873, he married his third wife, 
Julia A. Diggins, of Charlestown, who survives 
him. 

As a speaker Mr. Eastman combined a fine 
presence and an easy flow of language, and at 
times, when the right conditions were present, was 
eloquent. He often appeared Inusque to strangers, 
but further acquaintance showed that he had a 
kiud and sympathetic heart, which won strong 
friendship. He was true to his conception of duty, 
and the energy and good judgment shown in his 
business operations were carried with success into 
his political, neighborhood, and religious relations. 
He was a faithful pastor, a faithful friend, a faith- 
ful thinker and counselor, and an exemplary hus- 
band. 

The Eastman Memorial Chapel, presented to the 
Methodist Church by Mrs. Eastman, is a pleasing 
memorial in being consecrated to good works and 
the service of the Lord. He labored and was ap- 
preciated in his life, and may the recollection of 
his labors stimulate others to renewed exertions, 
and rest like a holy influence upon other hearts 
and other minds. " Better than storied urn or 
animated bust " is such a monument of tender 
memories. 



NATHANIEL TOLLES, M. D. 

There is no more valuable member of any com- 
munity than the intelligent and devoted physician. 



He is a benefactor of his race, and, when death 
takes from our midst an old, tried and reliable 
medical practitioner, one whom we have learned 
to look upon with regard, and whose professional 
skill and tender care of his suffering patients has 
won the esteem and love of all, we feel in our 
hearts and utter with our lips, " A good man is 
gone." Such an one was Nathaniel To lies, M D., 
the fifth and youngest son of John Tolles. He 
was born in AVeathersfield, Vt., September 17, 
1805, and when thirteen years of age he came to 
Claremont with his parents, where his father 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. Nathaniel soon 
became a pupil in the Claremont Catholic Semi- 
nary, then a flourishing institution, located at the 
west part of the town, under the supervision of 
the Rev. Daniel Barber. He was fond of study 
from early life, and his time while at school was 
improved to the utmost. He was noted for cor- 
rectness of deportment, strict obedience to regula- 
tions, as well as fiir his constant attendance in his 
classes, and for thoroughness in the preparation of 
his recitations. He continued his studies here 
until he was fitted for college, but, naturally of a 
delicate organization, this close application im- 
paired his health, and he was obliged to relinquish 
his plan of a collegiate course, and turned his atten- 
tion to employment better adapted to him, and for 
several years was occupied in various ways — teach- 
ing in the winters, and in the summer months 
assisting his father in the labors of the farm, and 
also recreating by travel, but always holding 
steadfastly to his prior intentions to advance in 
the classics, and other departments of useful 
knowledge. 

In the spring of 1827, at the age of twenty-two, 
his health being re-established, he commenced the 
study of medicine under the direction of Dr. 
James Hall, of Windsor, Vt., with whom he con- 
tinued nearly two years, and then was a pupil of 
Dr. Charles G. Adams, of Keene. He attended 
medical lectures at Eowdoin College, and after- 
wards at Dartmouth, where he received the degree 
of M.D., November, 1830. He then obtained the 
position of resident physician in the South Boston 



136 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Almshouse, where he remained for six months, 
having an opportunity to familiarize himself with 
disease, which proved of great practical use in 
after-life. While there he had the advantage of 
the superior medical instruction of the distinguished 
Dr Fisher. 

Thus fitted, Dr. Tolles commenced the practice 
of his profession in Reading, Vt., September, 1831, 
and, until March, 1841, was in continuous medical 
work. His field of labor was too far removed 
from any physician able to render him much aid 
in an emergency, or with whom he could advise ; 
consequently, he was obliged to depend upon him- 
self, and seek counsel of the learned and wise 
authors, many of whose publications were in his 
library. Thus being forced to self-reliance at this 
epoch of his medical career was the best school for 
him, as it developed his latent powers and was the 
key to his success. He studied, thought and 
practiced much in these ten years, and it was a 
valuable experience, and aided him in preparing 
for the wider and more important field he was 
destined to occupy as a physician and surgeon. In 
October, 1841, after six months of rest and recrea- 
ation. Dr. Tolles went to New Y^ork in order to 
prosecute his studies in the public in.stitutions 
there. He witnessed hospital practice, and attended 
lectures in tlie University Medical College. In 
March, 1842, he located in Claremont, and was 
soon in po.s.session of a large and lucrative practice, 
which he retained for nearly forty years. His 
reputation as a surgeon was quickly established, 
and he performed most of the surgical operations 
in this vicinity, and was often called as counselor 
with his brethren in the more important cases, 
both surgical and medical, coming under their 
care. A large number of young men pursued 
their medical studies uuder his direction, and their 
success reflected credit on their teacher. 

In his profession Dr. Tolles possessed all the 
traits and qualifications essential to its successful 
pursuit. Well grounded in its study, and keep- 
ing himself informed of the latest methods of 
diagnosis and treatment, he also possessed and 
retained those intuitive perceptions of disease 



without which, however well read, no physician 
can become a brilliant practitioner, and which 
formulated rules and the fashionable methods of 
modern professional education are doing so much 
to obliterate. With keen powers of ol)servation 
and generalization, as the pilot foretells the 
weather from signs which his own experience has 
detected, but which he cannot describe, he skillfully 
read the character of a case under treatment, and 
often irrespective of the laws, which must neces- 
sarily be fallible as long as the medica sclentla 
remains doubtful and imperfect. As it had been 
one of the great aims of his life to conquer disease, 
he strove to be definite in his observations, and 
diligent in the use of his leisure moments, and as 
a surgeon as well as physician he attained recog- 
nized eminence. Cool, bold, self-reliant, and 
strong in nerve, he only needed a wider field of 
action to win the highest honors in this department 
of his profession. He died with his armor on, 
only ceasing his labors a short time before his 
death, which occurred on the 24th of June 1879, 
in the seventy-fourth year of his ago. 

The high regard in which Dr. Tolles was held 
by his medical brethren will be best given by an 
extract from the resolutions adopted by the phy- 
sicians of Claremont, June 26, 1879 : 

"Resolved, That in the professional life, labors and 
character of Dr. Tolles; which extended over a full 
half a century, we have a commendable example of 
industry, of zeal, of usefulness and professional honor 
not often combined in a single life." 

Dr. Tolles was never a political or official aspi- 
rant, and yet he served ia other capacities than 
professional, as his marked abilities and services 
were demanded by his fellow-citizens in represen- 
tative places of trust and financial responsibility, 
but he never suffered any official duties to inter- 
fere with his life-work. He was chosen Presiden- 
tial elector at the first nomination of President 
Lincoln (1860), and was a member of the Con- 
vention in 1876 to revise the Constitution of New 
Hamphire. He was elected a member of the first 
Board of County Commis-ioners (1858), and served 
one year as its chairman. He was one of the pro- 



II 




^J_^^m<^ ^ (^rhaxJ~^^JMLJl)^ 



CLAREMONT. 



137 



jectors and committee of the Stevens High School 
building, was four years on its board of manage- 
ment, and one of the three trustees of the Stevens 
fund ; he was one of the directors of the old 
Claremont Bank, and was chosen a director of the 
National Bank in 1864, and re-elected annually 
until his death ; he also held an official position in 
the Sullivan Savings-Bank from its foundation. 
In all these business and political relations he bore 
a character of fidelity and integrity, and ever 
retained the confidence and esteem of his fellow- 
townsmen. When a young man, he became a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, and ever after 
evinced the strictest fidelity to its obligations, and 
a very high regard for the order. His religious 
views were Scriptural, and though not associated 
with any body of Christian believers, he w'as a 
worshipper at the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
and a generous supporter of the institutions of 
religion. 

Dr. Tolles married, first, Frances J. Upham, of 
Weathersfield, Vt ; second, Jane Weston, daughter 
of Ezekiel Weston, Esq., of Rockingham, Vt., 
who survives him. She was a worthy companion, 
friend, counselor and assistant to her husband, and 
her many estimable qualities and Christian char- 
acter have endeared her to the community. Their 
two surviving children are Dr. C. W. Tolles (see 
notice elsewhere) and Frances J. Tolles. 



LELAND J. GRAVES, M.D. 

" The old school country doctors are rapidly 
passing away, and it is well that memories of their 
hardships, their toils and their eflfbrts to give us and 
ours health, should cluster about them, as ivy 
gently shields the venerable abbeys of our mother- 
country, and that the autumn of their lives should 
be a golden Indian summer, and that a niche 
should be kept for them in the history of the 
county and State where their laborious lives have 
been passed." 

Leland J. Graves, M.D., son of David J. and 
Mary (Leland) Graves, was born in Berkshire, 
Franklin County, Vt., May 24, 1812. His 



father was a native of Ma.ssachusetts, and settled 
in Berkshire as a farmer. His lot in life was hum- 
ble, his family was large, consisting of nine chil- 
dren, and living in a section distant from business 
and educational centres., the opportunities for the 
advancement of the children were necessarily lim- 
ited. They were all obliged to labor, and, until 
he was nearly seventeen years old, Leland partici- 
pated in the farm-work with no school privileges. 
This, however, instead of quenching his desire for 
an education, only made him long all the more ar- 
dently for the means of acquiring such knowledge 
as would lift him above the daily struggle for 
bread. In April, 1829, he let himself to his uncle, 
Cyrus Boynton, of Weathersfield, a farmer, with 
the stipulation that he should have three months' 
schooling per year. ThLs life of hard labor, accom- 
panied by the utmost economy, was carried on, for 
four years, his father receiving all wages beyond 
what Leland needed for clothes. On attaining his 
majority, his first thought was school, and having 
made a good use of his scanty advantages, he was 
able to teach, which he did for nine successive 
winters, working at farming in the summer, and 
during the intervals attending academies at Ches- 
ter, Cavendish and Ludlow, and was fitted for col- 
lege at Ludlow. But this brave youth who had so 
manfully fought against jroverty and hindrances, 
and was now ju.st at the time when hb hopes .seemed 
about to be fulfilled, was doomed to a more bitter 
trial. His untiring labor and unceasing exertions, 
both in his school and on the farm, proved too 
much for his health, and a long disease held him 
prisoner during the four years " he had propo.sed to 
pass in college." On his recovery, having had am- 
ple time for counsel and deliberation, he decided 
to become a physician. He entered the office of 
Dr. Lowell, remaining with him for a year, and at- 
tending medical lectures at Woodstock, Vt He 
then, in order for the more speedy advancement of 
his studies, became a private student under the 
charge of the eminent Drs. Crosby, Peaslee and 
Hubbard, and was graduated from the Medical De- 
partment of Dartmouth College, Ms y 10, 1842. 
Dr. Graves, at once, May 24, 1842, located for 



138 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRB. 



the practice of his profession at Langdon, N. H., 
and commenced the arduous duties of a physician. 
But his labors were not confined to the little town 
of Langdon ; his services were in demand, as his skill 
became known, through a large extent of country, 
and he had an extensive practice in Langdon. Al- 
stead, Acworth, Walpole, Charlestown and else- 
where. His life was oft-times hard and dreary, 
toiling through summer's heat and winter's cold, 
with long, cheerless rides upon rough roads, over 
high hills, going without his needed rest in order 
to relieve the sufferer. The life of the true physician 
must necessarily be a self-sacrificing one, and he 
who justly claims this honored name must be en 
titled to the esteem and appreciation of the com- 
munity, and for more than a quarter of a century 
Dr. Ci raves spent his time and strength in minis- 
tering to those in need of his skillful care and knowl- 
edge. He began life at the right end of the ladder, 
and had a good deal of capital in the shape of 
courage, faith and energy. He was honest, patient 
and manly, and was prospered, and also won the 
respect, friendship and love of the people among 
whom he had made his home, and after over a 
quarter of a century devoted to the welfare of the 
community, he concluded to take a rest from such 
incessant work, and in 1868 came to Claremont and 
purchased the home where he has since resided. 
It was his intention to retire from general practice, 
but he has attended the calls of some of his old 
families. 

Dr. Graves married, May 24, 1843, Caroline 
E., daughter of Reuben and Elizabeth (McEwen) 
Strow. Their children are Mary E. (now Princi- 
pal of the Acadia Female Seminary, Wolfville, 
Nova Scotia, a position for which she was unusually 
well qualified, and which she has held for six years) ; 
Hattie M. (Mrs. James M. Coburn, of Kansas 
City, Mo. ; their two surviving children are Mary 
A. and Grace E.) and Agnes J. (who married 
Pascal p. Coburn, senior partner of Coburn & 
Dean, merchants of Claremont ; they have one 
child, Elizabeth A.) 

Mrs. Graves was a woman of superior mental 
endowments, and previous to her marriage was a 



successful teacher in the Unity " Scientific and 
Military School," where she gave great satisfaction. 
She was a highly conscientious and religious work- 
er, and had many of the Christian virtues which so 
round and complete character, and was universally 
esteemed, and when she died (August 29, 1885) 
a large circle mourned her loss. 

Dr. Graves is a member of the Connecticut River 
Medical Association and New Hampshire Medi- 
cal Association. Whig and Republican in politics, 
he represented Langdon in 1867 and 1868 in the 
State Legislature. He was not only a physician- 
As a laborer in scientific fields, Dr. Graves is known 
full well. He has pursued the study of geology and 
of botany with zeal. His botanical researches have 
been conducted from the forests of Maine to the 
Rocky Mountains, and few have been more conver- 
sant with the practical details or the scientific 
analysis of plants. He has made a large geological 
collection, which has taken years to gather. His 
eldest daughter inherits this taste, and has a col- 
lection of rocks, minerals, etc., systematically ar- 
ranged and labeled, which has been valued at sev- 
eral thousand dollars. 

Dr. Graves has impressed himself in numerous 
ways upon the community. He was a leading 
man in Langdon ; always took a prominent part in 
its public enterprises ; particularly promoted the 
cause of education, and was superintendent of 
schools for fourteen years. In religious belief he 
is a Baptist, and a valuable and consistent member 
of that church, in Springfield, for fifty years, but is 
now connected with the C'lai-emont Church. 

Dr. Graves stands well among his professional 
brethren, has honored his social and official rela- 
tions, and enjoys the esteem of his many friends 
and acquaintances, and now, at the age of three- 
score years and ten, can enjoy the competency he 
has acquired. 

JOSIAH RICHARDS, M.D. 

The name Richards is of Welsh nationality, and 
in Europe it has long been illustrious, and the 
American family has produced many who have 
achieved distinction. Edward (1) was the 




J^a^ /Lc^a^o^ 






^/S'-^-t -PoS^i 



/ (7 a'l^J^^ 



CLAREMONT. 



139 



fouuder of the branch now resident in Claremout. 
He was one of the proprietors of Dedhaui, Mass., 
in 1636-37, a man of importance and estate, and 
"lived a blameless life." He bequeathed the 
greater part of his estates to his second sou, 
Nathaniel (2). His son Edward (3) inherited tJie 
homestead in Dedham, bore the title of lieutenant, 
and was a leading member of the church. Josiah 
(4), his second son, born in 1713, married Hannah 
Whiting. They had fourteen children, — eiglit 
sous and six daughters ; four of the sons were 
soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Josiah (.")) 
was in the battles of Bunker Hill and Monmouth, 
and served faithfully; was promoted and received 
a pension. He married, 1778, Sarah Shuttle- 
worth, of Dedham ; settled in Washington, N. H. ; 
afterwards returned to Dedham, where he died, 
aged eighty-four years. 

Josiah Richards, M.D., son of Josiah and Sarah 
(Shuttleworth) Richards, was born at Washington, 
N. H., May 30, 1784; married, December 17, 
1816, Emily Haskell, of Weathersfield, Vt., and 
had two children, — Marion and Helen i^Mi-s. 
Sullivan W. Healy). Dr. Richards died at 
Claremont January 29, 1871, in his eighty -seventh 
year. Mrs. Richards died November 17, 1882, 
aged eighty-seven years and three months. 

Dr. Richards was endowed with an active mind, 
of much more than ordinary strength and 
vigorous bodily powers, and, cognizant that his 
future standing in the busy world was dependent 
ujjon his own exertions, at the age of ten years he 
left New Hampshire for Massachusetts, where he 
made his home among his relatives, and availed 
himself of every opportunity to acquire an educa- 
tion. I)uring his residence there he was especially 
favored with the acquaintance of a physician (Dr. 
Ames) of Dedham, who took a great interest in 
him, encouraged him in his studies, and to him he 
was probably indebted for the thought of making 
the profession of medicine his life-work. He had 
a natural taste for music, was a fine singer, and, 
by his aptness in teaching, was able to acquire the 
means for the thorough academic education which 
he received at Atkinson Academy. His medical 
studies were conducted under the charge of and 
with Dr. Cogswell, of Atkinson, and he acquitted 
himself with honor to his teacher and himself. 
Young, ardent and fond of his profession, he 
became known, and soon obtained a situation 
under the United States government, in the land 
and naval hospital at Portsmouth. After faithful 
labor for a while, he was appointed assistant- 



surgeon in the naval service at Newburyport. 
This was during the War of 1812. The monotony 
of this service being hardly compatible with his 
active temj)erament, he secured a discharge, and 
entered the privateer service, where, on board of 
a daring cruiser, he found more congenial rela- 
tions. With two yeai-s of profitable experience, 
he returned to New Hampshire and attended the 
Jledical Department at Dartmouth College, in 
order to complete his professional education, and 
was graduated in 1815. Jn 1816 he came to 
Claremont, and soon was in possession of a large 
and successful })ractice, in which he enjo3'ed the 
confidence and esteem of his patients, and, for 
nearly half a century, was engaged in arduous 
medical labors, going in and out among the 
citizens as the trusted family friend and skillful, 
energetic and successful family physician. It is 
worthy of note that, in a large obstetric practice 
of years' duration, he never lost a case. In 1823 
he built the house which he occupied until his 
death, and where his daughters now reside. 

Dr. Richards was a strong Federalist and 
Whig in his early years, and as strong a Re- 
publican during the latter part of his life, and 
represented Claremont three terms in the General 
Court. He was a member of the Episcopal 
Church for a long period, and a sound and logical 
reasoner as to his faith. When a young man he 
took great interest in iNIasonry, and gave it con - 
sideraljle attention. He possessed great mental 
powers, his range of reading was extensive, and 
he was an independent thinker. He was an 
active advocate of the cause of education, constant 
in attendance upon school meetings, and served 
for several years as prudential and superintending 
committee. In all the social relations of life, and 
in everything pertaining to the interests and ad- 
vancement of the local prosperity of the town, he 
was esteemed, and his influence was of value. He 
was a reliable citizen, a stanch friend, a kind 
neighbor, a devoted husband and father and a 
good man. 

This is a brief outline of the work and exper- 
ience of one whose services were appreciated, 
whose memory is revered by all of the old inhab- 
itants of Claremont, and whose life marks a 
prosperous epoch of her existence as a town. 



LEONARD P. FISHEK. 

The ancestors of the Fisher family have for 
centuries, in England, held a good position in the 
great middle-class of society. Its members ai-e 
entitled to bear arms. The name is derived from 
a common occupation, and found in several Ian- 



140 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



guages, may have been a family name in England 
before the Norman Conquest. Anthony Fisher, 
son of Anthony Fisher, of Syleham, Suflblk 
County, near the borders of Norfolk, England, 
settled in Dedham, Mass., in 1637. He had a 
wife and five children. It is said of one Thomas 
Fisher, who died in 1638, " that he contracted to 
build the first meeting-house in Dedham." 

Abram Fisher, a descendant of Anthony, of 
Dedham, a native of Natick, ilass., was bom 
November, 1764, and emigrated to Claremont, N. 
H., about 17<S5. He came on horseback, accom- 
panied by his wife, Lucy Parkhurst, having lost 
nearly all of his property by the burning of his 
house in Natick. He engaged board for himself 
and wife, and at once set to work to make kitchen 
chairs. The money obtained from the sale of 
these was his capital to begin life here, and the 
sale of his only cow to pay for a frame, which he 
completed for a home, gave him an establishment 
in the town. He was a cabinet-maker by trade, 
and pursued that avocation for years, living in a 
plain, unpretending way, and brought up many 
apprentices. He had a small farm and a cider- 
mill, which ran by water-power, and at his death, 
February 3, 1851, left a moderate property (about 
nine thousand dollars). He was a very indus- 
trious and ingenious man, could " turn his hand " 
to anything, and in his ways was quiet, social and 
cheerful, with a happy, tiuaint philosophy. In 
politics a Democrat, he, it is said, cast the second 
Democratic vote in the town. A Universalist in 
religion, it is said he paid one sixth of the cost of 
erecting the first L^niversalist Church in Claremont. 

He once told his grandson, Leonard, " When 
you hire a boy to plow out corn or anything else, 
always pay him a little more than the regular price 
It will cost but a few cents, and he will respect you, 
and remember it when he grows to be a man." 

Mrs. Fisher died in 1815. They had one son, 
Josiah, born in 1784. Josiah was fond of me- 
chanics, and became a carpenter. He married, 
about 1805, Oreua, daughter of Nathaniel and 
Rachel Goss. They had ten children, of whom 
seven are now living. By becoming responsible 
for the erection of a church, Josiah found his 
business much involved, and although an ener- 
getic man, he was not very stable in his plans; so 
he determined to improve his condition in the far 
west of the Genesee Valley, N. Y., and went to 
Rochester, where he was ofl^ered a piece of land, 
now in the heart of the city, for five hundred dol- 



lars ; but he did not remain long there on account 
of the prevailing ague, and removed to York, 
Livingston County, which was ever after his per- 
manent home, and where he died, in September, 
1854. His wife survived him some years. 

Leonard P. Fisher, son of Josiah and Oreua 
(Goss) Fisher, was born October 6, 1807, in the 
old-fashioned house in Claremont, N. H , now oc- 
cupied by him. Leonard joined his father in the 
wilderness of Westei'n New' York when about ten 
years old, and was brought up to be more familiar 
with work and tools than with books, and to know 
about dealing with logs and lumber, machinery 
and hard labor than with the learning of schools, 
of which he had but a limited acquaintance. When 
about twenty-two (June 2, 1829) he came to Clare- 
mont to make his home with his grandfather, and 
for over half a century has been a resident of the 
town, a jjroducer, in an unpretentious way, and 
not a mere consumer of the results of the labor of 
others. He inherited his grandfather's estate, and 
has, in a large degree, preserved the old-time 
quaintness of the home-place. The old-fashioned 
clock, the large open firejilace, and many other 
features show the manner of life of those of other 
days. He has kept with advancing life a cheerful 
disposition and a kindly heart, together with a ftuid 
of tradition and stories of the early days, which 
he delights to recount to appreciative listeners. 

Mr. Fisher married Nancy, daughter of Tisdale 
and Elizabeth (Fisher) Lincoln, who was born in 
Pittsfield, Vt., May 17, 1815. Their six children 
are Nancy J., married Marvin S. Blood (deceased), 
has three children and resides in Charlestown, 
Mass. ; Charles A., resides in Claremont and has 
one child ; George L., a commission merchant in 
New York City ; Arba C, in the same business in 
Boston ; Albert F., of Worcester, Mass. ; and Ed- 
win C, a photographer, now residing in Hinsdale, 
N. H., has three children. 

Mr. Fisher, like his grandfather, is a Democrat 
and a Universalist. He cast his first Presidential 
vote for Andrew Jackson. He has been greatly 
interested in the welfare of the Universalist Church, 
and has contributed liberally to its support. He 
is very ingenious, can do a little of many kinds of 
practical business, has done much in his life in 
lumbering, has built several houses for himself and 
others, and always has been a busy, active, hard- 
working man, who will long be cherished by his 
descendants, and is a good type of the keen 
yeomanry of New England. 



HISTORY OF CORNISH. 



CHAPTER I. 

C0RNI8H lies in the northwestern part of the 
county and is bounded as follows : North by 
Plainfield, east by Croydon, south by Claremont, 
and west by the Connecticut River, which sepa- 
rates it from Vermont. The township was granted 
June 21, 17(53, to Rev. 8amuel McClintock, of 
Greenland, and sixty-nine others. A proprietors' 
meeting was held in Greenland in August follow- 
ing, and the first meeting of the inhabitants was 
held in the town March 10, 1767. In 1765 several 
families, who came from Sutton, Mass., settled in 
the town. Captain Daniel Putnam and a family 
by tliename of Dyke had lived there, the winter 
previous, in a camp built for the use of men who 
had been cutting masts for the royal navy. At a 
meeting of the inhabitants, held June 2, 1778, 
they voted to join the State of Vermont, in accord- 
ance with a vote of the convention held at Leb- 
anon, May 2, 1778. The first meeting-house was 
erected by the town in 1773, and occupied by the 
Congregational and Episcopal societies. By an 
act approved December 3, 1808, the line between 
this town and Grantham was establislied ; and by 
an act approved June 24, 1809, some territory was 
severed from Croydon and annexed to this town ; 
December 25, 1844, the town was enlarged by the 
annexation of a portion of Grantham. 

General Jonathan Chase was for many years a 
leading citizen of this town. He was muster-mas- 
ter for the men raised fi-om his regiment for the 
Continental service, and held many important 
offices in the town. 

Settlements commenced in 1765, and in 1767 
there were thirteen families in the town. It was 



named from Cornish, England, from whence the 
ancestors of some of the proprietors and first set- 
tlers came. 

DOCUMENTARY HISTORY. 
Janus Vinton's Enlistment. 

" I James Vinton due Voluntairly Ecknowlege my 
Selef to have Inlisted as a Soigear Sarve la tlie State 
of New hampshear under the Command of Cap' 
Sam' Pain for the tearm of Sex munthand acknowleg 
my selef to bee under the Rules and Regelation of 
the mearlity Laws as wetness my hand this 28 day of 
June 1780 "James Vinton 

"S' Vinton is seventeen years of age 5 feet 5 inches 
high Jug'' to be fit for the sarvis by Jon* Chase Col" 

Cornish Men at Saratoga. 
" A Return of Officers and men with their Names 
Inrol' Belonging to Col" Jon"" Chases Rig' which 
marched from Cornish Sept. 20"" 1777 
" Lieu' Abel Spalden Cornish 
Seg' Sam' Chase do 

Seg' Joseph Spalden do 
Corp' Step" Childs do 

Jos'" Vinsin do Ret Oct' 7 

Jabez Spiser do 

Sol° Wellman do 

Caleb Plastridge do 

James Cate do 

John Chase do 

Sol- Chase do 

John Morse do 

Sim° Chase do 

Capt Dyar Spalden do 

Jona"* Higgins do 

James Wellman do 

Ebe' Brewer do 

Daniel Waldron do 

Total 19 Abel Spalden Lieu'— 

141 



142 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Oct' 2°'' 1777— set out from home 

Capt Abel Stephens Jon"' Craw 

Ebez' Janney W" Richardson 

Joined y' 10'*' Oct" 1777 " 

General Jona, Chase, concerning Western Frontier. 
" State of New Hampshire. 

" To the honorable, the Council and House of Rep- 
resentatives now convened & bolden at Exeter in and 
for said State. Humbly Sheweth your Petitioner 
living on the western Frontiers of said state, that 
your Petitioner and others the Inhabitants on said 
Frontiers, have had, and still have, the greatest 
reason to fear the inroads & depredations of savage 
Enemy upon them, — that they have the fullest reason 
to believe and assert that the Enemy have several 
times prepared & even attempted the same that in the 
month of October last they came upon and almost 
totally destroyed the Town of Royalton, & spread 
their horrid devastation within less than twelve miles 
of Connecticut River. That unless some speedy and 
effectual measures are taken to prevent it, it is more 
than probable we shall be distressed with another 
visit from them the present winter. 

" That the Frontier is near one hundred and fifty 
miles, in an entire defenceless situation. — And that 
unless some speedy relief & assistance present, we 
have the fullest assurance that many principal Inhab- 
itance will remove to places of better security ; as 
that Frontier is now the only object remaining within 
the power & worthy the attention of the northern 
Enemy. — In this unhappy situation ; defenceless as 
we are, where can we look for relief & assistance but 
to your Honors ? a body possessed with every feeling 
of humanity, and sensible that in defending 
that western frontier, you secure the state at 
large from the dangers arising from that quar- 
ter. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray your 
honors to take the dangerous situation of that Terri- 
tory under your wise & serious consideration & grant 
such number of men for the defence of that Frontier, 
as your honors may judge necessary, or grant such 
other orders on the Premises as in your wisdom may 
seem best. 

"And your Petitioner as in duty bound will ever 
pray &c. 

"Exeter 12'" Jany 1781. 

"Jos'" Chase" 



Number of Polls, 1783. 
" According to order of the general assembly These 
may certefy that the Exact number of the male poles 
in this town of twenty-one years of age and upwords 
paying taxes for themselves is one hundred and 
twenty 

" Cornish Decern' y' 13 1783 
"Attest 

" WiL"° Ripley 
"Reuben Jerald 
"Daniel Chase 
"Caleb Chase J 



r 



Selectmen 

of Cornish" 



Warrant for Town-Meeting. 

"These are to Notify and warn the freeholders and 
others inhabitants of the town of Cornish to meet at 
the Meeting House in s'' Cornish on tuesday the 
twelfth Day of March next at ten oclock in Morning 
to act on the following articles Viz — 

" 1*' to Chuse a Moderator to govern s* meeting 

" 2'"'' to Chuse a town Clerk — 

" 3'^ to Chuse Selectmen and Constable or Con- 
stables and other town officers as the town shall think 
proper 

" 4'^ to see what money the town will Raise for to 
be Worked out at the Highways this present year 

"6'^ to see what money the town will Raise this 
present year for Schooling 

"6'-" to see what money the town will Raise this 
present year for to Defray other town Charges 

" 7'^ to Chuse a Committee for the Sole purpose of 
Settling with the men who went uj) in the 2 alarm 

" 8'^ to see if the town will allow horses to Run at 
large 

" 9'^ to see if the town will allow swine to Run at 
large 

" Feb'J^ 26"' 1782 

" Thomas Hall 
" Sam" Comings 
" Elea' Jackson 
" Daniel Chase 



Select Men 



" Pursuant to the foregoing warning the Town met 
and Chose Moses Chase Esq' Moderator Voted to 
adopt the following Protest against the proceedings 
of a minority acting under a warning Signed by Sam" 
Chase Esq' — 

" Voted to adjourn to the House of M' Francis 
Batey to meet immedeatly met according to adjourn- 
ment — then Voted to adjourn to the House of M' 



CORNISH. 



143 



Sam" Coinings met according to adjournment and 
there proceeded to Cliuse Town officers and do other 
acts agrcable to the above warning and the Laws of 
New Hampshire as may appear upon Record 

" Attest Thomas Chase T Clerk 
" Cornish September y« 12"' 1782" 

Protest against the Action of a Town-Meeting. 

" Voted to adopt the following protest against a 
minority acting under a warning Signed by Samuel 
Chase Esq' — 

" W/iereas an annual Town Meeting of the inhabit- 
ants of the Town of Cornish was legally warned by 
the Selectmen of Said Town who was legally elected 
to that office in order to choose Town officers for the 
insuing year- — and whereiis another warning for a 
Town Meeting has been set up for the like ]iurposo 
Signed by Samuel Chase Esq' — and a Small minorri- 
ter of the Inhabitants presume to act thereon which 
we are fully assured is directly Repugnant to the 
peace of the Town and Contrary to Law^ — We there- 
fore the inhabitants of the said Town of Cornisli 
think fit and do hereby Solemnly and unanimously 
enter our protest against the proceedings of Said 
meeting as wholly illegal and destructive of the peace 
and tranquility of Said Town — 

" The above was Voted in a legal Town Meeting 
held March y' 12'" 

"Test Thomas Chase— rott« Clerk 

"Cornish May y= 28'" 1782" 

Relative to Union with Vermont. 
"The Deposition of Matthias Stone of Claremont 
of lawful age on oath saith that about three or four 
years ago Esq Sam' Chase did send a letter to the 
select men of Claremont myself being one that a 
meeting of the Town should be called to see if the 
Town would chuse a man to go the Convention held 
at the House Moses Chase Esq to come into measures 
to unite with Vermont — but as I did not see the letter 
till it was to late to warn a meeting it was not laid 
before s'' Town but attended myself as a private 
person at Convention of which Esq Sam' Chase was 
moderator at which time in Convention with the s** 
Sam Chase he manifested a great desire that the 
grants on both sides of the River should be united 
into one Government — after the adjournment of s'' 
Convention I rec'' another Letter of like import de- 
siring that the Town would Choose a man to attend 
the adjournment but rec"* to late — Further about one 



year ago last Decern, another letter was sent to the 
selectmen of Claremont sign'' Sam' ashley and Ben 
Bellows to see if the Town would Choose a man to 
attend the Convention held at Walpole for the pur- 
pose of uniteing the grants on both sides of the 
River — which the Town comply"* with & sent a man 
that Convention being adjourned to the Jan following, 
the Town was call"* upon to send Two men which they 
did at which Convention the said Sam Chase was 
Choose President accepted & serv"* & altho, there were 
Ten that protested against the proceedings at that 
time for special reasons. Yet the s"* president would 
not sign the protest at which tim s*" Con [vention] 
was adjourned to Cornish and there continud for 
som time till the minds of the Town were fully known 
& the union Compleated the s"" Sam Chase did accom- 
pany the Representative from East sid of the River 
to Windsor and see them admitted as members of the 
Court of Vermont and approved thereof and I have 
often heard the s"" Sam Chase both in public & private 
conversation say in transport that there was a hand 
of Providence in Disposing the people to unite 

"Matthias Stone 
" Cheshire ss: Sept' 4'" A. D. 1782 then Matthias 
Stone signer of the above Deposition personally 
appeared & made solemn oath that the same was the 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
Sam' Chase & Dudley Chase being present 

" before Sam" Hunt Justice Peace 
" This deposition opened by me 

"M. Weare" 

Selectmen's Statement. 

"To the Honorable the General Assembly of the 
State of New Hampshire 

" We tlie subscribers Select Men of the Town of 
Cornish for the Current Year, in reply to a Memorial 
against us signed by Moses Chase Reuben Jerald & 
William Ripley, and presented to this hbuse at their 
last session, beg leave to suggest, that at the annual 
Meeting in the Town of Cornish held in March Anno 
Domini 1781 — the Town Officers were chosen in com- 
mon form that in April following, at an adjournment 
of the same Meeting the Town did vote that all Town 
Officers then in Office shou'd act under and Govern 
themselves by the Laws of Vermont; accordingly 
they iissessed & endeavor'd to Collect the Taxes called 
for by Vermont, and took and imprisoned some who 
refused to pay them, by which vote and the subse- 
quent Conduct of the said Officers it was the general 



144 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Opinion that they ceased to be Legal Officers under 
New Hampshire, in consequence of this Opinion an 
application was made by a sufficient number of the 
Inhabitants of said Town to Samuel Chase Esq' as a 
Justice of the Peace to warn a Meeting of said Inhab- 
itants in March last for Choosing Town Officers for 
the present Year according to the Laws of New Hamp- 
shire — which was accordingly done, and the Officers 
Chosen : without regarding a Warrant for a Meeting 
for the same purpose: signed by the Select Men 
chosen A Dom. 1781 — 

" We won'"" further observe that as the principle 
complaint in s'' Memorial is against the Officers last 
chosen : for what they have done in the execution of 
their several Offices, it seems unnecessary to answer 
furthur untill the legality of their appointment shall 
be ascertained — 

" We would beg leave furthur to suggest that the 
situation of the Inhabitants of the Town of Cornish 
is unhappily such at present, owing to the divisions 
and animosities which subsist amongst them that a de- 
termination of the Master now before the House how- 
ever just woud be but a partial remedy, & wou'd not 
put the Town in such a situation as would be most for 
the benefit of the State, or for the peace, interest & 
happiness of the said Inhabitants — And anxious to 
restore peace & good order in the Town, We wou'd 
on the behalf of those who are in the Memorial called 
the Minority propose a general settlement of all diffi- 
culties in said Town that respect the Town in general 
by Arbitration in the following manner (viz) That 
this House appoint a proper number of Persons to be 
nominated by the Speaker, to hear the Parties fully, 
& report to this or some future General Assembly & 
that some of the principle men of Each party enter 
into Bonds to abide and perform the award so made, 
& that the whole expence be paid by that party that 
shall be found most faulty^ — 

" We do not mean to dictate the House by the 
above, but should be willing to comply with any 
direction or orders which the House shall think 
proper to give 



"Cornish Sept' y" 6"' 1782 

"Sam' Chase 
"Jn° Mobse 
"Benj" Hall 
"Dudley Chase." 

The exclusive right to a ferry over a certain 

part of the Connecticut River was granted to 

General Chase in 1784. 



WilliMn Deviing's Recommendaiion. 
"To His Excellency the Presedent and Houerable 

Privy Council of the State of New Hampshire. 

" Whereas there is but one Justes of the Peace in 
the town of Cornish and very Remote from the Major 
part of the Inhabetauce we your petitioners Humbly 
Deseir that M' William Deming may be appointed 
into that office 

" Cornish Sep' 9—1786 
" Nath' Carpenter Sam" Wickwire 

David Smith Daniel Putnam 

Elisha Herrick Luther Hilliard 

Ebenezer Rawson Sam" Hilliard 

Solomon Chase James Fitch 

John Pike Jun' Hezekiah Fitch 

Joshua page David Higgins 

Elias Cady Lovel Kimbal 

Benjamin Jackson Samuel Pike 

Dier spaulding Moses Chase 

Joseph Bartlet Sam' Hildreth 

Jabes shapley Caleb Chase 

John Bartlet John pike 

Sam" Fitch Peter Chase 

William Pain Robert Willson 

Eleas. Bingham Sam" Wickwire 

James Freeman David Orvis 

Reuben Jareld Stephen Chase 

Eben' Deming Joseph Edmons 

Seth Deming William Choat 

Joseph Chase Zebediah Fitch 

Nichols Cady Eleazer Cate 

Ephriam French Jonathan Higgins 

James spaulding James Cate" 

Joseph stark 

Helative to Vermont Controversy. 
" To the Honorable Senate and the Honorable House 
of Representatives of the General Court of New 
Hampshire in General Assembly Convened — 
" Humbly sheweth the Petition of the Subscribers 
Subjects of s'' State. That the Inhabitants of a cer- 
tain territory of Land West of Connecticut River on 
the Western Borders of this State, and within the 
boundaries of the United States, have associated to- 
gether and Assumed Jurisdiction by the name of the 
State of Vermont ; Independent of any One of the 
States in the confederacy, and without the concent of 
the United States in Congress Assembled ; do Exer- 
cise many and various Acts of Opression Injustice and 



CORNISH. 



145 



cruelty towards the good Subjects of the State of New 
Hampshire by seizing and embezzling our property 
which lies within their Limits, and under pretence of 
dues to them Assesing and levying contributions on 
our Lands for pretended Services whereby we derive 
no benefit, but much real, and Escential injury, and 
such Acts of Extortion and Oppression they Sanctify 
by Laws of their own formation, in Violation of the 
Laws of Nations and the principles of the confedera- 
tion of the United States. The most Oppressive of 
which are the Survey Act and the quieting Act so 
called ; by the former their Surveyor-General is di- 
rected to Survey s"* Teritory, and exhibit his Ac- 
compts to their Council of his demands for Surveying 
each Town to be by them Adjusted, and if within 
thirty days after s'' Adjustment the Sum Allowed is 
not paid in hard money Extents are Issued, and Suffi- 
cient Land sold for Paying the Same, with cost of 
Levying without any Equity of redemption. And the 
lines of s^ Towns that have been Settled upwards of 
Twenty Years so Altered and Curtailed by the Mere 
Opinion of s* Surveyor or his Deputy without the 
right of Trial by Jury, that a new Allotment is Neces- 
sary, and by the latter a possession of Land however 
wrongfully Obtained and kept eventually Affects the 
Tittle— 

" Farther the Inhabitants of s"" Territory do in a 
Lawless and Riotous Manner make Inroads on the 
Frontiers of this State, and take from hence the 
peacable Subjects of New Hampshire to their Prison, 
in Open Violation & contempt of the Good and 
wholsome Laws of this State which they set at de fi- 
ance, and Screan themselves within s"* Territory — 

"Your Petitioners therefore Humbly Pray that the 
Honourable Legislature of this State will be pleased 
to interpose in behalf of the Persons and properties 
of the Good Subjects of this State, and defend them 
from the Above mentioned and other injurious meas- 
ures of the Inhabitants of s'' Territory and protect 
them from the pernicious Influence of their iniqui- 
tous Acts of Legislation in such way and Manner as 
the Wisdom of this Honorable Court shall direct as 
the most proper and Effectual to Obtain the desired 
End. And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall 
ever Pray — 



W" Deming 
Solomon Chase 
Joshua Crosman 
David Orvis 
Daniel Putnam 
Sam" Putnam 
Jeremiah Morse 



Ithamar Chase 
Seth Demming 
Joseph Taylor 
Sam" Chase Jun' 
Abner Rawson 
Jonathan Chase 
John Cook" 



Pet it ion for a Poll Parish. 
" To the Hon''"' General Court of the State of New 

Hampshire to convene at Concord on the third 

day of June instant — 

" The petition of the subscribers Inhabitants of the 
Town of Cornish and Plainfield in the County of 
Cheshire in said State, Humbly sheweth That the 
great diversity of Sentiment, in matters of religion, 
and the jarring Opinions concerning the most suitable 
place for buildings for religious worship, renders it 
impossible ever to effect such union in either of said 
Towns as to enable them happily to settle and main- 
tain the Gospel Ministry amongst them with that har- 
mony which ought ever to reign in religious Societies, 
without a division of said Town into Parishes. — And 
whereas the inhabitants of different sentiments are 
so intermixed in their Settlements that Parish lines 
would not effect the desired end — Your petitioners 
therefore pray the General Court to grant the Sub- 
scribers with such others as may hereafter join with 
them such privileges and immunities of a Poll parish 
as may enable them to erect and maintain in proper 
repair a place for Public Worship and to raise and 
apply money for the support of the Ministry among 
them and with such other privileges as may be neces- 
sary for the well ordering of parish affair.s. — 

" Cornish, November the 1st A D 1788 



" Cornish May 1786 
" Sam" Chase 
Robert Willson 
John Morse 



Joseph Holland 
Eben' Demming 
Matthias Stone 



"ElishaRead 
James Hunter 
Walter Foss 
Thomas Hall 
Nathaniel Higgins 
Thomas Lewey 
Abel Stone Ju' 
Daniel Freeman 
Jabez Spicer 
John Bartlett 
Benj" Read 
John Lucas 
Jonathan Read 
Joseph Kinyon 



John Cady 
Chester Chapman 
Nathan Hains 
Hezekiah Fitch 
Nath" Bartlet 
Samuel Read 
Samuel Bartlet 
Joel Hildreth 
Samuel Mackres 
Abel Johnson 
James Ripley 
David Read 
Levi Stone 
Joseph Smith 



146 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Simon Blanchard 
Joshua Woodward 
Abel Stone 
Moody Hall 
Will" Ripley 
Jesse Johnson 
Reuben JeralJ 
John Whitten 



Daniel Cole 
Nathan Whiting 
James Fitch 
Andrew Tracy 
Elisha Herrick 
John Spaulding 
Moses Barrows 
Moses Barrows, Jun' 



Eliphalet Kimball, Jun' James Ladieu 
Lovil Kimball Moses Chase 

Josiah Stone Samuel Fitch 

Will" Lewey David Smith 

"This Certifies that a Copy of the within Petition 
and order of the Court thereon was posted up in a 
public place in the towns of Cornish and Plaintield 
and also a Copy of the same delivered to the Select- 
men of each Town on the first day of December A D 
1788 agreable to the order of Court — 

"In behalf of the Petitioners 

" Cornish December 20* A D 1788 

"Attest Will" Ripley 

" Reuben Jerald " 

In House of Representatives, November 8, 
1788, a hearing was ordered for the next ses- 
sion. 

Relative to Paying Ministerial Rates. 

•'Cornish Decern' 19"- 1788 
"At a meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of 

Cornish held the 25''" of June A D 1783 the following 

Vote was pas'" — Viz — 

" That from and after the 29"' of Sept next no 

person Shall be held or bound by Civil Contract, to 

pay any taxes for the Support of the Gospel, unless 

he Shall previously Consent thereto. 

" a true Coppy attest 

"Caleb Chase, Town Clerk" 

" We the subscribers having formerly signed a pe- 
tition to the General Court for a Poll Parish in the 
Towns of Cornish and Plainfield having by more 
mature deliberation considered its prenitious affects 
and finding there is a promising prospect of this Town 
generaly uniting in one Society and being persuaded 
that a Pole Parish established here would grately im- 
pead said Union — do hereby resind from the above 
mentioned petition 



'As witness our Hands 
'Cornish Decern: 21" 1788 



' David Smith 
" John Lucas 
" Samuel Mackees 
"Moses Burrows" 



Documents relative to Nathaniel Curtice, Soldier. 
" The diposition of Moses Chase, Jur. of lawful 
age testifys and says — that I was in the Continental 
service in general gates Department and was knowing 
to Nathan' Curtice's being a soldier there in Cap° 
Waits Company and belonged to the artillery. 

" Moses Chase Jr 
"The Diposition of Nathaniel Bartlet of lawful 
age testifyes and says — that I was in the army in 
general gates Department and in the year 1777 had 
knowledge of Nathaniel Curtises belonging to the 
army and Did the Duty of a soldier in the artillery 
" Nathaniel Bartlet " 

Daniel Chase testifies in a similar manner. 
They vfere in General Stark's command. Curtice 
was ruptured in the scrotum, so say " David 
Hall Sol° Chase, Physicians," of Cornish. 

Memoriai of Andrew Wilkins, Soldier. 
In a petition dated 1794, Andrew Wilkins, 
of Cornish, says that he was a soldier in Col- 
onel Bedel's regiment in Canada in 1776 ; was 
taken prisoner at the Cedars by the Britisii 
and Indians, and the Indians "striped him ot 
all his clothes except one shirt and one pair of 
Breeches, also a very valuable gun," etc., all of 
the value of £10 10s., which he asks the State 
to pay. 

ECCLESrASTICAL HISTORY. 

Congregational Church. — The first Con- 
gregational Church in this town was organized 
September 29, 1768, with Rev. James Wellman as 
pastor, who remained until October, 1785, when 
the churcli was dissolved. 

In November of the same year a Congregational 
Church was organized in the eastern part of the 
town, with twenty-one members. Peace prevailed 
in this society until the subject of building a 
meeting-house came up for consideration in 1784. 
A house of worship was erected in the northwest 
part of the town in 1787 (never finished), and 
another in the centre of the town in 1788. The 
two churches were in a constant state of trouble 
until 1795, when the Rev. Bey Bell was installed 
pastor over both, and, in 1799, the church was 
united and harmonious. In this year a house of 



CORNISH. 



147 



worship was built on the hill in the centre of the 
town. 

The following is a petition for incorporation of 
a Congregational Society : 

" To the Hon''''' General Court of the State of New- 
ham psh ire. 
"The petition of the subscribers Inhabitants of the 
Town of Cornish in the County of Cheshire in s'' State 
Humbly Sheweth — That the diversity of sentiments 
in matters of religion (there being an Episcopal and 
a Baptist Society in s'' Town) renders it difBeult to 
l)uild a Meeting house & settle and maintain the 
Gospel Ministry among them as a Town. And 
whereas the People of ditferent Sentiments are so in-' 
termixed in their Settlements, that parish lines would 
not effect the desired purpose— your petitioners there- 
fore pray the General Court, to incorporate the Sub- 
scribers with such others as shall be disposed to join 
with them, into a Society by name of the Congregation- 
al Society in Cornish, with such privileges and im- 
munities as may enable them to erect and maintain in 
proper repair a House for public worship, and to raise 
and apply money for the support of the Gospel Minis- 
try amongst us — and with such other privileges as 
m.ay be necessary for the well ordering of parish 
affairs, — 
" And as in duty bound shall ever pray. 
" Cornish November the 21st 1798 
" Andrew Tracy Moody Chase 

James Gage Eeuben Jerrold 

Moses Harrington James Ripley 

W"" Choate J' Benj. Corning 

Asa Coburn Jonath" Bingham 

Lemuel Tracy Nath' Huggins 

Philip Taber Eben' Martindale 

Ichabod Smith J"^ Jabez Spicer 

Elias Martindale Samuel Bartlet 

Joshua Wyman W"" Bartlet 

Jacob Whipple Asa Coburn 2°'' 

James Hunter Nathaniel Curtis 

Thomas Williams James Harlow 

Dudley Coburn Frederick Bingham 

Simeon Butterfield Samuel Whitton 

Josiar Stone Edward Kimball 

Daniel Chase Clement Chase 

David Davis W" Eipley 

Moody Hall Eben"- Cobb 

David Smith Eliphalet Kimball, Jr. 

Thomas Hastings Nathan Rand 

Elisha Herrick Aaron Harrington 

Samuel Fitch Lovell Kimball 

Benj° Smith Hezekiah Fitch 

Samuel Paine Samuel Wickwire 

10 



Benj" Dorr Thomas Hall 

Nathaniel Pierce Joseph Tabor 

Samuel Bartlet 2°^ Isaac Simons 

Robert Nevins Abel Fairbanks 

Joseph Smith W" Lane 

Timothy W. Hall W" Choate" 
Thomas Lucy 

It was incorporated June 14, 1799. 

A new meeting-house was erected in 1841. The 
pastors, since Rev. Mr. Ball, have been as follows •' 
Revs. Siloam Short (supply), Joseph Rowell, F' 
W. Clary, A. Spaulding, Philander Bates, C. M 
Palmer and J. T. Jackson ; also. Rev. P. D. 
Deniing, a resident Baptist clergyman, preached 
for this people nearly two years. 

Episcopal Church. — An Episcopal Church 
was formed here iu 1795. The following is the 
petitioi.i for the act : 

" To the Hon"'" the Legislature of the State of New 
Hampshire, in general court assembled. The peti- 
tion of the subscribers members of the Episcopal 
Society in Cornish, in said State, humbly sheweth 
" That for many years, we who once composed the 
original society in said Town, have been subjected to 
great inconveniences, for want of public religious 
worship and instruction, by the desertion of a large 
part of the people of said Cornish, but are now 
unitedly a.5.sociated, without infringing upon the 
peace or prosperity of any other society, and hope by 
the divine blessing, to become a regular & well 
ordered congregation. 

" Encouraged by the Hon*"'' Legislatures indulging 
other religious societies, with acts of incorporation, 
we hereby request that we may also be incorporated, 
by an act of General Court, by the name of Christ's 
Church, with power to receive, and hold property 
both real and personal, and to have and enjoy all 
other privileges and immunities belonging to a cor- 
porate body. And your Petitioners as in duty bound 
shall ever pray. — 
"Cornish May 20"" 
" 1794. 

"Caleb Chase 1 

„ -.T „ t Wardens 

' Nathaniel Hall j 

" Dudley Chase 

" DiER Spaldixg 

" Jonathan Chase ■ Vestrymen" 

"Andrew Wilkins 

" SoLosiON Chase 



148 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



This church was incorporated December 24, 
1795, by the name of Trinity Church. 

Baptist Church. — The Baptist Church in 
Cornish owes its origin, under God, to the labors 
of Revs. Thomas Baldwin, afterwards of Boston, 
Mass., John Peake, of Windsor, Vt., and John 
Drew, of Hartford, Vt. These worthies made fre- 
quent visits into the town, preaching under the 
shade of some favoring tree, or in some barn, or 
school house, or private dwelling, as occasion oifered, 
and, as a result of their efforts, the church was 
formed in 1789. The organization was effected by 
the Rev. Jedediah Hibbard, of Lebanon, N. H., 
July 1789, in a barn owned by Moses Barrows, 
about an eighth of a mile southwest of the summit 
of Fernald Hill, and about five rods north from 
the road. This road, though now little used, was 
then the great thoroughfare between Windsor and 
Boston. There were but nine constituent mem- 
bers, viz.: Samuel and Rebecca Meekers, Jonas 
and Zilpah Richardson, Moses and Elizabeth 
Barrows, Nathaniel Dustin, Elizabeth Thomson, 
and Charity Harlow. The last named survived 
all the rest, and died in 1868, in the one hundredth 
year of her age. Her memory was remarkably 
clear and strong, and many facts relating to the 
early days of the church were obtained from her. 

In 1790 six others joined the little company. 
Their meetings were held at private residences in 
different parts of the town. The oldest church 
records, now known to exist, bear date of June 
24, 1791. Rev. Jedediah Hibbard was pastor, 
Moses W^eld clerk and Samuel Hilliard deacon. 
They sustained preaching only a part of the time 
and were thrown wholly upon their own resources 
by the removal of their pastor to St. Armand, 
P. Q., in 1795 Owing to the* difficulty of sus- 
taining preaching, they attempted, at one time, to 
unite with the Plaiufield, now the Meriden, Bap- 
tist Church ; at another time with the Newport 
Baptist Churcli ; and still another time with the 
Cornish Congregational Church, in the support of 
preaching. But failing of success in each case, 
they contented themselves with the services ren- 
dered by some of their own number — Deacon Sam- 



uel Hilliard at one time " improving his gifts," 
and Brother Uriah Smith at another. This con • 
tinued until 1803, when Rev. Ariel Kendrick be- 
came their pastor. He served them eighteen 
years, during which time they enjoyed three sea- 
sons of revival, and were greatly strengthened and 
blessed. 1 give the names of succeeding pastors, 
not including supplies, in their order : Simeon W. 
Beckwith, Gibbon Williams, Oliver Barron, David 
Burroughs, Nahum P. Foster, Phineas Bond, 
D. P. Deming, H. C Leavitt, G. S. Smith, G. A. 
Glines, J. K. Chase, D. Donovan. 

The church edifice, erected on a hill near the 
centre of the town, was dedicated in 1805. This 
house was taken down in 1818, and removed to its 
present site at Cornish Flat, and the sermons at 
both its dedication and rededieation were preached 
by Rev. Aaron Leland, of Chester. Vt. The 
house was remodeled in 1846, and a spire was 
added to it and other important repairs made in 
1883. 

The church gave letters of dismission to quite a 
number of its members for the purpose of organ- 
izing a Baptist Church in Claremont, N. H., in 
the year 1821, and sent its pastor. Rev. A. Kend- 
rick, and three of the brethren, to aid in the organ- 
ization. 

A goodly number of preachers of the gospel 
have also at various times gone forth from this 
church. Prominent among these may be named 
Rev. Geo H. Hough, missionary to Burmah, an 
associate of Judson both in labors and in a part 
at least of his prison sufferings. There were also 
Daniel F. and Horace Richardson, Calvin Baker, 
Charles H. Green and D. P. Deming, men of tried 
fidelity and devotion, of whom the last named has 
many times rendered the church valuable service 
and is still active in his sympathies with it. 

The church property includes a convenient and 
comfortable parsonage, with a good garden-plot of 
about half an acre of land. The grounds surround- 
ing the church are ample for all its wants, and a 
neat enclosure, adorned with shade trees, fronts it 
and forms the entrance to it from the centre of the 
village. 



CORNISH. 



149 



The membership, though greatly reduced and 
depleted by frequent removals to business centres, 
is now about one hundred strong. Regular ser- 
vices are maintained, the Sunday-school is flourish- 
ing, and the outlook hopeful. 

Good libraries, to which valuable additions are 
made from time to time, are connected with both 
church and Sunday-school. Thus an effort is 
made to foster a taste for good reading. May the 
foundations thus laid by good men and true sus- 
tain a superstructure worthy of the zeal and devo- 



tion of its founders, and continue a source of divine 
blessing to all future time. 

A Baptist Church was formed here in 1791. 
There is also a Methodist Church in the town at 
the Centre. The town has a population of eleven 
hundred and fifty-seven. 

Postmaster, Cornish, W. E. Deming; centre, 
G. E. Hilliard ; south, G. E. Fairbanks; Cornish 
Flat, J. C. Boynton; physician, G. W. Hunt. 
The town is sixty miles northwest from Concord, 
and its railroad station is Windsor, Vt. 



HISTORY OF CROYDON. 



BY EDMUND WHEELER. 



CHAPTER I. 

Croydon, in Sullivan County, N. H., is situ- 
ated on the highland between the Connecticut and 
Merrimack rivers, is bounded on the north by 
Grantham, east by Springfield and Suuapee, south 
by Newport, and west by Cornish. Area, twenty- 
six thousand acres; distance from Concord, the 
capital of the State, forty-four miles ; from Leb- 
anon, seventeen miles, and from Newport, nearest 
railroad station, seven miles. Much of its scenery 
is wild and picturesque The soil is diversified. 
That bordering on Sugar River is rich and pro- 
ductive ; as we rise gradually back upon the hills 
it yields excellent grass, wheat and potatoes, while, 
as we ascend still higher up the mountain sides, we 
find only pasturage and forests, and these are over- 
topped with lofty piles of granite. 

Mountains.— Croydon Mountain, which extends 
across the western part of the town, is the highest 
elevation in the county, being nearly three thou- 
sand feet above the level of the sea. It com- 
mands an extensive and one of the most beautiful 
prospects in the State, and its charms are attested 
by its many and enthusiastic visitors. The other 
elevations are the Pinnacle and Sugar Hill in the 
central. Baptist Hill in the southern, Pine Hill in 
the northern, and Baltimore and Camel's Hump 
in the southeastern part of the town. On the 
southern slope of the latter is a magnificent por- 
trait of the human face, known as "Aaron," sup- 
posed to be a sentinel placed there by the hand of 
a wise Providence to guide and protect a chosen 
people, the best view of which is obtained from the 
150 



old Croydon Turnpike, above the chui'ch, at the 
Flat. 

Ponds. — Long, Rocky Bound, and Spectacle 
in the eastern, and Governor's in the southwestern 
part of the town, are the principal bodies of water, 
in some of which is excellent fishing. 

RiVEPis. — The north branch of Sugar River 
flows through the town in a southwesterly direc- 
tion, and aflbrds some of the best water-power in 
the vicinity, although but little utilized at the 
present time. The other principal streams are 
Beaver, Ash Swamp and Long Pond brooks. 

Villages. — Four Corners, being near the centre 
of the town and on the Croydon Turnpike, thus 
the great thoroughfare, and having a church, tav- 
ern, store, oflices and shops, was once the centre of 
trade ; but railroads, diverting the travel, and the 
want of water-power, has caused its decline. 

Ea.d Village. — Situated on the north branch of 
Sugar River at the head of Spectacle Pond, and 
on the main road from Newport to Lebanon, con- 
tains the town hall, a postofiice, store, church, 
hotel, saw and grist-mill, carpenter and black- 
smith's shop. Here, also, is one of the best district 
schools in the county. Distant from railroad 
station, at Newport, seven miles, on the Concord 
and Claremont railroad. 

Croydon Flat is situated on the north branch of 
Sugar River at its junction with Beaver Brook, and 
at the head of the extended meadows below. Here 
is a church, store, post-office and various mills and 
shops. From here large amounts of excelsior 
handles and lumber are shipped annually. Three 



CROYDON. 



151 



and one-half miles from railroad station, New- 
port. 
Charter. — The charter of Croydon, signed by 

Banning Wentworth, and countersigned by Theo- 
dore Atkinson, is dated May 31, 1763. 

Tlie following are the names of the original 
proprietors of Croydon : 

Samuel Chase. Moody Chase. 

Ephraim Sherman. Daniel Marsh. 

James Welhnan. Samuel Ayers. 

Antipas Hollan. Joseph Vinscin. 

Enoch Marble. Timothy Darling. 

Jonathan Chase. Jones Brown. 

Thomas Dana. David Sherman. 

John Stow. Ebenezer Rawson. 

Moses Chase. Samuel Sherman. 

Seth Chase. James Richardson. 

Stephen Hall. Daniel Putnam. 

Daniel Chase. Samuel Dudley. 

Ephraim Sherman, Jr. William Dudley. 

John Temple. Abraham Temple. 

Samuel Chase, Jr. Benjamin Morse. 

Ebenezer Waters. James Whipple. 

Dudley Chase. Benjamin Morse, Jr. 

Gershom Waite. Joseph Mirriam. 

March Chase. John Whipj)le. 

Phineas Leland. Willis Hall. 

Luke Drury. Benjamin Wallis. 

Thomas M. Clening. " Silas Hazeltine. 

Solomon Aldridge. Jonathan Hall. 

Daniel Chase, Jr. Richard Wibird. 

Jonathan Aldridge. John Downing. 

James Taylor. Daniel Warner. 

Joseph Whipple. Stephen Chase. 

Silas Warring. Parsons. 

Solomon Chase. David Temple. 

Benjamin Wood. Solomon Leland. 

Caleb Chase. John Holland. 

Moses Whipple. William Waite. 

Benjamin Leland. 
They held their first meeting at Grafton, Mas.?., 
June 17, 1763; their first meeting in Croydon, 
January 17, 1798; their last, January 17, 1810. 

Settlement. — In the spring of 1766 Moses 
Whipple, Seth Chase, David Warren, Ezekiel 
Powers and others came to Croydon from Graf- 
ton, Mass., and made some preliminary prepara- 
tions for a settlement. Soon after their return, 



Seth Chase, with his wife and child, started for 
this place. This was the first family established 
in town. They arrived June 10, 1766, and three 
days after (June 13) commenced the erection of 
their log-cabin. On the 24th of the same month, 
Moses Whipple and David Warren arrived with 
their fixmilies. The next year Moses Leland and 
Ezekiel Powers came to town. In the autumn of 
1768, four more families arrived, and in 1769 the 
tide of emigration, setting this way, soon made 
them respectable in numbers. The first town- 
meeting was held March 8, 1768. 

Mr. Chase erected his cabin about one-half 
mile southwest from Spectacle Pond, on the farm 
now owned by Moses Barton ; Mr. Whipple, on 
the swell of land between the Four Corners and 
East Village, on the farm of Horace S. Fowler, 
long known as the "Edward Hall place;" Mr. 
Warren, on the north side of the Pinnacle, near 
the ceraeter}'; Mr. Powers, on the Caleb K. Lov- 
erin farm, near the East Village, and Mr. Leland 
in the uortli part of the town, on the farm now 
owned by Charles H. Forehand. The Stowes and 
Metcalfe settled in the southwest part of the town, 
in a district called Brighton ; the Wheelers, Ja- 
cobs, Townes and Hagars, in the south part, on an 
elevation known as Baptist Hill ; the Kemptons, 
at the Flat ; the Rj-ders, in the southeast part, 
and the Goldthwaits and Benjamin Barton, in the 
northwest part of the town. The Putnams settled 
near the centre of the town south of the Pinnacle ; 
the Halls, on the jjlace where Peter Hurd now 
resides, on the west side of Sugar Hill ; the Coop- 
ers, on the northwest slojse of Baltimore Hill. 

The pioneers were intelligent, honest, indus- 
trious and frugal, and were distinguished for 
more than an ordinary share of physical and men- 
tal endowments. As a result, it would be ex- 
pected that their descendants would possess more 
or less of the peculiarities of their parents. As a 
result of this inheritance, wherever you find them 
.scattered abroad over the country, in whatever 
calling or profession, they usually maintain a high 
standard for proficiency and integrity, and reflect 
honor upon their native town. 



152 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



MILITARY. 

The Revolution. — The sympathies of the 
first settlers of Croydon were early enlisted in the 
Revolutionary struggle. Soon after the Battle of 
Lexington, they sent Eleazer Leland and Abner 
Brigham to join the Provincial army ; enrolled a 
company of twelve minute-men ; raised eight 
pounds to purchase a town supply of ammunition, 
and chose Moses Whipple, Stephen Powers, 
Phineas Sanger, Abner Brigham and Joseph Hall 
a " committee of safety." In 1777 nine men from 
Croydon joined a company of militia, commanded 
by Captain Solomon Chase, of Cornish, and 
marched to Ticonderoga. Eight men joined the 
company of Captain Hardy, of Hanover, and 
united with the forces of General Stark, at 
Charlestown. Captain Moses Whipple, with a 
company composed partly of men from Cornish, 
"turned out" to stop the progress of Burgoyne. 
Croydon maintained its interest and contributed 
its full share of men and means until the close of 
the war. 

The following is an imperfect list of those 
citizens of Croydon who served in the Revolu- 
tionary War : 



Bazaleel Barton. 
Benjamin Barton. 
Abner Brigham. 
Cornel Chase. 
John Cooper, Jr. 
Joel Cooper. 
Sherman Cooper. 
Ezra Cooper. 
Benjamin Cutting. 
John Druce. 
Amos Dwinnell. 
Enoch Emerson. 
Timothy Fisher. 
Ezra Hall. 
Daniel Emerson. 
Edward Hall, Jr. 
Amos Hagar. 
Bazaleel Gleason. 
Jonas Cutting. 
James How. 
Abijah Hall. 



Stephen Powers. 
Urias Powers. 
David Powers. 
Samuel Powers. 
David Putman. 
Caleb Putman. 
Jacob Hall. 
Benjamin Sherman. 
Ezekiel Rooks. 
Daniel Rooks. 
David Stockwell. 
Phineas Sanger. 
John Sanger. 
Isaac Sanger. 
Robert Spencer. 
Benj. Swinnerton. 
Benj. Thompson. 
Gresborn Ward. 
Aaron Warren. 
Moses Warren. 
Moses Whipple. 



James Hall. 
Joseph Hall. 
Samuel R. Hall. 
Eleazer Leland. 
Rufus King. 
Rufus Kemptou. 
Phineas Newton. 



Thomas Whipple. 
Aaron Whipple. 
Isaac Woolson. 
Nathaniel Wheeler. 
Samuel Whipple. 
Seth Wheeler. 



War of 1812. — The following is an incomplete 
list of the citizens of Croydon who served in the 
war of 1812. 

Major, Abijah Powers. Ensign, Amasa Hall. 

Privates. 
N.athaniel Wheeler. Samuel Powers. 

Charles Cutting. Elijah Darling. 

Levi Winter. Sibley Melendy. 

Isaac Cooper. Abijah Dunbar. 

Tyler Walker. 

The Rebellion. — The following is an imper- 
fect list of those citizens who served in the Union 
army during the Rebellion : 

Chaplains Robert Stinson, Anthony C. Hardy ; 
Captains John W. Putman, E. Darwin Comings ; 
Lieutenants Paine Durkee, Albert Miner, (wounded 
at Fair Oaks) ; Sergeants Oscar D. Allen, (wounded 
at Antietam, killed at Gettysburg), Lloyd D. Fore- 
hand, (wounded at Fair Oaks), John Blanchard, 
(wounded), Hiram K. Darling, William D. Angell, 
(died in the service) ; Corporals George E. Frye, 
(killed at Chaucellorsville), Alvah K. Davis, Henry 
H. Haynes, Irving D. Tobie, Ephraim Plympton ; 
Privates, Alouzo Allen (wounded at Fair Oaks), 
Thomas Ames, (died in service), George Angell, Jr., 
Sanford T. Barton, (wounded at Fair Oaks), Henry 
Barton, (killed in battle), Frederick J. Burge, William 
Bushy, Charles Baggatt, Charles L. Bryant, Rufus W. 
Clark, Alonzo C. Crooker, John Cabner, James P. 
Darling, (wounded), Warren K. Darling, Walter P. 
Darling, George S. Davis, (died), Robert Dinsmore, 
Leroy Forehand, Stephen G. Ford, George H, Good- 
hue, Jeremiah Haynes, Charles C. Howard, 
(wounded), Franklin J. Hersey, (killed at Fair Oaks), 
Philip Harding, (killed at second battle of Bull Run), 
Edward Hall, Hiram C. Hall, Charles N. Harridon, 
Herman Jacobs, Ambrose Jerome, Charles K. Jack- 
son, (died), John A. Johnson, W. Wallace Kidder, 
Thomas Mack, Abraham Nutting, Elias F. Powers, 
(died at Poolesville, Md., February 17, 1863), Charles 



CROYDON. 



153 



S. Partridge, Theodore H. Payne, Nathan Peyton, 
Isaac P. Rawson, George H. Ross, Albert F. Robbins, 
John Riley, Henry H. Stockwell, (killed at Fair 
Oaks), John G. Stockwell, (died at Harper's Ferry), 
Henry H. Squires, Charles L. Stockwell, (mortally 
wounded), George N. Smith, George Tasker, Austin 
L. Whipple, (died in service), Eraile Warren, (died 
at Andersonville Prison). 

A few of the above were substitutes, and not 
actual citizens of the town. Twenty-five of them 
enlisted in the early part of the war, and received 
but ten dollars bounty. They were all volunteers. 
The highest bounty paid by the town was one 
hundred dollars per year. No citizen of Croydon 
is known to have deserted from the army during 
the war Many of them re-enlisted and served 
until the close of hostilities. 

The following are a few of the many natives of 
Croydon who enlisted from other places during 
the war: 

Chaplain Joseph Sargent, (died in the service); 
Surgeons Ira W. Bragg, (naval surgeon, died in the 
service), Sherman Cooper, David C. Powers, Marshall 
Perkins, Willard O. Hurd, Willard C. Kempton ; 
Captain Walter Forehand ; Lieutenant Edward Dow ; 
Sharp-Shooter Sergeant Walter P. Blanchard ; Priv- 
ates Leonard Barton, (mortally wounded in battle), 
Peter Barton, Hiram E. W. Barton, Edward W. Col- 
lins, (wounded at first Bull Run battle), David R. 
Eastman, Marshall P. Hurd, (killed at Antietam), 
Henry Humphrey, (died in the service), Orren 
Marsh, Simeon Partridge, Dexter Stewart, Stephen 
M. Thornton, John Thornton, George H. Thornton, 
(died in the service), Horace P. Hall. 

Croydon has furnished to the militia of the 
State the followiug officers : 
M.oj.-Gen. N. Emery. 

Coloneh. 
Jarvis Adams. Calvin Keniptou. 

Otis Cooper. Samuel Powers. 

Freeman Dunbar. Nathan. Wheeler, Jr. 

Daniel R. Hall. Moses Whipple. 

Majors. 
Abijah Powers. Lemuel P. Cooper. 

Peter Stow. 

The Croydon Light Infantry, and subsequently 



the Rifle Company, with their tasty uniforms and 
equipments and fine drill, were for many years a 
source of pride to the town 

CHURCHES. 

CoNGREGATiONALisTs. — The first cliurch was 
organized September 9, 1778, and was of the Pres- 
byterian order. The following are the names of 
its members : Moses Whipple, Stephen Powers, 
Isaac Sanger, John Cooper, Joseph Hall, Jacob 
Leland, John Sanger, Catherine Whipple, Rachel 
Powers, Mary Cooper, Anna Leland, Lydia Hall, 
Hannah Giles and Lucy Whipple. The first meet- 
ing-house was built in 1794, and in 1828 it was 
taken down and converted into a town hall. The 
first minister, Rev. Jacob Haven, was settled June 
18, 1787, and he continued pastor until 1834, after 
which he remained senior pastor until the time of 
his death, which occurred March 17, 1845, at the 
advanced age of eighty-two years. A new and 
commodious church edifice was built in 1826, 
which was regularly occupied by the society until 
1874 when it w-as closed. Rev. Eli W. Taylor, a 
native of Hine.sburg, Vt., was installed pastor 
June 10, 1834 and was dismissed December 27, 
1837. Aurelius S. Swift, of Fairlee, Vt., was or- 
dained May IG, 1838, and dismissed in 1841. 
After his removal the desk was supplied by Rev. 
Joel Davis, a native of Massachusetts, for several 
years, after which it was supplied by various 
clergymen until 1881. At the latter date the 
Methodists at East village united with them and 
settled Rev. D. W. Clark, who remained until 
1883. He was succeeded by Rev. H. A. Goodhue. 

John Cooper, Esq., left a legacy of $350 to this 
church and Mrs. Rebecca Kendall one of $300. 

Free-Will Baptist. — In 1810 some thirty 
individuals united and formed a Free-will Baptist 
Church, with Elijah Watson as elder ; Eli Davis 
and David Putnam were appointed deacons. It 
continued to flourish for some time. At length it 
was given up and a larger portion of its members 
united with a then flourishing church at North- 
ville, in Newport. 

Methodist. — Preachers of the Methodist order 



154 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



had often visited the town and organized classes, 
but it was not until 1853 that a church was formed. 
At that time a society comprising some thirty-six 
members, was organized. In 1854 they erected a 
meeting-house at the East Village, in which their 
services have since been held. The Rev. C. H. 
Lovejoy was their first pastor. He has been suc- 
ceeded by the Rev. Messrs. Hays, Russell, Tilton, 
"Whidden, Griffin, Hardy, Draper, Rogers, Quim- 
by, Bradford, Fi.ske, Spaulding, LeSeur, Pickles 
and Windsor. In 1881 this church united with 
the Congregationalist and settled the Rev. D. W. 
Clark of the latter denomination. After a pastor- 
ate of two years he was succeeded by the Rev. H. 
A. Goodhue. 

Universalists. — From its earliest settlement 
Croydon contained many Universalists, and in 
1832 a society was formed embracing .some fifty 
members, who held their meetings in the town hall 
until 1854, when Paul Jacobs, Esq., a wealthy and 
liberal citizen of the town, built a house of worship 
at the Flat and gave it to the society. Rev. Rob- 
ert Stinson was the only settled pastor, but the 
desk has been supplied by able ministers of the 
denomination. 

Calvinistic Baptist. — Many individuals of 
this town have connected themselves with the 
Calvinistic Baptist society at Newport Village. 
Civil History. 

Town Clerks. — The following is the list of 
town clerks from 1768 to 1885 inclusive. 

Moses Whipple, from 1768 to 1772. 
John Cooper, from 1772 to 1775. 
Moses Whipple, from 1775 to 1781. 
From 1781 to 1783, no records. 
Stephen Powers, from 1783 to 1789. 
Jesse Green, from 1789 to 1795. 
Jacob Haven, from 1795 to 1798. 
Reuben Carroll, from 1798 to 1805. 
Benjamin Barton, from 1805 to 1806. 
Reuben Carroll, from 1806 to 1807. 
Jacob Haven, from 1807 to 1815. 
Stephen Eastman, from 1815 to 1816. 
Jacob Haven, from 1816 to 1837. 
Benjamin Skinner, from 1837 to 1841. 
Daniel R. Hall, from 1841 to 1850. 



Nathan Hall, from 1850 to 1861. 
Daniel R. Hall, from 1861 to 1862. 
Dellavan D. Marsh, from 1862 to 1864. 
Nathan Hall, from 1864 to 1865. 
Dellavan D. Marsh, from 1865 to 1866. 
Alonzo Allen, from 1866 to 1883. 
Milon C. Cooper, from 1883 to 1885. 

Representatives. — The following is a list of 
the Representatives of Croydon, from 1800 to 
1885, inclusive. 



i 



1800 Benjamin Barton. 

1801 Samuel Powers. 

1802 Samuel Powers. 

1803 Benjamin Barton. 

1804 Samuel Powers. 

1805 Samuel Powers. 

1806 Samuel Powers. 

1807 Samuel Powers. 

1808 Samuel Powers. 

1809 Peter Stow. 

1810 James Breck. 

1811 James Breck. 

1812 Samuel Goldthwait. 

1813 James Breck. 

1814 James Breck. 

1815 Obed Metcalf 

1816 Natb. Wheeler, Jr. 

1817 Stephen Eastman. 

1818 Stephen Eastman. 

1819 Stephen Eastman. 

1820 Abijah Powers. 

1821 Abijah Powers. 

1822 Obed Metcalf. 

1823 Abijah Powers. 

1824 Amasa Hall. 

1825 Amasa Hall. 

1826 Carlton Barton. 

1827 Briant Brown. 

1828 Briant Brown. 

1829 Zina Goldthwait. 

1830 Carlton Barton. 

1831 Paul Jacobs. 

1832 Hiram Smart. 

1833 Ziua Goldthwait. 

1834 Samuel Morse. 

1835 Paul Jacobs. ' 
1836' Alexander Barton. 
1837 Alexander Barton. 



1838 Joseph Eastman. 

1839 Joseph Eastman. 

1840 John Putnam. 

1841 Calvin Hall. 

1842 (None.) 

1843 Alexander Barton. 

1844 Lemuel P. Cooper. 

1845 Lemuel P. Cooper. 

1846 Ruel Durkee. 

1847 Ruel Durkee. 

1848 Lester Blanchard. 

1849 Lester Blanchard. 

1850 (None.) 

1851 Pliny Hall. 

1852 Pliny Hall. 

1853 Alfred Ward. 

1854 Alfred Ward. 

1855 Freeman Crosby. 

1856 Wm. M. Whipple. 

1857 Martin A. Barton. 

1858 Freeman Crosby. 

1859 No choice. 

1860 No choice. 

1861 Paine Durkee. 

1862 Daniel R. Hall. 

1863 Daniel R. Hall. 

1864 Den. Humphey. 

1865 Den. Humphrey. 

1866 Worthen Hall. 

1867 Worthen Hall. 

1868 Albina Hall. 

1869 Albina Hall. 

1870 Eras. D. Comings. 

1871 Eras. D. Comings. 

1872 Otis Cooper. 

1873 Otis Cooper. 

1874 Nath. P. Stevens. 

1875 Nath. P. Stevens. 



CROYDON. 



155 



1876 John Blanchard. 

1877 John BLancharil. 

1878 George W. Dunbar. 

1879 George W. Dunbar. 

1880 George W. Dunbar. 



1881 Hubbard Cooper. 

1882 Hubbard Cooper. 

1883 Daniel Ide. 

1884 Daniel Ide. 

1885 Sylv. G. Walker. 



The following is an imperfect list of those who 
have been called to represent other towns, and who 
received their political training in Croydon : 

Solomon Clement, Springfield, N. H. 

Orra C. Howard, Springfield, N. H. 

Amos Hall, Grantham, N. H. 

Adolphus Hall, Grantham, N. H. 

William Melendy, Springfield, N. H. 

James Breck, Newport, N. H. 

John B. Stowell, Newport, N. H. 

James Hall, Newport, N. H. 

Zina Goldthwait, Newport N. H. 

Edmund Wheeler, Newport, N. H. 

Levi W. Barton, Newport, N. H. 

Paul J. Wheeler, Newport, N. H. 

Henry Breck, Cornish, N. H. 

Orlando Powers, Cornish, N. H. 

Horace Powers, Morristown, Vt. 

John L. Marsh, Jefl'erson Co., N. Y. 

Moses Humphrey, Concord, N. H. 

Aaron Barton, Piermont N. H. 

Hiram Smart, Jr., Plaistow, N. H. 

Orra Crosby Hardwick, Vt. 

Luther J. Fletcher, Lowell, Mass. 

Joshua B. Merrill, Barnstead, N. H. 

Sherburne Merrill, Colebrook, N. H. 

Alvin Sargent, Sanbornton, N. H. 

Charles Rowell, Allentown, N. H. 

John Ferrin, Morristown, Vt. 

Harrison Ferrin, Morristown, Vt. 

Nathaniel Cooper, Leon, N. Y. 

Alexander Barton, Ludlow, Vt. 

Jonas C. Kempton, Nashua, N. H. 

James W. Putnam, Danvers, Mass. 

George F. Putnam, Warren, N. H. 

William Breck, Claremont, N. H. 

Stillman Humphrey, Concord, N. H. 

Alvin Sargent, Holderness, N. H. 

Joseph Sargent, died in army. 

Daniel Warren, Waterbury, Vt. 

Selects! EN.^The following is a list of the Se- 
lectmen of Croydon, from 1768 to 1885 inclusive : 
1768.— Moses Leland, Moses Whipple, David Warren. 



1769. — Moses Leland, Moses Whipple, Stephen Pow- 
ers. 

1770. — Isaac Sanger, Moses Whipple, Stephen Pow - 
ers. 

1771. — Moses Whipple, Stephen Powers, David War- 
ren. 

1772. — John Cooper, Moses Whipple, Stephen Pow- 
ers. 

1773. — John Cooper, Moses Whipple, Benjamin Swin- 
nerton. 

1774. — Mo.ses Whipple, John Cooper, Stephen Pow- 
ers. 

1775. — Moses Whipple, Stephen Powers, Phineas 
Sanger. 

1776. — John Cooper, Moses Whipple, Benjamin Swin- 
nerton. 

1777. — Moses Whipple, Stephen Powers, Phineaa 
Sanger. 

1778. — Stephen Powers, Benjamin Swinnerton, Joseph 
Hall. 

1779. — Moses Whipple, John Cooper, Stephen Pow- 
ers. 

1780. — Moses Whipple, John Powers, Benjamin Pow- 
ers. 

1781. — Stephen Powers, Phineas Sanger, David Put- 
nam. 

1782. — John Cooper, Moses Whipple, Stephen Pow- 
ers. 

1785. — Edward Hall, Stephen Powers, Phineas San- 
ger. 

1786. — John Cooper, Edward Hal), Moses Whipple. 

1787. — Stephen Powers, Benjamin Barton, Simeon 
Partridge. 

1788. — Benjamin Barton, Jesse Green, David Putnam. 

1789. — John Cooper, Benjamin Powers, Ezra Cooper. 

1790. — Benjamin Barton, Abijah Hall, John Cooper, 
Jr. 

1791. — Benjamin Barton, David Putnam, John Cooper. 

1792.^Benjamin Barton, David Putnam, Samuel 
Powers. 

1793. — Benjamin Barton, David Putnam, Samuel 
Powers. 

1794. — Benjamin Barton, John Cooper, Jr., Nathaniel 
Wheeler. 

1795. — Benjamin Barton, John Cooper, Jr., David 
Putnam. 

1796. — Benjamin Barton, Thomas Whipple, David 
Putnam. 

1797. — Samuel Powers, Simeon Partridge, Peter Stow. 



156 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1798. —Benjamin Barton, John Cooper, Jr., Thomas 
Whipple. 

1799. — Benjamin Barton, Samuel Powers, Simeon 
Partridge. 

1800.— Benjamin Barton, John Cooper, Jr., Samuel 
Powers. 

1801.— John Cooper, Jr., Peter Barton, John Nelson. 

1802. — Benjamin Barton, Peter Barton, John Nelson. 

1803.— Samuel Powers, Peter Stow, Peter Barton. 

1804. — Peter Stow, Peter Barton, Barnabas Cooper. 

1805. — Peter Stow, Samuel Goldthwaite, Peter Bar- 
ton. 

1806. — Benjamin Barton, John Nelson, Stephen East- 
man. 

1807.— Peter Stow, Obed Metcalf, Stephen Eastman. 

1808.— Peter Stow, John Cooper, Asaph Stow. 

1809. — John Cooper, James Breck, Asaph Stow. 

1810. — Join Cooper, James Breck, Stephen Eastman. 

1811. — James Breck, Stephen Eastman, John Hum- 
phry. 

1812.— James Breck, Stephen Eastmafl, Abijah Pow- 
ers. 

1813.— Benjamin Barton, Stephen Eastman, Abijah 
Powers. 

1814.— John Humphry, Obed Metcalf, Solomon Clem- 
ent. 

1815. — James Breck, Benjamin Barton, Nathaniel 
Wheeler, Jr. 

1816.— Benj.imin Barton, Obed Metcalf, Stephen East- 
man. 

1817. — Stephen Eastman, Abijah Powers, Ezra Gus- 
tin. 

1818. — John Humphry, Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., 
Elisha Partridge. 

1819.— Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., Edward Putnam, Zina 
Goldthwait. 

1820. — Stephen Eastman, Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., 
Henry Breck. 

1821. — Nathaniel Wheeler, John Humphry, Obed 
Metcalf. 

1822. — Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., John Humphry, Obed 
Metcalf. 

1823. — Stephen Eastman, Samuel Morse, Edward 
Hall. 

1824. — Stephen Eastman, Abijah Powers, Edward 
Hall. 

1825. — Abijah Powers, Stephen Eastman, Carlton 
Barton. 



1826.— Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., Zina Goldthwait^ 
David Whipple. 

1827. — Abijah Powers, Carlton Barton, Edward Hall. 

1828. — Abijah Powers, Carlton Barton, Hiram Smart. 

1829. — Carlton Barton, Benjamin Barton, Johu Bar- 
ton. 

18.30. — Hiram Smart, Briant Brown, John Barton. 

1831. — Hiram Smart, Carlton Barton, Moses East- 
man. 

1832. — Carlton Barton, Paul Jacobs, Zina Goldthwait. 

1833.— Hiram Smart, James Hall, Jr., Lemuel P. 
Cooper. 

1834. — Hiram Smart, Zina Goldthwait, Moses East- 
man. 

1835.— Henry Breck, Zina Goldthwait, Moses East- 
man. 

1836. — Carlton Barton, Lemuel P. Cooper, Calvin 
Hall. 

1837.— Lemuel P. Cooper, Calvin Hall, John Put- 
nam. 

1838. — Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., John Putnam, Sher- 
burne B. Kowell. 

1839.— Lemuel P. Cooper, Calvin Hall, Peter Barton. 

1840.— Calvin Hall, William C. Carroll, Sherburne B. 
Rowel 1. 

1841. — Hiram Smart, Ruel Durkee, Calvin Kempton. 

1842.— William C. Carroll, Ruel Durkee, Freeman 
Crosby. 

1843. — Hiram Smart, Lemuel P. Coojier, John C. 
Loverin. 

1844. — Ruel Durkee, John C. Loverin, Timothy G. 
Powers. 

1845. — Ruel Durkee, Timothy G. Powers, William 
Darling. 

1846. — John Putnam, Jo.siah Ide, Moses Haven. 

1847.^Timothy G. Powers, Moses Haven, Ariel Hall. 

1848. — Lemuel P. Cooper, John Putnam, Martin A. 
Barton. 

1849.— Ruel Durkee, Paul J. Wheeler, Edmund Row- 
ell. 

1850. — Ruel Durkee, Dellavan D. Marsh, Dennison 
Humphrey. 

1851. — Martin A. Barton, Ruel Durkee, Paine Dur- 
kee. 

1852.— Ruel Durkee, Dellavan D. Marsh, Hiram C. 
Brown. 

1853. — Ruel Durkee, Hiram C. Brown, Lemuel P. 
Cooper. 



CROYDON. 



157 



1854. — John Putnam, Dellavan D. Marsh, Caleb L. 

Barton. 
1855. — Daniel R. Hall, Otis Cooper, Elias Powers. 
185(5. — Hiram C. Brown, Erasmus D. Comings, Mar- 
tin C. Bartlett. 
1857.— Ruel Durkee, Martin C. Bartlett, Welcome P. 

Partridge. 
1858. — Erasmus D. Comings, Dellavan D. Marsh, 

Albert G. Barton. 
1859. — Ruel Durkee, Nathaniel P. Stevens, Hiram P. 

Kempton. 
I860.— Ruel Durkee, Nathaniel P. Stevens, Hiram P. 

Kempton. 
1861.— Ruel Durkee, John W. Putnam, Martin C. 

Bartlett. 
1862.— Ruel Durkee, Nathan Hall, David E. Ryder. 
1863.— Ruel Durkee, Nathan Hall, William W. Hall. 
1864.— Ruel Durkee, William W. Hall, Daniel Ide. 
1865.— Ruel Durkee, William W. Hall, Elias Powers. 
1866.— Ruel Durkee, Elias Powers, Oliver C Fore- 
hand. 
1867. — Ruel Durkee, Caleb K. Loverin, Joshua A. 

Codman. 
1868.— Ruel Durkee, Oliver C. Forehand, John 

Blanchard. 
1869. — Ruel Durkee, John Blanchard, James W. 

Davis. 
1870. — Ruel Durkee, James W. Davis, George N. 

Smith. 
1871.— Ruel Durkee, William W. Ryder, Andrew J. 

Sawyer. 
1872. — Ruel Durkee, Dennison Humphrey, Francis 

Dodge. 
1873. — Ruel Durkee, Dennison Humphrey, Francis 

Dodge. 
1874.— Ruel Durkee, Francis Dodge, William W. 

Ryder. 
1875.— Ruel Durkee, William W. Ryder, Frederick 

Barton. 
1876.— Ruel Durkee, William W. Ryder, Frederick 

Barton. 
1877.— Ruel Durkee, William W. Ryder, Frederick 

Barton. 
1878.— Ruel Durkee, Frederick Barton, Sylvester G. 

Walker. 
1879.— Ruel Durkee, Sylvester G. Walker, Eugene 

A. Rowell. 
1880. — Ruel Durkee, Sullivan J. Brown, Harrison 

Stockvyell. 



1881. — Ruel Durkee, Sullivan .1. Brown, Harrison 

Stockwell. 
1882. — Ruel Durkee, Harrison Stockwell, Dana W. 

Barton. 
1883.— Hezekiah E. Hanson, William B. Kibby, Ruel 

D. Loverin. 
1884.— Hezekiah E. Hanson, Willi.am B. Kibby 

Prentis S. Blanchard. 
1885. — George W. Stockwell, Charles H. Forehand, 

John C. Loverin. 

Justices op the Peace and Quorum. 
The following is a list of the justices of the 
peace : 

Alonzo Allen. M.artin A. Barton. 

Benjamin Barton, Jr. Leonard P. Cooper. 

John Cooper. James C. Grandy. 

Daniel R. Hall. Worthen Hall. 

Nathan Hall. Albina Hall. 

Paul Jacobs. Samuel Morse. 

Abijah Powers. Elias Powers. 

Benjamin Barton. Henry Hurd. 

John Barton. Dellavan D. Marsh. 

Solomon Clement. Stephen Power. 

Isa.ac Cooper. John W. Putnam. 

Otis Cooper. Sherburne B. Rowell. 

William Dodge. Benjamin Skinner. 

Ruel Durkee. Hiram Smart. 

Paine Durkee. Allen Town. 

Stephen Eastman. Moses Whipple. 

Joseph Eastman. Nathan. Wheeler, Jr. 

Charles H. Forehand. Paul J. Wheeler. 

Lyman Hall. William M. Whipple. 

industries. 
Hotels. — Beujamin Barton and Reuben Car- 
roll at Four Corners, and Nathan Hall, William 
Allen and David A. Sargent, at the East village, 
have been hotel-keepers. 

Stores. — The following are among those who 
have been engaged in trade : William Cheney, 
Solomon Clement, Henry Breck, Peter Barton, 
Hiram Smart, at Four Corners ; Putnam & Cooper, 
Edward Hall, Ruel Durkee, Joel Ferry, George 
Dunbar and Rufus Hall, at East village, and 
James Breck, Simeon Edson, Stephen Eastman, 
Henry Hurd, Jaraes and Lyman Hall, Paul J. 
Wheeler, M. L. Barton, D. N. Adams, Daniel R. 
Hall, and Harriet Pillsbury at the Flat; Edward 



158 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Hall, on the hill between Four Corners and East 
village. A store was run for awhile at the Flat 
by an association of individuals. 

Factories. — Woolen — Nathan Clark, Jr., and 
Samuel Morse at East village. Knife — Joel 
Ferry, East village. Starch — Paul Jacobs at the 
Flat. Kit Factory — Moses Humphrey at Flat. 
Excelsior — Pillsbury Brothers at the Flat. There 
was a distillery at the Flat, where cider brandy in 
quantities was made for a number of years by 
James Hall. 

Tanneries. — Rufus and Ruel Durkee at East 
Village, and Silas Kempton at Flat. The former 
was continued for many years. 

Blacksmiths — Levi Dodge, Four Corners; Jas- 
per Back, John Spiller, Harry Leeds, East vil- 
lage; Jacob Dwinnells, Leavit Humphrey, Obid 
Kempton, Gardner Woodbury, Dennison Hum- 
phry at the Flat ; David Fletcher, in Brighton 
district, William G. Huntley. 

Shoemakers. — Perley Dodge at Four Corners; 
Charles Day, David W. Frye, Mr. Pickernale, 
East Village ; Jeremiah Kempton, Chase Noyes, 
Silas Kempton at the Flat. 

Coopers. — Folansbee Carroll, John P. Carroll 
at Four Corners. 

Clothiers. — Israel Goodwin and Stephen East- 
man had an establishment at the Flat, and Nathan 
Clark one at East village. 

CoRDiNCi. — James Perkins had a cording-mill 
at the Flat. 

Carpenters. — Joseph Kempton, Edward Kemp- 
ton, Obediah Dow, Jarvis Adams, Clark Stock- 
well, Joseph Eastman, William Darling, Charles 
Partridge, Hubbard Cooper, P. G. Minor, S. O. 
Powers, H. J. Hurd. 

Mills. — The first mill in town was a saw-mill 
at East village ; soon after a grist-mill at the 
same place, both of which have been in continuous 
operation ever since, owned by William Sherman, 
Colonel Boyce, Joel Ferrey, Dana Boston and 
others. In 1815 James Perkins came from Leo- 
minster, Mass., and built a saw-mill and grist-mill 
at the Flat. The former, now owned by Humphrey 



& Hanson, turns out a large amount of lumber 
annually. 

Milliner. — Augusta V. Hall. 

Tailors. — Elizabeth Sanger, Susan Humphrey, 
Hannah Harding. 

Dr. D. D. Marsh had a laboratory for a num- 
ber of years at Four Corners. 

Literature. — Among those who have made 
contributions to literature are Samuel Read Hall, 
who wrote a History of Vermont in 1827, a 
History of the United States in 1836, and 
numerous other volumes of interest, relating 
mainly to schools and educational matters. Baron 
Stow, D.D., was editor of the Columhiaii Star at 
Washington, D.C , and was the author of several 
books and pamphlets, and wrote much for the 
public press. John Cooper, Esq., published an 
" Historical and Statistical Sketch of Croydon " 
in 1852. Alanson L. Cooper, who.se few foot- 
prints left indicate that, had his life been spared, he 
would have been a favorite with the muses. Hon. 
Cyrus Barton edited, with much ability, the New 
Hampshire Spectator, at Newport, N. H., and the 
Neiv Hampshire Patriot, State Capital Reporter 
and Old Guard, at Concord, N. H. Vashti 
Towne, a sister of John, was a vigorous writer, as 
her contributions to the press, while at Washing- 
ton, D. C, amply testify. Rev. Luther J. 
Fletcher wrote " Gloria Patria " and several text- 
books, and contributed much to the journals of his 
denomination. Augusta Cooper Bristol indulges 
her pen freely, both in prose and poetry. A 
volume of the latter, embracing her choicest gems, 
was published in 1868. Alonzo Allen wrote 
" Croydon's Military Record." Edmund Wheeler 
published the " Croydon Centennial " in 1866, and 
the " History of Newport " in 1879. Solomon M. 
Whipple, M.D., was a member of the editorial 
staff of the Neiv Hampshire Patriot for several 
years, and his address, while president of the New 
Hampshire Medical Society, and other matters 
have been published. Hubbard A. Barton early 
indicated a taste for literature, and, besides his 
many offerings to the press, he has been, and now 
is one of the editors and proprietors of .the Argus 



CROYDON. 



159 



and Spectator, at Newport, N. H. Sullivan Barton, 
a brother, has, from boyhood, been a liberal con- 
tributor to the press. Elizabeth A. Harding, who 
wrote the " Welcome Ode " at the " Centennial," 
indulges Iipr pen in prose as well as verse. Marj' 
Cooper Gardiner's " European Tour," 1884-85, 
indicates a ready pen and ripe scholarship. Josiah 
Ide makes frequent contributions to the weekly 
press and also to many popular magazines of the 
day. James C. Grandy is a ready writer, makes 
frequent contributions to the press, and is entitled 
to credit for valuable as.«istance rendered in pro- 
ducing this historical sketch. 

Library. — The Croydon Social Library was 
established in 1806. It contained many standard 
works of great merit, and exerted a decided 
influence in moulding the character of the young 
men of the town. 

Education. — Early, the wife of Moses Whipple, 
an intelligent lady, received the children of the 
first sett'ers at her house, and taught them free of 
charge. The first school-house, a small structure 
twenty feet square, was built in 1772, and eight 
pounds was raised for the purpose of education. 
The second district was formed in 1780, and one 
hundred and fifty dollars assessed for school pur- 
poses. In 1834 the town was divided into ten dis 
tricts for school purposes. From the beginning 
Croydon has paid due attention to mental culture; 
has taken much interest in the schools, and, for 
the m' St part, has employed only the most compe- 
tent and efficient teachers and superintendents. 

The following are a few of the many noted 
teachers the town has furnished : 



Samuel Blanchard. 
Lemuel P. Cooper. 
Moses Haven. 
Baron Stow. 
Abijah Powers. 
Calvin Kempton. 
Moses Eastman. 
Samuel Powers. 
Griswoid Ward. 

Mrs. Moses Whipple. 
Mrs. General Emory. 



John Wheeler. 
Horace Powers. 
John Towne. 
Alexander Metcalf. 
Levi W. Barton. 
James Powers. 
Lyman Hall. 
Alonzo Allen. 

Mrs. Anna W. Metcalf..' 
Mrs. Augusta C. Bristol. 



Vashti Towne. Mrs. Harriet A. Loverin. 

Mrs. M Cooper Gardiner. Mrs. Nellie L. Barton. 
Mrs. Ellen C. Danforth. 

The following have been superintendants of 
schools : 



Jacob Haven. 
Moses Haven. 
Lemuel C. Cooper. 
John Cooper. 
Dellavan D. Marsh. 



William Barton. 
Hubbard A. Barton. 
Sullivan Barton. 
Harriet A. Loverin. 
Harriet Fowler. 

Physicians. — Reuben Carroll, Nathaniel Leav- 
itt, Dellavan D. Marsh, Ezra Gustin, Williams 
Barton, Sherman Cooper, Albina Hall, and Drs. 
Alden and Cooper, have been resident practicing 
physicians. F. S. Putnam, son of Stillnian .'"after 
graduation at the dental college, opened an office 
in town. He is now at Newport, N. H. 

The following is an imperfect list of native and 
former residents who have turned their attention 
to the medical profession : 

William Barton, born August 6th, 1820; graduated 
at Hanover, in 1845 ; located at Croydon, N. H. 

Ira W. Bragg, born July 28, 1833 ; graduated at 
Harvard in 1859 ; located at Chelsea, Mass., died Oc- 
tober 21, 1864. 

Alanson L. Cooper, born October 16, 1804; gradu- 
ated at Brunswick 1827; located at Auburn, N. Y. ; 
died in 1841. 

William F. Cooper, born September 20, 1801 ; 
graduated at Brunswick ; located at Kelloggsville, 
N. Y. ; died in 1847. 

Orville M. Cooper, born July 28, 1821 ; graduated 
at Dartmouth in 1845 ; located at Hollis, N. H. ; died 
1845. 

Elijah Cooper, graduated at Dartmouth in 1845 ; 
located at Newark, O., 1854. 

Sherman Cooper, born August 20, 1833 ; graduated 
at New York Medical College in 1856; located at 
Claremont, N. H. 

Herman Cooper, born February 6, 1859 ; graduated 
at Dartmouth ; located at Meriden, N. H. 

Reuben Carroll, died in 1840. 

Albert Carroll, located at Bo-ton, Mass. 

Adolphus Cutting, born June 25, 1811 ; graduated 
in 1833. 

John L. Cain, born September 26, 1857 ; graduated 
at Dartmouth in 1833 ; located at Grantham, N. H. 



160 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



William B. Cain, born September 26, 1859; gradu- 
ted at Dartmouth in 1883 ; located at Chesterfield, 
N. H. 

William W. Darling, born November 20, 1834 ; grad- 
uated at Dartmouth in 1859; located at Newport, 
N. H. 

Ezra Gustin, born 1788; located at Croydon, N. H.; 
died October 29, 1818. 

Willard P; Gibson, born September 2, 1798; gradu- 
ated at Castleton in 1822; located at Newport, N. H. ; 
died Octt-ber 23, 1837. 

Otis Gibson, born June 8, 1807; graduated at 
Woodstock in 1830 ; located at Wellsborc', Pa. 
Bushrod R. Gibson, located at Pomfret, Vt. 
John Hall, born October 3, 1814; graduated at 
Bowdoin in 1842 ; located at Newark, O. ; died in 
1852. 

Silas Hall, born December, 1792; located at Mon- 
rovia, N. Y. 

Albina Hall, born October 16, 1800; graduated at 
Berkshire in 1823 ; located at Croydon, N. H. 

Dellavan D. Marsh, born May 8, 1808; graduated 
at Dartmouth in 1834; located at Croydon, N. H. ; 
died 1867. 

William W. Marsh, born July 29, 1850 ; graduated 
at Harvard. 

Frank D. Marsh, born October, 1852. 
Marshall Perkins, born March 13, 1823 ; graduated 
at Harvard in 1850; located at Marlow, N. H. 

Horace Powers, born October 28, 1807 ; graduated 
at Woodstock in 1832; located at Morristown, Vt. ; 
died 1867. 

David C. Powers, born June 30, 1822 ; graduated at 
Amherst in 1848; located at Auburn, N. Y. 

Darwin A. Stewart, born April 5, 1842 ; graduated 
at New York Medical College in 1869; located at 
Winona, Minn. 

Daniel Ward, born June 6, 1810 ; graduated at 
Castleton in 1834 ; located at Marsailles, 111. 

Griswold W. Wheeler, born February 22, 1808 ; 
graduated at Dartmouth in 1836 ; located at Perry- 
ville. Mo. ; died June 7, 1865. 

Solomon M. Whipple, born July 28, 1820 ; gradu- 
ated at Woodstock in 1849 ; located at New London, 
N. H. ; died 1875. 

Henry W. Brown, born November 15, 1847 ; gradu- 
ated at Harvard in 1873 ; located at Newport, N. H., 
died 1875. 

Carlos J. Adams, born September 17, 1837 ; gradu- 
ated at Ann Arbor in 1868; located at Chicago, 111. 



William H. Hurd, born August 29, 1829 ; graduated 
at Dartmouth in 1854; located at Carlton Place, Ont. 

Willard O. Hurd, born December 7, 1838 ; gradu- 
ated at Albany Medical College in 1860 ; located at 
Grantham, N. H. 

Willard C. Kempton, born October 13, 1840 ; gradu- 
ated at Dartmouth ; located at Grantham, N. H. 

Lyman Hall, born in 1804 ; graduated at Dart- 
mouth in 1833 ; located at Cornish, N, H. ; died in 
1862. 

Lawyers. — Samuel Morse was the only prac- 
ticing lawyer that ever located in town. He was 
a native of Dublin, N. H. ; graduated at Dart- 
mouth in 1811; came to Croydon in 1815; was 
elected representative in 1834, and delegate to the 
Constitutional Convention in 1850; he died Jan- 
uary 1, 1865, aged eighty-one years. 

The following is an imperfect list of natives and 
former residents who have turned their attention 
to the legal profession : 

Levi W. Barton, born March 1,1818; graduated at 
Dartmouth, New Hampshire, in 1848 ; located at 
Newport, N. H. 

Jonas Cutting, born November 3, 1800 ; graduated 
at Dartmouth, New Hampshire, in 1823; located at 
Bangor, Me. ; died August 26, 1876. 

Gershom Powers, born June 11, 1789; not a gradu- 
ate ; located at Auburn, N. Y. ; died June 25, 1831. 

Frank. in Putnam, born September 8, 1833; gradu- 
ted at Bowdoin, Maine, 1859 ; located at Kansas City, 
Mo. ; died November 3, 1865. 

George F. Putnam, born November 6, 1841 ; gradu- 
ated at Norwich, Vt., in 1866 ; located at Kansas City, 
Mo. 

Wilbur H. Powers, born January 22, 1849 ; gradu- 
ated at Dartmouth in 1875 ; located at Boston, Mass. 

William P. Wheeler, born July 31, 1812; graduated 
at Harvard, Massachusetts, in 1842 ; located at Keene, 
N. H. ; died May 10, 1876. 

Clergymen. — The following are among those 
who have given their attention to theology : 

Jacob W. H. Ames, born May 7, 1838; graduated 
at Wesleyan in 1864; located at Chelsea, Mass.; died 
June 12, 1866. 

Otis Dunbar, born June 11, 1812; graduated at 
Dartmouth ; located at Holderness, N. H. 

Lester H. Elliot, born August 1,1835; graduated 
at Burlington in 1861 ; located at Winooski, Vt. 



CROYDON. 



161 



Luther J. Fletcher, born November 25, 1818 ; grad- 
uated at Norwich in 1841 ; located at Bath, Me. ; died 
January 20, 1884. 

Samuel R. Hall, born October 27, 1795 ; graduated 
at Academy Bridgeton, Me. ; located at Craftsbury, 
Vt. 

Josiah W. Powers, born .Tune 19, 1799; graduated 
at Andover in 1837 ; located at Kennebunk, Me. ; died 
in 1839. 

Dennis Powers, born May 24, 1808 ; graduated at 
Amherst in 1835; located at Abington, Mass. 

Urias Powers, born May 12,1791; graduated at 
Dartmouth in 1818; located at Big Lick, Va. ; died 
in 1870. 

Austin Putnam, born March 6, 1809; graduated at 
Dartmouth in 1827; located at Harnden, Conn. 

James W. Putnam, born December 15, 1822; grad- 
uated at Norwich; Dan vers, Mass.; died November 
3, 1864. 

Nathaniel F. Putnam, born February 2, 1839 ; grad- 
uated at Bowdoin in 1803 ; located at St. Johnsbury, 
Vt. 

Baron Stowe, born June 16, 1801 ; graduated at 
Columbian in 1825; located at Boston, Mass. ; died 
December 27, 1869. 

BIOGRAPHY. 

The following are brief sketches of a few of the 
proiniuent individuals of the town. We should 
have been glad to have given a much more ex- 
tended list and a fuller account of these. Nearly 
every one of the old families have sons or daugh- 
ters, to whose achievements they point with just 
pride. 

Hon. Cyrus Barton was born December 25, 
1795. He was able and popular as an Editor ; 
register of deeds for Sullivan County from 1827 to 
1829 ; Presidential elector in 18.32, 1836 and 1840 ; 
Senator in District No. 4, in 183.3 and 18,34 ; Coun- 
cilor in 1843; U.S. marshal in 1845 ; a member 
of the Constitutional Convention and president of 
the City Council of Concord in 1845. He died 
February 17, 1855, at Loudon, N. H., while 
making a political speech, falling into the arms of 
his opponent. 

Hon. Levi W. Barton, born March 1, 1818, 
a lawyer, graduated at Dartmouth. He was three 
years register of deeds, two years county solici- 



tor, five years a Representative and two years in 
the Senate ; in 1866 on committee to audit war 
indebtedness of the State, one of the committee to 
codify the New Hampshire laws, member of the 
Constitutional Convention, 1876, and in 1876 one 
of the Presidential electf)rs. 

Williams Barton, I\I.D. was born August 6, 
1820. He attended Unity and Kimball Union 
Academies, studied medicine with Drs. Coburn, 
Hall and Nichols, graduated at the Medical De- 
partment of Dartmouth College in May, 1845, and 
soon after commenced practice at Croydon, where 
he now resides. He was three years commissioner 
of common schools for Sullivan County, and a 
teacher of elocution at the Teachers' Institute. 

Hon. Lemuel P. Cooper, born July 18, 1803, 
is one of the most intelligent and progressive 
farmers in town. He has always taken a deep in- 
terest in the cause of religion and education, as 
well as politics. He was a popular teacher and 
superintendent, a trustee of the Industrial School 
of New Hampshire, twice a representative, twice 
in the Senate, and was at one time a candidate for 
Governor of the State. 

Hon. Oea Crosby, son of Prince, born Novem- 
ber 14, 1793, settled at Hardwick, Vt. He was a 
representative, a justice, judge of the County 
Court, director of the Danville Bank and president 
of the National Bank of Caledonia. As a finan- 
cier. Judge Crosby had but few equals. 

Jonas Cutting, LL.D., born November 3, 
1800, graduated at Dartmouth and located at 
Bangor, Me. He had intellectual faculties of a 
high order ; was conscientious, adroit and learned ; 
was popular as a lawyer, and commanded the 
highest respect ss a judge, ranking with the fore- 
most among the members of the bench. 

Hon. Ruel Ddrkee, born July 14, 1807, a 
farmer, was much in office at home. Shrewd, self- 
poised, with an instinctive knowledge of human 
nature, he was for nearly a whole generation one 
of the most conspicuous managers in the Republi- 
can party of the State. His presence was always 
required during the sittings of the Legislature and 
at all conventions. It has been said that in caucus 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the lightning usually struck the aspirant towards 
whom his magnetic finger pointed. He died in 
July, 1885. 

Timothy C. Eastman, Esq., born May 30, 1821 , 
was first a former at Croydon, then a milkman, 
with a hundred cows, at Cleveland, O., and is now 
the cattle-king of New York. He has a beautiful 
residence on Fifth Avenue, and, as a financier, he 
has been by far the most successful son of the 
town. He originated the plan of transporting beef 
to Europe in refrigerator.?, by means of which he 
presented the Queen with the quarter of beef as 
fresh as when taken from the slaughter-house at 
New York. 

Rev. Luther J. Fletcher, born February 25, 
1818, a Universalist clergyman, has been located 
at Buffalo, Lowell and New Y'ork ; is a man of 
rare talent, a fine writer and an eloquent talker ; 
was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, 
and once a judge. 

Israel Goodwin was remarkable for his intel- 
lectual and social qualities. He lived at the Flat, 
and was a cloth-dreoser by trade. In 1824 he re- 
moved to Plainfield, Vt., where he represented 
that town in both branches of the Legislature. 
He was appointed judge, and removed to Mont- 
pelier, where he died. 

Nathan Hall, son of Edward Hall, Jr., re- 
sides at the Flat, and is a farmer by profession. 
He was moderator several years, town clerk twelve 
years, and County Commissioner three years. 

Captain Worthen Hall was born July 11, 
1802. In 1827 he went to sea, and, being well 
adapted to the business, he followed that vocation 
for twenty-eight years. In 1855 he retired with a 
fortune, and settled at the Flat. In 1866-67 he 
was elected representative, which position he filled 
with credit to himself and honor to the town. 

Pliny Hall, son of Martin, born September 
21, 1817, was a farmer until he was twenty-one; a 
clerk in the store twelve years ; was U. S. assistant 
census marshal in 1850, 1870 and 1880; repre- 
sentative in 1851 and 1852, and county treasurer 
in 1855 and 1856 ; U. S. enrolling officer in 1864, 



and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 
1876. Died January 15, 1881. 

Dellavan D. Maesh, M.D., was born May 8, 
1818. He graduated from the Medical Depart- 
ment of Dartmouth College in 1834. He was in- 
terested in agricultural pursuits ; was treasurer of 
the County Agricultural Society in 1848 ; was 
often elected to town offices, and in 1839-40 was 
treasurer of Sullivan County. He died in 1866. 

Dr. Horace Powers, son of Urias Powers, 
born October 27, 1807 ; graduated at the Wood- 
stock Medical College in 1832 ; settled at Morris- 
town, Vt. ; was high sheriff of Lamoille County in 
1844 and 1845 ; represented his town in the Con- 1 
stitutional Convention in 1850 ; was a Senator in ' 
1853 and 1854, and was director in the Lamoille 
County Bank. 

Elias Powers, son of Major Abijah Powers, is 
a man of intelligence, a respected farmer, a lover 
of fun and story-telling, an adept at angling, trap- 
ping and hunting. He has served the town twice 
as selectman and has been county commissioner 
three years. 

Orlando Powers was born May 5, 1810. In 
1832 he removed to Cornish Flat, where he now 
resides. He has been town clerk of Cornish seven 
years ; was representative in 1844 and county 
treasurer in 1849-50. He has also been postmas- 
ter at Cornish Flat. 

Hon. Gershom Powers, son of John, was born 
June 11, 1779. After completing his studies he 
opened a law-office at Auburn, N. Y., where he 
had a successful practice. He was assistant jus- 
tice of Cayuga County Court, and at the end of 
three years he was elevated to the position of 
judge. In 1829 he was chosen Representative to 
Congress. He died January 25, 1831. 

Abigail Powers, daughter of Rev. Lemuel 
Powers, was born in 1798. In February, 1826, 
she married Millard Fillmore, late President of 
the United States. She was a lady highly re- 
spected for her intelligence, dignity and many vir- 
tues. 

Hon. Charles Rowell was born in 1785. He 
removed to AUenstown, N. H., and served as 



CROYDON. 



163 



selectman of his adopted town twenty-four years ; 
representative to tlie Legislature four years ; county 
treasurer two years ; State Senator two years, and 
a justice of the peace from early manhood until 
his death, which occurred January 11, 1867. 

Baron Stow, D.D., born June 16, 1801, grad- 
uated at Dartmouth and wiis settled in Boston. 
Having a j)ure heart, a vigorous intellect, an elo- 
quent tongue and attractive manners, he was the 
favorite son of the town, and was one of the most 
popular clergymen in the Baptist denomination. 

John Towne, son of John Towne, was born 
August 17, 1805. In June, LS40, he was appointed 
Deputy Secretary of State, which office he held 
four years. He was register of deeds for Sullivan 
County from 1851 to 1854, inclusive. He was for 
many years a successful teacher and has been for 
a long time a prominent and respected citizen of 
Newport. 

Vashti Towne, a sister of John, born May 8, 
1813, was educated at Kimball Union Academy ; 
taught school in her native town, three years at 
Norwich Institute, nine years at Portsmouth, Va., 
and fifteen years at Washington, D. C While at 
the latter place she had under her instruction the 
sous of President Lincoln and also those of Presi- 
dent Grant. She was an intimate friend of Mrs. 
President Fillmore, who was a relative. She died 
in 1869 at Newport, N. H. 

Captain Moses Whipple, son of Jacob, born 
at Grafton, Mass., in 1733, came to Croydon, 
1766. His was one of the first three families that 
came to town. Being well educated, intelligent, 
distinguished for energy and decision of character, 
warm-hearted, hospitable and generous to all, he 
was well calculated to be what he indeed was, — a 
father to the town. No one in town was ever 
more trusted or respected. He filled many im- 
portant offices, and was chairman of the Commit- 
tee of Safety during tiie Revolutionary struggle. 

William P. Wheeler, A.M., born July 31, 

1812; graduated at Harvard; was for many 

years a prominent member of the Cheshire County 

bar; was twice appointed to a seat upon the 

bench of the Supreme Court, which he declined ; 
11 



was twice a candidate for Congress ; was president 
of the Keene Savings-Ban k, and was a trustee 
of the New Hampshire Industrial School and of 
the Agricultural College ; died May 10, 1876. 

Paul J. Wheeler, son of Ceryl ; born Decem- 
ber 8, 1820 ; a merchant of Croydon ; settled in 
Newport ; was cashier of Sugar River Bank ; was 
moderator five years, a representative four years, 
a candidate for Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1860; in 1862 was a candidate for 
Governor. He died in 1802. 

miscellany. 

Casualties. — In 1770 Caleb, son of Seth 
Chase, the first settler in town, wandered into the 
forest, and was lost, and public opinion was di- 
vided as to the probable fate of the child ; some 
believed that he was captured and carried away 
by some straggling band of Indians, while others 
thought that he met his death at the hands of a 
villainous white man. 

Isaac Sanger, another early settler, perished in 
attempting to cross Croydon Mountain. 

Alexander Metcalf, Jr., was killed by the fall- 
ing of a tree. 

Abijah Hall was drowned at Gliddeu Bridge in 
1812. 

Two boys, sons of Thomas Whipple and Giles 
Stock well, Sr., were drowned in Spectace Pond. 

On the 19th of April, 1828, the dwelling-houseof 
Mr. Charles Carroll was burned, and two children 
perished in the flames. 

Dr. Reuben Carroll was thrown from a carriage 
in 1840, while going down the hill near where 
Caleb K. Loverin now lives, and was killed. 

A son of Nathaniel W. Brown was killed near 
the bridge at the East village, by the horse 
stumbling and falling upon him. 

In 1846 the wife of the Hon. Paul J. Wheeler 
was burned to death, by her clothes taking fire 
while warming herself by the stove. 

Mr. Cummings, an old gentleman, was found 
dead between the Flat and Coit Mountain. 

A sou of Simeon Ames fell from a load of hay 
unto the handle of a pitchfork, which caused his 
death in a short time. 



164 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



A son of Ira Bragg fell from a cart-tongue 
while riding, the wheel passing over him, killing 
him instantly. Another son was supposed to have 
been murdered out West. 

Ziba, son of John Cooper, was killed by a kick 
from a horse. 

A daughter of Carlton F. Hall fell into the 
river at the East village, and was drowned. 

A child of Rev. Jacob Haven was scalded to 
death by falling backwards into a pail of hot 
water. 

Asa Kelsey fell from a building and was killed. 

A son of Leonard N. Kempton fell into tiie 
mill-pond at the Flat and was drowned. 

A son of John Melendy was killed by the fall- 
ing of his father's chimney. 

A daughter of Robert Osburn fell into a brook, 
was carried under the causeway and drowned. 

A son of James Perkins was drowned in a 
brook near the Flat. 

A son of Ezekiel Powers was caught between 
two logs and crushed to death. 

Willard, son of Urias Powers, fell from the 
Glidden Bridge, while on his way from school, 
and was drowned. 

A son of Jotham Ryder was killed by a cart- 
body falling upon him. 

The wife of David Rowell was killed by light- 
ning ; her infant was sleeping on her arm and 
escaped unhurt. 

Joseph Smart went out to catch his horse one 
Sunday morning, and soon after was found dead. 

Griswold, son of Aaron W^hipple, was killed 
by running under an axe that was thrown from 
the frame of a building. 

In 18G1 Edwin, son of Moses Whipple, while 
returning from the ])ost-office at the Flat, one 
dark, rainy night, walked off from the bridge and 
met a horrible death amidst the rocks and angry 
waters below. 

Epidemics. — The " canker rash " prevailed to 
an alarming extent amongst the children in 1795. 
Of twenty-four deaths that year, twenty were 
under fourteen years of age. In 1813 the 
" spotted fever " made its appearance in a most 



malignant form, defying all medical skill, and 
cutting down the old and the young, the weak 
and the strong alike. Of thirty deaths in town 
that year, eighteen were from that disease. 

Seces.sion. — In 1778 several towns on the 
east side of Connecticut River (Croydon included) 
renounced their allegiance to New Hampshire, and 
formed a connection with the new State of Ver- 
mont, which continued four years. Moses Whip- 
ple, Esq., was appointed a delegate to a conven- 
tion held at Cornish, and also chosen to represent 
the town in the Vermont Legislature, but before 
his arrival at the seat of government the Vermont 
Assembly had resolved that the western bank 
of the Connecticut River should be the dividing 
line between Vermont and New Hampshire, and 
the disaffected towns returned to their allegiance 
and domestic quiet prevailed. 

Population.— In 1775, 143; 1790, 5-37; 1800, 
984; 1810, 862; 1820, 1060; 1830,1057; 1840, 
956 ; 1850, 861 ; 1S60, 755 ; 1870, 652 ; 1880, 
608. 

LoXGEViTY. — An incomplete list of those who 
have attained to ninety years of age or over : 
Widow Marsh, 90 ; Mrs. Benjamin Cutting, 90 ; 
Widow Clement, 93; Mrs. Jotham Ryder, 94; 
Samuel Metcalf, 93 ; Widow Giles, 94 ; Samuel 
Marsh, 94 ; Widow A. Stockwell, 95 ; Capt. 
Nathan Clark, 90 ; Thomas Blanchard, 98 ; 
Widow Rumble, 100 ; Samuel Goldthwait, 93 ; 
Lydia Leland Powers, 92 ; Mrs. Timothy Fletcher, 
95 ; Mrs. Luke Paul, 92 ; AchsHh Barton, 96. 

Dairies.— Croydon is an agricultural town and 
furnishes annually its proportionate share of farm 
products. It is distinguished mainly for the 
amount and excellence of its dairies. Among the 
earlier inhabitants most extensively engaged in the 
dairy business were Capt. Zina Goldthwait and 
John Barton, who had some fifty cows each, and 
Col. Nathaniel Wheeler, Paul Jacobs. Esq., and 
Gen. Nathan Emery, who had but a few les.'?. In 
later years, Lemuel P. Cooper, Ruel Durkee, 
Caleb K. and Ruel D. Lovcrin, Oliver C. and 
Charles H> Forehand, Francis Dodge, Andrew J. 
Sawyer, William W. Ryder, James W. Davis and 





^^//,^^^'2>^Ce/^ 



CROYDON. 



165 



Frederick Barton were an.ong the jn'omiuent dairy- 
men. 

In 1849 some fifteen men from this town, lured 
by the prospect of a golden harvest, embarked for 
California, where they engaged iu mining. Their 
hopes were not fully realized. 

The Croydon turnpike was chartered June 2-5, 
1804, and built iu 1806. It extended from Leba- 
non to Washington. It was a fine road and a 
great convenience to travel, but not the pecuniary 
success anticipated. 

Music. — The Cmydou Baud, led by Baldwin 
Humphrey, composed of a large number of fine 
players, ranked among the first iu the old Thirty- 
first Regiment. 

Among those eminent as singers are ]\Ioses 
Haven, H. E. W. Barton, E. Darwiu Cummings, 
Charles Partridge, ]\Iary Powers and Carrie N. 
Barton. 

The inhabitants of the town are unusually 
social, hospitable, neighborly and fond of entertain- 
ments, and hence the dances, huskings, apple-par 
ings, tjuiltiugs and other neighborhood gatherings 
are frequent, fully attended and enjoyed. 

Centennial. — The Centennial celebration, 
which occurred June 1.3, 1866, was by far the 
largest and most notable gathering ever in town. 
All natives and former residents were invited. A 
salute was fired at dawn. At ten o'clock a pro- 
cession was formed, under the direction of Cai)taiu 
Nathan Hall, chief marshal, assisted by William 
W. Ryder, Martin A. Barton and Major Dexter 
G. Reed, and escorted by the Croydon Band, led 
by Baldwin Humphrey, marched to the stand. 
Colonel Otis Cooper, chairman of the committee 
of arrangements, made the welcome speech, and 
introduced William P. Wheeler, of Keeue, as 
president of the day, who, after an apjjropriute 
address, announced, successively, the following 
programme : Prayer by the Rev. Luther J. 
Fletcher; " Welcome Ode," by Lizzie P. Harding; 
a poem, by Augusta Cooper, Bristol ; oration, by 
Baron Stow, D.D., of Boston ; dinner, a sump- 
tuous repast. After which other addresses, full 
of reminiscences, humor and eloquence, were made 



by Hon. Levi W. Barton, of Newport; William 
F. Cooper, of Kellogsville, N. Y. ; Thomas Whip- 
ple, Es(|., of Charlestowu ; Lemuel P. Cooper, of 
Croydon ; Moses Humphrey, of Concord ; Luther 
J. Fletcher, of Maine; Alexander Barton, of 
Boston ; Moses Haven, of Plaiufield ; Solomon M. 
Whipple, of New London; and Edmund Wheeler, of 
Newport. The following were the vice-presidents : 
Moses Humphry, Alexander Barton, L. W. 
Barton, Adolphus Hall, Calvin Hall, Ariel Hall, 
Ora Crosby, Freeman Cutting, Orlando Powers, 
Elom Marsh, Ruel Durkee, Samuel Blanchard, 
William E. Melendy, Elijah Ryder, Moses Haven, 
William F. Cooper, Hiram Smart, Jouas C. 
Kempton, Warren M. Kerupton. Committee of 
arrangements: Otis Cooper, Reuben Cooper, 
Daniel R. Hall, Daniel Ryder, Worthen Hall, 
Barnabas C. Whipple, Cyrus K. Fletcher, John 
Cooper, Nathan Hall. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



GEORGE WILLIAM DUNBAR. 

The first known ancestor of the Dunbar family 
in America was Robert Duubar, a Scotchman who, 
circumstances indicate, was one of the Scotch pris- 
oners sent over to the Massachusetts Colony in 
1652, by Cromwell after the battles of Dunbar 
and Worcester. It is certain that this Robert 
Dunbar was the ancestor of the Dunbars of 
Abington and Bridgewater, if not of all bearing 
that name iu New England. The family has 
alwa3's shown the characteristics which have so 
favorably distinguished the Scotch people. They 
are good, law-abiding citizens, with a frugal thrift 
and industry, a careful economy, aud cautious and 
discriminating judgment in all the afiairs of 
life. 

Samuel Dunbar was a native of Bridgewater, 
Mass., a fiirmer, prosperous and respected, aud 
reared a family there, among whom was Elijah 
Dunbar, born in Bridgewater April 23, 1759, 



166 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



graduated at Dartmouth College, studied for the 
profession of law, and began practice at Keene, 
N. H., 1790. He was at Claremont from 1797 to 
1804, then reopened his office in Keene, was a 
magistrate, and represented Keene in the Legisla- 
ture in 1806-08 and '10. He was an officer for 
many years of the old Cheshire Bank at Keene, 
and one of the leading members of the Keene bar. 
He married Mary, daughter of Alexander Ralston, 
of Keene. His son, George Frederick Dunbar, 
was born at Claremont, N. H., September 9, 1793. 
He studied medicine with Dr. Twitchell (a famous 
physician of Keene, N. H.) and at Dartmouth Col- 
lege, started practice at Stoddard, but after a short 
time removed to Westmoreland, where for fifty 
yeai-s he was the leading physician of the town. 
He married, 1818, Catherine, daughter of Nat 
Fisk, of Westmoreland. They had three sons and 
three daughters, — 

Mary Ann, married Horace Starkey, of West- 
moreland, and moved to Cherry Valley, 111., 
where she died, leaving two children, — Dr. Horace 
M. Starkey, a noted physician of Chicago, and 
Ella M. 

Amos T., married Emily Cook, of Boston, had 
two children ; both died young. He was for many 
Jrears a merchant in Boston. In 1849 went to Cal- 
ifornia, had quite an adventurous career and final- 
ly died there. 

George W. (subject of sketch). 

Nat F., married Hattie Gregg, an English lady, 
has one child living, Frederick ; resides at the old 
homestead at Westmoreland. Most of his life, 
however, since 1852 has been spent in the Califor- 
nia mining regions. 

Martha F., married Capt. Lewis Webster, of 
Westmoreland ; has four children, — Jennie F., 
George D., Florence and Kate ; all are married, 
and all reside in Dunlap, Morris County, Kan., 
whither Capt. Webster removed and became the 
proprietor of a large sheep ranch. He is now- 
deceased, and the widow resides with one of the 
children. 

Laura E., the youngest of the six children, died 
young. 



Gc'Tge William Dunbar was born in Westmore- 
land, N. H., February 15, 1822. His education 
was obtained at the common schools of his native 
town, Keene, and the Academy at Framiugham. 
His early life till his fourteenth year was spent 
on the farm. He was then apprenticed to Wil- 
liam Stowits, of Keene, to learn harness-making, 
and thus his time was employed till his nineteenth 
year, when a love of adventure led him to embark 
with Capt Joseph Reynolds on a four years' whal- 
ing voyage. The cruise did not difl^er materially 
from the average whaling voyage in those times ; 
there were the usual hardships to be endured, the 
usual hair-breadth escapes ; but finally Mr. Dun- 
bar returned safe and sound to his native land 
with his curiosity thoroughly satisfied as to the 
"jolly life of a jack tar." 

He then went into partnership with his brother, 
A. T. Dunbar, in millinery business in Boston. 
This partnership continued about two years, which 
brings us to 1849, that ever memorable period, 
when the prose of life all over the world was 
eclipsed and for a time rendered irksome by the 
poetry of the newly- discovered gold-mines of Cali- 
fornia. Mr. Dunbar, like thousands of others, be- 
came infected with the gold fever, and disposing 
of his interest in the millinery business, he em- 
barked on the schooner " Eudora " from Bangor, 
"around the Cape to California," where, after a 
tedious voyage, they arrived in September, 1849. 
He at once sought the mines, and as an Argonaut 
met with fair success. After nearly two years 
spent in mining, the longing to see the wife he had 
left behind overcame the attraction of the shin- 
ing dust, and he once more sought the granite hills 
of his native New Hampshire. After a perilous 
and adventurous trip across the plague-infected 
Isthmus he reached home, and for a time was en- 
gaged in the cutlery manufacturing business in 
Croydon. He soon exchanged his cutlery business, 
however, for a store, and became a village merchant 
in Croydon. In 1856 he again sought the land of 
gold, this time remaining three years and a half. 
Again his efforts as a gold-seeker were fairly suc- 
cessful, and once more returning to New Hamp 



CROYDON. 



167 



shire, he re-embarked iu trade iu Croydon, where 
he continued till 1882, when he retired from active 
business. 

Mr. Dunbar married, June 21, 1848, Sarah D., 
daughter of Elbridge and Hannah (Derby) Dix, 
of Hubbardston, Mass. They had four child- 
ren, — 

George W., resides at Andover ; Mary A., died 
when nine years of age; Infont (unnamed) 
dead ; and Charles D., resides at Roxbury, 
N. H. Mrs. Dunbar died March 31, 1873. 
Mr. Dunbar married, as his second wife, 
Marietta J., daughter of Abram S. and Lydia H. 



(Lovering) Philbrick, of Springfield, N. H., Octo- 
ber 8, 1874. 

Mr. Dunbar represented his town in the Legis- 
lature in the years 1878, '79, '80. He is now 
town treasurer, and has held that position since 
1883. He is deacon of the Congregational 
Church, and has been clerk and treasurer of the 
.''ame since the reorganization of the church in 
Croydon. He has been for a quarter of a century 
a member of Hiram Lodge, F. and A. M., at New- 
port, N. H., and is a member of the chapter at 
Claremont. Iu political faith he has always been 
a stanch Republican. 



HISTORY OF GOSHEN. 



CHAPTER I. 

This town was formed from portions of Fishere- 
field (Newbury), Wendell (Sunapee), Newport, 
Unity and Lempster, and incorporated December 
27, 1791. 

The act of incorporation provided that the in- 
habitants of the portion taken from Lempster 
should continue to pay ministerial taxes to the 
support of the Rev. Elias Fisher, and did so until 
said provision was repealed, December 8, 1796. 

By an act approved June 22, 1797, the boun- 
dary lines of the town were established, and the 
same were in part changed June 17, 18()fi. 

A tract of land was severed from Unity, and 
annexed to Goshen, July C, 1837. 

The iiortion of the town taken from Sunapee 
was first settled in 1769, by Captain Benjamin 
Rand, William Lang and Daniel Grindle. 
Rev. Eiias Fisher's Certificate. 

" Lempster Sc]/ 14, 1796. 
" this may certify that if in case the Town of Lemp- 
ster see cause to give their consent that the People in 
that part of Goshen which was taken from Lempster 
should not be liolden to pay any part of my Salary 
After the present Year, that I will not exact of S'' 
Town any Augmentation of my Salary on Account of 
the increas of list on S'* Inhabitants — 

"Elias Fisher 

" The Above is a true copy of an Original certificate 
lodged in the Town clerks Office (Lempster) 

"Attest James Bixgham Toum Clei-k" 

Petition for Relief from paying Ministerial Taxes in 
Lempster. 

" To the Honourable Senate and House of Representa- 
tives to be Convened at Concord in the state of New 
168 



Hampshire on the fourth Wednesday of Nov' In- 
stant — 

" We your Petitioners Humbly Sheweth 
" As their is a Clause in an Act Entitled an Act to 
Incorporate a Town by the Name of Goshen Empow- 
ering the Selectmen of Lempster to Assess the Inhab- 
itants of that part of Goshen that formerly belonged 
to the Town of Lempster towards the Support of the 
Reverend M' Fisher so long as he shall remain the 
Minister of said Lempster and empowering the Col- 
lector of said Lempster to Collect said Taxes as 
though said Act of Incorporation liad not been 
passed^ 

" We your Petitioners Inhaliitants of that jiart of 
Goshen (formerly Lempster) being Taxed in both 
Towns towards the support of the Ministry makes it 
very Burdensom and having obtained the Consent of 
the Town of Lemster Humbly Pray that the Said 
Clause in Said Act may be Repealed (and your peti- 
tioners have all the priviledges and Immunities that 
any other Towns Do Enjoy) or otherwise as your 
Honours in your Wisdom Seem meet And your peti- 
tioners as iu Duty bound Shall ever pray 

" Goshen November y'' 16'" 1796 
" John Tomson Daniel marston 

Micah Morse Silas Smith 

Reuben Willey Allen Willey 

James Philbrook Hez*" Emerson 

Calvin Bingham Nathan Willey 

W" Story Na' Beckwith" 

In the House of Representatives, December 8, 
1797, the aforesaid clause in the act of incorpora- 
tion was repealed. 

Vote of Letnpster relative to Ministerial Taxes paid by 
Goshen. 

" Town Clerks Office Lempster. 

" At a legal Town meeting held in Lempster on the 
first monday of Nov' AD 1796— 



GOSHEN. 



169 



" On reading and considering a Petition from the 
Inhabitants of Goshen — Voted that in case the inhab- 
itants of that part of Goshen wliich was taken from 
Lempster will punctually pay up all the taxes now 
made up Against them for the payment of the Rev'' 
M' Fishers Salary, the Town will release them from 
paying any part of S'' Salary in luture 

"The above is a true copy taken from the Town 
Book of Record of S** Lempster. Attest 

"James Bingham Town Clerk — " 

The first settlements were made here in about 
the year ITHl), by Captain Benjamin Rand, Wil 
Ham Lang and Daniel Griffin, whose sufferings 
were very severe. The crops of the first settlers 
were oftentimes entirely destroyed by early frosts, 
and it was necessary for the feeble settlement to 
procure grain from Walpole and other places. 



Many accounts are related concerning the sufler- 
ings of Captain Rand and family. In 1813 the 
town was visited with spotted fever, which carried 
off many of the inhabitants. 

Church services were first held in this town by 
Rev. Josiah Stevens, of the Congregational de- 
nomination, who came to reside in Goshen in 
about 1798. The Congregational Church was 
organized February 23, 1802, by Rev. Elihu 
Thayer. It consisted of seven members. The 
present pastor is Rev. H. H. Morse. There is 
also a Baptist Church in the town. Rev. D. M. 
Cleveland, pastor. 

Goshen responded promptly to the call for 
troops during the late Rebellion, and her record 
during that struggle is one in which her citizens 
may justly feel a patriotic pride. 



HISTORY OF GRANTHAM. 



BY L. D. DUNBAR. 



CHAPTER I. 

The first charter for the town of Grantham was 
dated July 11, 1761, being the second town char- 
tered in what is now Sullivan County, Charles- 
town being the first. Owing to non-compliance 
■with the terms of the charter, a second charter was 
granted in 1767. Upon petition to the General 
Court by Samuel Duncan, the name of the town 
was changed to New Grantham in 1788, which 
name it retained until 1.S18, when its original 
name was restored. The town, as originally laid 
out, was six miles square. About midway through 
the town, running northerly and southerly, was 
Croydon Mountain, making a natural division of 
the town into east and west parts, and upon the 
top of the mountain was the centre of the town. 
The boundaries of the town have been very much 
changed since that time, and the Grantham of 
to-day is very different geographically from the 
original Grantham, and much smaller in area, as 
well as in population. 

In 1836 a portion of territory lying in the north- 
east corner of the town was severed and joined to 
Enfield. In 1844 a portion lying in the south- 
west corner was taken off and annexed to Cornish, 
and in 1858, owing to the inconvenience of doing 
town business by reason of the mountain dividing 
the town, all that part lying west of the top of the 
mountain was set off to Plainfield. The following 
year a small territory lying between Grantham and 
Springfield, called the " Gore," which previously 
had been classed with Springfield for town busi- 
ness, was incorporated into Grantham, which 
helped in part to make up for the loss of territory 

we had sustained, and while not being an adequate 

170 



recoiapense in that respect, it made a pretty little 
town, containing an area less than two-thirds the 
original size of the town. 

The first settlement in Grantham was upon the 
west side of the mountain, in 1767. Among the 
first settlers were Ezra Buswell, Elijah Gleason, 
Abel Stevens, Francis Smith, esq., Ithamer Bart- 
lett. Job, Stephen and Caleb Colton, Jonathan 
Parkhurst, Jabez Bennett, Isaac Jenny, Elienezer 
Burr, llob't and Charles Scott, Samuel, John and 
Rou't Duncan, William Moulton, Ebeuezer Steb- 
bins, Abner Johnson, Parker Carr, Joab V. Young, 
Willard Marcy, James Smith and William Hun- 
tington. These were all prominent and active 
in town and business affairs during their lifetime, 
and their descendants have been prominent and in- 
fluential citizens in this town and elsewhere, many 
of them being scattered into all parts of the 
country. Among the second generation from 
the first settlers and others who have been 
conspicuous among the inhabitants on the west 
side of the mountain, I will name Samuel Bean 
Cyrus Smith, Elias Smith, William C. Smith, 
Converse J. Smith, Joel Spaulding, Bryant and 
Asa Janney, Daniel G. Stickney, W. L. New- 
ton, John P. Chillis, Hiram L. Sleeper, Dan- 
iel L. and G. W. Smith, Orin T. and John 
Eaton, W. L. Martin and Nathaniel Wheeler 
William Johnson, Samuel Davis, Milton Buswell 
and Samuel C. Moulton. Ezra Buswell, who came 
to town in 1767, was town clerk, selectman and 
representative many years ; he had a family of 
nine children, and died at the age of eighty-eight 
His sons were all capable business men and filled 
places of public trust in the communities in which 
they resided. But two of them are now alive, — Oli- 



GRANTHAM. 



171 



ver B. and Hiram, the latter a resident of Warner, 
N. H. Oliver has always been a resident of Grant- 
ham, being now a venerable man of eighty-four 
years, hale and active. He has been respected and 
honored by his townsmen to a great degree ; has 
been town clerk for many years, selectman for four- 
teen years, a representative three years and Sena- 
tor two years. 

The settlement on the east side of the mountain 
was not made until a few years later than that on 
the west side. 

The first settlement was made on Dunbar Hill, 
so-called from name of first settler, John Dunbar, 
who came with his family from Bridgewater, 
Mass., and at about the same time came Henry 
Howard. John Dunbar bought six hundred acres 
of land on this hill. In 1796 Ezekiel and Sylves- 
ter Dunbar and Isaac Newell came ; in 1797, Rich- 
ard Dodge ; in 1798, Daniel Stime ; in 1800, Abiel 
Howard, Uzziel Hay ward, Barzeliu Hay ward came, 
all settling on or near Dunbar Hill. * A few years 
later came Bradford Dunbar, Jonathan Nichols, 
John and Jesse Marsh and others. In 1793 
Leavitt Hill was settled by Nathaniel Leavitt, 
who came from Exeter, N. H. He liad eight sons 
and two daughters; all settled in the same neigh- 
borhood. Soon after Mr. Leavitt came, Samuel 
Alexander settled near him. Howe Hill was settled 
in 1813 by Ezekiel Howe. Among the early settlers 
on this side of the mountain were Francis Williams, 
Benjamin Clifford, Stephen Judkins, Daniel Britt, 
John and Joseph Sargent, Joseph Bean, David and 
Jonas Hastings, John Stocker, Richard Smith, 
Thomas Whipple, Deacon Joseph Goss John Mel- 
lendy and Henry Eastman. Most of the early 
settlers lived to a good old age, as have their chil- 
dren. I will mention one instance of longevity 
among the early families. Abiel Howard had 
seven children, viz. : Inanthe, born February 
25, 1799 ; Lewis, born December 4, 1802; Rachel, 
born May 29, 1805 ; Susan, born March 27, 1807 ; 
Abiel Howard, born October 16, 1810; Nathan 
Howard, born May 6, 1813 ; and Emma Howard, 
born April 8, 1815. They are all living at this 
date, the oldest being nearly eighty-seven and the 



youngest nearly seventy-one yeai-s. Rev. Lewis 
Howard, one of the number, being the oldest 
preacher in the New Hampshire Conference. Na- 
than Howard is a preacher in Iowa. Three of the 
above named are now living in Grantham. 

Tiie Leavitt families were very large, and at one 
time there were nearly fifty of them who attended 
one school on Leavitt Hill. Seventeen of the Leav- 
itts were school-teachei-s, three were physicians, and 
one, William B., a professor of practical astronomy. 
He now resides in Grantham, and since the death 
of Dudley Leavitt, the originator of the " Leavitt 
Almanac," in 1858, he has made the calculations 
for this almanac, and has the copies all complete 
to 1897, and intends soon to have calculations 
completed to 1900. Nathaniel Leavitt died at the 
age of ninety three years. Samuel Alexander had 
two sons — Ezekiel and Henry. Ezekiel died in 
1881, aged eighty-eight years; he was a soldier in 
the War of 1812. Henry Alexander is now living 
in town at the age of eighty -six years. 

Among the men most prominent in town in 
business afiairs, who have lived in Grantham (and 
who are now dead), in addition to those above 
named, were Reuben Winter, Amasa and Adol- 
phus Hall, Deacon Seth Littlefield, Arden Hay- 
ward, Captain Nicholas Shaw, Colonel Francis 
Howard, Cajitain John Sargent, John N. Brown, 
David and John Frye, Carlton Barton, William 
Strocker, Captain Jonathan Brown, Henry How- 
ard and Edwin Sargent, and George Fowler, Eben 
Hayward, Oilman Colby, John Clark, Nathaniel 
L. Shedd, John Smith and George W. Bus- 
well. The first settlers of Grantham were an in- 
telligent, industrious and enterprising class of peo- 
ple, and they left many worthy descendants ; and 
the town has ever been noted for the sobriety and 
morality of its people. 

The first town-meeting ever held in Grantham 
was called upon the petition of ten of the inhabit- 
ants, and was held for the election of town officers, 
on the 12th day of March, 1776, at the house of 
Abel Stevens. 

The following were the officers elected : Abel 
Stevens, moderator ; Elijah Gleason, town clerk ; 



172 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Abel Stephens, Ithamer Bartlett aud Elijah 
Gleason, selectnieu ; Job Colton, town treasurer ; 
Jonathan Parkhurst, constable ; Caleb Colton, 
tithingman ; Stephen Colton, hog-reeve. 

It appears that in its early infancy the town 
was called upon to furnish men for the Continental 
army, and a Committee of Safety was elected each 
year during the war. At a town-meeting held 
on the 7th day of December, 1776, the town voted 
a tax of five pounds to pay for military stores. 

At a town-meeting held on the 16th day of 
April, 1777, a call for men having been made, the 
town " Voted to give a bounty of fourteen pounds 
to each man the town had to furnish for three 
years, or during the war with Great Britain." 
Subsequently, on the 7th day of May, 1777, the 
above vote was " repealed" and instead, a vote was 
passed " to give every man yearly eight pounds for 
the two first years of service, and ten pounds two 
shillings for the third year." It appears that 
there was another call for men, for a town-meeting 
was called to be held at the house of Abel 
Spaulding, " early candle-lighting to-morrow 
evening, July 23, 1779." It was voted " to give 
six pounds to any man who will go into the service 
on the present call,'' and a committee was chosen 
to procure a man. 

In the early history of the town money was 
scarce, and in 1778 the town voted to pay the 
selectmen for their services in produce ; and two 
or three years later it was voted to raise fifty 
bushels of wheat to pay town expense.?. 

In 1779, at a meeting held for the purpose, it 
was voted " to allow the west part of the town to 
join the east part of Plainfield to form a religious 
society, and that the highth of the ridge on the 
mountain in this town be the easterly line of said 
society. 

In 1779 a warrant was issued for the inhabit- 
ants to bring in their votes for Peleg Sprague or 
Hon. Woodbury Langdon for member of Con- 
gress." There could not have been any third 
party men in those days. 

It appears that as early as 1779 there might 
have been " tax-dodgers," judging from a vote 



passed that year, by the town, " to put every man 
under oath when he brings in his list." 

lu 1781 it was voted to " raise, victual and pay 
one man for one month, unless sooner discharged, 
for scouting on the frontier." It was voted to 
give ten silver dollars per month, or ten bushels of 
wheat, for the time the man remains in the service. 
In those days men got three shillings a day, " find 
themselves," and oxen one and sixpence, for work 
on roads, estimating corn at three shillings per 
bushel. The tax collector got four dollars a year 
for his services. 

In 1782 the town was divided, by vote of the 
town, into two classes, in order to raise the men 
for the Continental army, and a committee was 
chosen for the purpose — Abel Stevens, Elijah 
Gleason and Robert Scott. 

It appears that, in 1793, a requisition was made 
by the State upon this town for beef, and a com- 
mittee was chosen to procure it, — Robert Scott, 
Job Colton and Nathan Parkhurst. 

In 1793 the town was first divided into school 
districts, aud twelve pounds was voted to maintain 
schools in the town. 

The first vote cast in Grantham for President of 
the colony of New Hampshire and for Senators was 
in 1784. The votes for President were: For 
Woodbury Langdon, twenty ; for George Atkin- 
son, one. In 1787 Samuel Duncan was chosen agent 
to go to the General Court, and a committee of 
three was chosen to give him instructions. 

From 1790 to 1804 this town was classed with 
Protectworth (afterward called Springfield) for the 
election of representative to the General Court, 
and the representative was taken, on alternate 
years, from each town. It appears that, after- 
ward, Grantham was classed with Cornish for the 
same purpose. A meeting was called to elect a 
representative for the two towns, and it was voted 
not to elect ; but, immediately thereafter, Cornish 
called a meeting and elected a representative, and 
afterward asked the town of Grantham for a share 
of the expense. Grantham refused to pay and 
appealed to the General Court for relief, and it 
was granted. 



GRANTHAM. 



173 



About the year 1800 a dis|)iite arose between 
this town and the town of Croydon in relation to 
the boundary line between them, both towns 
claiming certain territory. After a long contro- 
versy, the selectmen of Grantham appealed to the 
General Court for a committee to establish the 
line. The petition was granted, but the committee 
failed to settle the dispute, and a second committee 
■was appointed in 1<S07, who effected a settlement 
by dividing the territory in dispute, giving each 
town a part of it. 

The first public-house kejit in town was on top 
of the mountain in 1802, and, as lum was an in- 
dispensable article in a hotel in those days, the 
selectmen gave the proprietor, John Quimby, a 
license " to sell spirituous liquors and to entertain 
travelere in a public manner, as the law directs." 

Soon after this a second house was opened, and, 
for several years, there were two public-houses on 
the mountain. After these houses were closed 
no hotel was kept in town until about 1860, when 
one was opened in the village, which was kept 
open until 1877, when it was burned down and 
has never been rebuilt. During the War of 1812 
this town furnished its share of soldiers. It was 
voted by the town " to make up, to the detached 
militia, ten dollars per month, including what they 
receive from the government, to each private, 
from the time they are called into actual service, 
and the non-commissioned officers are to receive 
as much from the town as the privates." 

The following-named persons, citizens of Grant- 
ham, served in the army during the War of 1812 : 

Henry Howard, Jr. , Josiah Leavitt (2d), Ezekiel 
Alexander, John Gage, Jason Trumbull, Thomas 
Smith. Isaac Drake and Allen Kidder, who soon 
afterward became citizens of the town, served at 
the same time. These are all dead. The widows 
of Allen Kidder and Ezekiel Alexander are yet 
alive and are residing in this town, each more than 
ninety years of age. At the time the old State 
militia of New Hampshire was in its glory, the 
town of Grantham took (julte an active part in 
military affairs, having had two companies of fifty 
men each — the Rifle Company and the Light In- 



fantry Company. The Rifle Company was nicely 
uniformed and equipped ; was well discii)lined, 
and, under its first captain and organizer. Captain 
Francis Howard, who was a splendid officer, was 
considered the best military company in the old 
Tliirty-first Regiment. Through the influence of 
Captain (afterward Colonel) Howard, the regimen- 
tal muster was held on Dunbar Hill one or two 
years. At that time — about 1828 — and for many 
yeai-s thereafter, Dunbar Hill was the c- ntre of 
business in town, there being a store and black- 
smith-shop located there. Francis Howard was 
the store-keeper for many years. In those days 
all store goods were brought from Boston by horse- 
teams. Rum was sold in all the stores at that 
time The town had no railroad, but gave a thou- 
sand dollars to help build the Sugar River road, 
from which we are ten miles distant. The town 
of Grantham, during the late war, did her full 
share toward supporting the government, for she 
furnished more than her quota of men for the 
army. She furnished sixty-four men ; she paid 
liberal bounties, and, as a result, the town came 
out in debt about twenty-five thousand dollars, 
which has been gradually reduced until it is now 
ten thousand dollars. 

Below are the names of citizens of the town 
who enlisted into and served in the army : ' 



Stephen M. Thornton. 
Jonathan Merrill. 
Almon G. Lowell. 
Albert Eastman. 
Beri Tobiue.'- 



Newton Clough. 
Daniel Clough.- 
Dauiel C. Currier. 
John S. (rault. 
Lvraaii P. Saunders. 



Benjamin F. Kinnerson. William H. H. Cowles. 



Samuel Currier. 
Van Bureu Woodbury. - 
Francis Howe." 
Frederic H. Howe. 
Orlando W. Corliss. 
George H. Thornton.' 
John G. Shedd.= 
Roswell B. Walker. 



Lt. Lucius A. Buswell. 
Daniel Kennedy. 
Simeon R. Smith. 
David B Frye. 
Albert B. Stocker. 
Orrin A. Stocker. 
Washington L. Howe. 
Nathan J. Hastings. 



1 Several of these men re-enlisteJ, so that they were 
counted twice in making our number sixty-four. 

2 Died in service. 



174 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Charles H. Leavitt.' 
Wareham Miller.' 
Lt. Dudley J. Pillsbury. 
Thomas J. Morrill. 
Horace Brown.' 



Leonard F. Shaw. 
Hubert Sleeper, M.D. 
Thomas B. Alexander. 
Almon O. Leavitt, M.D. 



There was a Methodist Cluircb in Grantham as 
early as the year 1800. Isaac Newell, Ezra Bus- 
well and Jacob Perkins were its stewards. The 
meetings were held in private houses or school- 
houses, and when these would not accommodate 
they were held in barns. In 1826 a meeting-house 
on Dunbar Hill, also one on the mountain, were 
completed and were dedicated. Rev. Giles Camp- 
hell preached the dedication sermon of the former, 
and Rev. J. W. Hardy that of the latter. Reuben 
Winter was the moving spirit in the building of 
the house on Dunbar Hill, and he was a liberal 
contributor to the support of ]ireaehing in the 
house for many years The house upon the moun- 
tain was huilt near where the road to Meriden 
crosses the turnpike. Upon this turnpike in those 
days there . was much travel, — six-horse stage- 
coaches, heavy teams, etc., — this being the main 
thoroughfare through town and ou the direct route 
to Boston. There was a store and a hotel quite 
near, and a considerable population in the imme- 
diate vicinity. The hou.se upon the mountain was 
occupied about twenty years, when the population 
had so changed as to make it necessary to move 
the church to North Grantham, which was done 
in ISHri and a neat and commodious house was 
huilt at a cost of one thousand two hundred 
dollars The hou.se on Dunbar Hill was occupied 
until 18(30, when it was moved to the village, en- 
larged by the addition of a story underneath for 
a town hall. Previous to this the town had never 
had a town-house. This was made a very neat 
and pleasant church, remaining, as at the begin- 
ning, a union house. 

Rev. Paul S. Adams, of Newport, preached the 
dedication sermon and supplied the pulpit for sev- 
eral months. Elder J. W. Osborne, of the Chris- 
tian Church, East Grantham, supplied the desk for 

' Difed in service. 



some time. Since 1866 the Methodist Society has 
occupied the house most of the time. There is a 
church edifice at East Grantham, built and oc- 
cupied by the Christian Baptists. This house was 
built about 1840, and meetings were regularly held 
in it many years, but of late it has not been used, 
except occasionally. The settled pastors over this 
church, wei-e Rev. Mr. Palmer, Rev. J. W. Os- 
borne and Rev. Clark Symonds. Rev. John 
Young, of Sunapee, has supplied the desk for quite 
a share of the time when no minister has been set- 
tled over the church. I append herewith the 
names of the preachers and the date of their pastor- 
ate with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Gran- 
tham, — 



May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 
May, 



1801, to 

1802, to 

1803, to 

1804, to 

1805, to 

1806, to 

1807, to 

1808, to 
1800, to 

1810, to 

1811, to 

1812, to 

1813, to 

1814, to 

1815, to 

1817, to 

1818, to 

1819, to 

1820, to 

1821, to 

1822, to 

1823, to 
1825, to 
1827, to 

1828, to 

1829, to 

1830, to 

1831, to 

1833, to 

1834, to 
1836, to 
1838, to 



May, 1802, Rev. 
May, 1803, Rev. 
May, 1804, Rev. 
May, 1805, Rev. 
May, 1806, Rev. 
May, 1807, Rev. 
May, 1808, Rev. 
May, 1809, Rev. 
May, 1810, Rev. 
May, 1811, Rev. 
May, 1812, Rev. 
May, 1813, Rev. 
May, 1814, Rev. 
May, 1815, Rev. 
May, 1817, Rev. 
May, 1818, Rev. 
May, 1819, Rev. 
May, 1820, Rev. 
May, 1821, Rev. 
May, 1822, Rev. 
May, 1823, Rev. 
May, 1825, Rev. 
May, 1827, Rev. 
May, 1828, Rev. 
May, 1829, Rev. 
May, 1830, Rev. 
May, 1831, Rev. 
May, 1833, Rev. 
May, 1834, Rev. 
May, 1836, Rev. 
May, 1838, Rev. 
May, 1841, Rev. 



Martin Rutter. 
Oliver Real. 
John Broadhead. 
Elijah Wiliard. 
Hezekiah Field. 
Caleb Dustin. 
Warner Bannister. 
Caleb Dustin. 
Thomas Asbury. 
Philip Ayer. 
Charles Virgin. 
Harry Mowrey. 
Benjamin Shaw. 
Warren Bannister. 
Caleb Dustin. 
Erastus Otis. 
Jon. Paine. 
Orin Roberts. 
Joseph Kellum. 
Ezra Kello!;. 

V 

Hershel Foster. 
Joseph Kellum. 
Caleb Dustin. 
Benjamin Paine. 
J. Sylvester. 
G. Putnam. 
J. Hazeltine. 
N. Ladd. 
Amos Kidder. 
E. A. Rice. 
B. C. Eastman. 
William J. Kidder. 



GKANTHAM. 



175 



May, 1841, to May, 1842, Rev. Jessie Boyden. 
May, 1842, to May, 1844, Rev. B. C. Eastman. 
May. 1844, to May, 1846, Rev. William Moran. 
May, 1846, to May, 1848, Rev. Abel Heath. 
May, 1848, to May, 1850, Rev. Daniel Lee. 
May, 1850, to May, 1852, Rev. Josiah Searritt. 
June, 1852, to June, 1853, Rev. C. H. Lovejoy. 
June, 1853, to June, 1855, Rev. S. S. Dudley. 
June, 1855, to June, 1857, Rev. G. P. Warner. 
June, 1857, to June, 1859, Rev. 0. W. Watkins. , 
June, 1859, to May, 1860, Rev. L. H. Gordon. 
May, 1860, to April, 1865, Rev. Richard Newhall. 
May, 1865, to April, 186G, Rev. D. W. Barber. 
May, 1866, to April, 1868, Rev. Hugh Montgomery. 
May, 1868, to April, 1869, Rev. Silas Quimby. 
May, 1869, to April, 1872, Rev. B. P. Spaulding. 
May, 1872, to April, 1873, Rev. G. A. Tyrell. 
May, 1878, to April, 1875, Rev. Noble Fisk. 
May, 1875, to April, 1877, Rev. B. P. Spaulding. 
May, 1877, to April, 1879, Rev. G. S. Wentworth. 
May, 1879, to April, 1881, Rev. Thomas Winsor. 
May, 1881, to April, 1883, Rev. J. Wesley Bean. 
M.ay, 1883, to April, 1885, Rev. G. H. Hardy. 

At the church at the village, — 
1866 to 1868, Rev. Hugh Montgomery. 
1868 to 1870, Rev. Silas Quimby. 
1870 to 1872, Rev. W. H. Eastman. 

1872 to 1873, Rev. G. A. Tyrell. 

1873 to 1875, Rev. W. H. Eastman. 

1875 to 1876, Rev. Noble Fi.sk. 

1876 to 1878, Rev. W. W. Le Seur. 
1878 to 1880, Rev. F. M. Pickles. 

1880 to 1881, Rev. Thomas Winsor. 

1881 to 1883, Rev. J. W. Bean. 
1883 to 1885, Rev. G. H. Hardy. 

The following list coutaius the names of all the 
men who have represented the town in the General 
Court of New Hampshire : 



Samuel Duncan, 1787. 
Nathan Young, 1788. 
Samuel Duncan, 1789-92. 
Joab Young, 1794. 
R. Duncan, 1796-1800. 
Isaac Clement, 1804. 
EzraBuswell, 1805-6. 
James Smith, 1807-13, in- 
clusive. 
Ezra Buswell, 1814-15. 



James Smith, 1816. 
Ezra Buswell, 1817. 
James Smith, 1818. 
Uzziel Haywood, 1819. 
James Smith, 1820. 
Uzziel Haywood, 1821. 
Charles Gleasou, 1822-23. 
Uzziel Haywood, 1824. 
James Smith, 1825. 
John Gove, 1826-27. 



Abiel Howard, 1828-29. 
Charles Gleasou, 1830. 
John Gove, 1831. 
Amasa Hall, 1832. 
John Gove, 1833. 
Ara.a.sa Hall, 1834, '5, '6. 
Oliver B. Buswell, 1837- 

38. 
Samuel Bean, 1839-40. 
Samuel C. Moulton, 1841 

-42. 
William C. Smith, 1843- 

44. 
Jonathan Brown, 1845- 

46. 
Nicholas Shaw, 1847-48. 
Arden Hay ward, 1849-50. 
Cyrus Smith, 1851-52. 
Reuben Winter, 1853. 
Jonathan Leavitt, 1854^ 

55. 
George W.Smith, 1856. 



John Frye, 1858. 

John Leavitt, 1859. 

Adolphus Hall, 1860-61. 

William Stocker, 1862-63. 

Jos. P. Fowler, 1864-65. 

John Clarke, 1866-67. 

Wm.H.Eastman, 1868-69. 

Benj. F. Goss, 1870-71. 

Aaron L. Brown, 1872-73. 

Lorenzo D. Dunbar, 1874 
-75. 

Edwin G. Eastman. 1876. 

Thos. B.Alexander, 1877. 

Joshua D.Hemphill, 1878 
-79. 

Joseph Hastings, 1880. 

Albina H. Powers (bien- 
nial,) 1881-82. 

Rufus Hall, (biennial) 
1883-84. 

William H. Miller, (bien- 
nial), 1885. 



John Leavitt, 1857. 

SENATORS. 

Samuel C. Moulton, 1845-46. 

Hon. Oliver B. Buswell, 1854-55. 

Hon. John P. Chellis, 1857-58. 

This town has furnished two State Senators, viz., 
Hon. Oliver B. Buswell and Hon. John P. Chellis, 
both now living ; and a former citizen of the town 
was at one time in the Minnesota Senate ; F. J. 
Stevens, now of South Framingham, Mass., is the 
gentleman. The town has furnished three county 
treasurers; viz., Samuel C. Moulton Adolphus Hall 
and William C.Stroker; the last-named, however, at 
the time of his election was living in Sunapee. 
It has furnishod also one high sheriff, Jolin 
P. Chellis, while W. H. H. Cowles, who was 
a high sheriff of the county, had previously 
been a citizen of the town ; two county com- 
missioners, viz., Adolphus Hall and Horace 
F. Goss. The present solicitor of Rockingham 
County, Edwin G. Eastman, is a native of the 
town. The present register of deeds of Sullivan 
County is a native of Grantham. A. H. Powers, 
recently of the Board of Fish Commissioners of the 
State, is a citizen of the town. Leander F. Dodge 



176 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



president of the Citizens' National Bank, of Newport, 
N. H., was born here and resided here until 1868. 
Almo O. Leavitt was a surgeon in the U. S. Navy 
during last war. Hubert Sleeper was a surgeon in 
the Sixteenth New Hampshire Regiment, and was 
taken prisoner. Only three of the natives of this town 
have adopted the law as a profession, viz., Hiram L. 
Sleeper, George Davis, and Edwin G. Eastman. Ten 
have chosen the medical profession. No physician 
ever settled in town until Dr. Sleeper came here 
about 1860. The people of the town being noted for 
their sobriety and law-abiding character, no lawyer 
ever deemed it wise to locate in the town until 
1882, when one came but stayed only a few weeks, 
left, and has not been heard of in these parts 
since. 

But very little manufacturing of any kind has 
been done in town, for the reason that the water- 
power has never been developed, so as to make it 
accessible and permanent. There are many ponds 
in town, and with a comparatively small outlay of 
money, could he made a permanent water supply, 
sufficient for much business. There was at one 
time, and for many years, a tannery on the road 
from North Grantham to the mountain, occupied 
by the Clements and their successors. Later, 
about 1860, there was a hame manufactory at the 
village, owned by L. F. Dodge and W. H. H. 
Cowles; this afterwards went to Sunapee. Saw- 
mills have been very numerous, and immense 
quantities of lumber have been cut and drawn 
from town. Much of the soil of the town is good, 
but in parts rough and uneven. There is a very 
pretty little village, containing school-house, grist 
and saw-mill, two blacksmith-ships, three stores, 
beside a drugstore, church and town-house. 

Population of the town at different periods has 
been as follows : 1775, 74 ; 1790, .333 ; 1800, 713; 
1810,864; 1820,1032; 1830, 1079; 1840,1036; 
1850, 784 ; 1860, 649 ; 1870, 608; 1880, 540. 

SuiciDE.s IN Town. — Joseph Eastman, drowned 
himself in Eastman' Pond in 1812. 

The wife of Dvaid Stockwell committed suicide, 
1817. 



March 13, 1865, Nathaniel Fisher cut his 
throat. 

Accidental Deaths in Town. — About the 
year 1791 two men by the name of Anderson 
were drowned in Anderson Pond, —so called after 
this occurrence. 

In 1809 a Mr. Miller was drowned in Miller 
Pond. 

In 1817 two sons (Bera and Jesse) of Jesse 
Marsh were drowned in the village mill-pond. 

In 1848 a son of Hollis Husey was drowned in 
the same pond. 

About the year 1860 a man by the name of 
Heath was killed by a log rolling upon him. 

In April, 1863, Eugene Brown, a son of Na- 
thaniel Brown, was killed by being thrown from 
a horse. 

October 22, 1867, Lieutenant Lucius A. Bus- 
well was fatally injured in a saw-mill in the town 
of Sunapee. 

In 1863 a son of Jonathan B. Hastings was 
fatally scalded. 

August 26, 1(S72, Wilmer Leavitt was drowned 
in Stocker Pond. 

January 19, 1874, Edwin Sargent, first select- 
man of the town at the time, was killed by being 
run over by a sled. 

Ajjril 13, 1874, James W. Nelson was found 
dead, having perished from cold while returning 
fiom the village the night before. 

October 15, 1874, Mrs. Lovina West was fatally 
injured by being thrown from a carriage. 

April 9, 1880, Lucy Green was found dead in 
bed. 

September 9, 1880, Sanborn Brown died in 
consequence of being thrown from a carriage. 

February 26, 1881, Joseph C. Burpee fell from 
a loft in his barn, and was fatally injured. 

April, 1882, Charles Wallace, son of William 
Wallace, was fatally scalded. 

October 15, 1884, George, son of George E. 
Hatch, was killed by the falling of a cart body 
upon him. 




^.^€yyiJccnmAy)Z^ c—Jr -^^^ 



GRANTHAM. 



177 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN G08S. 

Benjamin F. Goss was born August 13, 1811, 
in that part of Springfield, N. H., now Grantham. 
The first known of the Goss family in America 
is that they were among the early settlers in the 
old Rye and Greenland colonies (so called). From 
there, as the tide of emigration set westward, their 
descendants emigrated from time to time until 
now the name, though not a common one, is found 
widely scattered throughout the States. 

Joseph Goss, the grandfather of Benjamin F., 
resided in Pittsfield, N. H., duriug the latter part 
of the last century. He was born April 5, 1758, 
and died in May, 1811. lie twice married, — first, 
to Keziah Meades ; their children were AVilliam, 
Deboiah, Betsey, Joseph, Robert, Molly, Lydia 
and Nathan. His second wife was Molly Towles ; 
their children were Miriam, Delia, Huldah, 
Hannah, Jonathan, David and Daniel. His 
will bears date 1809 

Joseph Goss, Jr., the father of Benjamin F., 
was born in Pittsfield February 6, 1786. When 
he was a young man his father purchased a tract 
of laud in Springfield, N. H., then comparatively 
a w ilderuess, and gave it to him. The deed to one 
hundred acres bears date 1803, and is from John 
Wendall, of Portsmouth, to John Goss, of Spring- 
field. He came from Pittsfield on horseback, with 
the usual equipment of a frontiersman — trap, gun, 
kettle, etc. — strapped on behind him. He was then 
about nineteen years of age ; he used to spend the 
summer mouths in Springfield clearing land and 
preparing a home for himself, and in winter return 
to his father's house, in Pittsfield. 

September 10, 1810, he married Mary Judkins, 
and from that time made his permanent home in 
Springfield. He was a feir representative of the 
pioneer yeomanry of the land, hardy, energetic, 
courageous and hopeful, and was, for those days, a 
successful man, and died possessed of a considera- 
ble property. In addition to his farming, he 
followed coopering, at which he did a good deal 
duriug the latter years of his life. 

In politics he was a Democrat until the organi- 



zation of the Republican party, when he became 
a Republican and so continued till his death. 

Being an uneducated man, he never sought 
ofiice, although he was at one time selectman of 
his town, and held at other times various minor 
offices. He was for more than thirty years deacon 
of the Christian Church, and was a man much 
respected in the town. 

His children were Benjamin F. (subject of illus- 
tration) ; Joseph H., born May 21, 1819 ; Lewis H., 
born April 2, 1827. Mrs. Goss died January 11, 
1832 ; he died November 21, 1866. 

Benjamin F. Goss was brought up on the farm 
and also worked at coopering with his father. He 
learned carpentering and joining, and when about 
twenty-four years old spent one year in Charles- 
town, Mass., working at brick-making. This occu- 
pation, however, did not prove congenial to his 
tastes, and he returned to his native town, pur- 
chased a tract of land adjoining his father's farm, 
on which he erected a saw-mill, and later on a 
residence. This was in 1838. In 1841 he sold 
the mill, and turned his attention to farming in 
the summer and coopering in the winter months, 
and in the mean time did something at lumbering. 
Mr. Goss has done more or less at coopering, and 
quite an extensive business at farming to the 
present time. About April, 1849, he exchanged 
farms with his father, and Benjamin F. built a 
large barn at the old homestead, and conducted 
the farm about five years, when the old gentleman 
sold the farm to his son Harrison, and Benjamin 
F. returned to his own place, his father removing 
to an adjoining farm which he had previously pur- 
chased. 

In March, 1864, Mr. Goss sold his home place, 
and moved to " Ryder's Corner," Croydon, where 
he resided two yeai-s ; he then purchased a farm iu 
Grantham, on which he lived till his father's death, 
which occurred soon after. He then purchased 
the interests of the other heirs to the place on which 
his father died, removed there and has since made 
this his home. 

Mr. Goss was selectman of the town three years, 
and collector one year, when the territory now 



178 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



comprising Grantham was a part of Springfield. 
He was one of the first Board of Selectmen when 
the new town of Grantham was organized, and the 
following year was chosen chairman of the board. 
He then moved out of town. Upon his return to 
Grantham he was made selectman in 186(S, 1869, 
1870, 1871, 1872 and 1873, and was also town 
treasurer all these years. He then positively re- 
fused a re-election, and has since devoted himself 
exclusively to his private business. Prior to this, 
however, he twice represented the town in the 
State Legislature (1870-71), and was justice of 
the peace four years. He was executor of the 
wills of both his father and mother. 

He is a Republican in politics, and an attendant 
of the Christian Church. He has been an indus- 
trious and enterprising, and, where his judgment 
approved, a liberal man, helping forward every- 
thing which he deemed calculated to advance the 
interests or elevate the morals of the community. 

He married, March 4, 1831, Eliza, daughter of 
Zaccheus and Judith Pettengill, of Enfield. Her 
father died when she was but four years old, and 
Mrs. Goss spent most of her childhood and youth 
amongst strangers. When Mr. Pettengill died, 
the widow was left with six children to care for, 
the eldest a girl of twelve years, the youngest an 
infant of six months ; the latter she kept with her, 
but for the rest she was compelled to find homes 
among strangers. She was a Sanborn before 
marriage, and a native of Deerfield, N. H. 

ilrs. Goss is a sprightly, cheerful and intelligent 
lady, and remarkably well preserved for one of 
her age. She was born October 26, 1807. 

They have had but two children — Horace F., 
born March 24, 1832, and Mary J., burn October 
22, 1838. She married David E. Ryder, of 
Croydon ; they have one child, a daughter, Meora 
E., born July 15, 1865. Horace F. married 
Almira J., daughter of Thomas and Fanny East 
man, of Springfield, May 15, 1858. They have 
three children — Fannie E., Mary E. and Adelbert 
W. ; the latter is now (1885) in a store in Chicago. 
Fannie E., the oldest daughter married Kirk D. 
Smith, of Grantham. 



Horace has twice represented the town of 
Springfield in the Legislature ; has been president 
of the Board of Selectmen several years, and county 
commissioner ten years. He was educated at 
Kimball Union Academy, at Mei-iden. His 
sister attended Union Academy, at Meriden, 
Proctor's Academy, at Andover, and Colby 
Academy, at New London. Both brother and 
sister have taught school several terms. 

Horace F. spent several years of his life in 
Springfield, but now resides in the village of 
Grantham. He has been very successful in 
business, and is an influential, useful and re-spected 
citizen. 



EUFUS HALL. 

The emigrant ancestor of Rufus Hall was 
Edward Hall (1), who was in America as early as 
1636, at Duxborough, Mass. After residing at 
several places in Eastern Massachusetts, he finally 
settled at Rehoboth, Mass., in 1655, where he was 
number forty-one out of forty-nine persons who 
drew lots for meadow lands in the north part i)f 
the town. His wife was named Esther or Hester. 
They had eight children, of whom Benjamin (2) 
was the youngest. He was born in Rehoboth 
August 7, 1668; married Sarah Fisher, of Wrent- 
ham, by whom he had eight children. He died 
in Wrentham August 26, 1726. His third child 
was Edward (3), born March 1698 ; he married, 
February 7, 1721, Hannah, daughter of Eleazer 
Fisher, of Wrentham. He was a sergeant, ensign 
and lieutenant, commissioned by the crown, and 
was in the colonial service. He removed to Ux- 
bridge, 1740, where he purchased two hundred 
acres of land for two thousand pounds. He died 
between November, 1764 and 1765. Of his 
seven children, Edward (4) was second, born July 
18, 1727, in Wrentham ; married, 1748, Lydia, 
daughter of John and Sarah (Taft) Brown. They 
had a family of ten children, all of whom were 
born in Uxbridge. Four of his sons served in the 
Continental army. He, himself, was a Royalist 
from principle, was commissioned by the crown, 
and was a lieutenant in the colonial service. 





/ 




GRANTHAM. 



179 



About, or shortly prior to 1774 he removed to 
Croydon, N. H., with his ten children and a 
niece, Elizabeth Hall. Here he was frequently 
chosen to town offices, being constable, collector, 
moderator, and, in 1784,1785 and 1786, selectman 
of the town. He died in Croydon December 28, 
1807, aged nearly eighty. Abijah (5) was the 
third child of Edward Hall, and was born June 
7, 1754, and met death by drowning August 19, 
1812. He married, first, about 1780, Sarah Read 
(or Reed) ; she died 1791. He married, second, 
August 12, 1792, Mary Read, of Northbridge, 
who survived him. He had the numerous family 
of seventeen children. He held the rank of 
captain, and was constable, collector, selectman, 
etc., of his town. 

Amasa (6), the sixth child, was born February, 
1789 ; married, February 26, 1811, Rebecca L. 
Melendy. They had butthree children— Adolphus, 
Rufus and Sally Read. Captain Amasa Hall was 
one of the most prominent men of his town. He 
served in the War of 18 1 2-1 5 ; represented Croydon 
in the Legislature in 1824 and 1825 ; removed to 
Grantham, N. H., in 1829, where he served as se- 
lectman eight years ; represented Grantham in the 
General Court in 1832, '.34, '35, '36, and was 
road commissioner for Sullivan County in 1841, 
and was a director of the First National Bank of 
Newport from its organization to the time 
of his death. As a business man he was very 
pushing and energetic and was more than ordi- 
narily successful for those times. He farmed quite 
extensively, traded in cattle, loaned money, and 
in various ways added to his possessions, and at 
his death left a large property. He died in Grant 
ham August 22, 1869. 

Adolphus Hall (7) was born in Croydon, N.H., 
December 7, 1811. He removed to Grantham 
with his father in 1829, where he married, June 1, 
1836, Sally Leavitt. Like his father, he was a 
successful and enterprising business man and a 
leader in all the public afl^airs of the town. He 
was selectman of Grantham from 1859 to 1862, 
and represented the town in the critical period of 
1860 and 1861, when the tocsin of war had 



sounded and each State gathered together her 
wisest men for council. He was treasurer of Sul- 
livan County in 1865 and 1866, and was county 
commissioner and selectman of his town for the 
three years preceding his death, and was an in- 
cumbent of both offices at the time of his decease, 
October 12, 1876. He was a farmer, trader and 
lumber-dealer, and, for two years prior to his death, 
owned, in partnership with his son, and operated a 
saw and grist-mill in the village of Grantham. 
He had but two children, — Rufus and Elvira. He 
was a stanch Republican in politics, and an 
earnest, aggressive, active man in whatever he 
undertook. 

Rufus Hall (8) was born in Grantham, N. H., 
March 18, 1844. His boyhood and youth were 
spent in the employments usual to the sons of well- 
to-do and industrious New England farmers, and, 
as his father was also a merchant in a country 
village, remote from railroad facilities, considera- 
ble teaming was necessary to transport the goods 
to the store, and the country produce that was 
taken in exchange had to be conveyed to the rail- 
road. Rufus did much of this teaming, and, at 
intervals, was emjjloyed behind the counter in his 
father's store. In these various ways his time was 
employed until his majority, when he purchpsed 
his father's interest in the store, and, in company 
with Lorenzo Dunbar, who had purchased the in- 
terest of the other partner, — Mr. Dodge, — he began 
merchandising. This partnership continued about 
six years, when he sold his interest in the store to 
Mr. Dunbar, and for the four succeeding years de- 
voted himself exclusively to farming. All the 
time he had been conducting the store he had also 
been interested in the farm. 

In 1874 he, in company with his father, came 
into possession of a saw and grist-mill in Grautham, 
and they together operated this till his father's 
death, two years later. They were engaged quite 
extensively in milling and lumbering. Upon his 
father's decease he sold the mill and returned to 
farming. In 1882 he, in company with Chester 
Walker, purchased the store of G. W. Dunbar in 
Croydon, and very soon after purchased Walker's 



180 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



interest, and from that time to the present has con- 
ducted the business ahine. His residence is still in 
Grantham, while his place of business is Croydon. 

Mr. Hall has held and faithfully discharged the 
duties of many positions of office and trust in his 
town. He was elected town clerk of Grantham in 
1869, and, with an interim of two or three years, 
has held the position continuously since. 

In 1882 he represented Grantham in the State 



Legislature. He holds a directorship in the First 
National Bank of Newport, of which his grand- 
father was so long a valued officer. In politics he 
has not deserted the faith of his fathers, but is an 
ardentRepublican. He married, January 12, 1868, 
Franciua D. Smith of Springfield. They have four 
children, — Leon A., born June 4, 1869; Villa E., 
born August 17, 1874 ; Earl R , born May 10, 
1876; and Ralph A., born August 22, 1879. 



HISTORY OF LANGDON. 



CHAPTER I. 

The town of Langdon lies in the southwestern 
part of Sullivan County, and is bounded as follows : 
North, by Charlestown ; east, by Alstead and Ac- 
worth ; south, by Walpole and Alstead ; west, by 
Charlestown. 

The town was formed from territory taken from 
the towns of Charlestown and Walpole, and incor- 
porated January 11, 1787. It was named in honor 
of Hon. John Langdon, at that time Speaker of 
the House of Representatives. 

Settlements were made on territory now in this 
town by Seth Walker in 1773, and by Nathaniel 
Rice and Jonathan Willard the year following. 
Rev. Abner Kneeland, who was ordained over a 
Universalist Church here in 1805, was one of the 
leading men in that denomination in New Eng- 
land for some years, and published a periodical de- 
voted to his peculiar tenets, called the Boston 
Investigator. In 1795 the town might have been 
extended to Connecticut River, but it refused, by 
vote, to accept the proffered addition. 

The following is a petition for authority to tax 
non-residents, 1879 : 

"State of New Hampshire May 27'" 1789— 
"To the Hon''"' Senate and house of Representatives 
Conveined at Concord June 4'" 1789 
"The petition of the Inhabitants of the Town of 
Langdon Humbly Sheweth 

"That your petitioners are few in number and 
inhabit a new Town or District of land a con- 
siderable part of which Is owned by nonresident 
proprietors and that they are not able to make 
the necessary public Roads and Bridges and in 
particularly a Bridge over Cold River so called 



which is very Rapid and in the Spring and Fall 
at high water is not passable and the Expence of 
build the Bridge and making said roads exceeds 
the ability of your petitioners They therefore 
most Humbly pray your Honors to Impower them 
to Leavy a Tax of one penny on each acre of 
the non resident proprietors Land in said town 
for the purposes aforesaid or grant your petitioners 
such other Relief as you in your Wisdom sh.all 
think Propper and your Petitioners as in Duty 
Bound Shall ever pray — 

" John Prouty ^ I'ie/ect Men for and In he- 

" Ezra Read V half of the Inhohitants 

"Jeremiah Howard J of the Town of Langdon 

"Langdon May 27'" 1789 

"The Committee on the within petition Report a 
Tax of one penny be laid on each Acre of Land 
in said Town for one Year & they have leave 
to bring in a Bill accordingly 

" Nat Rogers for the Com " 

In House of Representatives, June 11, 1789, the 
report was adopted. Senate concurred. 

Petition for Special Tax to build a Meeting- House, 
1793. 

" To the Honourable General Court of the State 

of New Hampshire to be holden at Concord 

on first Wednesday of June Next — 

"The petition of the Select men of Langdon 

Humbly Sheweth — that whereas the Inhabitants 

of said town are aboute to Build a meeting 

House for the better Conveannance of meeting 

for publick worship &c as soon as thay think 

them Selves in a Sittuation to accomplish it and 

Considering that there is in said town Considerable 

Land of Non-residents which by building said 

meeting house will be likely to be more Value- 

181 



182 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



able, these are therefore to pray your Houuours 
to Grant Liberty for said town to Tax said Lands 
two pence on Each acre which money to be laid 
out toward said building whenever said town shall 
see fit to build said house or otherways Do as 
your Honours in your wisdom think best and your 
Petitioners as in Duty bound will Ever Pray 

"James Egeeton ^ Select men 
"Sam' Peouty > of 
"John Pkentiss J Langdon 

"Langdon May 27 1793" 

Vote of Town relative to extending its North Line, 
1795. 

" At a Legal Town meetin in Langdon the 
third Day of march 1795 the following Vote was 
taken for extending Langdon North Line to the 
River Connecticut thare appeared to be thirty 
three Votes for extending said Line to said River 
and thirty against Extending said Line to said 
River at A Legal town meeting in Langdon May 
ll'" 1795, Called at the Requst of a Number of 
Free Holders to know the mind of the Town if 
thay Will have Langdon North Line Extend to 
the River Connecticut acording to the Vote Re- 
corded at our Last annual meeting or Not — thare 
appeared to be thirty seven Votes Not to Extend- 
ing said Line to s* River and twenty three Votes 
for extending said Line to said River 

"A Trew Coppey Record 

"attest — James Egerton Town Clark 

"Langdon May 13'" 1795" 

The town of Charlestown had giveu its consent 
to the annexation of that portion of its territory 
lying between Langdon and Connecticut River to 
the latter town, and the inhabitants residing there- 
on petitioned as follows to be thus annexed. Had 
this project succeeded, both towns would have been 
more symmetrical, and Langdon would have had 
a river front and a railroad within its borders. 

Petition in favor of Annexing Part of Charlestown 
to Langdon. 

"To the Honorable the General Court of the 
State of New Hampshire to meet at Hanover 
the first Wednesday of June next — 
"We the Inhabitants of that part of the Town 



of Charlestown which lies between the west Line 
of the Town of Langdon and Connecticut River, 
Humbly Shew, that the Town of Charlestown, and 
the Town of Langdon having voted that the north 
Line of Langdon be extended to Connecticut 
River, your Petitioners Therefore Humbly pray 
that said north Line of Langdon may be extended 
westwardly to said river, and that all the Lands 
and Inhabitants of that part of Charlestown 
which lies west of Langdon west Line may be 
annexed to the Town of Langdon, and your peti- 
tioners as in duty bound shall ever pray 
"Charlestown May 27'" 1795. 
" Peter Bellows Jr — Rufus Guild 

Asahel Hunt W" Drown 

Asahel C. Porter Samuel Guild 

M. W. Hastings Samuel Bellows 

Elisha Putnam John Hodgkin " 

Peter Bellows 

But Langdon subsequently voted against the 
annexation, and the project failed. 

Congregational Church. — This church was 
organized in 1792 in a room in a grist-mill owned 
by Obediah Kingsbury, a short distance northward 
of the middle of the town. Among the early min- 
isters were Revs. Lazel, Hartwell, Spaulding and 
Taft. 

April 20, 1803, the town voted " to raise one 
hundred dollars for preaching, and that one-half 
be laid out for the Congregational order and the 
other half for the Universalist order." 

October 30, 1805, Rev. Abner Kneeland was set- 
tled as pastor, and remained until 1811. In 1810 he 
was chosen representative to the General Court. 
The last money voted by the town for preaching 
was in 1819— one hundred and fifty dollars. 

In 1820 Rev. Ezekiel Rich was here as mission- 
ary, and the church was reorganized. From 1820 
to the fall of 1834 there was no preaching. In 
1834 Mr. Nelson Barbour, a student at Audover 
Theological Seminary, preached here; in 1835, 
Rev. S. Rogers. In this year a Union Church 
was formed with residents of Paper-Mill village 
and Drewsville, called the Union Congregational 
Church, and in 1838 services were held alternately 
at each of these two places. In 1839 Rev. John 



LANGDON 



183 



Wood came here as pastor. A writer in the work 
entitled " New Hampshire Churches," published in 
1856, thus refers to Laogdon in 1839, — 

" The Sabbath was desecrated by hunting, fishing, 
and riding ; rum drinking general ; the only store- 
keeper in the town stated in a public meeting that 
for twelve years he had sold but a little short of 
one thousand dollars' worth of ardent spirits each 
year, and though some that he sold was carried out of 
town, yet he did not doubt but that enough had been 
brought into the town, to more than counterbalance 
what had been carried out, and this in a town of less 
than 700 inhabitants. The store was open on the 
Sabbath, and the minister, as he stood in the pulpit in 
the old meeting-house, could see carried away from 
there, jugs, scythes, codfish and other articles of mer- 
chandise. This view, togetlier with tlie sliouting of 
the boys and young men as they entered the galleries 
of the old church and seated themselves with their 
hats on, with Abner Kneeland's paper as an instru- 
ment and disturbance, their often distorted faces 
and loud whisperings of approbation or disapproba- 
tion of the truths he (Rev. John Wood) uttered, led 
him to feel that he had not exactly found the valley 
of the prophet Ezekiel's vision, but the land of stern- 
est missionary necessities. A neighboring minister 
exchanged with him one Sablsath and was greatly 
annoyed by the improper conduct of thr young people, 
and upon meeting Mr. Wood on the following morn- 
ing said, ' How is it possible that you stay in Lang- 
don? I would not stay there for one thousand dollars 
a year.' This same writer states that on the following 
Sabbath, just as Mr. Wood was speaking his text, a 
young man came and rapjjed very liard with his fist 
upon the front-door, opened it, made a low bow, and 
sauntered to a seal, evidently expecting to witness a 
general smile." 

In 1839 the meetings of this church were held 
in Langdon, and February 11, 1840, the name 
was changed to the " First Evangelical Congrega- 
tional Church of Christ in Langdon." 

The first house of worship was dedicated Octo- 
ber 29, 1842. Rev. Mr. Wood remained until Jan- 
uary, 1819. Other clergymen have been Revs. N. 
Barbour, Edwin Jennison, S. R. Arms. 

Rev. C. Taylor closed his labors with February, 
1856. Rev. E. Jennison, March 12, 1856, to 



March 8, 1857. For the greater part of the year 
1857 the pulpit was supplied by Rev. S. R. Arms, 
of Springfield, Vt. Rev. J. L. Arms, from March 
11, 1858, to 1st of November, 1859. Andrew 
Jaquith then supplied and was ordained April 
25, 1860, and preached here until August 27, 
1864, when death removed him. Six Sabbaths 
were then supplied by as many different ministers, 
when Rev. Mr. Field preached three months, Rev. 
Job Cushman three months, Rev. Mr. Fisk, of 
Fisherville, N. H., two Sabbaths, when Rev. 
Moses Gerould became pastor, moving here No- 
vember 23, 1865, and preached until April 25, 
1869. July, August, September of 1869 a 
student from Andover Seminary, a Mr. Sprowls 
preached. In November, 1869 Clem A. Wilson, 
a Baptist, commenced and preached sixteen 
Sundays. William H. Cobb, a student of 
Princeton, (N. J.) Theological Seminary, held 
services for sixteen weeks, commencing the second 
Sabbath in May, 1870. Seth Hinkley, of the 
Christian denomination, then followed from May, 
1871, to November, 1872. Rev. George F. 
Chapin commenced April 1, 1873, and continued 
until April 1,1884. In thesummer of 1884, Prof. 
Solon Albee held services from the middle of May 
until July, when J. M. Bufliim was employed and 
held services until December. No services were 
held until May, 1885, when Rev. G. H. French 
commenced his labors and still continues. 

Langdon and Alstead Universalist So- 
cieties.' — Perhaps we can in no better way com- 
mence this brief article than by quoting a few ex- 
tracts from an early history on Universalism. 

After speaking of Thomas Fessenden, who was 
pastor at Walpole from 1767 to 1813, as being a 
Universalist — though over the orthodox society — 
the historian says: "Rev. Jacob Mann, ordained 
and settled at Alstead in 1782, was dismissed 
May, 1789, in consequence of his erroneous and 
unsettled sentiments, he having embraced Univer- 
salism." " His successor, Samuel Mead, ordained 
and settled in 1791, was dismissed, in 1797, on 

' By M. Addie Morse. 



184 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



account of his unsettled doctrinal views, he having 
become a Universalist, publishing in 1796, a pam- 
phlet entitled, ' A /aithiul hint on the final reduc- 
tion and restoration of sinners.' " 

We find this reference to Langdon : " Rev. Mr. 
Taft also became a Universalist." 

These items indicate the beginnings of the Uni- 
versalist sentiment in these towns which ended in 
the organized societies. 

By consulting the only record that we have 
been able to secure, we find that as early as March 
14, 1791, the first jjublic meeting relative to a 
belief in Universalism was called at the house of 
Seth Walker, in Langdon, where a constitution 
was framed and adopted by thirty-four heads of 
families. Among the articles recorded at this 
meeting we read: "Agreed, if any (me of our 
society should be oppressed or obliged to defend 
himself by law, on account of his religious senti- 
ments, that we will each one of us bear a part 
according to his ability." From this time forth 
meetings were held, many baptized, and the 
Lord's Supper observed. Among the ministers 
that from time to time labored with them we find 
Rev. Thomas Fessenden, Revs. Samuel Mead and 
Abuer Keeland. The latter was ordained as the 
first pastor of the Langdon Church and society, 
December 10, 1805, remaining until September 22, 
1810, at which time he preached his farewell 
sermon. Rev. Robert Bartlett was next settled 
over the society, remaining many years, preaching 
also one-third of the time at Alstead. 

March 5, 1821 the Langdon society, through a 
committee, agreed to receive the Alstead society 
as brethren in the faith, although it was not until 
October, 1839, that a constitution was adopted 
uniting the two societies, and since known as the 
Union Universalist Society of Langdon and Al- 
stead. In 1828 we find Rev. William Skinner 
settled here. After him. Rev. Mr. Randolph, who 
first resided in Langdon, and afterward at Alstead, 
severing his connection with the church in 1843. 
In September, 1844, the new church edifice at 
- Alstead was dedicated. Rev. Joseph Barber being 
selected as pastor, preaching one-quarter part of 



the time in Langdon, which custom has con- 
tinued until the present time. 

Father Barber, as he is now reverently styled 
throughout the denomination, labored with this 
society for eleven years, and the old and the 
middle-aged here testify to the good accomplished 
by him during his pastorate. He resigned in 
1853. At this time the society was the largest 
Universalist denomination, with one exception, in 
the State. Perhaps it will not be ami>s to say 
here, that in 1877, Father Barker, having closed 
his labors as a pastor, at the ripe age of seventy- 
six, returned to make Alstead his home. Here he 
lived for the remaining five years of life, beloved 
and respected by all parties and all denominations, 
and here he calmly and peacefully sank to his 
final sleep, and here his body was lain, among the 
people he loved and by whom he was admired. 

In 1857 Rev. Edwin Davis was settled. After 
him Rev. Judson Fisher, who remained five years, 
closing his pastorate in 1866. 

Rev. O. D. Miller next labored a number of 
months. Then Rev. Ephraim A. Read came one 
year. Then came Rev. Mr. Crosley for one year. 
Then Rev. Mr. Jenks, who remained three years. 
Later, Rev. L. F. Foriuey, who reorganized the 
church, it having, from various causes, become 
weakened and separated, and he sought and did 
much to strengthen the society, and make the 
weak places strong. After some three years with 
this people he sought another field, and Rev. S. H. 
McCollester, D.D., who was the settled pastor at 
Bellows Falls, Vt., came here every Sabbath after- 
noon, and was to all intents and purposes as much 
the pastor here as at his own particular parish. 
When his labors closed at Bellows Falls, and his 
place was filled by Rev. J. N. Emery, the same 
plan has been observed. Mr. Emery, though 
settled at the above-named village, speaks each 
Sabbath afternoon for this society, and at present 
the people are very harmonious and united. The 
society is becoming strong, and the church gain- 
ing new members ; the good work of universal 
salvation is going bravely and faithfully onward. 



HISTORY OF LEMPSTER. 



BY HELEN BINGHAM. 



CHAPTER I. 

The township of Lernpster, originally six miles 
square, has an irregular surface, diversified with 
hills, valleys and mountains, affording, at different 
points, very fine and extensive views ; on a clear 
day. Mount Washington may be seen from an 
elevation on the estate of D. B. Wheeler, Esq., a 
short distance east of the village. From whence 
the town received its name we are not informed, 
either by history or tradition, but, as the ancestors 
of the early settlers came from England, we may 
infer it had an English origin. 

From the State records we learn that the town- 
ship was granted January 1, 1753, to Samuel 
Clark Paine and others, under the name of 
Dupplin. No settlement was attempted or ex- 
pected under this grant, but, October 8, 1761, a 
re-grant of the territory was made to Benadum 
Gallup and others. The conditions of this grant 
not being fiilfilled in the matter of settlements, 
another was made, January 5, 1767, to Dudley 
Woodbridge and others, in sixty-seven equal 
shares ; and tradition hath it that General 
Spencer, to whom this territory had been awarded 
for some military achievement, sent a young 
colored man named Tattan from East Haddam, 
Conn., as a pioneer to explore the then wilderness, 
with permission to settle if he pleased. 

This energetic son of Africa made his way by a 
line of marked trees, and, arriving near the banks 
of Cold River just at nightfall, weary and foot- 
sore, encamped with his dog and gun. When the 
rays of the morning sun lighted up the forests and 
hills, the place pleased him, and he commenced at 



once to erect a rude cabin, returning shortly for 
his wife ; his glowing accounts of the new El 
Dorado induced the immigration of other families, 
both from East Haddam and Windham, Conn. ; 
among the earliest was Deacon Elijah Bingham 
and Jabez Beckwith (first colonel appointed in the 
county). The apple-trees gnarled, and hoary 
with age, are still standing, the seeds of which 
young Tattan brought from his home, and 
Tattan 's spring still quenches the thirst of man 
and beast as they pass along the highway. 

In 1772 there were eight families in town, and, 
two years later, they held their first town-meeting 
at the house of Elijah Frink, iunholder, called by 
order of Benjamin Giles, justice of the peace. 

The legal voters were John Perkins, William 
Story, Timothy Nichols, Major Linkham, Silas 
Bingham, Elijah Bingham, Allen Willey, Elijah 
Frink, William Markham, William Carey and 
Jabez Beckwith. The first settlers were remark- 
able for their mental as well as muscular develop- 
ment, and for their independence of thought and 
action, as we see in their decided rejection of the 
plan of government of the State, which was re- 
ceived August 12, 1779. Why rejected, history 
does not tell. 

Their early homes were rudely built of logs, the 

sunshine of hojje gilding the otherwise dark 

interiors, glass windows being a too expensive 

luxury. Tradition informs us that the young 

bride of Captain Timothy Miner, possessed of 

much mechanical skill, whittled from soft, straight 

pine (of which there was an abundance in those 

days) some window-sashes, tying them with stout 

linen thread, and then substituting oiled paper for 

185 



186 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



glass, a pin-hole aftbrding glimpses of the outer 
world ! In time, these primitive homes were sup- 
plemented by substantial framed dwellings ; the 
earliest, being built by Colonel Jabez Beckwith 
in 1780, is still standing, with its gambrel roof and 
picturescjue dormer-windows, although the six 
Lombardy poplars which graced its front have 
long since passed away. 

James, the son of Deacon Elijah Bingham, 
erected the most expensive house in town, having 
expended one thousand dollars on the foundation 
when it was ready for tlio frame. Tliis old 
mansion is still standing, reminding one of the 
homes of the old English esquires, with its square 
roof, wide halls, spacious rooms and lofty ceilings ; 
here in the early days was heard the hum and 
buzz of wheels, and click-clack of loom, for the 
wool and llax raised on the large farm was manu- 
tactured in the home. And not only was this 
music heard, hut the family, possessing great 
musical talent, were in themselves both orchestra 
and choir, rendering with ease the works of 
Handel, Haydn and Mozart, piano, violin and 
flute being skillfully played. 

The settlement, in its infancy, suflered from the 
incursion of wolves; they made the nights hideous 
with their howls, often having severe battles, the 
morning light revealing the killed and wounded. 
A certain locality is still known as " Wolf 
Swamp." 

In 1778 the following vote was passed by the 
town : 

" Voted, that if any person, that belongs to the town, 
shall, by trapping, or any other way. Shall kill a 
grown wolfe in the town, or shall take a wolfe track in 
the town and follow him till he kill him, shall be en- 
titled to thirty Dollars for every such wolthe killed; 
to be paid out of the town Treasury." 

Until about 1782 the town joined with Acworth 
and Marlow in sending a representative to the 
General Court. During this time the following 
petition for a civil officer was seut to the Honor- 
able Council : 



' As their is a Veakencv in Lancaster for a Justice 



of the Peace, I, as a Representative for that Town, I 



have taken Sum pains to Inquire who is the fittest 
person for that Office, and the people Differ sum in 
sentiment. 

"But wm. Gary and nir. Elijah firink is held up to 
vew as proper persous, Either of them, for that otlice. 
Leaving it to your Honours to apint One of them, as 
you in your wisdom think fit. 

"Concord, february 17th, 1785. 

" Daniel grout." 

From the early records we judge that Elijah 
Frink received the appointment, and, together 
with Colonel Jabez Beckwith, Elijah Bingham 
and Oliver Booth, were the prominent business 
men of the settlement. 

The second Xew Hampshire turnpike from 
Windsor, Vt., to Amhei-st, incorporated December 
26, 1709, passing directly through the site chosen 
for the village, at ouce brought thrift and activity 
to the place, as it was the main thoroughfiu-e to 
Boston for farmei-s and merchants from the 
northern portions of Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire. It was nothing uncommon to see thirty 
and forty teams in line, many having four and six 
horees This ailbrded ample custom to the three 
innkeepei-s of the village, besides, en route to 
Washington, one inn at the foot of Lempster 
Mountain and the other at the summit. 

In 17!<1 jiortions of Lemj>ster, Newport, Unity 
and Sunapee were incorporated into a town by 
the name of Goshen, but not without much oppo- 
sition from the citizens of Lempster, on account 
of the extra tax on those who remained to support 
Rev. Jlr. Fisher, and it was not agreed to until 
the persons living in the said northeast corner 
promised to continue their tax as formerly, and 
Mr. Fisher was to preach there a certain portion 
of the time. 

The following Continental soldiers were fur- 
nished by the town : Abner Bingham, Asahel 
Roundy, William Tattan, Matthew Grear and 
Bethuel Beckwith. Tradition informs us that 
one Niles Beckwith was at the battle of Bunker 
Hill, and cai-ried the gallant Warren from the 
field. In amusing contrast to this was the con- 
duet of one Peter Lowell, who was also there, but 



LEMPSTER. 



187 



who, at the first booming of cannon, turned and 
fled, — never stopping till he reached his home, 
ninety miles away ! 

The following persons enlisted in the War of 
1812, under the leadership of Lieutenant William 
Gary (then a youth of nineteen), and were sta- 
tioned at Portsmouth: Daniel Rogers, Jeremiah 
Parker, Leonard Way, Jerome Strickland, Luther 
Keed, Silas Chamberlain, Benjamin Chamberlain, 
Charles V. Ames, Timothy Scott, George Way, 
Willard Rogers, John Wheeler, Anson Wheeler. 

Afterward Captain William Cary was made 
major-general of the Tliird Division of New 
Hampshire Militia, for which position he seemed 
well-fitted by nature, — a ma.ssive frame, well-pro- 
portioned and of coniniiinding presence. 

The attack upon Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, 
aroused all the cultivated and inherited patriot- 
ism of Lempster's sou?, and there were earh' en- 
listments. The town voted a bounty of one 
hundred dollars to each volunteer, and three 
hundred dollars to each drafted man. Many 
meetings of the citizens were held, testifying of 
their interest in the welfare of the country. Nor 
were the wives and mothers less interested, organ- 
izing quite soon a Soldiers' Aid Society, in which 
were gathered from chest and closet the treasures 
of linen, spun and woven by the dear old grand- 
mothers; and many a box of bandages and dain- 
ties found its way to hospital and camp. A neat 
granite monument, erected by the town, commem- 
orates the memory of the fallen heroes. 

Quite early in the settlement, November 13, 
1781, the First Congregational Church was organ- 
ized by the following members : Elijah Bingham, 
Thomas Scovell, Nathan Sewell, William Car}', 
Samuel Nichols, Sbubael Hurd and Samuel 
Roundy. It is a matter of regret that the 
church records were lost when the old parsonage 
was burned in 1844. 

In March, 1779, the citizens agreed to unite 
with Acworth in hiring a minister, and to meet 
for Sabbath worship at the dwelling of Elisha 
Beckwith ; also agreed to raise one hundred 
pounds of money on the ratable estate and polls 



" Dea. Elisah Bixgham 
" UzzEL Hurd 
" Cap' James Rogers 
" Cap' Jabez Beckwith 



of the inhabitants. At this meeting three choris- 
ters were chosen, — Timothy Nichols, James Bing- 
ham and Joseph Wood, Jr. June -5, 1787, the 
following call was given to Rev. Mr. Fisher: 

" Voted to give the Rev. Elias Fisher a call to settle 
in this town as a Gospel Minister. To give the Rev. 
Mr. Fisher thirty pounds in addition to the Minis- 
terial right of Land — the one half to be paid in Sep' 
1788 the other half to be paid in Sep' 1789 to be paid 
in Labour and Materials for building — As Incourage- 
ment for settlement. And forty pounds the first year 
as Sallery, and rise Annually with the List Until it 
Amounts to Seventy pounds with the addition of Cut- 
ting and Drawing his fire Wood to the door Annually, 
his Sallery to be paid in Wheat at Six Shillings, Rye 
at four Shillings pr. Bushel, flax at Eight pence pr. 
pound, Sheeps Wool at two Shillings pr. pound and 
any other kind of produce in like proportion. 

1 Chosen a Commit- 
tee to transmit a 
Coppyof the abo ve 
proceedings to the 
Sd. Mr. Fisher, 
and to treat with 
him in conse- 
j quenceofthesame 
"Oliver Booth, Moderator. 
" A true copy, attest, 

"James Bingham, Town Clerk." 

Rev. Elias Fisher was ordained pastor over the 
First Congregational Church, September 26, 1787, 
and held this relationship till his death, March 
22, 1831. In 1828 Charles M. Brown was in- 
stalled as colleague, and to meet the increased ex- 
pense the members of the church were assessed 
seventy-five per cent. 

At the time of Mr. Fisher's ordination there was 
no church edifice, and the services were held at the 
north end of the village, in front of the residence 
of Mr. Oliver Booth (now owned by John O'Brien), 
a platform being erected for the ministers and 
choir. 

Two choristers aspired to the honor of wielding 
the baton on that memorable occasion, the matter 
being decided by one of the authorities of the day. 

Those who knew Mr. Fisher in those early days 
describe him as having a petite figure, set off to fine 



188 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



advantage by his style of" dress. Short breeches, 
long .silk stockings, shoe and knee-buckles, and in 
later years, when hair grew thin, the now fashion- 
able black silk cap adorned his head. He had a 
fund of humor, and was quick at repartee. At 
times he was quite absent-minded and the old par- 
sonage floor had a well-defined path worn in its 
surface, where he used to pace back and forth, 
talking rapidly to himself; on one such occasion 
his wife says : " To whom are you t.ilking, 
ray dear?" quickly came the reply — "the wisest 
man in town." He was very successful as a min- 
ister and much beloved by his people, as his long 
pastorate attests. He requested that his place of 
burial should be on the western border of the cem- 
etery, that he might, as he said, " rise at the head 
of his people." 

Rev. Charles M. Brown, although a man of strong 
intellect and an excellent sermonizer, remained but 
a little over two years, his eccentricities proving a 
hindrance to his usefulness. For a space of four 
years the church was without a settled pastor, em- 
ploying the services of Rev. Broughton AVhite ; 
during the time of his stay there was a very exten- 
sive and interesting revival. Rev. Ebenezer Cole- 
man was installed December, 1834 ; dismissed 
September 25, 1838. 

In 1835 the Second Congregational Church was 
formed by the withdrawal of some of the members 
from the First, on account of disaffection at the lo- 
cation of a new church edifice built during Mr. 
Coleman's pastorate. 

Rev. S. H. Tolman succeeded Mr. Coleman, re- 
maining about five years, his ministry eminently 
successful. Rev. Daniel Sawyer was ordained May 
13, 1846 ; it was during his ministrations that the 
parsonage was burned and rebuilt. Rev. Robert 
Page came in 1851, remaining five years, and dur- 
ing the time there were many additions to the 
church of young people. Rev. Robert Fuller suc- 
ceeded him, commencing his labors July 13, 1856 ; 
a very talented man, but a constant suflferer from 
bodily infirmities, so that he left preaching in 1860. 
Rev. Augustus Chandler came next in 1861. Rev. 
William H. Barrows, 1865. Rev. Benjamin Howe, 



1867, succeeded by Rev. John Le Bosquet, who 
remained seven years; a very genial man and fine 
writer. He was followed by Rev. A. E. Hall who 
was ordained and installed November 12, 1880; 
dismissed June, 1881, — a change necessary for the 
restoration of health. 

The following jjersons have held the office of 
deacon : Samuel Roundy, Elijah Bingham, Jacob 
Smith, Aaron Hardy, William Gary, Eliot Cary, 
John Taylor, Alvah Smith, James H. Collins, A. 
B. Sabin, A. J. Mitchell, Joseph Marshall and 
James A. Evans. Reuben Roundy and Collins 
Hurd were deacons of the Second Congregational 
Church, which worshipped in a church edifice 
erected at the East village, in 1835. 

In 1822 Truman Booth, Nathan Booth, Charles 
More and Thomas More " petitioned not to be 
taxed for Mr. Fisher's support, as they were not of 
the same belief" Their jietition was followed by 
that of twenty-eight others, and since about that 
time the minister's support has been by voluntary 
contribution, and, after the death of Mr. Fisher, 
aided by funds arising from the parsonage and 
farm bequeathed by him to the church and society. 

Until about 1794 the Sabbath services were 
held in private houses and school-houses. Then 
the town voted to build a " meetinghouse ;" but it 
was not until after repeated meetings and adjourn- 
ments that a site was at length decided upon, 
with which, it seems, no one was pleased, it being 
a rocky hill some rods northwest of Elijah Frink's. 
(The house is now owned by heirs of Oliver 
Davis.) After ground was broken and pews were 
sold, a vote was passed to change the location, but, 
on consultation with a lawyer, it was found that 
the change would nullify former contracts, and so 
the massive beams and rafters of the structure 
were raised on the hill ; dimensions, forty by 
fifty feet, with two porches. Like all the old-time 
churches, it had square pews above and below ; 
high, bird's nest pulpit, resting upon one ornamental 
pilaster ; seats to the pews hung on hinges, so that 
they might be raised to afford convenient standing- 
place in prayer time. The " Amen " was the sig- 
nal for a rapid succession of slams, like the firing 



LEMPSTER. 



189 



of musketry at old-fashioned trainings. The gal- 
lery ran around upon three sides, supported by 
fluted pillars. Here the people literally " went 
up to worship," regardless alike of heat or cold, 
ease or fatigue. In winter- time the house of 
Elijah Frink, at the base of the hill, would be 
filled with young and old seeking the fire at noon, 
the women replenishing their little foot-stoves from 
the large, open fire-place. The minister's foot- 
warmer was twice the usual size to admit of his 
standing upon it in the pulpit. In 1822 this 
building was taken down and re-erected on the 
village green, with added bell-tower and spire, 
where it now stands, having defied the winds and 
storms of almost a centur}'. 

This building, belonging, as it did, to the town, 
held the interests of other denominations, who felt 
it their right to have the u.se of the house a portion 
of the time. This led in time to the building, by 
the First Congregational Church and Society, of a 
new house of worship in the year 1835, and the 
disaffection resulting from its location (as has been 
mentioned) caused the withdrawal of some mem- 
bers, who, uniting with Methodists and Universal- 
ists, built a new church at the East village. Since 
then a small chapel has been erected by the Uni- 
versalists, nearly opposite, in wliich are held Sab- 
bath services during a portion of the summer, sup- 
ported by a fund left the society by Asa Way. 

Nothing very definite can Ije learned as to the 
early formation of a Methodist society. It appears 
there were quite early in the settlement occasional 
meetings conducted by itinerant clergymen. In 
1823 Dr. Fiske, a presiding elder, came in town 
and visited every family. There followed soon 
a wonderful revival — one hundred conversions. 
Many joined the Methodist Church, and not a few 
the Congregational. 

Since 1835 the New Hampshire Conference has 
supplied the society with preaching, and they now 
have control of the house of worship at the East 
village. Among the prominent men in that so- 
ciety, we may mention, as the earliest, Edmund 
Perley, Abner Chase and Alden Cary; more re- 
cently, Henry Hurd and Albert Noyes 



Mr. Perley had a large family of daughters, 
three of whom married distinguished ministers — 
Bishop O. Baker, A. A. Miner, D.D., and Rev. 
Mr. Field. 

Abner Chase's family has been styled the family 
of Levites, on account of its ministerial connec- 
tions. The eldest son, Charles Henry, has been a 
very successful clergyman for many years ; Miuerva 
E. married Rev. L. D. Barrows, D.D. ; Eliza C, 
for many years a teacher both at Newbury, Vt., 
and Tilton, is the wife of Prof. C. S. Harrington, 
of Middleton College ; many of the grandchildren 
have married clergymen. Mr. Chase was one of 
the prominent business men of the town : not only 
had a store, but cari'ied on a farm, and in the 
early days paid some attention to raising mules, 
" whereby hangs a tale." It will be remembered 
that in the early days of Methodism everything 
superfluous about dress was laid aside. Mr. Chase 
was conscientiously strenuous in the matter, often 
arguing the same with his neighbors On one such 
occasion his eldest daughter, about five or six 
years of age, listened quite attentively, till at last, 
reasoning in her own little mind, she says, " Why 
don't you cut ofl^ Jack's ears then?" 

The early settlers were wide-awake and alert in 
educational mattei-s. School-houses were erected, 
not like those of the present day, but rude, like 
the dwellings ; ceilings low, devoid of paint or 
plaster, the .seats and desks rough -hewn slabs, with 
supports at either end, the chimney and wide-open 
fire-place fashioned of stones; but, rude and rough 
as they were, they sent forth bright and energetic 
men and women, whose descendants have occupied 
positions of eminence and trust, and whose influ- 
ence will be felt to the latest generation It wsis 
not until 1795 that the town passed a vote to raise 
money for building school houses. 

The schools were large, for in those days each 
home was blessed with many sons and daughters. 
The elder William Cary had seventeen children; 
Deacon Elijah Bingham, thirteen; and John 
Sabin, who moved from Franklin Ct., in 1790, 
brought with him eleven children, and jierhaps, as 
a bit of antique history, it will not be amiss to give 



190 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the names of the latter : Lydia, Azariah, Jerusha, 
Cynthia, Temperance, Nabby, Panielia, "Wealthy, 
John, Jehediah and Benejah. Alden B. Sabin, a 
grandson of the elder John, is still living at the 
advanced age of eighty-one; served three years as 
county commissioner; elected 1857. 

His only son, Wm. C.,has held positions of trust 
in the town, and a granddaughter given satisfaction 
as superintendent of the school committee. As far 
as known, the earliest graduates from Dartmouth 
College were John Gary, Aaron Hardy and James 
Harvey Bingham, the latter graduating in 1800, 
being class-mate, room-mate and life-long friend of 
Daniel Webster, their correspondence covering a 
space of fifty years to a day. Mr. Bingham opened 
a law-office in Alstead, N. H., became cashier of 
Claremont Bank in 1826, and the last fifteen years 
of his life was a clerk in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, Washington, D. C. He was at one time es- 
teemed the best bass-viol performer in New Eng- 
land. Aaron Hardy went to South Carolina as 
teacher, and there died on the island of Edisto. 
John Cary was a teacher in New Y^ork. Other 
graduates from Dartmouth have been Homer 
Taylor, whose promised life of active usefulness 
was ended while at Audover Theological Seminary; 
Holmes T. Fuller, perhaps the most scholarly of 
Lempster's sons, now principal of the Polytechnic 
School in Worcester , Mass., (he has twice made 
the tour of Europe) ; Anson Keyes, a teacher in the 
Far- West ; George A. Butler, civil engineer in 
Chicago ; George F. Perley, a lawyer and music- 
teacher in Moorhead, Minn. ; Fred. C. Parker, 
a graduate from the Agricultural Department, 
Hanover, now a merchant in Acworth ; our 
latest graduate, Bertrand T. Wheeler, civil engi- 
neer, now in the employ of the Old Colony Rail 
Road Company. Hon.H. W, Parker, a prominent 
lawyer in Claremont, and for one term member of 
Congress ; also AValter Beckwith, teacher and 
superintendent of schools in North Adams, Mass., 
pursued their studies at Tufts College. Daniel B. 
Wheeler, a descendant of Deacon Elijah Bingham, 
was educated at various private schools in addition 
to what was furni-hed by the public schools of 



Lempster, including Unity Academy as taught by 
Rev. A. A. Miner, and finishing his school course 
at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden. 

He soon commenced teaching, a vocation which 
he has made his life-work, and in which he has 
been eminently successful. His connection with 
the public schools of Massachusetts covers a period 
of thirty years, the last fifteen of which was as 
master of the Shepard School, Cambridge. He was 
appointed by the Governor and Council, in 1863, 
a member of the New Hampshire Board of Educa- 
tion, being school commissioner for Sullivan 
C'lunty. Like the Swiss mountaineer, Mr. Wheeler 
has returned to his native hills, and by taste and 
industry has made very attractive one of the 
pleasantest residences vf the village, which, each 
summer, welcomes within its maple-shaded portal, 
Cora, the only daughter, a successful teacher of 
elocution. Tradition informs us of one Benjamin 
Way, a fine scholar, and one of the earliest teachers 
of Sanbornton Academy. 

Eight young men have become physicians, — 
Jesse Smith, Truman Abell, Justice Hurd, Eras- 
mus D. Abell, Yorrick Hurd, Wm. Hurd, AVil- 
lard Hurd and Carl A. Allen ; and the three de- 
nominations, Congregationalists, Methodists and 
LTniversalists, have sent out twelve ministers; all 
efficient and successful ; perhaps the most distin- 
guished of the number is the Rev. A. A. Miner, 
D.D., of Boston. The earliest physicians of the 
town of which there is any record were Dr. Mer- 
rill and Dr. Mather. ^Ve are informed by tradi- 
tion that the wife of Col. Jabez Beckwith sup- 
plied the place of physician in the early settle- 
ment, oftentimes making her visits by the aid of 
snow-shoes. Truman Abell succeeded Dr. Mather, 
and practiced until the failure of sight, when for 
a time his son Erasmus filled the position. About 
1842 or 1843 Dr. Pillsbury moved into town, remain- 
ing but a short time, his successor being J. N. 
Butler, who, for forty years, has held the post of 
physician in the town. Dr. Truman Abell was 
the author of an almanac, which was for many 
years issued from the press in Claremont. After 
his death it was arranged by his youngest son, 



LEMPSTER. 



191 



Truman Wales. Dr. Abell had much mechanical 
skill, and, with the aid of Deacon John Taylor, 
constructed a piano, which, in tone, compared 
favorably with those of the early days. It should 
have been mentioned before this, when alluding to 
the educational advantages, that much is due a 
town library of some two hundred volumes, 
owned as early as 1800, — solid, substantial works 
of hi.story and travel. These were read wiih avidity 
by even the children. Tradition informs us of the 
reading of " Josephus " and the eight volumes of 
Rollin's "Ancient History" by Arethu.sa Miner, at 
the age of nine years. The long winter evenings 
were whiled away in many a family in reading 
these books, aided, perhaps, by the comments and 
criticisms of the district school-teacher, who in 
those days was one sought from classic halls and 
able to teach as well as govei-n. In 1844 a room 
for select schools was made in the upper story of 
the old " meeting-house," supj)orted at first by 
tuition ; afterwards the town voted a certain amount 
each year for the purpose, and after a town-house 
was built at the East village, schools alternated be- 
tween the two places. Teachers have been sought 
from Dartmouth and Meriden. Carl A. Allen, 
one of Lempster's sons, taught a number of terms 
very successfully, as also George E. Perley. 

The manufacturing interests of the town were 
never very extensive. The first mills built were 
saw and grist-mills. One in 1780, located on a 
branch of Cold River, in " Cambridge Hollow," 
owned by Oliver Booth ; the second, a mill privi- 
lege allowed Samuel Locke, on a branch of Sugar 
River, in 1791. A tannery and shoe-shop were 
owned and carried on by Captain Timothy Miner. 
The tannery consisted of a few uncovered vats, and 
the shoe-shop the "gude wife's" kitchen. As 
means increased, a building was erected for lime, 
curry and shoe-shop. At Captain Miner's death, 
in 1816, the business was continued by the late 
Hon. Alvah Smith and gradually increased until 
there were one hundred employes. It was here 
that calf-skins were first tanned with the hair on, 
being made into overshoes and boots, which found 
an extensive market. In 1854 the establishment 



was burned by an incendiary; the loss, thirty thou- 
sand dollars The busines.« seemed so necessary 
to the prosperity of the place that, aided by the 
efforts of the citizens, the shop w-as rebuilt on a 
larger scale and with the modern appliances for 
both shoe-shop and tannery. Subsequently this 
was burned, having been ignited by a spark from 
the furnace chimney. It has never been rebuilt. 

About sixty years ago John Cambridge and 
son, Philip, owned a factory in " Cambridge Hol- 
low " for dressing cloth — said to be the best in the 
county — turning out eight thousand yards an- 
nually. A blacksmith's stand and trip-hammer 
were owned by James Mitchell. Since then, fur 
some years, there has been a carding-raachine and 
machinery for manufacturing butter tubs; more 
recently the Keyes Brothers erected a large build- 
ing with .steam-engine, where they made carriages 
and various other articles, but now there is no 
business there. At present the town has four 
shingle-mills, — one on a branch of Sugar River, 
owned by William T. Thissel ; one at the outlet 
of Cold Pond, owned by Charles Putnam ; Lewis 
Cutler's, run by steam ; another on the mountain, 
owned by the Pollards ; and a fourth in " Cam- 
bridge Hollow." 

Perhaps there are none of the natives of the 
place whose life has been so closely identified with 
its interests and those of the county as that of the 
late Hon. Alvah Smith, son of Jacob Smith, one 
of the early settlers, and born in 1797. He re- 
mained upon his father's fiirm until eighteen years 
of age, only attending district school in winter ; 
but each hour of study was improved and many 
a mathematical problem he solved by the light of 
pine-knots. At the age of eighteen he was ap- 
prenticed to Captain Timothy Miner (whose 
daughter Arethusa he afterward married) as tan- 
ner and currier. At the death of his employer 
the business came into his hands; but even now 
we find him employing each leisure hour in read- 
ing and study, and he always has a dictionary at 
hand. Although, by law, not liable to military 
duty, he was induced to take command of a vol- 
unteer company in the militia, from which he rose 



192 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



by regular gradation to the office of inspector, and 
performed the duty of inspecting the Third Divi- 
sion of the New Hampshire Militia as reviewed by 
Governor David L. Morrill and Major-General 
William Cary. He served in many town offices — 
as superintending school committee, selectman, 
Representative, justice of the peace and quorum 
throughout the State; active delegate to the con- 
vention at Buffalo, N. Y., which gave birth to the 
Free Soil party ; also a delegate to the Presiden- 
tial Convention in Philadelphia in 1856 ; two years 
member of the Governor s Council and of the 
board of trustees of the Insane Asylum ; eleven 
years Probate judge, only resigning, as the law 
recjuired, at the age of seventy ; one year Senator ; 
a director of Cheshire Mutual Fire Insurance 
Company from its commencement to the time of 
his death, in 1879 ; for four years State pension 
agent ; thirty-five years deacon of the First Con- 
gregational Church, with which he united at the 
age of twenty. His strong. Christian faith has 
been a sure support in every time of trial ; even 
when he saw the labor of years reduced to ashes, 
he could thankfully say, " The Lord reigns " A 
precious heirloom in the old home is a gold-headed 
ebony cane bearing the following inscription : 

" Presented to Senator Alvah Smith for his un- 
wavering fidelity to principle and right, by Republi- 
can members of the Legislature, June Session, 1871." 

Hiram Parker, Esq., a brother of Hon. H W. 
Parker, of Claremont, is one of our successful 
farmers and prominent citizens ; has been for some 
years a member of the State Board of Agricul- 
ture, which position he fills satisfactorily. He 
is at present our village merchant. 

We would not forget that the town has had its 
hermit and its antiquarian. Some years since, 
the traveler, in making his way up Silver Moun- 
tain, would have found a rude hut, the home of 
one Jacob Hewes, who, through disappointment 
in matrimonial overtures, although well educated, 
relinquished the luxuries and even necessaries of 
life, and buried himself in the solitude of its 
rugged grandeur ; nor do we think he ever 



bestowed one thought on the lovely views by 
which he was surrounded. 

Reuben Roundy, a grfindson of one of the early 
settlers, had a pa.s.sion for old literature, and 
would travel miles to find the complete set of any 
old magazine, pamphlet, almanac or spelling-book. 
When found binding them in volumes, a short 
time previous to his death, he refused one thou- 
sand dollars for the library thus collected, which 
now is scattered to the winds. 

This history would be incomplete if no word 
was written of the pleasant township, — of its at- 
tractive drives, either winding in and out along 
the valleys, giving an intense sense of quiet and 
repose, broken by occasional glimpses of distant 
scenery, or over the hills and mountains, where 
can be had a bird's-eye view of the valleys, with 
their patches of cultivated ground and woodland, 
their lakelets set like gems among the greenery of 
the hills, the view bounded in the far distance by 
the range of the Green Mountains; Ascutney, in 
the northwest, standing a little in advance, like a 
sentinel on duty. The principal village has but 
one street, running north and south, lined with elms 
and maples, among which the neat and tasteful 
cottages seem playing bo-peep with the passer-by. 

Around the village green are clustered the 
post-office, hotel, store, church and, towering 
above all, the old meeting-house, with its lofty 
spire and weather-vane, which has ever been true 
to all the wiuds of heaven. 

A little north of the village is a continuous line 
of lofty, wide-spi-eading maples, extending one- 
fourth of a mile, set out, about forty years ago, by 
Captain Martin Beckwith, a son of Colonel Jabez 
Beckwith, and the first white child born in the 
settlement, who lived to the advanced age of one 
hundred and one years and one month. These trees 
are a beautiful monument to his memory. 

The Ea.st village is nested at the foot of the 
mountain, and is rendered attractive by Dodge's 
Pond, on the western border of which is the old 
town cemetery, much enlarged and improved the 
last few years, and containing many fine tablets 
and monuments. 



LEMPSTER. 



193 



The village has its two churches, town- house, 
hotel, post-office and store ; here also is the home 
of the poet, G. B. Griffith. The little hamlet on 
the western border of the town, formerly " Cam- 
bridge Hollow," has for the past year had its 
post-office called Keyes. 

Thus have the threads and thrums of the town's 
history been woven into an imperfect tissue, it 
may be, but one of perfect truthfulness, so far as 
thorough search of records and facts elicited by 
inquiry of the oldest citizens could make it. If 
any who should have a place here have been 
omitted, it has been through ignorance and the 
limited space allowed for the history, which, if 
written in detail, would itself fill a volume. 

EEPRESEXTATIVES OF LEMPSTER. 



Oliver Booth, 1778. 
Elijah Frink, 1781-83. 
Elijah Frink, 1788. 
James Bingham, 1791-98. 
Jabez Beckwith, 1798- 

1800. 
James Bingham, 1800-06. 
Jacob Smith, 1806-14. 
Shubael Hurd, 1814-17. 
Jacob Smith, 1817. 
Harris Bingham, 1818- 

21. 
John Way, 1821-24. 
William Gary, 1824-27. 
Abner Chase, 1827-30. 
Alvah Smith, 1830-32. 
Daniel M. Smith, 1832- 

35. 
Martin Beckwith, 1835- 

38. 
Alvah Smith, 1838. 
Matthew Parker, 1839. 
Daniel M. Smith, 1840. 
No choice, 1841-42. 
Martin Beckwith, 1843. 



Benjamin Parker, 1844. 
No choice, 1845. 
Nathaniel B. Hull, 1846. 
No choice, 1847. 
Lemuel Miller, 1848-50. 
Aaron Miller, 1850-52. 
William B. Parker, 1852 

-54. 
Jacob B. Richardson, 

1854-.56. 
James Booth, 1856. 
Jacob B. Richardson, 

1857. 
Harvey Dudley, 1858. 
H. W. Parker, 1859-60. 
Rausom Beckwith, 1861- 

-63. 
Hiram Parker, 1863-65. 
Dennison Nichols, 1865. 
Nathan George, 1866-68. 
Abram Bean, 1868-70. 
George Dame, 1870-72. 
E. B. Richardson, 1872- 

74. 



TOWN CLERK.? OF LEMP.STER. 



Allen Willey, 1774-77. 
Elijah Frink, 1777. 
Allen Willey, 1778-82. 
Jabez Beckwith, 1782-8( 
James Bingham, 1786-9! 



1798- 



Dr. Asa Merrill 

1803. 
Uzzel Hurd, 1803-10. 
Dr. Truman Abell, 1810- 

16. 



Uzzel Hurd, 1816. 
Nath.Brainard, 1817-21. 
Abner Chase, 1821-26. 
Alvah Smith, 1826-30. 
Daniel M. Smith, 1830- 

35. 
Amasa A. Gould. 
Abner Chase, 1836-39. 
David Thornton, 1839- 

42. 
John S. Bingham, 1842. 
David Thornton, 1843- 

45. 
Abner Chase, 1845^7. 
J. N. Brown, 1848. 
James Booth, 1849. 



T. Wales Abell, 1850. 
Abner Chase, 1851-58. 
Benoni Fuller, 1858. 
David Thornton, 1859- 

60. 
Lemuel Miller, 1860-65. 
E. B. Richardson, 1865. 
Benoni Fuller, 1866. 

E. B. Richardson, 1867- 
79. 

H. L. Thompson, 1879- 

82. 
Josiah Hooper, 1882. 

F. C. Parker, 1883-85. 
William A. Bowen, 1885. 



SOLDIERS ENLISTED IN THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 

The following were three mouths' men, and 
each received ten dollars from the town : 

George S. Fletcher, re-enlisted in the Fifth Regiment. 

George Youugman. 

Judson Tandy. 

Carlos Wellman. 

Henry Morse, re-enlisted for three years, Second New 

Hampshire Regiment; killed in the lirst battle 

of Bull Run. 
Henry Adams. 

Marshall P. Hurd, re-enlisted; killed at Antietam. 
Timothy W. Bruce. 

Elisha A. Bruce, wounded at Fort Wagner. 
Nathan Calkins. 
John S. Currier. 

On another call for four thousand men, the fol- 
lowing enlisted : 

Wilson Thompson. 

Jerome Thompson. 

Stephen C. Smith. 

Charles B. Davis, wounded in foot; taken prisoner 

and released. 
T. J. Davis. 
Henry J. Davis, taken prisoner ; exchanged ; died 

from starvation. 

A bounty of one hundred dollars was offered to 
fill the town quota, and the following enlisted : 

Isaac M. Dodge, died of disease in camp. 
William E. Way. 



194 



HISTOKY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



William H. Wilcox. 

John Wilcox. 

Emerson D. Hurd, served one year; discharged for 

disability. 
George C. Bruce, died in camp. 
Ahnon J. Fletcher, discharged for disability. 
George Gunnison, died in camp. 
Luman Spencer, died in camp. 
Orville Smith, lieutenant, Company G; afterward 

captain ; killed in battle at Spottsylvania. 
Lucius A. Spencer, went into camp in Concord, and 

there died. 
George W. Libby, died in Washington, D. C. 
Francis P. Fletcher. 
Frank G. Pollard. 
Walter Scales. 
Albert Hutchinson, taken prisoner, but died at home. 

On another call two hundred dollars bounty 
was offered, and the following enlisted : 

Jackson B. Herrick. 

Charles M. Carey. 

William Welsh. 

Joseph Barrett. 

Ceylon M. Dodge, three hundred dollars bounty. 

Benjamin T. P. Leeds, Heavy Artillery, stationed at 
Portsmouth. 

Albert B. Corey, Heavy Artillery, stationed at Ports- 
mouth. 
The following were drafted September, 1863 : 

John G. Smith. 

Henry Makepeace, stationed at Portsmouth. 
William C. Sabin. 
Leander Hill. 
Horace Gee. 
George Sargent. 

Levi C. Taylor, provided substitute. 
Alanson B. George, provided substitute. 
Henry Spalding. 

Alden Honey, provided substitute. 
Freeman Gordon, provided substitute. 
Hiram Parker, provided substitute. 
Augustus Chandler, provided substitute. 
Kimball Pollard, provided substitute. 
Isaac Blanchard, provided substitute. 
James Evans, provided substitute. 
Henry E. Huntley, provided substitute. 
William W. Huntoou, enlisted in cavalry and re- 
mained till close of war. 



William Bruce, drafted ; accepted; paid his bounty, 

then enlisted in cavalry. 
Abrara Bean, enlisted in cavalry ; remained till close 

of war. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



HON. ALVAH SMITH. 

It is both interesting and instructive to trace the 
history of families ; to note the jjeculiarities of 
character that are transmitted from one generation 
to another. In searching the genealogical record 
of Hon. Alvah Smith on the maternal side, we 
find him descended from the Hurdfi, — also written 
" Herd " and " Heard." This family has been 
somewhat noted for physical strength, long life and 
military tastes. About 1635 John and Adam 
Hurd — brothers — came from England to Stratford, 
Conn. John appears to have been a land surveyor, 
and was " a man of education and influence." In 
1644 he was appointed by the General Court to 
collect money in Connecticut for " the maynten- 
ance of scollars at Cambridge." He was for sev- 
eral years member of the Legislature in New 
Haven. Among his sons was Ebenezer, who re- 
moved to East Haddam, Conn., where he had a 
son, Justus, the maternal grandfather of the sub- 
ject of our sketch, and who emigrated with his 
wife and ten children to Gilsum, N. H., between 
1770 and 1780 (.date not certain). 

Asenath, his fourth daughter, born October 15, 
1766, married, in 1790, Jacob Smith, born in the 
pleasant old township of Middleborough, Ma.ss., and 
.son of John and Sarah (Chipman) Smith. They 
both dying of small-pox when Jacob was but eight 
years of age, he was early apprenticed to a shoe- 
maker. 

We have not the date of his removal to Lempster, 
but it was probably soon after his marriage. His 
devotion to public interests is shown by the various 
responsible positions to which he was chosen by 
his townsmen. He was their representative from 
1806 to 1814, and again in 1817. We learn his 
loyalty to the polls by his being taken from his 





.^^^^C-^^C 



LEMPSTER. 



195 



sick room of months and carried on a bed to cast 
his vote. He was deacon of the Congregational 
Church till 1822, when he moved to Potsdam, 
N. Y. There he was active in building up social, 
political, educational and religious interests in the 
then new county of St. Lawrence. 

AVe do not wonder, then, that Alvah, fourth son 
of Jacob and Asenath (Hurd) Smith, inheriting 
from the mother a vigorous constitution and strong 
will-power, and from the father sound judgment 
with moderation, should po.ssess a character worthy 
a record in the history of the county. 

His early education was limited to the district 
school, never attending in summer after his ninth 
year, remaining at home until eighteen, freely 
lending his assistance in the maintenance of the 
family, his father being in feeble health, with lim- 
ited means, pecuniarily, but rich in the love and 
devotion of a wife and eight children ; of those 
eight but one is now living, — the youngest, Eliza 
beth (Smith) Banister, now in her seventy-ninth 
year, feeble in body, but with strong mental facul- 
ties unimpaired. Young Alvah, arriving at the 
age of eighteen, was apprenticed to Captain Timo- 
thy Miner, tanner, currier and shoemaker. He 
dying the first year of service, the young apprentice 
was retained in business by Mrs. Miner, and served 
his time. 

On arriving at his majority he contracted for 
the tannery and shoe-shop, and was eminently 
successful, in time building up a large business, 
giving employment to one hundred operatives ; 
new dwelling-houses were erected, and a store 
opened for the accommodation of his employes 
He made sales in Vermont, Massachusetts, New 
York and Illinois, and some of the time work was 
sent to the Southern States via Boston. It was 
in his tannery that calf-skins were first tanned 
with the hair on, the first one being an experiment 
by Joseph Marshall, one of Mr Smith's earliest 
apprentices, to oblige a townsman. This soon be- 
came quite a lucrative business, the skins thus 
tanned being made into overshoes and boots, which, 
being impervious to the water and very warm, 

found a ready market. On November 19, 1854, the 
13 



shoe-shop and tannery were burned by an incen- 
diary, involving a loss of thirty thousand dollars. 
The business being so nece.ssary to the interests of 
the town, the people lent their aid in rebuilding 
it on a large scale, adding the modern appliances 
and improvements. 

In April of 1863 this building was burned, hav- 
ing been ignited by a spark from the furnace chim- 
ney, and was never rebuilt. In all these years of 
business activity Mr. Smith neglected no opportu- 
nity for the improvement of his mind, but spent 
all leisure moments in gaining information both as 
to political and religious movements. Not infre- 
quently the morning light revealtd the scorched 
newspaper, telling all too plainly that Mornheus 
had been robbed of rightful hours. His fellow- 
townsmen were not slow in appreciating his busi- 
ness capacities, bestowing upon him the honors ot 
office in their gift. He was town clerk from 1826 
to 1880; Kepreseutative from 1830 to 1832; for 
some years selectman and superintending school 
committee, and often chosen to administer on and 
settle estates. While being thus favored by his 
town, he was made justice of the peace and 
quorum ; two yeare member of the Governor's 
Council and of the board of trustees of the Insane 
Asylum ; one of the directors and agents of the 
Cheshire Mutual Fire Insurance Company from its 
inception, retaining both until two years before his 
death, when he relinquished the agency. In 1856 
he received the appointment of Probate judge, re- 
tiring in 1867 at the age of seventy, having ful- 
filled the trust with honesty and fidelity. He was 
also delegate to the Presidential Convention in 
Philadelphia in 1856. 

At the annual election in 1871 he received a few 
votes on the temperance ticket for Senator in Dis- 
trict No. 10. The person elected to that office (a 
Democrat) died before the Legislature met, and ac- 
cording to the Constitution, "the vacancy must be 
filled by joint vote of Legislature, for one of the 
two highest candidates voted for at the an- 
nual election;" he therefore became a candidate. 
The Democrats and Labor- Reformers united were 
a majority in the Legislature, and hoping he might 



196 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



feel under obligation to go with tliem if elected by 
them, elected him. 

Although offered any office in the gift of the 
Legislature or Governor and any amount of money 
if he would vote with them in their I'evolutionary 
movements (as he held the balance in the Senate), 
he stood aloof from all their offers, and remained 
firm and true to the principles of liberty and equal- 
ity he had ever supported from early manhood. 

A precious heirloom in the old home is a gold- 
headed ebony cane, bearing the following inscrip- 
tion : 

" Presented to Senator Alvah Smith, for his un- 
wavering fidelity to principle and right, by Repub- 
lican members of the Legislature, June session, 
1871." 

He was State pension agent for finir years, which 
would have proved a more lucrative jsosition had 
not the infirmities of years made it necessary for 
him to employ extra help in the office. 

His well-known sound judgment procured him 
many calls as referee in difficult cases, not only in 
town, but in others in the county ; and after ma- 
ture deliberation he was always ready to give his 
opinion, except in cases where the differing parties 
were man and wife, where he considered a third 
party like the " fifth wheel to a coach," and advised 
for both forbearance and conciliation. Making 
himself well acquainted with points of law, he was 
many times solicited to enter the bar, but knowl- 
edge of his own acquirements modestly forbade. 

Althpugh the law would have exempted him 
from military duty, he was induced to take com- 
mand, in early life, of a volunteer company in the 
militia; from which he rose in military gradation 
to the office of inspector, and performed the duty 
of inspecting the whole of the then Third Division 
of New Hampshire Militia, as reviewed by Gover- 
nor David Morrill and General William Carey, a 
fellow townsman. Mr. Smith was an active poli- 
tician in the State, but not what would be termed 
a bigoted, zealous parti.sau, always advocating and 
voting for those principles, measures and men that, 
from candid consideration, he thought were for the 
best good of the country and nation. In early days 



he was a Whig, and so great was the influence that 
went out from his manufactory that it obtained the 
name of " 'Whig Fort." At the birth of the Free- 
Soil party, at the Buffalo (N. Y.) Convention, to 
which he was sent as active delegate, he adopted 
Free-Soil principles as best suited to carry out his 
ideas of right, from which he could not be moved. 
His firm principles made him proof against politi- 
cal bribery, though the temptation once came when 
in straitened circumstances and declining years. 
When told at the time, '" It is .said every man has 
his price," he made quick reply, " One man has 
not." Feeling from his own experience the disad- 
vantages arising from a limited education he was 
thoroughly awake in educational matters, giving 
his children every help in his power, not only pat- 
ronizing the district and select schools of his own 
town, but giving them academical advantages. 

He was much interested in the " Teachers' Insti- 
tutes" in the county, and used his influence in 
their favor ; also was ever ready to procure the 
latest and most.approved text-books for his fam- 
ily, and it was rarely that a book or map agent re- 
ceived from him the " cold shoulder " if his wares 
promised assistance in gaining knowledge. Being 
" fully persuaded by what he read by his own obser- 
vation and experience, that there was no nourish- 
ment in alcohol, and that an individual could do 
more and better work without it than with it," 
he early espoused the cause of temperance, becom- 
ing one of its most earnest advocates. His shop, 
raised in 1831, was the first building in town raised 
without rum. 

When he proposed the idea to the master-work- 
man, he at once said " It cannot be done." "Then," 
replied Mr. Smith, " It shall not be raised." The day 
came and with it scores of people, some from out 
of town, fully expecting a failure ; but, contrary to 
all expectation, every joist, beani and brace came 
in position with no other stimulant than hot coffee. 
It was a success in every respect and was not the 
last building raised on temperance principles. 

Mr. Smith was known throughout the county 
and State as an earnest temperance man, and was 
sent as county delegate to the World's Temperance 



LEMFSTER. 



197 



Conventiou in New York in 1^53. He avoided 
the formation of bad habits. Being ordered by 
his physician (?) at one time to smolce, as soon 
as he realized he was becoming a slave to the 
vile weed, he at once and forever abandoned its 
nse ; and, as an instance of his self command, he 
laid pipe and tobacco where he would see it each 
day. At another time he forsook the use of mor- 
phine, given to ease the pain of a fractured hip, 
although it cost him more than a week of sleepless 
nights. It is said by those who knew him from 
his earliest days that no profane or indelicate word 
passed his lips, and rarely an expletive, obeying 
the Scriptural injunction, " let your communication 
be yea, yea, and nay, nay," etc. His great will- 
power, guided by Christian principles, enabled 
him to keep in control a naturally violent temper, 
— an inheritance, perhaps, from his grandfather 
Hurd, of whom it is related by Gilsum's his- 
torian that at one time, before the settlement of the 
first minister, a black man came and offered him- 
self to preach. He was sent to Mr. Hurd (first 
clerk of the church), who was at work in the field. 
Whether thinking the proposal an insult to the 
people, or a sacrilege to the ministerial office, is 
not known ; but, in his indignation at the pre- 
sumption, he drove him out of the field with his 
cane. This same historian also states that Mr. 
Hurd's family are well remembered by the elder 
people for their activity in church and town 
affairs. A love for Christian principles, therefore, 
seemed hereditary in Mr. Smith. In early life 
he became a disciple of Christ, uniting at the age 
of twenty-three with the Congregational Church, 
under the pastoral care of Rev. Elias Fisher, the 
town's first mini.ster. His Christian character was 
a consistent one, carrying religion into the every- 
day acts of life, making him solicitous for the 
spiritual welfiire of those around him, especially 
those in his employ and members of his household ; 
a constant attendant on divine service, despite heat 
or cold, sunshine or storm, taking his place as 
Sabbath-school superintendent, teacher or scholar, 
not only attending himself, but sending his team 
around for those who had no conveyance ; for 



over thirty years performing the office of deacon, 
resigning only when so obliged by infirmities. 
His seat in the weekly prayer-meeting was rarely 
empty, considering the hour thus spent among the 
" most precious of the week," although there were 
times when these duties involved a great sacrifice 
of bodily comfort; but that these were appreciated 
by his pastors will be shown by the following ex- 
tract from a letter received from Rev. J. Le Bos- 
quet on his eighty-second birth-day : " I thank you 
for your unfaltering friendship and assistance in the 
work of God during the seven years of my resi- 
dence in your vicinity." Mr. Smith was remark- 
able for his fortitude, the severest pain seldom 
extorting a groan, never a complaint, his favorite 
exjiression at such times being " the Lord reigns," 
thus showing his belief and trust in an overruling 
Providence, 

As a neighbor and friend he was ever ready to 
oblige, often lending his name to his own detri- 
ment, as in one instance, in combination with 
other circumstances, it occasioned his failure, from 
which, owing to the perfidy of the assignee, he 
never recovered. 

Very free from suspicion, trying to do right 
himself, he thought the same of others ; showed 
no favoritism, using the same hospitality and 
courtesy to the jjoor as to the rich. It can with 
truth be said, that at his death, August 7, 1879, 
the town lost one of its most public-spirited men, 
for he not only lent his influence to all good 
schemes and measures, but aided pecuniarily — 
never giving grudgingly. 

Of Mr. Smith's personal appearance we have 
said nothing ; the likeness accompanying this 
.sketch was copied from a photograph, taken at 
the age of sixty-nine. He had a fine military fig- 
ure, some inche.s over six feet in hight, strong feat- 
ures and a smile full of benevolence. The im- 
pression he left upon the minds of the youth of 
fifty years ago may be learned by an extract from 
" Backward Glances," written by L. P. Frost, for 
the Cold River Journal, of May 8, 1885 : " In 
looking the Journal all thro', I found but one 
familiar name, Hon. Alvah Smith — how well I 



198 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



remember him ! I used to think, nor has my 
mind changed since, he was the best-looking man 
J ever saw ; whether at church, as conductor of a 
funeral, or officiating at funerals when there was 
no clergyman in town, or standing in front of the 
pulpit in the old church on the common as mod- 
erator of the town-meeting, he had the same 
attractive, beneficent, noble, manly look ; take him 
all in all, I shall never look upon his like again." 

March 8, 1820, when twenty-three years of 
age, Mr. Smith married Arethusa, fourth daughter 
of Captain Timothy and Polly (Ames) Miner, a 
companion well fitted for the position she assumed 
at the early age of nineteen. Eight children were 
given them, — seven sons and one daughter. 

GENEALOGY. 

I. ]\Iilo (Smith), born Lerapster, March 9, 1822 ; 
married, May 14, 1850, Mary Ann Chaffin, of 
Enfield, N. H. 

1. George Alvah Smith, born Lempster, Feb- 
ruary 21, 1851 ; married, firet, November 28, 1872, 
Alfaretta Sophronia Tyler, Manchester, N. H. ; 
died November 22, 1882; married, second, Delia 
Adelaide Clement, Manchester, June 18, 1884. 

2. Ella Frances (Smith), born Lerapster, Janu- 
ary 6, 1853 ; married, October 24, 1874, George 
Augustus Jackson, Boston, Mass. 

a. Milo (Jackson), born Boston, Mass., January 
16, 1876; died, January 19, 1876. 

3. Gertrude Fremont (Smith), born Lempster, 
May 11, 1857 ; died Manchester, July 17, 1875; 
married, July 4, 1874, Leroy Alphonso Bartlett. 

4. Ira Percy (Smith), born Hillsborough Bridge, 
October 12, 1859 ; married, July 14, 1881, Alice 
Pearson Chase, of Hillsborough Bridge. 

a. Gertrude Emma (Smith), January 1882. 

II. Norman (Smith), born Lempster, February 
25, 1824 ; marrried, first, September 30, 1845, 
Eebecca Ward, Plainfield, N. H. ; died January 
22, 1864. 

1 . Helen Arethusa (Smith), born Lempster, 
November 23, 1847 ; died Boston, Mass., March 
18, 1875 ; married, October 19, 1870, Josiah Baker 
Small. 



0. Hila Helen (Small), born Boston, Mass., 
October 4, 1873. 

b. Ada Rebecca Smith, born Lempster, July 20, 
1824 ; married, December 24, 1879, Josiah Baker 
Small ; died, April 1(5, 1882. 

2. Grace Ada (Small), born April 10, 1882. 
Norman married, second, Julia Etta Hammond, 

July 2, 1864, Framingham, Mass. 

3. Minnie Etta (Smith), born Boston, October 1 , 
1865 ; married, January 12, 1882, Solomon Lafay- 
ette Bradley. 

4. Edward Alva (Smith), born Netawakee, 
Kan., December 31, 1870. 

III. Truman (Smith), born Lempster, February 
6, 1827 ; married, December 21, 1852, Arvilla 
Jane Gregg, Deering, N. H. 

1. Imogene Virginia (^Smith), born Lempster, 
October 27, 1853; married, June 18, 1872, Benja- 
maiu Emons, Wilmot Flat, N. H. 

rt. Amelia (Emons), born Wilmot Flat, August 
14, 1876. 

b. Lina (Emons), born Wilmot Flat, February 
19, 1879. 

c. Eva (Emons), born Wilmot Flat, October 16, 
1883. 

2. Wallace Dana (Smith), born Lempster, 
April 14,1856; married, January 12, 1879, Mary 
Lizzie Allen, Concord, N. H. 

IV. Alvah (Smith), born Lempster, March 22, 
1830; died there, January 17, 1833. 

V. Orville (Smith), born in Lempster, March 
11, 1832; died May 12,1864, at Spottsylvania, 
Va ; married, February 19, 1869, Julia Ann 
Pollard, Lerapster. 

VI. Edward Payson (Smith), born in Lempster 
May 21, 1834 ; died there April 24, 1875 ; married, 
January 10, 1858, Jane Amelia Chester, Duds- 
well, C. E. 

1. Frank Herbert (Smith), born in Athens, 
Ohio, May 19, 1863; died there January 29, 
1865. 

VII. Dwight C. (Smith), born in Lempster 
September 20, 1836 ; married, September 20, 1859, 
Helen Maria Tracy, Acworth, N. H. 



LEMPSTEE. 



199 



1. Frederick Austin (Smith), born in Acworth 
June 9, 1861. 

2. Willie Edward (Smith), born in Acworth 
September 10, 1864; died there November 19, 
1864. 

3. Alvah Dwight (Smith), born in Worcester, 
Mass., January 20, 1807 ; died there March 0, 
1867. 

VIII. Marianna (Smith), born in Lempster 
September 8, 18o8. 

Mr. Smith's descendants are filling honorable 
and useful positions in society. The eldest son, 
Milo, has, for many years, been in the employ of 
the United States and Canada Express Company, 
at Manchester. His son George Alvah is a 
skilled machinist for the railroad ; Ella Frances, 
a book-keeper in Boston ; and Ira Percy, the 
youngest, is salesman for an agricultural house in 
Boston. Normau, the second son, was associated 
■with his father in business ; since its closing up has 
been in the employ of diflerent parties. His 
eldest daughter, Helen Arethusa, was a graduate 
from the Normal School, Westfield, Mass., and a 
very successful teacher. The second, Ada Re- 
becca, was, for some years, book-keeper for 
Everett & Small, Boston, Mass. ; Minnie Etta, 
third daughter, is a fine pianist, while young 
Edward Alvah is still a student. Truman, now a 
farmer in Pittsfield. N. H., was a successful 
teacher ; also rendered his father invaluable 
service in the Pension Office. His sou, Wallace 
Dana, is a clerk in railroad office. Concord. The 
daughter, Imogene, a model wife and mother. 

Orville, the fifth son, entered Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, Middletown, Conn., but was forced to leave 
on account of some trouble of the eyes. Was in 
Kansas at the time of her great trial, and, although 
prostrated "ith chills and fever, was carried upon 
his bed to the polls. Returning home, was chosen 
principal of Hopkinton Academy, which pleasant 
situation he left when our country called " to 
arms." Enlisting in the Ninth New Hampshire 
Regiment, was promoted to the captaincy of 
Company B, and fell in the battle of Spottsyl- 
vania, Va., while leading his men to charge, for 
he always said " come, boys." As soon as safety 
would permit, his remains were found by his 



comrades and buried at the head of his brave 
men who had fallen with him ; they now repose in 
the beautiful National Cemetery on Marye's 
Heights. 

Edward Payson, being in Ohio at the com- 
mencement of our Civil War, enlisted, and was 
commissioned lieutenant of the One Hundred and 
Forty-first Regiment, Company B, of Ohio Volun- 
teer Infantry ; was one of the Home Guard at the 
time of the Morgan raid ; afterward provost- 
marshal in West Virginia. At the close of the 
war, by reason of impaired health, went to St. 
Paul, Minn., and there became one of the con- 
tractors of the Northern Pacific Railroad. His 
health failing, he came to his father's home Feb- 
ruary, 1875, passing away the following April, a 
noble Christian man. 

Dwight C, the youngest son, employed in his 
father's shop, became an expert in the cutting of 
sole leather ; subsequeotly found employment in 
Hopkinton and Worcester, Mass. ; is now super- 
intendent in the shoe-factory of Critchell & Sibley, 
Belfast, Me. His only sou, Frederick Austin, is a 
clerk in the Marine Insurance Company, Boston. 

Marianna, the youngest, is the only one of her 
father's family left in the eld home, whose walls 
have echoed and re-echoed to the music of patter- 
ing feet, to the gleesomeness of childhood, to the 
many home gatherings on the nation's feast-day, 
and to the sadder home-comings when the loved 
were laid to re^t. Hers has been the blessed 
mission to care for the aged parents as they passed 
so gently from earth to heaven. 

Mr. Smith had resided in the village of his na- 
tive town ever since his apprenticeship, erecting 
in 1824, an unpretentious brick cottage, shaded 
now by luxuriant maples, set out and fostered by 
himself and wife Within, there has always been 
true republican simplicity, and to the hospital)le 
board the stranger and friend, the poor and needy 
were always welcomed. 

This home in the summer months is not only 
pleasant with the song of birds and perfume of 
floweis, but vocal with the merriment of childhood, 
it still being the flivorite resort of the grandchil- 
dren and great-grandchildren, as well as many 
other family friends. 



HISTORY OF NEWPORT. 



BY JOSEPH W. PARMELEE. 



CHAPTER I. 

It is matter of interest that in this year of 
grace, one thousand eight hundred and eighty- 
five, there are living many persons in the town 
of Newport whose grandfathers and grand- 
mothers were the disloyal subjects of George 
III. King, etc. It is also matter of interest 
and consideration to all residents of the town, 
native or adopted, and must so continue to be to 
the latest generation, that its local history 
reaches back into the colonial era, when New 
Hamjishire was a royal province of Great 
Britain, with a royal Governor, whose pom- 
pous edicts were based upon a sovereignty that 
was not of the people. 

The first settlement of our town of Newport 
occurred at a most interesting period in Conti- 
nental affairs. The great contest for supremacy 
in America, between England and France, had 
been terminated by the results of the old 
French and Indian War, and the. treaty of 
Paris, 1756-63. France sullenly retired and 
England dominated on the North American 
Continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Arctic Zone, and from ocean to ocean. 

The Indian tribes after nearly a hundred 
and fifty years of contact with the pale-faced 
invaders of their hunting-grounds — worsted at 
all points ; unable or unwilling to mingle with 
or oppose the progress of the civilization that 
had planted itself in New England — had taken 
up their dreary and desultory march towards 
the western sea — an anabasis that has continued 
for another hundred and fifty years. 
200 



A sentiment of dissatisfaction was gaining 
strength among the people of the colonies that 
in the near future was to burst out in revolu- 
tion and deliver them from the tyranny of the 
British government. 

With the peace to which we have referred 
there came to the people of the New England 
colonies a renewal and enlargement of their 
domestic industries. The populous condition 
of the older settlements invited an extension of 
their boundaries. The war-whoop and the war- 
dance, and the dusky savage, as a local element 
of population, had forever disappeared — a great 
and peaceful wilderness, full of magnificent 
possibilities, beckoned to their hardy sons and 
daugliters, from its primeval solitudes. 

The shout that broke the silence when that 
green island of the southern sea first dawned 
upon the vision of Columbus, " Land ! land !" 
has been the kej'-note of American progress 
and civilization. It was only when the hand of 
labor appeared on the scene that permanent and 
valuable settlements were made in the New 
World. It was then that the forests began to 
disappear, and farms were opened and towns 
and villages were settled. It was land that the 
wise old fiirmers of ]\Iassachusetts and Connec- 
ticut wanted for themselves or their stalwart 
sons, and to this end they sought out the fairest 
valleys and the best-timbered uplands for in- 
vestment and occupation. 

The desirable character of the region of coun- 
try now known as Western New Hampshire 
became known to the people of the older and 



NEWPORT. 



201 



more jxipulous colouies as early, at least, as the 
time of the French and Indian War, when the 
valley of the Connecticut River, from INIassa- 
chiisetts to Canada, was traversed by scouts and 
companies of armed men and captives, as the re- 
quirements of savage warfare sent them to and 
fro, between Southern New England and the 
St. Lawrence River. 

Again, the wealth derived irom tiie capture 
of fur-bearing animals, as well as the excite- 
ments of the chase, has tempted men into re- 
gions beyond the confines of civilization ; and 
thus the hunter and trapper have become pio- 
neers in the discovery of new lands and 
streams and regions hitherto unknown. 

It was undoubtedly in this way, and for this 
purpose, that the territory of the present town 
of Newport was first visited. 

Some time about the middle of the last cen- 
tury a famous hunter and trapper, Eastman 
by name, of Killingworth, Conn., is said to 
have left his home on a hunting expedition. 
Pushing his way up the Connecticut River, he 
came to a very considerable sti'cam of water 
flowing in from the east, now known as Sugar 
River. Following the coui-se of this tril)u- 
tary, he penetrated these wilds, and, doubtless, 
came to the place where Newport village now 
stands, and set his traps in the meadows of the 
South Branch and its affluents. 

He was successful in his trapping, and, in 
due time, returned to Connecticut, laden with 
the skins of otter, beaver, mink and musquash, 
the spoils of these streams. 

The glowing accounts he gave of the natural 
resources of this section in fertility of soil, water- 
power, timber, healthfulness of climate, pictur- 
esque scenery and accessibility, made a deep im- 
pression upon his friends and induced them to set 
about securing a charter for a township in the 
interest of their families. 

He set out again on a similar expedition, 
from which he never returned. At an early 
period in the settlement of the town a human 
skeleton was found on land about a mile west 



from Newport village, now the ilirm of Reuben 
Haven, near a small stream of water much fre- 
quented by rodents and aquatic animals. 

This discovery was supposed to solve the 
mystery in regard to the fate of the unfortunate 
Eastman, — the first white man that set foot 
upon the soil of Newport. 

In the mean time the Colonial Governor at 
Portsmouth, through his SuFveyor-Gcueral, 
Isaac Rindge, had caused surveys of many 
townships to be made in the valley of the Con- 
necticut, claiming jurisdiction on both sides of 
the river, and was not without good knowledge 
of the (piality and value of these lands. 

Mr. Barstow, in his " History of New Hamp- 
shire," makes the following statement as re- 
gards the Governor and people in relation to 
this matter : 

"The soldiers perceived the fertility of the soil, anil 
immediately upon the cessation of hostilities a great 
crowd of adventurers and speculators made applica- 
tion for these lands. Applications increased and the 
surveys were extended so rapidly that during the 
year 1761 not less than sixty townships were granted 
on the west and eighteen on the east side of the river. 
The Governor's coffers were filled by the fees; and 
scarcely had two years more elapsed before the num- 
ber of townships on the west side of the river amount- 
ed to one hundred and thirty-eight. A stream of emi- 
gration poured northward from Charlestown to Lan- 
caster and Northumberland, and settlements were 
soon extended to Claremont and Plainfield, Lebanon, 
Hanover, Lyme, Oxford, Newport, Lempster, Marlow 
and Alstead. The passion for occupying new lands 
seemed hardly exceeded by the passion for granting 
them. The soldiers to whom they had been promised 
for their meritorious services in conquering the coun- 
try from France were forgotten in the hasty covetous- 
ncss of an avaricious Governor. Wentworth retained 
live hundred acres of land in each town to himself" 

The last statement may be correct in regard 
to other towns, btit to mitigate his selfishness as 
much as possible, we may state that his acauisi- 
tion in Newport was a lot of two hundred 
acres. 

We may here observe incidentally the influ- 



202 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ence of the more important water-courses of 
New Hampshire as reo;ards its first settlement ; 
and how the Piscataqua and the Merrimack and 
the Connecticut, and their more important trib- 
utaries, became water-ways and liigli-ways far- 
ther and farther into the interior, and their allu- 
vial borders were first dotted with settlements. 
We may also perceive how entirely convenient 
it was for the people of Central Massachusetts 
and Connecticut to push their settlements up the 
valley of the beautiful river that came down to 
them from the borders of Canada. Of the set- 
tlers on the Merrimack and its western tributa- 
ries, the greater ])art were from Eastern Massa- 
chusetts. For years the peculiarities of these 
different classes of people were of so decided a 
character as to identify their origin. Both 
classes were in Newport. 

In view of the demands for progress and the 
general situation, a number of the enterprising 
citizens of New London County, Conu., and 
more particularly of Killingworth, one of its 
important towns, had obtained from the royal 
Governor of New Hampshire a charter for a 
townshij) of land, as follows : 



[Seal.] 



" Province of New Hampshire George 
the Third by the Grace of God, Great 
Britain, France and Ireland; King De- 
I fender of the Faith &c. 

" To all persons to whom these presents shall come : 
Greeting. 

" Know Ye that We of our special Grace certain 
Knowledge and Meer Motion for the due encourage- 
ment of Settling a New Plantation within Our Said 
Province by and with the advice of Our Trusty and 
Well-beloved Benning Wentworth Esqr: Our Gov- 
ernor and Commander in Chief of Our said Province 
of New Hampshire in New England and of Our 
Council of the said Province, Have upon the Condi- 
tions and Reservations hereinafter Made, Given and 
Granted and by these Presents for Us Our Heirs and 
Successors do Give and Grant in Equal Shares Unto 
Our loving Subjects, inhabitants of Our said Province 
of New- Hampshire and Our Other Governments and to 
their Heirs and Assigns for Ever, whose names are 
entered on this Grant to be divided to, and amongst 



them into Sixty Eight Equal Shares, all that Tract 
or Parcel of Land Situate lying and Being within Our 
said Province of New Hampshire Containing by Ad- 
measurement Twenty Three Thousand and Forty 
Acres, which Tract is to Contain Six miles square 
and no more Out of which an Allowance is to be made 
for Highways and unimprovable Land by Rocks, 
Ponds. Mountains and Rivers One Thousand and 
Forty Acres free according to a Plan and Survey 
thereof made by Our said Governors order and re- 
turned to the Secretarys Office and hereunto annexed 
Butted and Bounded as follows. Viz, Beginning at a 
Stake and Stones w-hich stands South 78 degrees East 
at the distance of Six Miles and One Half Mile from 
the North Westerly Corner of Charlestown a town 
formerly Granted in this Province, and runs from the 
said Stake and stone North Eight degrees, East Five 
Miles and Seven Eighths of a Mile to a Stake and 
Stones, then South 60 degrees East Eight Miles and 
One Quarter of a Mile, then South Ten degrees West 
Six Miles to a Stake and Stones, then North Sixty 
Three degrees West Six Miles and One Quarter of a 
Mile to a Stake and Stones ; the Bound first mentioned 
being Six Miles and One Half Mile from the Bank 
of Connecticut River. 

" And the same be and hereby is Incorporated into 
a Township by the Name of Newport. And the In- 
habitants that do, or shall hereafter inhabit the said 
Township are hereby declared to be Enfranchised 
with and Intitled to all and Every the privileges and 
immunities that other Towns within Our Province by 
Law Exercise and Enjoy — And, further, that the said 
Town as soon as there shall be Fifty Families resident 
and settled therein, shall have the liberty of Holding 

two Fairs, One of which shall be on the And 

the other on the annually, which Fairs are not 

to continue longer than the respective follow- 
ing the said and that as soon as the said Town 

shall consist of Fifty Families, a Market may be 
opened, and kept One or more days in each week, as 
may be thought most advantageous to the Inhabit- 
ants. 

"Also, that the first Meeting for the choice of Town 
Officers Agreeable to the Laws of Our said Province 
shall be held on the third Tuesday of November next, 
which said Meeting shall be notified by Mr. George 
Harris who is hereby appointed the Moderator of the 
said First Meeting, which he is to Notify, and Govern 
Agreeably to the Laws and Customs of Our said Prov- 



NEWPORT. 



203 



ince, and the animal Meeting forever hereafter fur 
Choice of such Officers for the Said Town shall be on 
the second Tuesday of March Annually — To Have 
and to Hold the said Tract of Land as above expressed, 
together with all Privileges and Appurtenances to 
them and their respective Heirs and Assigns forever, 
upon the following Conditions, viz. : 

" 1st. That every Grantee, his Heirs or Assigns 
shall plant and Cultivate Five Acres of Land within 
the Term of Five years, for every Fifty Acres con 
tained in his or their share or proportion of Land in 
said Township, and to continue to improve and settle 
the same by Additional Cultivations, on Penalty of 
the forfeiture of his (frant or Share in the said Town 
ship, and of its Reverting to Us Our Heirs and Suc- 
cessors to be by LTs or Them regrauted to such of Our 
Subjects as shall etfectually Settle and Cultivate the 
same. 

" 2dly. That all white and other Pine Trees 
within the said Township fit for Masting Our Royal 
Navy, be carefully preserved for that Use — and none 
be Cut or foiled without Our Special Lease for so do- 
ing first had and obtained upon the Penalty of the 
forfeiture of the right of such Grantee, His Heirs and 
Assigns, to Us Our Heirs and Successors as well as 
being subject to the Penalty of any Act or Acts oi 
Parliament that now or hereafter shall be Enacted — 

" 3dly. That before any of the Land be made to and 
among the Grantees, a Tract of Land as near the Cen- 
tre of said Township as the Land will admit of, shall 
be reserved and marked out for Town Lotts, One of 
which shall be Allotted to each Grantee of the Con- 
tents of One Acre. 

"4thly. Yielding and Paying therefor to us Our 
Heirs and Successors for the space of Ten j-ears to be 
computed from the date hereof the Rent of One Ear of 
Indian Corn only. On the Twenty-Fifth Day of 
December Annually, if lawfully demanded the first 
payment to be made on the Twenty-Fifth day of 
December, 1702. 

" 5thly. Every Proprietor, Settler, or Inhabitant 
shall yield and pay unto Our Heirs and Successoi-s 
yearly and every year forever from and after the Expi- 
ration of Ten years from the above said Twenty-fifth 
day of December, which will be in the year of Our 
Lord 1772, One Shilling Proclamation Money for 
everv hundred Acres he so owns settles or possessesi 
and so in proportion for a greater or lesser Tract of 
the Land, which Money shall be paid by the respec- 



tive Persons abovesaid their Heirs or Assigns in Our 
Council Chamber in P<irtsmouth or to such Oflicer or 
Officers as shall be appointed to receive the same, 
and this to be in Lieu of all other Rents and Services 
whatsoever — In Testimony whereof we have caused 
the Seal of Our said Province to be hereunto affixed. 

"Witness, Renning Wentworth, Esqr., Our Gover- 
nor and Commander-in-Chief of Our said Province the 
6th day of October in the Year of Our Lord Christ 
One Thousand Seven Hundred & Sixty-One and in 
the First year of Our Reign 

" R. Wentworth. 

" By His E.xcellency's Command with advice of 
Council. 

"Theodore Atkinson, Sec'y. 

" Province of New Hampshire Recorded in the 
Book of Charters, Page 221-222, 1761. 

" pr Theodore Atkinson, Sec'y. 
" A true C'opy. 

" Benjn. Giles, Propritrs' Clark." 

The proprietors' record has a phinof'the town 
clra\\n in accordance with tlie roval grantas given 
hy I.saacRindoe, surveyor-general of the province 
and copied hy Benjamin (iiles, tlie proprietors' 
clerk. Tliere were some provisions' afterwards 
considered by the proprietors, though not speci- 
fied in the charter, as follows : 

A lot of two hundred acres was reserved in 
the south^Nestern part of the town to be ac- 
counted as two of the before-named shares for the 
beuefitof Governor Went wort li. In addition, one 
share was reserved for the " Incorjwrated Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts ; " one share for a glebe for the Church 
of England as by law establisiied ; one share 
for the first settled minister of the gospel ; and 
one share for the benefit of a school in said 
town. 

That the grant of this township was origin- 
ally a matter of sjieculation is a])parent from 
the fact that of the names of the si.xty-oue 
grantees to whom the charter was given, but one 
appears as an actual settler of the tnwn. The 
settlers and owners of 1766 had evidently 
purchased their rights from the original gran- 
tees. 



204 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The township of Newport thus irjranted is 
situated in the western ])art of the State, some 
forty miles northwesterly from Concord. 

Mathematieally described, it is about 43° 
30' north latitude, and 4° 30' longitude east 
from Washington City, and is bounded on the 
north by Croydon ; south, by Unity and Go- 
shen ; east, by Sunapee ; and west by Clare- 
mout. 

In regard to its physical aspects, the first 
point of interest and value is the splendid river 
system by which it is watered and drained, and 
from which Newport derives its imjiortance as 
a manufacturing town. We have reference to 
the Sugar River and its branches. 

The main stream of the Sugar has its source 
in a great natural reservoir of water lying some 
five or six miles to the eastward of the town, 
known as Sunapee Lake. This lake covers an 
area some ten miles long from north to soutli 
and on an average about three miles in M-idth. 
Its resources are deep among the granite knobs 
on the great back-bone or ridge known as a part 
of the Apalachiau system of iiigh lands between 
the Merrimack and Connecticut Valleys, and its 
slopes forming on either side water-sheds to 
the rivers that How through those valleys. 

The surface of the lake is estimated by com- 
petent engineers at an altitude of one thousand 
one hundred and three feet above mean tide- 
water in Boston Harbor, and some eight luin- 
dred and sixty feet above the bed of the Con- 
necticut River on a line eighteen miles due 
west in the town of Claremont. 

The fall of the river between the gates of the 
Sunapee Dam Company, at its lake outlet, 
and the valley at Newport is estimated at from 
three hundred and fifty to four hundred feet. 
Much of this power has been employed to good 
advantage by mills and manufactories; and 
more remains unimproved, awaiting the coming 
capitalist or man of enterprise and skill to build 
his shop or mill and control its idle force to 
some good purpose. 

In the Newport meadows the Sugar receives 



the waters of its South Branch, flowing north- 
wardly from Goshen, with its afiiuents from 
Lempster and Unity, and goes on for about three 
miles by the course of the stream to receive 
another principal tributary, the North Branch 
from Croydon and Springfield. The course of 
the stream then tends westerly to the rapids at 
North Newport, where it again takes up its 
rollicking career to Kellyville, and from thence 
to the meadows and fall in Claremont, and its 
confluence with the Connecticut. 

There are several other lesser tributaries of 
the Sugar in Newport, of which are Reed, Kim- 
ball, Perry and Comstock Bi'ooks — -some of tliem 
with water sufficient to turn a mill, and all of 
them in times past the delight of the angler. 

The length of the Sugar River in its circui- 
tous course is estimated at about twenty-five 
miles, to accomplish some eighteen miles in a 
straight line. The waters we have sought to 
describe drain an area of some two hundred 
thousand acres of territory, and flow from 
twelve different towns. 

Spreading out along- the margins of these 
brooks and larger streams are ample meadows 
rising into uplands, and highlands, and hills, 
and ridges affording fertile lands for tillage, 
sweet jiastures for sheep and cattle and horses, 
— abundant wood-lots and orchards of sugar- 
maple, on all of which efficient labor would find 
a reward. 

Another pleasant feature of the township is 
its diversified and beautiful scenery. It would 
seem the result of design, rather than a chance 
survey, that so many desirable features should 
be found in a "certain tract or parcel of land," 
as regards meadow-lands, water-power and gen- 
eral situation. 

We might ask, " Why did not the compass of 
the original surveyor send the boundary lines 
in such a manner as to divide our meadows and 
water-power with Croydon or Goshen, instead 
of locating them in the heart of Newjjort ? " 
The only answer to such a query would be that 
"these lines, which have fallen to us in such 



NEWPORT. 



205 



pleasant places, wei'e iudicated by the finger of 
Providence," and we have a "goodly heritage." 

Among the most prominent elevations outly- 
ing about the valley of Newport is Pike Hill, 
which appears to have been used as a signal 
station iu the triangulation of the State by the 
Coast Survey, as shown b}' the weather-beaten 
staff upon its top. 

TJiere appears also a geological %\i)ndcr on 
the top of this liill, known to the natives as 
the Klephant llock, on account of its resem- 
blance in color and ])roportions to that huge 
Asiatic pachyderm. It rests upon the surface 
of the ground, and measures nearly one hun- 
dred feet in circumference and twenty-four feet 
in height. The altitude of its location is esti- 
mated at about one thousand five hundred feet 
aliove sea-level. When ami how it was landed 
upon that granite knob is matter uf grave 
speculation. It is known t()ante<late the arrival 
of any other first settler, and is at jireseut the 
only original occupant of that hill. A little 
"fartlier to the southwest is Wilmarth Ledge, a 
bold ridge, easily accessible and worth visiting 
for the sake of the magnificent views presented 
and the geological specimens that may be found 
there. 

Another inuuensc conglomerate bonkier or 
loggan, estimated to weigh from thirty to forty 
tons, receives many callers at its lodge on ( 'lare- 
mont Hill, about forty rods north of the road. 
This rock is so poised upon the ground that it 
may be moved to and fro by the ordinary force 
of one liand. It is supposed to be a choice 
specimen lost out of tiie cabinet of some passing 
glacier in the olden-time. 

Of other curiosities in stone, reference might 
be had to tlie \iut or well-holes in the ledges of 
the South Branch at Southville. 

Tiiere is no locality in XewiKirt where the 
age of tlic world is more emphatically dis- 
played ; no " Sermons in Stones " more im- 
pressive than are to be found there. Some time 
since a couple of village philoso])hers selected 
one of the pot-holes, to whidi we have referred. 



for investigation. They prejjared for the duty, 
and with syphon and other facilities for bailing 
and digging they removed the water and sand 
and gravel from a circular hole in the solid 
ledge to the depth of six feet, and varying from 
twenty-seven inches in diameter at the surface 
to forty-two inches at its greatest size. The 
shape of the chamlier or cavity thus disclosed 
was somewhat like that of an egg, if made to 
stand upon its largest end ; and its capacity 
must have been at least one hundred and 
twenty-five gallons. The inside of this immense 
jug, so to speak, clearly indicated the spiral 
sweep of tile water and pebbles as the wearing 
process went on during the ages and ages. 

In the northwestern p;irt of the town, over- 
looking the valley of the Sugar on the south, 
stands a rugged elevation know as Blueberry 
Ledge, which, extending into Claremont, be- 
comes Green Mountain. In this remote corner, 
sometimes known as the Cat Hole, are mines of 
plumbago and mica, wiiich mav attract further 
attention in the future. Tiic views thei'e are 
very fine. 

In the northern part of tlie town, beyond the 
bend in tlie river and its adjacent meadows, 
rises a huge swell of land known as Baptist 
Hill. Such ti'acts of upland, originally cov- 
ered with a growth of hard-woods, such as 
beech, birch, maple and oak, were considered 
very desirable by the early settlers as affording 
a soil of great strength and fertility, and not 
easily exhausted by cultivation. 

Across the valley of the North, or Croydon 
Branch of Sugar, in the nortlicasteru section of 
the town, rising to an elevation of one thousand 
five Innidred and eighty-eight feet above sea- 
level, is a rugged hill known as Coit Mountain; 
and further on in an easterly direction is a simi- 
lar knob, distinguislied as Bakl Abiuntain. 
The tops of these hills are very delightful, af- 
fording, as they do, fine outlooks and desirable 
situations for summer parties. 

Ijving along on the eastern side of the town 
and vallev arc the East Mountain and Thatcher 



206 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Hill, devoted to farms and agriculture, and 
abounding with pleasant situations. 

From many of the points thus described 
within the town lines, the observer may, with 
the natural eye, or aided by a field-glass, rise 
out of his local lioundaries of town, county and 
State, to the contcnipl;iti(in of far-off views of 
surpassing interest and grandeur. Some eight 
miles to tlie north the summit of Croydon 
Mountain, the highest point of land in Sullivan 
County, looks down upon tlie Newport Valley 
from an altitude of two thousand seven hun- 
dred and eighty-nine feet alxive soadevel ; and 
further to the northeast the clustering pinna- 
cles of the AVhite Mountain group are dis- 
tinctly visible. On the east we have Kearsarge 
in serene individuality, and the far-oflp lands of 
Maine. To the southeast the dark and rugged 
brow of Sunapee seems watcliing its own shadow 
in the crystal lake at its base. On the south 
are the Washington, Unity and Lempster hills, 
while tlie western horizon is outlined liy a clear 
and well-defined view of the Green Mountain 
range of Vermont. 

Returnina; to the business aifairs of the 
grantees ; no action appears to have been taken 
in resrard to the distribution of these shares un- 
til some three years after the date of the charter. 

On December 25, 1 764, a meeting of pro- 
prietors was held at Killingworth, and a com- 
mittee appointed, consisting of Stephen Wilcox, 
Roliert Lane, John Crane and Isaac Kelsey, 
"to proceed to Charlestowu (No. 4) and attend 
to the allotment of the shares," which ulti- 
mately took place at the house of John Hast- 
ings, Jr., on July 6, 1765. 

This committee was also authorized "to locate 
the Town Plott" in accordance with the pro- 
visions of the charter, and arrange convenient 
highways for the accommodation of the lot- 
owners. 

At a meeting held on the second Tuesday in 
March, 1766, another committee, consisting of 
Ebenezer Merrit, Deacon Jeremiah Clement 
and Stephen Wilcox, was appointed "to open 



a cart-road in Newport," and also "a road to 
the west end of said lotts," extending from lot 
No. 64, owned by Ezra Parmelee, northward 
to what was afterward, and still remains, the 
Jenks place. 

It was also " Voted that Mr. Morgan sell the 
boat owned by the proprietors, and that Stejihen 
Wilcox proceed to Portsmoutli and procure an 
extension of the charter," wliich was in hazard 
of forfeiture, through tiie non-compliance with 
its provisions — twenty-one shares had already 
(April, 1765) been sold at auction for this 
cause. 

It is matter of regret that we know nothino; 
more, eitlier by record or tradition, in regard 
to the " l)oat owned b}' the proprietors," for 
what purpose it liad been used, and why it was 
sold. 

Up to this time, 1765-66, all that had been 
in settlement of the township was preliminary. 
The surveys, the grant, the allotment of shares, 
the trading and planning had mostly been ar- 
ranged, and all the characteristics and privileges 
and beauties of the new township were thor- 
oughly examined and understood. 

It is said that in the fall of 1765, after the 
drawing took place, a number of the men in- 
terested came to the promised laud to spy it 
out, and make arrangements for the company 
that were to come the next spring ; that three 
of them remained to finish some extra work 
after their companions had left. 

At night they went to " Bragg's camp," 
which was at the northwest corner of the 
roads at the foot of Claremout Hill. The 
next morning a severe snow-storm came on. 
They were without food and obliged to folloM' 
their comjtanions to No. 4, or remain and 
starve. While traveling through Unity, Mer- 
ritt, one of the party became fatigued and 
chilled, thought he could go no farther, and 
laid down to die. Kelsey, another of the party, 
who believed in severe remedies in such cases, 
cut sprouts and applied them vigorously to 
Merritt's person, whereupon he arose in his 



NEWPORT. 



207 



wrath to pursue and take vengeance on his 
persecutor. The exercise restored him to tiie 
use of his limbs and probably saved his life, 
and they reached Charlestown in safety. 

Early in the month of .Tune, 17(3G, the first 
party of actual settlers and workers made their 
appearance in Newport. 

They came in from Charlestown (No. 4), 
which for several years had been the most 
northern outpost of civilization on the Con- 
necticut River. The descent on this place in 
Septeml)er, 1700, when the Willard family 
were ca]itured and taken to Canada, was among 
tlie very last of the French and Indian depre- 
dations in New England. It was at this time 
a resting-place and base of supplies for the 
su rrou nd i ng country. 

From that point a traveled road and civil- 
ization disappeared from their view, and they 
took their way through the woods for about 
twenty miles, guided l)y blazed trees, on foot, 
as may be supposed, Ijcaring their guns, am- 
munition, provisions, axes and extra clothing 
on their backs. It has been erroneously stated 
by writers on this subject that the wives of 
several of the party weri' with them at this 
time ; but such is not the fliet, as will appear in 
the further progress of this sketch. 

In regard to the peisonnel of the party whom, 
as individuals, we now welcome to Newport, it is 
matter of regret that so little is known. They 
t(jok no thought for their descendants and suc- 
cessors, and were not posing before a future 
historian. Had it been otherwise, their private 
lecords would have been more ample. 

The oldest member of the party was Deacon 
Stephen Wilcox, whose ancestors were settled 
on the eastern end of Long Island, visible from 
the Connecticut shore, as early as 1(J8'). Me 
was born July 5, 170t) : married. May 10, 1 73.3, 
Mary Hurd, and with their family of twelve 
children li\ed in Killingworth. He was at 
this time about si.vty years of age. With him 
were two sons, — -Jesse, born October u, 1 744 ; 
Phineas, born January 14, 1747. Uriah, who 



was not of the party, but came afterward, was 
l)orn March i:'>, 174!), and consequently was 
about seventeen years of age. Here came also 
Samuel Hurd, whose wife (married 17")7) was 
Lydia, the daughter of Stephen Wilcox. 

Stephen Wilcox was never a jiermanent 
resident of this town. His interest here and 
business was to place these sons and the son-in- 
law on lands— three hundred acres to each — he 
had acfpn'red in accordance with the terms of the 
charter, or by j)urehase. 

His name is several times mentioned in con- 
nection with proprietary and town affairs, but 
he ultimately i-eturned to Killingworth. 

Here came also Absalom Kelsey, about twen- 
ty-four years of age, who afterwards married 
Mercy Hill, of Killingworth, and Jesse Kelsey, 
his brother, born February -!•"), 1746, married. 
May 12, 1709, Hester Hurd, a sister of Samuel 
Hurd, before mentioned. 

Of this party was Ezra Parmelee, whose father 
was a neighbor of the Wilcoxs, Hurds and Kel- 
seys, and we believe a connection of some of 
them by marriage. Ezra, Jr., afterward mar- 
ried, May 1, 1769, Syl)il Hill, a daughter of 
.lames and Hannah (Nettlelon) Hill, of Killing- 
worth, and a sister of Mercy, the wife of Absa- 
lom Kelsey. 

We have been careful in rciiard to these sen- 
ealogies, as frequent errors have been made 
which we dcsii'e to correct. 

We have thus specified seven members of the 
settling party, who appear to have been person- 
ally related or (■onnecte<l, and wiio made up a 
kindof family ])arty undertlu'su])orvisi((nof Dea. 
Wilcox. The tradition in ivgard to this matter 
is that there were eight ; that they arrived at a 
point near the present funr corneis at liii/ foot of 
Claremont Hill late on a Saturday evening. 
The probability is that they came to Bragg's 
unoccupied camp, abandoned the j)revious fall, 
and that Bragg himself was now one of tlieii- 
numl)er. We would have know-n more about 
this matter had a generation of Braggs cinue 
down to the present from that early stock. 



208 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSlirUE. 



Thf tradition also runs, and we have no 
doubt of tiie trutii of it, that tlie next day be- 
ing tlie Sabbath, religions services were held 
in the shade of a large birch-tree, and I'on- 
duetcd by Deacon Stephen Wilcox. 

xis to there being eight in the party, it niat- 
tei-s not ; otliers were on tlu'ir way iiitlier, of 
w'nnni wereZephaniah Clark, Ebenezer Merritt, 
Daniel Dudley and others whose names will 
appear hereafter. 

The individuals of the party soon left the gen- 
eral eneanipnient to occupy cabins or camps of 
their own construction, on their own lot.s. Jesse 
Wilcox came to lots 12 and IM, now the home- 
stead of Freeman Cutting; SanuicI Hard to 
lot I I, on the north end ol' the plain, so-called; 
Jesse Kelsey to lands at tiie locality now known 
as Kelleyville. .The place has since been owned 
by Deacon John Kelley, Ivii'hard Kverett, John 
S. I'armelcc and ( ieo. 11. Towle. That nei<rh- 
borhood was soon knmvn as " New City." 

Ezra Parmelee made his cani]i on lot No. (i-l, 
at the soiUh end of tlii' meadows, on the South 
Urancli, nut t;ir iVoin the present residence of 
George E. Dame. The nuadnw lands in that 
locality have been greatly ehanged in later 
years by tiie action of the water in times of 
freshet. Absalom Kelsey located at the south- 
west corner, and Benjamin Bragg at the north- 
west corner, at tlic cross-roads. Zephaniah 
Clarke erected a log cabin on the " ])lain," 
where R. 1*. Claggett now lives. It was the 
hostelry of the settlement. Ebenezer Merritt 
took |)ossession of lot No. o, aft(>rwards owned 
by Benjamin (liles, and in later times by Jonas 
Cutting and Win. Davis. 

The stalwart settlers wrought inilustriously 
through the season, cho|)piug, burning, clear- 
ing and planting each on his five acres or more, 
as" nominated in the bond." 

The conunittee, of which Stejihen Wilcox 
was chairman, undoubtedly pushed the (i|)cning 
of the cart-road towards Charlestown, their 
base of sup])lies. The road extended in a 
southwesterly direction o\er the .\cw[>ort and 



Unity hills, with more regard to straight lines 
than grades, and was the lirst thoroughfare 
opened, though others had been projected. 

At that time the woods abounded in game 
suitable fur food, and the streams with trout 
and other kinds of fish. The breadstufis, 
groceries and salt meats were transported with 
much labor from "No. 4," as it was almost al- 
ways called, and each settler took his turn iu 
taking the trip and returning tiierewith. In 
the autumn of that year, 17()(), they sowed win- 
ter grains iu their clearings, raking it iu as best 
they could by hand, and late in the season 
closed their camps, and returned to Killing- 
worth to spend the winter with their tiuuilies 
and friends. Referring tu the names and ages 
heretofore statcil of .several of the young men, it 
may reasonably Ik- supposed that more or less of 
old-fashioned New England courting was before 
them during the winter. That the time was 
well aj)j)lied the records hereafter will sliow. 
There is very little doubt but that the new set- 
tlement was deserted during the tirst winter, as 
Clark, Ilurd, Bragg aud Mcu-ritt had left 
their wives and all the yoiuig men their sweet- 
hearts iu Connecticut. 

It may be observed in this cunneetiun that 
iu the primitive days of Newport, and New 
England generally, the married state was en- 
tered u])on early in life. The nuui aud the 
woman who were to be made " one ficsh " came 
together with a suitable e([uality of age and 
condition, and were thus better lifted to aid and 
comfort each other iu all the possibilities of life 
that were l)efore them. 

They reared hu-ge families of eliildr<'ii, and 
were able to see them grow n|i aruuiul the 
family hearth-stunc under good training and ex- 
am})le, and finally push out into new fields of 
labor and usefulne.ss, while yet the homestead 
was in full vigor, as a base uf oj)eratious and 
encouragement. 

It was nt)t, perhaps, good judgment that the 
sickly aud weak-kneed members of the flock 
were oftcncst edututed and turned into the pro- 



NEWPORT. 



209 



fessions ; hut from tlio stamlpniiit of tlic 
parent of that period, muscle was tlie pre-emi- 
nent quality, and it was not considered wisdom 
or good policy to waste a healtliy and vigorous 
young man in an ottice or a profession while 
there were savages to fighl, or I'orests to hew 
down and farms to open and cultivate. 

It was in those good old times that liimilies 
were founded, as well as States; and the men 
and women of the present turn with reverence 
and pride to the genealogies and memories o!' 
their New England ancestors and the old home- 
stead or ])urial-])lace, possibly to become a 
shrine or a Mecca, to some distinguished de 
seendaut from the Far Wt'st, who would estal)lisli 
his lineaiie, or who has found his way to hiirli 
official position — perhaps the Presidency. 

In the spring of 17ii7 the Newport colony 
returned to their cabins and laboi's, in the build- 
ing up of their colonial town. They found 
that during their absence the \vil<l animals that 
hover about the l)orders of civilization had 
anticipated them in the gathering of thi> crops 
they had planted; but undiseouraged, they pro- 
ceeded as before to chop and dig and build in 
the line of sul)stantial [)rogress. 

Several additional settlers were added to their 
number this year, among whom was Benjamin 
Giles, who came to be an inportaut factor in the 
general progress. He at once aj(pre('iatt'd the 
wants of the settlement and proposed the build- 
ing of saw and grist-mills, at an eligible privi- 
lege on the main branch of Sugar Ivivcr in the 
eastern jiart of the town. 

The want of facilities for the grinding of 
corn and grain and the sawing of logs into 
boards was very great, for reasons already 
stated. 

It may be of interest here to state that the 
present Granite State JMills, at Guild post-office 
and station, occupy the site of the (xiles mills. 

Referring to the old records, we find that the 
first regular meeting of the proprietors in New- 
port was held October 13, 17(j7, at the house of 
Jesse Wilcox. The meetiug was called to order 



by Benjamin Bellows, of Wal])ole, one of " His 
Majesties .Tustic,(.'S." 

Stephen Wilcox was chosen moderator ; Ben- 
jamin Giles, clerk ; Samuel Hurd, Charles 
.Vvery, Zephaniah ClarU were chosen assessors; 
and Benjamin (riles, jVnios Hall, Ebcn Mer- 
ritt, Samuel Kurd and James Church, a com- 
mittee "to lay out a second division of land." 

It is understood that the first division ex- 
tended across the meadows east and west, and 
the lots contained each (iitccn acres. This 
meeting votes : " To lay out to each proprietor 
thirty-five acres, either at the east or west end 
of the lots already lai<l out. 

This meeting adjourned to thelfith inst., at 
tiie house of Ze|>haniah Clai'k, inn-holder, etc., 
where it was " Voted : That Zcphaniah Clark, 
El)en' Merritt, I>enj" Bragg, Sam' Hin'd and 
Jesse Wilcox, having families now in Newport, 
have each SO acn'S of land, and also that any 
jicrson who is a |iroprictor and becomes an in- 
habitant, \\itli his wife, in said Newjiort by the 
first of July, 17(!8, shall be entitled to 80 acres; 
Others who have been in town, to improve the 
first division, ot) acres." 

This year (1 7(17) there came a marked im- 
provement to the condition and prospects of the 
infant settlement conse(iuent u[>on the arrival 
of the wives of several of the leading men, as 
indicated by the action of the town in awarding 
premiums to those having wives j)re.sent, and 
to families who might be induced to .settle in 
the town. 

Of those [)resent, with wives, there ap- 
pears one newly constituted flimily — Jesse and 
Thankful (Stevens) Wilcox, who were married 
in Killingworth, June 11th, [ircvious to their 
departure on their wedding-tour to Xewj>ort. 
A tradition is extant that the ladies of a party, 
on ai)proaehing the town by the new " cart- 
niad," were oflered a premium in a race for a 
boundary-tree, pointed out as on the town-line; 
that two of the ladies won, and that Jesse Wil- 
cox thus became liable for two silver crowns, 
English money, to the two winners. This also 



210 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



may have been the party that is said to have 
broken down somewhere on Pike Hill, in their 
eiforts to reach Newport over the said ' ' cart- 
road," and were comi>elled to camp out for the 
night. That these may have been the ex|)eri- 
ences of that wedding-party is altogether within 
the bounds of proljability. 

We have heretofore announced the arrival of 
Benjamin Giles in the settlement, and his pro- 
posal to build mills. The following act uf the 
town has reference to this proposition : 

" At an adjourned meeting holden on the 29th day 
of October, at the house of Zephaniah Clark, afores'', 
by the Proprietors of Newport afores"*, ilr. Stephen 
Willcocks, Moderator, Voted, that Benjamin Giles, 
now Resident in Newport, have one hundred Acres 
of Land laid out by the proprietors' committee, to 
him, his heirs and assigns Forever, and to be so laid 
out as to secure to said Giles, his heirs and Assigns, 
that part of the East Branch of Great Sugar River, 
so called, near where said Giles is about to sett up a 
Corn-Mill and a Saw-mill, so that said Giles may build 
a Damm aCross said River with all the privileges of 
said River, so far as is necessary for the benefit of s'' 
Mills, with the laud Adjoining said River, so as to 
take in a sufficiency of Land for to sett said Mills and 
what may be convenient around the same, and also to 
be so laid out as to take a part of the White Pine 
Timber, and also to Procure a Pair of Mill Stones for 
said Giles at said Mills. Also that said Giles have a 
Tax, or Rate, to the Vallu of Four Days Labor on 
each Proprietors Right, or Share, the afores'' Grants 
given for s'' Giles Encouragement towards his build- 
ing the afores'' Mills in Newport, afores""." 

In view of the.se considerations, the mills 
were built and ready for operation September 
24, 1768. We have it traditionally that Ezra 
Parmelee, who was one of the youngest men of 
the settlement, took great interest in these 
mills and worked out his "Tax," and even 
more, with a great deal of cheerfulness; that, 
when " Sfjuire Giles " proposed to send to 
Charlestown for a mechanic competent tn file 
and hang the saw, young Parmelee came for- 
ward and said " he could do it as well as any- 
body he could get from No. 4." He was, ac- 
cordingly, entrusted with tlie job. 



He improvised a vise by cutting a small tree 
so as to leave a high stump, the top of which he 
split in a manner to receive and wedge in the 
saw for filing; after which it was properly 
placed in the works, and the first log was made 
into boards in the presence of an applauding 
crowd, comprising, we believe, every man in 
town. 

The name and character of Benjamin Giles 
deserves more than a passing notice, and it mav 
as well have attention in this place as any other. 
It is matter of regret that the data extant from 
which to construct a sketch of his life is so 
meagre and desultory. It is thus with many 
other interesting lives,' whose only written his- 
tory is found upon the .stone that marks the 
place of their long-buried remains. He died in 
1787, at the asre of .seventy vears. He must, 
therefore, have been born in 1717, and at the 
time of his arrival in Newport was fifty years 
of age. He was an Irishman by birth, and in 
the course of wanderings by sea and laud had 
come to (jroton. Conn., where he was settled, 
aud from whence he came to Newport. His 
family consisted of daughters — two l)y a first 
marriage, and one by a second wife, lately de- 
ceased. Of the first, Mary married Christopher 
Newton, and Hannah was the wife of Isaac 
Newton. These Newtons were cousins and 
came to Newport in 1779, with their families, 
where they lived and died. The daug-hter of 
the second marriage, Ruth, came with her father 
to tills town. She was possessed, in Jier own 
right, of considerable property, inherited from 
her mother. A third wife, whom he married 
after coming here, was Abigail Hubbard, of 
Charlestown, who survived him. There were 
no children by the last marriage. 

Benjamin Giles was a man of good natural 
ability, well educated, a fair estate with nmch 
experience in liuman affiiirs. He was, for the 
time and place in whicii he acted, a strong man, 
and his influence in all matters — social, political 
and religious — was controllins; and recognized 
in all the aifairs of the community. No name 



NEWPORT. 



211 



api)ears witli more frequency upon the town 
records tlian tliat of Benjamin Giles. 

His influeni« was not confined to his own 
town, but extended to other towns, and was 
felt in the councils of the State. 

The differences between the colonies and the 
mother country already foreshado\\ed revolu- 
tion, and wisdom and intelligence were needed 
in all counsels. He was a lover of liberty, an 
enthusiastic friend of the patriot cause, a true 
Irishman with pronounced American proclivi- 
ties. 

After the downfall and flight of the royal 
Governor, John Wentworth, New Hampshire 
was without an organized State government. 
By a concerted movement on the part of the 
towns, a convention was called to meet at Exeter, 
1775, '76, for the pur2)ose of organizing a pro- 
visional government for the time, or during the 
war. To this convention Benjamin Giles was 
sent as representiitive by the six classed towns 
of Newport, Unity, Acworth, Lempster, Croy- 
don and Saville (now Sunapee). 

He was chosen by the House of Representa- 
tives (so called) of the State, or colony, one of 
a committee of twelve to constitute an Upper 
House, or Senate. Meslieeh Weare, the first 
Governor of the State, was the presiding officer 
of this body, an assembly to which only the 
ablest men in the State were called. 

In the year 1778 the controversy between 
New Hampshire and Vermont, in regard to 
the boundary line, assumed formidable propor- 
tions. Conventions were held at Cornish, Wal- 
pole and Windsor, Vt., to consider the matter. 
To these conventions he was sent as a delegate. 

He favored the claims of Vermont, as in- 
structed by the town, at a meeting held March 
29, 1781, when it was voted " That the town of 
Newport join in Union with Vernwnt. That 
Benjamin Giles, Esq., be a delegate to represent 
the town of Newport in the General Assembly 
of the State of Vermont, to be held at Windsor 
in April next ensuing. That Aaron Buel, 
Jesse Wilcox and Josiah Stevens be a commit- 
U 



tee to give instructions ti) the representative 
above named for his direction in the General 
Assembly of Vermont." 

At another town-meeting, held the same 
year, the town voted for State officers of Ver- 
mont, and the meeting was called in the name 
of the State of Vermont. 

The excitement in regard to this matter be- 
came so great that troops were called out and 
arrests were made. Benjamin Giles and Nath- 
aniel S. Prentice were arrested by the New 
Hampshire authorities, and Enoch Hale, the 
sheriff of Cheshire County, was arrested by the 
authorities of Vermont. Giles is said to have 
been rescued from the custody of Colonel Hale, 
in Charlestowu, by the " people in a most ex- 
traordinary manner." 

This difficulty was afterward amicably set- 
tled and the town of Newport returned to its al- 
legiance to New Hampshire. 

The annual town-meeting of March, 1782, 
was called in the name of the State of New 
Hampshire; otherwise the good people of New- 
port at this time might have rejoiced as citizens 
of the Green Mountain State. 

To close the eventful history of this most 
prominent citizen of Newport during the Revo- 
lutionary period, we may take the reader in 
imagination to the first burial-place of the town, 
where nearly all " the rude forefathers of the 
hamlet sleep," and read from the stone that 
identifies his gi-ave his " short and simjile an- 
nals,"— 

" Erected in memory of ye Honour.able Benjamin 
Giles, Esquire, wliO, after serving his generation faith- 
fully in publick life, then departed this, in hopes of a 

better, 

December 9th, 1787. 

" Although I sleep in dust awhile. 
Beneath this barren clod, 
Ere long I hope to rise and smile 
To see my Savior God." 

Other reference is made to Benjamin Giles 
in the article on Congregational Church. 

As the settlement progressed it became necfis- 



212 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



saiy to lay out and cut out additional roads in 
eveiy direction, in order to accommodate the 
people and facilitate communication with other 
towns. 

This work went on as the community ex- 
panded. It is not desirable that we go into 
details in regard to this matter. 

The present system of well-graded roads and 
safe and convenient bridges, over which people 
travel with so much satisfaction, in easy and 
elegant carriages, is a growth and outcome 
of years of labor and expense, which may not 
at all times be properly appreciated. 

In regard to methods of travel in the early 
days of the town, it may be said they were in 
harmony with the roads and bridges or fording- 
places and the needs of the time. People went 
about much on foot and on horseback ; and the 
women rode on pillions behind the men, or took 
the saddle best adapted to their purpose. With 
the forehanded, the oxen and cart furnished 
a turnout of great consideration. 

During the year 1768 we find no special 
records to suggest remarks. The inference is 
tliat the new town was reasonably jirogressing 
in its civil and social aifaii-s. 

In 1769, February 2d, it appears that the 
proprietors, having failed to perform according 
to the conditions of the charter, which required 
them to cultivate five acres of land, in five 
years, for every fifty acres, had a further period 
of four years granted in which to fulfill these 
conditions. 

At that period, as stated by Governor Went- 
Worth in his extension of the charter, fifteen 
families had settled in the town. 

This defalcation, and possibility of forfeiting 
the town charter, indicates a struggle against 
difficulties and obstacles which the people of 
this time can hardly appreciate. Whatever 
may be said against Governor Wentworth in 
general terms, it was certainly kind in him 
to favor them in their efforts for municipal 
existence. 

Ezra Parmelee, though a young man, had 



made good progress on lot No. 64. He had 
thus far spent his summers in his camp and 
clearing. 

The partner of his joys and sorrows, for the 
time being, was Ephraim Towner, who shared 
the comforts of his camp and aideil him in his 
labors. 

Towner's lot, No. 66, was at the southeastern 
end of the meadows, and not far distant. When 
the season was over Mr. Parmelee closed his 
cabin and returned to his home in Connecticut. 

In the neighborhood of the Parmelee home- 
stead, at Killingworth, lived the Hill family. 
They were people in good circumstances, with 
sous and daughters, the oldest of whom was 
Sibyl, born October 10, 1746. She was now 
about twenty-two years of age, and the witcheiy 
of her name, or charms, had ensnared the 
heart of the young backwoodsman, Ezra Par- 
melee. 

They had grown up in the same society, at- 
tended the same school, heard the same preach- 
ing, and together they thought they might 
journey, not only to New Hampshire, but 
through life. We accordingly give place to the 
following record copied from the old church 
register at Killingworth. 

" On ye 1st day of May, 1769, Ezra Parmelee and 
Sibyl Hill were joined in ye Marriage Covenant by 
Rev. William Seward, Pastor of ye 2nd Church of 
Christ in Killingworth." 

Shortly after his marriage, leaving his bride 
at her father's, Mr. Parmelee returned to New- 
port, this time making the trip with oxen and 
cart laden Avith furniture and housekeeping 
articles, which, with a heifer that was driven 
along with the team, comprised the wife's " set- 
ting-out," or marriage portion. 

Accomplishing this somewhat tedious trip, he 
commenced with renewed energy to prepare a 
comfortable home for his wife, who was to 
come to him in the autumn. His house was 
placed on high land, near the " Potash Brook," 
so-called, west of the Unity road, a short dis- 
tance southward from the residence — 188;3 — of 



NEWPORT. 



213 



George E. Dame. It wa-s nece.ssarily a homely 
structure, one story in heiglit, framed and 
fashioned bv iiis own hands. Having: sood 
mechanical al>ility, he constructed chairs and 
tables, which, witli the articles brought from 
Killingworth, furnished the place very com- 
fortably. The labors in the field alternated 
with the work on the Iniilding, as the summer 
went on, and for the complete establishment of 
a home it only remained that a princi])al 
divinity should be installed among the house- 
hold gods. The autumn came, and with it the 
arrival of the bride, accompanied by the senior 
Parmelee. They came on horseback, Sibyl 
riding behind on a pillion. Tlie distance 
traveled was about one hundreil and eighty miles. 
There were but few women in the settlement, 
and as a matter of course the arrival of Mrs. 
Parmelee was an event of great interest and joj'. 
The greeting of the neighbors was most cor- 
dial, to say nothing of the expectant husliand, 
and the house-warming that followed was 
among the events of the twelvemonth. The 
Parmelee family were thus established in New- 
port. 

To Ezra and Siljyl were born, during the 
years from 1770 to 1793, three sons and five 
daughters. 

In 1793 Mr. Parmelee purchased the house 
and lands of Josiah Stevens, adjoining his 
premises on tlie north. The house which had 
sheltered the family for a quarter of a century 
was moved from the hill, and annexed to the 
more pretentious new house, Iniilt by Deacon 
Stevens, as an L part, where it still remains in 
good condition. 

The dwelling of tiie Parmelees was a seat of 
hospitality to visitors and strangers, ministers 
and people. Ezra and Sibyl lived to a great age, 
and it is to them and their descendants that we 
are indebted for much of the social and general 
history of the town. In their comfortable 
liorae, cared for by their children and friends, 
they descended into the vale of years, passing 
far beyond the allotted thi-ee-score and ten of 



human life, until, with bended forms and 
whitened locks, they stood upon the outer mar- 
gin of nearly an entire century ere they passed 
away. Ezra died January 18, 183.S, in the 
ninety-third year of ids age. Sil)yl died April 
6, 1838, in the ninety-second year of her age. 

William and Mindwell (Buel) Stanard came 
from Killingworth in 1768-69. The Stanards' 
farm was on the Croydon road. It descended 
to his son William, and next to his grandson 
Obed, who sold the estate to James Hall in 
183(5, and moved to Iowa. ' 

The first social party in the town of Newport 
was given by the Stanards, on New Year's day, 
1770. Every inhabitant of the settlement was 
present. We know by " heresay " that Mrs. 
Ezra Parmelee was there with her first baby, — 
Rhoda, born November 1, 1770, and then two 
months old. The occasion was one of much 
enjoyment. 

Edwin O. Stanard, son of Obed, and great- 
grandson of William, is a prominent citizen of 
St. Louis, was Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri 
in 1868, and a member of the Forty-third 
Congress from that State. Jeremiah and Lucy 
(Whipple) Jenks came from Smithfield, R. I. 

They are said by their liiographer to have 
"arrived in Newport on the 4th of July, 1776, 
and first established themselves on what is 
known as tiie Parmelee place, on the south 
road." This nuist have been but a temporary 
occupation. The deed of Mr. Jenks to lands 
"attests the purchase of one share of three 
hundred and forty acres on east side of Comiec- 
ticut river (Newport), one sixty-eighth part of 
its territory " — a somewhat indefinite descrip- 
tion and difficult to locate. "Between 1778 
and 1792 he made purchases of land from 
Josiah Stevens, Aaron Buel, James Church, 
Israel Bryan, Uriah Wilcox, Nathan Fisher 
and Stephen Perry, by which he became the 
largest landholder and the heaviest tax-payer in 
Newport." The Jenks homestead was located 
on what may have been called the North road, 
and is one of the few estates still owned and 



214 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIEE. 



occupied by descendants of the first proprietor. 
The Jenks family have always been prominent 
and valuable citizens of the town. 

Jeremiah and Love (Buel) Nettleton came 
fi'om Killingworth in 1779, and located in tiie 
eastern pai't of the town. Mr. Netlleton was 
the proprietor of Bald Mountain and the 
adjacent lands to the river. These lands and 
their improvements descended to his son Aaron 
and his grandson, Jeremiah D. Nettleton, at 
whose death, December 8, 1852, the estate 
])a.ssed to other hands. The Nettletons were 
also for many years prominent in the social and 
civil affairs of the town. The grandsons of 
the first settler, Aaron, Jr., and Bela Nettleton, 
were many years in the mercantile business on 
the corner of Main and Sunapee Streets, where 
the " Nettleton Block," so calletl, now stands. 
The post-office was for many j'ears located in 
their building, and they were successively post- 
masters. 

The original .store building now fronts on 
Sunapee Street, and is occupied by the United 
States and Canada Express Company. 

The Stevens family, originally from Killing- 
worth, were in Newport at an early period — 
1771. Josiah Stevens was born (3ctober 21, 
1743; married Mary Gray, January 26, 1763. 
This family was settled on the place adjoining 
that of Edward Parmelee, on the north. There 
M'ere eleven children, mostly daughters, born to 
them in the years from 1763 to 1785. Mr. 
Stevens was a well-educated man, a school- 
teacher, a deacon of the Congregational Church, 
and occasionally a town officer. He was in 
moderate circumstances, occupied a log cabin, 
and had pretty hard scrabbling to get bread 
and meat for so large and unproductive a fam- 
ily. Their principal resources were a somewhat 
unthrifty farm, a potashery, over on the 
brook that crossed the LTnity road, not far south 
of this place, and to which that at present 
emaciated stream is indelited for its euphonious 
name, " Potash Brook," and possibly some in- 
come from his occasional vocation as a teacher. 



The excellent wife and mother of all these 
children died September 26, 1787. 

A few months later Benjamin Giles also de- 
parted this life, leaving an attractive widow, 
possessed of considerable property, to mourn 
his departure. It is sufficient to state tliat in 
less' than a twelvemonth the vacant chair in the 
family circle of the good deacon was filled by 
his wedding. May 15, 1788, the "Widow Giles. 

In consideration of his more prosperous cir- 
cumstances. Deacon Stevens set to work and 
built, for the time, a fine dwelling-house, locat- 
ing the same a few rods south of the old cai)in. 
The style of architecture adopted, whether 
English, French, colonial or Renaissance, was 
peculiar to that period. The front elevation 
was of two stories, surmounted with a short 
roof, and the rear sloping frorn the ridge-pole, 
with a long roof to one story in height. There 
were many such constructions in New England. 
The north front-room was fitted up for a store, 
in which he had placed a stock of dry-goods, 
groceries, etc., and was doing business as a mer- 
chant. 

There was an apparent prosperity for a time, 
but at last it became evident that the combined 
incomes of his several undertakings were not 
equal to their advanced style of living ; and it 
was found desirable, if not necessary, to dispose 
of their real estate and various other interests. 
The family removed to Orwell, Vt., where, in 
a short time, their eight daughters were all re- 
spectably married and settled. 

Incidental to this, it is said that a wealthy 
and somewhat eccentric resident of that place, 
Colonel Austen, gave a social entertainment at 
his house, at which the eight daughters [and 
their eight husbands were all present by special 
invitation, as a social curiosity. 

Deacon Stevens afterwards took orders as a 
minister of the gospel, and, returning from 
Vermont, preached for a time in the neighbor- 
ing town of Goshen. His second wife, Abigail 
Giles, died March 15, 1800. After her decease 
Mr. Stevens went in the interest of the Society 



NEWPOKT. 



215 



for the Propagation of tlie Gosjjel in Foreign 
Parts, as a missionary to tlio fishermen on the 
Isles of Slioals. What remains of iiis some- 
what varied history may be best told by qnoting 
from the marble tablet that covers the remains 
of himself and a third wife, to be found in the 
burial-place connected with a dilapidated meet- 
ing-house on Star Island, and which summer 
visitors have read and pondered over, and will 
continue so to do as time goes on, as follows : 

" In memory of Josiab Stevens, a faithful instruc- 
tor of youth, and Pious Minister of Jesus Christ, 
supported on this Island by the Society for Propaga- 
ting the Gospel, Died July 2, 1804, aged 64 years. 
Likewise Mrs. Susannah Stevens, his beloved wife, 
who died Dec. 10, 1810, aged 54 years." 

Josiah Stevens, Jr., son of the foregoing, re- 
mained a citizen of Newport and was a deacon 
of the Congregational Church until his death, 
iu 1844. He was the father of Josiah Stevens, 
some time Secretary of State, who became a 
citizen of Concord, where he died in 1809. 
Another son of the fii'st Josiah, Edward, was 
drowned in returning by sea from Georgia, 
where he had been to visit a third son, Oliver, 
who had settled in Liberty County, Ga., where 
he has left descendants. The Stevens name, as 
descended from the first settler, has disappeared 
from Newport for many yeai's. 

The Dudleys, of whom mention has been 
made, came from Saybrook. A stone may be 
found in the old cemetery bearing the following 
inscription : " In memory of Deborah Dudley, 
who died February 6, 1780, aged one hundred 
years ; " and another in memory of Daniel 
Dudley, who died in 1808, aged ninety-two 
years. Her son, who was the father of Daniel 
Dudley, Jr., also born in Saybrook, April 10, 
1755, and three generations of Dudleys were 
early settlers of Newport, and the name still 
continues on the check-list. The Dudleys, 
father and son, built the first grist-mill in New- 
port village, in 1787. The original site is still 
occujjied for that purpose. 

Ephraim Towner was another of the earliest 



settlers. Wi^ find his name comiected with the 
ownership of lot No. 60, at the southeastern 
termination of the meadows on the South Branch. 
His house and mills were at a point near the 
Goshen road, where the present Pond Street 
diverges towards Soutliville. He left his name 
with the brook, while hou.se and mills and all 
the Towner tamily have long since dlsapjxjared 
from Newport. 

Many other names early known in Newport 
have no succession. Zephaniah Clark removed 
from here to Newbury ; was also one of the 
first settlers of that town and its representative 
in the Legislature in 1785. The Braggs, 
Churches, Halls, Lanes, ]SIerritts, Stanards, 
and some others, familiar to the oldest inhabit- 
ants, have disappeared, and can be known to 
the present only as we give them life in a town 
history. 

The wants of a more thriving community, 
1772, required better accommodations for the 
transaction of the public business. A building 
was also wanted for school purposes and a more 
appropriate place for public worship on Sun- 
days. Heretofore the people had resorted to 
private houses or barns for these purposes ; ac- 
cordingly, at a meeting of proprietors, held at 
the house of Jesse Wilcox, November 2."5, 1772, 
Daniel Dudley in the chair, it was voted to 
erect a building for the use of the town, and a 
tax of fifteen shillings was levied on each pro- 
prietor to meet the expense. It was stipulated 
that the building should be thirty feet long by 
twenty feet wide, with one fire-place, and that 
it should be ready for use by the next July, 
1773. 

This first town hall of New])ort was uniiine 
in its style of architecture and rudely con- 
structed. Its roof descended from a common 
centre to each of the four sides. 

It is appropriate that we here present a ile- 
scription of this building, given by one who 
.<aw it and used it, a native of Newport. We 
have reference to Rev. James Hill Parmelee, 
son of Ezra, bom May 15, 1783. He was 



216 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



gradufited at Yale College in 1808, afterwards 
at the Tiieological Seminary at Princeton, 
N. J. ; was ordained to the ministry of the 
Presbyterian Church and spent the vigor of 
his life in connection with the missionary en- 
terprises of that church in the West and South, 
and died at his home on the Muskingum River, 
near Zanesville, Ohio, April 6, 1872, in the 
eighty-ninth year of liis age. He was a gentle- 
jnan of fine culture and many experiences. 
The following is an extract from a letter writ- 
ten by him to the author of tiiis sketch but a 
few months before his decease. He says, — 

" I know very little about Newport after the year 
1798, and the few facts prior to that date lie scattered 
along the borders of an early memory. When quite 
a small boy, I remember standing round Mr. Reme- 
lee's knees, with other boys of my own age, in the old 
Proprietors' House to learn my letters. That stood on 
the Plain on which were the houses of Robert and 
Jesse Lane. It was covered with rough boards, 
like a barn, and my recollection is lively that they 
were fastened on with wooden pins. It was both 
school-house and meeting house. 

" I was among the boys that lay on the boards 
above the beams, w'ith our faces over the edge look- 
ing down at Mr. Remelee as he was preaching, and at 
the people as they sang good old Lenox and Weare 
and Wells. When the boys were too playful the 
Tithingman, of whom we were much afraid, would 
lift up his rough stick and rap upon the edge of the 
boards, when we would be whist as mice. 

"Mr. Remelee was a good scholar, an able preacher 
and a man of much wit and humor. 

" Our neighbors were Absalom Kelsey, Jesse Wil- 
cox, Jesse and Robert Lane, Dea. Josiah Stevens, 
Dea. Elias Bascom and Uriah Wilcox, all with sons 
and daughters." 

He speaks of the ladies as follows : 

" It was not the fortune of the women of those 
days to be clothed in soft raiment, made compara- 
tively without hands, as is the privilege of the women 
of this day. For them were the spinning-wheel and 
the loom to be run, as regular as the revolution of the 
seasons. There was the wool in the fleece and the 
cotion in the seed to be cleansed and carded by hand- 
cards, and spun thread by thread. There were piles 



of flax also to be spun and woven into cloth. It was 
their ambition to show the highest pile of linen 
cloths, flannels and blankets, and their pride to ex- 
hibit long pieces of dressed cloth for family use. In 
recompense of this stern toil, their constitutions 
were clear of scrofulous diseases, the effects of indul- 
gence. They needed not the disguise of cosmetics, 
their teeth were like rows of ivoiy, their beauty 
bright, their morals free from the corruptions of fic- 
tion and their minds full of purity and innocence." 

In regard to the first newspaper which came 
to the town, he says, — 

"About the year 1790 appeared the first newspa- 
per which visited our community. It was called the 
Farmers^ Museum, printed at Walpole, at that time the 
metropolis of this region. It was carried by post on 
a circuit through Charlestown, Claremont, Newport, 
Unity, Lempster and Acworth to Alstead. 

" How impatient were we to see the weekly post ! 
(Read Cowper.) He was made welcome to a plate at 
the table and lodging all the way round. He was 
burdened with parcels and errands from one family to 
another and from town to towu. In this was fore- 
shadowed in a small way the great system of ex- 
presses which extended throughout tlie land." 

The new town building became a rallying- 
point of great interest to the community. It 
was here the proprietors now came together, and 
the citizens of the town lo regulate their muni- 
cipal affairs ; here the magistrate held his court ; 
here the children collected to receive instruction 
from appointed teachers ; here gathered on Sun- 
days the people in their tidy homespun apparel ; 
many on foot ; some on horseback ; the wife or 
daughter or sister riding behind, on a pillion, 
while, perhaps, a juvenile of the family may 
have had a front seat on the pommel of the 
saddle, or in arms, or the long-horned osen 
hauling a cart prepared with suitable seats and 
coverings, were driven fortii — a team such as 
Uzza drove out from Kirjalh-Jearim to the 
threshing-floor of Chidon in Old Testament 
times, and the whole fiunily, and as many neigh- 
bors as possible, found transportation. 

At the annual meeting March 8, 1774, the 
town " Voted to build a bridge across the Ea.st 



NEWPORT. 



217 



branch of Sugar river, near the East End of 
the first division of lots." Fifteen pounds were 
raised to defray the expense, to be paid in 
labor or grain at market price. " Aaron 
Buel, Phineas Wilcox and Ezra Parmelee were 
chosen as a building committee to have charge 
of this work." The bridge was located on or 
near the site of the present bridge on Main 
Street. 

At the annual meeting March 13, 1775, the 
town " Voted to build a bridge over the South 
branch between lots No. 16 and No. 17 in the 
first division." Twenty-five pounds were ap- 
propriated for the expense. Amos Hall, J]l)e- 
nezer Merritt and Aaron Buel were chosen a 
buildiny; committee. The bridi^e was built in 
October, 1776. This was the intervale bridge, 
now on Elm Street. 

On the 22d day of January, 1783, by the 
concurrent action of the town, Rev. John 
Remele was installed as the first pastor of the 
Congregational Church in Newport. 

A more particular account of the personal 
characteristics and ministry of Rev. Mr. Remele 
is given in connection with the article on the 
Congregational Church, on another page of this 
sketch. 

That the clergy in the early New England 
times were called to secular trusts and duties, 
as well as sacred, and that they were greatly 
reverenced by parishioners and people, arose 
from the fact of their superior education and 
more general intelligence. 

During the residence of Mr. Remele in this 
town, as may be supposed, he mingled some- 
what in political affairs, and it is in this regard 
that we refer to him in this place. The colonies 
had achieved their independence. The con- 
vention for the formation of the Constitution 
of the United States had accomplished its work 
at Philadelphia, and it was now before the 
people of the States for ratification. At the 
New Hampshire State Convention held for this 
purpose at Exeter, in February, 1788, Rev. 
John Remele was chosen by the classed towns 



of Newport and Croydon as their representa- 
tive. The bias of public opinion in the State 
and the temper of the convention rendered its 
adoption doubtful, and the friends of the Con- 
stitution, without coming to a vote, caused an 
adjournment, to be reassembled at Concord in 
the month of June following. At the adjourn- 
ed meeting the matter was thoroughly discussed 
and the Constitution adopted. The vote in the 
convention stood 57 for adoption and 46 against, 
Mr. Remele voting with the forty-six. 

From our standpoint of time and intelligence 
we can hardly imagine any reasonable ground of 
objection to the Constitution under which the 
country has gone fonvard to so much of pros- 
perity and power. But there was a respectable 
^minority in the convention, led by Joshua Ath- 
erton, of Amherst, that opposed its ratification. 
We propose to state one or two of these objec- 
tions in order that the position of our local mem- 
ber may be better luiderstood. The first was 
the clause in regard to the African slave trade — 
providing for its abrogation after the year 1808, 
and prohibiting any action on the subject, be- 
yond a trifling tax on the importation of Afri- 
cans liefore that time. The discussion on this 
occasion involved the slavery- question, which 
culminated three-quarters of a century later in 
the grandest civil war of modern times. An- • 
other objection was that provision had not been 
made for a sufficiently strong government; but 
this and some others were of little consequence 
compared with the first. New Hampshire be- 
ing the ninth state to ratify, her action secured 
the establishment of our general government. 
Time has vindicated the strength of the Consti- 
tution and slavery has gone to the wall. 

In the year 1790 the census of Newport rep- 
resented a population of seven hundred and 
eighty souls. This increased population and a 
general prosperity demanded larger and more 
suitable accommodations, both secular and re- 
ligious. The good people of the town had no 
idea of living in houses of cedar and pine, while 
the Ark of the Testimony abode in the old 



218 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Proprietors' House, which liad served them for 
nearly twenty years. Accordingly, at a meeting 
held November 7, 1791, it was " Voied that 
some land be procured from Mr. Absalom Kel- 
sey for the purpose of erecting a meeting-house 
upon it." Cliristopher Newton, Jeremiah Jenks, 
Phineas Chapin, Samuel Hurd and Aaron Buel 
were appointed a committee to superintend the 
work. The site secured was a pleasant elevation 
of land, lying in ths southeasterly of the four cor- 
ners at the foot of Claremout Hill. The com- 
mittee reported progressatan adjourned meeting, 
and the sum of two hundred pounds was appro- 
priated to pay Mr. Kelsey for the land, and 
commence the work. The building was 
raised June 26, 1793, and was soon in order 
for religious services and town-meetings. 

The new meeting-house and town hall were 
in due time appropriately finished. The ap- 
pointments of the interior accorded with the 
fashion of the times. There was the high pul- 
pit, flanked by the stairs, and the deacons' seats 
about half-way up ; the souudiug-board sus- 
pended from the ceiling like a huge inverted 
toad-stool ; the square, high-backed pews, with 
panels, and open space about the top filled 
with turned pieces, which siipjjorted the rail. 
This meeting-house was occuj^ied by church and 
town for about twenty years, and would prob- 
ably have maintained its position and character 
much longer had not the village or the busi- 
ness part of the town taken an unceremonious 
leave of it where it stood. The building was 
afterwards taken down and re-erected as a barn 
at a homestead on the Unity road, where it 
still stands. The ornamental wood-work re- 
ferred to was incorporated into a door-yard 
fence on Main Street, at the south part of the 
village, where it remained many years. 

During the year 1770, and from that time 
forward, there was a coming in of new settlers 
from Massachusetts as well as from Connecticut. 
Many of them gathered upon Baptist Hill in a 
community which will have special attention 
in connection with a sketch of the Baptist 



Church. The smoke of their cabins and slashes 
arose from Pike Hill and Thatcher Hill, the 
East Mountain, from the slopes of Blueberry 
Ledge and the valley of the Sugar, towards 
Claremont. 

They were the Metcalfs, Wheelers, Cham- 
berlains, Wakefields, Pikes, Perrys, Osgoods, 
Peabodys, Dunhams, Bowmans, Fletchers, Saw- 
yers, Noyes, Richardses, Howes, Kelleys and 
many others of time-honored and worthy citi- 
zens, whose labors and influence aided in mak- 
ing for the town of Newport its good reputa- 
tion and place in comparison with other towns 
in the western part of the State. 

The fathers of the town, as heretofore stated, 
made liberal arrangements for a village and 
business centre on the western side of intervale. 
On the magnificent avenue they had pro- 
jected, eight rods in width and extending from 
Captain Parmelee's to the Jenks' place, 
were scattered the homes of the leading and 
wealthy men of the town. On the plain stood 
the Proprietor's House, and after a while, far- 
ther north, at the corners, stood the new Congre- 
gational meeting-house, and still farther on 
among the Lorabardy poplars, rose the sightly 
residence of liev. Abijah Wines, while stores 
and shops clustered about the corners at the foot 
of Claremont Hill. 

While all this was going on so pleasantly, a 
power they little apj)reciated or feared at the 
time was asserting itself among the rocks and 
alders not more than a mile distant, on the east- 
ern side of the valley, where stood the Dudley 
mill. 

This was no other than a water-power, and 
a mill to which came the farmers with their 
grists. And while the grinding was going on it 
was convenient to get the horse shod or the 
share sharpened, or something mended ; and the 
next thing in order was a blacksmith-shop, and 
the mill and the smithy begat other shops and 
trades. In the mean time the Ci'oydon turn- 
pike, extending from Lebanon to Washington, 
had been opened — 1806 — to travel and traffic. 



NEWPORT. 



219 



This road passed tlirough tlie town north and 
south on the eastern margin of the valley, cross- 
inir the main branch of Suy:ar River at risrht 
angles, and had become a thoroughfare between 
tiie northern towns and Boston. 

About the yi'ar 17'J0-92 Isaac Reddington 
erected on the northeast corner of the present 
Main and Ma()le Streets, in this village, the firsi 
framed building that appeared on the eastern 
side of the intervale, — the intervale road at that 
time and place tu-ossing a highway that after- 
\VM\\ became the Croydon turnpike. A store- 
room was suitably arranged in the south end of 
this liuilding, in which he carried on a mer- 
cantile business. The premises were otherwise 
occupied by Reddington as a public-house. In 
1797 this establishment became, through pur- 
chase, the pro[ierty of Jesse Wilcox, Jr., who 
continued the hotel and store business, as here- 
tofore, nntil the time of his decease, February, 
IS 11. The place remained in possession of the 
AVilcox fanuly, and in course of time the three 
sons of Jesse, Jr., — Calvin, Albert and Jesse, — 
came to their majority and revived the mer- 
cantile part of the business at the old stand. 
Amos Little was afterward connected with the 
senior Wilcox in trade at this stand. About 
the year 1835-36 the place was abandoned as a 
liusiness location and became a tenament-house, 
known as the " old re.l store." In 1840-43 the 
store-room was fitted up as a hall and became 
the headquarters of the Millerites. Since 18()5 
the old store has given place to a handsome 
private residence. 

About the beginning of the present century 
Sylvanus Richards removed with his family 
from Dcdham, Mass., to Newport, and settled 
ou a tract of land in the western part of the 
town, on the main I'oad to Claremont. 

Mr. Richards was, for a time, one of the 
largest land-holders and tax-payers in the town. 
I]\ connection ^vith his farming business he kept 
a wayside iim, where rest and refreshment 
awaited the weary traveler, — summer and win- 
ter, — man and beast. 



This was nearly three-qnarters (jf a century 
before the neigh of the iron horse was heard 
in this part of New Hampshire, — a time when 
the people were dependent upon their own re- 
sources in regard to methods of travel and 
transportation. 

We may digress to illustrate some phases of 
life at this period. In the early winter season 
the forehandi'd up-countiy farmer loaded his 
sled, or cutter, or jmng, with pork, poultry and 
other products of his farm, and drove independ- 
ently to Boston, Salem or Newburyport, and 
bartered, or sold, and invested the products of 
his load in dry -goods, fish, salt, rum, sunt}', to- 
bacco and groceries generally, for llimily use 
during' the year. 

The main roads leading to the sea-ptirts were 
busy, and the coiuitrv inns and village taverns 
literally swarmed with pungs, sometimes called 
pod-teams, and their drivers. 

In course of time, as the country became 
more settled and the roads better improved, and 
business increased, the great six or eight-horse 
teams — or land schooners — came to be em- 
ployed in the carrying trade to and from the 
interior and the markets. 

To meet the wants of this travel and traffic, 
at convenient distances along the routes the 
wayside inn, as well as the more pretentious 
village hostelry, opened its hospitable doors. 

It was here the teamsters gathered after their 
day's drive, and around the glowing wood- 
fire cracked their jokes, while the firelight 
flashed upon the beams and panels and lattice- 
work that guarded the mysterious precincts 
from whence, over a bar of unusual height, 
were dispensed to the jolly circle the slings and 
toddies that inspired the festive scene, and which, 
for the time iK'iiig, doubtless, more than 
matched the " slings and arrow of outrageous 
fortune." 

About the year 1812, Sylvanus Richards re- 
moved to the village and assumed the proprie- 
torship of the Rising Sun tavern, a public- 
house erected the year before by Ciordon Buel. 



220 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



He was succeeded liy his son, Captain Seth 
Tiicliards, wlio continued the business until 
Marcli 1, 1826, when Captain John Silver be- 
came the proprietor of this famous hostelry. 

Mr. Silver afterward removed to the Eagle 
Hotel, and the Rising Sun came to a setting in 
a private house. 

The original Newport Hotel was built on the 
site of the present Newjiort House, corner of 
Main and Sunapee Streets, in the year LSI 4 by 
Colonel William Cheney. It was purchased 
and improved by Captain Joel Nettleton and 
remained in the hands of the Nettletons, father 
and sons, for more than a (juarter of a century. 
It was burned in 1860, and the present buildiug 
was erected the same year by the IMessrs. Cross, 
then projn-ietors. The establishment was pur- 
chased by E. L. Putney, the present owner, in 
1866, and is widely- known as the Newport 
House. It h;is been a popular hosteliy for 
more than seventy years. 

The Eagle Hotel, built by James Breek and 
Josiah Forsaith in 182-"), remained a fa\orite 
house under various proprietors until 1856, 
wlien it was converted to business purposes. 

It was at the height of its popularity, under 
the proprietorship of John Silver, during the 
"hard eider" campaign of 1840. 

About the year 1810 Wm. Cheney removed 
his business from the west side to a location 
north of the bridge, the site of the present 
Richartls Block, aud thus the stores came over, 
and finally the meeting-houses surrendered and 
the victory was complete. In 1S21 the Baptist 
meeting-house at Northville was aliandoned 
and a new house of worship erected at the 
north end of the village common. 

In 1822 the CV)ngregational Society erected 
the brick meeting-house at the south end, and 
the old house on the west side w^as left for 
town purposes exclusively — the union between 
church and state had been abrogated by the 
Legislature of 1819, and the ministers and 
churches of the different denominations were sup- 
ported by their several adherents and societies. 



The present county of Sullivan, comprising 
fifteen towns, was originally a part of old 
Cheshire County, which extended some sixty- 
five miles along the Connecticut River. The 
courts were held at Keene and Charlestown, 
alternately. The increased population and busi- 
ness of the upper to\\ns were such that, on 
December 26, 1824, a law was passed by tlie 
Legislature removing the May term of the 
Supreme Court of Judicature from Charlestown 
to Newport. 

By an act of the Legislature, June 23, 182(), 
the question of dividing the county of Cheshire 
was submitted to the 2)eoi>le of the several 
towns, and decided in favor of division. 

On July 5, 1<S27, an act incor[)orating the 
county of Sullivan was passed, to take effect 
the September following; and the question of 
establishing the shire-town of the new county 
as between Newport and ClarenKjnt was also 
submitted to the popular vote and decided in 
favor of Newport by a majority of three thou- 
sand seven hundred and twent^'-eight votes. 
By consulting a map, it will be clearly seen 
that Newport is the geographical centre of the 
county, as nearly as can be practically attained. 
And still it was not without a struggle, even 
after so decisive a vote, that the courts were 
formally established there. 

Of those who were specially influential in the 
Legislature and otherwise in the oro;anization 
of the new county, and in making Newport its 
shire-town, were Colonel William Cheney, 
James Breek, James D. ^\'alcott and other lead- 
ing citizens of the town and active business men. 

At a meeting held June 13, 182o, the town 
voted almost unanimously to raise the sum of 
two thousand dollars to assist in the building of 
a court-house and town hall ; the remaining one 
thousand five hundreil dollars necessary to 
meet the estimated expense of the building to 
be raised by individual subscription. The lot 
on which the building was placed was purchased 
from Aaron Nettleton, Jr., for the sum of four 
hundi-ed and ten dollars. 



NEWPORT. 



221 



A building committee, consisting of William 
Cheney, Juines Breck, James ]). Waleott, was 
api)ointed to superintend the work. On Feb- 
ruary n, 182G, Oliver Jenks, James D. Wal- 
cott and David Allen, selectmen of Newport, 
and Salma Hale, (^lerk of tlie court, certified 
that the new court-house was ready for occu- 
pation. 

This builclino- with desirable additions and 
improvements, was occupied as court-house and 
town hall until the year 187;!, when it was con- 
veyed exclu.sively to the town and by the town 
to Union School District for a term of ninety- 
nine years and became the Central School 
building and the home of the Intermediate, 
Grammar and High Schools, of the district. 

The county jail at Charlestown continued 
to be occupied imtil April 1, 1842, when it was 
set on fire by one of the criminal inmates and 
destroyed. The same year a new jail was built 
in Newport at a cost of three thousand three 
hundred dollars. It was reconstructed and 
improved in 1876 and again 1883. 

The necessity of a fire-proof building in 
which to locate the public otli(«s and their im- 
portant books of record became more and UKire 
apparent ; accordingly, on August 1, 1843, the 
town voted to lease the southwest corner of the 
court-house common for the purpose of erecting 
a county building f()r officers and safes to be 
held so long as used for that purpose. 

About the year 1871-72 the (piestion of a 
new court-house became a sulViect for the consid- 
erutiiin of the penple ol' the tnwn. There weri' 
obvious reasons that something must be done in 
that directiou. In the first ]ilace, the building 
of 1825-26 had been in use for nearly fifty 
yeai-s and had become somewhat dilapitated, 
out of style and unsatisfaclory to the ppo|)le of 
the county. 

Again, the town of Claremout, ever on the 
alert to be(»me the shire-town, stood ready to 
furnish more suitable accommodations for the 
courts without expense to the county — a plaus- 
ible consideration which it was not slow to ad- 



vance. The State had assumed the war debt of 
its towns, and the proportion which <'ame to the 
town of Newport was about sixteen thousand 
dollars. It was thought advisable to appro- 
priate this money as far as it would go, to the 
building of a n*^ town hall and county build- 
ing. 

A meeting was called and plans and estimates 
were presented and considered. After a some- 
what exciting controversy, a location was agreed 
upon, and the plan of Edward Dow, architect, 
of Concord, was adojited. The work of erect- 
ing the building was accomplished by W. L. 
Dow (fc Co., at an expense of about forty thou- 
sand dollars. This amount, over and above the 
value of the old county buildings, which were 
reconv^eyed, was paid by the town. 

The new building is said to be one of the 
most spacious and convenient for public uses to 
be found in the western part of the State. It 
stands as the concession of the town of New- 
port to the county of Sullivan. 

The Proprietor's House of 1 773 and the 
spacious town hall' and court-house (tf 1873 
may illustrate in some degree the progress of 
the town of Newport during tlu^ one hundred 
years intervening. 

Colonel Williau) C'hency, who established 
himself on Main Street as early as 1810, and 
whose name was so intimately connected witli 
the social and |)ublic attlurs of the town for 
many years, died June 1."), 18.",(l. He was suc- 
ceeded by his sons in the mercantile business 
he had siiccessfidly founded, who continneil the 
same until the year I83rj, when they disposed 
of the Cheney stand and stock, and removed 
from town. 

Captain Seth Richards, their successor, was 
a man of great personal ai-tivity and (act, 
and the business was continued by him, 
assisted by his sons, until about the year 1867, 
when he retired from active life. He died 



• Destroyed by fire Sumlay tiKivning, .Iiiiie "21, 1885,- 
since (lie abuve was writicn. 



222 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



October 30, 1871, in tlie eiglitieth year of" liis 
age. Tlie Imsiness was afterwards continued 
under the direction of the sous — Dexter and 
Abiathar Richards. 

As early as the year 1816 James Breck iiad 
erected the two-story I) rick store on the corner 
of Main and Elm Streets, opposite the Wilcox 
store and dwelling, and was a promineut mer- 
chant and man of affairs. 

For a long time previous to 1840 the river 
and the village bridge formed a dividiug line 
betweeu rival interests and rival parties in the 
village. The Rising Sun tavern and the Breck 
and Wilcox stores and some trades and shops 
clustered about the four corners at the south 
end ; and the Newport Hotel and the Cheney 
and Nettletou stores, with a like following, had 
a centre near the corner of Main and Sunapee 
Streets, at the north end, near the common. A 
contention as to which should be considered 
the most popular side of the river, or end of the 
town, largely prevailed, and each party had its 
supporters. The particular adherents of each 
side were grouped around these social and busi- 
ness leaders, Breck and Cheney, and the spirit 
of tlie Montagues and Capulets of Verona 
seemed to prevail. 

The appearance on the nortli sidi' of an ur- 
chin from the south side, and rice versa, amount- 
ed to a challenge at single combat, or the jeers 
of a crowd. This feeling was carried into social 
relations and business affairs. When, on Mon- 
day afternoon, June 27, 1825, the nation's 
guest. General Lafayette, was escorted into 
town, en route from Coiuwrd to Montpelier, Vt., 
it appears from a record of the event found in 
the village paper of that time, that he was 
accorded a double recei)tion, — first, by Colonel 
William Cheney at his residence on the north 
side of the river, and afterwards by James 
Breck, Esq., at his residence on the south side, 
the crossing at the bridge being under a tri- 
umpiial arch, ornamented with flowers. Speeches 
and introductions were made at both houses, 
and Montagues and Capulets, and their wives 



and daughters and all their friends, were grati- 
fied and liappy. 

But time and effort and capital and railroad 
proximities are superior to mere j^ersoual influ- 
ences and ambition, and Newport village has 
shaped itself accordingly in the later vears, and 
I'ivalries of the cliaracter referred to have disap- 
peared. 

As indicating the growth of Newport at dif- 
ferent dates by the census returns, we find the 
population to have been as follows : 1767, 29; 
1775, 107,- 1790, 780; 1800, 1265; 1810, 
1427; 1820,1679; 18.'i0, 1913; 1840,1958; 
1850,2020; 1860,2077; 1870, 2163; 1880, 
2612. 

From the first settlement of the town until 
the year 1824 no necrological records appear to 
have been made. From 1824 to 1837 such 
statistics were carefully collected and published 
by Rev. John AVoods, and from the latter date 
to January 1, 1885, by Dr. John L. Swett. 
From the facts thus gathered we find that for 
the sixty-one years prior to January 1, 1885, 
there were 2155 deatiis in Newport, as fol- 
lows : Males, 955 ; females, 1059 ; sex un- 
known, 141. Of these, 591 were under ten 
years of age ; 184 between ten and twenty ; 214 
between twenty and thirty; 158 lietsveen thirty 
and forty ; 145 between forty and fifty ; 154 be- 
tween fifty and sixty ; 226 between sixty and 
seventy ; 250 between seventy and eighty ; 184 
betweeu eighty and ninety ; 48 between ninety 
and one hundred ; 1 over one hundred. It 
would be fair to estimate the number of dead in 
Newport from the beginning at about .'JOOO. 

Of those who have reached the greatest lon- 
gevity siuce 1837 are: 

Mrs. Anna Wakefielil, ninety-one years. 

Mr. Ezra Parmeleo, ninety-two anil a half years. 

Mrs. Ezra Parmelee, ninety-one and a half years, 

Mrs. Widow Dow, ninety-one years. 

Mrs. Brown, ninety -seven years. 

Miss Peggy Atwood, ninety-seven years. 

Mr. Daniel Stearns, ninety-three years. 

Colonel Phiueas Chapiu, ninety-three years. 



NEWPORT. 



223 



Mr. Samuel Goldthwait, ninety-three years. 

Deacon Philip W. Kibbey, ninety-three years. 

Mr. Daniel Wilmarth, ninety years. 

Mr. John Bertram, ninety-seven years. 

Mrs. Ruth Pike, ninety years. 

Mrs. Benjamin Whitcomb, ninety-four years. 

Mr. .Jonathan Wakelielcl, ninety-six years. 

Mrs. Anna Lorke, ninety-one years. 

Mr. John Baily, ninety-four years. 

Mrs. John Blake, ninety-tive years. 

Mrs. Mary Hall, ninety-four years. 

Mrs. Mary Pike, ninety-two years. 

Mr. Joel Kelsey, ninety-nine years, seven months. 

Mr. Benjamin Whitcomb, ninety-four years. 

Mr. Moses Goodwin, ninety-four years. 

Mr. Joel McGregor, one hundred years, eleven 
months, twenty-two days. 

Deacon Isaac Warren, ninety-one years. 

Mrs. Roxy Newton, ninety-two years. 

Mr. Nehemiah Rand, ninety-two years. 

Mrs. Erastus Newton, ninety-one years. 

Mrs. Lois Colb\', ninety years. 

Mrs. Samuel Barker, ninety years. 

Mrs. Thankful Wheeler, ninety-four years, six 
months. 

Mrs. Mahitable <Jiitte, ninety-thrci' years. 

Mrs. Luke Paul, ninety-one years. 

Mrs. Sarah Perry, ninety-three years. 

Lemuel Osgood, ninetj'-two years. 

Rev, Ira Pearson, ninety-two years. 

Colonel Jessiel Perry, ninety-one years. 

Mi.ss Lovina Reed, ninety-two years. 

Mrs. Lucy G. Rowell, ninety-five years. 

Amasa Edes, Esq., ninety-one years. 

Mrs. .\bel Rowe, ninety-four and a half years. 

Mrs. Lois Fletcher, ninety-eight and a half years. 
Tlie followino' tal>le of altitudes was ])re- 
pared a few yi'ars siuce by Richard S. Howe, 
a civil eiio'iueer of this town, who died Decem- 
ber 5, 1879, in the fifty-eighth year of liis age. 

Feet 
Sunapee Lake above mean tide-water .at Boston 1103 
Sill, i'ront door, new court-house, above mean 

tide water ... 822 

Top Coit Mountain, Newport, above mean tide- 
water at Boston 1588 

Croydon Mountain 2789 

Sunapee 2()83 

Ascutney '.'ASi'i 

Kearsarge 21142 



Agriculture has been a leading interest of a 
large majority of tiic people of Newport. The 
diversity of lands from the river-sides to the 
hill-tops, is such that nearly every crop grown 
in New P^ngland may find a congenial soil. 
The industry of the agriculturist has ever been 
rewarded by a fair degree of prosperity, but 
more so in the earlier years up to about the 
year 1840 or 1850 than subse(|uently. Those 
who will examine statistii's in regard to this 
matter will find that in these later years there 
has been a* falling off in the number of sheep 
and cattle, and in the aggn'gate value of our 
farm products. 

This state of things is not peculiar to New- 
port, but common to all the agrieultui-al towns 
in New England, and its explanation is general 
and beyond the scope of this sketch. 

The fact that the valuation of the town of 
Newport has increased from year to year is due 
to the advancement of other interests founded 
on the natural resources of the town in the way 
of water-power. Sugar River has, in fact, se- 
cured to the town a permanent prosperity. 

The inventory of the town of Newport, as 
exhibited by the report of the .selectmen for 
the }'ear LSS"), is as follows : 

Niuiiber. Value. 

Polls 605 $66,500 

Horses 500 35,354 

Mules 3 250 

Oxen 182 8.010 

Cows 766 18,315 

Other neat stock 435 6;624 

Shec)) 1440 3,430 

Hogs 86 685 

Carriages 71 5,110 

Land and buildings 824,650 

Stock in public funds 11,300 

Stock in banks, etc 67,400 

B,ank surplus 200 

Money on hand and al int'r.st ... 104,788 

Stock in trade 92,186 

Aijueducts, mills, aii<l ma- 
chinery 72,350 

Total $1,317,152 



224 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



In point of valuation, Newport is the six- 
teenth of the cities and towns in the State, ac- 
cording to the new apportii>nnient for the as- 
sessment of public taxes hy act of 1883. 

The Sullivan County Agricultural Society 
held an annual fair in this to\\n], October 1, 1851. 
The Sullivan Grange, No. 8, Patrons of Hus- 
bandry, was organized in November, 1873, and 
is now in successful operation. 

The Farmers' and Mechanics' Association was 
organized in September, 1874, and the first 
town fair under the direction of fliis .societ}' 
was held in September, 1875. With some ex- 
ceptions, these fairs have been continued an- 
nually, and Iiave been well sustained. The 
town hall and its surroundings have been ap- 
propriated for the exhibition of articles of do- 
mestic handicraft, w()rks of art, dairy pi'oducts, 
fruits, vegetables, imjilements of iuisbandry, 
etc., while the village park and the sheds 
of adjacent churches have been tiironged with 
horses, colts, liorned cattle, siieep and liogs, all 
awaiting examination by committees for the 
awarding of prizes. 

Tiic discussions in the meeting's of the grang-e 
and the association in regard to ways and means 
and metiiods in general farming and tlie man- 
agement of stock have awakened additional 
interest on these subjects and stinudatcd to bet- 
ter effort and more of success. 

We may refer to a time within the memory of 
many people, when the old industries of the 
household (piictly disappeared ; wlicn tlio jium of 
the spinning-wheel and the clack of tiic loom 
ceased ; wiien the taiioress was no longer re- 
quired to cut and fasiiion from home-made cloths 
tlic garments of the family ; and the shoe- 
maker to come with his kit, and cut and ham- 
mer and peg until the shoes and boots for all 
sizes of feet were prepared for the winter sea- 
son, — a time when the " hatter's simp," and the 
"cabinet-maker's shop," and the " shoe-maker's 
shop," and the " tailor's shop," except so far as 
mending and cobbling and patching are con- 
cerned, closed their doors or supplied their 



shelves and counters and store-rooms with the 
ready-made from the great mills and manufac- 
tories filled with machinery and driven with 
steam or water-power, which as quietly monop- 
olized these and other industries of the home, 
peculiar to the first half of the century, and 
relegated the spinning-wheels and shuttles of 
our grandmothers to museums and garrets. 

In olden times the trades seemed more im- 
jiortant, and to have been sustained by men of 
more intelligenceand ability than at present. The 
carpenters and joiners in a double sense helped 
to build up the town. Of the earliest of these 
was Ellienezer Merritt, whose name often appears 
in the early records. 

After Merritt came Daniel Wilmarth, who 
was succeeded in that line by his son, Jonathan 
M. Wilmarth, who is still a resident (1885). 

The lives of these three span the entire age 
of the town ; contemporary with them many 
other worthy names might be mentioned. 

The blacksmith's shoj) was perhaps the most 
important place in the neighborhood as a cen- 
tre of information. 

" Under the spreading eliestnut tree 

The viUiige suiithy stands; 
Tlie smith — a mighty man is he — 

With large and sinewy hands 
And the muscles of his I>nnvny arnis 

Arc strong as iron bands." 

Here came his customers with shares to 
sharpen, chains to mend, and all sorts of jobs, 
and while the work was being done the news of 
the day, social affairs, politics and religion, were 
discussed in homely phrase, and the snn'th be- 
came the recejitacle of many opinions and much 
local knowledge. Seth Chase is said to have 
been the first blacksmith in Newport. He was 
succeeded by the Churches (Samuel and Sam- 
uel, Jr.) and the Keiths (father and .son), the 
Dwinels, McGregors, Deacon David B. Chapiu 
and others. 

Captain John Parmelee, son of Ezra and 
Sibyl, served his time with Colonel David 
Dexter, of Claremont, and aijout tlie year 1803 



NEWPORT. 



225 



established a homestead and ()]tened a shop for 
the manufaeture of seytlies on the South Brancli 
of Siiuar River at Soiithville, so called. He 
had a good water-jiower l)y wliicli to jtropel the 
trip-hammer, ni'ind-stoiie and other iiiaehinerv 
neoes.sary to his Imsiness. For inore than 
thirty years lie i'uriiished largely of seythes to 
all the towns in the eastern ])art of the present 
eounty of Sullivan. Jn connection with this 
business he also cultivated a small fiirm. He 
was a pupil of Parson Remele's in the old Pro- 
prietors' House and in his prime was the first of 
ficer lit' well-known Light Infantry company oi' 
the Thirty-First Regiment New Hampshire Mi- 
litia. He is remembered as a successful farmer, 
an ingenious mechanic and a worthy citizen. 
He died October ;i 1 , Is;!'.), aged sixty-one years. 

Newport in its time lias had cabinet-makers, 
carriage-makers, brick-makers, shoe-makers, 
sadillers, tanners, tailors, hatters, coopers, ma- 
.sons, marble and granite-workers, and all other 
necessary workers and machinists and architects 
to aid in its progress as a town. 

Reuben Bascom, a son of Elias, who came 
from Northfield, Mass., about the year 1779, 
established the first cloth-dressing business in 
Newport. His homestead was on the " South 
Road," and his water-power, where he had a 
fulling-mill and other machinery, on the South 
Branch, about a quarter of a mile up the stream 
from the mills at Southville. Every vestige of 
his enterprise there has long since disappeared. 
He married, 1786, Lydia Hnrd, daughter of 
Samuel, the first female born in the settlement 
(June 7, 1768), and has descendants in town to 
perpetuate his name and memory. 

Al)out the year 1800, Nathan Hurd put up a 
mill at a " privilege" a short distance above the 
present Sugar River Mills, where he carrietl on 
the business of carding, fulling and cloth- 
dressing until 18'22, when he sold ont to Elisha 
Kempton, who was succeeded by Philo Fuller, 
Oliver Comstoek, Smith and Rockwell. The 
falls are now submerged in the upper end of 
the Richards mill-pond. 



Osiiea Ingram, who came to this town abimt 
the year 1820, was also engaged as a clotiiier 
for many years. His mill was on the canal, 
ne;u' the upper tannery. 

Tiie hatting business was first represeuteil 
here by James White, who is said to have car- 
ried on the trade in the back jiart of the house 
of Dea. Jesse Wilcox, as early as 17<S:',. After 
White was Nathaniel Fisher, and jierhaps 
others. 

In the year 1818, Amos Little, a native ot 
Springfielil, iHirn February 27, 17!)6, who had 
learned the trade in Hanijtstead, came to New- 
port and built a shop near the village bridge, 
where he carried on the business successfully 
for more than forty-five years, or up tothe timeof 
his decease, August 17, 1S.")1). Since that time 
there has been no occasion tbr a iiatting estab- 
lishment here, the market being fully supplied 
from the large manutiietories in Massachu- 
setts and elsewhere. Mr. iJttle was prominent 
in town affairs, was .selectman in 183!J, and rep- 
resented the town at the General Court in 1842 
and 18-13. He was also a liberal and efficient 
member of the Ba[)tist Church and society. 

From the time of Daniel Dudley, the first ex- 
pounder of the lapstone and the last in this town, 
the shoemaking trade has been represented by 
able and intelligent men. As a local interest, it 
had its climax about the years 1828-30, when 
John Russ and Samuel Belknap erected a build- 
ing opposite the Eagle Hotel, where they em- 
ployed from ten to fifteen hands in the manu- 
faeture of boots and shoes. After that time the 
business was monopolized by the large estab- 
lishments in the cities and larger towns, to the 
detriment of the village mechanic. 

Newi'ort Mills. — The first cotton manufac- 
turing business was establisheil in the town by 
Colonel James D. Walcott, who came from 
Rhode Island in the year 1812, and in 1813 
erected a factory on the site of the [)resent Dow 
wood-shoi). He constructed the dam and canal, 
still in use, by which the water-power was ap- 
plied to machinery for the manufacture of cotton 



226 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



yarn. Franklin Sinionds afterward purchased 
the establishment and continued the business 
until 1S31, when it was destroyed by fire, and 
Mr. Simonds remo\-ed to Warner. Afterward, 
Moses Paine Durkee placed a building upon the 
site of the burnt factory, which was used as an 
oil-mill until 1844, when Ingram A Parks i)ut 
in machinery for the manufacture of clotlis, 
cassimeres, etc. It was afterward occupied by 
Solomon Deane for the manuficturc of (launel, 
and by him sold to Abiatiiar Kicliards, in whose 
ownership it was destroyed by fire in 1872. 

In 1873 Wallace L. Dow & Co. erected a 
spacious building u])on the premises and put in 
macliinery I'or the manufacture of sash, blinds, 
doors and other articles in wood. In 1880 the 
establishment passed into the hands of Samuel 
H. Edes, and so continues. 

The EA(iLE Mills were built in the year 
1822 by Farnsworth & Durkee, and first used 
for the manufacture of linseed oil ; afterward 
liy James Breck & Co., for the manufacture of 
cotton yarn. 

In 18.35 a company, incorporated by the 
Legislature and known as the Newport Me- 
chanics' Manufacturing ("ompany, occupied the 
premises for the mauutlicturc of satinets. xVfter 
running about two years the incorjxu-ated 
bubble burst. 

In 1838 Parks & Twitchell took the mill 
and commenced the making of cassimeres. In 
1844 Thomas A. Twitchell succeeded to the 
business, enlarged the building and put in 
machinery for making l)roadcloths, cassi- 
meres, satinets, tweeds, flannels and fancy 
cloths. He was successful for a time, but ulti- 
mately became embarrassed, and, in 1854, sold 
out to the Eagle Mills Company. 

After a long pedigree of unsuccesses the Eagle 
Mills property was, in the year 18(3(), purchased 
by Samuel H. Edes, and has since been run l)y 
him for the manufacture of bhie, mixed and 
twilled flannels. 

The Sug.\r River Mills were built by 
Perley S. Cofiin soon after he came to New- 



port (1840), and John Pufier. The interest of 
Puffer came, through David G. Goodridge, iir 
1853, into possession of Seth and Dexter 
Richards. 

In 1867 the senior Richards and P. S. Coffin 
retire<l froiti tlie concern, leaving Dexter Rich- 
ards sole proprietor. In 1872 Seth M. Rich- 
ards became interested in the business, under the 
firm-name of Dexter Richards & Sou, and so 
continues. Enlargements and improvements 
have been made at various times, and the pro- 
duction of the mills annually exceeds one 
million yards of mixed twilled flannels. 

The (tHAMTE State ^Iills were built in 
18(i7 by Perley S. Coffin and William Nourse, 
and were occupied by them in the manufacture 
of woolen goods until about 1881-82, when 
they passed into the hands of George C. Rich- 
ardson & Co., of Boston, by whom they are 
operated for the manufacture of various kinds 
of woolen goods. They occupy the site of the 
old Giles mills. 

In regard to the amount of water-power 
afforded by Sugar River, and the amount 
ali'eady utilized, we gather the following statis- 
tics from the repoi't to the New Hampshire 
Legislature, recently made (1885) by John T. 
Abbott, of Keene, conuuissioner in relation to 
the effects of drawing off" the waters of New 
Hampshire lakes and ponds to supply mills, 
etc. Regarding Lake Sunapee, lie says that its 
outlet is the Sugar River, which flows from its 
westerly shore at Sunapee Harbor, through Sun- 
apee, Newport and Claremont, about eighteen 
miles, to the Connecticut River, in which dis- 
tance it falls between eight hundred and nine 
hundred feet. 

l^'or many years it has furnished the power 
for a large number of mills, representing 
different industries, and is an important soin-ce 
of wealth to those places. In Sunapee the 
capital invested in mill property amounts to 
§31,300; the annual product, $81,000, while 
the waterfall connected with mills and their 
privileges is 168 feet. 



NEWPORT. 



227 



In Newport tlie capital invested is §2!)7,0()0; 
tlie number of liands employed ol5; stock 
ill trade valued at ^118,200; annual pro- 
duction, $602,500 ; monthly pay-roll, $(iOOO ; 
and the fall, 218.5 feet. In Clareniont the 
amount of fall utilized by 13 privileges is 
stated at 22:5 feet in the augreaate 609.5 feet, 
which leaves nearly 300 feet of power riinuing 
to waste. The capital in these mills has nearly all 
been invested with reference to using Sunapec 
Lake as a reservoir of water supplv. The 
Sunapee Dam Com|iany, which is in the interesl 
and controlled by the mill-owners, has full con- 
trol, according to their charter, of these waters. 
The o])posing interest comes from the hotels, 
steamboats and riparian proprietors about the 
lake, and is based on the fact that the region is 
becoming largely a summer resort, and niucli 
capital has been invested in this view, and it is 
damaging to these proprietors that the waters 
of the lake should be too much drawn out to 
the injury of their boating and other interests. 

The matter remains without nnich of con- 
cession on the part of tlie mill-owners, and is 
virtually unsettled uj) to this time. 

Up to the year 1871 the manufacturing and 
agricultural interests of Newport had achieved 
all the prosperity it was possible for them to 
attain without railroad facilities to enable them 
to compete successfully with other towns in the 
enjoyment of such facilities. 

.\s early as the year 1848 the Concord and 
Claremont Railroad ('ompany had been incorp- 
orated, and in 1850 the road had been put in 
operation to Bradford. From Bradford to 
Newport the rugged character of the route ^^•as 
appalling to engineers and contractors and par- 
ticularly so to capitalists, who were expected to 
furnish money for the construction of the road 
Tiie enterprise here came to a stand. Further 
eflbrts, legislative and otherwise, to continue 
the work were made without success, and for 
twenty-one years the heavy-laden stages and 
teams continued to toil on over the weary roads, 
to and fro, waiting for some able and friendly 
15 



hand to establish a new order of thinss and re- 
lieve them. 

In the mean time the War of the Rebellion, 
that had absorbed the thought and muscle and 
capital of the country, had come and gone, and 
" enterprises of great pith and moment," that 
had long slumbered, were again revived, and 
day again dawned upon the Sugar River Rail- 
road Company. 

In the year 1866, mainly through the instru- 
mentality of Dexter Richards, then a mendier 
of the Legislature from the town, the Sugar 
River Railroad Company, now known as the 
Concord and Claremout Railroad Company, was 
chartered. The means to revive and continue 
the building of the road through to Claremout 
were furnished by the Northern Railroad Com- 
pany, aided by large assessments on the towns on 
the route of the road. 

The t(jwn of Newport, Ijy otticial act, became 
responsible for the sum of $45,000, or about 
five per cent, on its valuation at that time. In 
addition to this amount, the further sum of 
$20,000 was required to assure the continuance 
and completion of the work. Of this amount 
Mr. Richards became liable for $11,000 and 
several other parties interested made up the re- 
maining $9,000. The assurance of $65,000 
from the town of Newport secured the construc- 
tion of the road through to Claremout. 

On the 31st day of May, 1870, Captain Seth 
Richards, then in the seventy-ninth year of his 
age, and Dr. Mason Hatch, in the eightieth year 
of his age, the former with spade and mattock 
and the latter with a gaily-painted wheelbarrow 
in which appeared a shovel, attended by a large 
number of enthusastic citizens, repaired to a 
point on the projected road near where the pas- 
senger depot now stands, and while the church- 
bells rang and cannon pealed, and the crowd 
cheered, tliose veterans picked and shoveled and 
wheeled the first ground broken in the continua- 
tion of an enterprise which, in its completion, 
has been of incalculable value to Newport and 
the neighboring towns north and south. 



228 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The first train of cars crossed Main Street, 
in Newport, November 2(J, 1871. The road 
was soon after completed to Claremont, and the 
first reguhir train from Concord to Claremont 
passed through Newport September 10, 1872. 

A telegraph connection was made by the 
Western Union Company with this town, by 
the way of Bradford, in July, 186(), and ex- 
tended to Claremont in October, 187;3. 

Tele])hone lines, connecting with the towns 
north, south, east and west, and local about the 
village, were established in 18x3-84. 

The business men of Newport have for 
many years enjoyed the facilities afforded by a 
sound banking institution. The Sugar River 
Bank was incorporated in 18o."i, with a capital 
of fifty thousand dollars. In 1858, Ralph Met- 
calf, the first president, removed from town and 
was succeeded bj' Thomas W. (iilmore. In 
1805 it was reorganized as a national bank, and 
the capital stock was increased to one hundred 
thousand dollars. In 1875 Mr. Gilmore re- 
tired and Dexter Richards was elected presi- 
dent and F. W. Lewis cashier, and so continue. 

The Newport Savings- Bank was incorporated 
in 1868. This bank has made semi-annual 
dividends of two and one-half per cent, from 
its organization. In April, 1 88 o, it reported : 
deposits, $421, 433.;32; guaranty fund, |20,000; 
surplus, 110,538.85. 



CHAPTER II. 

NEWPORT— (Co/ifuiHerf). 



IILITARY. 



What we know about Newport during the 
Revolutionary struggle is confined to a few old 
records and traditions which we have been able 
to gather up, with a regret that they are not 
more complete. 

The town was young and small, but active, 
intelligent and full of patriotism. The popu- 
lation, in 1775, is stated at 157, and in 1790, 



fifteen years afterward, 780, so that a gradual 
increase must have continued during the seven 
years of the war. We are confident in stating 
that there was not a resident Tory within its 
lines. 

The first public act bearing upon military 
affairs appears under date July 20, 1775, sup- 
])lemented by further consideration on August 
7th following, when a town Committee of 
Safety was apjiointed, consisting of Benjamin 
Giles, Aaron Buel, .Jesse Lane, Josiah Stephens, 
Robert Lane and Jesse Wilcox. 

Early in the year 1776 the Continental Con- 
gress enacted the following resolution, which 
was sent to each of the United Colonies: 

" In Congress, March 1(1, 1770. 

" Resolved, that it be recommended to tlie several 
Assemblies. Conventions and Conncils, or Commit- 
tees of Safety of the ITnited Colonies immediately to 
cause all persons to be disarmed within their respec- 
tive colonies, who are notoriously disaffected to the 
cause of America, or who have not associated, 
and refuse to associate to defend by Arms the United 
Colonies against the Hostile attempts of the British 
Fleets and Armies. 

(Signed) "Charles Thompson, 

" Secyr 

The foregoing resolve came through Me- 
shech Weare, chairman of the Colonial Com- 
mittee of Safety, and was by him submitted to 
the towns as follows : 

"Colony of New Hampshire. 

" In Committee of Safety. 
" In order to carry the Resolve of the Hon'ble Con- 
tinental Congress into Execution, you are requested 
to desire all Males above twenty-one years of age — 
Lunatics, Idiots and Negroes excepted — to sign to 
the Declaration on this Paper ; and when so done to 
Make Return thereof, together with the name, or 
names of all who shall refuse to sign the same to the 
General Assembly, or Committeeof Safety of this Col- 
ony. 

" M. Weare, Chairman." 

The document submitted for signature is 
known as the " Articles of Association," and 
proceeds as follows : 



NEWPORT. 



229 



" Articles. 

" In consequence of the above Resolution of the 
Hon. Continental UongresiS and to show our deter- 
mination in Joining our American Brethren in de- 
fending our Live.s, Liberties and Properties of the In- 
habitants of the United Colonies. 

" We the subscribers do hereb)' solemnly engage 
and promise that we will to the utmost of our power, 
at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms 
oppose the Hostile proceedings of the British Fleets 
aud Armies against the United Colonies. 



" Benjamin Giles. 
Samuel Hurd. 
Jesse Kelsey. 
Benjamin Bragg. 
Jesse Wilcox. 
Absalom Kelsey. 
Joseph Buel. 
Nathan Hurd. 
Robert Lane. 
James Church. 
Amos Hall. 
David Brown. 
Aaron Buel. 
Josiah Stevens. 
Ephraim Towner. 
Semer Kelsey. 
William Stauard. 



Uriah Wilcox. 
Phineas Wilcox. 
Nathan Woodbury. 
Jedediah Reynolds. 
Isaac Newtou. 
Jesse Bailey. 
Jeremiah Jcnks. 
Ezra Parmelee. 
Joel Bailey. 
Abraham Buel. 
Jesse Lane. 
Daniel Buel. 
Josiah Dudley. 
Daniel Dudley. 
Jedediah Reynolds, Jr. 
Ebenezer Merritt. 
John Lane. 



" Newport, June 20, a.d. 1776— The Inhabitants 

of Newport that is requested {sic) have all signed the 

Association. 

" .TcsiAH Stevens, I Selectmen 

"Samuel Hurd, ' of New- 

I 
" Aaron Buel, ] port." 

It is matter of interest to oonsitler tiie pre- 
ceding tliirty-fonr names not only as patriots, 
ready and willing witli arms to oppose the hos- 
tile proceedings of the British Heats and armies, 
lint as the fathers of the town and the male 
heads of every family then residenit in New- 
port. 

Further on we find that, at a meeting of the 
inhabitants held on July 24, 177(), yamucl 
Ilnrd was clioseu captain, Jeremiali Jenks lieu- 
tenant and Uriah Wileox ensign. 

On Angu.st 16, 177(i, the Committee of Safe- 
ty certify to the following report : 



" The number of able-bodied effective men in the 
township of Newport is Thirty-Six — the number of 
muskets fit for service is fourteen — -the muskets that 
are not fit — five — which will Ije m.ade fit forthwith — 
seventeen muskets wanted." 

May 27, 1777, at a town-meeting" Voted' 
To raise eighteen pounds, lawful money, to buy 
a town's stock of ammunition, viz. : forty 
pounds powder, one hundred pounds lead and 
ten dozen flints." 

About that time the war-cloud hung dark 
over Northern New England and New York. 
Burgoyne, with an army of about eight thou- 
sand men, was at the north end of Lake Cham- 
plain, preparing to cut his way through and 
meet another British army proceeding from 
New York, aud thus separate New England 
from the Confederacy. Ticonderoga was in 
his path. Tiie excitement in this particular 
.section of the country was intense. This was 
the nearest approach to us on the north and 
west of " hostile British armies" 

The alarm company, or miuute-mon, from 
the towns were called out June 17, 1777. 
(Officers of the alarm company in Newport 
were chosen as follows : 

Ezra Parmelee, cajit. Isaac Newton, 2d lieut. 

Christopher Newton, 1st Joshua Warner, ensign, 
lieut. 

The names comprising the alarm company 
that left on June 29, 1777, for the defense of 
Ticonderoga are as follows : 

Capt. Ezra Parmelee and Nathiiii Hurd. 

officers as above. Absalom Kelsey. 

Matthew Buel. Ebenezer Merritt. 

Daniel Buel. Jesse Wilcox. 

.Fereniiah Jenks. Abraham Buel. 

Jesse Lane. Stephen Hurd. 

Josiali Stevens. Thomas Lane. 
Joseph Buel. 

The capture of Ticonderoga by Burgoyne 
occurred Jidy 6, 1777. Our men had started 
t()r its relief, but were detained at Charlestowu, 
No. 4, or Bellows' Ealls, in order that (Jeueral 
Bellows might perfect his arrangements iijr the 



230 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



marcli,and while tliere news came of tlie evacua- 
tion of the fortress by tiie Americans; without 
proceeding farther, they were discharged and 
came home. 

The names of Revohitionary soldiers credited 
to this town are nearly as follows : 



Thomas Carr. 
Robert Diirkee. 
John McGregor. 
Philip W. Kibbey. 
John Pike. 
Richard Goodwin. 
William Haven. 
Jonathan Wakefield. 
Simeon Buel. 
Daniel Chapin. 
Theophilus Goodwin. 
Daniel Stearns. 
Robert ^V'oodward. 



Samuel Thompson. 
Samuel Washburn. 
Amos Hall, Jr. 
Phineas Ciiapin. 
Solomon Dunliam. 
Joel Kelsey. 
Samuel Sischo. 
Silas Wakefield. 
Elias Dudley. 
Joel McGregor. 
Jesse Kelsey. 
Josiah Wakeneld. 
Hezekiah Reynolds. 



Joel McGregor, wliose name occurs in tliis 
list, was a native of Enfield, Conn., born No- 
vember 22, 1760. He enli.sted in the Conti- 
nental army April 17, 1777, and was five years 
in the service. He was some eight months a 
prisoner in the "Old Sugar-House" in New 
York City, where he suffered much from cold 
and hunger. He died at his home, at North 
Newport, in November, 1861, aged one hundred 
and one years. 

Joel Kelsey, another of these patriots, was a 
native of Killingworth, born August 6, 1761. 
He enlisted in 1777; was also a British pris- 
oner in the same "Old Sugar-Hou.se," in New 
York, where he endured great hardships. After 
the war he married, January 12, 1786, Jemima 
Buel, of Connecticut, and .settled on the East 
Mountain, where he died March 6, 1860, aged 
nearly one hundred years. 

Joel McGregor and Joel Kelsey, both Joels, 
and citizens of this town , were the two last 
names of Revolutionary heroes on the pension- 
roll of the State of New Hamjrshire. 

The War of 1812-14 does not seem to have 
been of particular interest to the people of New- 
port. We have no means of knowing how the 



enlistments were made, or auy of the attending 
circumstances. 

The names of seventeen men are credited to 
Newport as soldiers in that war as follows: 



Barnabas Brown. 
William Carr. 
Calvin Call. 
Charles Colby. 
Robert Durkee. 
Solomon Dunham. 
Daniel Dudley. 
Jacob Dwinells. 
Lama McGregor. 



Samuel Hoyt. 
Jared Lane. 
Daniel Muzzy. 
Stephen Pike. 
David Reed. 
Zai-cheus Shurtleff. 
Nathan Wilmarth, Sr. 
Hartford Wilmarth. 



Calvin Coyle, who died July 23, 1880, aged 
eighty-four years, was the la.st survivor of the 
number. 

The Mexican War of 1846-47 was regarded 
only in its political aspects in this remote cor- 
ner of the Union. This war was the result of 
the annexation of Texas, by which the area of 
slave territory was increased. Fifty thousand 
volunteers were called for by the government, 
and the recruits were mostly from the Southern 
States. It resulted, not only iu a settlement of 
the Texas question, but in the acquisition of a 
large amount of Mexictui territory on the Pa- 
cific coast, and, also, the defeat of the Whig 
party under the head of Webster and Clay. 

The war fi)r the preservation of the Union 
received a most enthusiastic support in the 
town of Newport. A long-delayed crisis had 
arrived ; the time for argument had passed ; the 
resort to arms had come. 

The call of President Lincoln for seventy-five 
thousand volunteers received prompt attention. 
On the 22d of April, 1861, the citizens of the 
town, without distinction of party, crowded the 
town hall ; addresses were made, and with the 
utmost unanimity of feeling, the sum of fifteen 
hundred dollars was pledged for the fitting out 
and support of such as might volunteer to fill 
the quota of the town. This action was aiter- 
ward ratified at a meeting of the town legally 
warned. 

Ira McL. Barton, a young lawyer of the 



NEWPORT. 



231 



town, having received authority for the pur- 
pose, recruited the first company of v'olunteers 
for three months* service and was commissioned 
its captain. 

The company served its time in the First 
New Hampshire Regiment, under Colonel 
M. W. Tap pan. The town made appropria- 
tions during the war in aid of the volunteers 
amounting to $70,491.78. 

Each quota was promptly filled witiiout the 
necessity of a draft for that purpose. 

Captain John B. Cooper did efficient service 
in recruiting and afterwards in the field during 
the war. 

The whole number of soldiers enlisted from 
the town during the four years of the war was 
two hundred and forty. 

Those that survived the conflict returned to 
receive the j^laudits of the people, and the dead 
have not been forgotten. The country has not 
been ungrateful to its brave defenders. Liberal 
appropriations have been made by the govern- 
ment in their behalf, and for the support of 
their widows and children. 

The names of those enlisted are as follows: 



Ira McL. Barton, capt. 
Thomas Sanborn, siir. 
Dexter G. Reed, 2d lieut. 
Edgar E. Adams, 1st lieut. 
Ervin T. Case, capt. 
John B. Cooper, capt. 
Chas. C. Shattuck, capt. 
Benj. R. Allen, capt. 
J. W. Hastings, capt. 
Edw. Nettleton, 1st lieut. 
Truman L. Heath, 1st 

lieut. 
Sumuer F. Hurd, 1st lieut. 
P. H. Wellcome, 2d lieut. 
A. V. Hitchcock, q-m. 
John A. George, 2d lieut. 
Sam Nims, hos. std 
Paul S. Adams, hos. std. 
Benj. Howe, 2d lieut. 
Jesse T. Cobb, 1st serg. 
Chas. H. Little, serg. 



M. W. Home. 
Moses Hoyt. 
Hem y S. Howard. 

E. S. Home. 
Abiel L. Haven. 
Wm. A. Hutchinson. 
L. B. Hastings. 
Robert Harris. 
George Howard. 

A. C. Home. 
Hugh Higgins. 
Alamendo Heath. 
Amos Hastings. 
Antoiue Hockman, killed. 
Arthur H. Ingram. 
S. S. Ingalls. 

F. A. Johnson. 
E. B. Johnson. 
Chas. A. Jackson. 
William Kennedy, died 

of wounds. 



Wni. Delano, com. serg. 
Jas. M. Russell, serg. 
Austin Reed, 3 mo., died. 
E. D. Whipple, serg. 
M. S. Wilcox, serg. 
Geo. A. Chase, serg. 

D. W. Home, serg. 
Wm. W. Page, serg. 

A. J. Hastings, q. -serg. 
Alvin A. Young. 
Sylvester Spaulding, serg. 
John R. Hall, 1st serg. 
Gilford L. Hurd, serg. 

R. M. J. Hastings, corp. 
Chas. A. Puffer, corp. 
Chas. C. Gilmore, corp. 
Elijah Hutchinson, corp. 
Peter C rowel 1, corp. 
Chas. H. Crandall, serg. 
Edwin R. Miller, corp. 
Henry M. Haines, corp. 
Joel S. Blood, corp. 
Henry Tompkins, corp. 

E. C. Kelsey, corp. 

P. C. Hutchinson, corp. 
Bela H. Wilcox, corp. 
Hiram M. Austin, serg. 
Richard W. Allen. 
Dexter W. Allen. 
George Anderson. 
Thos. Anderson. 
James Armstrong. 
Henry W. Badger. 
John W. Bradley. 
Nathan T. Brown. 
Geo. P. Beane, died. 
Hazen Barnard, wgr. 
Nathaniel Bright, corp. 

B. B. Barton. 
Wm. H. Belknap. 
Jonathan Blake. 
Josiah H. Bacon. 
Edgar Boyden. 
Albert Boyden, killed. 
Ziba C. Barton. 
George Bates. 
Clarke E. Craige. 
John Conners. 
Michael Crumney. 



Michael Kelliher. 
Geo. W. Kelsey. 
John C. Kelley. 
Roswell J. Kelsey. 
Frank J. Latimer. 
Joseph Leeds, died. 
Frederick H. Lull. 
Edgar Lacy. 
Chester S. Marshall. 
Chauncey Marshall. 
Sullivan Marston. 
Perry Miner. 
Jidin Munnegan. 
Peter McGlone. 
D. M. Marshall. 
James McCarty. 
Francis Mullen. 
Andrew J. Moody. 
Freeman W. Nourse. 
Jo.seph Nelson. 
Patrick Owens. 
S. B. Ordway. 
N. R. Osmer, killed. 
Edmund Parker. 
John Phillips, died. 
James C. Parish. 
John Peterson. 
J. S. Preston. 
Wm. H. Perry. 
Edwin A. Perry. 
Pliilander H. Peck, died. 
John M. Page. 
Clarence F. Pike. 
James C. Parker. 
Asaliel Putnam. 
J. A. Putnam, died. 
Samuel L. Pike. 
Lucius P. Reed. 
Wallace L. Reed. 
Davis B. Robinson. 
John D. Roberts. 
Elmidore Roberts. 
Asa Richardson. 
George C. Rouudy. 
Alonzo Reed. 
George Richardson. 
Preston Reed. 
J. P. Reddington, died. 
D. Z. Robbins. 



232 



HISTOIU* OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Hial Comstock, died. 
Truman C Cutting. 
Warren Colby, Icilled. 
George Comstock. 
James Call. 
Alva S. Chase. 
Henry Cutting. 
Edward Cochran, killed. 
Chas. Collins. 
George F. C!ram. 
Jonathan Crovvell, died. 
Henry Currier, died. 
Wm. Collins. 

C. H. Comstock, died. 
Reuben Craige. 

E. F. Corbin. 
David Carlisle. 
J. R. Corey. 
John Canny. 
J. E. Dean, died. 
P^ank P. Dudley. 
Ira C. Dowlin. 
Daniel Dowder. 
Lewis Datfer. 
H. W. Davis. 
Harry Downs. 
Pat Donohue. 
W. O. Emerson, died. 
Wm. G. Egan. 
Frank Elkins. 

D. W. Fitch, died. 
George C. Foss, died of 

wounds. 
L. J. Fitch. 
W. H. Flanders. 
John Foote. 
C. F. Foote. 
C. M. Farr, serg. 
John Finnigan. 
C. H. Fellows. 
Ira P. George, wounded. 
Daniel W. (Jeorgc. 

A. P. Goodrich. 
J. R. Hutchinson. 

Geo. A. Hutchinson, died. 
Wm. Hoban. 
C. H. H.all, died. 

B. F. Haven, died in rebel 
prison. 



H. A. Reynolds. 
John Ryan. 
I^awrence Reath. 
Oliver F. Stearns. 
Andrew J. Sawyer. 
Gardner Sweet. 
Ruel Swains. 
Israel Sanborn, died. 
Daniel Spaulding. 
Edward Siddell. 
Wm. S. Sischo. 
John H. Shattuck. 
Daniel L. Straw. 
Joseph Sennott. 

C. H. Stockwell. 
Moses P. Sinclair. 
Simon C. Smith. 
Chas. F. Smith. 
Wm. Snow. 
Arthur Sykes, died. 
William Smith. 
Chas. St. Clair. 

Eli Tompkins, <lied of 

wounds. 
Frank S. Taylor. 
Simon A. Tenney, Corp. 
John P. Tilton. 
Patrick Tufter. 

D. W. Thompson, died. 
Chas. C. Webber. 
Chas. D. Worcester. 
Sylvester B. Warren, corp. 
Albert Wright, died. 
Marcine Whitconib. 
Richard A. Webber. 

A. A. Wynian. 
George Williams. 
Chas. E. Wiggin. 
James P. Wheeler, died in 

hands of the enemy. 
Calvin H. Whitney. 
Calvin W. Wright. 
Wm. Wallace, corp. 
David G. Wihnarth. 
,Iohn Wilson. 
Charles Williams, died of 

wounds. 
Martin L. Whittier. 
Chas. B. York. 



John H. Hunter. 
Henry H. Haven, corp. 
Wm. C. Hurd. 
John C. Harris. 
Wm. A. Humphrey. 



George Williams. 
Thos. A. Gilmore, serg. 
Bela Nettleton. 
Willard Reed. 



The following natives of Newport were en- 
listed in other places, and served during the 
Civil War : 

George H. Cheney, on staff of General Nickerson, 
division provost-marshal. 

Mason W. Tappau, colonel First New Hampshire 
Regiment. 

Samuel J. Allen, M.D., surgeon in a Vermont regi- 
ment. 

Belah Stevens, surgeon at Washington, D. C. 

Joseph A. Chapin, hospital steward. 

M. V. B. Wilmarth, Third Michigan Cavalry. 

Milton E. Pike, Vermont Volunteers. 

Job Puffer, Fourteenth Connecticut Regiment. 

Ellas B. Bascom, captain in the Fifth Iowa Regi- 
ment. 

Wallace Bascom, Second Massachusetts ; shot at 
Gettysburg. 

.lames Parmelce Bascom, Ninth New Il.arapshire. 

E. M. Kempton, Third New Hampshire. 

Hiram C. Hall, Croydon. 

.\lbert Nettleton, son of Daniel, Fir.st Regular Army. 

Commodore George E. Belknap, United States Navy. 

George W. Brown, volunteer, lieutenant United 
States Navy. 

Nathan T. Brown, master's mate. 

Charles J. Belknap, United States Navy. 

Henry S. Belknap, captain's clerk United States 
Navy. 

But one native, or citizen of Newport, was 
amontr those marked as deserters. 

Soon after the close of the war an institution 
or .secret society, made up of Union soldiers, was 
organizt'd by Dr. B. F. Stoj)hen.son, in Dakota, 
III., which proved to be the ilrst po.st of the 
" Grand Army of the Republic," a.s from that 
its posts and camp-fires have spread all over the 
land. 

Frederick Smythe Post, No. 10, was estxib- 
lish in Newport in the spring of 1868. Its 
charter members were Major ^\^ II. H. Allen 



NEWPORT. 



233 



C;ai)tain .Tulni B. Vn^>rv, 15. ]{. Allen, Paul 
S. Adams, Charles H. Little and utliers, 
Tiiere are about seventy-five veterans connected 
with this post. The objects of the institution 
are " To cherish and keep alive the memory of 
our experiences during the war. To care foi- 
the disabled and unfortunate of our number 
and all worthy Union soldiers, their widows and 
orj)iians. To faithfully oliserve ' IMemorial Day,' 
— May .''Otii, — and annually strew Howers anil 
evergreens upon the graves of our de|)arted com- 
rades. To foster a spirit of loyalty to ourgov- 
erimient and honor its flag as the emblem of 
National Unity. The cardinal principles of tlie 
order are Fraternity, ( 'liarity and Loyalty." 

This institution proves to be a source of 
great interest and benefit to the veteran soldiers 
as they continue to gather at stated times around 
its camp-fires. 

The citizen soldier is indigenous to this coun- 
try. The necessity for a defensive attitude 
on the jiart of the colonists of America is 
apparent from the beginning. 

They were invaders, and as such were at all 
times subject to the assaults of the Indian 
people whose possessions they were grasping. 

There was no standing army to protect their 
advance as they pushed their settlements into 
the wilderness. They were dependent on their 
own craft and personal valor for tiie defense of 
themselves an<l tlieir families. 

They carried their arms and ammunition to 
the clearings where they wrought and to the 
meeting-houses where they worshipped God, 
each individual the embodiment of a War 
Department and terrible as an armv with ban- 
ners. 

They fought in the interest of the old coun- 
trv through the Indian and French and Inilian 
Wars, and aided largely in driving France from 
the possession of the Canadas. They then 
turned round and fought the mother-country 
until she was — we will not say jileased, but 
obliged to let them go with a benediction of 
objurgations. Hence the colonial people were 



a military people — a citizen soldiery, in the best 
sense of the term. 

After the Revolution tlic idea of order at 
home and defense from without centred in a 
n)ilitia system instead of a standing army, and 
to that end, anil to keep alive and cultivate a 
martial spirit among the people, a State militia 
system was organized, which made it obligatory 
u|ion the citizens at a certain age to enrollment 
and fill' porfornianee of niiiilary (hity. From 
this came the May trainings and the regimental 
fall musters that, ytar after year, for more than 
fifty years, disposed the citizen soldiery of this 
town and State in martial array and brought 
such delisiht to both se.xes and all ay-es andcou- 
ditions of our people as they looked upon the 
gay uniforms, waving plumes and martial evo- 
lutions of the companies belonging to the old 
Thirtv-first Regiment upon the common, or 
listened to the harangues and witticisms of the 
[)eddlers and hucksters that swarmed upon its 
margins. 

Finally, the militia system of the State became 
a vehicle l)y which designing politicians sought 
influence and j)referment. Its gr.ind old mus- 
ters came to be little better than jiolitical and 
partisan mass-meetings, and the system was 
ON'erthrowu and abandoned in disgust. This 
was the situation when the Civil War burst upon 
the country. Since that time a new military 
system has been organized in the State, which 
has promise of usefulness tor the time to come. 

In the spring of 18S3, under recent legisla- 
tion, Company D, Second Regiment New Hamp- 
shire National Guards, was successfully recruit- 
ed and formed in the town of Newport. Col- 
onel White, of the Second Regiment New Hamp- 
shire National Guards came from Peterborough 
to preside at the organization of the new com- 
pany, to be known as tiie Newport Rifles. 
Ashton W. Rounsevel was chosen captain, Fred 
W. Cheney first lieutenant, and C. E. Dud- 
ley second Lieutenant. The building known 
as Bennett's Hall has been leased and fitted up 
as an armorv and drill-room. The martial 



234 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



spirit of our people will not be permitted to de- 
cline. The citizen, under certain regulations, 
should l)e instructed in the use of arms and tac- 
tics, and in nowise consent to delegate the na- 
tional defense exclusively to a standing army. 
Among the citizens of Newport who have 
held positions in the State militia are the fol- 
lowing : 

Ralph Metcalt, Governor anil commander-in-chief. 

Edmund Burke, aid to Governor Hubbard. 

Edmund Wheeler, aid to Governor Williams. 

Martin W. Burke, aid to Governor Weston. 

Samuel M. Wheeler, aid to Governor Stearns. 

Edward Wyman, brigadier general Third Divi- 
sion. 

Simeon Wheeler, Jr., inspector, staff Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Wyman. 

Bela Nettleton, aid to Brigadier-General Carey. 

Benjamin F. French, quartermaster, Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Glidden. 

William H. Cheney, aid to Brigadier-General Glid- 
den. 

John S. Parinelee, aid to Brigadier-General New- 
ton. 

Henry E. Baldwin, quartermaster, staff' of General 
Newton. 

David Dickey, brigade inspector, staff' of General 
Wyman. 

Edmund Burke, inspector, staff of General Newton. 

Colonels. — Phineas Chapin, Erastus Baldwin, Wil- 
liam Cheney, James D. Walcott, Benjamin Carr, Jo- 
siah Stevens, Jr., Edward Wyman, Jessiel Perry, 
Charles Corbin, Jacob Reddington, Daniel Nettleton, 
Benjamin M. Gilmore. 

3laJors. — Josiali Htevens, Jesse Wikox, Erastus 
Newton, John 11. Patch, Josiah Wakefiekl, Cyrus B. 
Howe, Sullivan G. Pike. 

Adjutants. — Calvin Call, Cyrus Barton, Edmund 
Wheeler, Simeon Wheeler, Francis Boardman, Lewis 
Smith, Hartford Sweet, John Day, Lyman Gould. 

The Thirty-first Regiment New Hampshire 
Militia, to which reference has been made, was 
comprised of citizens legally qualified to per- 
form military duty, from the towns of Goshen, 
Suuapee, Newport, Croydon, Grantham and 
Springfield. The annual musters were held by 
appointment in the different towns, but more 



frequently in Newport, on account of its central 
position and desirable parade-gi-ound. The 
scenes and incidents in connection with the.se 
parades made a lasting impression upon the 
mind of the writer when a lad, and have been 
by him committed to verse, which is here pre- 
sented, to close this chapter on military affairs, 
in the following 

HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE BALLAD. 



As Time is ever on the wing 

We may as well rehearse, — 
And thus preserve, as best we can. 

In this our homely verse, — 

The annals of the " Thirty-first,"— 

That regimental corps, 
That grandly marched and counter-marched 

In tlie good old days of yore. 

Already much of interest 

Thai held the local ear. 
And caused a smile to lookers-on, 

Can never reappear. 

And hence we travel back in time 

Full fifty years or more 
To find a theme on which to rhyme, 

That ne'er was rhymed before. 

We hear again in memory 

The booming of the gun 
That broke the silence of the morn. 

And hailed the rising sun. 

While wide-awake and listening, 

I'jxpectant youngsters lay. 
And heard the echoes crash along 

That told of muster-day. 

We hear the deep-toned basso-drum, 

The stirring reveille ; 
" Ear-piercing fife," and clarionet. 

In martial revelry. 

We see the gorgeous Stars and Stripes 

Emblazoned on the sky. 
As from the flag-staff' on the mall 

So gallantly they fly. 



NEWPORT. 



235 



Anon, the Wendall men arrived, 

At lilt .Icihn Silver's Inn ; 
And drnmmer Steplien iSenmton came, 

And fifer Asa Winn.' 

And tliere they toolv of sugared grog 
And smoked, and chewed, and spil. 

As independent yeomen could ; 
And plied their rustic wit. 

In later times, tlie Knowllon boys. 

Both standing si.\ feet four, — 
111 pride of strength and martial mien 

Led on this valiant corjis. 

Then came the Goshen Infantry, 

Xo infants sure were there. 
With bayonets glittering in the sun. 

And banner high in air. 

And "John the Man," and " Jidin the Boy," 

Ben Rand an<l Walker Lear, 
Aceoutered as tlic law directs 

In rank and file appear. 

Some measnre<l fully six feet four. 
And marched with powerful stride. 

While others, scarcely four feet six, 
Like ducklings, waddled wide. 

The canteens dangling at their side 

Smelt of New England rum, 
Aud tall Scott Tandy played the fife, — 

Short Sammy beat the drum. 

And John C. Calef,' then a lad, 

A youngster full of life. 
Came with these Goshen fusileers, 

And jtlayed the second fife ; 

And now, at nearly four-score years. 

With recollection clear. 
The legends of his early time 

Delights to nuote and hear. 

.\iid Belknap Bartlet, known to fame. 
And William Wonder (fulj Pike, 

Were members of that martial band 
Prepared to blow and strike. 



' Musicians in the War of 1 812-1 4. 
'' The two John .Sholes, of Goshen. 
' (_)f Gloucester, Mass. 



('onspicuons among the rest 

Was Captain Maxfield seen, 
As in command he proudly strode, 

Ah)ng the village green. 

His white duck pants, somewhat too short, 
Were held by strajis of leather 

From underneath his ample soles, 
And in his hat a feather. 

In Croydon, Grantham, all around. 

The morning gun was heard, 
And distant Springfield felt the sound. 

Or Pollard* sent them word. 

Thus early roused, the mountain boys. 

To thwart the morning fog, 
And brace their stomachs for the day 

Took lustily of grog. 

And Captain Stone, the Grantham chief, 

Was drier than the rest, 
And anxious comrades wiped his chin 

And straightened down his vest. 

C.VSTO II. 

And on they came, the r.iiik and file. 

Colonel and brigadier. 
And all the country folks that could 

From hamlet far and near. 

And here they met our flood-woods, formed 

In orderly platoons, 
Artillery, Light Infantry, 

And dashing, plumed dragoons. 

Those gallant troopers certainly 

Enrapt our youthful gaze. 
And well deserve in this our lay 

A stanza in their praise. 

Their broidered coats and epaulets, 
Brass buttons, sashes, straps, — 

And fiercest thing of all to see, 
Their frowning bear-skin caps. 

We know that jokes were often made, 
And sometimes gibes and jeers, 

At the expense of that brave troop. 
Not worth their horse.s' leers. 



' .V newsy citizen. 



236 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The troops sometimes lost their wits, 
Or heedless played the clown ; 

Their " stock " not all of Morgan breed 
Would sometimes tumble down. 

But horse and rider left their trail 

Along the sands of time. 
Else naught had been to gather up 

In this historic rhyme. 

"Advancing backwards" from the line, 
See Nathan Wilmarth (Jr.) stand, 

A stalwart form, ."an eye like Mars' 
To threaten and command." 

And stately was the [ilume that waved 

Upon his glossy tile. 
Before the " Old South Company " 

When formed in rank and iile. 

He marched it up and down the street. 
That corps so truly brave, — 

And when the discipline grew slack. 
He " wished they would behave." 

Another feature of the day 
That gave the occasion tone. 

Was a distinguished windy band, 
Made up of Pikes alone. 

And Luther, Ransom, Calvin .John, 

Sul, and Abiel D., 
Each on his favorite instrument 

Made thrilling harmony. 

While " Major Saxie," mace in hand. 

Most gorgeously arrayed. 
Pranced high before this pick'rell band 

To mark the time they played. 

And on the ground was Calvin Call, 

A man of some renown, 
A soldier of the " War of Twelve," 

A farmer of the town. 

A blue dress-coat he often wore, 
With buttons bright and flat. 

And on his head was always seen 
That famous bell-crowned hat. 

A man decided in his views, — 
Out-spoken, some would think, — 

He made his speech town-meeting days 
And sometimes took a drink. 



But other things we would discuss 

Instead of local trifles ; 
The Springfield men that marched so wel 

And then the " Grantham Rifles." 

The Springfield Infantry came down 
And quartered on the ground. 

Behind the Baptist Mecling-house 
Where ample space was found. 

To form tlie company and drill. 

Or lounge in easy way, 
And find a solace for the tcjil 

That came with muster-day. 

But when Sam Robie came to griet 
From too much grog, 'tis said. 

His comrades laid his manly fnnu 
Within a Baptist shed. 

Where, after hours of sweet repose, 

He roused himself to find 
His " company " had left for home, 

And he'd lieen left behind. 

He gazed into the fading light. 

And saw the glare of eyes ; 
At which his visage lengthened out. 

So great was his surprise. 

The monster proved a simple calf 

That in the stall was stayed. 
And like the ass of which we read 

Developed when he brayed. 

And what Sam did, and what he "said, 

We may not here rej^eat ; 
But from the precincts of the shed 

He beat a swift retreat. 

CAXTO III. 

In course of time the Croydoners, 

For some unworthy cause, 
Resolved to nullify and spurn 

Our wise militia laws. 

Then Captain Mitchell, of our town, 

By order of the State, 
Rode gallantly to Croydon Flat 

With martial pride elate. 



NEWPORT. 



237 



A posse comilaftis went 


A citizen of great renown 


The captain to sujiport, 


Wijs General John McNiel, 


And bring the recreant C'riiydi)ners 


The same who fought at Chippewa. 


By force of arms to court. 


A soldier true as steel. 


The Croydon hidies flew to arms, — 


And when our worthy Governor 


Not Mitchell's we are sure, — 


Would honor John McNiel, 


But 'gaiust his wicked legal wiles 


He dubbed him JIajor-General 


Their men-folks to secure. 


With gorgeous sign and seal. 


And Jlrs. General Emery, 


Now superseding all our braves 


A Minerva in command. 


Wide-spread his orders flew 


Was constituted leader of 


To colonel of each regiment, 


That Amazonian band. 


To muster for review. 


She soundly rated " Newport folks " 


Then up rose Colonel Reddington, 


In w'ords unfit to hear, 


And swore whate'er betide, 


And said she'd " drive such trash from town," 


Before his gallant "Thirty-first " 


And "splinter" ^Mitchell's ear. 


McNiel should never ride. 


And short and sharp her orders were 


And John McNiel and Reddington, 


To " Nathan " ' and the rest, 


Defiant and irate. 


That no delinquent Croydoner 


Remained, until their names were struck 


Should sutler an arrest. 


From roster of the State. 


The men took refuge in the fields, 


But this digression here must end ; 


The women, with much jaw. 


The regiment must form ; 


Stood to obstruct by force of tongues 


The common waits the grand parade — 


The process of the law. 


The day is bright and warm. 


Then Sergeant Crooker, of our sfjuad. 


C,\NTO IV. 


Phil. Humphrey to restrain. 




W^ent charging through a patch of grass 


The adjutant, on prancing steed, 


With all his might and main. 


As deep-toned bass-drum pealed, 


And on his way he overturned 

A quadruped whose scent 
Would indicate his general course 


The companies in order ranged 
Upon the muster-field. 

The colonel, then, with aids advanced. 


Whichever way he went. 


Assuming the command, 


The upshot of this matter was, 
So runs the last report, 


As, well-displayed, full iu his view. 
The waiting squadrons stand. 


That Mitchell and his men returned 


Anon the General and statt' — 


Disgusted to Newport. 

And of those braves, Charles Emerson, 
Who with the posse rode. 


A brilliant cavalcade — 
In butt' and and blue, and nodding plumes. 
Most gorgeously arrayed. 


Now lives to read these epic lines. 


Appear upon the tented field. 


Down on the Goshen Road. 


And up and down the line 


And now a scheme political 
Was foisted on the State, 


They gr.andly ride, while colors dip 
And flashing swords incline. 


Involving rank and patronage 


Then posted at the front they stand, 


We may right here relate. 


While orders prompt an<l shrill, 
According to the manual 
For regimental drill. 


1 Brigadier-Geueral Kmery. 



238 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Find quick response along the line, 


On loud huzzas the eagle soared, 


And ordered arms respond ! 


As " Birds of Freedom " can, 


The steel that glittered in the air 


Clutching the arrows in his claws. 


Now thunders on the ground. 


To shield the right of man. 


We here may note an episode, 


Then burst the inspiring martial hymn 


Occurring, as appears, 


From regimental band. 


When Quartermaster Harvey rode 


Such as once thrill'd the patriot's heart. 


That famous horse " Childiers." 


And nerved the yeoman's hand. 


The steed, excited at the scene, 


Vet'rans were listening to those strains, — 


Regardless, it is said. 


Old men with trembling hands 


Of bit and spur and pious talk. 


That pined in British prison-pens, 


Rushed for the Sanborn shed ; 


Or trod the Jersey sands. 


And must have placed his rider liold 


Once more they hear the bugle blast 


In desperate condition. 


And words of high command. 


Had he not grasped his ample neck 


The muffled tramp of armed men 


To strengthen his position. 


Along the solid land. 


So " C'hildiers " to his stall was sent ; 


They see the serried squadrons move 


Another horse was brought. 


With gonfalons displayed. 


On which the gallant chevalier 


As in review they now salute 


His waiting comrades sought. 


The General and brigade. 


Again along the field of Mars 


This mimic scene, these martial airs 


Repeated orders flew. 


Eouse memories of the past 


With note of preparation for 


Within the breasts of those old men. 


Inspection and review. 


The loneliest and the last. 


The Inspector-General passed on foot 


Of that great host of patriots 


Through all the rank and file, 


None grander can we trace 


To view the equipments of the men, 


Whose life-work made it possible 


From cowhide boots to tile. 


To free the human race. 


To each and all the companies 


They founded deep, they builded strong 


A ])roper speech he made. 


A home wide-spread and i'ree, 


As much to air his eloipience 


A "Sheltering Arms " for toiling men 


As shine on dress-parade. 


From lands across the sea. 


Next came a regimental move — 


They come no more to our parades. 


A form in hollow square — 


Forsooth, in this, our day, 


And, as uncovered heads were bowed, 


The man who's seen a " Pensioner " 


The chaplain offered prayer. 


Must have himself grown gray. 


The General, as he had mind. 


Their graves are scattered o'er the land, 


With words of compliment, 


Some nameless and obscure, 


Or on some topic of the time 


But with the millions they have blest 


Addressed the regiment. 


Their memory will endure. 


Perhaps he had an " axe to grind," 


And to those graves, wherever found. 


As politicians siiy, 


As sure as comes the spring, 


And wanted votes to turn the crank 


Each year on Decoration Day 


On next election day. 


Fresh laurels will they bring. 



NEWPORT. 



239 



CANTO V. 

While rausiug thus ou " Pensioners," 
The Thirty -first— called "crack"— 

Has march'd down town, across the bridge, 
And now comes proudly back. 

Again deployed, the order rang 

Along the bristling line; 
" 'Tention battalion ! Order arms! " — 

The time had come to dine. 

And now the hungry musketeers 
Their burnished fire-arms stack. 

And on the grass all negligee 
Discuss the noon-tide snack. 

From haversack and tin canteen 

The rations disajipear. 
And as they [lass from hand tu mouth 

They revel in good cheer. 

We well remember the sham fight 

That finished up the day, 
When red-coats and Americans 

Jousted in mimic fray. 

And when we heard the war-like din. 

The sounds of fife and drum. 
And saw the tumult all around. 

We thought old Mars had come. 

The cannon thundered on tiie right, 

Fierce rattled the platoons; 
Against the ranks of infantry 

Came charge of light dragoons. 

Then came the painted savages. 

Led on by Calvin Call, 
Who ambush'd for the regulars 

Behind a high stone wall. 

And now old Indian "Thunderbolt" ' 

Burst whooping into view. 
With tomahawk andscalping-knife 

And all his savage crew. 

While valiant Captain Roby, with 

The Wendall Light Brigade, 
Came down upon them in the rear 

And fearful havoc made. 



'Personateif by Oliver Emerson. 



And savage and Britishers 

Were routed in dismay, 
Else had our ijuiet village been 

To ravishers a prey. 

And thus, mimetic of the times 

Of butchery and woe. 
That made Mew England history 

Two hundred years ago. 

Now let us sing, down with a king. 

And long live Liberty ! 
" A man's a man," as he has mind. 

Where all men may be free. 

And thus our verse has wander'd on. 

To note the grand display 
Of men, and arms, and things we saw, 

In military way. 

CANTO VI. 

But this was scarcely half the sliow 

That came that day to town ; 
And hence we join the motley crowd 

That wandered up and down. 

Here came, in holiday attire, 

Some quite unique in style. 
From all the regimental towns. 

The rural rank and file. 

Comprising tj'pes of human kind, 

From infancy to age — 
Both sexes, all conditions known 

Ou life's uncertain stage. 

And here they played their several parts- 
Some gentle and well-bred, 

And others arrogant and loud. 
Or clownish and corn-fed. 

And some by cruel circumstance 
Deformed, or dumb, or blind. 

Were making capital of fate 
To move the pitying mind 

To deeds of charity and alms. 

And chuckling as they went. 
O'er Continental nine-pence made. 

Or e'en a copper cent. 

The Tontine on the village green — 

A stately wooden pile — 
Pillars and portico in front, 

In somewhat ancient style, 



240 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Swarmed then with buxom, merry wives, 

And maidens fresh and fair, 
Who came to watch their soldier boys. 

Or rustic hearts ensnare. 

Along in front, upon some boards. 

Spread our for that intent, 
A jolly party might be seen 

Of African descent. 

And Tony Clark,' a sable wag, 

Plied well his rosin'd bow. 
While Wash, and Lyd, and Charlie Hall - 

Made saltatory show. 

Old Jesse Sherl)urn, near the inn, 
Dispensed his liquid blacking, 

An article that far outshone 

" The stutf made by McCrackin." 

The Ethiop wagged his sooty head 

In concert with his Ijrush, 
And gather'd in the four pence-haps 

With what is termed — a rush. 

Barbaric laces thus were seen ; — 

And Ethiopian style 
In dress, dance, mirth and minstrelsy, 

A gaping crowd beguile. 

And rural lovers, liand-in-hand. 

Regardless of expense, 
Invested at tlie candy stand 

And posed against the fence. 

The peddler on his painted cart 

Became an auctioneer. 
And roared his wit as well as wares 

To throngs that gathered near. 

Thus were two-score of lusty throats, — 
Some gruff, some shrill and harsh, — 

Discordant croaking on a bid 
Like bull-frogs in a marsh ; 

' When a lad a waiter to General Brooks, of Massachu- 
setts, during the Revolution. He died in Warner aged one 
hundred years — a " pensioner." 

'' Said to liave been brought to Boston by schooner " Star- 
ling" in a sugar hogshead, from the coast below Savannah, 
Ga., by a Jlr. Knowlton, a brother-in-law of Deacon Jona- 
than Cutting, about 1836. "Wash" and "Lyd "were 
children of Tony. Cliarles Hall became the husband of 
Lyd. 



And Barlow knives, and buttons made 

By famous " Nathan Mann," 
Dutch'd quills, and soap, ne'er went so cheap. 

They said, "since time began." 

And Morgan's " Book on Masonry," 

Denounced by JIasous — trash ! 
Sold faster than the auctioneer 

Could take the "ofiered" cash. 

Here gathered round a fancy stand 

A close, attentive throng, — 
The game was Rouge-et-Noir, so called 

And some were betting strong. 

■ The more small change the boys i)ut down 
The less they gather'd up, 
And realized the adage old 
Of slip 'twixt lip and cup. 

CASTO VII. 

Then came a grand saloon on wheels 
And famous "Old Blind Beers," 

With violin, and waxen show, — 
His main support for years. 

A rustic crowd, with wondering eyes 
And gaping mouths, stood round, 

As though they feared his effigies 
Would meet them on the ground. 

And Jane McCrae, and Helen Marr, 

And Mary, Queen of Scots, 
^\'ith glassy eyes, in wax despair 

Would wave their gory locks. 

A henchman tended at the door ; — 

Beers scraped his violin ; — • 
Tlie henchman made persuasive speech ; 

The curious entered in. 

The Olympian games were here revived 

As once in Ancient Greece, 
To test the vigor of their youth 

In " piping times of peace." 

Apart upon the green sward firm 

A party formed a ring, 
Where athletes strove for mastery 

In bouts of wrestling. 

Anon another crowd appears 

Engage in such exploits 
As jumping, turning somersaults. 

And some were pitching quoits. 



NEWPORT. 



241 



We also noted booth and stands 

Where, well disposed for sale, 
Were giuger-bread in cards, and fruits, 

And pies, and cakes, and ale. 

The thrifty farmer might be seen 

A tapster for the time. 
Serving new eider by the glass 

To turn an honest dhne. 

Crowds gathered at the taverns, stores 

And ilrani-shops on the street, 
Where in tieree eontliet with strong drink 

Some suffered sore defeat. 

There was no sham in such a fight. 
When men laid down their arms. 

And yielded in unmanly way 
To rum's lieguiling charms. 

And now, in this our history 

One point to which we come 
Is, that the curse of muster-day 

Was vile New England Rum. 

And as the judgment of " this court" 

We may still further find;— 
It curses every other day, 

To million.s of mankind. 

EXIT OjrXES. 

The revelers, athletes, and the crowd 

The showman and his show, 
The seller and the sold disperse. 

In dusty guise they go. 

The pageantry of mimic war 

No longer stirs the town 
With martial pomp— no armed host 

Kow marches U[) and down. 

But into gray and wrinkled eld I— 

Into the shadowy years ! — 
The martial and the social throng 

Forever disappears. 

And as the echo of our song 

We hear in mystic chime 
Their muffled, solemn tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! 

Into the jaws of Time. 



j{f,TE.— The old niililia laws of New Hampshire were re- 
pealed by the Legislatm-e in the year 1849, and since that 
date there has been no general military parade in Newport. 



CHAPTER III. 

NEWPORT.— tC''//i(»«»o/). 

CHCRCHKS ASH MUSIC. 

CoN(il!E<iATI()NAI,. — TllO tiiWU of NoWpurt 

was exceedingly fortunate in the per.-onal ciiar- 
acteristies of its first settlers. Every nieniUer 
of the party that arrived here from old Killing- 
worth, in June, IKW, as we have heretofore 
stated, was in himself an in^titiiticm, with set- 
tled views on the siibjeets of religion, civil gov- 
ernment and .social affairs. 

Unlike greedy adventurers who rush for 
minimi- reo;ii>ns to delve and spoil from place to 
place for immediate gain, they came to estab- 
lish homes and a community for themselves and 
their heirs and successors in the generatious to 
come. 

We have seen how the party, under the di- 
rection, probably, of Deacon Stephen A^'ilcox, 
finished their tiresome journey from Charles- 
town and went into quarters, snch as they f lund 
or improvised for the occasion, in the vicinity 
of tlie four corners at the foot of Claremont 

Hill. 

The next day being the Sabbath, their fir.st 
collective act was that of prayer and praise to 
Almighty God, who had guided their steps 
hithcrward. They first sought His blessing on 
the new .settlement they were about to commeuce. 
For this purpose they are said to have gathered 
in the shade of a large biroh-tree. 

It requires but little of imagination to sug- 
gest that their place i>f worship on that occasion 
may have been the site tui which the first 
Couo-regatioual meeting-house was afterward 

erected . 

From that day they failed not to " assemlde 
and meet together" on each Lord's day for so- 
cial wair.ship after the manner of their auce.stors. 
The religion of Christ depends not on the min- 
istrations of priest or prelate, but may be en- 
joyed wherever two or three are gathered to- 
gether in His name. They afterwards met in 
their camps and cabins ; one of their number 



242 



HISTORY OF SULLH'AN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



led the meetings aud sermons were read from 
printed volumes. Since that first act of public 
worship in the town of Newport, the fire upon 
the altar has never cea.sed. 

This state of things continued for some six 
years, the first party being reinforced from year 
to year by new-comers who addetl strength aud 
stal)ilitv til the settlement. 

The completion of the Pi'oprietors' House, in 
1773, afforded a central and public place for re- 
ligious meetings. When the settlers first en- 
joyed the services of a regular minister is not 
fully ascertained. It must, however, have been 
prior to June, 1775, for in a warrant calling a 
meeting of the proprietors on the :29th of tliat 
moutii was an article, — " To see if the town 
will hire Mr. Ebenezer Sweetland to preach the 
gospel in Newport some time lomjer ;" and at 
an adjourned meeting the next day, it was 
"Voted, That Mr. Robert Lane, Mr. Daniel 
Dudley and Mr. Josiah Stevens be a commit- 
tee to treat with ilr. Eliezer Sweetland in re- 
gard to our employing him in some future 
time." The result of any negotiations with 
Mr. Sweetland does not appear on the record. 

It will be seen that the votes aud negotiations 
in regard to the emjiloyment and compensation 
of ministers of the gospel were acts of the town 
as a body corporate. 

The support of a Congregational minister 
was obligatory upon the people witiiout respect 
to difference of opinion or creed. After the 
year 1803 no compulsory action was taken by 
the town upon this subject. In that year a 
Congi'egational Society was incorporated by an 
act of the Legislature, which continued until 
1828, when it was superseded by a general law 
in regard to church corporations. 

A complete and legal separation betwet'u the 
affairs of church and state came with the " Tol- 
eration Act," 1819, the passage of which by the 
Legislature caused a notaljle sensation tlirough- 
out the State. 

In a warrant calling a meeting of the propri- 
etors, to be held on the l!9th of Ajjril, 1778, 



was the following article, — viz. : " To see if the 
Town will agree to ha\e Mr. Kendall stay and 
Preach with us." 

At the meeting thus M-arned, Robert Lane, 
Benjamin Giles and Josiah Stevens were chosen 
a committee to confer witii Mr. Thomas Ken- 
dall " to see if he will continue a space of time to 
Preach the gospel in this town of Newport." 

At an adjourned meeting, on May 4th, 
" Voted, That Mr. Thomas Kendall stay aud 
Preach in this Town, and the town to con- 
tribute every Sabbath for to Su])p(H't it." Also 
"Voted, That the Com™ confer with Mr. 
Thomas Kendall to see if he will return to this 
town as soon as he can, with convenience, after 
he hatli accomplished his purposed journev." 

Whether Mr. Kendall " continued a space of 
time," or whether he " accomplished his jour- 
ney" and returned does not appear on the 
record. 

At the annual meeting, March !), 177!), it 
was " Voted, To see if the Town will choose a 
committee, in order to look out a candidate to 
settle witii us in the work of the gospel min- 
istry." And at an adjourned meeting, on the 
lotli of tlie same month, it viati" Voted, That 
Aaron Buel and Josiah Stevens be a committee 
to make application to Rev. Mr. Hall, of 
Keene, to look out for a candidate to settle in 
the work of the gospel ministry in the Town 
of Newport." 

Some thirteen years had passed away since 
the men of Killiugwortii apj)eared in Newport, 
and as yet no regular ciiurch organization had 
been effected. In view, therefore, of the present 
and prospecti\-e welfare of an increased and in- 
creasing population, and of greater efficiency in 
Christian work, and in order that the rites 
and ceremonies of the churcii might exert their 
full and proper influence and be enjoyed in 
their midst, the gixjd people of the town were 
impressed witii the necessity of moving forward 
in this regard. Tiie principles of a stern and 
true religion had been here in spirit from the 
commencement of the settlement. The time 



NEWPORT. 



243 



had now come when they should appear in 
form and by institution. To this end, on the 
28th day of October, 1779, a meeting was held 
in accordance with previous notice and arrange- 
ment, when Rev. Aaron Hall, pastor of the 
church at Keene, and the only clergyman pres- 
ent, was chosen moderator, and Aaron Buel 
scribe. 

Articles of fliith and discipline, and a church 
covenant previously drawn up, were then 
adopted as the cauon of the new church. 

These rules and regulations exhibit educa- 
tion, ability and clear views of Christian faith 
and practice on the part of the founders of the 
church in this town. 

The covenant obligations then entered upon 
were of the most solemn character, to which 
were subscribed the followino; names : 



Robert Lane. 
Daniel Dudley. 
Daniel Buel. 
Aaron Buel. 
Ellas Bascom. 
Matthew Buel. 
Josiah Stevens. 
Esther Buel. 



Susannah Dudley. 
Lydia Hurd. 
Eunice Bascom. 
Mary Stevens. 
Esther Lane. 
Jane Buel. 
Chloe Wilcox. 
Mary Buel. 



Following this church union it was 

" Voted, That all the parties thus subscribed, ' upon 
hearing each one's relation and experience, and ask- 
ing each one's forgiveness, receive each other into 
their love and fellowship.' 

" Voted : Yt Captain Samuel Hurd, Mrs. Jane Buel, 
Mrs. Chloe Wilcox, having heard their relations and 
experiences, and they having asked ye brethren's 
forgiveness, be taken into love and fellowship. 

" Benjamin Giles received as a member on con- 
dition that he get his letters." 

Brother Giles undoubtedly received his let- 
ters, as we hereafter find his name mentioned 
as one of the active members. 

On December 6, 1779, a committee was ap- 
pointed " to confer with Mr. Tracy and desire 
him to tarry and preach the gospel four Sab- 
baths longer, if they could discern a probability 
of his settling or a disposition in him to settle 
16 



with the jjeople of this town, as a preacher, at 
some future time, if circumstances admitted of it ; 
if not, to proceed on his way." 

Though extremeh^ desirous of having a set- 
tled minister, the people would not insist too 
much on Mr. Tracy's coming, and he was al- 
lowed " to proceed." 

Not long after this, a young man by the name 
of Samuel Wood was invited " to preach," and, 
at a meeting held August 7, 1790, it was voted 
" to ask the above-named gentleman to preach 
two Sabbaths longer on probation." On the 
24th of the same month a call was given to Mr. 
Wood. He was offered £100 as settlement 
and £45 per year as salary, which was to be in- 
creased £.5 per year until it reached £70. The 
call was not accepted. 

We learn from tlie town records in reward to 

o 

values that thirty pounds in colonial money, 
at this time, was equal to one hundred silver 
dollars. 

It would seem, judging from the hints given 
in the records, that the revi^'al which took 
place shortly after the formation of the church 
was due to the efforts of Mr. Wood, as during 
his sojourn in Newport some thirty members 
were added to tiie church. 

The ordinary details usually found in church 
records, consisting as they do of dealings with 
erring and refractory members, are of but little 
interest. If such records represented the entire 
work of the church instead of its purifying 
processes, our confidence in its efficiency as a 
leading institution among us would necessarily 
weaken. But occasionally a matter arises of 
more than ordinary interest — and such is the 
one to which we are about to refer, as it became 
the subject of an ecclesiastical council, to which 
Rev. Aaron Hall, of Keene, and Rev. Pelatiah 
Chapin, of Windsor, Vt., were called to aid in 
its discussion and settlement. 

In the spring of 1781 a complaint was made 
by Brother Robert Lane, a prominent member, 
against Brother Benjamin Giles, another prom- 
inent member, " in ye following particulars :" 



244 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" 1st. For causing a book to be read in publick, 
published by Mr. Whitefield in which men in an un- 
regenerate state are represented to be half beast and 
half devil. 

" 2d. For speaking against profane swearing in 
publick." 

The record proceeds : 

" In ye first, Brother Giles appeared ready to de- 
fend Mr. Whitefield's description of unregenerate 
men as true. As to ye second charge, Brother Giles 
vindicated his conduct, in public speaking, against 
profane swearing, as no ways out of character." 

The record continues : 

" The C*"'' found y' nothing in this view on brother 
Giles' part could be considered matter of offence in 
ye charges brought against him." 

Further on in the record we learn that 
Robert Lane, the complaining brother, wa.s so 
much dissatisfied with the verdict of the church 
that he requested to have his relationship with 
it dissolved, and his request was formally 
granted. 

In considering the matter of the first charge 
we are satisfied the complaining brother would 
have the unquestioned symp)athy of all sensible 
people certainly in this, our time; and how it 
was that Brother Giles, who was considered a 
foremost man as regards intelligence and ability, 
could consent to leave such an expression of 
opinion on the church records the reader of 
this generation will be unable to understand. 

In regard to the second charge, whereby the 
complaining brother felt aggrieved by being re- 
stricted in the use of profane language, he 
would find no justification in the public or 
private sentiment of our time. We may say, 
however, in explanation or extenuation of the 
position taken by Mr. Lane, that, up to the be- 
ginning of the present century, in this country 
and in England profanity was not regarded as 
incompatible with a Christian life, or as an out- 
rage against the church and good manners and 
an indictable offense at law. 

The efforts of the church, by the concurrent 
action of the town, to settle a minister were at 
last crowned with success. 



On January 22, 1783, Rev. John Remele 
was duly installed as pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Church of Newport. By this he came 
in possession of a tiact of land set apart by the 
charter of the town to the first settled minister. 
His salary was fixed at seventy pounds per an- 
num, which, according to a former estimate, 
would be $233.33 in silver money. 

According to all accounts, traditional and 
otherwise, Mr. Remele was a well-educated, 
genial man, an able preacher and a successful 
instructor of youth. Of his personal history, 
previous to his coming to this town, we have 
no knowledge. He was here with his wife, 
Anna Read, and their five children, the young- 
est of whom was born in Newport. 

The ministry of Rev. John Remele, not- 
withstanding his many estimable qualities, was 
not a success. During the more than eight 
years of his pastorate only thirteen members 
were added to the church. Grave charges were 
made against him on account of some social 
eccentricities, involving his moral character. 

His ministry practically ended some time 
before his dismissal, which formally occurred 
October 10, 1791. He afterward removed to 
Orwell, Vt., taking with him all the church 
records existing at the time, which must have 
contained the doings of the council by which 
he was dismissed, and consequently the evi- 
dences of his improper conduct, and, though 
much effort was made, they were never re- 
covered. 

In December, 1803, a vote was passed recit- 
ing the facts in the case, and a committee, con- 
sisting of Jesse Wilcox, Uriah Wilcox, Samuel 
Hurd, Phineas Wilcox and Ezra Parmelee, was 
appointed "to attend to this business," — i.e., the 
recovery or reconstruction of the church records. 
On the 28th of the following March the commit- 
tee reported that the call of the church was made 
in December, 1782, that it was concurred in by 
the town, and that, on January 17, 1783, the 
town, voted to have Mr. Remele ordained on 
January 22d. The report was accepted. This 



NEWPORT. 



245 



and a few loose papers, found in the archives 
of the society, partially restored tiie records. 

The church was much weakened by these 
trials, but their courage was good, and at a meet- 
ing held July 3, 1791, at which the council 
agi'eed on the dismissal of Mr. Remele, it was 
" Voted, y' y" c^^ will reunite and go on together 
as a c"" according to y" plan and constitution y' 
it first settled upon in discipline, &e." 

After the dismissal of Mr. Remele the church 
remained without a settled minister some time 
over four yeai^s. In the mean time a good 
spirit prevailed. Jesse Wilcox was chosen a dea- 
con, and they had availed themselves of the 
services of itinerant preachers, or depended 
upon the ability local to the church, which was 
by no means of an inferior order. 

A new town and meeting-house had been 
erected more commodious in its proportions, and 
it remained to place a desirable pastor over the 
church. 

A painful accident occurred at the raising of 
the new meeting-house. A raising in those 
days, and particularly the raising of a meet- 
ing-house, was a matter of much importance and 
was liberally attended by people from the 
neiffhborins towns. Charles Seamans, a voung; 
man in the twentieth year of his age, had come 
over from New London, probably with others, 
to aid in the work and in so doing lost his life. 

Backus, in his " History of the Baptists," 
states that, 

" In June (26), 1793, an alarming Providence re- 
sulted in a revival of religion. The eldest son of 
Elder Job Seamans, Pastor of the Baptist Church in 
New London, came to Newport to assist in raising the 
frame of the Congregational Meeting-house. He fell 
from the top of it and soon died. The Spirit of God 
made use of it for good." 

A common gray stone, standing in the "old 
burial-ground," bears record of this sad event as 
follows : 

" In Memory of Mr. Charles Seamans, of New Lon- 
don, son of Rev. Job Seamans and Mrs. Sarah, his 
wife, who, on the 26th gf June, 1793, fell from the 



plate of the Meeting-house and expired in 4 hours, 
aged 19 years and 10 months. 

" Behold and see as you pass by, 
As you are now so once was I, 
As I am now so you must be, 

Prepare for death and follow me." 

On December 13, 1795, a call was extended 
to Mr. Abijah Wines to become the pastor of 
this church. Abijah Wines was a native of 
Southold, on the eastern end of Long Island, 
born May 28, 1766. His parents and other 
members of the family came to Newport in 1781. 
When about twenty years of age, Abijah Wines 
had married Ruth, the youngest daughter of 
Benjamin Giles. The youthful couple and 
newly constituted family settled on land a short 
distance north of the cross-roads, in later years 
and still known as the Aiken place. After 
some years of labor on the farm, ^Ir. Wines, 
who was studious iu habits and religiously in- 
clined, felt called to a higher work than that of 
grubbing roots and tilling the ground. It has 
come to us that in this new dejiarture he was 
advised and encouraged by his excellent wife, 
and that it was at her suggestion that he entered 
upon a course of study — probably at first under 
the tuition of Rev. Mr. Remele, and was finally 
graduated from Dartmouth College in the class 
of 1794. He was the first alumnus of that 
institution from the town of Newport. He 
afterward pursued a course of theological train- 
ing and study with Rev. Dr. Emmons, of 
Franklin, Mass. Returning to Newport, he ac- 
cepted the call and pulpit of the Congregational 
Church. 

During this period of study and absence at 
college and in Massachusetts, Ruth, like her 
historic and Scripture namesake, who gleaned 
in the fields of ancient Boaz, with an energy 
that would appall the minister's wife of the 
present, wrought in her own fields, carried on 
the farm, personally superintending all the de- 
tails of its husbandry, selling the crops and 
payinghcr husband's expenses from the proceeds. 
It is said of her that she much preferred out-of- 



246 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



door work to the domestic labors of the liouse- 
hold. In the course of her life in Newport she 
also became the mother of ten children. 

The pastorate of Rev. Mr. Wines continued 
until November 26, 1816, when he was dis- 
missed at his own request and accepted a pro- 
fessorship in tlie Theological Seminary at Ban- 
gor, Me., from which he retired at the close of 
the first year, and during the remaining years of 
his life was engaged in preaching the gospel on 
Deer Island, off the coast of Maine. Mr. Wines 
was a beloved pastor and a highly-esteemed and 
useful citizen. He died February 11, 1833, 
aged sixty-seven years. 

The church continued without a pastor about 
two years, when, on December 2, 1818, Rev. 
James R. Wheelock, a grandson of the first and 
a sou of the second president of Dartmouth 
College, was called to its ministiy. Mr. Whee- 
lock was an able and scholarly man, as one 
would suppose from his genealogy — an earnest 
Christian worker and preacher. It was in his 
time that the first Sunday-school was organized 
in connection with this church. Soon after his 
ordination an extensive revival was experienced, 
by which one hundred and forty-eight new mem- 
bers were added to the church. Mr. Wheel ock's 
pastorate continued until February 23, 1823, 
when he was dismissed by a mutual council. 

Mr. Wheelock had many friends in Newport 
who felt that he had not been fairly treated in 
matters leading up to the council. The charges 
against him were of the most trivial character 
and were not sustained before the council. He 
was dismissed as a matter of policy and not of 
personal right, and it is apparent that he left the 
church in a most inharmonious condition. 

An ecclesiastical council was again called, 
with a view to correct this unhappy state of 
things. A fast was appointed on the 6th of 
November ; a paper was drawn up and signed 
by members contiiining mutual acknowledg- 
ments and on the 13th the church voted to 
extend a call to Rev. John Woods, who had 
already moved into town from Warner. 



The call was accepted and he was installed 
January 24, 1824. His salary was fixed at 
four hundred and fifty dollars per annum. 

It was in the year 1822, during the pastorate 
of Rev. ]\tr. Wheelock, that the present brick 
meeting-house was erected. 

Mr. Woods took possession of its pulpit 
with the improving confidence of his people. 
How well he acquitted himself in all the duties 
incumbent upon him through a period of more 
than twenty-seven years is still in the memory 
of the Congregational people. There were 
added to the church during his pastorate three 
hundred and twenty-nine members. 

Mr. Woods was the pioneer in the temper- 
ence reform in this town. In 1841 the church 
adopted rules of total abstinence as a require- 
ment applicable to all members. 

On July 16, 1851, an ecclesiastical council 
convened for the purpose of dissolving the pas- 
toral relation with Mr. Woods at his own 
request, and at the same time Rev. Henry Cum- 
mings, a late graduate of Andover Theological 
Seminary, was installed as pastor of the church 
with a salary of seven hundred dollars per 
annum. 

The pastorate of Mr. Cumn)ings continued 
for a period of fifteen years and was marked 
by an unusual degree of prosperity to the 
church and people, — one hundred and seventy 
new members were added. 

Mr. Cummings resigned his eliarge to accept 
a call to another and wider field of labor, and 
was dismissed by a council in regular order 
July 25, 1866. 

After the retirement of Mr. Cummings, Rev. 
G. R. W. Scott, also a graduate of Andover, 
supplied the pulpit for a time so acceptably 
that he was called to the regular pastorate of 
the church and duly installed September 17, 
1868. 

It was during this pastorate, in 1869, that the 
old-time, elevated pulpit and high-backed pews 
were removed and the auditorium reconstructed 
more in accordance with modern ideas of com- 



NEWPOKT. 



247 



fort and convenience. A large and fine-toned 
organ was also placed in the choir, the gift of 
Deacon Dexter Richards, as a memorial of a 
beloved daughter who died in 18(38, at the age 
of twenty years. 

In 1871 an additional structure of brick, of 
fair architectural proportions, was erected partly 
in the rear and connecting with the main build- 
ing, for use as a chapel, with parlors and a 
cuimne arranged for social meetings and gather- 
ings of the church and society. 

Rev. Mr. Scott was dismissed at his own 
request and accepted the pastorate of a church 
in Fitehburg, Mass., where he still remains 
(1885). 

At his suggestion Rev. E. E. P. Abbott came 
to supply the pulpit of the church until another 
pastor could be established. 

Mr. Abbott was a native of Concord, born 
September 20, 1841, was graduated from Dart- 
mouth College in 18(53. He was for two years 
a student in the Theological Se.minary in New 
York City and a graduate from Andover 
Tiieological Seminary in 1807. He was called 
to the pastorate of the Congregational Church 
at Meriden, which he resigned in 1872, 
for the purpose of travel and study iu Ger- 
many, where he spent a couple of years with 
his wife. His ministrations were so acceptable 
that he was finally called to the pastorate of 
the Newport Church and formally installed 
March 24, 1875. 

After a ministry of about ten years' duration 
he sent in his resignation, to take effect March 
1, 1884. On Sunday, 24th February, the 
auditorium and galleries of the venerable South 
meeting-house were packed to their utmost ex- 
tent to listen to his farewell discourse previous 
to his departure for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where 
he now ministers over a Congregational Church. 

After the retirement of Rev. Mr. Abbott a 
call was extended to Rev. Charles N. Flauders 
to become the jjastor of the church, which was 
duly accepted and the installation services 
occurred on Wednesday, May 28, 1884. Rev. 



G. R. ^y. Scott, D.D., of Fitchljurg, Mass., 
was chosen moderator of the council and took a 
leading jiart in the exercises. Mr. Flanders is a 
native of Bradford, Vt., born April 1, 1844, 
was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1871 
and from Andover Theological Seminary in 
1874. He came to the church from Wapping, 
Conn. 

Before closing this sketch, it is fit and proper 
that we take a backward glance along tiie line 
to the beginning in 1779, and call up the 
names and memories of the worthy men who 
have filled the diaconate of this church, of whom 
are Josiah Stevens, Sr., Jesse Wilcox, Uriah 
Wilcox, Moses Noyes, Elnathan Hurd, Josiah 
Stevens, Jr., Joseph Wilcox, Henry Chapiu, 
David B. Chapin, whose bodies are buried in 
peace, but whose names and memories still live, 
and whose works of usefulness still abide in 
the church for which they labored, and whose 
prosperity and beauty was dear to them and to 
the community they sougiit to benefit by their 
good example. 

Our sketch now leaves the Congregational 
Church in the hands of Rev. C. N. Flanders, 
its pastor, and its present deacons. Dexter 
Richards and Rufus P. Claggett. 

Baptist Church. — During the year 1770 
there came to this town and Croydon a number 
of settlers from Central Massachusetts. Some 
of them located on the high lands in the north- 
western part of Newport, and others on con- 
tiguous land in the southwestern part of Croy- 
deu, thus establishing an important neighbor- 
hood or colony across the line of the two towns. 

These people were mostly from Worcester 
County, where Baptist Churches had for many 
years been established, and as they were nearly 
all Baptists, the locality soon came to be known 
as Baptist Hill, and so continues to this 
time. 

Their centre of business, where they had a 
store, a school-house, a tannery and mechanic 
shops, and where in the course of time timber 
was drawn and deposited for the purpose of 



248 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



building a meeting-house, was on the road run- 
ning north from the present Northville ap- 
proaching and crossing the town line. The 
"Wakefields, Havens, Metcalfs, Durkees, Cham- 
berlains and Wheelers of this town, and the 
Stows, Jacobs and others comprised this settle- 
ment — a thrifty and intelligent people, strong 
in the faith of their prototype, Roger Williams. 

For eight or nine years they abode in this 
new settlement, clearing land, opening farms, 
building houses and barns and increasing in 
basket and in store. 

Although scattered on the hill as sheep with- 
out a shepherd, they went not astray .ind fell 
into no neglect of their i-eligious belief, failing 
not under any circumstances to gather in private 
houses and barns, and finally in the school-house 
after it was built, fur religious services, depend- 
ing upon their own resources with the help of 
the Lord for edification and interest. 

Their number and wants accumulated until 
about the year 1779, when some of tlieir lead- 
ing men and women sought the good offices of 
Rev. Caleb Blood, of Marlow, pastor of the 
nearest church of their denomination, to procure 
for them a "qualified religious teacher.'' 

At a meeting of the Warren Association 
(Rhode Island) of Baptist Churches, held at 
Leicester, Mass., September 8-9, 1778, a letter 
was read from Rev. Mr. Blood, setting forth 
the religious condition and necessities of this 
section of the country. This appeal, doubtless, 
reached the minds and hearts of former neigh- 
hors and friends, still living in the old county 
of Worcester, from which they had come, mem- 
bers of the Baptist Churcli in Leicester, which 
was then half a century old. 

The following is copied from the minutes of 
that association for 1778 : 

" A most prcsssing application being made in be- 
half of a vast extent of country to the northward al- 
most entirely destitute of ministerial helps, we have 
recommended it to our Elders, Jacobs, Ledoyt, Sea- 
mans and our Brother Ransome to visit and labor in 
those parts; and they have undertaken to go ; and as 
the expense of their journey must be considerable, the 



Churches are earnestly requested to contribute to 
their support and send it to our next Association." 

These brethren proceeded to the task as- 
signed them. Benedict, the Baptist historian, tells 
us, that Elders Job Seamans of Attleborough, 
Mass., and Biel Ledoyt, of Woodstock, Conn., 
traveled up the Connecticut River as far as 
Woodstock, Vt., preaching on both sides of the 
river, but mostly on the New Hampshire 
side. Their coming was refreshing to the 
hearts of many, and an evident blessing fol- 
lowed their zealous and evangelical labors. 

Elder Ledoji; visited Newport and Croydon 
among other places, and preached to the little 
community of Baptists on Baptist Hill. It 
was undoubtedly through his influence that 
they were encouraged to associate themselves 
together in church fellowship, and in May, 1779, 
the Baptist Church of Newport and Croydon 
was organized. It was, however, soon after- 
ward known only as the Baptist Church of 
Newport. 

There were eight constituent members, as 
follows : 



Seth Wheeler. 
William Haven. 
Mrs. Seth Wheeler. 
Mrs. William Haven. 



Ellas Metcalf. 
Ezekiel Powers. 
Mrs. Elias Metcalf. 
Mrs. Nathaniel Wheeler. 



It will be seen that this church was organized 
in the midst of the Revolutionary period of our 
country, when the minds of the people were 
absorbed in political affairs, the movements of 
armies, American and British, campaigns and 
battles, questions of victory or defeat; and 
every neighborhood had its representative in 
the ranks of the patriot army. The church, 
however, seems to have made some progress, for 
at the close of the war, 1783, though destitute 
of pastoral care, it had twenty-two members, a 
gain of fourteen during the first four years. 

Seth Wheeler, who is said to have been a man 
of decided ability and highly respected in the 
community, was chosen its first deacon, and for 
its general prosperity the church is greatly in- 
debted to his offices. Elias Metcalf was after- 



NEWPORT. 



249 



ward associated with him in the diacouate, and, 
under the leading of these good and wise men, 
it continned to flourish several years without a 
pastor other than those occasionally comiug to 
them from other and more prosperous places. 

Their principal strength came from meeting 
together for prayer and Christian conference 
and exhortation, and the Spirit that is promised 
where two or thi'ee are oathered together. 

It would seem that Elder Ledoyt continued 
to hold in remembrance the church he had been 
instrumental in founding in this destitute re- 
gion, and that he revisited the places where he 
labored in 1778-79, to sti-engthen and establish 
the brethren in the faith. 

Be this as it may, after a lapse of twelve 
years he accepted a call to the pastorate, and 
was installed as first pastor of the Baptist 
Church in Newport. The sermon on the occa- 
sion was by Rev. Job Seamans, who afterward 
became pastor of the Baptist Church in New 
London. 

It is unfortunate for our sketch that we cim- 
not give the exact dates and all the attending 
circumstances connected with this matter, from 
the fact that, on the night of January 11, 1816, 
the dwelling-house of Philip W. Kibbey, an 
officer of the church and the custodian of its 
records, was destroyed by fire, with much of its 
contents, including the archives of the Baptist 
Church and society, covering the first forty-five 
years of its existence. 

The following passage from Backus' "History 
of the Baptists " will furnish some idea of the 
character of that old soldier of the cross, Elder 
Ledoyt, the '' qualified " founder and first pastor 
of this church. 

September 16, 1793, he writes in a letter to a 
friend : 

"It hath been a long, dark and cloudy night with 
me and people here, but glory to God, the clouds are 
dispersing fast. His work is begun among us : New- 
port and Croydon are greatly blessed. There have 
been forty souls hopefully converted in a few weeks 
among us. I have baptized twenty-nine iu four weeks. 



The work appears still going on. I cannot be idle. It 
is out of my power to answer all the calls I have at 
this time ; but I endeavor to do all I can. Being 
favored with health and the spirit of preaching, I as- 
cend the mountains easy. 

" There is a prospect of a glorious reformation in 
these parts. may it spread far and wide ! God 
hath remembered my family also for good. My three 
eldest daughters I hope are converted, — the oldest 
seventeen years, the youngest ten years old are bap- 
tized. O bless the Lord with me, and let us exalt 
His name together ! I never more sensibly needed 
wisdom than at present. 

" You will not cease to pray for me, O dear brother, 
be strong in the Lord and the power of his might." 

In 1795 the church reported a membership 
of eighty-nine. Hitherto, as stated, it had wor- 
shiped in private houses, barns and the school- 
house. 

A barn is still .standing by the river-side 
where Thomas Baldwin, afterward the dis- 
tinguished Baptist divine of Boston, preached a 
sermon which made a deep impression upon 
those who heard it. 

In 1798 the first meeting-house, in size forty 
by forty feet, -was erected on land adjoining the 
cemetery grounds on the south at North New- 
port. 

The following description of that church 
edifice and the worship and the habits of the 
people, as they appeared iu 1810, is from the 
pen of the late Baron Stow, D.D., of Boston : 

" I am in that plain edifice with a superabundance 
of windows, and a porch at each end ; with its eleva- 
ted pulpit, sky blue in color overhung by the sound- 
ing-board; with the deacon's seat half-way up the 
puljjit; with the square pews occupied by families; 
with a gallery containing one row of pews fronted by 
the singers' seats. 

" There is the horse-shed; there is the horse-block ; 
there are the horses with men's saddles and pillions, 
and a few women's saddles, but not a carriage of any 
description. 

" On occasions of baptism the whole congregation 
would go down the hill and, standing in a deep glen 
on the banks of Sugar River, would witness the cere- 
monies. Elias McGregor played the bass-viol. Asa, 



250 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



a brother, led the choir, and his sisters Lucy and Lois 
sang soprano and alto. In that choir were Asaph 
Stow, Moses Paine Durkee, Philip W. Kibbey and 
more than one Wakefield." 

The churcli contiuiied to prosper, and in the 
year 1800 nine were added by baptism. 

In 1805 Mr. Ledoyt offered his resignation, 
which was reluctantly accepted, and tluis closed 
a successful pastorate of about fourteen years. 
He returned soon after to his former home and 
field of labor in Woodstock, Conn. He is de- 
scribed as " a man of moderate education, but 
of unusual natural ability." He was a shoe- 
maker and plied his trade as he found opportun- 
ity with considerable skill. A story is told of 
an unregenerate hearer, who afterward became 
a Christian, who was greatly annoyed at the 
great length of the hymns in connection with 
the public worship, and suggested that if Elder 
Ledoyt would only carry his bench and work 
into the pulpit, he might top a shoe while the 
choir were singing a hymn. 

Many people now living well remember when 
the Sabbath services continued to much greater 
length than at present, and when the sermons, 
forenoon and afternoon, furnished opportunity 
for the exercise of " an active patience." 

Elder Ledoyt was an energetic worker, and 
considered one of the most devoted men in the 
gospel ministry. He often expressed the hope 
that he might not outlive his usefulness. His 
wish was granted: he was suddenly taken away, 
being found dead in his garden, where he had 
been at work. 

We know very little of the Ledoyt family, 
other than what we are able to gather from the 
records of the church. They came, lived, loved, 
labored and passed away in the earlier days of 
the town far beyond the memory of this gene- 
ration. 

There is, however, one other memorial of 
their presence here, to which we may refer, that 
appeals to our humanity, — a grave. It may be 
found in the southeastern corner of the first 
burial-place of Newport, and across an interval 



of nearly a hundred years the record of a great 
sorrow may be read from that cold gray stone, 
as follows : 

" In memory of Miss Esther, Daughter of the Rev'd 
Biel Ledoyt and Mrs. Joanna, his wife, who after a 
long sickness, died February 10, 1792, aged 20 years 
and 10 months. 

"My loving friend, as you pass by 
On my cold grave pray cast an eye, 
As I am now, so you must be. 
Prepare for death and follow me." 

In 1806 Rev. Thomas Brown was installed 
as second pastor of the church. He is said to 
have been a man of good ability, and highly 
respected in the community. 

His pastorate was attended with a good de- 
gree of success. During the year 1810 sixty- 
six were baptized, and eighty-five in all were 
added to the church. 

In 1812 the church reported to the Wood- 
stock Association, with which it was connected, 
a total membership of one hundred and eighty- 
three. 

About this time some misunderstanding: 
occurred between Mr. Brown and a number of 
his parishioners, which caused him to resign 
his pastorate in 1813. 

In 1814, Rev. Elisha Hutchinson, formerly 
of Pomfret, Yt., and for some time a Congrega- 
tional minister, came to the pastorate of the 
church. He was a member of the first class 
that was graduated from Dartmouth College. 
He is said to have been a man of great zeal and 
piety. During his ministry the church was 
greatly troubled for reason as follows : In 
1816 a young man, named Solomon Howe, 
settled on or about Baptist Hill. His religious 
sentiments were of the Arminian school, in con- 
trast with the Calvinistic views of Mr. Hutch- 
inson. Their open discussions on this ubject 
caused a division of the church. The disaf- 
fected and larger party withdrew and formed 
an " Independent Baptist Church," with Mr. 
Howe for their pastor. 

The year following, two sets of delegates and 



NEWPORT. 



251 



tlie two ministers were present at the Associa- 
tion, which met at Mount Holley, Vt., each 
claiming to represent the Newport Cluirch. 

A committee M'as appointed by the associa- 
tion to visit Newport and investigate the matter. 
The following year, 1818, the church under 
the lead of Mr. Hutchinson was recognized 
as the legitimate church. 

After the resignation of Mr. Hutchinson, 
1818, Rev. Leland Howard, pastor of the 
church at Windsor, occasionally supplied the 
pulpit. 

The labors of Mr. Howard are held in g-rate- 
ful remembrance. From November 8, 1818, 
to September 30, 1819, under his supervision, 
one hundred and ten members were added to 
the church, among them Alonzo King, who 
afterward entered the ministry, and, by request 
of the Baptist Missionary Society, wrote the 
jNIenioir of George Dana Boardman, and Baron 
Stow, afterward Rev. Dr. Stow, of Boston. 

lu June, 1819, mainly through the efforts of 
Colonel William Cheney, who was a convert 
under Mr. Howard, a charter was granted by 
the Ijegislature for " The First Baptist Society 
of Newport." The corporators were James D. 
Walcott, Elisha Hutchinson and Philip W. 
Kibbey. 

Its first meeting was held August 4, 1819. 
William Cheney was chosen moderator ; James 
D. Wolcott, clerk ; and William Cheney, Joseph 
Farnsworth and Ira Walker, wardens. Women 
were admitted to membership; the name of 
Deborah Stow, the mother of Baron Stow, 
being the first one recorded. 

In 1819, October, the church ordained Mr. 
Parsons, of Boston, as an evangelist. He jjreach- 
ed several months and was succeeded by Brad- 
bury Clay, of Nottingham West, who supplied 
for a time, but not as pastor. 

A revival began in June, 1820, in the New- 
port Academy under the care of Mr. Shedd, of 
Boston, and some twenty persons were baptized 
bv Rev. Ariel Kendrick, of Cornish, as the 
result of this awakening. 



During the year 1821, through the energy 
and enterprise of the leading men of the Bap- 
tist Church and society, a new house of worship 
of ample dimensions (sixty-four by forty-four) 
was ercctetl on its present conspicuous site at 
the north end of the village park. 

On October 11th the church ceased its Sab- 
bath services in the old house at North New- 
port, and set apart the new house at the village 
as its future place for public worship. Rev. 
J. Ellis preached the dedicatory sermon, from 
Haggai 2 : 9 — " The glory of this latter house 
shall be greater than of the former, saith the 
Lord of hosts ; and in this place will I give 
peace, saith the Lord of hosts." 

In July, 1821, Rev. Ira Pearson, of Hart- 
land, Vt., came to the pastorate. He was a na- 
tive of Windsor, Vt., and was born September 
28, 1791. It is matter of interest to state 
that when Rev. Biel Ledoyt came forward to 
receive the right hand of fellowship as the first 
installed minister, October 3, 1791, his dis- 
tinguished successor in the pastorate was five 
days old. 

Under the ministry of Rev. Mr. Pearson the 
church increased in number and streno-th. 

o 

With a new house of worship and a new minis- 
ter, the 2)eople " had a mind to work," and the 
results wei'e most cheering. In 1824 a mem- 
bership of two hundred and forty-nine was re- 
ported to the Woodstock Association. 

In 1828 the churches on the New Hampshire 
side of the Connecticut River seceded from the 
Woodstock Association, and the " Newport As- 
sociation of Baptist Churches " was formed, 
taking the name " Newport " on account of the 
central position and standing of this church. 

Since the Association was thus organized it 
has met M'ith the Newport Church six times, 
viz: 183(3, '42, '48, '55, '65, '79. During his 
first pastorate of fourteen years, which ended 
July 1, 1835, Mr. Pearson baptized nearly two 
hundi'ed persons. In all this time the church 
was united and prosperous, and the pastor high- 
ly esteemed. 



252 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The Rev. Mr. Pearson removed to Chester, 
Vt., and became the minister of the church 
there. After his retirement from Newport the 
pulpit was supplied for a time by Rev. Edward 
Peterson, of Moriah, N. Y. In the spring of 
1836 Rev. Orrin Tracy, of New London, took 
charge until January, 1838. In the mean 
time the anti-slavery agitation had become a 
fruitful source of discord in the community. 
It invaded the church ; parties were arrayed on 
eitlier side and it seemed as though the religion 
of Christ was about to be overwhelmed by the 
fanatical spirit of the time. In its distracted 
condition the church turned to its former pas- 
tor. Rev. Mr. Peai'son, as one who could guide 
it successfully out of its perilous condition. 
Seeing its great need he left the church at Ches- 
ter, became a second time pastor, March, 1838, 
of the Newport Church. In September of this 
year Mr. Pearson secured the services of Rev. 
Mr. Grant, and after Grant, Rev. Mr. Waldron. 
These were noted evangelists, and the attention 
of the church was thus diverted from the dis- 
cussion of ulterior questions and enlisted in a 
grand revival which brought unity, peace and 
concord to its councils. A hundred and forty 
new niembers were added. At the next meet- 
ing of the Association the church reported a 
membership of three hundred and sixty-three, 
the largest number heretofore reported. The 
results stated illustrate the good judgment of 
Mr. Peai'son in the settlement of an unhappi- 
ness in the church. 

In 1841, the meeting-house was reconstruct- 
ed by raising the auditorium in such a manner 
as to make space for a lower story, which was 
fitted up for school purposes, and occupied for 
several years by the Newport Academy. The 
room was also used for social meetings. The 
second pastorate of Rev. Ira Pearson continued 
four years and eight months, closing in Novem- 
ber, 1842. The two pastorates extended over 
a period of nearly nineteen years, during which 
time about four hundred additions were made to 
the church. After brief pastorates, at Lowell 



and Plymouth, Mass., and at Milford, N. 
H., Mr. Pearson removed, in 1853, to 
Ludlow, Vt , where he continued nineteen yeai's 
as pastor, and in 1872 closed a career as a set- 
tled minister, aggregating fifty-six years. On 
his retirement from active ministerial work, 
1872, he selected the town of Newport, from all 
others known to him in New England, as the 
home of his declining years. His ninetieth 
birthday was celebrated August 28, 1881, by a 
grand ovation at the town hall. It will be 
seen that his life runs parallel, nearly, with that 
of our country under the Constitution, and with 
that of the Baptist Church during its first hun- 
dred years. He died August 22, 1882. 

Rev. Joseph Freeman, of Cavendish, Vt., 
came to the pastorate in 1842, and so continued 
until 1846. During his ministry the Millerite 
excitement prevailed, and it required much of 
skill and prudence to tide the church through 
the trial, and preserve its unity. Mr. Freeman 
was succeeded in 1847 by Rev. William M. 
Guilford, who continued until February, LST)]. 
At tliis time the membership had become reduc- 
ed to one hundred and seventy-five. Rev. 
Paul S. Adams came from Georgetown, Mass., 
and commenced pastoral work here October 1, 
1851. Mr. Adams was pastor of the church 
five years. During this time the membership 
was raised to two hundred and eighty. He 
was dismissed at his own request to the church 
in Brattleborough, Vt. At this crisis Rev. Ira 
Pearson was called a third time to the jiastorate 
but declined. Rev. James Andem was called 
April 1, 1857, and installed June 18 and closed 
his labors in August of the following year. 

Rev. Mylon Merriam, of Sharon, Mass., was 
pastor from October 17, 1858, until September 

4, 1859. The pulpit wastiien supplied by Rev. 

5. G. Abbott, of Bradford. 

It appears on the record that on August 17, 
1859, the church was " called to mourn the 
death of Brother Amos Little, one of its most 
ardent friends, firm supporters and main pillars." 
Rev. W. H. Watson, of West Acton, Mass., 



NEWPORT. 



253 



was settled in 1860, and dismissed in May, 1861. 
David T. James settled June 4, 1862 ; dis- 
missed in the spring of 1806. Rev. Foster 
Henry was settled July 8, 1866. He came 
here from Danvers, Mass. His hibors were ac- 
ceptable to the people, and quite a number were 
added to the church. The parsonage was built 
during his pastorate — 1867 — at a cost of two 
thousand five hundred dollars, and in 1870 the 
church edifice was rebuilt at an expense of about 
nine thousand dollars. The corner-stone was 
laid by Rev. Mr. Pearson July 8th, with ap- 
propriate ceremonies. 

Rev. Foster Henry closed his pastorate of 
nearly six years on June 1, 1872. During his 
ministry thirty-two members were added to the 
church. 

Rev. Halsey C. Leavitt, of Governeur, X. Y., 
came to the pastorate October 1, 1872. The 
church prospered. In 1875 a new vestry was 
erected at an expense of about one thousand five 
liundred dollars. Mr. Leavitt closed his labors 
on the last Sunday in September, 1878. Sixty- 
five meiubers were added during his ministry. 

Rev. Charles F. Holbrook, of Saco, Me., 
came to the pastorate January 1, 1879. The 
centennial anniversary of the church was cele- 
brated with appropriate services on September 
23d of that year. After an inter'esting and 
successful ministry of somewhat over four years, 
Mr. Holbrook was dismissed, at his own request, 
to accept the pastorate of the Baptist Church 
at Hallowell, Me. Sixty members were added 
to the church while under his pa.storal care. 

Rev. Frank T. Latham, of Suffield, Conn., 
a.ssumed the duties of the pastorate Augu.st 6, 
1883. His discourse on the occasion was from 
Luke 22 : 27 ; — " I am among you as one that 
serveth." 

The Bapti.st Church of Newport has the 
honor of having furnished tweh'e candidates 
for the Christian ministry, viz. : Baron Stow, 
D.D., Alonzo King, William Heath, Elias Mc- 
Gregor, Enoch and Elijah Hutchin.son, John 
Learned, Simeon Chamberlain, F. W. Towle, 



Elijah Baker, Caleb Clark and Julius Leavitt. 

It has had fourteen deacons, viz. : Seth 
Wheeler, Elias Metcalf, Asaph Stow, Jeremiah 
Nettleton, Abel Metcalf, William Cheney, Jona- 
than Cutting, Joseph Farnsworth, Israel Kelly, 
Timothy Fletcher, Parraenas Whitconib, James 
Tandy, Austin L. Kibbey, Heniy A. Jenks. 
It is estimated that about one thousand mem- 
bers have been connected with it since its organ- 
ization , over one hundred years ago. Our sketch 
leaves its interests, spiritual and temporal, in 
the hands of Rev. F. T. Latham, pastor, and 
Henry A. Jenks, George F. Whitney and E, 
M. Kempton, deacons. The future will call 
upon them f<_ir an account of their stewardship. 

The Methodist Church in Newport traces 
its origin to an event of minor importance 
which occurred about the year 1815. It .seems 
that Peter Wakefield, a resident of Northvillc, 
then a member of the Baptist Church, became 
dissatisfied with the .stringent doctrines ad- 
vanced by Rev. Elisha Hutchinson, his pastor, 
in regard to election and the final perseverance 
of the .saints. All efforts to reclaim him to 
Calvinistic views failed and he was dismissed 
from the church. At that time he had never 
heard a Methodist discourse or read a ]\Iethod- 
ist book, but found himself, on examination, 
unconsciously in sympathy with the leading 
doctrines of Methodism. In this state of mind 
he sought spiritual aid and comfort from Rev. 
Elijah Hedding, afterward Bishop Hedding, 
who at that time preached occasionally in the 
town of Wendall (now Sunapee). 

At the suffsestion of Father Wakefield he 
visited this town and, in all probability, 
preached the first Methodist sermon ever heard 
in Newport. In 1830 a class was formed con- 
sisting of six persons ; these brethren were af- 
terwards supplied by preachers from the Goshen 
Circuit. 

Of these w'ere Eleazer Jordan, Guy Beck- 
ley Nathaniel Ladd, Amos Kidder, Joseph 
Baker, John Cummings and others, who 
preached to them in turn most of the Sabbaths 



254 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



from 1829 to 1836. About the year 1840, ob- 
jections being made to their using the school- 
house, Father Walvefield built a chapel in 
which religious services were held and which 
is still standing at Northville and open for the 
use of all evangelical Christians. In 184.3 the 
Miller excitement brought disaster to this iufant 
society, then in a flourishing condition. The 
only male members that proved faithful and 
consistent were Peter Wakefield and Nathaniel 
O. Page. The flock was scattered and they 
were cast down ; cast down, but not destroyed. 

Events afterward proved that Methodism had 
not yet accomplished its mission in Newport. 
About the year 1850 the dissensions that 
troubled the Congregational Church, then un- 
der the pastoral care of Rev. John Woods, re- 
sulted in the secession of quite a number of its 
influential members. Whether this departure 
was caused by a change of views in regard to 
creed or for merely personal reasons, we are not 
qualified to state. At all events, the seceders, 
with some disaffected Baptists, proposed a per- 
manent union with the Methodist remnant at 
Northville, which, being agreed upon, they 
asked the New Hamjjshire Conference for a 
preacher. Accordingly, in May, 1850, Rev. 
Warren F. Evans was stationed here and the 
Universalist Chapel secured as a place of wor- 
ship. 

On October 30, 1852, a society was organ- 
ized under the discipline of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, consisting of N. O. Page, I. 
B. Hurd, N. Batchelder, F. Kelley, James 
Baker, Abner Whipple, Jacob Robinson, Jo- 
seph Sawyer, Jr., Thomas A. Twitehell, Elna- 
than Hurd, Henry Chapin and their associates. 
Steps were taken to erect a church edifice, and a 
central site was selected on the east side of 
Main Street near the south end of the village 
park. Such was the progress of the work that 
on December 25, 1851, they were able to dedi- 
cate their house to the worship of Almighty 
God. Rev. Mr. Evans remained two years. 
They have since enjoyed the pastoral C£\re and 



offices of Sullivan Holman, A. C. Manson, J. 
W. Guernsey, D. P. Leavitt, John Currier, 
James Thurston, S. G. Kellogg, C. M. Dins- 
more, Charles Young, C. W. Mellen, Charles 
E. Hall, Elijah R. Wilkins, O. H. Jasper, A. 
W. Bunker, John W. Adams and James 
Noyes. 

In 1854 a lot was purchased and a parsonage 
built at an expense of about two thousand dol- 
lars. 

About the year 1880 the church edifice was 
thoroughly reconstructed at much expense, and a 
convenient vestry erected and finished. A fine 
organ stands in the chancel and desirable im- 
provements have been made on the outlying 
grounds. The Methodist Church in Newport 
is one of the best-appointed in this section of 
tiie State. 

With such a record of prosperity, a rapidly- 
increasing membership, a large and flourishing 
Sunday-school, great good may be expected as 
a result of the rise and progress of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church in this town. 

The Free-Will Baptist Church, which 
held a somewhat conspicuous place in this town 
for many years, grew out of a division in the 
Baptist Church at Northville, then under the 
pastoral care of Rev. Elisha Hutchinson, 
1815-16. 

The first pastor of this denomination was 
Rev. Solomon Howe, a disciple of Arminius, 
and the leader of the opposition to Mr. Hut- 
chinson. 

Mr. Howe was a native of Hillsborough and 
was licensed to preach at Washington, N. H., 
in 1815, and ordained in Newport July 5, 
1819, and was here until 1827, when he re- 
moved to Smyrna, N. Y. 

That he suffered persecution as an outgrowth 
of the religious dissensions at Northville may 
be inferred from the following certificate, which 
has come to the knowledge of the wHter, and 
which was publicly circulated about the year 
1826. It is just to Mr. Howe that he should 
I have the benefit of this vindication from a 



NEWPORT. 



255 



nialifious cliarge. He died at tlie age of 
seventy -two, iu 1858. 

"We tlie undei'signed having been appointed a 
conimiltee to investigate an accusation brought by 
Mr. David Fletcher against Rev. Solomon Howe for 
taking apples from a tree belonging to Mr. W" Knapp 
on the 14 Oct. 1824, which accusation was supported 
on the part of Mr. Fletcher by the testimony of three 
of his children all being under 13 years of age. Mr. 
Howe in defence brought forward Mr. Knapp, and 
his wife, who testified that they gathered the apples 
from the aforesaid tree before the 15"' Sept. except- 
ing a few, probably less than one half bushel; and 
they further testify that their brother went to the tree 
on the 27* of the same month with a basket to get 
some apples and did not bring home but a few. They 
thought it was impossible that there could be any 
apples there at the time the said Howe was accused of 
taking them from the fact that the tree stood in a 
pasture and the apples were ripe in the month of Au- 
gust. We therefore upon the above stated evidence 
and several circumstances connected therewith do 
unanimously report that in our opinion the said 
Howe is not guilty of the accusation. 
(Signed) " Moses P. Duekee, 

" Joseph Kimball, 
"Silas Wakefield, Jr., 
" Norman McGregor. 
" Newport, March 27, 1826." 

Other preachers after Mr. Howe were elders 
Elijah Watson, Mr. Goodale, L. H. Stevens 
and David Marks. For many years Nathaniel 
Wheeler and Abel Wheeler were deacons of this 
church, and afterwards Abel Wheeler, Jr., and 
Ira Wakefield. 

The organization and successful progress of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in this town 
has had a tendency to gather up and appro- 
jn'iate to itself the members of the Free-Will 
Baptist Society, and the organization has not 
been sustained since 1834-.35. 

The Uxiveksalist Society of Newport. 
was organized February 11, 1830. Meetings 
were held at the town hall and court-room 
until 1837, when their chapel was built. 
Among those who have ministered to this so- 



ciety are Revs. John Moore, William S. and A. 
S. Balch, W. S. and Levi Ballon, Walter Har- 
riman (afterwards Governor of the State), Eze- 
kiel Dow, Lemuel Willis, Luther Walcott, 
Thompson Barron, J. T. Powers, Joseph Bar- 
ber and James Eastwood. The pastorate of 
Mr. Eastwood closed .January 1, 1885, and the 
pulpit has since been vacant. 

The Unitaeian Society %vas formed Se|)- 
tember 30, 1873. Rev. G. F. Piper was calk'd 
to the pa.storate which he filled for one vear. 

He was succeeded by Rev. A. S. Nickerson. 
During 1876-77 the Universalist chapel which 
the Society has occupied was reconstructed and 
modernized. In 1878 Rev. Geo. W. Patten was 
engaged as jiastor. He continued about one 
year and had no successor. 

Roman Catholic. — In the development of 
the various interests which have added to the 
wealth and importance of the town of Newport, 
many people, individuals or in families, of 
Irish birth and others reared in the faith and 
forms of the Roman Catholic Church have 
come into town at diiferent times as operatives 
or laborers, and by industry and economy ac- 
quired property and social standing, and become, 
collectively, an important element in political 
and relig-ious affairs. The Church, ever mind- 
ful of the welfare of her children, has not, 
however, suffered them to wander l)eyon<l her 
protecting care. 

The first Roman Catholic service in this town 
was held in the year 1854. A mission was 
then established, of which the Rev. Father 
O'Sullivan, the pastor at Claremont, had charge, 
and regular services at stated times continued 
to be observed. During the ten years from 
1873 to 1883 the mi.ssion occupied the old 
Masonic Hall, in Burke's building, near the 
bridge on j\Iain Street. 

At length the increasing need for more con- 
venient accommodations for worship created a 
sentiment in favor of erecting a church edifice, 
and active measures for the accomplishment of 
this object were commenced. Three lots of 



256 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



land — two by Dexter Richards and one by 
Patrick Herrick — were donated, on \^liich to 
erect the building, and on June 22, 1882, work 
on the foundation was coninienced. The work 
was carried steadily and successfully forward, 
and on Christmas, December 25, 1882, services 
were held in the new house for the first time. 

The architect builder was Kira R. Beckwith, 
of Claremout. Its entire cost was five thousand 
six hundred dollars. The external appearance of 
the building is very attractive. It is of the 
Gothic style of architecture, and is located at the 
corner of Chase and Winter Streets, in the 
northeastern part of the village, and being 
situated on a commanding eminence, may be 
seen at quite a distance from many surrounding 
^joints and approaches. 

The interior appointments of the house are 
very attractive. The frescoing, window stain- 
ing and the elegance of the altar, which was 
donated to the society by Mrs. Patrick Herrick, 
are especially noticeable. 

The formal dedication of this, (St. Patrick's) 
church took place in accordance witli the forms 
and ceremonies of the Catholic Church, ou 
Thursday, November 29, 1888. The sermon 
was preached by the Rt. Rev. Bishop James 
A. Healy, of Portland, Me. 

The Rev. P. J. Finnegan, of Clareraont, has 
charge of the society in connection with his 
duties as pastor of St. Mary's Roman Catholic 
Church at Claremout. 

Music was early in Newport. It came with 
the fathers and mothers of the town, — a jolly 
jiarty, considering their Puritan proclivities. 
But men and women must sing or acknowledge 
themselves fit for " treason, stratagems and 
spoils." 

From the earliest times the people of old Con- 
necticut have been noted as singers ; and 
wherever they have gone in all the earth, they 
have continued to sing. 

In contrast with their vocal organs, to them 
musical instruments were high-priced and 
inconvenient. They had few harps to hang 



upon the willows. The harp of a thousand 
strings, with which they could work and sing, 
was all sufficient. 

The voice of song was undoubtedly heard in 
the worship under the tree on that first Sabbath 
morning after their arrival near the road-cross- 
ings across the intervale. 

We have heard how they sang Mear and 
Wells and others of these ancient tunes, at 
their meetings in the old Propiietoi-s' House. 
We have also heard how neighboring families 
would come together for an evening, and in a 
circle around the great open fire-place, with 
back-log and fore-stick aglow with light and 
heat, blend the songs of Zion with their 
kindly social intercourse. Love-making and 
psalm-singing went hand-in-hand. In fact, 
they are going that way still. 

The shows known nowadays as "Old Folks' 
Concerts" aifect to illustrate the manner ofy" 
olden time in dress, as well as the rendering in 
nasal vocalization of the old contrapuntal 
music, apparently so exhaustive of breath and 
eifort. Among the early singers were Matthew 
Buel, Philip W. Kibby and the McGregors 
and the Elder Aldolphus King. Of those who 
came afterward, 1825 to 1840, no one was more 
conspicuous, or did more for the advancement 
of musical culture in this community, than 
Eluathan Duren, of Charlestown. He was a 
man whose whole being was enlisted in his 
work, and he had the ability not only to illus- 
trate music as an art, but to fill it with spirit 
and understanding, and clothe it with elo- 
quent expressiveness. 

The music in our churches is, properly con- 
sidered, a part of public worship, and has been 
carefully sustained in all the years. The ma- 
terial out of which choirs are constructed has 
sometimes proved combustible, or explosive, and 
the cordial relations between minister, singers 
and people have been much strained, if not out 
of joint. But the retirement of some, and a 
wise reconstruction bv those that remained, 
have resulted successfully. 



NEWPORT. 



257 



Such trouljles have coiue and arone as clonds 
tliat sweep the sky, leaving an improved serenity 
in tlie atmosphere. A hindrance ofyears ago to the 
culture and progress of church music was an 
olyoctiou on the part of the more Puritanical of 
tlie brethren to the introduction of musical in- 
struments other than tlie pitch-pipe and tuning- 
fork, to aid the voices and fill uj) tlie harmony. 
The viol, and the harp, and the organ were re- 
garded as unsanctified, mechanical and devilish 
accessories to worship, unnecessary, if not sin- 
ful. 

Their inspiration and effect was to cause some 
of the more sensitive hearers to retire from the 
liouse of God with an emphasized alacrity. But 
tliis sentiment in our community has entirely 
disappeared, or remains only as a historical 
fact. 

The existence of an instrumental band in tliis 
town has been somewhat intermittent, particu- 
larly since the old militia system was aban- 
doned. 

But martial music in tlie later years iias had 
good attention, especiall}- since the organization 
of the " Newport Cornet Band," which consists 
of about twenty ]>ieces, and is handsomely uni- 
formed and jirejiared to do good work at fairs, 
festivals, military jjarades and on otlier public 
or social occasions. Its services are well ap- 
jireciated in this community. 

In 1879 a handsome baud-stand was erected 
at a central position on the common, which af- 
fords a desirable opportunity for open-air con- 
certs during the summer months. 

The "Arion Quartett " is a society of long 
standing, and often appears at social gatherings, 
and sometimes has charge of the music on fu- 
neral occasions and at public meetings in the 
town hall in connection with the band, and 
is always well received. 

We might follow the musical sentiment of 
our people to their homes, in many of which 
are pianos and organs, and choice selections of 
church and secular music, with other evidences 
of musical culture, which is an important 



factor in the social and domestic life of our 
citizens. 

The first piano in Newport was brought here 
by Dr. John B. McGregor, about the year 1830, 
for the use of his daughters, one of whom, 
Mrs. Marion (McGregor) Christopher, was the 
organist of tlie Tatiernaclc Church, llev. Dr. 
Taylo)-, Thirty-fourth Street and Broadway, 
New York City, for more than twenty-five 
years, up to 1885. 

The " Sullivan Musical Association " grew 
out of a large singing-school held in the Con- 
gregational Church in this town in August and 
September, 1872, under the dircv-tion of Wil- 
liam P. Dale, of Fitchburg, Mass. It is prob- 
able that ilr. Dale was here at the sus-srestion 
or invitation of Kev. Mr. Scott, then pastor of 
the Congregational Church. The class was 
made up of singers from the church choirs in 
Newport and the adjoining towns. Two or 
three concerts were given and the exercises 
otherwise were of great interest, so much so 
that at the close of the school the friends of 
musical culture and the lovers of music came 
together and organized the association above 
named. 

The officers then chosen were Rev. G. 
R. W. Scott, president ; ]\I. R. Emerson, 
vice-president; Granville Pollard, treasurer; 
Arthur B. Chase, secretary ; Executive Com- 
mittee, — A. W. Perkins (Claremont), S. S. 
Bowers (Newport), M. B. Presby (Bradford), 
Alden Sabin (Lempster), E. D. Comings (Croy- 
don). 

Its officers diu'ing the succeeding years have 
been : 1874-75, M. B. Presby, president ; Rev. 
H. C. Leavitt, vice-president. 1876-79, Rev. 
H. C. Leavitt, president ; Francis Boardman, 
vice-president. 1880-85, E. D. Comings, 
president ; George E. Dame, vice-president. 
Granville Pollard and A. B. Chase have con- 
tinued to fill the offices of treasurer and secre- 
tary, excej)ting that Mr. Chase resigned in 
1884, and H. P. Coffin was chosen in his 
stead. 



258 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Executive Committee, 1885: Newport, S. S. 
Bowers, A. S. Wait, Seth M. Richards, J. W. 
Parraelee, B. R. Allen, C. S. Partridge, H. P. 
Coffin ; CVoydon, E. D. Comings ; Cornish, 
E. G. Kenyon ; Acworth, W. S. Woodbury ; 
Sunapee, Nathan A. Smith ; Newbury, M. W. 
Cheney ; New London, A. C. Burpee ; Goshen, 
Mrs. James Trow ; Ciaremout, C. M. Leet, 
Miss M. E. Partridge ; Langdon, Martin Bas- 
com ; Lempster, George E. Perley ; Meriden, 
Josiah Davis, Converse Cole ; Sutton, John 
Merrill, Frederick Keezer ; Grantham, Rufus 
Hall ; Springfield, Jonathan Sanborn, Charles 
McDaniel ; Washington, George Brockway ; 
Plainfield, Willie Freeman ; Henniker, A. D. 
Huntoon ; Lebanon, D. J. Hurlbut, E. H. 
Thompson ; Bellows Falls, C. L. Barber ; 
Bradford, A. W. Chellis ; Salem, M. B. 
Presby. 

Musical Conductors: LS73, Solon Wilder, of 
Boston; 1874-79, L. O. Emerson, of Boston ; 
1880, J. P. Cobb, of Boston; 1881, L. O. 
Emerson, of Boston ; 1882-84, Carl Zerrahu, 
of Boston. 

Pianists: 1873, Mrs. J. P. Cobb, of Bos- 
ton ; 1874, Mrs. Martha Dana Shepard, of 
Boston; 1875, T. P. Rider, of Boston; 1876 
to 1884, Mrs. Martha Dana Shepard, of Bos- 
ton. 

The executive committee have, frona year to 
year, secured artists of distinguished ability in 
the leading vocal parts and as humorists and 
readers. The grand chorus of from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred voices, comprising 
singers from church choii-s and others gathered 
for instruction, is a notable feature of the Asso- 
ciation. The conventions are held annually at 
the town hall in Newport, and generally oc- 
cupy the last full week in the month of Au- 
gust. On account of the destruction of the 
hall, there was no convention in 1885. The 
record of the Association for thirteen years, finan- 
cially and otherwise, has been one of distin- 
guished success. Its tendency has been to im- 
prove the musical taste and culture of its 



patrons, and it has come to be one of the 
substantial and well-appreciated institutions of 
the town. The new town hall is expected to be 
in order for the convention of 1886. 

MASONIC. 

On the 12th of June, 1816, a dispensation 
was granted by William II. Underwood, Grand 
Master of Masons in New Hampshire, to Ar- 
nold Ellis and ten others, to form anil open a 
Masonic lodge at Newport, by the name of 
Corinthian I,odge, No. 28. On the 2Ist of 
June following, the first meeting was held, 
when officers were chosen and the lodge was 
duly organized. The first regular communi- 
cation of the lodge was held at Colonel Luther 
Delano's hall on July 2, a.l. 5816, and the 
lodge was opened on the first degree of Ma- 
sonry. A charter was afterwards obtained from 
the Grand Lodge (November 12, 1816) and 
the lodge was duly constituted and its officers 
installed. On the records of this lodge may be 
found the initiatory step leading to temperance 
reform in Newport, wlien, at a regular meeting 
on the 1st day of September, 1818, it was 
" Voted, That no ardent spirits shall be hereaf- 
ter introduced into our lodge during lodge 
hours." 

The Corinthian Lodge was increased by the 
addition to its membership of many of the 
leading citizens of Newport and the adjoining 
towns, and continued to prosper until the time 
of the Morgan disclosures and abduction, which 
occurred in Western New York in September, 
1826. The lodge continued to hold its monthly 
meetings with but feeble support until May, 
1833, after which the charter was surren- 
dered. 

Mount Vernon Lodge. — Mount Vernon 
Lodge, No. 15, was originally located in the 
town of Washington. In the year 1848, by 
authority of the Grand Lodge, it was removed 
to Newport. Its first meeting here was held on 
the 10th of July, of that year, Brother Jonas 
Parker being Worshipful Master, Lewis Uu- 



NEWPOKT. 



259 



dor\voo<l Seniur Warden nnd .loliii Gunnison 
Junior M^arden, all residiuj;' in the town ot" 
Go.-ihen, and Daniel M. Hmith, of Lenipstcr, 
Secretary. At this eomraunieatiou Brotlier 
Harvey Huntoon, of Unity, acted as Senior 
Deacon; Naylor Starhii-d, of Newport, as Jun- 
ior Deacon ; Oliver Lund, of Newport, as 
Treasurer ; and Johu Carr, of Newport, as 
Tiler; and Brothers John Silver, Ilarvev 
Huntoon, Naylor Starbird, Amos Little, Seth 
liiehards, Oliver Lund and Mason Hatch, all 
tornierly members of the Corinthian Lodge, 
were, on a vote by ballot, admitted members of 
Mount Vernon Lodge. 

On the removal of the lodge to Newport its 
meetings were first held iu a hall prepared for 
its reception in the building known as " Matson 
Block," where it remained until the year 1.S72, 
when its increased membership and importance 
demanded more ample accommodations. In 
view of this state of things, arraugements were 
made with Dexter Richards, a menil)er of the 
lodge, who prepared au elegant hall and ad- 
joining apartments for the use of the lodge, in 
the upper story of his building, known as Che- 
ney Block. On the 13th of November, 1872, 
this hall was publicly dedicated to the patron 
saints of the order by the Grand Lodge of the 
State of New Hampshire. 

From the period of its removal from Wash- 
ington the career of Mount Vernon I^odge has 
been attended with great prosperity and an ex- 
tended influence for good as inculcated by the 
Masonic creed and order. The names of those 
who have been Worshipful IMasters of the 
lodge since its removal to Newport are as fol- 
lows : 

Joints Tarker, 18-18-tO; Levi Underwood, 1841»-.'J0; 
Virgil Chase, 1850-51 ; .John Putter, 1851-52; Thomas 
Sauboru, 1852-53; James Karr, 1853-54; Benjainiu 
M. Gilraore, 1854-55 ; D. W. Watkins, 1855-56 ; 
Charles H. Little, 1856-57 ; Charles Emerson, 
1857-58; William E. Moore, 1858-60; Thomas San- 
l)orn, 1860-61; Jonas Parker, 1861-62; John Young, 
Jr., 1862-65 ; Matthew Harvey, 1865-67 ; Alberts. 
Wait, 1867-69 ; David JIcLauchlin, 1869-71 ; Josiah 



Turner, 1871-73 ; Henry M. Ingram, 1873-75; Arthur 
H.Ingram, 1875-76; John Young, 1876-77; F. A. 
Rawson, 1877-80; A. W. Rounsevel, 188(1-83; Abia- 
thar Richards, 1884. 

Present otflcers, 1885 : A\'orshipful Ma.ster, 
Abiathar Richards ; Senior Warden, F. P. Me- 
.serve ; Junior Warden, E. Hatch Carr, Goshen ; 
Treasurer, F. A. Rawson ; Secretary, William 
H. Wright. 

Chapter of the Tabernacle. — On June 
19, 1872, a dispensation was granted by Ed- 
ward Gustine, of Keene, Grand High Priest of 
the State, to A. S. Wait, of Newj)ort ; John 
Young, of Sunapee ; Albina H. Powers, of 
Croydon ; and nine other Royal Arch Masons 
of Webl> (Jhapter, at Claremont, to open a Roy- 
al Arch Chapter, at Newport, by the name of 
" Chapter of the Tabernacle," in which the 
three companimis named were designated, re- 
spectively, Pligh Priest, King and Scribe. 

At the convocation of the (rrand Chapter of 
the State in May, 1 873, a charter was gi'anted 
to this chapter, and on the l!)th of the follow- 
ing February it wa.= duly constituted, and its 
officers installed. Incumbents as High Priests : 
A. S. Wait, 1872-76; A. W. Rounsevel, 1877 
-80; George C. Edes, 1881-82; D. G. Chad- 
wick, 1882-84; Daniel P. (iuimby, 188."). 

Present officers, 188") : High Priest, D. P. 
Qnimby ; King, F. A. Rawson ; Scribe, Henry 
M. Ingram ; Treasurer, Dexter Richards ; Sec- 
retary, Charles H. I^ittle. 

(II>D-FELLO\VS. 

SufJAR RtvEU LorxjE, I. O. O. F., was 
instituted May 25, 1874, under the direction of 
M. T. Tottingham, Grand Master of the State, 
a.ssisted by S. J. O.sgood, D. G. M.; George A. 
Cummings, Grand Warden ; Joel Taylor, Grand 
Secretary; i\.mos Jones, G. R.; R. M. Blancii- 
ard, Grand Marshal; and E. A. Cotting, (Jrand 
Conductor. 

The original petitioners for the lodge were 
Obadiah Johnson, W. H. Raymond, S. M. 
Richards, F. A. Raw.son, George F. Livermore, 
S. C. Coffin, 11. C. Tenney, W. S. Kemptou, 



260 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



L. A. Richardson, A. S. Chase, C. S. Par- 
tridge, A. W. Clarke, R. W. Tilton, G. H. Dar- 
ricott, H. P. Griswold, M. W. Burke, M. L. 
Whittier, C. H. Matthews and Charles H. 
Watts. 

From its institution until August 9, 1880, 
the lodge occujiied a hall in the third story, 
north end of Richards' Block. Afterwards it 
removed to elegantly decorated and furnished 
apartments in the upper story of the town hall, 
where the lodge first met August 16, 1880. 
This hall was dedicated October 4, 1880, by 
Grand Master John H. Albin, assisted by Dep- 
uty Grand Master Robie, Past Grand Masters 
George A. Cummings and Joseph B. Smart. 
These apartments wei'e leased for a term of 
twenty-five years, and were the home of the 
lodge until June 21, 1885, when the town hall 
and most of its contents were destroyed by fire. 
The loss of the lodge in regalias, fixtures, fur- 
niture, etc., was estimated at about two thousand 
five hundred dollars, on which there was an in- 
surance of fifteen hundred dollars, which was 
paid over iu due time. The lodge then 'eased 
for a term of twenty years a spacious hall and 
other apartments in the south end, third floor 
of Richards' Block, which were appropriately- 
fitted lip and dedicated to the uses of the (.)rder 
in December, 1885. 

In connection with this lodge the Stony 
Brook Encampment M'as instituted IMarch 30, 
1880. 

"Visit the sick." The number of weeks of 
sickness reported during the eleven years of the 
existenceof the lodge, and which have been visited 
as found necessary, is two hundred and fifty-two. 

" Relieve the distressed." The amount of 
cash paid for the relief of members of the lodge 
is nine hundred and twenty-one dollars. For 
sojourners in this jurisdiction of members 
of other lodges, which amount has been refund- 
ed, .?109.25. 

" Bury the dead." Three brothers and ten 
sisters have been buried in accordance with the 
rules of the order. 



" Educate the orphan." No call has been 
made for this purpose, but tiie lodge stands 
ready to fulfill this injunction whenever it shall 
be found necessary. 

Frank A. Rawson was elected Grand Master 
of the State iu 1881, and in 1882-83, Grand 
Representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge, 
I. O. O. F. 



CHAPTER IV. 

NEW PORT— r Cunlinued). 

EDUCATION, LITKRATIUE ANI> THK PRESS. 

Education. — The value of intelligence flow- 
ing from mental culture was appropriately esti- 
mated by the founders of New England. 

The subject of education received early atten- 
tion in the town of Newport. Before the fam- 
ilies of the first settlers liad inci'eased to any 
a-reat extent arrangements were made for school 
purposes. The first public liuilding, the Pi'o- 
prietors' House, erected in 1772-73, was intend- 
ed iu ])art as a public school-hou.se. Referring 
to the earliest })ublic record iu regard to schools, 
we find the following : 

"March S, 1784, Voted, That there .shall be four 
pounds, hiwful money, paid out of the towu treasury 
towards the support of a school the ensueing sum- 
mer — to be paid in grain at the market price." 

The next year arrangements were made for 
two terms of school during the year, as follows : 

" March 14, 1775, Voted, To pay five pounds', law- 
ful money, worth of grain to support a school ; one- 
half is to support a school in the summer, and the 
other half in the winter. Wheat at five shillings i)er 
bushel and Rye at three shillings and nine-pence i)er 
bushel." 

Josiah Stevens, who came from Killingworth 
to Alstead in 1767, and to Newport in 1771, 
then a young man about thirty years of age, 
was the schoolmaster of that time. 

During the Revolutionary period, which af- 
ter this greatly enlisted the attention and ener- 



NEWPORT. 



261 



gies of the people, no public appropriations ap- 
pear to have been made for the support of 
schools, and for the time they were dependent 
on the private subscriptions of parties inter- 
ested. 

In 1783 and for some years after. Rev. John 
Reniele, the first settled pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Cliurch, officiated as teaclier as \vell as 
preaciier, anti we are sure that he made good 
and lasting impressions upon the minds of his 
pupils, of wh(Mn tlie immediate progenitor of the 
writer was one. Another, Rev. James Hill 
Parmelee, refers to him as " a good scholar and 
teacher, and a man of mucli wit and humor." 

This was School District No. 1. As the years 
went on, and the population increased, other 
districts were organized. No. 1 extended from 
tlie '' plain " to the Unity line. No. 2 covered 
tiic territory occupied by tiie village. No. 3 
the region about Kelleyville. No. 4 the East 
Mountain. No. 5 the neighborhood of (niild 
Post-Office. No. 6 the vicinity of Northville. 
These districts were afterwards subdivided and 
in 1873 there were eighteen school districts in 
the town of Newport. 

In the spring of 1874 the village districts, 
f lur in number, in accordance with legislative 
acts for the establishment of graded schools in 
the larger towns as might be desirable to pro- 
mote the efficiency -of school- wrirk, voted in 
their several meetings to unite and form one 
district. 

To this end committees of tliree were ap- 
pointed from each district, to confer and settle 
upon the terms of this union. At a meeting 
I if the people of the .sevei'al districts, held May 
13, 1.S74, the report of tiiis general committee 
was considered and unanimously adopted, and 
Union School District was organized. Richard 
S. Howe, Edmund Wheeler and George R. 
Brown were, at the same meeting, chosen a 
committee to make arrangements in regard to 
school buildings and rooms, and take other 
necessary action to put the graded schools in 
operation. 



The erection of the new county building, in 
1873, had thrown the old town hall and court- 
house out of use. It was apparent that these 
premises might be utilized for .school purposes 
without much labor or expense. 

A town-meeting was called, at which it was 
voted unanimously to convey the same to Union 
District for the term of ninety-nine 3'ears, pro- 
vided they be jjut in suitable order, kept in 
good repair and that the district should main- 
tain therein for a term of not le.ss than twenty 
weeks each year a grammar school, without ex- 
pense to the town, the inhabitants of other dis- 
tricts in town having the privilege of sending 
their scholars to any department of the school 
by jKiying a reasonable tuition fee. 

By arrangement tliere were to be f )ur prim- 
ary departments, which were each to occupy 
the four school l)uil(lings heretofore used by the 
former districts. The old town hall was par- 
titioned off and the Intermediate Department 
was assigned to the nortli room and the Gram- 
mar Department to the south rocjm. The .sec- 
ond floor of the building, formerly the court- 
room, was fitted uj) for the use of the High 
School. 

At first the affairs of the Union District 
came under the su])ervision of the superin- 
tending school committee of the town in com- 
mon with the iiutlying districts ; but, having 
assumed these proportions, it was thought ad- 
visable, for the sake of more independent action, 
to place the management of its affairs in the 
hands of a Board of Education, elected l)y the 
district. Accordingly, at tlic next session of 
the Legislature, June, 1877, a special act was 
passed, authorizing such action, and at the an- 
j una! school-meeting, in 1878, a Board of Edu- 
ciition was elected, consisting of Edmund 
Wheeler, S. H. Edcs, George W. Britton, T. 
B. Sanborn, A. S. Wait and George E. Dame. 
After some little jiractical experience the num- 
ber of persons comprising the board was found 
unnecessarily large, and it was reduced to three 
members, agreeably to the act. The term of 



262 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



office being three years, the construction of the 
board is sucii that there is one retiring member 
each year, the vacancy to be filled by the elec- 
tion of one new member annually. 

The names of those wlm have served on the 
School Board are as follows : 

Richard S. Howe, 1874-75, two years. 
Edmund Wheeler, 1874-81, eight years. 
George R. Brown, 1874, one year. 
S. L. Bowers, 1875-77, three years. 
S. H. Edes, 1876-78, three years. 
George W. Britton, 1878-79, two years. 
Thomas B. Sanborn, 1878, one year. 
A. S. Wait, 1878, one year. 
George E. Dame, 1878, one year. 
Mrs. L. W. Barlow, 1879, one year. 
Miss Georgia E. Wilcox, 1880, one year. 
Mrs. Harriet S. Jenks, 1880-82, three years. 
Joseph W. Parmelee, 1881-85, five years. 
Dana J. Mooney, 1882-85, four years. 
David M. Currier, 188.3-85, three years. 

The teachers who have had charge of the 
High-School are as follows : 

1874. — George R. Brown, Emily Leavitt (assistant). 

1875.— H. A. Hutchinson, C. E. Blake, George 
Dodge. 

1876.— Cynthia F. Payne. 

1876-77.— Herbert J. Barton. 

1878.— Frank S. Hotaling. 

1879-84.— Hartstein W. Page, Mattie M. Chellis 
(assistant). 

1884-85.— Stephen A. Snow, Mattie M. Chellis (as- 
sistant). 

1885-86.— Charles O. Thurston, A.B., Carrie M. 
Deming (assistant). 



The onraduates are as follows ; 



1877. — Fred. Allen, Frank Hanson, Isaac Stone. 

1878.— Georgie Barnard, Addie Blood, Ella Foote, 
Lois Hurd, Emma Howe, Lillian Wells, Mary Wiley, 
John McCrillis, Frank Chellis, Fred. Nettleton. 

1879.— Sadie Cutting, Etta Fletcher, Lillian 
Fletcher, May Howard, Alice Howe, Lillian Kemp- 
ton, Emma Nourse, Ralph Howard. 

1880.— Kate Chellis, Nellie Clough, Zilplia Cut- 
ting, May Parker, Carrie Watts, Homer Graves, 
Charles Emerson, George Lewis, R. Wilkins. 



1881. — Florence Barton, Nellie Chase, Loxa Ellis, 
Emma Gilmore, Margaret Gilmore, Grace Nourse, 
Grace Royce, Fred. Aiken, Fred. Carr, George A. 
Fairl)anks, Henry Fletcher, Benjamin Pliny Holbrook 
Robert Jenks, Charles Royce, William Walker. 

1882. — Alice Carr, Spedie A. Clough, Abbie R. Cut- 
ting, Cora B. Dodge, May E. Emmons, Leslie C. Hun- 
tress, Mary E. Reardon, Elmer H. Cutts, Charles V. 
French, John Herrick, Herman A- Kibbey, Charles 
Nutting, Philip Robinson, John C. Silsby. 

1883.— Frances W. Cutting, Rosa Bell Dodge, Julia 
Ann Herrick, Charles Edward Holbrook, Mary Leslie 
Jenks, Frank Eugene Warren. 

1884.— John P. Reardon, Ora L. Walker. 

1885. — William Fletcher, Joseph Chapin Kimball, 
Ralph Stevens Pollard, Fred. Truman Pollard, Frank 
Amasa Robinson, Charles Herbert Towle, Mary Beck, 
Stella May Britton, Viola Almira Cutting, Hattie 
Burt Haskell, Edith Abbie Mooney, Lizzie Viola 
Woodbury. 

Total, 79— boys, 38; girls, 41. 

In addition to tlie ordinary advantages for edu- 
cation afforded by the public sciiools, the people 
of Newport have sometime enjoyed oppor- 
tunities for a moi'e advanced culture. Going 
back to the year 1819, we find an organization 
known a.s tlie Newport Academy. 

This institution was authorized by an act of 
the Legislature, June 24, 1810. It.s incorpor- 
ators were of the leading citizens of the town. 

It was for many years under the supervision 
of" a board of trustees, consisting of James 
Breck, Jo.seph Farnsworth, James I). Wolcott, 
John B. McGregor, Alexander Boyd and Hub- 
bard Newton. It had no permanent fund as a 
basis of support, but was dependent upon the 
tuition fees of the scholars, tlie trustees guaran- 
teeing the preceptor the suui of four hundred 
dollars per annum. 

The home of this institution was a two-story 
buildiug, in white paint, occupying a lot on the 
south side of the present Elm Street, near the 
east end of the bridge across the South Branch. 
The lower floor was occupied by the school in 
District No. 2, and the upper story as the 
acadcmv. The buildinsj was lono; known as 
the " W'liitc School-iiouse," aud was afterward 



NEWPORT. 



263 



moved to the present site of tlie Congregational 
parsonage and used for a vestry and school - 
house, and ultimately destroyed by fire No- 
vember 2, 1843. 

Thus perished the old White Sehool-liouse, a 
noted structure in its day, towards which the 
recollection of many now living will turn with 
interest and pleasure. 

After the year 1<S34 the Newport Academy 
occupied the court-house, and sometimes the 
lower story of the Baptist meetiugdiouse, 
which was fitted up for school purposes in 1841. 
i-'rom 1819 till 1873, when the High Sciiool in 
Union District took the place of the academy, 
there were thirty-five different instructors or 
preceptors of the academ}'. 

The names of the preceptors of the Newport 
Academy are as follows : 

1819.— William Shedd. 
1820.— Christopher Marsh. 
1821-23.— William Clark, A.B. 
1825. — Amasa Edes, Harriet Cook. 
1826.— Josiah Peabody. 
1827.— William Heath. 
1828.— William Claggett. 
1820.— A. G. Hoyt, Miss S. Trask. 
1829.— Kendrick Metcalf. 
1833.- David Crosby (died in Nashua, 1881). 
183.5.— Ursula Kelley. 
1839.— M. L. Eastman. 
1840. — Susan W^oodward. 

1841. — Miss Colby (daughter of Governor Colby). 
1842.— Sarah O. Dickey. 
1845. — Abner 8. Warner. 
1848.— William M. Guilford. 
184S.— J. C. Crooker. 
1850. — Charles Chapin. 
1851.— C. F. Eeniick. 

1852. — L. W. Barton, Lizzie F. Jewett (assistant). 
1853.— Mary B. Fitz. 
1853.— M. Bradford Boardman. 
1855.— John Paul. 
1857.— R. M. Gunnison. 

1858.— H. F. Hyde, Miss A. C. Baker, assistant. 
1859.— George P. Brooks, Miss F. A. Corbin (as- 
sistant). 

1862. — Eugene Lewis, A. F. Gleason (assistant). 



1862.— Sarah G. G. Gregg. 

lS(i3.— A. H. Kimball. 

1865.- Mary Dwinell Chellis. 

1866.— Alfred F. Howard. 

1870. — (icorge R. Brown, Miss Leavitt (assistant). 

1873. — Susan C Eastman. 

IjiTERATrRK. — A carcful estimate will .show 
that of natives of Newport and otiiers localized in 
the town since its first settlement, more than 
one hundred have been graduated from colle- 
giate institutions to engage in professional life 
and business affairs. Of some we have been 
able to give brief biographical sketches. To 
follow tiiem all in their various departures we 
would lie led to all parts of our own country, 
to other continents and the islands of the ocean, 
whither they have gone as soldiers, .sailors, 
travelers and merchants, or as missionaries and 
educators. 

In these latter regards we would find the 
Moores in Bnrmah ; Miss Jane Eliza Chapin 
in China; the Rowclls and Chapins in the 
Hawaiian kingdom ; and ]\[iss M. Lizzie Cum- 
mings, a daughter of Kev. Henry Cuinmings, a 
former pastor of the Congregational Church, to 
her duties as a teacher in the Huguenot Semi- 
nary at Wellington, Cape Colony, South Africa. 

Others have a record in the literature of the 
country, and of the earliest of these was Rev. 
Carlos Wilcox, born in Newport, October 23, 
I7il4, a graduate from Middleburv College, 
Vermont, a Congregational minister at Hart- 
ford, and afterward at Danbury, Conn., where 
he died in 1827. He published a book of ser- 
mons and was the author of many poems of 
much merit. 

Sarah Josepha (Buel) Hale, who died in 
Philadelphia, April 30, 1879, and who had 
been for more than fifty years the approved 
editor of Godcy^s Lady''.'^ Book, was a native of 
Newport, where she was born October 24, 1788. 
She married, October 13, 1813, David Hale, 
an attorney -at-law, iiy whose early decease, in 
1822, she was left in widowhood with limited 
resources and five children (the oldest not over 



264 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



seven years of age) for maintenance and proper 
education. 

Her father, Gordon Buel, was not in circum- 
stances to afford lier any assistance. The gravity 
of her situation and future would have lieen 
appalling to one of less courage and ability. 
Uj) to this time her literary ventures had not 
been outside the columns of the village paper, in 
which she occasionally apjjeared over the signa- 
ture of Cornelia, and it is not probable that she 
indulged in any higher aspirations as a Utirr- 
atmr. The outlook was in another direction. 

By the advice and aid of her liest friends, she 
was induced to luake arrangements with Miss 
Thyrza Hale, a sister of her deceased husband, 
for the prosecution of a business which seemed 
to promise more immediate and certain results. 
An advertisement in the New Hampshire Spec- 
tator of May 18, LS25, is authority as well as an 
interesting reminiscence in relation to this mat- 
ter. It states as follows : 

"New Fancy Goods and Millinery. Mrs. and Miss 
Hale Have just received from Boston and New York 
a supply of the most Fashionable Spring and Sum- 
mer Goods which they offer for Sale as cheap as can 
be purchased at any other store in this vicinity. Brown 
cambricks, Figured Gauze, Silk & Mourning Bonnets, 
Caps and Head-dresses of the latest and most approved 
patterns kept constantly on hand. Miss Hale and a 
young Lady with her who is well acquainted withMil- 
linary and Mantua-making will give constant atten- 
tion and cheerful attendance on all Ladies who please 
to favor them with their patronage. Feathers, Rags 
and Tow cloth received in payment for goods." 

At this crisis of affairs we find the future 
poetess, novelist, author and compiler of some 
twenty-two different literary works and com- 
pilations of great merit engaged in bartering 
silks, gauzes, bonnets, caps and head-drajies 
for country " truck and dicker." During the 
succeeding two or three years she, undoubtedly, 
found she had mistaken her calling. The busi- 
ness was not a success. The vista now opening 
before her was not festooned fancy goods, milli- 
nery articles, feathers or tow- cloth. 



Her literary abilities had come to be appre- 
ciated. In the year 1828 she was called to the 
editorial charge of the Ladies' 3Iagaz!ne, pub- 
lished in Boston, and discharged the duties of 
this responsible position until ] 837, when this 
periodical was united with the Lady's Book of 
Philadelphia ; she was aflerward a resident of 
Philadelphia. 

The working of her long life was crowned 
with financial success, as well as popular favor, 
and she was able to educate her sons and 
daughters in the most prominent educational 
institutions of this country. She was a person 
of remarkable vitality, and had lived more than 
ninety years ; and at the time of her decease 
was the most widely-known and distinguished 
of the daughters of Newport. 

Horatio Hale, son of the foregoing, was born 
in Newport, May 3, 1817 ; was graduated from 
Harvard College, educated as a lawyer and 
admitted to the practice, in Chicago, in 1855. 
A man of letters, author, scientist ; was philolo- 
gist to the United States Exploring Expedition 
commanded Ijy Captain Wilkes (1837), and has 
contributed largely to philological and ethnologi- 
cal science. 

The Baldwins were of Connecticut lineage. 
They were grandsons of Captain Samuel 
Church, whose ancestor is said to have decap- 
itated King Philip, of Mount Hope. Captain 
Church was an early settler of the town, and 
owned all the land in the village between Main 
Street and the river, north of the intervale 
bridge. 

Henry E. Baldwin was born December 19, 
1815. We find him first as a vouthful angler 
for trout in the Towner Brook ; afterward as a 
practical printer, engraver on wood, caricatur- 
ist, artist, humorist, editor of the New Hamp- 
shire Argus and Spectator, register of deeds 
and probate for the county of Sullivan, clerk 
of the State Senate, editor and proprietor of the 
Lowell Dailji Adcertiser, inspector in the Bos- 
ton Custom -House, and, finally, private secre- 
tary to Franklin Pierce, President of the 



NEWPORT. 



265 



United States. He was a man of fine presence 
and agreeable personal qualities, and a versa- 
tile and able writer. He died in Washington, 
D. C, February 12, 1857. 

Samuel Cliurch Baldwin was burn Septem- 
ber 15, 1817. He was associated with his 
brother, Henry E., in the management of the 
Argus and Spectator and the Lowell Adcertiscr. 
He was afterward (1844) proprietor of the 
Plymouth (Mass.) Rock, and twice elected to 
the ]\Iassachusetts Legislature. He ultimately 
returned to his native State and was proprietor 
of the Xew Haiiipshirc Democrat, published at 
Laconia, where he died December 3, 1S61. He 
was an able journalist and litterateur. 

Amos B. Little was a native of Newport, born 
February IC, 1841. He was educated princi- 
pally at the Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, 
and at Brown University, Rhode Island. He 
commenced the study of law, but an infirmity 
of deafness prevented the carrying out of his 
purpose in that direction. 

In 1845 he was appointed to a position in 
the Patent Office by Edmund Burke, then 
commissioner of patents. He was afterward 
promoted to the position of law clerk, and 
while in that office codified and published the 
" Patent Laws of the United States." He was 
a vigorous political writer, and correspondent 
of the New Hampshire Patriot and other jour- 
nals of that time. He died October 1, 1862. 

Mrs. Mary Chellis Lund, nee Mary Dwinell 
Chellis, the name by which she is known in her 
writings, is an author of many books. An in- 
ferior boundary line only prevents her from 
being a native of Xewport ; but, as her residence 
is here, and has been for many years, and her 
husband, S. F. Lund, is a lineal descendant of 
Stephen Wilcox, of old Killingworth, we may 
at least contend with our neighboring town for 
the honor of her intellectual life and growth, if 
not her birth. Her ]»roductions are mostly of a 
moral and religious character and are greatly 
prized for their good influence upon the young. 
They are found in all Sunday-school libraries. 



Commodore George E. Belknap, United 
States Navy, is a native of Newport, born 
January 22, 1832. In 1847 he entered the 
Naval Academy, at Annapolis. After gradua- 
tion from that institution, in 1854, we find him 
early in command of national vessels, asserting 
the honor and rights of his country, at different 
times and places, on all seas. During the Civil 
War he was conspicuous in many successful 
naval engagements on the .Vtlantic seaboard, 
earning his promotiim in rank by sturdy 
achievement. 

In 1873 he was assigned to special duty by 
the Secretary of the Navy on the steam t'or- 
vette " Tuscarora " in making deep-sea soundings 
across the Pacific from California to Japan, to 
determine the practicability of laying a cable 
between America and Asia. The published 
account ' of this cruise has attracted the pro- 
found attention of scientists in Europe and 
America. 

He was afterward in command of the navy- 
yard at Pensacola until 1881, when he was or- 
dered to the Pacific Station, on the coast of 
South America, in command of the United 
States Steamer " Alaska," to protect the interests 
and, if necessary, vindicate the honor of the 
United Stiites on that coast durina; the late hos- 
tilities between Chili and Peru. This cruise 
was continued (1882) to the Hawaiian kingdom 
and from thence to San Francisco, where the 
" Alaska " went out of commission. 

In 1883 he was detached from command of 
the "Alaska" and ordered to the Norfolk navy- 
yard as captain of the yard. He has also 
been assigned to special duty as president of 
the Torpedo Board, and also president of the 
Naval Commission, to examine the circum- 
stances comiected with the construction of the 
" Dolphin " and determine its acceptiuice by 
the government. On June 1, 1885, Captain 
Belknap attained the rank of commodore and 
was ordered by the Secretary of the Navy to 

' See United Service Quarterly for April and July, 
1879. 



266 



HISTOIIY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the Naval Observatory at Wasliington as super- 
intendent. Commodore Belknap's reputation 
as .an officer and a scientist is vi' the highest 
charactei'. He is a fellow of the American 
Geographical Soc'iety ; fellow of the xVmerican 
Association for the Advancement of Science ; 
member of the New England Historic and 
Genealogical Society, Boston; member of the 
New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord ; 
companion First Class Military Order Loyal 
Legion, United States; Knight Commander of 
the Royal Order of Kamehameha I., of the 
Hawaiian kingdom. ( For further account, see 
Hamersly's "Naval Encycloj)edia.") 

Edward A. Jeuks, whose progenitors are said 
to have arrived in the town of Newport on the 
4th of July, 177G, was born October ;>, 1830, 
and while a printer, editor, incumbent of pub- 
lic office and at the head of the Republican 
Press Association of Concord has found oppor- 
tunity in the course of a busy life to scatter 
here and there leaves that have found places in 
the choice collections of verse that adorn our 
libraries. In the " New Hampshire Poets," 
compiled by Bela Chapin, there are over twenty 
names of poets, natives or residents of Newport. 

The Press. — In connection with other in- 
stitutions, the t(nvn of Newport has had the 
advantage of an ably-conducted newspaper 
press for a ])eriod of more than sixty years. 
In the year 1820 Cyrus Barton moved the 
New Uaiiipshirc Spectator, which he had estab- 
lished at Claremont, to this town. He was 
here .severally associated with Dunbar Aldrich, 
B. B. French and Cyrus Metcalf, and finallv 
removed to Concord, leaving the paper in the 
hands of French & Aletcalf. Mr. French was 
also an attorney-at-law and the first clerk of 
the courts for the new county of Sullivan. He 
was afterward clerk of the House of Repre- 
sentatives and commissioner of public buildings 
at Washington, where he died in 1870. Mr. 
Metcalf soon after withdrew from the paper 
and Simon Brown took his place. 

In 1833 Edmund Burke had located at 



Claremont and had established the Netv Hamp- 
shire Ar(/us. In 1834 Mr. Burke removed his 
pr&ss to Newport. In 183-") the Spectator and 
Argus were united under the editorial manage- 
ment of jNIr. Burke and became the New 
Hampshire Argus and Spectator. 

From 1838 to 1840 the paper was controlled 
by the Baldwins and AVilliam English. In 
1840 the Argus and Spectator passed into the 
hands of Henry G. Carletoii and Matthew 
Harvey, and so continued until April 1,1879, 
a period of about forty years, when Hubl:)ard 
A. Barton and W. W. Prescott became the 
proprietors of the paper and printing-office. 
About September 1, 1880, W. W. Prescott 
withdrew from the concern and his interest 
was assumed l)y George B. Wheeler. Barton 
<t Wheeler continue the publication of the 
Argus, which has always been Democratic in 
its political character. 

The Norlliern Farmer and Political Adven- 
turer and the Northern Farmer and Horticul- 
turist, were publisiied by Hubbard, Newton & 
Son during the years 1830 to 1833, and were 
discontinued- 

The first number of the Repiuhlican Cham- 
pion, Fred. W. Cheney, editor and proprietor, 
was issued in this town January 6, 1881. The 
Champion is ably conducted and, as its name 
implies, is devoted to the interests and prin- 
ciples of the Republican party. 

There have been other publications started in 
the town, which were of short continuance 
and no lasting benefit, of which it is not neces- 
sary to speak. 

Matthew Harvey came from Sutton to New- 
port in the year 18.')1, and from that time until 
his ileath, on January 31, 1885, at the age of 
.seventy years, was connected either as appren- 
tice, journeyman or proprietor with the New 
Hampshire Argus and Spectator. He was a 
son of Colonel John Harvey and a nephew of 
Jonathan and Matthew, both members of Con- 
gress and the latter a Governor of the State 
and United States district judge. 



NEWPORT. 



267 



Mr. Harvey was devoted to his professiou and 
in many I'espects had few equals as a journalist. 
He was a versatile and easy writer and a forci- 
ble speaker, — full of ready wit and fond of 
repartee. He had poetic ability of a higli 
order and many eiforts of his pen are extant. 
The files of the Argus for more than forty 
years will bear testimony to his genial character 
and ability as a humorist, a poet, a writer of 
entertaining locals and nmre dignified political 
articles. He was an esteemed and valuable 
citizen of the towu during his fifty-four years 
of life in Newport. 

In the files of the Xew Hampshire Spectator, 
printed by Cyrus Barton in this town from 
fifty to si.Kty years ago, we find piquant essays 
and disquisitions on various subjects which 
illustrate in some degree the advanced liter- 
ary culture that existed among the people 
t)f Newport during that period. It is matter of 
regret that the names of the authors of these 
j)apei's are concealed under signatures, classical. 
Scriptural and sometimes common-place, in such 
a manner as to destroy their identity. 

A pleasing social feature of that time was 
a " Coterie " made up of these literary young 
people, at the head of which was Mrs. Sarah 
J. Hale. 

The trysting-plaee of this society was a gigan- 
tic elm, or, more particularly, a pair of elms, 
as the main body of the tree not far from the 
ground forked into divergent trunks, which 
rose high in air, interlocking their lofty branches 
in a widely spreading and reciprocal embrace. 

This tree, illustrating as it did the idea of dual- 
ity in unity, was considered emblematical of 
the married state and came to be known as the 
" Matrimonial Tree." 

It stood on a natural terrace, or elevation of 
land overlooking a delightful sweep of meadow, 
diversified with other elms and clumps of trees, 
and outlined by the " Sugar " in one of its 
graceful detours known as " the bend," its 
course bordered with alder and witch hazel, 
festooned with climbing vines. 



Upon the closely-mown sward, within the 
well-defined and ample .shade of this druidical 
tree, at appointed times on golden summer 
afternoons, came the members of this eesthetic 
circle — the married with a well-sustained com- 
placence at their advanced social position ; and 
the single in all the incipient .stages of the 
tender passion leading up to the connubial 
state. 

Without a great stretch of imagination, we 
might here group the pseudonyms from the 
Spectator as follows : Philo, Apollonius and 
Cornelia ; Gamaliel, Mentor and Minerva ; 
Mercurius, Theophilus and Thyrza ; Crito, 
Unus and Ariadne ; Jotham, Uncle Toby and 
Rebecca, and others whose exponents had been 
a letter of the ali)habet, or an asterisk under 
which to conceal their real names. 

The tout ensemble of the individuals of the 
party, on such occasions, and their various pos- 
turings and movements in the refreshing shade 
of the twin elms, are pleasantly sugge.stive of 
character and scenes in " As You Like It," 
where we find the Dukes and their retainers, 
Rosalind and Orlando, Celia and Oliver, Old 
Adams and the melancholy Jaques, love-making 
and ])hilosophizing in the forest glades of 
Ardennes. 

Seats and tables were placed all aliout upon 
the smooth ground in picturescpic disorder 
for the comfort and convenience of the memlters 
of the Coterie as they gave audience to dramatic 
perfi)rmances, recitations and readings from 
books and magazines, or tiie productions of 
some of their leading spirits. In addition to 
the more dignified exercises, free .■^co])e was given 
to conversation, songs, merriment, wit and 
repartee. 

A most interesting episode in tlio routine of 
the afternoon was the withdrawal and investi- 
gation of tile contents of a sly j)Ocket, or covert 
place in or about the venerable tree which had 
become the receptacle of all manner of anony- 
mous contributions, personal, humorous and 
tender, — in prose and verse, the reading of 



268 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



which added greatly to the interest of tlie occa- 
sion. 

The delectation of the ])hysical as well as tiie 
intellectual nature was not disregarded at these 
assemblies. As the day declined, a fire was 
kindled under a significant-looking kettle, sus- 
pended from a tripod at convenient distance, 
and anon the smell of Bohea or Young Hyson, 
or both — fragrant and lively — filled the air. A 
symj)0sium of tea-drinUing, and a discussion of 
sandwiches, cakes and confections concluded 
the afternoon's entertainment. 

There arc gray-haired men and women walk- 
ing about town in this year of grace, 18Sr>, who, 
as small boys and girls with curiftus interest, 
hovered on the outer margin of the charmed 
circle we have affected to describe, as spectators ; 
and the gay appearance of these rural gather- 
ings on Captain Church's meadow, as seen from 
the Aiken hills, on the ojiposite side of the 
river, is still fresh in tlif menitiry of tlmsc who 
inhabited the old " Wines Manse " as children. 
How much the ''Matrimonial Tree" did for 
the cause of .social ad\ancenient can never be 
properly estimated. The woodman's axe and 
the scythe of Time closed the record from mor- 
tal ken long ago. 

With all our schools and superior advan- 
tages, we doulit if any society for social and 
mental culture, eipial in scope and merit, has 
had any foothold or existence in this town since 
this Coterie disappeai-ed ; and are prone to be- 
lieve that the standard of literary attainment 
at this time must suffer in contrast with that of 
two generations ago. 

Ednumd Wheeler, a long time citizen of this 
town, is a native of Croydon, where he was 
born August 25, 1814. He was educated at 
Kimball Union Academy, came to Newport in 
183o and engaged with his brother, \\'illiam P. 
Wheeler, in the harness-making trade. In 
1839, on the retirenacut of AVilliam P. to en- 
gage in the study and practice of law, he as- 
sumed, by purchase, the control of the business, 
which he successfully continued until 1866, 



when he sold out to Granville Pollard. Dur- 
ing a residence of more than fifty years Mr. 
Wheeler hiis ably sustained himself as an en- 
terprising and substantial citizen of the town. 
He was adjutant in the State militia, and for 
two years on the staff of Governor Williams. 
He has been twice a member of the Legislature, 
1851—52, the latter year chairman of the com- 
mittee on incorporations, and taking an active 
part in all the leading measures before the 
House. He was director in the Sugar River 
Bank, and since in the First National Bank 
of Newport, and also in the Newport Savings- 
Bank. 

He was active in the organization of Union 
School District in 1.S74, and eight years on its 
Board of Education as chairman and other- 
wise. 

In his time he has published a book entitled 
the ''Croydon Centennial," and in 187!), com- 
piled, edited and issued tVom the press an elab- 
orate " History of Newport," to which we are 
indebted for much statistical matter used in the 
composition of this sketch. 

Edmunil ^\'heeler married, September 21, 
1851, a daughter of Sherman Rossiter, of Clarc- 
mont, and, second, Augusta L. Sawyer, of this 
town. His only son, George B., the issue of 
the first marriage, born February 4, 1854, is at 
present one of the proprietors of the New 
Hampshire An/ita and Spectator. 

Joseph W. Parmelee, the writer of this 
sketch, is a native of Newiiort, born February 
2, 1818. His ancestors were among the earliest 
English emigrants to this country. His paternal 
grandparents, Ezra and Sibyl (Hill), were of 
the first settlers of Newport. His parent.s, 
John and Phebe (Chase) Parmelee, were resi- 
dent at a locality on the South Branch of Sugar 
River known as South vi lie. He was a scholar 
in old School District No. 1, under several in- 
structors, and in 1833-.'34 at the Newport Acad- 
emy, under the tuition of the late David Crosby, 
of Nashua. After about a year at Kimball 
Union Academy his school-days terminated and 



NEWPORT. 



2G9 



he turned bis attention to mercantile pursuits. 
In tlie year 1847 he removed to Charleston, 
S. (_'., and engaged with a substantial concern in 
the dry-goods trade — Wiley, Banks & Co. — 
into which he A-as afterward admitted as a suc- 
ceeding co-partner, and in which, uji to the time 
of the Civil War, he had accniiiiilated a fair 
estate that met with confiscation and ruin iu 
that vortex of national and human alfairs. 

From 1S((3 to 187!l he was identified with 
the Southern trade in couneetion with the house 
ofH. B.Claflin & Co., in New York City. During 
a varied business career he has found much 
time foi- reading and self-culture, has l)een a 
frequent contributor to the press, and has \\rit- 
ten occasional poems, which have attracted some 
attention. Mr. Parmelee, since 187!t, has resided 
in his native town, where his family fur many 
years have had a homestead. He is much 
interested in the cause of education, has been 
for four or five years chairman of the ]5oard of 
Education for Union District, and some time 
superintending school conanittee for the town. 
Mr. Parmelee married, August 13, 1851, Fran- 
ces Ann, only daughter of Amos Little, Esq., of 
Newport. Their children arc Edward Little, 
born May IC, 1852, now a resident of Kansas 
City, Mo.; Francis Josoj)h,born June '27, 1857, 
a i-esident in New York City ; and Anne, born 
■June 1, 18()(l, resides with the family iu New- 
l>ort. 



CHAPTER V. 

NEWPORT— (Cuiilhiii<-d). 
MEDICAL AND LEGAL PROFESSIONS. 

Medical Profession. — The professions fol- 
low in the wake of civilization. The conditions 
in a new country subject the settlei-s to much of 
exposure and accident, the evils of which are 
sometimes greatly enhanced without the imme- 
diate aid of medicine or surgery, as [irescribed 
and directed by skillful hands; hence the im- 
portance of a doctor in a uew settlement. 



There was no permanently settled physician 
in Newport until the year 1790. Previous to 
that time it was customary in critical cases to 
send to Charlestown for medical aid. 

We know traditionally that Cajjtain Ezra 
Parmelee was dispatched t<i that i)lace for a 
doctor to attend Mrs. Josiah Stevens, his neigh- 
bor, and that she died before he could come to 
her relief. 

There were women in the .settlement who 
ministered to the wants of the afflicted with 
much of ability. They also possessed the neces- 
sary skill as midwives. Mrs. Jeremiah Nettle- 
ton is said to have been one of these, and to 
have traveled long distances on foot, sometimes 
using snow-shoes, to visit the sick. It is also 
said that she once tra\'eled to New London on 
a hand-sled hauled by tour men tor the jiurpose 
of visiting a jtatient. Her daughter, jNIabel, 
born November 15, 17(12, in Killingworth, and 
who came to Newport with her ]>arcnts in ]77t), 
and Ixcaine the wife of Aaron Bnel, Jr., suc- 
ceeded her mother, and was the only physician 
in Newport f<)r several years, and particularly 
successful iu her pi-actice. She was known in 
the later years of her life as Aunt Mabel, and 
is still remembered as a most estimable womau. 

About the year 17')0 Dr. James Corbin, born 
in Dudley, Mass., 1762, established himself in 
Newport as a physician, and so continued until 
his death, January IG, 182(!. In connection 
with his medical practice he improved a tract of 
land and erected substantial buildings on what 
continues to be known as Corbin Hill, between 
Newport village and Northville. A large part 
of this estate — that north of the river — con- 
tinues in possession of his grandson, Austin 
Corbin, of New Yoi'k. 

Dr. William Joslyu, a puj)il of Dr. Corbin's, 
commenced practice in Newport iu 1804, and 
after a residence of six years removed to Ver- 
mont. 

Dr. Arnold Ellis, born in IMeriden, Conn., 
October 29, 1776, was in Newport early in the 
century, and engaged in the practice. His 



270 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



preparation of bitters, for bilious disorders, 
was mucii esteemed. He was the first post- 
master (1810), and filled the office of town 
clerk in 1811. He was also by trade a tailor 
and a jeweler, and cleaned and repaired watches, 
a lover of music and a skillful performer on the 
violin. 

At a eek'ljration of the Fourth of July, in 
1827, Dr. Ellis iiad charge of the music. The 
band consisted of Arnold Ellis, violin ; John 
B. McGregor, bass viol ; Abijah Dudley, 
clarionet ; Bcla W. Jenks, l)assoon ; Jere- 
miah W. Waleott, bugle; Major David Harris, 
fife ; Major Willard Harris, drummer. He re- 
moved to Sutton about this time, and from 
thence to Newbury, where he died at an ad- 
vanced age. 

Dr. John B. McGregor, a son of Lieutenant 
John INIcGregor, was born in this town Novem- 
ber 27, 1787; was a student in Dr. Corbin's of- 
fice ; a graduate of the Medical Department f)f 
Dartmouth College in 1809 ; commenced jjrac- 
tice here in 1810, and was the leading physi- 
cian of the town and a valuable citizen until liis 
removal to Rochester, N. Y., in 1838, where 
he died September 14, 1865. 

Dr. Alexander Boyd, of Scotch-Irish de- 
scent, a native of Londonderry, born Feln'uary 
8, 1784, was in successful practice here foi" 
about a quarter of a century. He died Septem- 
ber 28, 1851. 

Dr. W. P. Gibson, a native of Croydon, was 
in the profession from 1830 to 1837, when he 
removed to Windsor, Vt., and took orders as a 
clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
He died in 1837, aged about forty years. 

Dr. William F. Cooper, also a native of 
Croydon, was settled here for about one year 
(1827), and removed to Kellogsville, N. Y., 
where he was engaged in a successful practice 
for more than fifty years. 

Dr. John L. Swett. (See biography.) 

Dr. Reuben Hatch, of Alstead, was in the 
practice 1808-09. 

Dr. Isaac Hatch succeeded to the office and 



practice of Dr. Gibson in 1837. His continu- 
ance here was short. He sickened and died 
in 1838, at the age of forty-three yeare. 

Dr. Mason Hatch. (See biography.) 

Dr. W. C. Chandler was in practice here from 
1838 to 1841, when he removed to South Na- 
tiek, Mass., and died in 1848, in the forty-sec- 
ond year of his age. 

Dr. Thomas Sanborn. (See biography.) 

Dr. James A. Greggs was in practice in New- 
port from 1855 up to the time of liis death, in 
1800. 

Dr. Wm. H. Hosmer was hei-e tor about a 
year, 1847-48, and removed to Concord. 

Dr. W. W. Darling, of the homiieopathic 
school of j)ractice, was born in Croydon Novem- 
ber 20, 1834. Received his medical degree from 
Dartmouth in 1859, and has been in practice in 
Newport since 18G9. 

Dr. David M. Currier, a native of Grafton, 
horn September 15, 1840, received his medical 
degree from Dartmouth in 1867; came to this 
town in 1871, where he is engaged in a success- 
ful practice. 

Drs. Thomas B. and Christopher A. Sanborn, 
sons of Dr. Thomas Sanborn, were educated to 
the medical profession, and graduated from the 
Bellevue Medical College, New York City. 
They succeeded to the office and business of 
their father, and are engaged in a successful 
practice. 

Several other names might be mentioned in 
coimection with tlie medical profession, but the 
continuance of the parties was of a temporary 
character and made little or no impression upon 
the community. 

Of the sons of Newport whose lives have been 
devoted to the medical profession and resulted 
in great usefulness to their fellow-creatures, there 
died in Morley Parish, Canton, St. Lawrence 
County, N. Y., on July 9, 1874, Ezra Parme- 
lee, M.D., in the seventy-fourth year of his age. 
Dr. Parmelee came of the old Killingworth 
stock that originally settled the town. He 
passed a jolly boyhood at the paternal homestead 



NEWPORT. 



271 



near the South Branch, at Southville. Sum- 
mer and winter he was an attentive soholar at 
tiie old red school-liouse then standing on Pot- 
ash Hill, until he eanic to be fifteen or sixteen 
years of age, when he found employment in the 
store of James Breck, whose business 0(!cupied 
the premises on the soutliwest cornor of Main 
and Elm Streets. A year or more in dry-goods 
and groceries failed to satisfy his ideal of a life- 
work, and consulting an inclination some time 
cherished, he determined to educate himself for 
the medical profession. 

After completing a course at tiie Newport 
Academy, he commenced the study of medicine 
in the office of Dr. John B. McGregor, at that 
time one of the most eminent practitioners in 
this jtart of the State, and was afti'rwards witii 
Dr. Caleb Plastridge, of East Lebanon, whose 
daughter he married. 

At less than twenty-three years of age — 1833 
— -Dr. Parmelee pushed out into the world, a 
graduate from the Medical Department of Dart- 
mouth, his di])loma signed by the distinguished 
physiologist, Reuben D. Mussey. He located 
at first in the town of Warner, l)ut afterward, 
through the influence of friends, and in view 
of a wider professional field, he removed, in 
1 839, to Morley, where, for more than forty- 
five years, he had been in the successful practice 
of his profession. 

Ira W. Peabody, M.D., a graduate of Dart- 
mouth College Medical Department of 1833, 
after a successful professional career, died at 
Binghamton, N. Y., August, 1877, aged sixty- 
nine years. 

Adolphus Cutting, born June 25, 1811, a 
medical graduate also of 1833, settled first in 
Ohio, and now lives retired from practice at La 
Grange, Ind. 

Leonard W. Peabody, M.D., born September 
13, 1817, graduated from the Medical College 
at Woodstock, Vt., in 1843, and is now in suc- 
cessful practice at Henniker. He was member 
of the Legislature of 1885. 

Samuel J. Allen, M.D., born January 4, 



1819, was graduated at the Castleton (Vt.) Medi- 
cal College in 1842, and i-eceived an honorary 
degree from Dartmouth in 1870. He has spent 
the most of his professional life at Hartford, Vt. 
He was a surgeon in the Union army during 
the Civil War. 

Noah Addison Chapin, M.D., horn June 18, 
1818, was graduated from Dartmouth ( Villegc 
in 1845, and from the Medical Department at 
Yale College in 1849, and engaged in the practice 
of his professon at Winchester, where he died 
May 9, 1854, from jioison received through a 
cut in the hand while performing an operation. 

Clifton Claggett, M.D., born September 12, 
1807, had his early training at the Newport 
Academy; studied medicine with Dr. Alexander 
Boyd, his brother-in-law ; was graduated at 
Dartmoutli in 1X32, and settled at Northfield, 
Vt., where he still resides. 

Laugdon Sawyer, M.D., born September 7, 
1815, was graduated at the College of Medicine 
at Castleton, Vt., in 1843, spent one year at the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons in New 
York City, and settled in Springfield, Vt. In 
1869 he received the honorary degree of M.D. 
from Dartmouth. He died in 1880. 

Carlos G. Metcalf, M D., born in 184(3, was 
a student with Dr. .J. L. Swett, and was grad- 
uated at the Medical Department of the Univer- 
sity of Albanv, N. Y., and is in practice at 
Troy, N. II. ' 

Alvah Paul, M.D., born July 14, 1805, was 
graduated at Castleton, Vt., and attained dis- 
tinction and wealtli in his jn'ofcssion at Royal- 
ton, C)hio. 

Bela N. Stevens, M.D., born December 22, 
1832, was a graduate of Dartmouth Medical 
College in 1854; was two years in the Mai'ine 
Hospital at Chelsea, Mass., and five years a sur- 
geon in the Government Insane Hospital at 
Washington, where he died July 5, 18G5. 

Mason A. Wilcox, M.D., l^oru December 25, 
1844, Avas graduated at the Detroit Medical 
College, 1868, and is now in practice in Col- 
orado. 



272 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Elbridge G. Kelley, son of Deacon Joliii 
Kelley, of Kelleyville, was born Sejitember 29, 
1812; graduated at the Jefferson ^Medical Col- 
lege of Pliiladelpliia, but made dentistry a 
specialty, and established himself at Newbury- 
port, Mass., wiierc he attained a prominent 
position in his profession and as a citizen. He 
was a member of the Legislature, and twice 
mayor of the city. To him the precinct of 
Kelleyville, in the western part of the town, is 
indebted for its name. 

James H. Parinelee, son of John and grand- 
son of Ezra, was born March 2, 1820, at the 
precinct in Newport known asSouthville, where 
his boyhood and school-days were passed, after 
which he went to New York City, and was for 
a time connected with the office of the Con- 
necticut Mutual Ijife Insurance Company, in 
Wall Street. He afterward turned his attention 
to dentistry as a profession, and opened an office 
in Brooklyn. I a 1847 he married Abbie, a 
daughter of Colonel Levi Jones, of Amherst, 
and some years afterward came to ]Milford, 
N. H., and later to Manchester, where he con- 
tinned the business of his profession until the 
time of his decease, September 29, 1S71I. His 
daughter, and only child, is the wife of Edward 
B. Waite, of Manchester. Dr. Parmelee was 
genial in his disposition and temperament, and 
drew around him warm friends wherever he 
went. He was an accomplished vocalist. 

William Wallace Hurd, a grandson of Sam- 
uel, one of the first ^ettlcrs of the town, and son 
• of Samuel, Jr., and Mary Ann {(Sorbin) Hurd, 
was born in Newport about the year 1820. He 
educated himself to the profession of dental 
surgery, in which he has lieen engaged for 
many years in the city of New York. 

Henry Tubbs has been in the practice of 
dental surgery in Newport since 1860. He is 
a native of Peterborough, born February 24, 
1831. His professional success, and his char- 
acter as a citizen during the (juarter century of 
his residence here, entitle him to confidence 
and regard. He married, December 25, 1865, 



Mary Ann, a daughter of Charles Rogers, of 
Sunapee, and they have children, — Annie L., 
born Aug. .3, 1868 ; Gertie M. born Oct. 27,1874. 

Le(;al Profession. — The fact that no rep- 
resentative of the legal pi'ofession found encour- 
agement to . settle in Newport during its first 
(juarter of a century affords much of argument 
in fiivor of the peace and good neighborhood 
that existed among its people. The bickerings 
and misunderstandings, if any. among the people 
of that time were not beyond the reach of 
settlement by the good-will and consent of 
parties or their friends. An ordinary justice of 
the peace, or a magistrate of wisdom and ability, 
such as was found in Benjamin Giles, was equal 
to any requirement of the community. 

Caleb Ellis is said to have opened the first 
law-office in Newport. He was a native of 
Walpole, INIass., and graduated from Harvard 
College in 1793. After his admission to the 
liar he came to Newport, and it was here that in 
the year ISOO he received his first political 
advancement. From this town he removed to 
Cornish and to Claremont not long afterward. 
He was a representative from this district in 
Contrress from 1805 to 1809, was a member of 
the Council, and in 1811 was elected to the 
State Senate. In 1813 he was appointed judge 
of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, and 
continued in that position until his death, which 
occurred May 9, 1816, in the forty-ninth year 
of his ago. 

Hubbard Newton, son of Christopher and 
Mary (Giles), was the first native of the town 
that entered the legal profession. He was grad- 
uated from Dartmouth College in 1804; ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1806. Weare Tappan, 
Esq., was for a time associated with him i)ro- 
fessionally, and afterward removed to Bradford. 
Aside from the business of his profession, ilr. 
Newton took mucii interest in educational and 
literary affairs, and was some time editor of a 
weekly paper. He represented the town in 
1814 and 1815. He died in February, 1847, 
in the sixty-seventh year of his age. 



NEWPORT. 



273 



Amasa Edes was a native of Antrim ; Ijorn 
March 21, 1702; was graduated from Dart- 
mouth College in 1817. He educated himself 
to the legal profession ; wa.s admitted to the 
bar in 1822 and settled in Newport the same 
year. He was one of the early preceptors of 
the Newport Academy, 1825, and afterward a 
trustee. He was also one of the pioneers in 
the temperance movement in this town. He 
had a long and successful career in the practice 
of his profession, and was president of the Sul- 
livan County bar at tlie time of his decease, 
which occurred September 10, 188.'), in the 
ninety-second year of his age. 

David Hale, of Alstead, was ailmitted to tlie 
bar in 1811 and opened an office here soon af- 
ter; married Sarah Josepha, a daughter of Cior- 
don Buel. He died in 1S22, aged about forty 
years. ISIrs. Hale afterward turned her atten- 
tion successfully to literatiu-e. 

Josiah Forsaith was a native of Deering; 
born December 14, 1780; graduated at Dart- 
mouth in 1807 ; reatl law with Caleb Ellis, of 
Claremont, and commenced the practice of his 
profession at Goifstown, and afterward for a 
time in Boston. He came to Newport in 1822; 
was superintending school committee and some 
time represented the town in the Legisla- 
ture. He was one of the builders and pro- 
prietors of the Eagle Hotel, a famous hostelry 
of that time, and, after a successful career, died 
March .".0, 184(3. 

Ralph Metcalf was born at Charlestown, No- 
vember 21, 1798 ; was graduated from Dart- 
mouth in 182:]; fitted for the legal profession 
in the offices of Henry Hubbard, of Charles- 
town, aud (xeorge B. Upham, of Claremont, 
and admitted to the bar in 182() ; was the suc- 
cessor of David Hale in Newport. He was 
seven years Secretary of State, returning to 
Newport in l84.')-44; was register of Probate 
for the county of Sullivan. In 1852-53 he 
represented the town in the Legislature, and 
was one of a committee to codify the laws of 
the State ; was trustee of the Insane Asylum 



in 1855 and Governor of the State in 1855-56. 
Benjamin B. French was here as lawyer, 
clerk of the county courts and editor of the 
New Hampsldre Arffiis and Sju'cfator until his 
removal to Washington, D. C, in 1834. 

Ednumd Burke was a native of Westminster, 
Vt. ; born January 23, 1800, and came to 
Newport in 1834 as an editor. l)isposing of 
his newsjjaper interest, he turned his attention 
to his profession aud to politics. He was three 
times elected as Representative to Congress 
from this district — 1839 to 1845; was ap- 
pointed commissioner of patents by President 
Polk in 1845. He was afterward connected 
with editoi'ial work on the Waxliiiii/lon Union 
up to 1850, after which he returned to the 
practice of liis profession in Newport. He 
died .lanuary 25, 1882. 

Austin Corbin is a native of Newport ; born 
July 11, 1827. He was eduavted as a lawyer 
aud received his degree from the Harvard Law 
School in 1849. After admission to the bar 
he conunenced practice in this town in company 
with Ralph Metcalf, Esq. In 1851 he re- 
moved to Davenport, Iowa, and was at first 
engaged in the practice of his profession, but 
after a time turned his attention to banking 
aud financial business generally. In 1865 he 
disposed of his interest in Iowa and removed to 
New York Cit}', where he organized the Cor- 
bin Banking Company. He afterwards ac- 
quired a valuable interest in lauds, railroad and 
hotel property on Coney Island, and later has 
pushed his enterprises until he has a controlling 
interest in the Long Island Railroad and has 
become its president. 

There are other names connected with the 
legal profession in Newport tor a limited time, 
on account of their removal or death. Of 
these are David Allen, Jr., Lewis Smith, J. C. 
Crooker, George S. Barton, Sanuiel ^I. Wheeler, 
Brooks Iv. AV^'bber, Arthur C. Bradley, N. E. 
Reed, W. H. H. Allen (now Judge,) William 
P. Wheeler aud M. W. Tappan (Attorney-Gen- 
eral). 



274 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The members of tlie profession at present 
in active business in Newport are Levi W. 
Barton, Samuel H. Edes, Albert S. Wait, 
Shepard L. Bowers, William F. Newton and 
George R. Brown. 

Personal sketches of these gentlemen will 
more properly tall into the hands of the histo- 
rian yet to appear after the " living present " 
has been relegated to the dead past. 

Of natives of Newport who have engaged in 
the pnu'tice of law in other j)arts of tlie country 
are Ebenezer Allen, at Austin Texas ; Horatio 
Buell, judge, etc.. Glens Falls, N. Y. ; Wil- 
liam Breck, Rochester, N. Y. ; James Breck, 
Jr., Chicago, 111. ; James Corbiu, Saute Fe, 
N. M. ; Rufus Claggett, Brooklyn, N. Y.; 
Charles H. Chapin, St. Louis, Mo. ; William 
J. Forsaith, Boston, Mass.; Horatio Hale, 
Clinton, Out. ; William G. Hale, New Orleans; 
Solomon Heath, Belfast, Me. ; Elijah D. Hast- 
ings, Cherry Vale, Kansas ; Erastus Newton, 
Lockport, N. Y. ; Charles H. Woods, Minne- 
apolis, Minn. ; Frank H. Carleton, Minne- 
apolis, Minn. 



1769.- 
1770.- 
1772.- 
1776.- 
1781.- 
1782.- 
1784.- 
1786.- 
1787.- 
1791.- 
1792.- 
1800.- 
1803.- 
1809.- 
1810.- 



CHAPTER VI. 

NE WPORT— ( Continued). 

TOWN OFFICERS. 

MODERATORS FROM 1769. 

-Benjamin Giles. 

-Ebenezer Merritt, two years. 

-Robert Lane, tour years. 

-Aaron Buell, five years. 

-Benjamin Giles. 

-Aaron Buell, two years. 

-Christopher Newton, two years. 

-Aaron Buell. 

-Christopher Newton, four years. 

-Jesse Lane. 

-Aaron Buell, eight years. 

-Christopher Newton, three years. 

-Phineas Chapin, six years. 

-Hubbard Newton. 

-William Cheney. 



1811.— Hubbard Newton. 

1812. — William Cheney, two years. 

1814. — Hubbard Newton, two years. 

1816. — William Cheney, four years. 

1820. — Hubbard Newton, three years. 

1823. — William Cheney, three years. 

1826. — Oliver Jenckes, four years. 

1830. — Austin Corbin, three years. 

1833. — Josiah Stevens, Jr., six years. 

1839.— Bela Nettleton. 

1840. — Edward Wyman, two years. 

1842. — Bela Nettleton, four years. 

1846. — Edward Wyman, three years. 

1849. — Bela Nettleton, five years. 

1854. — Edward Wyman, two years. 

1856. — Benjamin F. Sawyer, two years, 

1858. — Paul J. Wheeler, five years. 

1863.— W. H. H. Allen. 

1864. — Francis Boardman, two years. 

1866.— W. H. H. Allen. 

1867. — E. C. Converse. 

1868. — George W. Nourse, five years. 

1873.— Paul S. Adams. 

1874.— Rufus P. Claggett. 

1875.— E. C. Converse. 

1876.— Edward A. Jenks. 

1877.— Levi W. Barton. 

1878. — E. C. Converse, two years. 

1880.— John B. Cooper. 

1881. — Dexter Richards, five years. 

TOWS CLERKS FROM 1769. 

1769.— Amos Hall. 

1770. — Jesse Wilcox, two years. 

1772. — Josiah Stevens, eleven years. 

1783. — John Lane. 

1784, — Josiah Stevens, two years. 

1786. — John Lane, two years. 

1788. — Josiah Stevens. 

1789. — John Lane. 

1790. — Aaron Mack, two years. 

1792. — Josiah Stevens, three years. 

1795.— Samuel Church. 

1796. — Josiah Stevens, two years. 

1798. — Joseph Bascomb. 

1799. — Jesse Wilcox, Jr., twelve years. 

1811.— Arnold Elllis, 

1812. — Joseph Bascomb. 

1813.— John B. McGregor. 

1814. — Erastus Baldwin, nine vears. 



NEWPORT. 



275 



1823. — James D. Walcott, five years. 

1828. — Ira Person, seven years. 

1835. — Natli'l B. Cutting, two years. 

1837. — Jonathan W. Clement, two years. 

1839. — Benjamin B. Gushing. 

1840.— John Towne. 

1841.— Parker N. Newell. 

1842. — Sawyer Belknap, three years. 

1845. — Parker N. Newell, two years. 

1847. — Dexter Richards, two years. 

1849. — John Higbee, two years. 

1851. — Sawyer Belknap, two years. 

1853.— Fred. W. Lewis. 

1854. — Calvin Wilcox, two years. 

1856. — William Nourse, two years. 

1858.— Thomas A. Twitchell. 

1859. — George Herrick, two years. 

1861. — E. C. Converse, two years. 

1863. — George W. Nourse, two years. 

1865. — Benjamin Wadleigh. 

1866. — John Towne, two years. 

1868. — Ira P. George, two years. 

1869. — Carleton Hurd, to till vacancy. 

1870. — Henry P. Coffin, two years. 

1872.— Elbridge Bradford. 

1873. — George C. Edes, two years. 

1875. — Arthur B. Chase, three years. 

1878. — Frank P. Meserve, two years. 

1880.— Henry P. Coffin, five years. 

1885.— Fred. W. Cheney. 

REPRESENTATIVES FROM 1793. 

(Previous to 1793 Newport was classed with Ac- 
worth, Unity, Lempster, Croydon and Sunapee for 
the election of representatives. The elections were 
held in Unity; Benjamin Giles was chosen in 1775 
and 1776.) 

1793. — Jesse Lane. 

1794. — Uriah Wilcox, three years. 

1797. — Jesse Lane, two years. 

1799.— Uriah Wilcox. 

1800.— Phineas Chapin. 

1801.— Uriah Wilcox. 

1802.— Phineas Chapin. 

1803. — Uriah Wilcox, two years. 

1805. — Phineas Chapin. 

1806.— Uriah Wilcox. 

1807. — Jesse Wilcox, Jr., four years. 

1811.— Josiah Wakefield. 
18 



1812. — Peter Stow, two years. 
1814. — Hubbard Newton, two years. 
1816. — William Cheney, two years. 
1818.— Uriah Wilcox. 
1S19.— William Cheney. 
1820. — Uriah Wilcox, two years. 
1822.— James Breck. 
1823.— David Allen. 
1824. — William Cheney, two years. 
1826.— David Allen. 
1827.— William Cheney. 
1828. — Oliver Jenckes, two years. 
1830. — Moses P. Durkee, two years. 
1832. — Austin Corbin, two years. 
1833. — Benjamin B. French and Seth Richards. 
1834. — Josiah Stevens, Jr., and Amasa Edes. 
1836. — Josiah Stevens, Jr., and James Breck. 
1837. — Josiah Stevens, Jr., and Jeremiah D. Nettle- 
ton. 
1838.— Josiah Stevens, Jr., and Alvin Hatch. 
1839.- Jeremiah D. Nettleton and John B. Stowell. 
1840.— Alvin Hatch and Josiah Forsaith. 
1841.— Zina Goldthwaite. 
1842. — Amos Little and Zina Goldthwaite. 
1843.— Amos Little and Silas Metcalf 
1844.— Silas Metcalf and Nathan Mudgett. 
1845. — James Hall and Bela Nettleton. 
1840.— James Hall and Nathan White. 
1847.— Nathan White and Stephen Parker. 
1848.— Nathaniel C. Todd and Edward Wyman. 
1849.— Nathaniel C. Todd and David Allen. 
1850.— David Allen and Nathan Mudgett. 
1851.— Bela Nettleton and Edw. Wheeler. 
1852.— Edw. Wheeler and Ralph Metcalf. 
1853.— Ralph Jletcalf and II. G. Carleton. 
1854. — Mason Hatch aud Benjamin F. Sawyer. 
1856. — John Trask and Jabez Thompson. 
1857. — John Trask and Thonia.s Sanborn. 
1858. — Thomas Sanborn and John H. Hunton. 
1859.— Paul J. Wheeler and John H. Hunton. 
I860.— Paul J. Wheeler and Samuel H. Edes. 
1861. — Paul J. Wheeler and Samuel H. Edes. 
1862.— Paul J. Wheeler and William Nourse. 
1863.— Levi B. Barton and Calvin Wilcox. 
1864.— Levi W. Barton and Calvin Wilcox. 
1865. — ^Dexter Richards and Shepherd L. Bowers. 
1866. — Dexter Richards and Hiuian A. Averill. 
1867. — Himan A. Averill and Charles Emerson. 
1868. — Benjamin F. Sawyer and John Cooper. 



276 



HISTORY OF STTLLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1870. — Dexter Richards and Orren Osgood. 

1871.— Orreu Osgood and Ezra T. Sibley. 

1872.— Ezra T. Sibley and Perley S. Coffin. 

1873.— Pcrley S. Coffin and E. C.Converse. 

1874. — Voted not to send. 

1875. — Eben L. Rowell, HaLsey C. Leavitt and L. 
W. Barton. 

1876.— Eben L. Rowell, Alex. V. Hitchcock and L. 
W. Barton. 

1877.— Ale.x. V. Hitchcock, L. W. Barton and Geo. 
H. Fairbanks. 

1878. — llinian \. Averill, George F. Whitney (2d) 
and Jeremiah Ij. Elkins. 

1879. — (George F. Whitney (2d) and .Jeremiah L. 
Elkins. 

(In accordance with the constitutional amendment 
of 1870, the sessions of the Legislature were made 
biennial from the last date.) 

1881. — Thomas B. Sanborn and Augustus Wylie. 

1883. — Dana J. Mooncy and George H. Towle. 

1885. — Shepherd L. Bowers and Seth 51. Richards. 

Uriah Wil<'ox was delegate to the conventiou 
that formed the present State Constitution. 

Bela Nettletou and Nathan Mudgett were 
delegates to the convention called to revise the 
State Constitution in 1850. 

Dexter Richards, L. W. Barton and John 
B. Cooper were delegates to the Constitutional 
Convention of 1870. 

Nathan Mudgett and Dexter Richards have 
been members of the Council. 

Uriah Wilcox, David Allen, Austin Corbin, 
Jeremiah D. Nettleton, Levi W. Barton and 
George H. Fairbanks have been State Senators. 

The following natives and former residents 
have held distinguished positions in other towns 
and States : Samuel C. Baldwin, Plymouth, 
Mass. ; George Dustin, Peterborough, N. II. ; 
Simeon Wheeler, Jr., Norfolk, Va. ; George E. 
Jenks, Concord ; Josiali Stevens, Jr., Secretary 
of State, Concord ; Ralph Metcalf, Governor 
of New Hampshire ; Simon Brown, Lieutenant- 
Governor of Mas.sachusetts ; Edwin O. Stan- 
ard, Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri and 
member of Congress ; Edmund Burke and 
Mason W. Tappan, also members of Congress. 



SELECTMEN. 

1769. — Samuel Hurd, Jesse Wilcox, Amos Hall. 

1770. — .Jesse Wilcox, Ezra Parmelee, Jesse Lane. 

1771. — Robert Lane, Jes.se Wilcox, Samuel Hurd. 

1772. — Benjamin Giles, Jes.se Wilcox, Amos Hall. 

1773. — Aaron Buell, Jesse Wilcox, Samuel Hurd. 

1774. — Josiah Stephens, Samuel Hurd, Jesse Wil- 
cox. 

1775. — Josiah Stevens, Aaron Buell, Jesse Lane. 

1770. — Josiali Stevens, Aaron Buell, Samuel Hurd. 

1777. — Jesse Lane, Jedediah Reynolds, Ezra Par- 
melee. 

1778.— Aaron Buell, Samuel Hurd, Uriah Wil- 
cox. 

1779. — Benjamin Giles, Aaron Buell, Ezra Parme- 
lee. 

1780. — Benjamin Giles, Ellas Bascom, yamuel 
Hurd. 

1781. — Aaron Buell, Elias Bascom, Ezra Parme- 
lee. 

1782. — Aaron Buell, Elias Bascom, Uriah Wilcox. 

1783. — Jesse Lane, Jedediah Reynolds, I'hineas 
Chapin. 

1784.— Jedediah Reynolds, Christopher Newton, 
Uriah Wilcox. 

1785. — Jedediah Reynolds, Christopher Newton, 
John Lane. 

1780. — Aaron Buell, Samuel Church, Jesse Lane. 

1787. — .Jedediah Reynolds, Ezra Parmelee, Stephen 
Perry. 

1788. — Jesse Lane, Samuel Hurd, Uriah Wilcox. 

1789. — Jesse Lane,'Uriah Wilcox, Samuel Church. 

1790.— Uriah Wilcox, Jesse Wilcox, Thomas War- 
ner. 

1791. — Uriah Wilcox, Jesse Lane, Jeremiah Jenks. 

1792.— Uriah Wilcox, Elias Metcalf, Matthew 
Buell. 

1793. — Jesse Lane, Samuel Church, Elias Metcalf. 

1794._Uriah Wilcox, Matthew Buell, Reuben Bas- 
com. 

1705.— Uriah Wilcox, Phineas Chapin, Elias Met- 
calf. 

1796. — James Corbin, Reuben Bascom, Elias Met- 
calf. 

1797. — Uriah Wilcox, Reuben Bascom, Elias Met- 
calf. 

1798.— Samuel Church, Phineas Chapin, Elias Met- 
calf. 



NEWPORT. 



277 



1799. — Samuel Church, Phineas Chapin, Joseph 
Bascom. 

1800. — Samuel Church, Phineas Chapin, Jeremiah 
Nettleton. 

1801.— Samuel Church, Phineas Chapin, Josiah 
Stevens. 

1802, — Samuel Church, Phineas Chapin, Jesse Wil- 
cox, Jr. 

1803. — Jesse Wilcox, Jr., Joseph Bascom, Stephen 
Hurd. 

1804. — Jesse Wilcox, Jr., Phineas Chapin, Josiah 
Wakefield. 

1805. — Jesse Wilcox, Jr., Reul)eu Bascom, Moses 
P. Durkee. 

1806. — Moses P. Durkee, Reuben Bascom, Joseph 
Bascom. 

1807. — Josiah Wakefield, Joseph Bascom, Reuben 
Bascom. 

1808. — Jesse Wilcox, Jr., Phineas Chapin, David 
Allen. 

1809. — Samuel Church, Phineas Chapin, Jesse 
Wilcox. 

1810. — Samuel Church, William Cheney, Phineas 
Chapin. 

1811. — Samuel Church, Josiah Wakefield, Moses 
P. Durkee. 

1812.— William Cheney, Caleb Heath, Peter Stow. 

1813.— Peter Stow, Caleb Heath, Arphaxad Wliit- 
tlesay. 

1814.— Peter Stow, Oliver Jeuckes, William McAl- 
aster. 

1815. — Oliver Jenckes, Josiah Wakefield, Erastus 
Baldwin. 

181G. — William Cheney, Josiah Wakefield, Oliver 
Jenckes. 

1817. — William Cheney, Josiah Wakefield, James 
D. Walcott. 

1818.— William Cheney, James I). Walcott. James 
Breck. 

181'.i. — William Cheney, James D. Walcolt, James 
Breck. 

1820. — James Breck, David Allen, Oliver Jenckes. 

1821. — James Breck, David Allen, Oliver Jenckes. 

1822. — James Breck, David Allen, Oliver Jeuckes. 

1823. — Oliver Jenckes, James D. Walcott, Austin 
Corbin. 

1824. — Oliver Jencke-s, James D. Walcott, Moses 
P. Durkee. 



1825. — Oliver Jenckes, James D. Walcott, David 
Allen. 

1826. — James D. Walcott, Israel Kelley, Samuel 
Hurd. 

1827. — Oliver Jenckes, James D. Walcott, David 
Allen. 

1828. — James Breck, Joseph Farusworth, Henry 
Kelaey. 

1829. — James Breck, Henry Kelsey, Joseph Farns- 
worth. 

1830.— David Allen, Austin Corbin, Seth Rich- 
ards. 

1831.— David Allen, Austin Corbin, Seth Rich- 
ards. 

1832.— Seth Richards, Silas Wakefield, J. D. Net- 
tleton. 

1833.— Silas Wakefield, J. D. Nettleton, Seth Rich- 
ards. 

1834.— J. D. Nettleton, Henry Kelsey, Samuel F. 
Chellis. 

1835. — Alvin Hatch, Edward Wynian, Charles Cor- 
bin. 

1836. — Alvin Hatch, Edward Wyuuui, Charles Cor- 
bin. 

1837. — Josiah Stevens, Jr., John B. Stowell, Par- 
menas Whitcomb. 

1838. — John B. Stowell, Parnienas Whitcond), Silas 
Metcalf. 

1839.— Amos Little, Silas Metcalf, Jonathan M.Wil- 
marth. 

1840.— Eli Twitchcll, Ziiia (iddthwaite, .Touathan 
Cutting. 

1S41. — Nathan Mudgett, J. M. Wilmarth, Jonathan 
Cutting. 

1842.— Bela Nettleton, Nathan Mudgett, Alexander 
Metcalf. 

1843.— Nathan White, .b.sepli Hoyt, James Hall. 

1844.— John B. Stowell, J. D. Nettleton, Natlianiel 
0. Page. 

1845.— J. D. Nettleton, Edward Wyman, Zina Cold- 
thwaite. 

1846. — Edward Wyman, Jonathan Cutting, Isaac 
Gritfin. 

1847. — Edward Wyman, Jonathan (Jutting, Josiali 
Bailey. 

1848.— Edward Wyman, J. 1). Nettleton, Sylvanua 
Earned. 

1849.— Dexter Richanls, J. D. Nettleton, David A. 
Farrington. 



278 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1850.— Dexter Richards, J. D. Nettleton, David A. 
Farrington. 

1851. — Dexter Richards, David A. Farrington, J. 
D. Nettleton. 

1852. — Dexter Richards, John H. Higbee, Mark 
Gove. 

1853.— Jonathan Cutting, Ezra T. Sibley, Calvin N. 
Perkins. 

1854. — Jonathan Cutting, Calvin N. Perkins, Aus- 
tin L. Kibbey. 

1855.— John H. Higbee, Austin L. Kibbey, Charles 
Emerson. 

1856. — John H. Higbee, Charles Emerson, C. C. 
Shedd. 

1857.— AVilliam Emerson, C. C. Shedd, Albert S. 
Adams. 

185g. — William Emerson, Albert S. Adams, Henry 
A. Jenckes. 

1859,_Dexter Richards, SylvanusG.Stowell, Sam- 
uel K. Wright. 

ISgO.— Francis Boardman, Abuer Hall, Moses C. 
Ayer. 

1861.— Francis Boardman, Moses C. Ayer, Lewis 
W. Randall. 

1862.— Francis Boardman, Lewis W. Rand.all, Or- 
ange Whitney. 

18G3. — J. M. Wilniarth, Orange Whitney, Moses W. 
Emerson. 

1864. — Fr.ancis Boardman, Moses W. Emerson, Sim- 
eon Whittier. 

1865.— George W. Nourse, Simeon Whittier, Wil- 
liam Kelley. 

1866.— George W. Nourse, William Kelley, John B. 
Cooper. 

1867. — George W. Nourse, John B. Cooper, William 
H. Sprague. 

1868. — George W. Nourse, William H. Sprague, 
Frank W. Rawsou. 

1869.— George W. Nourse, William Dunton, Orren 
C. Kibbey. 

1870. — George W. Nourse, Orren C. Kibbey, Wil- 
liam H. Perry. 

1871. — George W. Nourse, William H. Perry, L. F. 
Dodge. 

1872.— George W. Nourse, L. F. Dodge, Augustus 
Wylie. 

1873.— Daniel Nettleton, Augustus Wylie, William 
B. Kibbie. 



1874. — Daniel Nettleton, Lyman Rounseval, Benja- 
min Marshall. 

1875. — Francis Boardman, William Woodbury, 
George H. Towles. 

1876.^Francis Boardman, William Woodbury, 
George H. Towles. 

1877.— William Woodbury, George H. Towles, 
Charles A. Silsby. 

1878. — Freeman Cutting, Daniel G. Chadwick, Fred- 
erick S. Little. 

1879. — Freeman Cutting, -Daniel G. Chadwick, 
Frederick S. Little. 

1880.— Daniel G. Chadwick, Alfred J. Gould, D. J. 
Mooney. 

1881— Daniel G. Chadwick, Alfred J. Gould, George 
A. Ellis. 

1882.— John B. Cooper, George F. Whitney (2d), 
Edwin R. Miller. 

1883.— Daniel G. Chadwick, Alfred J. Gould, Wil- 
liam H. Perry. 

1884.— Daniel G. Chadwick, Alfred J. Gould, Wil- 
liam H. Perry. 

1885. — Daniel P. Quimby, George S. Stone, Charles 
Emerson. 

STATE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

William H. H. Allen. Benjamin F. Haven. 



Edmund Burke. 
L. W. Barton. 
Ira McL. Barton. 
Shepard L. Bowers. 
Lyman J. Brooks. 
George R. Brown. 
Francis Boardman. 
Martin A. Barton. 
Austin Corhin. 
Rufus P. Claggett. 
Samuel H. Edes. 
Geo. E. Pame. 
Thomas W. Gilmore. 



A. V. Hitchcock. 
Richard S. Howe. 
Ralph Metcalf. 
Aaron Matson. 
William F. Newton. 
George W. Nourse. 
Dexter Richards. 
Jacob Reddington. 
John Towne. 
Albert S. Wait. 
Edmund Wheeler. 
Nathan White. 
Paul J. Wheeler. 



JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND QUORITM. 



James Breck. 
Henry E. Baldwin. 
William Cheney. 
Amasa Edes. 
James A. Gregg. 
James Hall. 
Elisha M. Kempton. 



Amos Little. 
J. D. Nettleton. 
Bela Nettleton. 
N. O. Page. 
Edward Wyman. 
Edward A. Jenks. 



NEWPORT. 



279 







county oftiees since the formation of Sullivan 


JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 








( 'ouuty : 


David Allen. 


F. W. Lewis. 




David Allen, Jr. 


Sol. H. Moody. 


Clerks of the Court. — Benjamin B. French, Thomas 


Cyrus Barton. 


Silas Metcalf. 


W. Gilmore, W. H. H. Allen, William F. Newton, 


H. .T. Barton. 


M. H. Moody. 


George E. Dame. 


Sawyer Belknap. 


Nathan Mudgett. 


Solicitors. — Edmund Burke, Samuel H. Edes, Levi 


George S. Barton. 


H. J. Marshall. 


W. Barton. 


David B. Chapin. 


W. H. Mct!rillis. 


Sheriff's. — David Allen, Frederick Claggett, Rufus 


H. G. Carleton. 


Hubbard Newton. 


P. Claggett, Milton S. J.ickson. 


J. C. Crocker. 


A. Nettleton, Jr. 


Treasurers. — Jonathan M. Wilmarth, I'aul J. 


D. D. Chapin. 


A. F. Nettleton. 


Wheeler. 


E. L. Cutts. 


Samuel F. Nims. 




William Emerson. 


William Nourse. 


Commissioner. — Francis Boardman. 


Jonathan Emerson. 


Chase Noyes. 


Megisters of Deeds.- — Cyrus Barton, Calvin Wilcox, 


Josiah Forsaith. 


John S. Parmelee. 


N. B. Cutting, Henry E. Baldwin, Henry G. Carleton, 


George H. Fairbanks. 


Granville Pollard. 


Matthew Harvey, John Towne, L. W. Barton, Arthur 


Calvin N. Fletcher. 


Abiel D. Pike. 


H. Ingram, Elisha M. Kemjiton, William E. Brooks, 


Zina Goldthwaite. 


Calvin H. Pike. 


Alonzo D. Howard. 


Caleb Heath. 


Daniel P. Quimby, 


Jailors. — David Harris, James L. Riley, Martin A. 


Paul S. Adams. 


James S. Riley. 


Barton, Milton- S. Jackson, Rufus P. Claggett. 


Albert S. Adams. 


Isaac A. Reed. 


Judge of Probafc.~W. H. H. Allen. 


E. P. Burke. 


Joseph S. Hoyt. 






Registers of Probate.— Aarou Nettleton, Jr., Ralph 


Elbridge Bradford. 


John H. Higbee. 




Metcalf, Henry E. Baldwin, Henry G. Carleton, Ed- 


William E. Brooks. 


Nathan E. Reed. 


B. F. Carr. 


Seth Richards. 


ward Wyniau, Shejiherd L. Bowers, George R. 
Brown. 


E. C. Converse. 


S. M. Richards. 




Frederick Claggett. 


Josiah Stevens. 


The ])ostma.sters since the office was first es- 


Frederick Chapin. 


E. E. Stearns. 


tablished in 1810 are as follows : 


Austin Corbin, Jr. 


Josejjh Sawyer, Jr. 




George Dodge. 


B. F. Sawyer. 


Arnold Ellis. John B. Stowell. 


W. S. Eastman. 


Ezra Stowell. 


Erastus Baldwin. Sawyer Belknap. 


George C. Edes. 


Frank A. Sibley. 


Lucy C. Baldwin. David W. Watkins. 


B. B. French. 


Jonathan Silsby. 


Aaron Nettleton, Jr. Sarah M. Watkins. 


H. D. Foster. 


Allen Towne. 


Bela Nettleton. Sam Nims. 


Jeremiah Fogg. 


N. C. Todd. 


Seth Richards. George W. Nourse. 


Milton Glidden. 


George H. Towle. 


Calvin Wilcox. John J. Dudley (1885). 


E. D. Hastings. 


C. A. Thompson. 




A. F. Howard. 


D. W. Watkins. 


A post-office was established at North New- 


Matthew Harvey. 


A. P. Wellcome. 


port in 1878, and Ezra T. Sibley appointed 


David Harris. 


Siloam S. Wilcox. 


postmaster. 


George Herrick. 


Augustus Wylie. 


An office wa.s also ojiened at Guild, in the 


Alvin Hatch. 


Calvin Wilcox. 


eastern part of the town, in 1882, and George 


Arthur H. Ingram. 


Parmenas Whitcomb. 


Heritage was appointed postmaster. 


Oliver Jenckes. 


John Wilcox. 


The main office is in the village. 


M. S. Jackson. 


William Woodbury. 




William Kelley. 

The following citize 






ns of Newport have held 





280 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



CHAPTER VII. 

NEWPORT— (Co„(,-„„erf). 



MISCELLANEODS. 



During the one huudred and twenty years 
since the first tree was felled in the settlement 
until the present, Newport, in common with the 
rest of the world, has had its periods of local 
excitement of various kinds, to which we may 
properly refer at this time. 

There have been times when households have 
been darkened and the whole community 
thoroughly alarmed. Such was the case when, 
in the year 178o, a putrid-nervous fever, 
so-called, visited many families and was fear- 
fullv destructive of human life. In the year 
1812 a disease called the spotted fever is said to j 
have carried nearly one hundred of the people to 
their graves. In the year 1825 the typhus fever 
rasred to an alarming extent. There r.re said 
to have been some two hundred and fifty cases 
in the months from August to December of 
that year, twenty-six of which proved fatal, and 
the record of iiKjrtulity for the year was fifty- 
five. 

In the years 18;'.:3, 1840 and 1880 the small- 
pox made its appearance, causing a thorough 
scare on each occasion. Roads were fenced 
across, pest-houses were established and othei- 
sanitary measures adopted to jircvent the ex- 
tending of the disease. Thus circumscribed 
and guarded, the mortality occasioned has been 
t^uite limited. There have been sea.sons when 
scarlet fever has widely pi-evailed and been 
very fatal among children; but in later years 
educated and skillful physicians have done 
much to counteract the influence and spread of 
epidemic diseases, and allay excitements arising 
from their prevalence. 

We may turn from the ct)ntemplation of 
periods of sickness and death to matters of a 
more pleasing character, and regard with satis- 
faction the superior education and abilities of 
Mrs. Benjamin Bragg, who is said to have es- 
timated the first taxes levied in the town ; or 



angle for trout in the South Branch, and drop 
in at the camp of Captain Ezra Parmelee, near 
its brink, for a siesta on his couch, made from a 
half-section of a large hollow tree, cut at suit- 
able length and placed upon legs or supports, 
like a grand piano, — it was stuffed with pine- 
needles and dried leaves, and upholstered with 
quilts and blankets, and met all the conditions 
necessary to repose after a day of toil ; or start 
out with all the men of the neigliborhood and 
dogs and guns in pursuit of a thievish old bear, 
that had many times depredated upon the pig- 
pens and sheep-cotes and garden patches of the 
settlers — in fact, that had become the bete noire 
of the community, and capture the villain in 
the top of a tree by the light of torches ; or 
make our way into the old Proprietors' House 
some time about the last of July, 1776, and 
listen to the reading of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, wiiich had come in on foot or on 
horseback, certainly not by steam or electricity ; 
or investigate the larder of Mrs. Ebenezer 
Merritt, who kept her sixteen boarders in good 
humor and tlieir stomachs full on the milk of a 
farrow cow, a bag of meal, and fish taken from 
the river ; or ]>]ay the agreeable to ]\Irs. Ezra 
Parmelee, over her baked potatoes and a rib of 
pig-pork ; or feast on the mince-pies made of 
pumpkins and bears' meat, from the oven of 
Mrs. Matthew Buell ; or call upon the ambitious 
lady of ye olden time, who cut her bright pew- 
ter basin in two parts, and so disposed them on 
the dresser as to excite the envy of her less 
prosperous neighbors ; or stand near while Mrs. 
Christopher Newton (who, l)y the wav, was a 
Giles), by her superior mathematical knowledge 
allotted to its thirsty proprietors their several 
shares, pro r(it<i, in the first Ijarrel of rum 
landed in Newport ; or take an airing up and 
down Main Street with Captiiin Matthew Buel 
(1810) in his new gig-wagon, the first intro- 
duced. 

The first marriage ceremony in town is said 
to have taken place under the sighing boughs 
of a lofty pine-tree. It is matter of regret that 



NEWPORT. 



281 



names and dates are not to be had to give in- 
terest to tliis statement. 

Anotlier wedding i.s .-spoken of as having oc- 
cnrred at a very early period — 1777 — tiiat of 
Jonathan Brown and Sarah Emery, at the house 
of Amos Hall, (in the S<intli road, near the Uni- 
ty line. All the people in town were invited. 
The turn-outs on the oeeasion consisted of two 
one-horse entters and twenty-four ox-sleds. 
Tiie prancing bovine.s were iiawed and geed 
through tiie snow-drifts up to the front-door to 
de])osit and receive the wedding guests. No 
" Ancient Mariner " with glittering eye detained 
a guest. Our progenitors liad loss trouble in get- 
ting wives than did those first Romans, who, 
finding their state of no value without women, 
fell upon the unfortunate Sabines, sword in 
hand, and acquired by force of arms what they 
had been unable to obtain in a less hostile man- 
ner, a process tluu'oughly at variance with what 
we know about real old-fashioned New England 
courtino- and marrying. 

Among the names that have come down to 
this generation with more or less of interest is 
that of Coit. It has by common consent been 
indorsed upon one of the most prominent eleva- 
tions of land in our pi<'turesque town, from 
whose granite brow the lover of fine views can 
survey the delightful valley of tlie Sugar, the 
village of Newjiort and villas and farms all 
about, hobnol) with Kearsarge on the east, As- 
cutney on the west, while Croydon and Sunapee, 
with their vast intermediate sweeps, furnish the 
northern and southern outlook. 

The Coit family made its appearance in 
Newport near the close of the last century. 
The male head was an American citizen of Af- 
rican descent, and, we might add, proclivities 
also. The wife was a white woman who had 
formed a connubial alliance with this sooty man 
and brother for reasons best known to herself. 
The Coit homestead was well elevated upcm a 
slope of the mountain, and it comes to us with 
the traditions of that time that the trace-chains, 
crow-bars, iron wedges, axes and other imple- 



ments of wood and farm work, by some mag- 
netic or other process, mystei'iously found their 
way, in the hours of darkne.ss, to the premises 
of the Coits. 

It was a clear case on C<)it. He wasbrontrht 
before a magistrate and sentenced to receive 
thirty-nine lashes on his Ijare baci<, there being 
no jail in which to incarcerate the thief The 
majesty of the law was vindicated at the whip- 
ping-post, which stood not far from the south- 
east corner of Main and ^laple Streets. At in- 
tervals during the progress of the whipping the 
woman came forward and tenderly bathed his 
lacerated back with rum from a .saucer, and at 
its close soothed her own lacerated feeling-s bv 
drinking the bloody potation from the saucer. 

It was while Coit was thus expiating his of- 
fenses towards an exasperated community and a 
violated law that he gave utterance, among 
other doleful laments and expressions, to the 
bottom conclusion of his heart — " Dis worl is 
only a few minnits full of worrv " — exhibiting; 
the philosopher and the man in his hour of great 
trial. 

The moral reflection, or conclusion, to which 
we arrive in view of the foregoing, is that this 
beautiful mountain, so-called, to which our 
people so much resort for picnic jmrposes and 
fine breezes, is destined to bear to fiiture gener- 
ations the name of a thieving negro, while the 
respectable fathers of the town, the philoso- 
phi'rs, teachers, preachers, chief captains and 
mighty men shnnber around its base comj)ara- 
tively unhonored and unsung. Such are the ap- 
parently unjust and unequal awards or sar- 
casms of Fame. 

For more than fifty years there lived on the 
southeastern acclivity of Coit Mountain an hon- 
est farmer by the name of Nathan Currier. He 
came from Amcsbury, Mass., to that rugged 
hillside farm in 1800 and was borne from thence 
to his gi'ave in 1857. We refer to him as an 
old-time worthy citizen, and more particularly 
as the only man who has come to our knowledge 
in the annals of the town who theoretically and 



282 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



practically asserted himself as perfectly satisfied 
with his condition in life and the sufficiency of 
his worldly possessions. 

As evidence of tliis statement, it is said that 
news once came to him of tiie death of a rela- 
tive in Massachusetts, by which a legacy of 
about one thousand dollars awaited his reception, 
whereupon he counseled with his son Oliver 
whether it was best to receive it or not. He 
pointed to the lands adjoining his farm on the 
north and said : " All rocks above ! " He 
looked toward the valley of the Sugar on the 
south and said : "All sand down there !" and 
seeing no way of investing the money satisfac- 
torily — " Guessed he wouldn't take it — got 
enough! Dummit!" We may explain that the 
strongest word used by him in (jualifviug an 
assertion was " Dummit," on account of which he 
was familiarly characterized " Old Dummit." He 
wasalso a man of few words and coujunctions and 
other connectives were almost entirely excluded 
from his vocabularj^ In regard to punctuation he 
sometimes made very long pauses — connncncing 
a sentence or a narrative one day and complet- 
ing it the next. One of his most cherished 
household gods was a spy-glass, which gener- 
ally occupied some wooden pegs over the 
kitchen door. With this he amused himself in 
viewing the suiToundiug scenery and in taking 
a kind of bird's-eye view of the movements of 
his neighbors. He was also able, from his ele- 
vated situation, to watch the rise and progress 
of thunder-showers, that sometimes suddenly 
arise in the haying season to interrupt the work 
of the hay-makers. 

On one occasion he saw an approaching 
shower, and by dint of great activity, he and 
Oliver were able to get their hay in the l)arn 
before the rain came on. He then proceeded 
to investigate with his glass the condition of 
his neighbors and found they had received a 
profuse wetting. Hence tlie value of the glass. 

His headcpiarters in the village were at the 
old Nettleton store, and when he felt that he 
had been particularly " smart " he would hitch 



up the old horse and drive in to recount to a 
number of kindred spirits he was sure to find 
on that corner, as well as the other spirits that 
were present there, the history of his exploits, 
whi<'h ran thus : "Saw shower — scratch'd to 
— got our'n in — took it down {i.e., the glass), 
— shoved it up — stuck it out — look'd down on 
'em — cocks all out — dummit — I la-a-f'd." 

On another occasion he came out at sunrise 
one morning and saw in a field in front of his 
house some kind of a wild animal. He returned 
to the house for his gun and prepared to shoot 
the beast, but his courage failed. Putting 
away his gun he went down to consult with his 
neighlior Paul, who ridiculed the idea of its 
lieing a dangerous animal, and said it was only 
a raccoon. 

The account given of the matter, as reported 
by one of the old luihltucs at the corner, ran as 
follows : " Got up fore sun — went on piece 
afore — see one — thought t'was a wild one — set- 
tin up on his hind ones — holdin up his fore 
ones — and stickin out his picked one {i.e., his 
nose) — went in — got ready to fire — I up and 
dasn't — went down told Dan — Dan said, ' Poh 
— nothing but a rac,' dummit." Thus, in 
few and short \\-ords and long pauses, " Old 
Dummit " finished lus eccentric career. 

Captain George W. Brown, a native of New- 
port, the incidents of whose life have made him 
somewhat prominent, was born May 10, 1835, 
at the homestead of his parents, sometimes 
known as the " Benjamin Teal place," located 
on the road leading to Unity Springs in the 
south part of the town. The Browns after- 
ward removed to the village and occupied a 
part of the building then standing on the north- 
east corner of Main aud Maple Streets, where 
Xathan Brown, the father of George W. died 
October 11, 1840, leaving his wife and several 
small children with somewhat limited resources, 
aside from their personal effects for support. 

About this time George W., the subject of 
this sketch, then a lad of about eleven years of 
.nge, was employed by Shubael Hawes, a retired 



NEWPORT. 



283 



sea captain, tlien living on a farm on the Croy- 
don road about a mile north of Newjjort 
village. The discovery of gold in California 
had induced Captain Hawcs to purchase andfit 
out at Boston, a trading or merchant vessel for 
San Francisco on the Pacific coast and George 
who had read '• Jack Halyard " and other sea 
stories, and conversed freely with Captain 
Hawes, became thoroughly enlisted in this 
enterprise, and would have sailed away with the 
enterprising captain, but for the protests and 
objections of his affectionate mother. As time 
went on, however, his desire for the sea and a 
sailor's life in no wise abated. In the spring of 
l.S.5t) he again met his old friend and .sometime 
scliool-fellow, (ieorge E. Belknap, (now Com- 
modore) then a midshipman in the United 
States Navy, returned frcmi his first cruise ; 
and while no influence was exerted on the part 
of Lieutenant Belknap to encourage him in 
this matter, he quietly determined to avail him- 
self of the first opportunity to go to sea. 

After the departui'e of Captain Hawes, 
George found employment through the influ- 
ence of his friend, Frederick Claggett, Esq., 
then slieriiF of the county, in a marble-yard at 
Springfield, Vt. A few months at picking and 
hammering ou grave-stones and otlier marble 
work, fully satisfied his ambition in that direc- 
tion, and led to an arrangement with two other 
boys for a clandestine departure for Boston. 

One of these boys was possessed of between 
three and four dollars, and was to furnish cap- 
ital on which to float the enterprise; but when 
the time for their departure came the courage 
of both tailed, and George found himself alone 
without a single cent in his pocket. His only 
capital was indomitable pluck, and this was 
equal to the emergency. On a Sunday morning 
he drove the family to church, as usual, return- 
ing with the team, and in his anxiety to grasp 
the little bundle he had packed and deposited 
in the barn early in the morning, and take his 
departure, the last part of his Sunday morning 
service, the going for the family, was omitted. 
19 



With a feeling that there was a wide world 
before and around him, he jnit out on toot and 
alone for the Connecticut Biver Itridge. For- 
tunately for him, the toll-gate was on the New 
Hampshire side, and he had passed quite over 
before he was hailed for the one-cent tare, which 
he was unable to pay. His legs, however, did 
good service in this financial crisis, and the 
good woman of the bridge, by whom he was 
pursued, soon gave up the chase and in nautical 
parlance " fell a.stern." 

George begged and worked his way to Bos- 
ton, arriving in that city April .30, 1850. The 
next mornino; he began looking: about for a 
vessel, and in attempting to pass over the 
bridge from Boston to Charlesto\^n, another 
toll-gate obstructed his progress. There was 
no opj)ortunity for a race this time, and while 
he stood chaft'crino; with the toll gatherer a 
sailor came up, and when asked for his penny 
fare, said he was going to a vessel at the " draw," 
whereupon George took a hint and also wished 
to board a vessel at the " draw," and they were 
permitted to pass. At the draw George tbund 
a brig hauling through, and stepping up to the 
captain, asked if he wanted a boy on board. 
The sailor answered emphatically and with a 
big oath in the negative, but George was pre- 
pared for bluff treatment, and pushed his ap- 
plication still further by jumjting on board 
without invitation or pcrmLssitm, and taking 
a hand witli the tars as they went on. The 
vessel was the brig "Delhi," Captain Hodgson, 
and sailed from Boston to Matanzas, Cuba, ou 
May 10th, George's fifteentli birthday. He 
was coimectcd with her until she was stranded, 
in July, IHol. After this he visited his 
mother in Newport, returning again to his sea- 
fjiring life with the same captain, in the brigs 
"Borneo" and " Marshfiild," filling every posi- 
tion from cabin-boy to mate, until 1855, when 
Captain Hodgson left him in command of the 
" Mnrshfield. " 

The first voyage of now Captain George W. 
Brown was to Surinam, where he was pros- 



F SnXJTA>' COCXTY^ XEW Jl\M, 



an aoaok <:*' TidL>w leTer, om of BQ»jk foxz in 



- renxTD 



mrdi'ir annovan** iPjBI ~ Yeilow Jaefc." poesesaoe •;»* did£ town. He 

C Town refnained in die esoploj. lo ? - wiifa d^»BEfce5. 

_ . - - :t« Vkt- , ; sake t. 

ml-: - easeeed die naTv as amn^ mand. 

cuiarcr, ;utd nxs ocdered ^ navisaiioo 'jSieet to Captain Bcc'wn iias in he poiase^ioa tbe aa- 



He was affce: _ oxut-marml dmr in 

Wa~ciigtoeu If. C_ wfaese he became ateqaaint- 



ariid wa:^ bj hk loc^ues ordered to the ounisand 
f^ the ~ r^n Smirh." ooe « die selwjtmars of 



:- ; frst Tear"s anaek tja Tlefcsbor^. He was 
afteFwaid ssk to Ha'^^ana with •i^nteites to tLe 



wen; tite dr^ ". ar tiie Xorti. 

On tt-7 : of tibi tirsE year's anack 

^3 5 veseL with 
d- . _ ; --- — --^ :.-- -.rs. was otdoted 
n-'-rth &:• asift La dte capeise of Rkfantond. bet: 
:l-:r =avi«es were noc needed tiiae on accoont 



k>w5 : 

- HxjLP»ir-s3rrE2s I>EFr. •:•¥ the TE!r!rESi?S3L 
- M^pJsis. Ten"-. Jis.aarT 36. 13SS. 

_~ -raBs. CtmimisaSits Q. B. 'Foreai Bran .'* 

'_a.f Ci^- ; 7 " ' , _ " "' 

tie li*ec Birar _ 

Miiwjy- ih* sceimer •^ta wiiKii i aw. i wrii be on si»e 
sieasKF ' "Wrfffliolia-" 

■* t»ificeis fiis; an artmi lie deec rep«ir: ItiTiag b<i<ai 
— Tsietrv nijja die e^=c 
_ _ . \ ;.. i:^ 

~ Eresp-coattlly. eie_ 

Capciin Pr ^- — - — '-' -'^ - — -'' - --— 
went to Ta.^ - _ • . 

navy-jaid and Teseels on tbe iojcfcs^ 

The ~ FoKst Kcee" took jiart in nearly :^ 



a&i daring the time cf Lee's Eaid into ilary- ^ Janaarv. IS^i. Cap^in Bmwn wae pr- - 
land they were siaxiofled c^ that dty ready for '^o^sd to volunteer liemenaoL He was «ire to 
action in esse of need. In O ' - 2, Cap- _ ±=e-. and 

- "^ ^--'--wn was ordered to :_ .-^-^sissippi " " ' Lake. 

with Admiral Poner, and sent to ^*i ^^^ P*^ wa; ez ■ ars 

Cineinnati to :k^se in fitting np the SrsE of the trom his vesseL - :t, in coane«>- 

*• Tindad Fleet-" ard was onlered to the eixn- 
r*' --■" ^' the ni3 ooe of that afterward nomer- 
-^ of atm-bcats. the "Forest Rcee." 
He was with the Sees that took Sherman to 
Vi.v-- . " ■ - - 

Hay^,:. ^.„ .: .. _ . _; . , n,^; 

np the ArkaiKis River to Ar ■. . >et, and 



■ ^ — -. Oi 

- or- 
dered, and had it iey 
woold no doabe have socceeded in setiins to 



a st^ty ap- 



NEWPORT. 



285 



pearance with their smoke-stacks knocked 
down, wheels broken, decks torn up — in shm-t, 
almost wrecks. 

Captain Brown then returned to Vicksburg 
and remained in that vicinity until the surren- 
der. About a mouth prior to that event he vol- 
unteered to take a battery of naval guns iu the 
trencher in Sherman's corps, Steele's division, 
which held the right of our lines, where he re- 
mained until the surrender, July 4, 1863, 
when he had the honor of riding into the city 
with General Steele, Lieuteuaut-Commander 
(now Commodore) AValker and others. The 
dav following he took command of his vessel 
and went down the river to give notice of the 
victory to the gun-boats belriw. About a mouth 
later, after several expeditions up the Retl, 
Black, Ouachita, Tensas and other rivers, he 
was ordered tn Cairo for repairs. More than 
half his crew were prostrated with fever, and 
being himself unable to attend to his duties on 
account of sickness, he was granted sick-leave 
and went to his home in New York for a cou- 
ple of months. Returning to Cairo, he was or- 
dered to the command oi' the " Queen City " 
and all the vessels convoying transports on the 
AVhite River, carrying supplies tor (ieueral 
Steele's army at Little Ri>ok. — the transports 
going as tar as Duval's Bluff, the stores being 
carried by rail the rest of the way, the nwd be- 
ins: run bv an Ohio regiment. 

About this time he made the acquaiiitantv of 
General X. B. Beauford, commanding Kastern 
Arkansas Headquarters, at Helena, who was 
organizing a colored regiment, of which he 
urged Captain Brown to accept the colonelcy, 
which hedwlined. During his superintendence 
of the couvo\-ing of transports no accidents oc- 
curred and no lives were lost. He was next 
placed iu command of the iron-clad monitor 
" Ozark," then fitting out at Cairo for the Red 
River expedition — sometimes known as the " <'ot- 
ton-stealingexpetlition." The "Ozark" was one of 
the heaviest armed vessels of the squadron, having 
two 11-inch guns in the turret, a lU-inch pivot 



gun aft, and three ;t-inch guns broadsiiie. She 
w,as built expressly for the river service. She 
carried a crew of about one hundred and sixtv 
men. The history of the Reil River exp«li- 
tion is t(K< well known to need comment here. 
The difficulty of navigtitiou in that crooke<l 
stream with so lai"gc and heavy a vessel was 
exceedingly great, and but for the assistance of 
tugs and transports he would hardly have 
reacheil (Jrand Ecore. He remained on the 
"Oziirk"' until November. lSti4, when he re- 
turned to New York on sick-leave. 

In December of the s;ime year he was ordereil 
to the South Atlantic scjuadron and was en- 
gaged in spe<-ial duty off Charlston, S. C, in 
charge of the scout and pii-ket-boats. 

There it was his pleasure to meet, for tin- 
first time during the war, witii his old friend, 
George E. Belknap, then iu command of the 
monitor " Canonieus."' The divei-s ways by 
which the two Newport l)oys Mere able to meet 
iu the service of their country off Charleston, 
S. C, which citv was, for many years, the home 
of the writer of this sketch, also a native of 
Newport, involves more of incident and ro- 
mance than can pi'operly he introduced in this 
place. 

After the evacuation of Charleston, Captain 
Brown was ordered, at his own request, to the 
command of the Ciiited States brig " Perry," 
ten guns, then stationed at Fern.andina, Fla., 
where he ivmained until March, IS'io, when he 
was (n-deretl to Philadelphia, where he had ar- 
ri\ed a few days prior to the assassination of 
President Abraham Lincoln and where his ac- 
tive service ended. In Se])teml)er, 1863, Cap- 
tain Brown was honorably discharged from the 
naval service, having de(>linetl to go before the 
examining board for transfer to the regular 
navy, preferring civil life and merchant service. 
He came to New York and iiad partly arranged 
for the purchase of a part of a vessel. One 
j of the parties with whom he was negotiating 
' failed to keep an appointment in the matter, 
j which cau.*ed a feeling of disappointment on 



286 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the part of the captain, aud iu passing down 
Wall Street towards his home in Brooklyn, by 
way of the ferry, his eye ciiught sight of a sign 

at No. 115 , as follows: "Desk Room to 

Let." Withont fui-ther consideration lie en- 
gaged the place, ordered the necessary furniture, 
and some cards printed aud at once started the 
business of a ship broker, in which he contin- 
ued until 1875, in the meantime organizing the 
New York and Washiugtou Steamship Com- 
pany, of ^vhich he was for three years the 
agent. Afterward he fitted out the Cuban 
man-of-war " Hornet " aud sent several cargoes 
of arms, etc., to the insurgent Cubans. At one 
time he took a somewhat active part in local 
politics, and in 1869 received the appointment 
of assistant assessor of internal revenue, but 
his private business Mas of more value to him 
than the office, from which he retired at the 
close of the year. 

In 1875 Ca])taiu Brown was unexpectedly 
called upon by the New York Marine Under- 
writers to go to Hayti, for the purpose of in- 
vestigating an intricate case involving them in 
heavy loss. His success in the matter so far 
exceeded their expectations that inchicements 
were offered which caused hiui to abandon the 
shipping business and devote himself exclu- 
sively to the interest of marine underwriters. 

Siuce that time he has traveled extensively, 
making investigations and settlements of cases 
in Europe, Mexico, Central and South America 
and the West Indies. In his early days of sailor 
life he was brought in contact with Spanish- 
speaking people in foreign port.s, first picking 
up the language by the ear and in later years 
making it a study and an advantage in the 
transaction of business with tlie people to which 
we have referred. 

The domestic relations of Cajjtain Brown are 
of the most agreeable character. He married, 
October 18, I860, Mary E. Stainburn, of New 
York. They have children as follows : 

George Titus, born October 16, 1861 ; Grace 
Stainburn, born November 7, 1866 ; Alfred 



Hodgdon, born April 8, 1871. The family 
occupy a pleasant homciu the city of Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

Captain Brown is a vestryman in one of the 
Episcopal Churches in Brooklyn ; a Master Ma- 
son ; a member of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public, his badge being No. 1242 ; a charter- 
member of Harry Lee Post, No. 24, Depart- 
ment of New York; a member of the Military 
Order, Loyal Legion New York Commandery ; 
a member of the New York Marine Society, 
the oldest society, excepting the Chamber of 
Commerce, in New York ; a member of the 
American Legion of Honor and of the Na- 
tional Provident Union. 

Captain Brown says he owes much of what 
he is to-day to two women, — his mother, who 
died May 16, 1861, whose precept and exam- 
ple were the guard and guide, under Providence, 
of his life ; and his wife, whose superior educa- 
tion proved of great Itenefit to him in over- 
coming the scanty opportunities of his early 
years. 

We are unable to learn the exact date of the 
establishment of the first line of stages through 
this town. Soon after the Croydon turnj)ike 
was opened, in 1806, stages are said to have been 
placed upon a route running from Washington 
to Lebanon, passing north aud south through 
Newport. A few^ years later, by the construc- 
tion of better roads east and west through the 
town, daily lines were established which diverted 
the travel from the turnpike line. The Croy- 
don turnpike was accordingly abandoned, and 
iu 1838 a public ntad laid out over its route by 
the town, and "the old turnjiike was a pike no 
more." 

With the opening of railroads in other sec- 
tions, the staging through this town grew " small 
by degrees and beautifully less," and during the 
twenty years previous to the opening of the 
railroad (1871) there was but one daily line. 

The new line east and west, referred to, 
commenced running from Windsor, Vt., by 
the way of Newport and Bradford, to Boston, 



NEWPORT. 



287 



ill the year 1818, and we have heard how, on 
stage-days, tlie boys and girls, and all hands, 
young and old, were on the qui vive to witness 
the magnificent turn-out as it swept into town, 
and througli the street to the Eagle, or the 
Newport Hotel, or both, where the passengers 
were i-efreshed, and the team changed. 

We doubt if tlie arrival of the first train of 
cars in 1871, and the snorting of the iron horse, 
attracted more attention or caused greater 
delight. 

We have had political excitements, and in 
this connection may refer to the local ferment 
occasioned in 1S2"), '26, '27, by the dismeml)er- 
ment of old Cheshire, and the establishment of 
the new county of Sullivan out of its fifteen 
most northern towns, with the goodly town of 
Newport as its seat of justice. The foresight 
and energy of the leading citizens of that time 
have been suitably appreciated by their suc- 
cessors and descendants, who now maintain and 
enjoy the work then accomplished. 

Nor can wi^ overlook the great temperance 
reform movement that burst upon the whole 
country about the year 1828, aud thoroughly 
aroused this community to its important de- 
mands. 

The people of New England towns and 
villages, in common with mankind everywhere, 
have had no more stubborn and satanic foe to 
contend with than alcohol in all its insinuating- 
forms. It appeared in Newport mostly in the 
guise of New England rum. At that time it 
was openly sold by the glass or quantity at all the 
general stores on the street, and show}' bars 
were a conspicuous feature in the " bar-rooms," 
so-called, at the hotels, and a minister of the 
gospel was engaged in the distilling cider 
brandy. 

Here, then, came the venerable Lyman 
Beecher, of Boston ; the energetic and impres- 
sive Doctor Jewett, of Rhode Island ; 

and the eminent Reuben D. Mussey, M.D., 
then at the head of the Medical Department of 
Dartmouth College, at different times, and 



from the pulpits of the churches denounced the 
use of ardent spirits as a beverage, and the 
first societies for the promoti(jn of temper- 
ance wore organized, and the work went on 
under the earnest direction of Rev. Jolin Woods 
and Rev. Ira Pearson, then cfhcieut pastors of 
the churches in this village, and was sustained 
and augmented by the best people of the town, 
and reform came. 

There are many people now living and 
active, who will remendier the scenes enacted 
on Main Street fifty or sixty years ago on 
public days, and the ohi-time resorts about 

i which tiirongs gathered every day to enter for 
their early nK^rning u;roo; as soon as tlie drowsv 
clerk withdrew the bars and bolts and swung 
open the doors. Comparing that state of 
things with the present, wear<' able to estimate 
the degree of progress attained. No alcoholic 
uiinister now dispenses the Ijrcad or the water 

i of life to an alcoholic church, as Dr. Jewett, 
heretofore referred to, once charged in tliun- 

:' dering accents from the pulpit of a Congrega- 

I tional meeting-house, and the old hats and 
rags have been mostly witlidrawn from the 
windows, or if they still supply the j)laces of 
panes, it is due to otiicr causes than I'um. 

Next in the succession of general excitements, 
was that caused by the work of the early Aljoli- 
tionists, during the years from 1830 to 1840, 

i who persevered in prcaciiing and lecturing and 
talking at the hazard of life and limb, broken 
windows in churches and school-houses and as- 
saults in the way of epithets and stale eggs. 
The discussion of that question involved the 
existence of churches and societies, and, in 
many instances, agreeable social relations. 

The contemplative mind will recur tr) that 
period across one of the bloodiest chasms that 
ever. divided a country against itself. 

About the year 1<S.'}8 several of the citizens 
of the town undertook to introduce the culture 
of the morns viidticauli.'i tree and the silk- 
worm, and the manufacture of silk goods in 
various forms. 



238 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



If French and Italian skies could have 
I)een introduced with the worm and the " silk- 
trees " to our impracticable soil and climate, a 
different result might have been obtained. As 
it was, a good deal of speculative excitement 
ensued, and the whole matter was not more 
unfortunate for its projectors than it proved 
ridiculous. 

Some time during the years from 1835 to 
1840 certain Boston manufacturers and capital- 
ists were thought to be on the alert to monopol- 
ize at low prices all the water privileges of any 
account on Sugar Hiver and its branches. The 
alarm spread among the knowing ones and also 
to some that did not know very much ; and not 
only water privileges, but real estate advanced 
in estimation to fabulous prices, quite turning 
the heads of some of the dwellers upon the 
hillside farms. 

The excitement suV)sided in due time, and 
some of the gras])ing speculators found them- 
selves the possessors of property they could 
neither utilize or sell without loss. It was 
probably about that time when a midnight cour- 
ier rode in from the " Harl>or" with the start- 
ling intelligence that the Snnapee dam was 
about to explode ; and to warn the inhabitants 
of the Sugar River Valley and the town of 
Newport to prepare for an inundation, which 
did not, however, come to pass. 

Subsequent to the year 1840, incited by the 
calculations and preaching of a man named 
Miller, who indulged in advanced views in re- 
gard to the second coming of the ]\Iessiah, a 
religious sect sprung up in New England and 
elsewhere known as " Millerites." The 4th 
day of April, afterwards changed to the lOth of 
October, 1843, had been fixed by the leader of 
these enthusiasts a.s the great day of doom. 
The months previous to this date were spent in 
the most energetic prejjiu'ation. 

Their headquarters at North ville were at the old 
meeting-house and in the village at the " old 
red store," then standing on the corner of Main 
and Maple Streets. At the latter place the 



most disorderly and reckless element in the 
population gathered at their meetings, and they 
came to require the presence of the sheriff or high 
constable to maintain a becoming order. The ex- 
citement notonly in Newj)ort,butthroughoutthis 
section, was for a time intense, and led to acts of 
foolishness beyond account. But the sun rose in 
splendor on the 10th of October, 1843, and also 
on the 11th, and dissipated the fogs that hung 
over the minds of the Millerites, and they re- 
turned to their neglected farms and workshops, 
and interests not squandered, wiser if not better 
people. 

The culmination of excitements, after which 
it would be trifling to speak of any other, was 
that occasioned by the mustering of our " boys 
in blue," and their departure for the battle-fields 
of the Rebellion, where some of them found 
soldiers' graves — and from which others re- 
turned bearinsi the indelible certificates of their 
bravery in defending and preserving the unity 
of the irreat commonwealth inherited from the 
earlier heroes and patriots. 

The Newport of to-day is the goal to which 
we have now come as we gather up the several 
topics of this discursive and imperfect narrative. 
It spreads out along the sunny intervale of the 
Sugar and the slopes of its surrounding hills. 
Its streets have assumed the names of the var- 
ious forest-trees whose places they have taken by 
right of way. Its Main Street — a splendid 
thoroughfixre of two miles in length — extends 
north and south on the eastern side, parallel 
and in view of the grand avenue, laid out by 
the fathers of the town, on the western side of 
the valley. 

In passing along its various streets we see its 
many tidy and pleasant homes ; its more pre- 
tentious private residences ; its substantial blocks 
of wood and brick for business purposes; its 
Newport House and Phoenix Hotel, comforta- 
ble hostelries for the traveler on the incoming 
train ; its school-houses, and churches, and spa- 
cious public buildings, and shaded and delight- 
ful village park. 



NEWPORT. 



289 



The valetudinarian or the summer visitor 
from the cities and sea-])orts will here find a 
pleasant resting-place, and entertainment in 
pleasing variety of walks and drives within our 
town lines along the brooks and rivers, and from 
the hill-tops, from whence views which the un- 
sparing hand of nature has spread out may be 
enjoyed; or find himself within reach of ample 
facilities for visiting localities beyond our limits, 
of much interest, such as Lake Sunapee, about 
five miles distant, or Unitoga Springs, or ths 
summits of Sunapee and Croydon Mountains, 
in New Hampshire, and Ascutney, in Vermont. 

The slopes of Baptist Hill smile with com- 
fortable homesteads, and from the precinct of 
Northvillc, in its foreground, comes the clatter 
of machinery from the extensive scythe manufac- 
tory of the Sibleys. That locality also boasts of 
a store, a railroad station and a post-office ; and 
as it has increased in age and dignitv it has 
droj>ped the " ville " from its cognomen, and is 
now known as " North Newport." 

The present year of our Lord, 1 <S85, the foun- 
dations for a new chapel have l)e('n laid not far 
from tiie site of the ancient meeting-house, the 
memory of which is so fraught with stirring re- 
ligious events in the past. The new structure 
will rise and stand with open doors and inviting 
hands for the use of all religious denominations, 
and the descendants of them that " stoned the 
prophets," and the descendants of the prophets 
themselves will meet in harmony in the same 
fold and listen to the words of the same shepherd. 

In accordance with the laws that govern pop- 
ulation and business, another enterprising little 
village has gathered in the vicinity of the Gran- 
ite State Mills, in the eastern part of the town, 
and (iuild post-office and railroad station invite 
the attention to a splendid manufacturing estab- 
lishment, a lineal descendant of the Giles Mills, 
and an indorsement of the good judgment, as 
regards water power and location, of that emi- 
nent father of the town. Had justice been done 
to his name and memory, the post-office or 
precinct would have been christened Gilesville. 



The Commox. — The site of the "Common," 
or Park, which contributes so much to the 
beauty of Newport village, is one of those natur- 
ally level .spaces or plateaus which are found as we 
recede from the Sugar Hiver Valley eastwurdly 
towards the highlands known as Coit Moun- 
tains and the Buell Hills. In the early days 
of the town it is said to have been an " alder 
swamp," and, consequently, a paradise for 
frogs, mud-turtles and mosquitoes. Its eleva- 
tion, however, aliove the river-lands, was such 
that it yielded readily to drainage and improve- 
ment. 

The old county road, opened in 1779, after- 
ward the Croydon turnpike, and at present 
North Main Street, lay along its eastern 
margin. 

When, in 1809 or LSIO, William Cheney oc- 
cupied his new residence, where we now find the 
post-office, and opened his mercantile business 
t>n the site of " Richards' Block," Jeremiah 
Kelsey was the owner of this land, and also his 
competitor in trade on the oj)posite side of the 
road, at present the southeast corner of Main 
and Sunapee Streets. 

By an e.vtract from the diary of Colonel 
Cheney, lately published in one of the weekly 
papers of this village (the ^\rc/us), we are told 
that the locality was then used for military 
parades, in consideration fi>r which the officers 
of the companies agreed to purchase, at the 
store of said KeLsey, the grog con.sidered 
necessary for the comfort of officers and men on 
such occasions. It also appears that Kelsey 
had bargained a building lot, about midway of 
this common, to Sylvanus Richards, and, some 
time afterward, a second lot to Dr. Kibbey, 
and some buildings were placed thereon. 

At this rate of progress it was only a question 
of short time when the eastern side of the turn- 
pike, as far north as the Sand-Hill, .so called, 
would have been forever alienated from public 
use as a common, and our park, parade and fair- 
ground, ornamented with elms and maples, as 
at this time, would have existed onlv in the 



290 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIEE. 



special and uiiisatisfied needs of the generations 
to come. 

This matter ^\•as, undoubtedly, considered by 
Colonel Cheney, whose good judgment and 
scope of mental vision enabled him to appreci- 
ate the matter in all its bearings, present and 
future. 

Instead of making out the deeds of convey- 
ance for the iiouse lots, as desired by Kelsey, he 
insisted and argued that Newport should have 
a " common," and succeeded in preventing the 
transfers. Not long after this he purcliased the 
property from Kelsey, removed the buildings 
and fences, and left it open for parades and 
other public uses. 

On its eastern margin, now Park Street, cor- 
ner of Sunapee, he built the Newport Hotel, af- 
terward disposed of to Captain Joel Nettleton, 
and now the Newport House. In 1816, a 
little farther on, he erected an immense wooden 
building, one hundred and fifty feet long and 
four stories higii, known as the Tontine, the 
front roof of wliich projected several feet and was 
supported by tall, slender columns from the 
ground. It had five stacks of chimneys, fur- 
nishing fire-places and ovens on each floor, and 
a countless number of apartments of all dimen- 
sions. The rooms on the ground-floor were for 
business purposes, and those on the uj^por floors 
were arranged in suites for families. At the 
time of its erection it was considered the mo.st 
imposing structure in this part of the State. It 
was taken down in 1851. Its site is now oc- 
cupied by the Methodist Episcopal Church edi- 
fice and two dwelling-houses erected by the 
Batchelder Brothers, from material taken from 
the preceding structure. Some time afterward 
Colonel Cheney sold and conveyed to Eev. Ira 
Person (since Pearson) a plot of ground still far- 
ther north, on the east line of the present Park 
Street, on whicli Mr. Pearson built a dwelling- 
house, long known as the Baptist Parsonage, 
and where he lived many years. 

In 1871 the Parsonage became the property 
and residence of Josepli W. Parmelee. In 



course of time, a new house of more modern 
construction took the place of the old, and was 
first occupied by the Parmelees on July 4, 1870. 

In 1821 Colonel Cheney donated a plot of 
ground at the uortli end of the Common to the 
Baptist Church and Society, " to have and to 
hold " as long as it should be required for church 
purposes. It was there that the first diun-h 
edifice in the village was erected, and on which 
the present graceful front elevation of the lately 
reconstructed building appears. 

In the year ls20 Colonel Cheney proposed 
to present and deed his Common to the town of 
Newport on certain conditions, with which the 
town at its annual meetiu<i; did not see fit to 
comply. 

He then further proposed to sell and convey 
the same for the sum of two hundred dollars, 
another and principal condition being that it 
.should remain a " common forever," otherwise 
to revert to the heirs of the grantor. 

At the annual meeting March 13, 1821, the 
town voted to accept and comply with the terms 
of this proposition. 

The deed of conveyance bears date May 22, 
1821 , and is on record in the archives of Chesh- 
ire County, liber 88, folio 194, under the 
certificate of James Campbell, register. 

The description of property conveyed is as 
follows : 

" Bounded on the west by the East line of the old 
county road and Croydon turnpike (now north Main 
Street), on the north by a line running easterly in a 
range with the South Side of Jonathan Cutting's 
barn to a stone set in the ground, near the house of 
A. S. Waite. On the East by a direct line running 
Southerly Six feet west of the South Side of the Ton- 
tine, Nettleton's tavern, and the Site of the old while 
school-house when Owned by Colonel James D. 
Walcott (probably the north line of the lot on which 
the present county building now stands), and on the 
Southwesterly from Said corner of the School-house 
two rods and Six links to a stone set in the ground, 
the bound first mentioned." 

Tlie plot of ground is nearly triangular in 
shape, and contains about foiu- acres. 



NEWPORT. 



291 



From the foregoing it is evident that tlie 
Common was not a positive gift from Colonel 
('lieney to the town of Newport, as has some- 
times been stated. He received a fair compen- 
sation for the land, as considered from tlie stand- 
point of the time wlien the conveyance was 
made. It is due to his name and memory, 
however, to state that it was through his deter- 
mination and management that this tract of 
land was made a Common and will so remain 
" forever." 

Disastrous Fiue of 1885. — About two 
o'clock on Sunday morning, June 21, 1885, the 
cry of fire and the ringing of bells broke the 
silence of the hour, and roused the people of our 
village to witness the most disastrous con- 
flagration that ever visited the town. 

Tlie fire was first seen bursting from the roof 
and rear of tiie two-story wooden l)ailding 
known as " Nettleton Block," located on the 
southeast corner of Main and Sunapee Streets. 
The basement of this building was occupied as 
a meat and vegetable market; the first floor, 
south room, by C. H. AVatts, harness-maker ; 
the north room, by F. E. Nelson, a dealer in 
small wares ; the second floor, south rooms, as 
the printing-office and editorial rooms of tiie 
New Hampshire Argus and Spectator, — Barton 
& Wheeler, proprietors ; and the north rooms 
were the offices of A. S. Wait, Esq., attorney- 
at-law. 

The flames spread with great rapidity to all 
parts of the main building, and from thence to 
the extension on Sunapee Street, occupied by 
the United States and Canada Express Com- 
pany, eastward to a livery office and two large 
stables; and southward to the brick building 
once occupied by the First National Bank, and 
more recently by several families ; and, lastly, 
to the town hall, of which some account lias 
been given on a preceding page. 

It is matter of interest that the express office 
was the store-house originally built and occu- 
pied by Jeremiah Kelsey, — referi-ed to in the 
sketch of the Common, — and afterward by the 



Nettletons as a store and post-office, and moved 
back to give place to the more pretentious 
"block" erected in 1804. Tiie " old bank,'^ 
so-called, was built in 1825 by A. Nettleton, 
Jr., for a residence, and where he lived and 
died. 

The land and buildings covered Ity this con- 
flagration, u]) to the court-house common, were 
owned by Mrs. Bela Nettleton and Frederick 
W. Lewis. 

The insurance on the property of the various 
occupants and owners, consisting of buildings, 
books, machinery, fixtures, wares, merchandise, 
etc., amounted to about forty thousand dollars, 
and the losses of the different proprietors and 
occupants would aggregate sixty thousand to 
seventy thousand dollars. The most important 
items of loss, and those most difficult to restore, 
were the valuable law library of Mr. Waite, and 
the files of the New Hampshire Argus and Spec- 
tator, running back more than sixty years. 

Whether this fire was the work of an incen- 
diary or the residt of carelessness and stupidity 
on the part of dissolute and drunken persons 
who may have sought obscurity in the attic of 
Nettleton Block, which was accessible from the 
street at all hours, has not transpired, and no 
investigations have been made. 

The resources available for the extinguish- 
ment of a fire of this magnitude were entirely 
inadequate, and all that could be done was to 
prevent its spreading to adjoining buildings and 
neighborhoods. 

Had a brisk wind prevailed on the night and 
morning of that 21st of June, in spite of our 
two hand-engines, their brakes manned by ath- 
letic firemen and citi/ens, the fire must liave 
marched before it in a direct line out of town 
in accordance witii the direction given. A 
brave effort at great hazard was made to save 
the town hall and court-house, and the fact 
that this magnificent structure collapsed so 
readily under fire is evidence of a faulty con- 
struction, and does much to dispel a feeling of 
regret at its loss. 



292 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The Coiirt-Hoiise and Town Hall of 
1885-8fi. — Before the smoke had subsided 
over the smouldering ruins of this fire, a meet- 
ing of citizens from several of the towns of the 
county was held at Eowell's Rink, in Newport, 
Friday, June '2(3th, to consider the situation. 
There was perhaps a feeling at that time on 
the part of Newport, whose court-house lay in 
smoking, ruins, that the old agitation in re- 
gard to the removal of the courts to Claremont 
might again l)e revived ; hut this matter was 
soon set at rest by the ap[)earance in this meet- 
ing of many of the leading citizens of that 
town, with kind words for Newport in the hour 
of its calamity, and suggesting in accordancewith 
a resolution passe<l at a public meeting of their 
citizens the day previous, that the county build- 
ing be rebuilt in Newport, and made separate and 
distinct from a town hall. After some discus- 
sion a resolution was passed at this rink meet- 
ing in favor of the erection of two buildings, 
one for county and one for town purposes, with 
but one dissenting vote. The .stand taken by 
the town of Claremont was thus defined. 

In the mean time a County Convention, com- 
posed of the members from its several towns to 
the Legislature, then in session, convened at 
Agricultural Hall, in Concord, on several oc- 
casions to hear arrangements and deliberate in 
regard to the erection of a new county building, 
and whether the two interests of the county of 
Sullivan and town of Newport should proceed 
jointly to erect, as heretofore, or take a new de- 
parture and build separately. Their delib- 
€rations resulted in the following proposition to 
the town, to wit : 

"Resolved, That the County of Sullivan |iroceed to 
build a court-house and county oflices in connection 
with the town hall ot Newport ; the County of Sulli- 
van and town of Newport each to share one-half the 
expense of such building, which shall be placed on 
the site of the one recently destroyed by tire, the cost 
of the county not to exceed the suinjof eleven thousand 
five hundred dollars ; provided said town of Newport 
shall deed to said county the land on which said 



building shall stand, also the court-rooni and neces- 
sary county offices on the first floor of the building, 
for all time the county shall desire to use said land 
and building for such purposes. And there shall be 
no rooms constructed or occupied above the second floor. 
A building committee of three persons shall be chosen 
by the county convention to act in connection with 
a committee of two persons from the town of Newport, 
whose duty it shall be to see that the building is built 
in a satisfactory manner, and that the expense is 
equally divided between the county and town of New- 
port. The actual expenses of such committee on the 
part of the county to be paid by the county." 

The convention chose as members of the com- 
mittee, the county commissioners (L. A. Pur- 
mort, of Lempster, S. F. Rossiter, of Clare- 
mont, and Alvin S. Bartholomew, of Plain- 
field) and Messrs. Parker, of Claremont, and 
A. S. Wait and L. W. Barton, of Newport, 
Attorneys-at-law, were chosen to draw up the 
deed. 

In response to the action of the County Con- 
vention, as before stated, the town of Newport, 
at an adjourned meeting held July 18, 1885, 
adopted the following preamble and resolutions, 
viz. : 

" Whereas, At a County Convention of the County 
of Sullivan, held at Concord on the 16th day of July, 
inst., it was voted — (See foregoing resolutions of 
County Convention.) Now therefore, be it resolved 
that the towu of Newport will join the County of Sul- 
livan in the erection of the said building upon the 
terms and conditions of the aforesaid vote of the said 
County Convention, and that said vote of said County 
Convention, so far as is necessary and appropriate 
therefor, be adopted as the vote of this town; the 
words of said vote, 'above the second floor ' being in- 
terpreted to mean, above the town hall. 

"Resolved that Milton S. .Jackson and Frank A. 
Rawson be the committee on the part of the town to 
act with that of the County in the erection of said 
building and that they be and hereby are authorized 
in the name of the town to execute and deliver to the 
County of Sullivan the deed to be executed in ac- 
cordance with said vote of the County Convention, 
and of the first above resolution." 



NEWPORT. 



293 



The meeting adjourned to the 25th inst., and 
afterward to Saturday, August 1st. 

At an adjourned town-meeting helil on Satur- 
day, August 1, 1885, tlic following resolution 
appropriating the sum of eleven thousand five 
hundred dollars for the rebuilding of the town 
Jiall was passed : 

" Resolved that a Sum not to exceed eleven thou- 
sand five hundred dollars bo appropriated I'roni any 
moneys in the treasury of the town not otherwise ap- 
propriated, to the defrayal of the expenses of the 
erection of a town hall in Newport in connection with 
a court-house and county offices 'for the County of 
Sullivan ; the insurance ($10,000) in favor of the 
town upon the former building, consumed by fire, 
when recovered to be set apart as a fund to be applied 
towards the amount of said expense ; and that the 
selectmen and treasurer of the town be authorized to 
borrow so much (if said sum as is needed before such 
insurance is collected and issue the notes of the town 
therefor." 

It may be well to state that the court-house 
and town hall was insured for twenty thousand 
(hjllars,— ten thousand dollars of which went to 
the county and ten thousand dollars to the 
town. 

Tlie foundations of the new county and town 
building were laid in the most substantial man- 
ner under the direction of the joint building 
committee before named. 

F. N. Footman, of Boston, was the architect 
of the superstructure, the dimensions of which 
are t)t).5 feet front by 93.5 feet running back ; 
the elevation of the lower story is sixteen fijet 
clear, and the walls, of brick, are sixteen inches 
in thickness. 

The basement is arranged for fire-proof vaults, 
furna(!es, storage for fuel, closets, etc. The 
county floor will furnish a room forty by fifty 
feet for the sessions of the courts, a private 
apartment for the judge, rooms for the grand 
and petit juries, witnesses and county commis- 
sioners, offices and safes for the register of deeds, 
register of probate and clerk of the courts. 

The elevation of the second story is twenty- 
four feet clear, with a gallery all around, and 



suitable ante-rooms and stairways front and 
rear. The walls are twelve inches in thickness, 
the whole interior strengthened by a complex 
system of timbers and supports from the roof. 
The town will thus be provided with a sub- 
stantial and elegant hall for civic purposes, 
as.semblies and conventions. 

The plans and specifications, as prepared by 
the supervising architect, Mr. Footman, were 
submitted for inspecti(^n, and the contract for 
the erection of the building was awarded to the 
lowest bidder, Hira R. Beckwith, of Claremont, 
for the sum of twenty-one thousand nine hun- 
dred and eighty -five dollars. The work is going 
on during these months of September, October 
and November. The buildin"; is to be com- 
pleted and ready for use on the 1st of July, 1886. 

Coincident with the action of the town in 
regard to the reconstruction of the county and 
town building, was the consideration of better 
means and methods for the protection of the 
property of the citizens against fire. 

Steam Fire-Exgixes, Etc. — A committee 
of citizens, consisting of S. H. Edes, A. W. 
Rounsevel, F. P. Rowell, John B. Cooper and 
Frederick W. Cheney, appointed at a former 
meeting, to inquire into the necessities of the 
town as regards suitable apparatus for the extin- 
guishment of fires, reported in favor of the 
purchase of a steam fire-engine, etc. ; and reso- 
lutions appropriating six thousand five hundred 
dollars for that purpose, and instructing the 
committee to make the purchase, were passed, as 
follows : 

"iJeso/verf, that the Sum of Six thousand five hun- 
dred dollars be appropriated for the purchase of a 
Steam Fire Engine; two thousand feet of hose; hose- 
carriage ; engine house and site for same, and me- 
chanical apparatus for working and caring for and 
procuring water for said engine, and that the select- 
men and treasurer of the town be authorized to bor- 
row the said sum and issue the notes of the town for 
that amount, payable on demand with interest at the 
rate of four per cent, per annum free of taxation by 
said town. 

" Resolved, that the town authorize their committee 



294 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



to jjurchase a steam fire engine of a capacity of about 
Six hundred gallons jier minute, with mechanical ap- 
paratus for working, caring for, and procuring water 
for the same ; — two thousand feet of hose suitable for 
the said engine ; and one carriage to carry SOO feet of 
hose, at an expense not exceeding five thousand three 
hundred dollars — also to purchase a site, if need be, 
and erect tlureon a suitable engine house at an ex- 
pense not exceeding twelve hundred dollars." 

In accordance with the action of the town, as 
represented in the foregoing resolntions, a No. 
3 steam fire-engine from the Silsby Manufac- 
turing Company, of Seneca Falls, N. Y., was 
purchased and delivered in Newport in Septem- 
ber, 18<Su. The " Newport," so-called, weighs 
five thousand five hundred pounds, has a pumj)- 
ing capacity of six hundred gallons per minute 
and is otiicrwise in accordance with the order 
given. 

The Newport Steam Fire-Engixe Com- 
pany was formed on Monday, October 5, 1885, 
consisting of thirt)' members. F. J. Latimer 
was chosen foreman; Fred. W. Cheney, assist- 
ant foreman ; Rodney W. Tilton, seeoud assist- 
ant foreman ; S. A. Williams, clerk ; M. L. 
Whittier, treasurer ; J. R. Hutchinson, steward ; 

F. P. Rowell, engineer ; M. L. Whittier, assist- 
ant engineer; Day E. Maxfield, George E. 
Lewis and -Tolm W. Johnson, .standing com- 
mittee; Day E. Maxfield, M. F.Thompson, 
firemen. Hose-men, pipe-men, ladder-men, etc., 
— James Bevine, M. C. Blaisdcll, Alexander 
Brezsell, C. B. Chase, A. W. Clarke, M. O. 
Cooper, F. P. Dudley, F. H. Huntoon, H. O. 
Hutchinson, F. H. Jordan, J. W. Johnson, 

G. W. Karr, G. E. Lewis, S. D. Lewis, F. H. 
Morse, F. S. Morse, C. F. Pike, F. E. Rowell, 
R. W. Tilton, C. W. Tenney, E. B. Woodbury. 

The qualities of the new "steamer" were 
thoroughly tested on Friday, the 9th of Octo- 
ber, before a large collection of the people of 
Newport and the adjoining towns. The after- 
noon was made a holiday for the children in 
the public schools. Firemen were present from 
Penacook, Springfield, Vt., and Claremont. 
The occasion was of nnich interest. At a meet- 



ing of the committee in the evening the steamer 
was accepted without a dissenting voice, and 
payment made according to contract 

C'itizexk' National Bank. — During the 
summer of 1885 the question of enlarging the 
banking facilities of Newport engaged the at- 
tention of some of the capitalists and active 
business men of this and the adjoining towns. 

The matter finally took definite shape in the 
formation, in accordance with the general bank- 
ing laws of the United States, of an association 
known as " The Citizens' National Bank of 
Newport." Capital, $50,000. 

The sul)scribers to the stock, which was soon 
taken, held a meeting on Monday, September 
7th, and agreed upon articles of association, 
and directors were chosen as- follows : F. A. 
Rawson, L. F. Dodge, M. S. Jackson, (xeorge 
H. Bartlett, Sunapee ; S. G. Stowell, William 
Woodbury, E. H. Carr, Goshen; C. M. Emer- 
.son, R. M. Rowe. L. F. Dodge was chosen 
president and F. A. Rawson, vice-president. 
At a iiirtlier meeting of the directors, Perlev 
A. Johnson, of Barton, Vt., was elected cash- 
ier. 

The a.ssociation has leased from the town for a 
term of twenty years, and will reconstruct and 
occupy as a banking-house, the lower story of 
the fire-proof building on the .southwest corner 
of the court-house common, known as the 
" Old County Safe." 

Lewis Beock. — Frederick W. Lewis having 
become sole proprietor of the lot on the north- 
east corner of Main and Sunapee Streets, on 
which stood the " Nettleton Block," lately de- 
stroyed by fire, has made arrangements with 
Hira R. Beck with, of Claremont, the well- 
known architect and builder, for the erection 
thereon of a substantial building, with a front 
on INIain Street of seventy-four feet and fifty 
feet deep, with an extension of twenty feet on 
Sunapee Street. 

The structure will be two stories in height, 
built of brick trimmed with granite. The 
lower story will be divided into four rooms for 



NEWPORT. 



295 



business purposes unci the second floor adapted 
for offices. 

The Sui.livax Cottxtv ]MuTrAL Fire 
IxsuRANCE Co.MPANV. — The enactment l)y tlie 
IjCgislature of 1885 of a law in regard to for- 
eign insurance companies, known as the " Val- 
ued Policy Bill," was followed by the witii- 
•drawal of the agencies of all such companies 
from the State. To meet the demands for in- 
surance caused b}- this movement, stock and 
mutual companies have been formed within the 
State. Of these was the Sullivan County 
Mutual Fire Insurance Company, organ- 
ized at Newpoi't, November 10, 1885. Presi- 
dent, Dexter Richards ; Vice-President, Ira 
Colby ; Treasurer, George E. Dame ; Secretary, 
H. S. Osgood ; (jeneral ^Manager, R. C. Os- 
good ; Directors : Dexter Richards, George E. 
Dame, S. L. Bowers, Ezra T. Sibley, R. C. 
Osgood, of Xewj5<irt ; Iliram Parker, of Lemp- 
ster; Ira Colby, ^\^ E. Tutherly, D. W. 
O'Xeil, of Claremont ; George Olcott, of 
Charlestown ; George H. Bartlett, of Sunapee ; 
K. H. Carr, of Goshen ; Rufus Hall, of Grant- 
Jiam ; W. C. True, of Plainfield ; J. S. Walker, 
■of Langdon. 

The organization of such companies will, in 
all probability, meet tlie demands for insur- 
jinoe, and the wisdom of the Legislature in en- 
iictiug the law will be indorsed by the people 
■of the State. 

Notwithstanding the somewhat desultory char- 
acter of this work, it will not be difficult, per- 
liaps, to gather from its pages some idea of the 
g'radual and sul)stantial progress of the town of 
Newport during the one hundred and twenty 
vears of its existence as a corporate municipality. 
There may have been periods in its history 
without much of advancement, but no positiyely 
retrograde movement worthy of consideration 
can be shown. From one decade to another its 
valuation has steadih' increased, until, as here- 
tofore stated, we have come uj) to the sum of 
one million, three hundred and seventeen thou- 
-sand one hundred and fifty-two dollars. 



For its continued advancement and prosperity 
it is indebted, in the first place, to the intelligent, 
industrious, well-intentioned moral and religious 
characteristics of its first settlers, — (jualities 
which were ingrained in their descendants and 
successors, and which have stood the test of the 
changes of the first century and more of its ex- 
istence. 

If we examine the statistics of crime during 
this period, we shall find that of the very limit- 
ed number who have expiated oflPenses against 
the jjcace and projjerty of the citizens of this 
community in the State Prison, but two or three 
wu'c natives of the town and descendants of the 
first settlers ; and that no blood, shed by the 
hand of a murderer, has ever stained its soil. 

In the second place, Newport is indebted to 
its geograjjhical situation in some degree for its 
importance as a town, — its territory being cen- 
tral to a group of other townships, which in the 
course of past events, came to organize as the 
county of Sullivan, of which it became the seat 
of justice, with its court-house and county offices 
and local incumbents. 

Its river system and water power are a further 
and more important consideration as affiarding 
facilities for progress. At an earlier period, 
when agriculture was a more leading interest, 
the town had no particular advantage on ac- 
count of fertility over the adjoining towns; but 
when agricultural pursuits became less profitable 
in New England, Newport had its water power 
in reserve, and mills for the production of cot- 
ton and woolen fabrics and wares of various 
kinds sprtmg up at the falls on the Sugar River, 
and a manufacturing interest came in, not only 
to keep up, but to increase the inventory of the 
town. 

The town has also prospered because of the 
interest that has l:)een taken in its educational, 
social, religious and benevolent institutions, 
whereby an intelligent, temperate, industrious, 
charitable, law-abiding, church-going, God-fear- 
iug people have been raised up to join in a gen- 
eral effort for the public welfare, as against ig- 



296 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



norance, intemperance, vice, crime and Huffering 
from the vicissitudes of fortune. The widow 
and the fatiierless, in tiieir destitution, have 
found friends in the lodges of the Ma.sons and 
Odd-Fellows, and around the camp-fires of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and in the var- 
ious reliy:ious societies, to sav nothing of indi- 
vidual charities and benefactions flowing from 
private sources. 

It would afford tlie writer much satisfaction to 
be able, in a sketch of the town, to trace the owner- 
ships of tiie sixty-eight lots originally granted in 
the charter. To do so would require a careful 
examination of records of transfer in the archives 
of the county of Cheshire prii)r to the organiza- 
tion of the county of Sullivan. 

The iTf nealoffies of the owners of these lots, 
and their descendants and successors, would also 
furnish material of interest in a town history. 
Such researches would involve time and expense 



a life-long, worthy citizen, and while he is the 
sole survivor of the third generation, and the 
last of the lineage who, in all probability, will 
ever abide here, the old home will continue in 
the time to come to be held in aifectionate re- 
gard by descendants settled in other parts of 
this gi'eat country. Standingas lie does not farre- 
moved from its beginning, he may also be excused 
for indulging in a speculative mood as regards 
the appearance of the valley of the Sugar and tlu; 
village of Newport, or the place on which it 
stood, and the social, intellectual and moral 
characteristics of its population after the lapse 
often or fifteen centuries, and oiir time shall 
have become " what men call ancient." 



EPILOGUE. 

Some six-score years ago, where Newport .stiimls. 
A liowliug wilderness held all the hinds ; 
The Sugar, pouring from its crystal lake. 
Wild, idle, resolute through bush and brake, 



and should be made under the patronage of the i Chanting or shouting from its rocks and falls 



town, in its corporate capacity, whose duty and 
privilege it should be to protect its own life and 
welfare historically. 

The State has already enacted stringent laws, 
by which the matter of " Vital Statistics " is no 
longer at the hazard of desultory and uncertain 
private records. The earliest incidents in con- 
nection with the first settlement of Newport by 
English-speaking people are still within the 
grasp of history. That they should be collected 
and preserved is a proposition that needs no ar- 
gument. Our cffi)rt in this direction is here 
presented. 

The vista opening before the town towai'ds 
the future is interminable, and the " living 
present " should have a jealous regard for the 
character of the statistics that are daily and 
yearly accumulating to go down the stream of 
time, from generation to generation. 

The writer may be excused for indulging in 
bright anticipations as regards the future good 
name and welfare of his native town, particu- 
larly as his paternal grandfather was one of its 
original settlers, and of which his father was 



To echoing hill-sides and lone forest halls ; 

And thus had poured and roared since time began 

And "wood or grass had grown or water ran." 

At length the men of Killiugworth a]>peared, 
And sound of a-xe and anvil's ring was heard; 
They builded dams across this rushing stream 
And clack of mills disturbed its ancient dream ; 
And next, in old colonial guise appear. 
The preacher, doctor, trader in the rear; 
And thus oi:r civil history began, 
Inspired by water-power and j^ower of man. 

How well tliose hardy yeomen wrought and planned 
In building, sawing, grinding, clearing land, 
How well they plied their trades and with what art 
The women spun and wove and did their part 
In founding homes and making glad a wild, 
Where, ne'er till then, had gentle woman smiled, 
Though daughters of the wigwam had been there 
In simple vestments and dark, shining hair. 

The growth of this our town, as now appears, 
Resolves the progress of a hundred years, 
And of the various interests concerned 
On which a fair prosperity has turned, 
Have we not stated all ? It now remains 
To close the record — estimate the gains — 
And bid good speed in unpretentious rhyme, 
The chip now cast upon the stream of time. 





-Ur 



NEWPORT. 



297 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



.lOHN LANGDON SM'ETr, M.D. 

Joliu Laiigdoii Swett, M.D., the suljject of 
this sketch, and whose likeue.ss is here jire.sented, 
is of English ancestry. 

It is among the traditions of his family that 
four brotiiers of the name emigrated to this 
country, some time during the colonial era, from 
tlie south of England ; that they were Puritans 
in faith, and, in their estimation, fi'eedom to 
worship God in accordance with their own views 
and feelings, though it be in a far-off wilder- 
ness, across the ocean, was more desirable than 
all the comforts and privileges of their English 
home, with persecution for opinion's sake. 

It was of this stern material that the Xew 
England States were founded, and from whicli 
they derived the Ijrain-power and courage to 
enable its people to order and direct so largely 
in the earlier and later affairs of our country. 

For more than two centuries the various 
branches of this family have occupied repu- 
table positions in society, in letters, in the pro- 
fessions and under the government. The 
paternal ancestor of Dr. Swett was one of these 
brothers. His maternal progenitor came from 
the Isle of Wight, in the English Channel, to 
the Massachusetts colony in the year 10o7. 

The first positive record we are able to obtain 
in regard to his lineage is found in the old fam- 
ily Bible of his grandparents, as follows : 

Josiah Swett (1), born December 20, 1741, 
died December 25, 1808. Prudence, his wife, 
born October 9, 1747, died August 1, 1831. 
These lived and died in Wenhain, Essex County, 
^lass. 

Josiah Swett (2), their son, was born in Wen- 
ham October 2, 1768. He married, February 
17, 1791, Hannah Healy, a native of Newton, 
Mass., born September 24, 1771. They re- 
moved to Claremont, N. H., in 179;5, where 
they spent their lives and reared their ten chil- 
dren. The former died December 19, 1843, 



aged seventy-five years. The latter died De- 
cember 3, 1854, aged eighty three years. 

John Langdon Swett, the ninth child of the 
foregoing, — born February 17, 1810, — was em- 
ployed on his father's farm until eighteen vear.s 
of age, attending the public schools during the 
winters. In 1828 and 1829 he was a student 
at Wilbraham Academy, Mass., and in 18-')() at 
Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, X. H. The 
two succeeding years were spent in teaching and 
perfecting himself in classical studies. 

In 183.3 he commenced the study of modi- 
cine under the tuition of Drs. Tolles and Kit- 
tredge, practitioners in Claremont. He attended 
two courses of lectures at Dartmouth Medical 
College, and one at Jefferson College, Philadel- 
phia, from which he received the degrei' of 
JNI.D. in ^lareh, 1836. In July of the same 
year he opened an office in Newport, where a 
generous and liberal patronage was accorded to 
him, and where he has remained in the success- 
ful prai'tice of his piofession for a period lack- 
ing only a few months of fifty years. 

In 1841 he became a member of the New- 
Hampshire Medical Society, and has been hon- 
ored with various positions in this association, 
including that of its presidency in 1874, 
when he delivered an address upon the duties 
of the profession in regard to alcoholic stimu- 
lants. 

He has been an active member, since 1864, 
of the National Medical Association, and served 
as a delegate from the New Hampshire Society 
to that association, which met in New York 
that year; also a member of the Rocky Moun- 
tain Medical Society, and an honorary member 
of the California State Medical Society. He is 
a member and vice-president of the Alumni 
A.ssociation of Jefferson Medical College; also 
a member of the Masonic Fraternity. 

In the year 1842 Doctor Swett married Miss 
Sarah E. Kimball, of Bradford. She became 
the mother of four children, — two of whom 
died in infancy, — and died greatly beloved and 
lamented June 7, 1852. 



298 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Of these surviviugchildren was Frances Mary, 
born June 29, 1843, who was educated at the 
Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, Mass., and 
married, December 7, 1865, Charles C. Shat- 
tuck, a shipping merchant in San Francisco, 
-where they reside. Their children are Eliza- 
beth Kimball, born October 19, 1866 ; Jane 
Frances, born June 30, 1875; Charles Curtis, 
born January 19, 1879. 

The second surviving cliild was William 
Kimball, born March 7, 1852. He was fitted 
for the medical profession under the supervis- 
ion of Dr. J. P. ^Miitney, of San Francisco, 
and settled at Kerneville, Kerne Couuty, Cal. 
He married, July 6, 1 873, Lizzie A. Davis, of 
Visalia, Cal. Their children arc Joiin Lang- 
don (2), born August 17, 1874 ; William Kim- 
ball (2), born June 10, 1876. He died July 
15, 1876, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. 

Doctor Swett's second marriage, June 2, 
1853, was with Rebecca, daughter of Ephraim 
Beaman, of Princeton, Mass. In later years 
lie has three times visited the Pacific coast, — 
the first time accompanied by his wife. 

In 1838, Doctor Swett purchased tiie 
place on Court Square for many years occu- 
pied by Doctor John B. McGregor, who was 
-about to remove to Rochester, N. Y. The 
location was central and delightful, and it 
became the home of his family until 1872, when 
il was acquired by the town as the site of the 
new court-house and town hall, built in 1873, 
destroyed by tire June 21, 1885, and re-erected 
on the same spot the same year. He afterward 
purchased a valuable estate on INIaplc Street, 
known as the " Russ Place," where he now re- 
sides, and continues to advise professionally or 
act in consultation with other physicians. 

It is matter of satisfaction that we are able 
to illustrate this work with the likenesses of 
representative men of the medical profession, 
who in their time have been a benefit and an 
honor to the town. 

Without proposing in any way to estimate 
the comparative value to mankind of the three 



leading learned professions, we hazard nothing 
in stating that the one which has regard to the 
maladies and ills to which flesh and blood are 
subject comes nearer to us tiian either of the 
others. 

The phvsiciau is called to visit in families 
under circumstances which develop their great- 
est inwardness. A diagnosis of the ailments of 
the body often, if not always, involves the con- 
dition of the mind of tiie patient, and it be- 
comes necessary that mental as well as physical 
tem])erament and tendencies should be regarded 
in view of successful treatment. 

Another consideration bearing nn this mat- 
ter is the fact that people generally are more 
than willing to disclose their aches and ])ains 
and feelings to their jihysician. Hence, the 
amount and diversity of information, confided 
to a medical practitioner of long standing, 
requiring discreet consideration. 

Perhaps no practitioner was ever better 
equipped by disposition, temperament and abil- 
ity to meet these and others phases of life in 
the medical profession than Doctor Swett. No 
one lias had higher regard for professional 
honor and etiquette as regard contemporaries 
or patrons. No physician has held a larger or 
more important practice in this and the ad- 
joining towns, or one that has resulted more 
successfully. His membership in the Congre- 
gational Cinirch reaches back to 1842. 

In all these yeaVs he has been a prominent 
and useful citizen of the town. He has loved 
and honored his profession, and in the evening 
of life may review with great satisfaction his 
fifty years in Newport. 



DR. MASON HATCH. 

Dr. Mason Hatch was a lineal descendant, in 
the sixth generation, of Joseph Hatch, who came 
from England to this country not many years 
after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth; 
say about the year 1625-30. The motives that 
induced Joseph Hatch, in common with many 




ty^.^ (Ti^/^^zyi-- l^ayfe^ 



'^ 



NEWPORT. 



299 



others, to leave the land of his nativity, cross 
the ocean and take up his residence in a wilder- 
ness, may be easily understood, as tiie non- 
eonfbrniity of the Puritans to tlie Estal)lis]ied 
Church subjected them to many and grievous 
persecutions during the reigns of James I. and 
Charles I., fmni which thev Hcd in disgust. 
Some time after his arrival he purchased of 
the Indians the original township of Fal- 
mouth, situated on the northea.st part of Vine- 
yard Sound, in Barnstable County, Mass., where 
he settled, lived and died at an advanced age. 

lie left three sons, — Joseph, Benjamin and 
Jonathan — who were the progenitors of nearly 
all of the name in the United States. 

The lineage of Dr. Hatch conies through, — • 

1st. Joseph(l), the English emigrant. 

2d. Joseph (2), born in Falmouth, Mass., I(j52. 

3d. Ichabod, born in Falmouth, October 12, 
16'Jl, who married Abigail Weeks. 

4th. Joseph, born in Tolland, Conn., August 
15, 1718, who married Sarah Stearns. This 
family came to Alstead, X. H., about the year 
1770 and wi're of the first .settlers of that 
town. 

Tith. j\Iason(l), born in Tolland, August 23, 
1762, who married Mitty Brooks. This Mason 
came to Alstead with his })areuts when a child. 

()th. ^lasoii (2), born in Alstead, March 3, 
17!tl, who is the subject of this sketch. 

Dr. Hatch commenced the study of medicine 
when al)out twenty years of age, first with Dr. 
T. D. Brooks, of Alstead, continuing his studies 
with his kinsman. Dr. Keuben Hatch, of Hills- 
bt)rough, and Dr. Charles Adams, of Keene, and 
was graduated from the Dartmouth ^ledical 
College. 

He first settled in Hillsborough, and was 
there engaged in good and successful business 
for more than twenty years, and to him th<' 
liomes and roads, hills and dales of old Hills- 
borough were ever dear. On March 5, 18 IS, — 
the first year of his settlement there, — he married 
Apphia Andrews, born March 5, 1795. To 
them were born eight children, viz.: (1) Emily 



T., born April 1, 1819, died September 1839; 
(2) Abigail A., boi-n February ti, 1821, died 
October, 1839; (3) Leonard, died in infancy; 
(4) Sarah S., born June 19, 1824, married Sam- 
uel C. Baldwin ; (5) Loui.sa F., born April K), 
1827, married Dexter Richards, of Newport ; 
(6) Charles M., died in infancy ; (7) Ellen M., 
born September 19, 1834, married "William 
bourse, of Newport ; (8) Caroline, died in in- 
fancy. There are no living male descendants 
of the name in his familv. 

Dr. Hatch removed to Bradford in 1836, 
where he remained until the year 1838, when 
he came to Newport to occujiy the place made 
vacant l>y the death of hi.s brother. Dr. I.-<aac 
Hatch, who had been .settled here about two 
years. 

After a successful professional career in New- 
port of nearly forty years, he died December 2, 
187(), in the eighty-sixth year of his age. His 
wife, Apphia, the mother of his children, died 
September 18, 1855. He contracted a second 
marriage, November 12, 1856, with Mrs. Mar}' 
II. Day, of Cornish, who survived him several 
years. 

It is matter of gratification that hearts full 
of loving and filial regard have placed in this 
volume the " counterfeit presentment " of Dr. 
Ma.sou Hatch. It is also eminently fitting 
that a face which has been so familiar in the 
homes of New[)ort and the adjoining towns for 
nearly forty years prior to his decease, in 1876, 
shouhl thus be placed on record in a book that 
is likely to be found in .so many of these 
homes, and that one for wliom a sincere ])er- 
sonal regard has been so widely entertained 
should be thus presented and preserved after 
his days of usefidness are past and his earthly 
career ended. Aside frcMii his profes-sional life, 
it is plea.smt to find herein the likeness of one 
with whom we have been fiunilar as a neijih- 
bor and a citizen, and whose presence was 
always sunsliine, — one who had a kind look, or 
word or incident for all with whom he niet. 
We do not believe there lived in Newport or 



300 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



the county of .Sullivan an individual who ever 
felt inclined to take a street-crossing to avoid a 
meeting with Dr. Hatch. There was a vein of 
original humor about him tliat was not only 
amusing, but positively instructive. His joke, 
or story or comparison had a point that did not 
fail to tell upon the luatter under consid- 
eration. Many of his apt sayings are still 
quoted with a[)[)reciative delight. 

It will be pleasing to greet on one of these 
pages the face of one whose head — to use a 
familiar expression — was " always level " in re- 
gard to matters and things generally. He 
despised shams and destroyed them with an 
emphatic " pshaw ! " There was a basis of 
good sense and judgment in the mental con- 
struction oi" tiic man that insured success in his 
own undertakings and made his opinion val- 
uable to other jieople. 

His medical practice was large, extending to 
the adjoining towns, and liis tenderness and 
care and ability gave him success and a strong 
hold upon the feelings of his patrons. Profes- 
sionally, he was not given to technicalities, but 
stated matters in terms witliiu the comprehen- 
sion of patient and patron. It is very ])robable 
that his character in this regard, and which 
with him was perfectly natural, added to his 
popularity as a ph3'sician. By his industry and 
good management he acquired a handsome es- 
tate. His residence was pleasantly situated on 
Main Street, and his lands spread out over the 
intervales and I lie uplands near tlie village. 
He was a |)roniinent and valuable citizen in all 
town affairs, and was twice called upon — -Ls.j4 
and LS5") — to represent the town in the State 
Legislatui-e. His public character and private 
life were above re})roaeh. Ii' religious belief, 
he was true to the convictions which forced his 
ancestor to emigrate to this country, and lived 
and died a worthy and conscientious member of 
the Congregational Church. He is referred to 
elsewhere in this sketch of Newport. 



THOMAS SANBORN., M.I). 

Thomas Sanborn, M.D., the subject of this 
sketch, \\as a native of Saubornt(jn, N. H., 
born September 2(J, 1811. He was a grandson 
of Benaiah Sanborn, — in his time, an eminent 
and highly-esteemed physician of tliat part of 
the State, — the only son of Christopher Smith 
Sanborn and a lineal descendant, in the fifth 
generation, of Daniel Sanborn, one of the first 
settlers of that town and from whom it derived 
its name. 

The early years of Dr. Sanborn were oc- 
cupied in the duties and privileges incident to 
the life of a New England farmer's boy of that 
period. He engaged in farm-work, attended 
the district school during the winter seasons, 
and the village academy, and thus came to 
adult age with a sound constitution, a clear 
head an<l a basis of general knowledge on which 
afterward to construct his valuable life-work. 

The death of his father, by drowning, which 
occurred when he was sixteen years of age, 
greatly increased his responsibility as a member 
of the family, but only to develoj) additional 
strength and excellence of character. 

A good son, with a careful regard for the 
happiness aud welfare of his widowed mother 
and sister, he reniainetl for five or six years at 
the homestead and industriously aided in the 
management of the farm and other family 
affliirs. 

In the year IS.'Jl he engaged for a time 
in a mercantile business in Lawrence, Mass., 
but the iiutlcMik in that direction was not at- 
tractive, aud lie turned from it to enlist in the 
study of medicine. 

It is more than probable that his t'ourse in 
regard to this matter touk shape in accordance 
with the often-expressed wish of his grand- 
father that one of his grandsons might choose 
for his life-work the profession in which he had 
achieved so much of distinction and success. 

In I80.J he entered the office of Dr. Thomas 
P. Hill, of Sanbornton, and, after a term of 
study, atteniled on a com'se of lectures at the 







'T, 



NEWPORT. 



301 



]\I:iine Medical School, at Brunswick. The .suc- 
ceeding' five oi- six years were devoted to other 
affairs; but, in 1S;5!), he resumed his medical 
studies, under the direction of his hrother-in- 
law, Dr. ^^^ H. ITosmer, of New London (now 
of Penacook), with whom he remained two 
years, in the mean time attending two courses 
of lectures at the Dartmouth Medical Oolle<re. 
He was sui)se(|uently, for some time, under the 
patronage and instruction of i^r. (oilman Kim- 
ball, of Lowell, Mass. He received his 
medical degree from Dartmouth in 1841, and 
Commenced practice in (xosjien, where he re- 
mained until August, 1843, when he removed 
to Newport. 

After locating in tliis town Dr. Sanborn 
availed himself of lectures and hospital piac- 
tice at the Bellevne ^ledical Institution, in New 
York Cit)', and applie<l himself with great 
assiduity to the continued study, as well as the 
])ractice, of his profession. A successful under- 
staudino- and manao;ement of the eases that came 
under his care and his conspicuous skill as a 
surgeon in due time won ftir him an extended 
and profitable patronage and a wide celebrity. 
In view of greater proficiency in many of the 
details of his professional work. Dr. Sanborn, 
in 1853, crossed the Atlantic and traveled ex- 
tensively in England, Scotland, France and 
Belgium, visiting their medical schools, hos- 
pitals and museums, returning to his home and 
friends in Newport with an increased intel- 
ligence, professionally, for the benefit of his 
patrons, and that enlarged view of men and 
thingfs derived from fbreiirn travel. 

Aside from his professional standing, he was 
a public-spirited and leading citizen of the town, 
which he twice represented — 18o7, 18,58 — iu 
the State Legislature, to the satisfaction of a 
large constituency. 

Among the many distinguished surgical op- 
erations performed by Dr. Sanborn we take 
the liberty of referring to one which was re- 
ported in detail in the Neir Hampshire Journal 
of Medicine of May, 1855. It was a plastic 



operation for the relief of deformity resulting 
from a burn, it Ijeing one of the first in this 
partof the State which proved entirely successful. 

The subject was Jane Johnson, of Newbury, 
ten vears of age. The burning occurred when 
she was four vears of age and resulted in the 
following deformities: "Thick, uneven cica- 
trix, Ixnding the chin down to the sternum, 
pulling the under-lip below the chin and ex- 
])osiug the mucous membrane; everting the 
infl'rior evelids ; twisting the neck .so as to 
cause the face to look toward the right shoul- 
der ; beudino- the inferior maxillaries ; causing 
the inferi(n- incisors to project. The niouth was 
kept constantly open and there was a continual 
flow of saliva, which she was entirely unable to 
retain. The assistance of the fingers was re- 
quired to retain the food in the mouth for mas- 
tication, the ])ostcrior molars only coming in 
contact." The frit'uds report that " tlu' wry neck 
is cured, the eye natural, exhibiting none of 
the deformity olwerved before the operation. 
The saliva is retained in tlie mouth, tiie food 
masticated without the aid of tiie fingers, and 
the patient continually im])roviMg in personal 
appearance." 

Dr. Sanborn took a decided stand iu favor of 
the Union of the States, and manifested his 
patriotism in deeds, as well as words. In 18G3 
he was appointed surgeon of the Sixteenth 
Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, and 
served with distinction in the Nineteenth Army 
Corps in Louisiana. After his return he wa.s 
appointed United States army surgeon of this 
military department. 

He was a member of the New Hampshire 
Medical Society, the National Medical Asso- 
ciation and the Connecticut ^Medical Society. He 
was also a Past Master of the Mount "N^'ernou 
Lodge of Masons. 

The social and domestic relations of Dr. 
Saub(.)rn were ever of the most agreeable char- 
acter. He married, November 14, 1844, Har- 
riet, a daughter of Hon. David Allen, of this 
town. Their children were, — 



302 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



1. Harriet E., born October 30, 1846, died 
August 10, ].S(i4. 

2. Mary J., born March 16, 1847, was edu- 
cated at Mount Holyoke Seminary, Mass., be- 
came tlic wife of Rev. George H. Ide, of 
Hopkinton, Mass., the motiier of two chil- 
dren, — Carrie 8., born June '1, 1872, Charles 
E., born January 22, 1874, and died January 
26, 187o. 

;5. Thomas Benton, born July 0, 1852. 

4. Christopher Allen, born April ij, ISof), 
married, September 16, 1885, Mary Braniau, 
daughter of Hon. Augustus Mudge, of Dan- 
vers, Mass. 

5. Kate A., born March 19, 1867. 

The Saubfirns for many years owned and oc- 
cupied as a residence the place at present known 
as "Cheney's Block." After disposing of this 
property — 1872 — which came into use as the 
post-offi(:e and for other business purposes, they 
removed to a pleasant and otherwise desirable 
residence farther north on Main Street, oppo- 
site the Pari';, wliich coutinues to be the home 
of the family. 

Dr. Sanborn took great pleasure in being the 
owner of a farm — a sentiment that undoubtedly 
came along witli liini from his boyhood and 
early experiences — and in the producing of hay 
and grain and in the raising of cattle and 
horses. He first owned the place on Corbin 
Hill once occupied by Dr. James Corbin, and 
afterwards the Gordon Buell farm, near Guild 
Station and post-office, which remains in pos- 
session of the family. 

Dr. Sanborn was a thorough scholar, a man 
of the strictest integrity and possessed a remark- 
ably kind and genial disposition. He sought 
no place or preferment — the place and the pre- 
ferment sought him. His great experience, 
general reading and good judgment made him 
a safe practitioner in all departments of his 
profession, and a wise counselor professionally 
and in general affairs. His life in Newport 
covered a jieriod of more than thirty years. 
His death occurred .luly 2;!, 1875, in the sixty- 



fourth year of his age. The decease of no 
citizen of the town lias been more generally 
lamented. 

It is proper to state, in connection with this 
biography, that Dr. Thomas Sanborn has been 
worthily succeeded by his sons, Thomas B. and 
C'hristopher A. (see genealogy), who, first, inider 
his careful influence and instruction, and, after- 
ward, under other instructors and in the best 
schools and hospitals of the country, have been 
thoroughly educated and taken their jilaces in 
the medical profession, and are unitedly cariyiug 
on and extending the practice founded by their 
father. It is through their filial regard and 
loyalty to his name and memory that we are 
able to place his likeness and this brief record 
of his life upon the pages of this volume. 



HON. LEVI WINTER BARTON.' 

Ancestral excellence is an invaluable legacy. 
Asa rule, "blood will tell," and the marked 
jJiysical mental and moral traits of a promi- 
nent fiimily are likely to re-appear in many 
successive generations. And added to this 
hereditary wealth comes the inspiration of a 
noble example, suggesting the possibility and 
the desirability of worthy, helpful living. The 
subject of this sketch was fortunate in this re- 
gard. In the garnered wealth of a vigorous, 
talented and virtuous ancestry, he has " a good- 
ly heritage." 

Levi W. Barton's parents were Bezaleel 
Barton (2d), and Hannah (Powers) Barton. 

The family of Power (or Le Poer, as former- 
ly written) was of Norman extraction, and set- 
tled in England at the conquest of that king- 
dom by the Normans, under William, Duke of 
Normandy, in the person of Power, or Le Poer, 
who is recorded in " Battle Abbey" as one of 
the connuanders at the battle of Hastings, in 
1066. Soon after Sir John Le Poer resided in 
Poersha3'se, Devonshire, England. 

In 1172 one of his descendants, Sir Roger 

' By Rev. J. W. Adams. 





^ <? t^ 



NEWPORT. 



303 



Le Poer, went with Earl Stougliton in his inva- 
sion and partial conquest of Ireland, where he 
greatly distingnished hi nisei t^ and received lar<ic 
grantsoflaud. He was the ancestorot'a succession 
of distinguished men, among whom were Sir 
Nicholas Tjc Poer, who had a snmmons to Par- 
liament in 1375 as Baron Le Poer, and Sir 
Richard, Sir Peter, Sir Eustace and Sir Ar- 
nold Le Poer. 

The family was also a distinguished one in 
England, from the Norman Con(jucst down. 
In 1187 Richard Poer, of this line, high sheriff 
of Gloucestershire, England, was killed defend- 
ing the " Lord's day ;" and Sir Henry Le Poer 
distinguislied himself greatly as a commander 
nnder the Duke of Wellington. 

This remarkable family has outlived the 
dynasties of the Conqnerer, the Plautaganets, 
tiie Tudors an<l tiio Stuarts and flourishes yet. 

Since the time of Queen Elizahcth they have 
returned to their early orthography of Power, 
and finally, in America, here added " s," mak- 
ing it Powers. 

Walter Powers, the ancestor of all the Pow- 
ers families of Croydon, N. H., was born in 
1639. He came to Salem, Mass., in 1(354. 
He married, January 11, l(i60, Trial, daugh- 
ter of Deacon Ralph Shepherd. He died in 
Nashoba in 1708. 

The town, in 1715, was incorporated by the 
name of Littleton (Mass.) 

Of the nine children of Walter and Trial 
Powers, the eldest, William, was born in 1661, 
and married, in 1688, Mary Bank. 

Of the nine children of William and Mary 
(Bank) Powers, William (2d), was born 1691 
and married, 1713, Lydia Perham. 

Of the four children of William (2d) and 
Lydia (Perham) Powers, Lemuel was born in 
1714 and married Thankful Leland, of Grafton, 
Mass., daughter of Captain James Leland. All 
except the eldest of their children settled in 
Croydon, and two of his sons served that town 
as soldiers in Revolution. 

Of the ten children of Lemuel and Thank- 



ful (Iceland) Powers, Ezekiel was born in Graf- 
ton, Mass., March 16, 1745, and married, Jan- 
uary 28, ] 767, Hannah Hall, of Uxbridge, 
Mass. Levi W. Barton was their grandson. 

They came to fJroydiin in 1767. He was a 
man of industry and indomitable energy. He 
died in Crox-ddu Novenilier 11, ISOS. His 
widow died October 21, 1835. 

Of the seven children of Ezekiel and Han- 
nah (Hall) Powers, Ezekiel, Jr. (the first male 
child born in Croydon), was born May 2, 1771. 
He married Susannah Rice, January 18, 1790. 

Of the si.x children of Ezekiel, Jr., and Sn- 
sannali (Rice) Powers, Hannah (mother of 
Levi ^X.) was l)orn Feliruary 20, 1795, and 
married Bezaleel Barton, born in 1794. 

The Bartons are of English (le.scent. With- 
out undertaking to be pi'eci.se as to the de- 
tails of kinsjiip, we are able to identify the fol- 
lowing as among their earliest ancestry in 
New Ensrland : Marmaduke Barton was in Sa- 
lem as early as 1638. Edward was in Salem 
in 1640. Rufus fled fnnn the persecution of 
the Dutfli at Manhattan, N. Y., and settled in 
Portsmouth, R. I., in 1640, and died in 1648. 
^Irs. Eliza Barton testified in an important 
case at Piscataqua, N. H., in 1656. Edward, 
undoubtedly the one living in Salem in 1640, 
and husband of Eliza Barton, came to Exeter, 
X. H., in 1657, and died at Cape Porpoise 
January, 1671. Benjamin Barton, fif Warwick, 
son of Rufus Barton, married, June 9, 1669, Su- 
sannah Evertou. Edward Barton, son of Ed- 
svai-d of Exeter, took the freeman's oath in 
1674. Ih'. Jiihn Barton, son of Dr. .hunes 
Barton, married, April 20, 1676, Lydia lioberts, 
of Salem, Mass. 

James Barton, Imrn in 164;!, came to Boston, 
Ma.ss., before 1670. He <lied in Weston, Mass., 
in 1729, aged eighty-six years. Samuel Barton 
(probably son of Dr. James Barton) was born 
in 1666. He testified in a witch case (in fiivor 
of the witch, be it said to his credit) in Salem, 
Mass., in 1691. Stei)hen Barton was at Bris- 
tol (then in Mas.sachusetts) in 1690. 



304 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Colonel "William Barton, born in Providence 
R. I., in 1747, — wlm witli a small body of men 
crossed Narragausett Bay on the night of July 
20, 1777, passed unnoticed three British ves- 
sels, landed, reached tlie quarters of the Eng- 
lisli General Prescott, and captured him, 
for which history informs us he received from 
Congress tlie gift of a sword, a commission as 
colonel and a tract of land in Vermont, — was 
a descendant of iSanmel Barton and Hannah, iiis 
wife, ancestors of the Bartons, tiie early settlers 
of Croydon. 

They were living in Framingliani, INIass., as 
early as 1090, and moved to Oxford, Mass., 
in 1716, where his will was proved September 
•23, 17:58. Of their eight children, Samuel, Jr., 
was born in Framingham October 8, 16!tl ; 
married. May 2."], 1715, Elizabeth Bellows. He 
Wiis one of tlic original proprietors of Sutton, 
Mass. He was a man of influence and held 
different positions of lionor and trust in the 
town. 

Of his seven children Bczaleel was born iu 
Sutton July 2(), 1722, and married Pliebc 
Carlton, April •"!(», 1747, — a lady noted for her 
beauty. 

( )f the children of Bezaleel and Phebe (Carl- 
ton) liarton were Phebe (one of whose grand- 
daughters was the wife of Dr. Judsou), Beza- 
leel, Jr., Benjamin and Peter. The father and 
sons moved to Koyalton in 1764 and served 
that town as soldiers in the Revolution. Beza- 
leel, Sr,, died in the service at Bunker Hill 
in 1775, aged fifty-thi-ee years. Bezaleel and 
Benjamin came from Sutton to Croydon iu 1784 
and Peter in 179;5. From these have descended 
the numerous families in Croydon bearing their 
name. They were brave, sturdy men, inured 
to toil and danger, and they grappled manfully 
with the hardships of pioneer life. They gave up 
tlie endearments of home to receive in exchange 
the hardships and privations incident to a new 
settlement. 

Of Puritan stock, they inherited their love of 
justice, their devotion to principle and their 



contempt of toil and danger. Both they and 
their descendants occupied leading positions, 
and their history is interwoven most closely 
with the history of the town from its earliest 
days. 

Of the thirteen children of Peter and Hep- 
siiieth (Baker) Barton, born in Croydon, Beza- 
leel Barton (2d) was born July, 1 794, married 
Hannah Powers, daughter of Ezekiel Powers, 
Jr. and as we have before noticed, the first 
male child born in Croydon. 

Here the Barton and Powers genealogies 
unite. 

( )f the children of Bezaleel Barton (2d) and 
Haiuiah (Powers) Barton, Levi Winters was 
born Man-h 1, 1818. 

The fatiicr, a man of marked social qualities 
and frank and genial in his bearing, died before 
the sou iiad reached his majority, and pi-evious 
to this business had taken the father from home, 
so that most of the responsibilities of the fam- 
ily rested ujion the mother. But it is no idle 
pun upon her niaidt'u-name to say that she was 
a power in that household; her intuitive vision 
saw every material necessity of the family ; her 
unsurpassed executive capacity was equal to 
every dmiand, and what is quite as essential to 
the formation of a symmetrical character, her 
moral and religious precepts and example com- 
pelled a recognition of the claims of God and 
man. The sick and poor of her neighborhood 
were often greatly indebted to her for the wis- 
dom of her counsels, the abundance of her 
alms-deeds and the warmth of her sympathy. 
Universally venerated and esteemed, she died 
in Croydon September 14, 1881, aged eiglity- 
six. Inheriting the best qualities of such an 
ancestry, moulded and inspired by such a moth- 
er and in boyhood acquiring his fibre in the 
.severe but practical school of tireless industry, 
rigid economy, and heroic self-denial and self- 
reliance, we might anticipate for Mr. Barton a 
character and a career which would place him 
among: the best and foremost citizens of his State 
and entitle him to an important chapter iu its 



NEWPORT. 



305 



liistorv. We hazard nothing when we say 
that he has made tliat anticipation a reality and 
tliat he has atForded us anotlier conspicuous ex- 
ample of what tile humblest may achieve un- 
der the fostering genius of republican institu- 
tions. 

From the age of ten years till he left the 
district school at eighteen, his attendance was 
restricted to a short term in winter, and this 
with frequent interruptions. In all other parts 
of the year he was wholly engaged in manual 
labor. At eighteen he assume<l the responsi- 
bility of liis own education and su[)pi)rt. He 
had no money, but he had what is better — 
courage and muscle. He went to work. His 
books were always near by, so that when there 
was a leisure moment, the " horny hands of 
toil" would grasp and his hungry mind would 
feast upon it. He would brook no discourage- 
ments. No hiinrs were allowed to rtui to waste. 
Often on rainy days he would call on his old 
fri(;nd, John Cooper, Esq., book in hand, for 
instruction in the common branches, but never 
without receiving sympathy and encouragement. 
These efforts, supplemented by a term at the 
Unity Academy, then under the instruction of 
Alonzo A. Miner, now Doctor ]\Iiner, of Boston, 
qualified him to teach in the common schools. 
He now regarded his school-days closed, and 
cheerfully chose the occupation of a fiirmer. 

In 1839 he married Miss Mary A. Pike, of 
Newport, a young lad}- of great vvt)rth, who 
died in 1S4<I, leaving an infant son, the late 
OjIoucI Ira McL. Barton. He placed his 
motherless lioy in the care of his sister, \vho 
tenderly cared tiir and reared the child. The 
death of his wife was a severe blow to one in 
whose nature the domestic element is so marked. 
With the light of his home gone out, and witli 
his life-plan destroyed, he seemed almost par- 
alyzed for a time ; lint the bent steel of his 
intense personality was sure to react. 

The second year after his bereavement he 
entered Kimball Union Academy to pursue a 
c'liissical course, under that distinguished teacher. 



Dr. Cyrus Richards. Having but one himdred 
dollars when he entered, he was compelled to 
teach winters and to toil with his hands during 
the summer vacations; but his uncompromising 
zeal carried him successfully through the three 
years' course. Few beliexed that he could com- 
plete a labor commenced and continued under 
such circumstances. 

We cannot repi-ess our admiration for the 
young man whom neither bereavement nor 
poverty could crush, liut who, in spite of the 
most disheartening circumstances, earns the 
right to stand in the front rank with his most 
brilliant competitors. This he did. 

In the same spirit, and relying upon his own 
exertions for means, he entered Dartmouth Col- 
lege in 1.S44, and honorably graduated in 1S4.S. 
His oration on graduation was highly com- 
mended by the public journals of the day. 
Being anxious to enter upon the practice of his 
chosen profession at the earliest ])ossil)le day, he 
commenced the study of the law with Hon. 
Daniel Blaisdell, of Hanover, during his senior 
year. 

Immediately after graduating Mr. Barton 
commenced teaching the Canaan Academy, and 
at the same time entered as a student the 
office of Judge Kittredge, where he remained 
until January, 1851. While there he taught 
the Academy five terms, and was also appointed 
postmaster of Canaan. In the early part of 
18-31 he came to Newport and completed his 
legal studies with Messrs. Metcalf <t Corbin, 
and was there admitted to the bar in the July 
following. Ill lS.'i4 he formed a law jiartner- 
ship with Hon. Ralph Metcalf, w hicli contiuued 
until Mr. Metcalf was electeil Governor. He 
then became the law-partner of Shepherd L. 
Bowers, Escj., with whom he was associated 
uutil 18.J!l. 

Notwithstanding his extensive law practice, 
Mr. Barton has been engaged to a considerable 
extent in building, farming, stock-raising and 
fruit-growing. No man with c([ual means has 
contributed more to the growth and permanent 



306 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



improvemeut of the village of Newport; none 
have done more by their own jiersoiial industry 
to convert rough fields into attraetive streets, 
luxuriant gardens and pleasant homes. Taught 
from cliildhood to cultivate the soil, he has, all 
alouff throufrh his Inisv life, found Jiis highest 
enjoyment in turning aside from the turmoil of 
professional lal)ors to tlie more genial occupa- 
tion of agricultural pursuits. 

As evidence of his superior legal abilities, 
and of the public esteem in wliicii he is held, 
we point to tiie following record : 

He was register of deeds for Sullivan County 
fniiii 1X5.5 to 1.S58 ; county solicitor from 1859 
to 1864; representative to the State Legislature 
in 1868, 18G4, 1875, 1876 and 1877, and State 
Senator in 1867 and 186lS. During all these 
seven years of service in both Houses, he was 
a member of the judiciary committee, and for 
five years its chairman. lu 1866 he was 
chairman of the board of commissioners ap- 
pointed by Governor Smytlie to audit tiie war 
debt of tlie State. In 1S76 he was a member 
of the convention which revised the State Con- 
stitution, and the same year was chosen elector 
of President and Vice-President of the United 
States; (iovcrnor Harriman appointed iiini l)ani< 
commissioner, but he declined the office. He 
was appointed by Governor Prescott in 1877 
one of the commissioners to revise and codify 
the Statutes of New Hampshire. His many 
friends have hoped tosechim elected toCongress; 
it is conceded that his abilities anil his fidelity to 
important public ti'usts reveal his eminent fitness 
for sucii a. position ; liut local divisions, for 
wliich he is in no ways rcsjxinsible, have thus 
fiir })reventcd his nomination. Jn the legisla- 
tive caucus wiiich nominated Hon. E. H. Rol- 
lins tiir United States Senator, Mr. Barton 
received a handsome complimentary vote witli- 
out any effort on his part. I 

When he commenced the pi'actice (tf law in 
Newport, he found there able rivals for the 
honors of the profession, whose reputations were 
well established. I cannot better express the 



truth than to use the language of a writer 
who, speaking of this period of his life, says, — 

"The field seemed to be fully and ably ocpupied, 
but his early training had made him self-reliant. It soon 
became apparent that he had come to stay, for, from 
the outset, his success was assured; that he would 
bring to the discharge of the duties of bis new posi- 
tion the same energy and devotion to principle which 
had hitherto characterized his actions. From that 
time to the piresent he has enjoyed the confidence 
of the public. As a counselor he is cautious and 
careful, dissuading rather than encouraging litiga- 
tion. As an advocate he is eloquent, zealous, bold 
and persistent. In the preparation and trial of causes 
he has few equals and no superiors at the Sullivan 
County bar. His faithfulness and devotion to the in- 
terests of his clients have otten been a subject of re- 
mark. The late Hon. Edmund Burke, who was op- 
|)osed to him in many hard-contested cases, has been 
heard to say to the jury that his 'brother Barton's 
clients, in his own estimation, were always right and 
his witnesses always truthful ; in fact, his geese were 
always swans. ' " 

Mr. Barton's legislative experience began in 
ISIir?, — that intensely feverish period of the 
llebellion. The Democratic party was repre- 
sented by its ablest orators and most skillful par- 
liamentarians. Never was a minority abler led 
by adroit leaders. They were artful, l)itter and 
desperate. Although Mr. Barton was a new 
member, unused to the rules of the House, still 
ho almost at once became the acknowledged 
leader of the majority. Wary antl watchful, 
alert and forcible, JNlr. Barton promj)tly and 
successfully met the a.ssaults of the ojiposition, 
and sometimes "carried the war into Africa." 
The House soon acknowledged his leadership. 
Ivcturned in 1864, his position was the same as 
in the former year. The soldiers will never 
forget his fearless advixvuy of tiie measure al- 
lowing them the right to vote in the field. 

This cost him his reappointment as solicitor, 
as lie openly denounced Governor (tilmore for 
his purpose and attempt, through the opposi- 
tion, to veto the bill. But he was not the man 
to sacrifice principle for the " loaves and fishes 



NEWPORT. 



307 



of office." In 1875 anci 1876 he was chairman 
of the Republican legislative caucus, the la- 
bors of which were both extremely flifficult and 
important. 

In the sessions of 187(i and 1X77 his atten- 
tion to business was such as to give him a com 
manding influence in the House. Always in 
his place, he was ready to lend a helping hand 
to any needed work. At the close of the latter 
session, one who had watched his course as a 
legislator said, — 

" Barton, of Newport, is a man who brouirht with 
him an established rejjutation, and who has been oni' 
of the most prominent members of the House. He is 
a ready debater, quick to see a point and take it, pop- 
ular with his acquaintances and has had a large legis 
lative experience, which gives him the full measure 
of his ability. He was the most prominent champion 
of the Prison Bill, which he managed with great 
tact and carried to victory against odds which threat- 
ened at times to defeat it. If Sullivan County is per- 
mitted to name the successor of Colonel Blair as 
member of Congress, an honor which her reliable Ke- 
publican majority seems to entitle her, he will doubt- 
less be the man." 

Not less complimentary was the Neiv Hamp- 
shire Statesman, whose chief editor was a mem- 
ber of the House, — 

" One of the best members of the House was Bar- 
ton, of Newport. Suave and considerate at all 
times, and willing to take a hand in any dis- 
cussion afiecting the public weal, his cheerful, 
hearty voice striking in ujion a dull or an acri- 
monious debate, had a pleasing and mollifying 
effect. Although careful and cautious, it cannot be 
assumed that he is not sufKciently aggressive in the 
maintenance of his convictions when they are as- 
sailed. Sometimes sharp in his personal sallies, they 
are singularly free from bitterness or malice, and no 
one, however much aggrieved at first, could hold re- 
sentment against him. Few members had more in- 
fluence in the House, and his advocacy of any meas- 
ure gave it strength. Perhaps the secret of his influ- 
ence with the House was due, in part, to the fact that 
he seldom got on the wrong side of a question. On 
all moral questions, also, he was sound, foremost with 
voice and influence and vote." 



His long and able legislative experience has 
never been stained by ])olitical corruption or bv 
the betrayal of any moral question. John 
(Jooper, Esi]., in the Granite Monthly of May, 
1879, has truthfully said, " Through all the.^e 
years of political life he presents a record with- 
out a blemish." 

Mr. Barton is a man of commanding phy- 
■sique and is well preserved by temperate living 
and total abstinence, from all into.xicants and 
narcotics. He is a man of fluent and agreea- 
ble speech, of fine conversational powers, and is 
the inspiration of every social circle which he 
enters. At home as well as abroad, in private 
as well as in public life, he is the invariable ad- 
vocate of every moral and social reform. He 
is an h(Uior to the Masonic fraternity, whose 
principles he worthily represents. He is the 
warm and helpful friend of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, to which he belongs ; but he 
has an unaffected contempt for all sectarian 
narrowness. His sense of justice is intuitive, 
his sympathy quick, and in its exercise he re- 
gards neither state nor condition. 

The destitute and forsaken always find in 
him a true friend. From boyhood he has been 
an avowed and uncompromising opposer of 
slavery, and of whatsoever oppresses the masses, 
whether white or black. If he sometimes 
a.sserts and maintains his opinions with earne.st- 
ness and warmth, he never does so with malice. 
In the advocacy of what he deems to be just 
he is never turned aside by motives of self- 
interest. 

He is kind as a neighbor, is .stronglv attach- 
ed to his friends, generous to his opponents and 
social with all. 

In 1852 he married Miss Lizzie F. Jewett, 
of Hollis, a cultured Christian lady. Her 
amiability, good sense and force of character 
render her every way worthy of her honored 
husband. Their " silver wedding" was ob- 
served in 1877 and was attended by a large 
circle of friends. Besides other tokens of ap- 
preciation bestowed at that time, Hon. Edmund 



308 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Burke presented, in behalf of the donors, an 
elegant silver service accompanying the presen- 
tation with remarks replete with friendship and 
good-will, to which Mr. Barton replied in a 
feeling and impressive manner. 

Their children are Herbert J., Florence F., 
Natt. L. and Jesse M. The eldest son, Her- 
bert J. Barton, was born September 27, 1853. 
He prepared for college at Tilton, and gradu- 
ated from Dartmouth in the class of 187G, 
standing fourth in a class of sixty-nine students. 
He has taught with great success the Newport 
High School, the HighScho"! of AVaukcgan, 111., 
and is now professor of Latin and Greek in 
State Normal University, at Normal, 111. In 
1881 he was admitted to the bar of Illinois, at 
Chicago, and was associated with his father for 
one year, when he returned West and opened an 
office at Winona, Minn. ^Vhile here he accepted 
the offer of his present position. He is a fine 
scholar and a successful instructor. 

Florence F. graduated from the Newport 
High School in 1881, and is a young lady of 
fine promise. 

Natt. L. and Jesse M. are members of the 
Newport High School. They all have many of 
the elements which have contributed to their 
father's success. 

But I should do injustice to the memory of 
the patriot dead should I fail to speak briefly 
of the eldest son. Colonel Ira McL. Barton. 
He was born, as we have said, in 1840. Upon 
the remarriage of his father, in 1852, he became 
a member of his family, and was cared for with 
parental solicitude. He fitted for college at 
Kiml)all Union Academy and entered Hart- 
mouth in the fall of 1858, but the following- 
year he became a law student in the office of his 
father, and assisted him as clerk in liis labor as 
register of deeds. He commenced teaching 
school at the age of seventeen years, and taught 
five terms with marked success, securing high 
commendation from both parents and pupils. 
Upon the breaking outt)f the Rebellion, though 
but twenty-one years of age, he was the first 



man in Sullivan County to enlist. He recruited 
Company E, First New Hamf)shire Volunteers, 
and ^vas commissioned its captain. At the ex- 
piration of the term of service he returned, and 
immediately commenced the enlistment of 
another company; was commissioned cajitain of 
Company F, Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers, 
known as the " Fighting Fifth." After serving 
in the Peninsular campaign, under General 
McClellan, where he won the commendation of 
his sujierior officers for bravery and for his care 
of his men, he returned home sick, but recover- 
ing, he enlisted a company of heavy artillery. 
He went with the men to Fort Foote, near 
Wasliingt(in, D. C, as captain of Company B. 
In 18(!4 he was sent home to organize a regiment 
of heavy artillery, which he did, and was com- 
missioned by Governor Gilmore lieutenant- 
colonel. He was in command of Fort Sumner, 
in the defenses around Washington, at the time, 
of the assassination of President Lincoln, and 
was mustered out of service the summer follow- 
ing, at Concord. He was soon after appointed 
second lieutenant in Twenty-eighth Inflintry 
of the regular army, and was ordered to Pine 
Bluff, Ark. He was promoted to first 
lieutenant of same company. In this capacity 
he served for two years, ^\•hen he resigned and 
was appointed prosecuting attorney of the 
Tenth Arkansas Judicial Court. He remained 
in this position till he was appointed judge of 
the Criminal Court for that district and filled 
that office with marked ability for two years, 
when he resigned and took the position of editor 
of the Jcffersonian liepublican, a Republican 
paj)cr at Pine Bluft', where he remaineil until 
December, 1874. In the contest of Brooks and 
Baxter for Governor of the State, he commanded 
Baxter's forces. 

After this contest was settled and Baxter was 
declared Governor, he returned to Newport and 
entered into partnership with his father in the 
practice of the law, where he died January 19, 
1876, before he had reached his thirty-sixth 
birthday. 



NEWPORT. 



309 



Possessed of brilliant native talent, disci- 
plined and developed hv intelloctiial ciilturi', of 
ueneroiis, humane, pliiIantliroj)ic impulses, of 
(lie nicest sense of lionor, true, str()n<^, unwav- 
ering in his friendship, he won for himself the 
highest esteem of the entire circle of his ac- 
quaintances. Soldiers always found him a true 
comrade and friend, an^l the needy and suffer- 
ing of all classes were sure of his sympatliy 
and aid, and sorrow filled the breasts of all that 
his " sun went down while it was yet day." 

Mr. Barton, though now sixty-seven years of 
age, is in the active practice of his profession, 
constant and unremitting in his labors, whether 



in his office or upon his farm. His physical 
and intellectual forces are still strong and active. 
Conscious of his [lersonal integrity and of tiie 
worthiness of his aims, happy in his family, 
honored by the community, and cheered by the 
favor of Providence, he may, with great pro- 
priety, congratulate himself that he has not 
lived in vain. And as he is still in the vigor 
of mature manhood, we may with reason hope 
that his fellow-citizens may for many years to 
come enjoy the benefits of his practical wisdom, 
and that his posterity may as nobly sustain the 
name of Barton as he has the name of those 
from whom he descended. 



HISTORY OF PLAINFIELD. 



CHAPTER I. 

Plainfield lies in the nurthern part of the 
county and is bouuded as follows: On the north 
by Grafton County ; on the east by Grantham ; on 
the south by Croydon and Cornish, and on the 
west by the Connecticut River, which separates it 
from Vermont. 

The township was granted August 14, 1761, to 
Benjamin Hutchins and fifty-nine others, the most 
of whom were from Connecticut. The first pro- 
prietors' meeting was held in Plainfield, in that 
State, from which this town derived its name. Set- 
tlements were made in 1764, and the town had a 
population of 808 in 1775. 

By an act passed June 2.i, 1780, the easterly 
portion of this town and the westerly portion of 
Grantham were united and erected into a parish 
for parochial purposes, by the name of Meriden. 
In 1856, July 12th; the Grantham portion of this 
jmrish was annexed to Plainfield. 

The ratable estate of the town in 1773 was about 
$375. The following is an inveutojy of that year: 

"Province of Newbanipshire Oliesliire ss. plainfield 

april 21" Anno Dom 177o — 

"The Inventory of the Ratable Estate In the town 
of plainfield Taken and made out By us the Select 
men of Sd plainfield The Whole of the Ratable Estate 
In plainfield amounts to Seventy five pounds fourteen 
Shillings Including Sixty one polls Sum total £75: 

14«— 

"Ben Kimball .Tolin Stevens 

Benjanun Chapman Amos Staflbrd " 

Sworn to before Francis Smith, justice of the 

peace. 

310 



Plainfield was well represented in the War of the 
Revolution. The following is a return of Cap. Rus- 
sel's comjiany : 

" A Return of Cap' Russels Company with the 
Name Annexed — Plainfield May 3"* 1777 — 
" Cap Josiah Russel Stutely Stafford 

S"' Maj John Stevens Beni" Gallop 
Serg' Dannel Kimball Ziba Robberts 
Cor Benj" Cutler Rob' Scott 

Cor Timothy Cory Serg' Ebenezer Jinne 

Drum Beuj" Chapman James Wilson 
fifer Sam' Farefield Walter Blois 

" the above Out from y" 3* of may to 20"' June in y'-' 
whole 48 Days Cald 45 do No. 14 
" Ensn Isaac Main Laben Hall 

Ser Thomas West Sam' Williams 

Cor Silas Gates Jo" Parker 

Dannel Short Job Cotton 

Nites Cutler Elexandrew Petterew 

Oliver Addams 
"the above out from y'= 3'' of May to 18"' June 46 
Days Calld 43 Days No. 11 
" Cor David Gitcbel Duthan Kingsbury 

Littlefield Nash William Wilson 

Jo" Parker Jr Joseph Kimball 

Perla Robberts 

" the above in y"' Service from y" 3'' of may to y" IS"" 

of June 39 Days Calld 40 Days No. 7 
"Abel Stone Out untill y' 20: of May 17 Days 
"Josiah Russel out from y"" 3'' of May to y' 14"' 11 
Days" 
The liillowing Plainfield men were at Saratoga : 

" Lieu' Reuben Jerold Return of the men that 
march from Plainfield to Sallatogue in Col" Chases 
Regiment In Sep' 20 1777 with their names 



PLAINFIELD. 



311 



Names Days in Service 

"Lieut Reuben Jerold 35 

Serg' Elias Gates 32 

Serg' William Cutler 32 

Corp' Nathan Gates Ki 

Corp' Nathan iel Staftbrd 32 

Drumni' Benj° Chajinian 32 

John Andres 32 

Timothy Vinson 32 

James Walker 32 

Isaac Williams 32 

Wilard Smith 32 

Laban Hall 32 

Christopher Hall 32 

Zadoc BIoss 32 

Rulaf Spalding 7 

Stutley Stafford 7 

Josiah Eushel 16 

" Return of Baggage Horses 

"Lieu' Reuben Jerold 1 Horse 9 days 

Rulaf Spaulding 1 " 15 " 

William Cutler 1 " 15 " 

Hezekiah french 1 " 15 " 

Christopher Hall 1 " 15 " 

Job Cotton 1 " 15 " 

Capt Josiah Rushel himself and horse..() days each 
Charles Spaulding dito ..2 " " 

Abel Startbrd dito ..3 " 

" Reuben Jerold paid feridges for 21 men 

and 6 horses going out at a /'3 each tJs.- 9rf 

Returning home for feridges for 17 men 6 

horses 5: 9 

Reuben Jerold paid for Rum dealt out to 

the above men 5 quarts and 1 pint £3:6: 0" 

The following is " A Return of the Quota of 
t'ontinental nieu Belonging To Plaiufiekl in Co' 
Jou"* Chases Redgermcut:" 



Regt. Enlisted Capt Enl. 
in under 



Time Enl. 
fur 



"Eiry Evans Col. Silly Farewell May 1777 3 years 

W. Willard' Dito House Dito Dito 

Negro Darock " " " " 
Lemuel Dean 

Ebenezer Ginne'- " May 1778 " 

Jon"" How " 11 u 

Laban Hall " " 9 mos. 
Walter Blois 

Wills Kimball Peabody June 7 mos. 

John awlsworth " " " 

Joseph Kingsbury Bedel May 1776 is now 
among the Engians or Regelors Prisoner 

"Josiah Ru.ssell Cap'" 

1 Belonged in Hartford, enlisted for Plainfield. 

^ Belonged in New Grantham, enlisted for Piainlield. 



" Capi- Rumels Return 
"A Return of the men of Plainfield in the Conti- 
nental servis 

" Wilder Willard Darick a Negro Lemuel Dean in 
Cap' Houses Comp 

" Eire Evens in Cap' fairwell Comp 

" Jese Roberts Ziba Roberts Simeon Short Ephraim 
Dunlap Ebenezer Re in Connectticut Servis 

"M' Hall— with niaj' waite 

" Asa Briggs— in the Bay State 
" Sept. 4, 1777." 

" Plainfield October y'' 26"" 1778 

"S' these may Inform You that the people appeared 

to Be Inanimous in the choice of Daniel Kimball 

tor an Ensign in Cap' Josiah Russells company and 

suppose he ought to Be Commissioned 

"these from your Huralile Ser" 

" Francis Smith Maj' 
" To Col" Jonathan Chase " 

Military Company. — The following is a peti- 
tion from inhabitants of Meriden to form a mili- 
tary company : 

"To his Honour Jonathan Chase Esq Col° of y" 1st 
Regiment in the S* Briggade in the State of Ver- 
mont. 

."The Petition of y' Soldiery and Alarm Men of 
the Parish of Meriden humbly Sheweth. 

" That your Petitioners being allways ready to 
obey military orders we with y' more boldness ad- 
dress your Honour on y° following subject. 

"That your Petitioners being contiguously situated 
and desirous as much as in us lies to pronidte ]\Iili- 
tary skill and dissipline are very desirous to form a 
Military Company in s'' Parish which when it is con- 
sidered that Plainlielil being very numerous having 
upward of one hundred men of the trained band N. 
Grantham very small not more than twenty-tive and 
to make a Company in this Parish makes it respect- 
able and leaves a large Comjiany in Plainfield we 
hope that j-our Honour will grant us our desire and 
issue orders accordingly — And your Petitioners as in 
Duty bound shall ever Pray 
" Meriden April 30'" 1781. 
" (Jharles Scott Perly Roberts 

W" Iliuitiugtoii Jesse Roberts 

James Jenne Simeon Pool 

Eben' Jenne John Packard 

Peter King Natluiu Draper 



312 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Isaac Williams 
Timothy Scott 
Eben' Brown 
Philip Hopkins 
Simeon Adams 
Walter Bloss 
Abraham Roberts 
Sample Gilkey 
Samuel Pool Jiir 
Caleb Cotton 
Tho" Howard 
Philip Spaulding 
Alexander runabls 
Asa Bates 
John Kile 
Phillip Jorden 
Wilks Kimball 
Ben" Kiniliall 
Ammi Wilson 
Squier Wilson 
Elijah Gleason 
Hodges Cutler 
Lathrop Shurtleft' 
Nathan Parkhurst 
Oliver Adams 
Parley Hughes 
Zadok Bloss 



Job Steven 
Jabez Shapley 
Ephraim Kile 
Isaac Rice 
Rulaf Spalding 
Abel Stevens 
John Stevens 
Nathan Young 
Daniel Kimball 
Abel Stafibrd 
Isaac Jenne 
Ben. Cory 

Jonathan Parkhurst 
Joseph Kimball 
Samuel Bloss 
Thomas Gallup 
Ziba Roberts 
John Andrews 
Eliphalet Adams 
Lemuel Cotton 
Champion Spalding 
David Shapley 
Benjamin Gorden 
William Kile 
Nath' Stafford 
Joseph Spalding." 



Meriden Company, 1781, 

" We the Subscribers Inhabitants of the Parish of 
Meriden do Voluntarily form ourselves into a Com- 
pany of Militia which Company shall be called and 
known by the name of y'' Meriden Company. And 
we do pawn our words and Honours that we will 
freely and cheerfully submit to such officers as y' 
Major part shall chuse 

" Meriden June y' 25* 1781 



" John Andres 
Stiles Muncel 
Perley Roberts 
Thomas Gallop 
Oliver Adams 
Eliphalet Miner 
Be" Bugbee 
Elijah Johnson 
Simeon Pool 
Wi" Huntington 
Isaac Williams 
Walter Bloss 



Hogges Cutler 
Rulaf Spalding 
Be" Jorden 
Nathan Draper 
Ebe" Burr 

Stephen Sq Pettecrew 
Sara" Fairfield 
Isaac Rice 
John Stevens 3'' 
Wi" Kile 
Thomas West 
John Stevens Jur 



Sample Gilkey 
Phillip Hopkins 
El)e' Clougli 
Daniel Kimball 
Abel Stevens 
Lemuel Cotton 
Nathan Parkhur.st 
Jonathan Parkhurst 
Jesse Roberts 
Nathan Young 
Ziba Roberts 
Eben' Jenne 
Stephen Jinnings 
James Jenne 
Elijah Gleason 
Job Stevens 
Asa Bates 
Simeon Short 
Zadock Bloss 



Peter King 
Be" Cory 
Sam' Pool Ju' 
Theopbilus Howard 
Joseph Spalding 
Abel Stafford 
Eliphalet Adams 
Parley Hews 
Isaac Jenne 
Philip Jorden 
Sam' Eglestone 
Na'. Stafford 
Champion Spalding 
Philip Spalding 
Na' Taylor 
Robert Scott 
Charles Scott 
Na' Delano 
Peter Bugbee " 

'Plainfield Feb' 27'" 1781 



" We whose Names are under Riten Do Voluntarily 
Inlist our Selves as Privit as Solders in Cap' Nelsons 
Comp to Escort and gard on the Fruntteers Near 
Conne' River and Ingage to obey our officers accord- 
ing to the Rule of war till the first Day of April Next 
if not sooner discharged as witness our hands 
" Ephraim Dunlap Steward how 



Job Williams 
James Kelsy 



Daniel Kimball ' 



Soldiers' Orders. 

" Pl.AINFIELD, Sept. P' 1784 
" Sir Please to pay the bearer the whole of my 
wages for service in Cap' Steven's Company at West 
Point in 17S4 

" Phillips Warren 
" £7.10.4 

" To the Treasurer of New Hampshire " 
" State op New Hamp.shirb 

•'Plainfield 24 April 1785 

" To M' Josia Oilman Paymaster General for said 
state S'. please to pay the Bearer hereof the wages due 
to me the subscriber for going into the service of s^ 
state three months and a half to West Point in Cap' 
Abel Stevens Company in Col. Nichols Regiment in 
the year 1780 and this order shall be your Receipt for 
the same from your Humble Ser't 
"£8.19. June 14 "EbbnJoy" 



PLAINFIELD. 



313 



The following is a petition of sundry inhab- 
itants relative to taxes : addressed to the Gen- 
eral Court, 1785. 

" Humbly shew, 

" Elislia Read, Andrew Traey, Jonathan Stevens, 
Walter Weld, David Allen, .Tal)ez Balding, John Ost- 
ing, William Chote, Darius .Spalding, Benjamin Jack- 
son, Daniel Earl, Benjamin Oole, Daniel Cole, Moses 
Weld, Daniel Hovey, Benj° Joy Jun', Ebenezer Sab- 
ings, Daniel Joy, Jesse Heath, Moses Brigham, Philip 
Spalding, Cliapliiig Spalding, Gardner Dusting, John 
Dusting, Walter Smith, John Spalding, Barzilla 
Spalding, James Freeman, ElishaHerick,Rosil Minor, 
Benjamin Joy, Samuel Reed, Daniel Freeman, David 
Perry, Abel Benit, Ebenezer Cole, David Steaveus, 
Abel Stone, John Cole, Daniel Robert, Aaron Palmer, 
Nathan Andrus, Ruf'us Wheeler, Elias Bingham & 
Cary all of Plaintield & Cornish in the County ot 
Cheshire and said State — That your Petitioners have 
all removed into said Towns of Plainfield and Corn- 
i'ih from other States in the Union since the year 1780 
at which time many of them were under Twenty (_)ne 
years of Age — that your petition'* have paid all their 
taxes in the several states whence they have removed 
up to the time of their Removal — That the Selectmen 
of s' Plaintield & Cornish have nevertheless assessed 
your Petitioners for all the Taxes of said Towns from 
tlie Commencement of the late War to the present 
year, thereliy compelling them to pay over again 
Taxes for the years they had paid for bel'ore tliey 
came into this State and obliging Parents to Pay 
Taxes for their Children ever since they arrived to 
the Age of Ten years — That s' Selectmen have further 
endeavoreii to compell those of your Petitioners who 
have come of Age since they became Inhabitants of 
this State to pay Taxes from the year 1777 when 
many of them were no more than ten years old. — 

" Your Petitioners are ready chearfullj' to pay all 
their taxes from the time they became inhabitants of 
their respective Towns and humbly conceivethe Con- 
duct of said Selectmen to be flagrantly unjust & op- 
pressive and opposed to every princi[de ol Equity. 
A\'hercfore they pray that your honors would be 
pleased to take their hard Treatment luider yoiu" wise 
Consideration — that you would exemi)t them from 
paying Taxes towards the support of a Government, 
to which at the Time they ought to have been paid, 
they did not belong, and which can serve only to ease 
those who have refused to pay their Taxes in season ; 



or that your honors would take such other Order con- 
cerning the Premises as in your wisdom shall seem 
meet, and your Petition" as in Duty bound will ever 
pray. &c 

"John Pickeri>'G /or Petitioners" 
The tbllowiug- is a petition for a ferry, addressed 
to the General Court, 1785: 

"The petition of Jo.seph Kimball of Plainfield 
humbly Shewetli that your Petitioner hath been at 
the Expence of keeping a ferry across Connecticut 
River in Plainfield for upwards of five Years at y' 
mouth of water quecher River which ferry hath been 
verey expensive to Y'ourjjetitioner in providing boats 
to Serve the publick for which he hath Rec'' Little or 
no benefit, and expecting lluit in some future time it 
may be some profit wherefore your petitioner humbly 
prayeth that your Honours may take his case into 
your wise Consideration and grant to your petitioner 
the Exclusive right of a ferry begining at Lebenon 
South Line extending three miles dow'u said River, to 
him bis heirs and assigns, and Y'our petitioner as in 
duty bound shall ever pray 

"Joseph Kimball" 

In House of Representatives, February 10, 1786, 
the foregoing jietition was granted. 

Tax on (rovcrnor Wentivortlis Right. 
" Plainfield Dec' y= lO'" 17815 This may certify that 
the State Tax against Bening Wentworths Right of 
Land in Plainfield for y' years 1777, 1778, 1770, and 
1780 amounts to three pounds twelve Shilling and the 
county tax for y' above Years is three shillings & 
Eight pence. 

"Att Sam" Fairfield, Constable. 
"Att David Perry ( Selectmen For 

Charles Spaulding j Plainfield" 

Tiie following is a petition for a poll parish, 
1788, addressed to the General Court: 

"The Petition of the subscribers inhabitants of the 
towns of Cornisli and Plainfield, in the County of 
Chesirc in said State, Humldy shewetli that the great 
diversity of Sentiments, in matters of Religion, and 
the jaring opinions concerning the most suitable 
place for Buildings for Religious worship, renders it 
impossible ever to efl'ect such union in eitlier of said 
Towns, as to enable them happily to settle and main- 
tain, the Gospel Ministry amongst them with that 
harmony which ought ever to reign in religious Soci- 



314 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



eties, without a Division of said Towns into Parishes 

— and wliereas the inhabitants (if Difffrent Sentiments, 
are so intermixed in their sentiments that Parisli lines 
would not ett'ect tlio desired |iurposcs, Your petition- 
ers tlierefore pray tlie fteueral Court, to grant to the 
subscribers, witli such others as may liereafter be dis- 
posed to join with tliem, such privelidges and immu- 
nities of a Poll Parisli as may enable them to erect 
and maintain in pmper repair a placeofPublick wor- 
ship and to raise and apply Money for the support of 
the Ministry among them, and with such other privi- 
leges as may be necessary for the well ordering of 
Parish affairs, — and as in Duty bound shall ever 
pray. 

"Cornish November the 1" AD 1788. 
"Thomas Hall Daniel Cole 

Moody Hall John Bartlet 

Abel Johnson 
Nath" Huggins 
Will" Ripley 



David Smith 
Hezekiah Fitch 
Nathan Whiting 
Benj° Read 
John Lucas 
Nath" Bartlet 
James Fitch 
Samuel Fitch 
Joseph Kinyon Jun'' 
Simon Blanchard 
Samuel Bartlet 
James Hunter 
Joshua ^\'oodwarrl 
Joel Hildreth 
Walter Foss 
Abel Stone 
Samuel Mackres 
Abel Stone Jun' 
John Cady 
Levi Stone 
Daniel Freeman 



James Ripley 

Thomas Lewey 

Jesse Johnson 

David Read 

Elisha Read 

Sam" Read 

Andrew Tracy 

J(din Spaulding 

Lovil Kimball 

Elisha Herrick 

Reuben Jerald 

Josiah Stone 

James Ladieu 

John Whitten 

Will" Lewey 

Moses Chase 

Nahum Chase 

Jonathan Read 

Eliphalet Kimball Jun' Chester Chapman 

Moses Barrows .Tosepli Smith 

Moses Barrows Jun' Jal)ez Spicer " 

Nathan Haius 

In House of Representatives, November S, 
1788, a hearing was ordered for the next session. 

Rank of Sundrij Officers, 1788. 
" Elias Cady first Lieut April y 27"' 1785, Capt 
May y'' 8"' 1781 under Vermont 



"Jeremiah Spencer Capt April y' 27'" 1785 in this 
State. 

"Capt May 8—1781 Vermont, Lt 1777 in this 
State 

"Joseph Smith Capt April y'" 27"' 1785 in this 
State, first Lt Sep' y"" 5'" 1775, in this State. 

" Jesse Willcocks Cap' April y" 27'" 1785 in this 
State 1" L' Sep' y" 5"" 1775 in this State Capt May 
S'" 1781 Vermont 

" Nathan Young Capt April y"^ 27'" 1785 in this 
State, Ensign May y' 8"' 1781 under Vermont — 

" Daniel Chase Capt April y'^ 27'" 1785 in this State, 
Second Lt Sep' 5"' 1775, first Lt Seji' 19"' 1775 all of 
this State 

" John Cook Capt April f 27'" 1785 in this State, 
Ensign May y'' 19'" 1775, Eusg July y'- 1" 1775 under 
Massach'* 

" David Perry Capt April y' 27'" 1785 in this State, 
Second Lt 

"May y" V 1775, first Lt Dec' y" 2" 1776 under 
Connecticut 

" John Quimby Capt April y' 27, 1785 in this State 

"State of Newhamp' Plainfield Jan? y'' 15'" 1788 

"To his Excellency the President and the Hon"'" the 

Council — 

" May it please Your Excellency and Honors I have 
called on the Captains of the Several Companies of 
the fifteenth Regiment of Militia to produce their 
Credentials in order to assertain their Rank, which is 
as heretofore mentioned, The reason of my making 
a return in this manner I was adviz'd to it by Gen' 
Chase and the other officers, therefore I hope to par- 
don'd not makeing a Return in usual form 

" From your most Obed' and Very Humble Servt 
"Joseph Kimbel, Maj' CD" 

The ibllowiug is a petition relative to service in 
Revolution : 

" Humbly sheweth the Petition of Joseph Kimbal 
in behalf of the Town of Plainfield that the s"* Town 
was called on for Eight men for the continental Ser- 
vice in the Year 1777 — which they furnished and in 
the Y'ear 1781, said Town was call'd on to furnish 
Eight men more of which said Town furnislied two 
only one of which soon deserted tlie other served his 
time out which was during the War, Your Petitioner 
would further add that y' abovesaid Proportions were 
made by doomage, and that on examining the invoices 
of said Town in February 1786 it appeared that in y"^ 



PLAINFIELD. 



315 



year 1777 Plainflelds proportion was four men only, 
and as there is a large demand agt s'' Town for defi- 
ciency of men in y"" Year 1781 Your petitioner prays 
that their overplus services done in 77, may be brought 
Ibrwaril, and give creadit on the deficiency for the 
Year 81 or otherwise grant such relief as Your Hon- 
ors in their wisdom shall see cause to direct. And 
Your petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray 
"Joseph Kimbal in behalf of s'^ Town" 

In House of Representatives, June, 1791, the 
matter was postponed to tlie next session. 

The following is a petition of Amos Stafford for 
remuneration, addressed to the Legislature, 1795: 

"The request of your Petitioner Humbly Sheweth 
that in the Cours of the war with Great Brittain in 
obedience to the orders of the Legeslator of the State 
of New-hampshire i did lay my Self out to obey their 
orders in assisting to Raise men and aid them in their 
JIach to and from tyconderago with Provision & 
Pack hose and Raising thee three years men 1 did ad- 
vance money in the Cause to a Considerable amount 
and Spent my own time as one of the Committe ot 
Safety for the town of Plainfield and in the time when 
Royaltown in Vermont was burnt by Indians I did by 
order of Generl Bellows Given meeby Capt Peter Page 
and Co" Abel walker of Charlestown to open my house 
and Stores and Delt out to A Large amount iu Provi- 
sion and hors Keeping for four days and four Nights I 
I Nor my wife Could not get Leasur time to ondress to 
take rest for our house was fliU both Night and Day 
of men going up or Returning back all which I did iu 
obedience to the orders of the State and Commanding 
officers of the State for the Support of the Cause then 
Depending and furthermore in obedience to the Re- 
quest of the State sent out to the towns to send in 
tlieire accounts in order for A Settlement with the 
Unighted States Congrees I did Exhibbit my account 
to Sanford Kingsbery Esq'of Clarmont who was ap- 
pointed to Receive the accounts of these towns along 
hear and he Excepted them as Suflicienly authentica- 
ted, and as I have allways paid my Proportion of tax 
to the State that has been Called for of Mee and as I 
have not received any pay for all the afore Cited Ser- 
vice and performances I pray this Honorable Boddy 
to Consider the Cause of the poor Petitioner Now 
humbly Requesting his part of the Ballanc Struck in 
favour of this State with the United States Congress 
as a Compensation for all my trouble as you in your 



wisdom may think Proper and as in duty Bound 
Shall Ever Pray— 

"As your humble Pittioner — 

"Amos Stafford" 

The following is a petition relative to grebe land, 
1795: 

"The Petition of the Select Men of Plainfield 
Humbly Sheweth, That there is two Rites of Land 
Called the Glebe and Propagating Rites Lying in s'' 
Town which at Present are no Benefit to the Town 
and Do not answer the End and Design of their Ap- 
propriation — 

" Therefore your Petitioners Prayer is that your 
Honours wou'd Take the Matter under your wise Con- 
sideration & Grant the Town the Privilege of Con- 
verting Either or both of the beforementioned Rites 
or the use of Either or both of them for the Support 
of the Gospel Ministry in s'' Town or otherwise Grant 
as your Honours in your wisdom Shall See fit — 

" Dated at Plainfield November Y' 25"' AD 1795. 

" Zadoc BlosS I Sehct Men of 

"Chester Chapman j P/ainjiehl." 

The following petition is fnmi Kind)all and 
Gallup for authority to construct locks ; address to 
the General Court, 179(5 : 

"Humbly Sheweth the petition of Joseph Kimball 
& Peres Gallop that there are falls in Connecticut 
River opposite the Town of Plainfield known by the 
name of Waterqueche falls which Renders the Navi- 
gation impasable with Boats which is very Injurious 
to those that do Business on said River therefore 
Your petitioners pray Your Honours to take the mat- 
ter under Your Wise consideration and Grant your 
petitioners the Exchisive Right of Locking s'' falls, 
so that the Same be made Navigalile for Boats &c 
under Such Regulations and Restrictions as Your 
Honours in Your Wisdom shall see cause to direct and 
Your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray 

"Concord Dec' 1" 1796. 

"Joseph Kimisai^l 
" Perez Gallup " 

Petition granted December 2, 179G. 
The following petition is for the incorporation 
of a library, 1797 : 

" Humbly Sheweth Daniel Kimball that he with a 
number of others in the Parish of Meriden purchased 



316 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



a Collection of Books for a Social Library but find it 
necessary to be incorporated in order to realize the 
advantages contemjilated — Therefore pray that they 
may be incorporated with such privileges as are usually 
Granted in Such Cases, and as in Duty bound will pray 
"Nov 27'" 1797 

" Dax' Kimball /or the purchasers." 

The library was incorporated by the uaiiie of 
Meriden Library, December 11, 1797. 

Ecclesiastical. — The first religious services in 
this town of which we have any record were held 
in 1771 by IMr. Isaac Smith of the Congregational 
order. From this time until 1804 services were 
held in private houses and at various other places. 

September 20, 1804, the First Congregational 
Church of West Plainfield was formed, and July 
1(), 1805, Rev. jMicaiah Porter was settled us jias- 



tor. The present pastor of the Congregational 
Church at Meriden is Rev. Benjamin A. Dean. 

There are two Baptist Churches in the town, — 
one at Meriden, Rev. B. F. Lawrence, ])astor ; and 
the other at Plainfield, Rev. J. A. Graham, pastor. 

About the year 1804 an Episcopal Church was 
organized here. The Methodists and L^uiversal- 
ists have also held services in the tow-n. 

The postmaster at Plainfield is William Hall ; 
at Meriden, Abbie F. Spauldiug; at Easit Plain- 
field, Kate Saltmarsh. 

Kimball LTniox Academy was incorporated 
June 1(), 1813, and endowed with a jwrmanent 
fund of $40,000 by Hon. Daniel Kindiall. It is 
located in Meriden and is an educational institution 
of high character. Tlie jircsent principal is JMr. 
D. G. Miller. 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD. 



BY CHARLES MoDANIEL. 



CHAPTER I. 

This town, at the time of its beiug granted to 
John Fisher, Esq. and fit'ty-uine others, of Ports- 
nioutli, was iu the county of Grafton, afterward 
Cheshire, now (1885) in Siillivau County, in lati- 
tude 43° .30', hounded north by tirafton, east l)y 
Wihnot and New London, south by Sunapee and 
New London, and west by Croydon, Grantham and 
P^nfield. It was granted January 3, 17()9, by the 
name of Protectworth. Its first settlement com- 
menced in 1772, by Israel Clifford, Ebenezer Lov- 
erin and Timothy Q.uimby. It was incorporated 
January 24, 1794, by the name of Hi)ringfield. 
By an act of the (xeneral Assembly passed June 
2i), 1817, a tract of laud lying between this town 
and Enfield, called " Heath's Gore," was annexed 
to this town. In the year 1858, after a long-eon- 
tested trial, a i)ortion of the " Gore " was disan- 
nexed from this town and annexed to the town of 
Grantham by an act of the Legislature. 

Census Population of Springfield. — 1790, 
210; 1800,570; 1810,814; 1820,967; 1830, 
1102; 1840,1252; 18-50,1270; 1800,1021; 1870, 
781 ; 1880, 732. The decrease of the popula- 
tion between 1850 and 1860 was in part due to 
the disannextiou of the " Gore." 

Springfield is thirty-five miles from Concord, 
and ninety from Boston. Branches of the Sugar 
and Blackwater Rivers have their sources iu this 
town; the former empties into the Connecticut, the 
latter into the Merrimack. There are several ponds, 
viz., Station, Baptist, Star, Gilman and Morgan. 
In the east part of the town is a granite quarry ■ 
also mica mines abound in several sections, and 
were worked to some extent in 1810 to 1845, by 



Bowers, of Acworth Since then several companies 
have been formed, among which the ^lountain 
Mica Company and the Globe Mica Company are 
perhaps the most prominent. The laud is rough 
and stony, but is adapted to the raising of potatoes, 
corn, oats and barley ; and even thirty bushels of 
wheat to the acre have been produced. In the 
spring of the year the leading industry is the 
making of maple sugar and syrup, tons of which 
are annually manufactured, being of a very supe- 
rior quality During the past few years many 
labor-saving and improved machines and agricul- 
tural implements have been bought by the fiirmers 
and are now in general use through the town. 
Springfield and Grantham established a Union 
Fair in the year 1880, and have siuce holden one 
annually. This has served to act as a stimulus 
to the cause of agriculture. At the last fair one 
member exhibited two hundred and ten different 
varieties of apples, and another member gathered 
over one thousaud bushels. Improved breeds of 
cattle, horses, sheep and swine are now quite com- 
monly owned. Better varieties of grain and vege- 
tables, with the raising of apples, grapes and small 
fruits, show that the farmers are alive and active 
in their calling; while the profusion of flowers seen 
indicates plainly that the beautiful is being blended 
with the useful. 

rHAKTEK. 

"Province 1 George the Third hy the Gr.ace 
of j of God of Great Britain, France 

Xew Hampshire l and Ireland, King Defender of 
Protectworth J the Faith, etc. 
" Know ye th.at we of our special grace, certain 
knowledge and mere motion, for the due encourage- 
ment of settling a new plantation within our said 

317 



318 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



province, by and with the advise of our trusty and 
well-beloved John Wentworth, Esquire, our Governor 
and Commander-in-chief of our said province of New 
Hampshire in New England and of our Council of 
the said province. Have upon the conditions and 
reservations hereinafter made, given and granted, and 
by these presents for us our heirs and successors do 
give and grant in equal shares unto our loving sub- 
jects, inhabitants of our said province of New Hamp- 
shire and our other Governments, who have peti- 
tion'd us for the same, setting forth their readiness to 
make immediate settlement, and to their heirs and as- 
signs forever, whose names are enter'd on this grant, 
to be divided to and amongst them into Sixty equal 
shares, all that tract or parcel of land, situate, lying 
and being within our said province of New Hamp- 
shire containing by admeasurement twenty-five thou- 
sand five hundred and eleven acres and two rods, and 
is to contain something more than six miles square, 
out of which an allowance is to be made for highways 
and unimprovable lands by rocks, ponds, mountains 
and rivers, one thousand and forty acres free, accord- 
ing to a plan and survey thereof, exhibited by our 
Surveyor-General by our said Governor's order, and 
returned into the Secretary's Oftice, a copy whereof is 
hereunto annex'd, butted and bounded as follows, 
viz.: beginning at a beech tree standing at the south- 
east corner of Grafton ; frcnn thence south thirty-nine 
degrees west two miles and forty-four chains on 
Mason's curve-line, so called ; then south thirty-seven 
degrees west four miles and thirty-seven chains on the 
said curve-line ; thence turning off and running north 
seventy-four degrees west five miles and nineteen 
chains by Saville; then turning off and running north 
sixteen degrees east one mile and forty-four chains to 
a small rock-maple at the southerly corner of Grant- 
ham ; thence north thirty-one degrees east five miles 
and thirty chains by ({rantham to a hemlock tree at 
the northeast corner thereof; thence turning off and 
running south seventy-two degrees east one mile to a 
hackmatack tree ; from thence on the same course, five 
miles and thirty-six chains and one-half to the beech 
tree at the southeast corner of Grafton began at. — 

" To have and to hold the said tract of land as 
above express'd, together with all privileges and ap- 
pertenances to them and their respective heirs and as- 
signs forever, by the name of Protectworth upon the 
following conditions, viz': (First) That the Grantees 
at their own cost shall cut, clear, bridge and make 



passable for carriages of all kinds, a road of eight 
rods wide thro' the said tract hereby granted, and this 
to be completed within three years from the date of 
this grant; on failure of which, the premises and 
every part thereof shall be forfeited and revert to us 
our heirs and successors to be by us or them re-enter'd 
upon and regranted to any of our loving subjects. 

"(Second) That the said Grantees shall settle or 
Ciuisc to be settled twelve fiimilies by the first day of 
July, 1774, who shall be actually cultivating some 
part of the land, and resident thereon ; and to con- 
tinue making further and additional improvement, 
cultivation and settlement of the premises, so that 
there shall be actually settled and resident thereon 
sixty families by the first day of July, 1778, on pen- 
alty of the forfeiture of such delinquent's share, and 
of such shares reverting to us, our heirs and succes- 
sors, to be by us or them enter'd upon and regranted 
to such of our subjects as shall efl'ectually settle and 
cultivate the same. 

"(Third) That all white and other pine trees 
within the said township fit for masting our Royiil 
Navy, be carefully preserv'd for that use ; and none 
to be cut or felled without our special license for so 
doing first had and obtained upon the penalty of the 
forfeiture of the right of such Grantee, his heirs and 
assigns, to us, our heirs and successors, as well as being 
subject to the penalty prescribed by any present as 
well as future act or acts of Parliament. 

" (Fourth) That before any division of the land be 
made to and among the Grantees, a tract of land as 
near the centre of the said township as the land will 
admit of, shall be reserved and marked out for town- 
lots, one of which shall be alloted to each Grantee of 
the contents of one acre. 

" (Fifth) Yielding and paying therefor to us our 
heirs and successors on or before the first day of Jan- 
uary, 1774, the rent of one ear of Indian-corn only if 
lawfully demanded. 

" (Sixth) That every proprietor, settler, or inhabi- 
tant shall yield and pay unto us, our heirs and suc- 
cessors yearly and every year forever, from and after 
the expiration of one year from the above said first 
day of January, namely on the first day of January 
which will be in the year of our Lord Christ one 
thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, one shilling 
Proclamation money for every hundred acres he so 
owns, settles or possesses, and so in proportion for a 
greater or lesser tract of the said lanil ; which money 



SPKINGFIELD. 



319 



shall be jniid by the respective persons above said, 
their heirs or assigns in our Council Chamber in 
Portsmouth or to such Officer or Officers as shall be 
appointed to receive the same ; and this to be in lieu 
of air otlier rents and services whatsoever. 

" Tlie roail of eight rods wide to remain reserved, but 
to be cleared and Ijridgcd as above exjircssed, only 
two rods wide. 

" In testimony whereof we have caused the seal of our 
said Province to be hereunto affixed. Witness Johm 
Wentworth, esquire our Governor, and Comman- 
der-in-Chief of our said Province of New Hampshire, 
the third day of .January', in the ninth year of our 
reign and in the year of our Lord Christ one thousand 
seven hundred and sixty-nine. 

"By his Excellency's cominan<l with advice of 

Council. 

"George King, D : Sec'y. 



' 'A^a7)ies of Ike Grantees oj 

" John Fisher Esq' 
Daniel Warner Esq' 
M. H. Wentworth Esq' 
Daniel Pierce Esq' 
Jon" Warner E.sq' 
Leveret Hubliard Esq' 
James Stoodley Esq' 
Ebenezer Russell Esq' 
Isaac Rindge Esq' 
John Hurd Esq' 
John Parker Esq' 
Samuel Ham 
William Yeaton 
Benjaman Yeaton 
Peter Curtis 
Richard Woods 
John White 
John Barter 
Stephen Cogau 
Samuel Grindell 
Daniel Gridell 
Samuel Tripe 
R(,l)ert Hart 
John Pierce 
William King 
John Marsh 
George Craigie 
John Jackson 
Giles Seaward 
George Wentworth 



the Tiiwnshij} of Protectirorth. 

Daniel Fowle Esq' 
Robert Lewis Fowle 
John Dennett 
William Partridge Jun' 
George King Esij' 
Hall Jackson Esq' 
Thomas Martin 
Daniel Sherburne 
William Knight 
Temple Knight 
Joshua Wentworth 
Samuel Warner 
George Libbey 
Jotham Blanchard 
John Beck 
Giles Seawanl Jun' 
John Churchill 
George Marshall 
George Marshall Jun' 
Alexander Welch 
John Ayers 
Ephraim Ham 
Foster Trefethen 
William Walker 
Roger Hayes 
William Jones 
Joseph Bass 
Gibbius Mase 
John Goatham 
Samuel Sherburne 
'• J. (L. S. Wentworth. 



" Recorded according to original Charter under the 
Province Seal this Seventh Day of August, 1775. 

" Attest Theodore Atkinson, Sec'y." 



It appears from records and history that before 
the formation of counties, in 1771, all the courts 
were holden, and all public business was transacted, 
at Portsmouth, being then the largest town in the 
State ; therefore the following meetings were hold- 
en, and business in regard to the settlement of 
Springfield, then known as I'rotectworth, was 
transacted at said Portsmouth. 

" Province of | Application having been made to 
New Hamps. i me, the subscriber, one of his Ma- 
jestys justices of the Peace for said Province, by more 
than one Sixteenth Part of the Proprietors of Protect- 
worth in said Province, to call a meeting of Said Pro- 
prietors to Act upon the following matters and Things, 
vizt.: P' To choose a Moderator, Clerk and Treasurer ; 
2'"'' To see what encouragement the Proprietors will 
give to twelve settlers who shall incline to settle in 
said Township ; 3'"^ To agree upon what roads shall 
be immediately laid out and clear'd to promote the 
settlement; 4""'^ To appoint some suitable person to 
allot out so much of said Township as the Proprietors 
shall think Convenient ; 5"''' To Contirm any Grants 
that may have been made by the present Proprietors 
of said Township; G""''" To make any further Grants 
of Land as the Proprietors may find necessary ; 7"''^ 
To assess each Proprietors Right in Such a sum as 
may be found Sufficient to answer the Payment of 
any charges that have arisen, or may hereafter arise, 
in Consequence of any Services that may be voted ; 
S'""" To choose a Collector for said Tax ; 9»"-'' To re- 
ceive, examine and allow of any accounts that may be 
laid before the Proprietors at Said meeting ; 10""^ 
To agree upon a method of calling all future meetings, 
and of adjourning the same. In Consequence of said 
Request I do hereby notify the Said Proprietors to 
meet at the House of Capt. Jacob Tilton, in said 
Portsmouth, on Friday, the 8"" of June next at 6 
o'clock P.M., then and there to act upon the premises. 

•' H Wentworth Jus. Pac. 
" Portsmouth May 23, 1770." 

" Province of 1 Pursuant to a notification from 
New Hamps. J Henry Wentworth Escj., one of his 
Majesty s Justice of the Peace for said Province, 
warning a meeting of the Proprietors of Protectworth 
on the eighth day of June, 1770, the Said Proprietors 
have met accordingly and 

" Voted, That Jonathan Warner Esq. be moderator 
of this meeting. 



320 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Voted, That Jdlui Wendell Esq. be Clerk of this 
Proprietry. 

" Toted, That Jonathan Warner be the Treasurer 
of this Proprietry. 

" Voted, That .Tohn Fisher Ks<j. be impowered to 
treat with Darius Abbot, or others, to make a settle- 
ment in said Township with twelve Settlers. 

" Voted, That whereas the present proprietors have 
by Deed Conveyed to John Kurd Esq., twelve Thou- 
sand acres of land in the Townshij) of Protectworth 
as by s"* Deed will appear, The same is hereby rati- 
fied, confirmed and declared to be the act of this Pro- 
prietry. 

" Voleil, Thiit two Si.xtielh Parts of the ungranted 
Land in this townshl]i bo granted, and is hereby 
granted, to John Wendell Esq. and his assigns, He 
or they performing all the settling duties required by 
Charter. 

" Voted, That the Clerk, upon application to him 
made by more than one Sixteenth Part of the Proi)ri- 
etors, shall call any future meeting, giving fourteen 
days' notice of the same in the Kcw Ilamjjshire (jix- 
zette, or otherways, so that the Proin-ietors may heai- 
of the s.ame, and that in the absence of the Moderator 
he shall adjourn said meetings to such Convenient 
Time as may suit the Proprietors. 

" Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to the 
Second Friday in July next, at this house. 

" JoNATHAX Warner Mod." 

" Friday, .Tuly I.'-!, 1770. — Met as pr adjournment, 
and the Moderator not being present this meeting is 
further adjourned to Wednesday the Eighteenth instant 
at 3 o'clock P.M., at this house. 

" Attested Pr J. Wkxdeli,, Prop'r Clerk." 

" 1770, July 18th, met as pr adjournment. 

" Voted, That John Wendell Esq.'s account, 
amounting to One hundred and forty-three pounds, 
three shillings and Ten pence bo allowed and paid by 
the Treasurer, being for sundry expenses for this Pro- 
prietry. 

" Voted, That the finst twelve settlers shall have One 
hundred acres each to be laid out to them from the 
whole of the south Line of the Town toward the Cen- 
tre, provided they settle thereon with their Families 
in two years from this Date. 

" Voted, That John Wendell Esq. be empowered 
to procure a proper Surveyor to allot out Eighteen 
Lots of One hundred acres each, and to Establish and 



ascertain the dividing Line between the Township of 
Protectworth and Saville (now Sunapee. — Ed.), and 
to lay out all such necessary Roads as he may find 
wanting. 

" Voted, That this meeting be dissolved, and it is 
hereby according dissolved. 

"Jonathan Wentworth, Mod." 

" The Proprietors of Protectworth to John Wendell. 
Dr. 

1768 ,£. s. d. 

Nov 8 To Cash p'd 0:Corey for his Survey 

Bill 25 

17Gi) 

Jany 10 To do pd V Royse for Plans &c 14 

Deer 14 To do pd O Scott forlloward Survey 10 in 
To my own time in Drawing Peti- 
tions Deed Ser's procuring the 

Charter 4 l(i 

To do ji'd Ferryman Drawing y'' 

Charter 12 

1770 
Jlch 21 To drawing deed to Kurd Ct., and 

Tin Case 24-. 6rf 8(5 

Juno 8 To Cash pd Fawler advertising 

Meeting 12 

" To Cash pd Tilton for Expences.... 14 
To the Charges & Fees for y° Char- 
ter 100 

L. My 14a ;! 10 
" Errors Excepted 

" this 8'" June 1770 

" Mr John Wendell " 

" Dec. 17, 1772. — At a Proprietors meeting duly 
called at the house of Capt. Tiltons in Portsmouth. 

" Voted, That Jonathan Warner, Esq., be the Mod- 
erator. 

" Voted, That Daniel Ladds Survey of the Eighteen 
hundred acre lots be received, allowed and paid. 

" Voted, That only Such settlers as Mr. Wendell 
has agreed with shall have any of the hundred acre 
Lots Any votes notwithstanding as the Time limited 
to the first Twelve is expired & does now cease. 

"Voted, That a tax of fifty Shillings lawful Aloney 
be assessed, and it is hereby assessed on each Pro- 
prietors original share for defraying the Charges & 
Demands on this Proprietry. 

" Voted, That John Wendell, Esq., be the Collector 
of Said Tax and account with the Proprietors Treas- 
urer for the Same when it is by him received. 



SPRINGFIELD. 



321 



" I'ofe/, A<lioiinu'(l to l''i-i(l!iy (lie 8"' oC .r.'umary, 
I77-'l. Ailjoiiriu'd to June 'li, 177o. 

"JOHX "Wentieij,, Prnpx Cleft." 

" June 'I'l, 1773. — Met as \>v Adjouriinient. 

" Wherea-t it is not so agreeable to those wlio incline 
to he Settlers in the Town, to take up any of the 
hundred acre lots laid out by Daniel Ladd as by his 
Survey returned, but had rather liave Seventy-five 
acres in lieu thereof, to be laid out on an East and 
West Course through the Town on a road iiroposed to 
be laid out. Therefore, 

" Voit-d, That Mr. Wendell by Virtue of a liirnier 
vote, as well as l)y this vote, be impowered to lay out 
a Road Eight rods wide through the Town on the 
South line of tliat Tract of Land which the Pro- 
prietors Sold to John Hurd, Esq., and which was 
purchased of Iliui by his Excellency Governor Went- 
worth, and as he has agreed to give away his propor- 
tionable Part for Settlement, Therefore, 

" Voted, That Mr. Wendell be further impowered to 
imploy proper Persons, to. allot out as many Seventy- 
five acre Lots on Each Side of said line and Road, 
as the Distance through the Town will admit of, ex- 
cepting that he leaves two Lots together near the 
Centre of the Town, to be appropriated as the Pro- 
l)rietors may hereafter think proper ; and also that he 
imploys the Same person to lay out the Eighteen 
hundred acre Lots which the Governor proposes to 
give to Capt. Miuot for twelve Settlers and to return 
a Survey at our next meeting. 

" Voted, That Mr. Wendell be impowered, and he is 
hereby impowered to give away twenty of the Said 
Seventy-five acre Lots to and amongst such Settlers 
and their Heirs as he Shall agree with, on certain 
conditions of Settlement to be hy them performed. 

"Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to Oct. 7, 
1773." 

" Oct. 7, 1773.— Met as pr Adjournment. 

"Voted, That the Return of Survey made by 3Ir. 
Zepheniah Clark and his associates of the marking 
out the great East and West road, and the allotment 
of the Seventy-five acre Lots, on each Side the Said 
Road, as also of his laying out the Governor's Eighteen 
hundred acre Lots, be accepted and their Bills for 
the Same, amounting to Eight Pounds four Shillings, 
be paid, and that the Same, together with Daniel 
Ladd's former Survey, be both recorded by the Clerk. 

" Voted, That the Said Road be cut and cleared out 



one Rod wide through the Town, and that iMr. W'en- 
dell be impowered to get the Same done as soon as 
may be for the accommodation of the Settlers. 

" Vuled, That the account of money paid by John 
Wendell, Esqr., for this Proprietry be allowed, 
amounting to Fifty-six Pounds Eight shillings L. 
Money, ancl that he be paid the Same with Interest 
upon this and his former account until the Treasurer 
shall be in Cash for the Proprietry. 

" Voted, That the Clerk record Said account. 

"Voted, That the Collector shall not make sale of 
any Delinquent Proprietors Rights till further orders. 

" Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to Nov. 13, 
1773. Then to Feby 11,1774. Then to Aug. 3, 1774." 

"August 3'', 1774, Met as per Adjournment. 

" Voted, That Daniel Clark and others account for 
cutting & clearing the East & West Road one rod 
wide, Six & half miles long, amounting to £15 2.?., 
be allowed and paid l)y Mr. Wendell. 

" Voted, That as ,lohn Wendell, Esrj., is largely in 
advance for this Proprietry, & that it does not suit 
him to let it remain so, he is hereby impowered to 
hire One hundred Pounds L. My on account of this 
Proprietry, who will account with him for the same. 

"Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to Friday 
the 24"' day of November next. 

" Jox.\THAN Wap.xei!, Mod." 

"Mr. Daniel Chirks acct for Protectworth Roads: 
"To cutting out & clearing 62 miles of 

Road thro Protectworth (^'. 48s. per mile £15 12.v." 

Ladd's survey and Zepheniali Clark's survey 
are both ou record in full i'l the proprietors' rec- 
ord-book, which is in our towu clerk's office. 

The following is a coj^y of John Weudell's 
second bill. 

"D' The Prop' of Protectworth To John Wendell. 

1772. 

Sept. To Cash pd D. Lad his Bill of 

Survey 18-100 Lots £(! lis Zd 

To my own time on said Business 3 12 
1773. 
.luly 3. To my Horse & expence to 

Kingston w'" Settlers 2 11 6 

" To Advance as a Bounty to send 

7 Settlers 25 10 

July 10. To Cash paid Clarke & Clifibrd 

for 2 Horses for Settler.* 6 

July. To Cash gave for Rum 15'' 1 3 



322 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



To Casli paid Clark, Lang, Kenis- 
' ton, Muclimore and Sisco for 
their allotting the Govenors 
18-100 acre 84 

To my own Time, Horse & ex- 
pence ab' Said Business 3 12 

To cash jiaid Nere Boyse for a 

Plan 6 



L. Money... £56 8s Od 
" Errors excepted. 

" pr JoHX Wendell. 

" November, 24, 1774. — Met as per adjournment. 

" Whereas his Excellency Gov. Wentworth now 
owns that tract of Land which Messrs. Fisher, AVarner 
& Wendell Conveyed to John Hurd, Esq., containing 
twelve Thousand acres, which is nearly equal to 
twenty-seven Shares or Rights in the Town. There- 
fore it is hereby voted That Twenty-seven of the 
Seventy-five acre lots on the north side of the 
great Road be drawn to twenty-seven original Pro- 
prietors, of whom Said Wendell, Warner & Fish- 
er bought the same & when so drawn, that they be 
entered in the Proprietors Book, and that in future 
those Rights shall be considered as belonging to the 
Governor, & subject to the Same Taxes & Terms of 
Settlement as the other Rights." 

" April 20, 1777. — Met as per adjournment. 

" Voted, That by reason of the Troubles of the 
Country and Many of the intended Settlers being 
called away into the army, the Time for Said Settlers 
is further prolonged for twelve months, from this 
Day." 

"Jan. 26, 1778. — Whereas Governor Wentworth 
for the benefit of the Settlement did agree with Capt. 
Minot, of Concord, to give him Eighteen Hundred 
Acre Lots to jirocure Settlers on the Same, which 
were accordingly laid out for him at the expense of this 
Proprietry as being a part of his proportion of settle- 
ment, and whereas the Governor also gave away a 
number of his Seventy-five acre lots to Settlers, but 
before a |>r(iiier conveyance was got of him, he unex- 
pectedly left the Government, and as the Said Minot 
did not fulfill his engagement by which the settle- 
ment has been greatly retarded and fallen heavy upon 
a few. Therefore 

" Voted, That a Representation be made to the 
General Assembly for Redress on this Matter, as well 
to the Settlers as those Projirietors who have done 



more Duty than others, and that the Same be pre- 
sented by the Moderator when he thinks proper. 

" Voted, that, if any person will undertake to build 
a Grist-Mill and Saw-Mill in twelve Months from this 
date. This Proprietry hereby engages to give them 
Thirty Pounds in Money, and the Mill Lot of Seven- 
ty-five Acres, provided they build the Same to the 
Satisfiiction of Mr. Wendell, who is appointed for 
that ]mrpose of Agreeing." 

"Aug. 29, 1778. — Voted, that the Collector proceed 
to notify the Delinquents to ])ay Their taxes already 
assessed, anci in Default thereof, to make Sale of 
their Lands according to Law, and to pay the State 
Treasurer the State Tax for the last and present 
year." 

"Portsmouth, Dec. 20, 177.S.— Foto/, that the fol- 
lowing Petition be presented by Jonathan Warner, 
PiSq., Moderator of this meeting, to the Hon. Gener- 
al Assembly, and that the same be Signed by him in 
Behalf of this Projirietry, and a copy Attested by 
the Clerk be given thereof. 

"To the Hon'''° Council and House of Representa- 
tives for the State of New Hampshire in General 
As.sembly convened, at Exeter. 

" The Memorial and Petition of the Proprietors of 
Protectworth, in the County of Grafton, in the State 
aforesaid, unto your Honors Humbly Shews, — 

" That John Wentworth, Esq., late Governor of 
New Hamphire, purchased Twelve Thousand xVcres 
of Land in said Township, equal to Twenty-seven 
shares which were accordingly allotted out at the ex- 
pense of this Proprietry, and afterwards drawn to said 
Shares. That for Settlement of said Land, the Gov- 
ernor agreed to give away Eighteen Lotts of one 
hundred Acres each to setlers, and imployed Capt. J. 
Minot, of Concord, for that Purpose, and also gave 
away to sundry Persons several of his Seventy-five 
Acre Lots to be setled, but before he had executed 
his Deeds for the same, he cpiitted the Government, 
and Capt. Minot also failing in his Contract, the 
whole Burthen of the Settlement has fallen on ye 
Petitioners who have given away more than Twenty 
setling Lots, besides paying for public Roads, & 
allotting the Town, and the State Taxes for the years 
1777 and 1778, whilst all the Proprietry, and State 
Taxes on the said Governor's Rights are wholly un- 
paid, and altho your Petioners have directed their 
Collector to proceed in the Sale thereof agreeable to 
Law, and notifications in the jiublic Prints for that 



SPRINGFIELD. 



323 



purpose, yet as by the Sequestration & Confiscation 
Acts, the said Governor's Estate becomes forfeited, 
Your Petitioners out of Respect to Government, have 
desired said Collector to desist in the Sale of the de- 
linquent Rights until they have the advisnient of the 
Hon"" Court, and they humbly pray your Honours 
to appoint a Committee to examine into the State ol 
this Dependency, & to report thereon so as this Hon'" 
Court may grant such Relief thereon as may be 
found Rcasonaljic. And that those Persons whcp 
have had Lots promised them by the Governor may 
be confirmed thereou, and that the said Eighteen 
Lots of one hundred Acres each designed for the set 
tlement of the Town, may be disposed of by the 
Proprietors in the most Beneficial manner for tlic 
Settlement of the Town, and that the Seventy-five 
Acres on which the Taxes have been laid, may be 
sold for payment thereof agreeable to Law, or other 
ways paid by an Order on the Treasury, and your 
Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever i>ray. 

"Jonathan Warner, Moderator. 

" Portsm" June 17th, 1780. — A true Coppy fr(nn the 
Records of the Proprietors of Protectworth. 

"Attested per .John Wendell, p" Cleric." 

"Friday, January 1, 177S). — Met as per adjourumeiit. 
" Whereas, JohnWendell, Esq., hath agreed with Rob- 
ert Wadleigh Smith, David Bean, and Joseph Bean 
to give them that Seventy-five acre Lot of land in 
Protectworth,which was intended for a Mill Privilege 
near the Centre of the Town, and their Choice out of 
any of the hundred acre Lots laid out by Daniel 
Ladd and Eighteen Pounds Lawful Jloney in Cash, in 
Consideration whereof they are to build a Saw Mill 
and Complete the Same liy the last day of Sept. next 
in a workmanlike manner, at their |iniper Cost and 
expence and for their own use. Therefore it being 
fully considered on — 

" Voted, That the said agreement be confirmed and 
considered as the act of this Proprietry." 

"Portsmouth, June 14th, 1782.— Met as per Ad- 
journment. After considering the Subject of Taxes 
and the result of a conference with the Administrator 
or Trustee of Gov. Wentworth's Estate, and passing 
notes in relation thereto 

"Voted, That Judith CliHx)rd, wife of Israel Cliflbrd, 

jun'.. Shall have fifty acres of Land out of some of 

the hundred acre Lots laid out, and that Prop'r to 

whom said hundred acres shall belong. Shall be made 
21 



good fifty acres some where else, — Said Land being 
voted in Consideration of her being the first female 
settler in the Town of Protectworth." 

At a meeting of the proprietors of Protect- 
worth, duly warned to meet at the house of Johu 
Wendell, Esq., at Portsmouth Plains, on the 14th 
day of April, 1781), at three o'clock iu the after- 
noon, the following votes were passed : 

" Voted, Jona. Warner, Esq"", be the Moderator. 

" Whereas, the Inhabitauts and settlers in said 
Town of Protectworth have not been provided l)ythe 
Charter of said Town with a Ministerial Lot, which 
is a discouragement to said settlers and unprecedented 
in Charters, the said proprietors being willing to 
assist them with their Proportion towards that Pur- 
pose have, and do hereby consent and agree to vote 
and it is now 

" Voted, That the said Town shall have the choice 
out of any of the Cue Hundred acre (hundred acre) 
Lots to take Seventy-five acres to be for and as a 
Ministerial Seat forever, and for that use only, provi- 
ded said choice shall be made as near the centre of 
said south side as may be found proper for a settle- 
ment, and reserving a Road, and any Proprietors land 
which may be chosen for said purpose shall be made 
equally good by this Proprietry in any other lands 
after that he shall have executed a deed to said Town 
for said use. 

" Wliereti.t, the inhabitantsand settlers in said Town 
are destitute of a proper Place lor a training Field, 
Burying ground an<l other Public uses and jiraying 
this Proprietry to grant them Five acres for y° said 
those purposes, and said Proprietors being disjiosed 
to comjily with their request. Therefore 

" Voted, That if the said inhabitants can find Five 
acres within any of the Lots belonging to the Pro- 
prietors of said south side which shall be by the 
selectmen of said To.wn thcmght suitable for said use 
the Town shall have said five acres for .said publick 
uses forever. Provided the same be laid out in a 
square form and shall be keptenfenced by said town 
so as not to Injure the Proprietor of said Lot out of 
whicb the same may be taken by laying the same 
common, and the Proprietor or owner of said Lot 
shall be satisfied for the same out of the proprietor's 
other Lands after he shall have executed a Deed of 
the same to said town for said uses." 



324 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



THE TOWN RECORDS OF PROTECTWOKTH. 

" Mar. y' 4, 1789. 

H o. ^ <• TVT u 1 These to notify & warn 

' State ot New Hanip- 1 •' 

[-all the legal voters of 

shire Cheshire, SS. J ^^^^ town.ship of Protect- 

worth to meet at the house of Mr. Ebenezer 

Loverin in town, on the last Monday in this Instant 

March, at 2 o'clock P. M., there to act, as follows, viz. : 

" first, to choose a moderator to govern s^ meeting. 

" 2d, to choose Town Clerk. 

"3d, to choose Selectmen, Constable and all other 

town officers as the law Directs, 
" 4th, to see how much money the town will raise 

to Repair highways for the year Insuing. 
" Given under our hands this the 15th Day of 

March, 1781. 
" This by order of Court. "Mr. Gile.s. 

"Sdrctmen, 

of Prntectworth." 
" Mr. Giles, Moderator. 

" The town of Protectworth being met together at 
time & place aforesaid Passed the following 
votes, viz. : 
"1st, by vote Chose Nathaniel Clark, town Clerk. 
" 2d, by vote Chose Izrael Cliftbrd, ju', ^ 

John Chouch, I" Selectmen 

Nicholas Hardy, j 

" 3d, by vote Chose Sam'l Stevens, Constable. 
" 4th, by vote Chose Thomas Gordon, "j Survairs of 
Israel Clifford, J highway. 

"5th, by vote Chose George Whicher 
William Corser, 
" 6th, Voted to raise thirty Pounds L. M. to sup- 
port highway at Corn 3s.Pr. bushel & 3«. pr Day. 
"Attest: 

"Nathaniel Clark, Town Clerk." 

" March 13th, 1782.— Chose Benjamin Choat, Mod- 
erator ; Nathaniel Clark, Town Clerk ; Israel Clif- 
ford, Junr, David Hall & Nicholas Hardy, Select- 
men ; John Chouch, Constable ; Berley Hardy & 
Robert W. Smith, Sessars ; George Whicher & John 
Sawyer, Hawards;' Nicholas Hardy, Town Treasurer; 
Israel Clifibrd, Jun', Thomas Gordon, Survairs of 
highway." 

"March 31, 1783. — Chose John Sawyer, Mod.; 

1 Hay-wards or field-drivers, whose duty was to take 
care of cattle, liorses and sheep going astray, doing, 
damage, owners known or unknown. 



hawards. 



Nathaniel Clark, Town Cl'k ; John Couch, Birley 
hardy, John Quimby, Selectmen ; David Bean, Con- 
stable. Put to vote to see if the town will raise 
any money for Schooling and passed in the negative. 
Voted to raise money to Defray town Charges and for 
the Selectmen assess so much as they shall think Nes- 
sary." 

" March y" 20'", 1784. — Chose John Sawyer, Mod. ; 
Sam' Robie, Town Clerk ; John Chouch, Nichola.s 
Hardy & Reuben Stevens, Selectmen ; Timothy 
Quimly, Constable. Put to vote to see if the town 
would carry in votes for a President and County 
Senator and Passed in y'" Negative — 

" 8"'ly Voted that y" Selectmen should lay out 
Roads through town where Wanted." 

" March 7, 1785. — Chose Sam'l. Stevens, Mod. ; 
Sam'l. Robie, T. C. ; Sam'l Robie, Israel Clillbrd, jr., 
& John Quimby, Selectmen. Voted to higher four 
Days Preaching this year & chose Ebenezer Loverin 
to hire said preaching." 

"Sept. 19, 1785.— Chose David Beau, Delegate, to 
attend a cimvention at Hanover. Voted to petition 
to General Court for a small land ta.x on Non-resident 
Land. Put to vote to see if the town would buy a 
Law book and Passed in the Negative." 

" December 15, 1785. — A Special Town meeting 
was called and l"iy. Chose Reuben Stevens, Modera- 
tor of said meeting : 2'*ly, by Ballots Chose David 
Beau for a Justice of the Peace for said Town." 

" Dec. 30, 1785. — Special Town Meeting at the 
house of Capt. John Quimby. Voted to send Sanil 
Robie as Delegate, with a number of others, on Con- 
vension y'' 3'' day of .January next, at the house of 
Coll. Bruster, in Hanover." 

"March 27, 1786.— Benj. Choat, Moderator; Moss 
Elkins, Town Clerk ; Abraham Sanborn, Nathaniel 
Clark, & Sam'l Clay, Selectmen ; also chose Survairs 
of highways & Lumber, Sessors, Sealer of weights & 
measures, and hogg Reifs. Voted to send a Petition 
to the General Court for abatement of war tax. 
Chose Daniel Bean to carry in s'd Petition. It is 
understood that voting was practiced by proxy this 
year and that the Clerk was unable to write or read, 
but Sam'l Robie, post Clerk, officiated as Clerk for 
Mose Elkins, Town Cl'k, who was also the Pound- 
keeper." 

"Mar. 26, 1787.— Benj. Choat, Mod. ; Sam'l Robie, 
T. C. ; Mathew Gault, Timothy Quimby & Sam'l 
Robie, Selectmen. Voted to raise some money for 



SPRINGFIELD. 



325 



Schooling but no money for preaching this year. 
Chose Reuben Stevens tidings man ; Chose Abraham 
Sanborn, Grand- Juryman. Voted not to clioose a 
Justice of the Peace. Cliose a committee of three to 
examine Selectmen's ac'ompt. Special town meetings 
were called to elect Grand Juryman." 

"Mar. 31, 1788.— Israel Clitibrd. Jr., Mod. ; Sam'l 
Robie, T. Clerk; Mathew Gault, James Carr Hazzard 
& Sara'l Robie, Selectmen. Voted to hier four days' 
preaching, and to raise 12£ for Schooling the Insuing 
year, to be paid in gi-ain at 48 per Imshel. Chose 
tidingsmen and Haywards as usual." 

"Dec. 9, 1788. — Voted, to build a meeting-houae, 
and that it be set on that Lot of land that the Pound 
stands on in the Convenient place. Chose Timothy 
Quimby, Reuben Stevens and Israel Clittbrd Jun'., 
Committee men to builil said meeting-house. Voted 
to see if the Town would build a school-house and 
Passed in the Negative." 

"Mar. 30'\ 1789.— Israel Clitfbrd jr., Saml. Robie, 
T. Clerk ; Abraham Sanborn, Israel Clifford .lun'., 
Moses Richardson, Selectmen ; Abraham Sanborn, 
Representative for Protectworth and Jsew Grantham. 
Voted for President of State, Senator & County 
officers (first time on record). Voted to raise S£ for 
Preaching & no money for Schooling this year." 

"Mar. 29, 1790.— Nathaniel Clark, Moderator; 
Saml. Robie, Town Clerk; Theodore Morse, Isaac 
Noyes & Nathaniel Clark, Selectmen. Voted to raise 
3£ for Preaching & 6£ for Schooling. Voted to 
divide the town into districts for Schooling." 

" Aug. 30, 1790. — Voted for first time for Repre- 
sentative to Federal Congress." 

" March 28, 1791.— Israel Cliflbrd, Jr., Mod. ; Saml. 
Robie, T. Clerk ; Theodore Morse, Israel Cliflbrd, 
jun'.,& Reuben Sanborn, Selectmen. By proces chose 
Samuel Dunkiu, Esq. (Grantham), Rep. for Protect- 
worth & New Grantham. Voted to raise 6£ for 
Preaching and 6£ for Schooling, & Voted that each 
district build their own school-houses. All Town 
otficers Sworn in Presence of the People. Samuel 
Duncan, Esq., chosen delegate by the District of 
Protectworth & New Grantham, to Convention, to 
revise State Laws, August 1, 1791 ; chose Nathaniel 
Clark to Serve on the Grand Jury at the Court of 
General Sessions, for one year, August 18, 1791." 

" Mar. 10, 1792. — Moses Richardson, Mod.; Saml. 
Robie, T. Clerk; Nathaniel Little, Jedediah Phil- 
brick <& Theodore Morse, Selectmen. Voted to raise 



Six £ for Preaching, half time at Capt. Quimby's & 
half at Ebenezer Loverin's. Raised twelve £ for 
Schooling. Voted, That the Selectmen should em- 
ploy Tilly How to preach so long as the money raised 
will pay him, provided they can agree with him on 
reasonable terms. And that they hire Mr. How to 
teach the school so long as the money raised will pay 
him." 

"Nov. 20, 1792.— Selectmen Perambulated the 
town line, from S. E. corner of Grantham to N. W. 
Corner of Wendell (being 1st record of perambulating 
town lines)." 

"May 17, 1792.— First Petit Juryman elected at a 
Special meeting, John Noyes." 

"March 11, 1793.— Mo.ses Richardson, Moderator ; 
Sam'l Robie, T. Clerk ; Town officers chosen by hand 
vote; Moses Richardson, Sam'l Robie, Capt. John 
Quimby, Selectmen ; Caleb Loverin, Constable and 
Collector, at (9) nine pence upon the pound. Voted 
to raise twelve pounds for schooling and not any 
money for preaching. Jedediah Philbrick, Repre- 
sentative for the towns of New Grantham and Pro- 
tectworth. Selectmen apiiroved of Jedediah Phil- 
brick, Charles Hogg and David Bean selling rum and 
all other sjiirituous liquors, by retail, being suitable 
men and living in suitable places to serve the 
publick; also, approved of Sam'l Clay selling rum, 
brandy and all other spirits, by the Retail, by the 
Gallon and any under, but not to mix with water." 

"State of New Hampshire. 

" In the year of our Lord one Thousand seven 
hundred, ninety-four. 

" An Act to incorporate the Inhabitants of a place 
in the County of Cheshire, called Protectworth. 
Wtereas, the said Inhabitants have petitioned the 
General Court to be Incorporated, of which due 
notice has been given and no objection been made to 
the same, and it appearing for their benefit and just. 

" Be it, therefore, enacted by the Senate and House 
of Representatives, in General Court convened. That 
there be, and hereby is, a township erected and In- 
corporated in the said County of Cheshire, by the 
name of Springfield, Bounded as follows: Begining 
at a Beech tree at the South-East corner of Grafton ; 
from thence, runing South thirty-nine Degrees 
West two miles and forty-four chains, on the Curve 
Line so called; then South thirty-Seven Degrees 
West four miles and thirty-seven chains, on said 



326 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



curve line ; then runing North seventy- four Degrees 
West five miles and nineteen chains, by Wendell ; 
then runing North Sixteen Degrees East one mile 
and forty-four chains, to a small rock maple-tree at 
the southerly corner of New Grantham ; then North 
thirty-one Degrees East five miles ana thirty chains, 
by said New Grantham to a heinliick-tree at the 
Northeast corner thereof; then runing South twenty- 
two Degrees F^ast one mile to a small Hackmatack- 
tree; then on the same course five miles and thirty- 
six chains, and one-half chain to the Beech-tree 
whence it began; and the Inhabitants thereof erected 
into a body Politic, and are hereby invested with all 
the Powers, and Enfranchised with all the Rights, 
privileges and immunities which other towns in this 
State hold and enjoy. To Hold to the Said Inhabit- 
ants and their Successors for ever. And Jlr. Jedi- 
diah Philbrick is hereby authorized to call a meeting 
of Said Inhabitants to choose all necessary and 
customary town-ofiicers, giving Fourteen days notice 
of the time and place and design of said meeting. 
And said officers shall be and hereby are invested 
with all the powers of the like officers in any other 
town in this State ; and every other meeting, which 
shall be annually held in said town for that purjiose, 
shall be on the Second Tuesday of March for ever. 

" State of New Hampshire. In the House of 
Representatives, January 21st, 1794. The foregoing 
Bill having had three Several Readings, passed to be 
Enacted. Sent up for Concurrence. 

"Nathi.. Peabody, Speaker. 

" In Senate, January 23, 1794. This Bill having 

been Read three times. Voted that the Same be 

Epacted. 

" Abiel Foster, President of the Senate. 

"Approved 24"' January, 1794. 

"JOSIAH BaRTLETT. 

" True Copy. 

"Nathaniel Parker, Dep'y Sec'y." 

" Agreeable to the foregoing act of Incorporation, 
Jedediah Philbrick warned the first annual Town 
Meeting in the town of Springfield to be holden Mar. 
11'" 1794. Chose Jedediah Philbrick, Esq., Mod. 
Voted to chose Town Clerk and Selectmen by proxes. 
Moses Richardson, Town Clerk ; Moses Richardson, 
Israel Cliftbrd, Jun', Eus. Nathaniel Little, Select- 
men ; Nathaniel Clark, Constable and Coll. at one 
penny per pound. Ebenezer Loverin as bondsman 
for said Clark was accepted. Chose Lieut. Sam'l 



Robie, Sam'l Clay and David Bean Committee to ex- 
amine the Selectmen's accompt. Moses Richardson, 
Town Treasurer; John Muzzey, Ebenezer Noyes, 
Reuben Stevens, Charles Hogg and Dea° Stephen 
Kinsman, Surveyors of Highways ; Lieut. Sam'l Robie 
and Moses Elkins, Tything-men ; Eliphalet Quimby 
and Timothy Quimby, Surveyors of Lumber ; Joseph 
Nichols and Eliphalet Quimby, hawards; Israel Clif- 
ford, Junr., Cajit. Reuben Hoyt and Jonathan San- 
born, Fence Viewers; Nicholas Hardy, Pound Keep- 
er; Lieut. Sanil. Robie, Sealer of Weights and Meas- 
ures; Saml. Clay, Sealer of Leather ; Stevens Colcord, 
Deer Inspector. All the above were sworn. Voted 
to raise Fifty pounds for Repairing Highways, Twenty 
pounds for Schooling, Fifteen pounds for Preaching. 
Selectmen were chosen a (_'om. to lay out said money 
for preaching. 

" Voted to build a Pound twenty-five feet square 
with Hemlock or Pine Sills, Posts eight inches square 
and eight feet high, Rails to be Spruce, hewed or 
sawed, four Plates of Pine, twelve inches square eight 
good and sufficient Braces, and a Gate sufficient for 
said Pound. The building of said Pound being setup 
at Vendue, was struck oft" to John Loverin for three 
pounds six shillings, his having the three days work 
due from Moses Elkins, Jr. 

" The Hon"'' John Taylor Oilman, 45 Votes for 
Governor; Daniel Rand, Esq., 39 Votes for Counsel- 
lor; John Bellows, Esq., 35 Votes for Senator ; John 
Hubbard, Escj., 38 Notes for County Treasurer; Ben- 
jamin Bellows, 36 Votes for Recorder of Deeds. 

" Voted that the Selectmen find books for ye Town 
and a Standard of Weights and Measures. The fore- 
going is the principal part of this first Town Meeting. 

"The first Record of Inventory and Taxes which 
we find was during the present year, and against the 
following : 

Capt. Ephraim Kinsman. John Bachelor. 

Col. Aaron Kinsman. Zebb Gilman. 

Dea° Stephen Kinsman. Joseph Webster. 

James Riddell. James McDaniel. 

James Riddell, Jr. John Philbrick. 

Ephraim Colby. Thomas Challaee. 

Capt. John Gaile. Silas Barker. 

Ebenezer Noyes. James C. Hazzard. 

Daniel Cilley. Stephen Sawyer. 

Ens. Nathaniel Little. John Sawyer. 

,Tohn Noyes. Reuben Stevens. 



SPRINGFIELD. 



327 



Isaiah Johnson. 
Stephen Webster. 
Samuel Clay. 
John Karr. 
Reuben Sanborn. 
Philip Colby. 
Lt. Saml. Robie. 
Moses Richardson. 
Joseph Xichols. 
Capt. John Quiraby. 
Elisha Quimby. 
Deputy Bowman. 
Jacob Ferrington. 
Moses Elkins. 
Moses Elkins, Jr. 
Doc' Will" Phillips. 
Lt. Reuben Hoyt. 
Nicholas Hardy. 
Benjamin Hardy. 
Eben' Loverin. 
Caleb Loverin. 
Israel Cliftbrd, Jr. 
Timothy Quimby. 
John Loverin. 
Nathaniel Clark. 
Osgood Taylor, Esq'. 
Jedediah Philbrick. 
Abraham Philbrick. 
Jonathan Young. 
Samuel Stevens. 
Eliphalet Quimby. 
Jerremiah Fogg, Esq. 
David Bean. 
Jasson Hazzard. 



Jonathan Stevens. 
Theodore Morse. 
Enoch Heath. 
John Heath. 
Daniel Bean. 
Dustin Cheney. 
Evan M. Heath. 
Thomas Davis. 
William Quimby. 
Jesse Davis. 
Daniel Richardson. 
Jonathan Dudley. 
Israel Clitf'ord. 
John Dudley. 
Stevens Colcord. 
Tristram Clifford. 
Jonathan Sanborn. 
Joseph Taylor. 
Moses Pillsbury. 
Joseph Pillsbury. 
Isaac Colby. 
Robert Hogg. 
Charles Hogg. 
Moses Merrill. 
John Stevens. 
John Muzzy. 
Biley Hardy. 
Daniel Philbrick. 
Samuel Evans. 
Amos Flood. 
Asa Kinsman. 
John Cilley. 
John Gilman. 



"The total County and Town Tax, £40 14s. llrf. ; 
School Tax, £10 7». 5d. 2 far. ; Highway Tax, £.31 5s. 
3d.; Poll Tax, County and Town, Ss. 2d. 2 far.; 
School, Is. Id. 1 for. ; Highway, 4s. Total Poll Tax, 
8s. 9(/. 3 far. 

" Mar. 10, 1795.— Jedediah Philbrick, Mod. ; Saml. 
Robie, T. Clerk ; Samuel Robie, Jonathan Sanborn, 
David Bean, Selectmen; Nathaniel Clark, Cons. & 
Coll. ; Moses Richardson, T. Treas. ; Ens. Nathaniel 
Little chosen by the towns of Springfield and New 
Grantham, to represent the said towns in General 
Court. En' Philip Colby was elected Agent to get 
the plan of the .Salisbury Jleeting House. 

" We find by the Records, that previous to this 



several families and persons bad been warned out of 
town by the Selectmen." 

"Sept. 7, 1795. — Voted to accept the plan of a 
Meeting House, as laid before the Town by En' Philip 
Colby, and that the Constitutit)n of said Meeting 
House shall be as followetb (viz.) That when said 
house be built that any Gospel Minister or Preacher 
of any Denomination shall Preach in said house, he 
or they being of good caracter, at the Request of any 
Denomination in said Town, according to their num- 
bers." 

"Mar. 8, 1796.— Jedediah Philbrick, Mod.; Saml. 
Robie, T. Clerk ; Saml. Robie, Jedediah Philbrick, 
Nathl. Little, Selectmen; Barachias Farnura, Cons. 
& Coll.; Moses Richardson, T. Treasurer. Hog- 
reeves were chosen this year in addition to other 
Town officers. Voted to raise forty pounds for school- 
ing, and no money for preaching. Robert Duncan of 
New Grantham was chosen to represent the Towns of 
New Grantham and Springfield in General Court." 

" Mar. 14, 1797.— Saml. T. Clark, Mod., and Select- 
men as in 1796 ; Nathaniel Clark, Cons. & Coll. ; Na- 
thaniel Little to represent New Grantham and Spring- 
field in General Court." 

" Aug. 28, 1797. — Prior to this, the Town Meetings 
have been holden at the houses of Capt. John Quim- 
by and Sam' Clay. To-day a Meeting is to be holden 
in the INIeeting-house. Jedediah Philbrick, Mod. 
Secondly, brought in their votes for Peleg Sprague, 
Esq'. 27 vote to Represent this State in Congress of 
the United States." 

" ( )ct. 30, 1797.— Moses Richardson, Timothy Quim- 
by and Israel Cliffijrd, Jr., were chosen Committee- 
men to Convene with Mr. Hibard and see on what 
terms he will supply us as a Minister." 

" Mar. 13, 1798.— The .same Mod. Town Clerk & 
Selectmen as in 1796-97. Robert Duncan to repre- 
sent New Grantham and Sjiringfield." 

" 1799.— Jedediah Philljrick. Mod.; Saml. Robie, 
T. Clerk; Saml. Robie, Nathaniel Little, Jedediah 
Philbrick, Selectmen. Jedediah Philbrick was chosen 
to represent New Grantham and Siiringfield. It was 
voted to pay Rev. Solomon Hibard $100 for preaching 
two-thirds of the time during 1798, and in 1799 they 
voted to pay him $200 for the year, one-third being in 
cash and two-thirds in produce. The Meeting-House 
w;is Dedicated the last Wed. in Sept., 1799." 

" Mar. ISOO.— Nathaniel Little, Mod. ; Saml. Robie, 
T. Clerk ; Theodore Morse, Nathaniel Little, Dr. Na- 



328 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



thaniel Prentis, Selectmen. Voted to allow John 
Quimhy, Jr., one dollar for taking care of meeting- 
house the past j'ear. No Representative elected." 

" 1801.— Jedediah Philbrick, Mod. Voted to choose 
all officers by hand vote. Saml. Robie, T. Clerk ; 
Saml. Robie, Jedediah Philbrick & Dr. Nathaniel 
Prentis, Selectmen ; Osgood Taylor, Cons, and Collec- 
tor. Voted that the Selectmen make Mr. Dean some 
compensation for his services for the last Sabbath. 
(Nov. 13, 1800). In 1801 voted to raise Sixty Dollars 
for preaching and those who gave their names to 
Selectmen before the tax was made sliould have their 
proportion and the committee lay out the remainder 
for travelling preachers, unless they otherways agree. 
Samuel Robie, Representative for towns of New 
Orantham and Springfield. Voted to dispense with the 
services of the clerk of the New Grantham & Spring- 
field Representative district." 

"1802. — Dr. Nathaniel Prentis, Moderator; Sam'l 
Robie, Town Clerk ; Sam'l Robie, Nathaniel Prentis 
& Charles Hogg, Selectmen ; Reuben Sanborn, Col- 
lector of taxes at Id. per £." 

" Nov. 18, 1802. — Called a special town Meeting 
chose a Moderator and voted to employ Mr. Rolfe to 
.preach one day with us." 

" 1803.— Chose Capt. Charles Hogg, Mod. ; Sam'l 
Robie, T. Clerk; Nathaniel Little, Capt. Charles 
Hogg, Capt. Philip Colby, Selectmen ; and Capt. Ca- 
leb Loveriug, Constable and Collector at Cc. per £. 
Voted to chose a Committee of seven men to divide the 
town into districts for schooling, and that their pro- 
ceedings shall be valid. Chose Samuel Robie to rep- 
resent New Grantham and Springfield." 

" 1804.— Jedediah Philbrick, Mod. ; Sam'l Robie, 
Town Clerk ; Charles Church, Jedediah Pliilbrick, 
Sam'l Robie, Selectmen, who were sworn by Nathaniel 
Little, he being one of the old Selectmen. Daniel 
Gihnan, Cons, and Coll. at S^c. per £." 

" Oct. 20, 1804. — Voted to petition the General Court 
to allow the town of Springfield to send a Representa- 
tive inasmuch as New Grantham has notified us that 
they have constitutionally gained their freedom." 

" 1805.— Capt. Philip Colby, Mod. ; Sam'l Robie, 
Town Clerk; Sam'l Robie, Nathaniel Prentis, Samuel 
Little, Selectmen ; Thomas Colcord, Cons, and Coll. 
at 9 J cts. per £." 

" Dec. 25, 1805. — Voted to build five school-houses 
before November next." 

" 1806.— Chose Capt. Reuben Hoyt, Mod. ; Sam'l 



Robie, Town Clerk; Sam'l Little, John Quimby, Jr., 
Jedediah Philbrick, Selectmen ; Daniel Oilman, Cons. 
and Coll. ; Chose Lieut. Daniel Noyes to represent 
this town in General C( urt the ensuing year, he being 
the first Representative cho.sen by Springfield alone." 

"1807.— Capt. Reuben Hoyt, Mod. ; Sam'l Robie, 
Town Clerk. Voted to choose a committee to exam- 
ine the Selectmen's accounts for last year, and said 
committee to report to-morrow; they reported, and 
the report was accepted agreeably." 

" Sam'l Robie, Sam'l Little, John Quimby, Jr., Se- 
lectmen ; Daniel Noyes, Representative. Voted that 
the Collector of taxes shall be considered as Consta- 
ble, and the Collecting of Taxes be struck oft' to the 
lowest bidder. Enoch Cliallis, Coll. at 6c. per £., 
(equal to $1.80 per $100)." 

" 1808.— Capt. Philip Colby, Mod. ; Sam'l Robie, 
Town Clerk ; Sam'l Robie, Dr. Nathaniel Prentis, 
Lieut. Benjamin Colby, Selectmen; Capt. Reuben 
Hoyt, Coll. at 2.! cts. i)er dollar. Daniel Noyes, Esq., 
Representative." 

" Voted to build a Pound with stones." 

" May 2, 1808. — Sold the seventy-five acrelotgran- 
ted the town by the original i)roprietors for .support of 
Preaching, at vendue to the liighest bidder, being 
struck ofl'to Williiun (Quimby at $5 i)er acre." 

"1809.— Philip Colby, Mod.; Sam'l Robie, Town 
Clerk; Sam'l Robie, Jedediah Philbrick, John Quimby, 
,Tr., Telectmen ; Daniel Noyes, Representative. Voted 
to give Mr. Watson the interest on the town for his 
services the ensuing year, he being a Resident and 
Preacher ; Reuben Hoyt, Coll." 

"1810.— Jedediah Philbrick, Moderator; Nathl. 
Prentis, Town Clerk ; Capt. Benjamin Colby, Lieut. 
Sam'l Little, Jonathan Sanborn, Selectmen ; Capt. 
Reuben Hoyt, Coll.; Daniel Noyes, Representative ; 
Nathl. Prentis, Town Clerk; Died Oct. 10, 1810, and 
Samuel Robie was elected to serve out the year." 

"1811. — Jedediah Philbrick, Moderator; Sam'l 
Little, Town Clerk ; Sam'l Little, Jedediah Philbrick, 
Moses Pillsbury, Selectmen ; Thomas Colcord, Coll. 
($.014) 1 ct.& 4 mills per dollar; Col. John Quimby, 
Rep." 

" 1812.— Col. John Quimby, Mod. ; Sam'l Little, T. 
Clerk ; Jedediah Philbrick, Esq., Capt. Benj. Colby, 
Ens. Andrew Pettingill, Selectmen ; Thomas Colcord, 
Coll. ; Col. John Quimby, Representative. Chose 
Mr. JosiahBaily, Dr. Amasa Howard and David Col- 



SPRINGFIELD. 



329 



cord a committee to inspect schools, being the first on 
record." 

" 1812, Oct. 10.— The Warrant for Presidential elec- 
tion contain the following Article and Request: To 
see what sum of money the inhabitence of this town 
will give each 8oldier by the month who now stands 
at a minuits warning to bee Called out in Defence ol 
the Country. And it is earnestly Requested that no 
person should unnecessarily Bee Detained at Home 
on said day as it is a day when every nuui must show 
himself a friend or an enemy to his Country." 

"lSi;i Chose Sam'l Robie Mod.; Sam'l Little, T. 
Clerk; Sam'l Little, Benj. Colby, Joiin Morrill, Se- 
lectmen ; Capt. Reuben Hoyt, Cons, and Coll., at 11 
mills on a dollar; David Colcord, Representative." 

"1814.— Sam'l Robie, Mod.; Sam'l Little, Town 
Clerk; Sam'l Little, John Quimby, John Hoyt, Se- 
lectmen ; Ens. Andrew Pettingill, Cons. & Coll. ; Da- 
vid Colcord, Representative." 

" Voted to give Elder Elijah Watson the interest that 
arises from the town lot the year jiast and what will 
arise the year ensuing. Sam'l Little died in April, 
and April 25, at special town meeting, chose Col. John 
Quimby Town Clerk, pro tern." 

" May 16. — At special town meeting chose Jedediah 
Philbrick Town Clerk." 

" 1815.— Sam'l Robie, Mod. ; Jedediah Philbrick, 
T. C. ; Jedediah Philbrick, Moses Pillsbury and John 
Morrell, Selectmen. Chose Elder Elijah Watson 
Rep., and voted to give him the interest arising from 
the town lot the present year. David Colcord, Coll. 
& Cons." 

"1816.— Sam'l Robie, Mod.; John (|uimby. Town 
Clerk. Voted to give Mr. Watson the interest on 
town lot. David Colcord, Representative, also Cons. 
and Coll." 

" 1817.— Chose David Colcord, Mod. ; John Quimby, 
T. C. ; John Quimby, John Strocker, John Caswell, 
Selectmen ; Jloses Pillsbury, Coll. & Cons. ; Abuer 
Johnson, Reuben Hoyt, Joseph Baily to examine the 
schools ; John Quimby, Rep." 

" 1818. — Dr. Abner Johnson, Mod. ; John Quimby, 
T. C. and Rep. ; John Quimby, John Stocker, Dr. 
Abner Johnson, Selectmen." 

" 1819.— David Colcord, Mod. ; John Quimby, T. 
C. and Rep. ; John Quimby, Moses Pillsbury, Reuben 
Hoyt, Selectmen." 

"Voted not to raise any money for Preaching and 



the interest from the town lot be laid out to repair 
the meeting-house." 

'• 1820.— David Colcord, Mod. ; John Quimby, T. 
Clerk ; Reuben Hoyt, John Stocker, David Colcord, 
Selectmen; John Stocker, Rep. 

" Voted to lay out the interest arising from the town 
lot for preaching, and the Selectmen be a committee 
to lay out the same." 

" Sept. 20, 1820. — Selectmen approve of and license 
Jonathan Sanborn, Jr., Joseph Goss and Israel San- 
born to sell spirituous liquors on Muster day, near 
Jonathan Sanborn's, in Springfield." 

" 1821.— Bcnj. Colby, Mod.; John Quimby, Town 
Clerk; John Quimby, John Colby, Reuben Hoyt, 
Selectmen. Lt. Daniel Heath gave 8 mills on the 
dollar for the privilege of collecting taxes, and he 
was chosen Constable, John (Quimby, Rep." 

"1822.— Capt. Benj. Colby, Mod. ; John Quimby, 
Town Clerk ; John Quimby, Joseph Johnson, John 
Colby, Selectmen ; Sam' Stevens, Jr., Collector at one 
cent on the dollar ; John Quimby, Rep. 

" Voted to set up the support of Sally Robie at ven- 
due, by the week, for one year, should she live so long, 
while in health, and when sick the Town to pay the 
Doctor's bill, and was struck off to John (lilman, Jr., 
at twenty-one cents per week." 

" 1823.— Benj. Colby, Mod.; Abner Johnson, Town 
Clerk; John Quimby, Reuben Hoyt, Benj. Colby, 
Selectmen ; Sam' Stevens, Jr., Coll. at 1 ct. on the 
dollar ; John Stocker, Rep. 

" Voted to have the Minister money equally divided 
among the different denominations of Christians in 
tow-n, each person making known to the Selectmen to 
what denomination he belongs. 

" Foferf, unanimously, that we receive Ebenezer Lit- 
tle and others as inhabitants of this town. 

" Voted, unanimously, to receive David Tewksbury 
and others, now belonging to Grafton, as inhabitants 
of this town." 

The object of" tlie above votes was that those 
persons should be inhabitauts of the town, as they 
were members of the Cougregatioualist Church 
here, of which Job Cushmau was the pastor. 

"1824.— Chose Nathan Stickney, Mod.; Abner 
Johnson, T. Clerk ; John Quimby, Abner Johnson. 
John Stocker, Selectmen ; Sam' Stevens, Jr., Coll., at 
one cent on a dollar. 



330 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" Voted that the Selectmen should have thirty dol- 
lars for their services. 

" Voted to choose a Coniraittee to inspect schools, 
and chose Josiah Johnson, Joseph Nichols and Abner 
Johnson. 

" Foto^, unaniiaonsly, to have the Court removed 
from Charlestown to Newport. Uhose Jolin (iuimby. 
Rep." 

" Mar. 5, 1825. — Selectmen licensed Elihu Chase, 
W. Quimby and Langdon L. Hill to sell Wine, Rum, 
Gin and other spirituous liquors by retail (either 
mixed or not) on the Common, near the Meeting- 
house, on Mar. 8, 1825, and at no other time. 

" Langdon L. Hill also had iiermission to sell at 
his father's liouse in said Springfield. 

" Chose Nathan Stickney, Mod. ; Abner Johnson, 
T. Clerk ; John (Quimby, Solomon Clement, Reuben 
Hoyt, Jr., Selectmen; Dr. Joseph Nichols, Treasurer; 
Sam' Stevens, Jr., Coll. ; Joseph Nichols, Reuben 
Hoyt, Solomon Clement, Com. to Inspect Schools; 
John Quimby, Rep. Vendued the charge and sweep- 
ing of the meeting-house and care of the burying 
yard, and struck oft' to Moses D. Richardson at fifteen 
cents for the present year. 

" Voted to let the swine run at large." 

" 1826. — Elihu Chase again licensed to sell liquors 
on town-meeting day. Chose Nathan Stickney, Mod. ; 
Abner Johnson, T. Clerk; Solomon Clement, Reuben 
Hoyt, Samuel Stevens, Jr., Selectmen ; John Quimby, 
Coll.; Jos. Nichols, Treas. and Representative. 

"Voted to have Dr. Nichols' present of five dollars 
to the town placed iu the town treasury." 

" 1827 — Sullivan Co. was formed this year. Nathan 
Stickney, Mod. ; Abner Johnson, T. Clerk. 

" Voted to hear the report of Committee to inspect 
schools. John Quimby, Solomon Clement, James G. 
McAlwin, Selectmen ; Hiram French, Coll. at li cts. 
per dollar; Joseph Nichols, Treasurer and Rep.; Job 
Cushman, Abner Johnson, Joseph Nichols, Commit- 
tee to inspect schools." 

" June 19, 1827. — Moses D. Richardson and Solo- 
mon Clement were licensed to mix and sell Rum, Gin, 
Brandy and Wine at their houses and buildings on 
Wed. the 20 of June inst." 

" 1828.— Reuben Hoyt, Mod.; John Quimby, T. 
Clerk; John Quimby, Lewis Fisher, Hiram French, 
Selectmen ; Hiram French, Cons, and Coll. at l^'^ cts. 
per dollar; also, chose Joseph Lear, Constable ; Levi 
Hill, Treas. Chose one man for school committee in 



each school district by town vote. John Quimby, 
Rep. 

" Voted to set up the poor at vendue to be struck oft" 
to the lowest bidder." 

" 1829.— John H.Williams, Mod.; John Quimby, 
Town Clerk ; John Quimby, John H. Williams, John 
Field, Selectmen. James McDaniel, Cons, and Coll. 
at nine mills per dollar. Voted that the Coll. set- 
tle and pay over all taxes to the Treasurer at 
least ten days before the next annual town-meeting. 
I^evi Hill, Treas. ; John Quimby, Rep. Voted to 
put the literary fund school money at interest and 
expend the interest annually, and to be divided in 
the several school districts according to their school 
money in their districts. Voted to divide the time 
in the meeting house among the several Christian 
denominations. 

" October26, 1829.— Chose John H. Williams Town 
Clerk, Pro tern." 

" 1830. — Dr. Joseph Nichols, Mod. ; John Quim- 
by, Town Clerk; Solomon Clement, Daniel N. 
Adams, Lewis Howard, Selectmen. Chose Nathan 
Stickney agent to look up back arrearages and that 
he have power to prosecute if they dont pay it over. 
James McDaniel, Coll. ; at let. per dollar. Moses D. 
Richardson, Treas. ; John H. Williams, Rep. Voted 
that each School District choose their own Committee. 
Voted to lay out the interest among the several Socie- 
ties according to their number of Polls in said Socie- 
ties. Voted that the time in Meeting house .shall be 
divided according to the number of Polls in each So- 
ciety, and the Selectmen be the Committee to divide 
as aforesaid. Abner Johnson and D. N. Adams, Town 
Clerks Pro tem. at two special town meetings and re- 
corded by J. Quimby, T. Clerk. Voted that one 
hundred dollars of the Literary fund be expended for 
schooling, and chose Abner Johnson Agent to look up 
said Literary fund." 

"1831. — Nathan Stickney, Mod. ; Joseph Nichols, 
Town Clerk ; M. D. Richardson, Treasurer ; Hi- 
ram French, Coll. ; Lewis Howard, Moses Pillsb ury, 
John Cambell, Selectmen ; Solomon Clement, Rep- 
resentative." 

'•' 1832.— Sam. Colby, Mod. ; Joseph Nichols, T. 
Clerk ; Solomon Clement, Joseph Lear, Moses At- 
wood. Selectmen; Solomon Clement, Rep.; M. D. 
Richardson, Treas. ; John Quimby, Coll. Chose a 
Committee to consider the subject of buying a farm 
for the support of the poor." 



SPRINQFIELD. 



331 



"1833.— Sam. Colby, Mod.; Joseph Nichols, T, 
Clerk ; John Fisk, Solomon Clement, John Morrill, 
.Selectmen ; Joseph Lear, Treas. ; James McDauiel, 
Coll. ; Sam. Colby, Rep." 

" 1834.— Nathan Stickney, Mod. ; Joseph Nichols, 
I'own Clerk; Joseph Nichols, Isaac Colby, James 
Noyes, Selectmen ; Joseph Lear, Coll. ; Saml. Quim- 
by, 2°'' Coll. ; Sam. Colby, Representative. Voted to 
abate David Fuller, Jr. tax for 1833. Voted that the 
selectmen abate such other taxes as they think proper, 
that are in the hands of James McDaniel, Coll." 

Previous taxes appear to have been abated only 
liy .special vote of the town. 

"18.35. — Nathan Stickney, Mod.; Joseph Nichols, 
T. Clerk ; Joseph Nichols, Sam!. Quimby,. Daniel N. 
Adams, Selectmen ; Joseph Lear, Treas. ; J. McDan- 
iel, Coll. ; John Nichols, Rep." 

Auditors were first chosen this year. Previous 
to this a committee had been choseu to inspect 
the selectmen's accounts. 

" 1830.— Sara. Colby, Mod. ; Saml. Quimby, Town 
Clerk; Samuel Quimby, James McDaniel, Joseph 
Cross, Selectmen; John Quimby, Treas. ; James Mc- 
Daniel, Coll. ; John Nichols, Representative. 

" May 2-5, 1836.— Voted to buy a Town lai-m. 

"Springfield, Mar. 26, 1836. — Personally appeared 
Saml. Quimby 2"^, James McDaniels, and Joseph 
Goss, Selectmen of the town of Springfield for the 
year ensuing, and took the following oath : We sev- 
erally solemnly swear that we will make a just and 
true appraisement of all ratable estate subject to as- 
sessment of public taxes in the town of Springfield at 
its full value in money, according to the best of our 
judgment. So help us God. 

" Before me, 

"John Quimby, 

" Justice of Peace." 

" 1837.— Sam. Colby, Mod. ; Daniel N. Adams, T. 
Clerk ; Joseph Nichols, Benjamin Colby, Kimball 
Haseltine, Selectmen ; Moses D. Richardson, Treas. ; 
Richard Sanborn, Coll. ; Saml. Quimby, 2°", Rep. 
Chose James Noyes first agent to manage the con- 
cerns of the Poor Farm. Selectmen to buy stock for 
Poor Farm." 

" Aug. 1. — James Noyes declined ; was elected 
agent." 

" 1838.— Sam. Colby, Mod.; Daniel N. Adams, T. 



Clerk; Joseph Nichols, Benj. Colby, Sam. Colby, Se- 
lectmen; Saml. Quimby, 2°'', Rep.; Richard Sanborn, 
Coll. Voted to pay the soldiers of Capt. Peasley's 
company, who did duty on Muster and Training days, 
one hundred dollars, and voted to raise said sum by 
tax." 

" 1839.— Sam. CoUiy, Moderator; Daniel N. Adams, 
T. Clerk; Sam. Colby, Saml. Quimby, Jame-s McDan- 
iel, Selectmen ; Orra C. Howard, Rep. ; J. McDaniel, 
Collector. Voted to pay Eliakim Putney twenty-five 
<lollars extra for his services on the Town Farm." 

" 1840.— Sam Colby, Mod. ; Daniel N. Adams, T. 
Clerk ; Sam'l Quimliy, James McDaniel, William 
Stocker, Selectmen ; Orra C. Howard, Rep. ; Richard 
Sanborn, Coll. 

" Nov. 2, 1840. — Voted that the selectmen furnish a 
suitable Standard for the 4"' Military Co., before the 
4"' of Mar. next, and that they pay the Rifle Co. the 
same as the standard of Co. 4, and that the 4''" Co. 
and Rifle Co. meet on the Common on the 4"" of 
March next, to celebrate the inauguration of the 
President ; that the town furnish powder for the occa- 
sion and dinner for the soldiers belonging to both 
companies and dinner for all the spectators belonging 
to the town present on the occasion." 

" 1841. — Sam'l Quimby, Mod. ; Orra C. Howard, 
Town Clerk ; Sam'l Quimby, Joseph Nichols, William 
Stocker, Selectmen ; Daniel N. Adams, Rejj. ; Rich- 
ard Sanborn, Coll. Check- List first used in election 
of Representative and State and County officers." 

" 1842. — Sam'l Quimby, Mod. ; Orra C. Howard, 
T. Clerk ; James McDaniel, Richard Sanborn, Joel 
Whittemore, Selectmen ; Daniel N. Adams, Rep ; 
James McDaniel, Coll." 

" 1843.— Francis M. Jlorrill, Mod. ; Orra C. How- 
ard, Town Clerk ; Richard Sanborn, Sam'l Quimby, 
Ebenezer Nichols, Selectmen ; Jod Whittemore, 
Rep. ; Joseph Davis, Jr., Coll. There were four 
political parties for State officers this year. Demo- 
cratic having 170 votes. Whig 17, Liberty 8 and 
White 22." 

" 1844.— Orra C. Howard, Jlod. ; Sam'l Quimby, 
Town Clerk ; James McDaniel, E. L. Nichols, James 
McAlvin, Selectmen ; James McDaniel, Representa- 
tive. 

" Oct. 23. — 4th New Hampshire Turnpike pur- 
chased by town award of County Commissioners for 
S383.00. Sold the cleaning of the Meeting-House 
to Reuben Robie, he being the lowest bidder, at f 1.37J, 



332 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



and chose Sam Colby committee to see that the 
house is well cleaned, and he served free from any 
expense to the town. Jurors first drawn at Town 
Clerks office this year ; previous to this a special meet- 
ing of the voters was called." 

"1845.— Orra C. Howard, Mod. ; Samuel Quimby, 
Town Clerk ; Daniel N. Adams, James McAlvin, 
James McDaniel, Selectmen ; Orra C. Howard, Rep. ; 
Joseph Davis, Jr., Coll. Bids were rec'd for Collector 
of taxes and then elected." 

" 1846. — Orra C. Howard, Mod. ; Samuel Quimby, 
T. Clerk : Orra C. Howard, Joel Whittemore, Joseph 
Davis, Jr., Selectmen ; James McDaniel, Rep. ; Jos- 
eph Davis, Jr., Coll. Voted to raise $50, to be laid 
out on New road and not to pay over ($.75) seventy- 
five cents per day nor allow themselves any more." 

" 1847.— Sam'l Quimby, Mod. ; Daniel N. Adams, 
T. Clerk ; Sam'l Quimby, Joseph Davis, Jr , Amasa 
S. Abbott, Selectmen ; Joel Whittemore, Rep. ; John 
Bally, Collector." 

" 1848.— Sam'l Quimby, Mod. ; Daniel N. Adams, 
T. Clerk ; Sam'l Quimby, Josejili Davis, Jr., Amasa 
S. Abbott, Selectmen ; Philander Loverin, Coll. ; 
Daniel N. Adams, Rep. ; D. N. Adams resigned, and 
Lewis Fisher elected to fill vacancy." 

" 1849.— Orra C. Howard, Mod. ; Daniel N. Adams, 
Town Clerk ; Daniel N. Adams, Joel Whittemore, 
William Stocker, Selectmen ; Philander Loverin, 
Coll. ; Lewis Fisher, Rep. Voted to raise ten dollars 
in aid of Teachers' Institutes, and Eld. Timothy 
Cole was correspondent in regard to same. John 
Wiggin had the cleaning of Meeting-house for 
seventy-five cents. Sept. 15, 1849, Joseph W. Hill 
and Phineas Messer drawn as jurors to attend U. S. 
Circuit Court at Exeter." 

" 1850.— Daniel N. Adams, Mod. ; Sam' Quimby, 
T. Clerk ; Joel Whittemore, William Stocker, Joseph 
Davis, Jr., Selectmen ; John C. Nichols, Coll. ; O. C. 
Howard, Rep. ; E. L. Nichols, Sealer of Weights and 
Measures. Sam' Quimby was chosen Delegate to at- 
tend the State Convention for the Revision of the 
Constitution of this State, at Concord, in November." 

" 1851.— Daniel N. Adams, Mod.; Levi Richard- 
son, Town Clerk ; James McDaniel, Thomas East- 
man, Joseph W. Hill, Selectmen ; William Moran, 
Rep. ; John B. Hovey, Coll. ; John C. Nichols and 
Daniel N. Adams, Supt. Sch. Committee. Printed 
reports of Selectmen. 

" Voted, to move Meeting-house to grove near the 



Grist mill, the spot to be fitted ready to set said house 
by individuals, free from any expense to town. Jo- 
seph Nichols, Richard Sanborn, D. N. Adams, J. G. 
McAlvin and John B. Hovey were the Committee to 
select the site and report in substance : 

"That the said house can bo moved for about 1300. 
That the lower part be finished for a Town House, 
and the upjier part for a Meeting House. That the 
Town and Meeting-house Society each pay half the 
expense of repairing and keeping in repair outside of 
house, and each party care for their own repairs on 
inside. Report adopted and accepted. Voted, to 
commence moving said house May 15, 1851." 

The first statistical seliool report on recc^rd was 
this year, — 185 weeks school, 14 dLstricts, 393 
pupils in winter and 211 in suuuuer terms. Aver- 
age wages of male teachers, $11.59 per month and 
boarded ; of female teachers, $5.05 i^er mouth and 
boarded. Eleven male and three female teachers 
during winter. The road from Washburu'.s mill 
to ( Jrantham town line was laid in liS51. 

"1852.— Sam' Quimby, Mod. ; Daniel N. Adams, 
T. Clerk; James McDaniel, William E. Melendy, 
Benjamin F. Goss, Selectmen ; William Moran, RejJ. ; 
Moses H. Loverin, Coll. 265 voted State and Co. 
Ticket. 

" Voted to sell the Town farm and all personal 
property on Sat. Mar. 20. Chose Sam' Quimby and 
D. N. Adams Committee to sell and deed the same. 

"Voted that the Agency of Dr. Joseph Nichols be 
continued until the Town House is completed. 

" Voted to enlarge the burying ground and fence 
the same, so as to take in all of the town land. 

" Voted to have the Printed Town Reports include 
the report of the School Committee. 

"1853. — Sam. Colby, Mod.; Sam' Quindjy, Town 
Clerk; Sam' Quimby, Benj. F. Goss, Sam Colby, Se- 
lectmen ; William Moran, Rep. ; Moses H. Loverin, 
Collector. Town paupers were kept by lowest bid- 
ders, and the cleaning of Town House by Tallant 
Boyce at 4 cts. M. H. Loverin resigned the office 
and Benj. F. Goss was appointed Coll. Apr. 18, 1853." 

" June 7, 1853. — D. N. Adams was appointed to col- 
lect balance of taxes in 1852 on account of the death 
of M. H. Loverin. Road laid from Wasburn's to O. 
C. Howard's mill this year." 

" 1854. — James McDaniel, moderator ; Samuel 



SPRINGFIELD. 



333 



Quimby, town clerk ; Samuel Quimby, BeDJamin F. 
Goss, James McDaniel, selectmen ; William Moran, 
representative; Joseph Davis, Jr., collector. School 
district boundaries were clianged by a committee 
chosen tor that purpose." 

" ISoo. — Samuel Colby, moderator; Levi Richard- 
sou, town clerk ; James G. McAlvin, William P. 
Smith, Lorenzo Bailey, selectmen; Israel Sanborui 
representative ; Richard F. Sanborn, collector. Voted, 
that the selectmen's and school committee's reports be 
on separate pamphlets. Daniel N. Adams was chosen 
a special agent to investigate a pauper case in Jaf- 
frey. 

" Jonathan B. Smith appointed tax collecter May 10, 
1855. 

" 1851). — Orra C. Howard, moderator ; Daniel N. 
Adams, town clerk; Wm. E. Mclendy, William D. 
Colby, Otis S. Haseltine, selectmen ; John Nichols, 
representative; D. N. Adams, collector. Voted, that 
every man give in his interest money under oath." 

"1857. — Orra C. Howard, moderator; Daniel N. 
Adams, town clerk ; William D. Colby, Otis S. Hasel- 
tine, ^Villiani Wash burn, select men; Charles McDaniel, 
supt. school committee ; John Nichols, representa- 
tive. Voted, that William Washburn and James 
McDaniel be a committee to buy a town farm and 
stock the same. D. N. Adams was appointed col- 
lector." 

" 1858. — O. C. Howard, moderator ; .Joseph Davis, 
Jr., town clerk ; Daniel N. Adams, William Wash- 
burn, Smith N. Stevens, selectmen ; Richard F. San- 
born, supt. school committee ; William E. Melendy, 
representative ; Joseph Davis, Jr., Collector. Chose 
Austin Loverin, J. W. Hill and O. ('. Howard com- 
mittee to buy town farm." 

" 1859. — Orra C. Howard, moderator ; Joseph 
Davis, Jr., town clerk ; Orra C. Howard, Joseph 
Davis, Jr., Daniel H. Peaslee, selectmen ; Richard F. 
Sanborn, supt. school committee; Wm. E. Melendy, 
representative; D. N, Adams, collector." 

"1860. — Orra C. Howard, moderator; Samuel 
Quimby, town clerk ; Orra C. Howard, Daniel H. 
Peaslee, John E. Babbitt, selectmen ; Charles McDan- 
iel, supt. school committee ; Samuel Stevens, rep- 
resentative; William Washburn, collector." 

"1861. — Daniel H. Peaslee, moderator; Samuel 
Quimby, town clerk ; Daniel H. Peaslee, William P. 
Smith, Richard F. Sanborn, selectmen; Richard F. 
Sanborn, supt. school committee. Failed to elect 



a representative. William Washburn, collector and 
overseer of poor. Four roads were laid out in 1861 ; 
none built." 

"1862. — Orra C. Howard, moderator; John C. 
Nichols, town clerk ; Joseph Davis, Jr., Charles 
McDaniel, Carlton H. Melendy, selectmen ; E. R. 
Boyce, Charles V. Pillsbury, William D. Colby, 
supt. school committee ; Luke W. Blood, representa- 
tive; William Washburn, overseer of poor; D. N. 
Adams, collector. Several special meetings were held 
during the year in regard to furnishing soldiers for 
the United States' service in the War of the great 
Rebellion, the town paying two hundred dollars to 
each person mustered into the service; also, paying 
the soldiers' families the amount due them as 'State 
aid.' The selectmen were instructed to hire money 
to pay the above on the credit of the town. John E. 
Babbit, Elihu Chase, Dr. Valentine Manahan, Wil- 
liam Washburn, Jr., and Joseph Davis, Jr., were 
chosen a committee to encourage enlistments." 

"1863. — William P. Smith, moderator; John C. 
Nichols, town clerk; Charles McDaniel, Carlton H. 
Melendy, William P. Smith, selectmen ; Daniel P. 
Quimby, supt. school committee ; Luke W. Blood, 
representative ; Joseph Davis, collector ; John F. 
Hardy, overseer of poor. The town paid three hun- 
dred dollars to each drafted man, or his substitute, 
who was accepted and mustered into the United 
States' service ; also, paid the same sum to volun- 
teers. 

" November 26, 1863. — Joseph Davis, Jr., was chosen 
agent to act with selectmen to procure eleven men 
under call of October 17, 1863. 

" February 27, 1864. — Joseph Davis, Jr., was ap- 
pointed town clerk. 

"1864. — Samuel Quimby, moderator; Daniel H. 
Adams, town clerk ; Joseph Davis, Jr., William P. 
Smith, Jacob Messer, selectmen ; Daniel P. (.Quimby, 
supt. school committee ; Jeremiah Philbrick, rep- 
resentative ; John F. Hardy, overseer of poor; D. H. 
.Vdaras, collector. 

"August 18, 1864. — Charles McDaniel was chosen 
agent to fill the town's quota under call of the Pres- 
ident, July 18, 1864. The selectmen were instructed 
to hire a sufficient sum of money to furnish men to 
fill said quota, and pay it over to the agent, not ex- 
ceeding nineteen thousand dollars. 

"September 3,1864. — Voted, to pay citizens who 



334 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HABIPSHIRE. 



enlist for one year one thousand dollars each as 
bount}'. 

" December 7, 1864. — Voted, that the selectmen pay 
as a bounty to each enrolled man of this town who 
furnishes a substitute for three years, and to any 
townsman who may enlist in Hancock's corps as a 
veteran, and count on the quota of this town, three 
hundred dollars each, and pay the highest bounty 
allowed by law for volunteers who are not townsmen, 
and that the selectmen be authorized to hire, on the 
credit of the town, a sum of money not exceeding five 
thousand dollars; provided all the men so enlisted 
shall not exceed twelve in number." 

" 1865.— Daniel N. Adams, moderator; Daniel H. 
Adams, town clerk ; Charles McDaniel, Jacob Messer, 
Stephen P. Colby, selectmen ; R. F. Sanborn, supt. 
school committee ; Joseph Davis, Jr., collector. 
Voted, to instruct the selectmen to put three men into 
the United States army to fill our present quota." 

The whole money to pay war expenses was 
hired u]iou the credit uf the town. The town 
debt at the close of the year 1862, exclusive of 
war ex2ieu,ses, wasi $270.37. 

At the close of 1871 the total indebtedness of 
the town, over and above availabilities, was §36,- 
405,37. 

At the close of the year the total indebtedness, 
over and above availabilities, was §17,077.13. 

" 1866. — Daniel P. Quimby, moderator ; Daniel N. 
Adams, town clerk ; Charles McDaniel, Stephen P. 
Colby, Joseph P. Bailey, selectmen ; Horace F. Goss, 
supt. school committee; John M. Philbrick, rep- 
resentative; Charles McDaniel, treasurer; Joseph 
Davis, Jr., collector." 

"1867. — Daniel M. Adams, moderator; David P. 
Goodhue, town clerk ; Charles McDaniel, Jacob Mes- 
ser, Charles V. Pillsbury, selectman ; James M. Da- 
vis, supt. school committee ; Joseph Colcord, rep- 
resentative; D. N. Adams, collector; W.P.Smith, 
overseer of poor ; Charles McDaniel, treasurer." 

" 1868. — Daniel X. Adams, moderator ; David P. 
Goodhue, town clerk ; Joseph Davis, Jr., Charles V. 
Pillsbury, Edgar A. Washburn, selectmen : James M. 
Davis, supt. school committee ; Charles McDaniel, 
representative ; Joseph Davis, treasurer ; John C. 
Nichols, overseer of poor." 

" 1869. — Daniel H. Peaslee, moderator ; David P. 



Goodhue, town clerk ; Charles McDaniel, Horace F. 
Goss, Edgar A. Washburn, selectmen ; Daniel H. 
Adams was elected supt. school committee ; Levi 
F. Hill, representative ; Charles McDaniel, overseer 
of poor ; Sargent Heath, collector ; Charles McDan- 
iel, treasurer, and was appointed supt. school com- 
mittee." 

" 1870. — Samuel Quimby, moderator ; David P. 
Goodhue, town clerk; Charles McDaniel, Horace F. 
Goss, Sargent Heath, selectmen ; Elvin F. Philbiick, 
supt. school committee ; Levi F. Hill, rejireseiita- 
tive; Sargent Heath, collector; Cliarles McDaniel, 
treasurer ; Daniel H. Peaslee, overseer of poor." 

"1871. — Daniel H. Peaslee, moderator ; David P. 
Goodhue, town clerk ; Charles V. Pillsbury, Sargent 
Heath, Jacob Messer, selectmen ; Charles McDaniel, 
supt. school committee; Lorenzo Bailey, repre- 
-sentative ; Joseph Davis, Jr., collector ; Charles V. 
Pillsbury, treasurer." 

"1872. — Henry T. Sanborn, moderator; Solomon 
H. Clement, town clerk ; Horace F. (loss, Charles V. 
Pillsbury, John S. Sanborn, selectmen ; Calvin W. 
Spencer, supt. school committee ; Lorenzo Bailey, 
representative ; H. F. Goss, treasurer ; Edgar A. 
Washburn, collector ; Charles McDaniel was chosen 
agent to sell town farm and personal property ; Mar- 
tin M. Wiggins was appointed town clerk, June 3, 
1872." 

"1873.— Henry T. Sanborn, moderator; Martin M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; Charles V. Pillsbury, Stephen 
P. Colby, Sargent Heath, selectmen ; Franklin Bailey, 
supt. school committee ; Horace F. Goss, represen- 
tative ; Edgar A. Washburn, collector." 

" 1874. — Henry T. Sanborn, moderator; M.artin M. 
Wiggins, town clerk : Charles V. Pillsbury, William 
M. Powers, Edgar A. Washburn, selectmen ; Charles 
McDaniel, supt. school committee ; Horace F. Goss, 
representative ; Joseph Davis, Jr., collector ; David 
P. Goodhue, treasurer." 

"1875. — Henry T. Sanborn, moderator; Martin M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; Charles V. Pillsbury, William 
M. Powers, Albert Morrill, selectmen ; Parker T. 
Smith, supt. school committee ; John M. Phil- 
brick, representative ; D. P. Goodhue, treasurer; Jo- 
seph Davis, Jr., collector." 

"1876. — Henry T. Sanborn, moderator; Martin M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; Horace F. Goss, Albert Mor- 
rill, Henry T. Sanborn, selectmen ; Charles McDan- 
iel, supt. school committee ; Daniel N. Adams, 



SPRINGFIELD. 



335 



repi'esentative ; D. P. Goodhue, treasurer; Joseph 
Davis, Jr., collector ; D. N. Adams was chosen dele- 
gate to State Conveution to revise the Constitution." 

" 1S77. — Henry T. Sanborn, moderator ; Martin M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; Charles McDaniel, supt. 
school committee ; Horace F. Goss, Henry T. San- 
born, John H. Johnson, selectmen ; Hosea B. Chase, 
representative ; D. P. Goodhue, treasurer ; Joseph 
Davis, Jr., collector." 

" 1878.— Henry T. Sanborn, moderator ; Martin M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; Daniel N. Adams, William D. 
Colby, Horace W. Stevens, selectmen ; Charles Mc- 
Daniel, supt. school committee ; David P. Good- 
hue, representative and treasurer ; J. Davis, Jr. 
Under the new Constitution, the biennial election of 
representatives began, and D. P. Goodhue was chosen 
in November. Supervisors also elected." 

" 1879.— Henry T. Sanborn, moderator ; M. M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; William D. Colby, Horace W. 
Stevens, John H. Johnson, selectmen; Charles Mc- 
Daniel, supt. school committee ; D. P. Goodhue, 
treasurer; Joseph Davis, .Jr., collector; Moses O. 
Boyce, Tallent Boyce and Willard Reed, investiga- 
ting committee on war accounts, which resulted in 
finding the charges against the selectmen and agents 
to be without any proof." 

" 1880.— Henry T. Sanborn, moderator; M. M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; Horace W. Stevens, John H. 
Johnson, Martin M. Wiggins, selectmen ; Charles 
McDaniel, supt. school committee ; Hosea B. 
Chase, representative ; Sargent Heath, collector ; 
James T. Colby, treasurer." 

" 1881. — Stephen P. Colby, moderator ; Martin M. 
Wiggins, town clerk ; John H. Johnson, Martin M. 
Wiggins, Willard Eeed, selectmen ; Charles McDan- 
iel, supt. school committee ; James T. Colby, 
treasurer; Sargent Heath, collector." 

"1882.— Moses O. Boyce, moderator; M. M. Wig- 
gins, town clerk; same selectmen, supt. school 
committee, treasurer and collector as in 1881 ; Joseph 
W. Hill, representative." 

" 1883.— Stephen P. Colby, moderator ; M. M. Wig- 
gins, town clerk; Herbert H. Measer, supt. school 
committee; .John H. Johnson, Martin M. Wiggins, 
George W. Clark, selectmen ; James T. Colby, treas- 
urer ; Sargent Heath, collector." 

" 1884. — Moses O. Boyce, moderator ; the same 
town clerk, selectmen, supt. school committee, 



treasurer and collector as in 1883. Henry T. San- 
born, representative." 

" 1885.— Henry T. Sanborn, moderator; M. M. 
Wiggins, town clerk; John H. Johnson, Martin M. 
Wiggins, G. W. Clark, selectmen : David P. Good- 
hue, supt. school committee; James T. Colby, treas- 
urer ; Oscar F. Eastman, collector." 

EEVOLUTIOXAKY SOLDIERS. 

John Quimby, sergeant, enlisted April 23, 1775; three 
months and sixteen da3'S 

Israel CliSbrd, enlisted May 4, 1775, three months and 
five days. 

Reuben Sanborn, mustered in June 0, 1775. 

Moses Perkins, mustered in June 3, 1775. 

Joseph Web.ster, mustered in June 3, 1775- 

Ebenezer Lovering, mustered in June, 1775, Novem- 
ber 5, 1775, and November 23, 1776. 

Abraham Sanborn, lieutenant, mustered in Septem- 
ber, 1776. 

Enoch Heath Plastow, mustered in June 2, 1775, July, 
1776 and March 7, 1777, for eight months. 

Timothy Quimby (Sandown), mustered in May 25, 
1775, and July 9, 1776. 

Eliphalet Quimby sergeant, (of Salisbury), mustered 
in 1777, for three years. 

Johu. Sawyer (Londonderry), mustered in February 
8, 1776. 

Daniel Gilman, mustered in Novemlier 5, 1775, and 
July 9, 1776. 

Mathew Pettengill, lieutenant, (Pembroke, N. H.), 
mustered in December, 1775. 

John Burbank, corporal, mustered in November 5, 
177-5. 

Samuel Robie, ninety days' man, mustered in Novem- 
ber 23, 1775 and October 19, 1776. 

Reuben Stevens, mustered in July, 1776. 

James Boyce, mustered in August 23, 1 776 and Feb- 
ruary 17, 1777. 

Ichabod Robie, mustered in September 26, 1776 and 
December 30, 1776. 

James C. Hazzard, mustered in September 26, 1776. 

Jeremiah Quimby, mustered out December 16, 1776, 
two months and ten days. 

John Collins, mustered in December 6, 1776 ; mus- 
tered out December 7, 1777. 

Thomas Colcord, mustered in 1777, for thirty days. 

Reuben Hoyt, mustered in March 31, 1777, for three 
years. 



336 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Samuel Clay, mustered in 1777, for three years. 
Isuiah Johnson, mustered out 1777, eight months. 
Jason Hazzard, Daniel Bean ; no date to be found 
at present. 

SOLDIERS OF WAR OF 1812. 



Adam Boyce. 
Isaac Colby. 
James Perkins. 
Stephen H. Heath. 
Jonathan Heath. 
Richard Loverin. 
James Hazzard. 
James Boyce. 
Joseph Morse. 



William Quimby. 

Nathaniel Heath. 

Tristram C. Hoyt. 

Isaac Morse.^ 

F. M. Morrill.' 

Levi Chaffin.i 

Lieut. Ephraim French.' 

John Silver.' 

Joseph Maxfield.' 



Dexter Stevens served in the Mexican War 
He died and was buried in Mexico. 

The whole of the Revolutionary soldiers above 
recorded, except two, are buried in our cemetery 
at the centre of town. 

James Boyce was buried on farm of James T. 
Colly, on " Hogg Hill ; " John Collins, in Collins' 
burying-ground, on old road from Springfield to 
New London. 

W^hen James Hazzard, soldier of 1812, was 
about to leave home for the war, his lather's last 
words are said to have been : ' ' James, don't you 
ever come home — shot in the back." 

SOLDIERS OF THE WAR OF REBELLION, ISIU. 

Christopher Farney, Company G, Third Regiment ; 
mustered in October 3, 18()3. 

John Quigley, Company K, Third Regiment; mus- 
tered in December 24, 1864. 

Otto Richter, Company G, Third Regiment ; mus- 
tered in October 8, 18G3; missing at Deep Run, 
Va., August 16, 1864. 

Charles Radford, Company K, Third Regiment ; 
mustered in December 22, 1864; mustered out 
July 26, 1865. 

James Theney, Company C, Third Regiment; mus- 
tered in October 14, 1863; promoted to corporal; 
promoted to sergeant August 24, 1864; wounded 
October 7, 1864; discharged for disability, Octo- 
ber 20, 1865. 

'Not residents when ealisted, but buried here in town. 



Augustus F. Russell, Company I, Fifth Regiment; 
mustered in October 15, 1861 ; discharged for 
disability, at Concord, N. H., February 6, 1863. 
Jacob Bure, Company G, Third Regiment ; mustered 
in October 8, 1863 ; captured at Drury's Bluff, 
Va., May 16, 1864 ; died at Audersonville, Ga., 
July 13, 1864. 

Fernand G. Lull, Company G, Third Regiment ; 
mustered in October 8, 1863 ; died at Bermuda 
Hundred, Va., May 31, 1864. 

Hartwell Frink, Company C, Fifth Regiment; mus- 
tered in September 16, 1864 ; mustered out July 
28, 1865. 

Thomas Mack, Company H., Fifth Regiment; mus- 
tered in October 5, 1863. 

Charles Walker, Company C, Fifth Regiment ; mus- 
tered in October 2, 1863 ; absent without leave 
since April 2, 1865; no discharge furnished. 

James A. Chase, Company G, Sixth Regiment ; mus- 
tered in December 11, 1861; discharged at Prov- 
idence, R. I., April 20, 1863. 

James T. Colby, Company G, Sixth Regiment ; mus- 
tered in November 28, 1861 ; promoted to corpo- 
ral ; discharged at Washington, D. C, August 
12, 1862. 

John M. Colby, Company G, Sixth Regiment; mus- 
tered in Novemljer 28, 1861 ; paroled prisoner ; 
died of disease at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Md., 
September 29, 1862. 

Martin V. B. Davis, Company G, Sixth Regiment ; 
mustered in November 28, 1861 ; missing at 
Camden, N. C, April 19, 1862; gained from 
missing; discharged at Concord, N. H., Septem- 
ber 18, 1862. 

Lewis G. Hilborn, Company G, Sixth Regiment; 
mustered in November 28, 1861 ; died of disease 
at City Point, Va., November 15, 1864. 

George W. Hazelton, Company G, Sixth Regiment ; 
mustered in November 28, 1861; discharged. 

Oliver M. Heath, Company G, Sixth Regiment ; 
mustered in November 28, 1861 ; missing at Bull 
Run, Va., August 29, 1862; gained from missing; 
died of disease at Emory General Hospital, 
Washington, D. C, September 16, 1862. 

Abraham Quimby, Company G, Sixth Regiment; 
mustered in November 28, 1861 ; discharged for 
disability at Roanoke Island, N. C, June IS, 
1862. 

Joseph M. Robie, Company G, Sixth Regiment, mus- 



SPRINGFIELD. 



337 



tered in November 28, 1861 ; discliarged for disa- 
bility at Camp Dennison. Ohio, January 25, 
ISiU. 

James W. Whaler, Company G, Sixth Regiment, 
mustered in November 28, 1861 ; discharged at 
Newport News, Va., September 23, 1862. 

.Toseph Y. Simonds, Company H, Sixth Regiment, 
mustered in December 12, 1861; discharged for 
disability at Washington, D. C, January 19, 
1863. 

George Birch, Company H, Sixth Regiment, mustered 
in December 22, 1863 ; transferred from Company 
H, Ninth New Hampshire Volunteers, June 1, 
1865; absent without leave July 17, 1865. 

Charles Johnson, Company C, Sixth Regiment, mus- 
tered in Deceml)er 0, 1863; transferred from 
Company C, Ninth New Hampshire Volunteers 
June 1, 1865 ; missing in action since September 
30, 1864. 

Reuben F. Stevens, Company F, Sixth Regiment, 
mustered in December 23, 1863 ; transferred from 
Comjiauy F, Eleventh New Hamjishire Volun- 
teers June 1, 18(«5 ; mustered out July 17, 1865. 

George W. Austin, corporal. Company B, Sixth Reg- 
iment, mustered in January 3, 1864 ; promoted 
to sergeant July 1, 1865; mustered out July 17, 
1865. 

George Henry, Company G, Seventh Regiment, mus- 
tered in September 21, 1864 ; mustered out July 
20, 1865. 

Joseph C. Whittier, Company D, Seventh Regiment, 
mustered in September 28, 1864 ; mustered out 
July 20, 1865. 

Albert Coles, Company D, Eighth Regiment, mustered 
in December 20, 1861. 

Nicholas Bowen, Company D, Ninth Regiment, mus- 
tered in December 22, 1863 ; died of exhaustion 
at Cumberland Gap, Ky., March 9, 1864. 

Charles Johnson, Company C, Ninth Regiment, mus- 
tered in December 9, 1863 ; missing at Poplar 
Grove Church, Va., September 30, 1864 ; gained 
from missing ; transferred to Sixth New Hamp- 
shire Volunteers June 1, 1865. 

Peter Smith, Company K, Ninth Regiment, mustered 
in December 22, 1863; wounded July 30,1864; 
transferred to Sixth New Hampshire Volunteers 
June 1, 1865. 

Peter Williams, Company D. Ninth Regiment, mus- 
tered in December 9, 1863. 



R. Freeman Sanborn, first lieutenant Company I, 
Eleventh Regiment, mustered in July 25, 1864; 
not mustered ; honorably discharged for disability 
as second lieutenant August 9, 1864. 

Francis Richardson, Company E, Eleventh Regiment, 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; wounded slightly 
June 3, 1864; mustered out .Tune 5, 1865. 

Francis Nichols, corporal, Company F, Eleventh Reg- 
iment, mustered in August 29, 1862 ; promoted 
to sergeant; discharged tor disability at Concord, 
N. H., September 20, 1864. 

Robert A. Blood, corporal. Company F, Eleventh 
Regiment ; mustered in August 29, 1862 ; wounded 
severely in his groin December 13,1862; dis- 
charged for disability at Concord, N. H., May 
11, 1863. 

John D. Colby, corporal, Company F, Eleventh Regi- 
ment; mustered in August 29, 1862 ; discharged 
for disability at Frederick, Md., March 13, 1863. 

Charles M. Colby, musician. Company F, Eleventh 
Regiment; mustered in August 29, 1862; died 
of diseiise at Covington, Ky., August 14, 1863. 

Moses J.Adams, Company F, Eleventh Regiment; 
mustered in August 29, 1802; mustered out June 
4, 1805. 

John Austin, Jr., Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29,1862; wounded slightly 
May 18, 1864 ; captured July 30, 1864; released ; 
mustered out June 4, 1865. 

Moses C. Colcord, Company F, Eleventh Regiment; 
mustered in Augu.st 29, 1862 ; wounded severely 
May 26, 1864; promoted to corporal; mustered 
out June 4, 1865. 

Ziba S. Eastman. Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mu.stered in August 29, 1862 ; mustered out June 
4, 1865. 

Benjamin F. Hill, Company F, Eleventh Regiment; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; discharged for dis- 
ability at Camp Dennison, Ohio, January 20, 
1804. 

Harrison M. Johnson, Company F, Eleventh Regi- 
ment ; mustered in August 29, 1862 ; promoted 
to sergeant ; mustered out June 4, 1865. 

David S. Luce, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862; wounded slightly 
May 12, 1864 ; discharged for disability Decem- 
ber 17, 1864. 

James Morrill, Company F, Eleventh Regiment; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; wounded severely 



338 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



June 19, 1864 ; transferred to Veteran Reserve 
Corps September 16, 1S64 ; mustered out June 
28, 1865. 

Lovell W. Nichols, Company F. Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; transferred to 
Veteran Reserve Corps September 30, 1863 ; 
mustered out August 28, 1865. 

William Rowe, Company F, Eleventh Regiment; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; discharged for dis- 
ability at Washington, D. C, March 9, 1863. 

Merrill Robie, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; mustered out June 
4, 1865. 

John Rollins, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; mus- 
tered in August 29, 1862 ; wounded severely De- 
cember 13, 1862 ; transferred to Veteran Reserve 
Corps September 1, 1863. 

Samuel Robie, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862; mustered out June 
4, 1865. 

George B. Robie, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; wounded severely 
May 16, 1864 ; discharged for disability at Con- 
cord, N. H., June 7, 1865. 

John Saunders, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; died of disease on 
board transport August 9, 1863. 

Henry T. Sanborn, Company F, Eleventh Regiment; 
mustered in August 29, 1862; mustered out June 
4, 1865. 

Alexander Stevens, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; mustered out June 
4, 1865. 

George R. Stevens, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862; discharged for dis- 
ability at Camp Dennison, Ohio, February 13, 
1864. 

Burnell K. Randall, musician. Company K, Eleventh 
Regiment ; mustered in April 2, 1862 ; mustered 
out June 4, 1865. 

Hiram S. Barber, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in December 23, 1863 ; killed at Spott- 
sylvania, Va., May 12, 1864. 

Darius K. Davis, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; promoted to cor- 
poral April 18, 1865; mustered out June 4, 1865. 

James M.Davis, Company F, Eleventh Regiment; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; discharged for dis- 
ability at Fort Schuyler, N. Y., January 23, 1863. 



Otis S. Hazelton, Company F, Eleventh Regiment ; 
mustered in August 29, 1862 ; mustered out June 
4, 1865. 

Sydney A. Hazelton, Company F, Eleventh Regi- 
ment; mustered in August 29, 1862 ; died of dis- 
ease at Annapolis, Md., April 16, 1864. 

John Oilman, Company G, Twelfth Regiment; mus- 
tered in September 11, 1862 ; wounded May 3, 
1863 ; died of wounds at Washington, D. C.,May 
23, 1863. 

.Tames W. Lull, sergeant. Company F, Fifteenth Regi- 
ment; mustered in October 10, 1862; wounded 
May 27, 1863; mustered out August 13, 1863; 
died in New York. 

(ieorge F. Colby, corporal. Company F, Fifteenth 
Regiment ; mustered in October 10, 1862 ; died 
of disease at Carrollton, La., February 2, 1862. 

William M. Fowler, Company F, Fifteenth Regi- 
ment ; mustered in October 10, 1862 ; discharged 
for disability at Concord, N. H., April 14, 1862. 

Richard W. Heath, Company F, Fifteenth Regiment ; 
mustered in October 10, 1862 ; mustered out 
August 13, 1863 ; sick at AVilmot. 

.Joseph D. Loverin, Company F, Fifteenth Regiment; 
mustered in October 10, 1862; mustered out 
August 13, 1863. 

Gustavus Loverin, Company F, Fifteenth Regiment; 
mustered in October 10, 1862; died of disease at 
Carrollton, La., January 31, 1863. 

George McDaniel, Company F, Fifteenth Regiment; 
mustered in October 10, 1862; mustered out 
August 13, 1863. 

James K. Richardson, Company F, Fifteenth Regi- 
ment; mustered in October 10, 18()2; mu.-<tered 
out August 13, 1863. 

John D. Washburn, Company F, Fifteenth Regi- 
ment; mustered in October 10, 1862; mustered 
out August 13, 1863. 

First Regiment of Cavalry. 

Charles P. Bryant, mustered in March 21, 1865; mus- 
tered out July 16, 1865. 

.41ban Bishop, nuistered in Ai)ril 4, 1865; mustered 
out May 6, 1865. 

Heavy Artillery. 

James McDole, Jr., mustered in September 29, 1863 ; 

discharged for disability June 1, l.siU. 
John J. Quimby, mustered in September 7, 18()3. 



SPRINGFIELD. 



339 



First Regiment of Heavy Artillery. 
James H. Hardy, mustered in September 7, 1863 ; 

mustered out Septemlier 11, 18(J5. 
John H. Prescott, mustered in September 7, 1863 ; 

mustered out September 11, 1865. 
Augustus G. Russell, mustered in September 7,1863; 

mustered out Sei)tember 11, 1865. 
Abner J. Sanborn, corporal, mustered in. September 

7, 1864; mustered out June 15, 1865. 
Aldred H. Fowler, mustered in September 7, 1864 ; 

mustered out June 15, 1865. 
Tristam F. Hoyt, mustered in September 7, 1864; 

mustered out June 15, 1865. 
Ebenezer S. Kibbey, mustered in September 7, 1864; 

mustered out June 15, 1865. 
< ieorge P. Sboles, mustere<l in September 7, 1864 ; 

mustered out June 15, 1865. 
Isaac D. Tenuey, mustered in September 7, 1864; 

mustered out June 15, 1865. 
Andrew J. Young, mustered in Sei>tember 7, 1864 ; 

mustered out June 15, 1865. 

Veterim Ileserve Corps. 
James T. Colby, mustered in September 6, 1864. 
James A. Cha.se, mustered in September 6, 1864. 
Albert H. Davis, mustered in September (!, 1864. 
Benjamin F. Hill, mustered in September 6,1864; 
mustered out November 14, 1865. 

United States Sharjixhootcrs, CoMpany G, See<»id Regi- 
ment. 

Henry A. Colby, mustered in October t), 1861 ; re- 
enlisted December 20, 1863 ; wounded at Peters- 
burg, Va., June 18, 1864: died at Washington, 
D. C, October 31, 1864, aged twenty-three years 
and nine months. 

Militia. — The 2:)eople of Springfield took a deep 
and lively interest in military affairs. Among the 
early .settlers were quite a number of Revolutionary 
soldiers, who brought with tliem the military 
spirit and patriotism imbibed during that war. 
One man has been heard to say that he had used 
a liarrel of ink when first sergeant in one of the 
companies in General Washington's army. 

It was considered an honor to hold a military 

commission, and those who were chosen captains 

and lieutenants retained these titles, and were 

honored with them during their whole life. As 
22 



early as 1820, General John Quimby, who had 
risen step by step from the ranks, was in command 
of the Fifth Brigade. For several yeare there were 
three companies, — North Company, South {,'om- 
[lany and a company of Light Infantry. Two of 
these companies remained until 1840, when, becom- 
ing somewhat run down, it was thought something 
must be done to revive the military spirit, and 
through the exertions and influence of some public- 
spirited individuals, a company consisting of one 
hundred men was formed, who uniformed and 
equipped themselves, and by a special act of the Leg- 
islature received from the State Arsenal one hundred 
guns. They carried them on to the parade-ground, re- 
ceiving the plaudits of the field officers and others. 
The officers and sergeants of that conn)any, when 
formed, consisted of one physician, one ex-colonel, 
four ex-captains, two merchants, one postmaster, 
seven justices of the peace, besides all the smaller fry , 
and all were volunteers. 

This company retained its existence until the 
militia was abolished. Of all the officers and ser- 
geants of that company when formed, but one re- 
mains to tell the story, — the Hon. Daniel N. 
Adams. 

" Jan. 21, 1833. Adjutant and Inspector General's 
Office, Concord, N. H. Sep. 4, 1833, 31st Reg. 4th 
Co. Capt., Sam Colby, Clerk, Joseph Richardson. 

" General Order. 

"Joseph Low, Adjutant and Inspector General. 

" ^y. H. Cheney, Adjutant of 31st Reg. 

" May 1884. Total in Co., !)2. 

"Aug. 5, 18.34. Samuel Quimby (2nd), Captain. 

"May, 1835. Aggregate, 116. 

" April, 1837. Benjamin Perley, Ca[)t. 

"April 19, 183;i. John Morrill (2nd), L'krk. 

"Mar. 16, 1844. Bela Howard, Capt. Joseph 
Davis, Jr. Clerk. 

"May 1,1846. Levi Richardson, Capt. Ricliani 
F. Sanborn, Clerk. 

" Mar. 20, 1847. Moses Johnson, Capt. Moses H. 
Loveriii, Clerk. 

" Mar. 24, 1848. William H. tiuimby. Clerk. 

" Mar. 7, 1840. John C. Nichols, Capt. Joseph 
Davis, Jr., Clerk. 



340 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



" May, 1849. 100 Bayonets, Muskets and Ramrods, 

52 Bayonets, Scabbards and Belts, Cartridge Boxes 
and Belts, Priming Wires and Brnshes, 104 Spare 
Flints, 52 Knapsacks and 52 Canteens, 1 Roll Book 
and 1 Orderly Book. 

" April, 1857. 148 Enrolled men." 

Churches, Pastoks, etc. — As will be noticed by 
the early records, the inhabitants of this town 
were much inclined to support the church. "When 
appropriations failed to support a preacher, or from 
any other cause, not having a preacher, meetings 
were holden constantly by laymen, Moses Rich- 
ardson reading from a " book of sermons " and 
leading in prayer while the singing was kept in 
full ((uantity by the interested citizens. Through 
the instrumentality of Daniel, son of Moses Rich- 
ardson, the first Sabbath-school was formed in the 
first school-house that was built in District No. 9, 
situated then on the old New London road, near 
the spot known as the " Devil's Den." Preachers 
we find records of, as far back as Tilly How, 
teacher and preacher, " imployed " by the town to 
teach and preach. Then Rev. Salmon Hibbard, 
Congregational ; Rev. Elijah Watson, Free-Will 
Baptist ; Rev. Job Cushman, Congregational ; Rev. 
Stephen Combs, Baptist; Rev. P. C. Hines, Free- 
Will Baptist; Rev. Wm. Moran, Methodist; Rev. 
Bennett Palmer, Christian ; Rev. Timothy Cole, 
Christian ; Rev. Wm. H. Nason, Christian ; Rev. 
Jas. R. Phillips, Christian ; Rev. Lorenzo Bailey, 
Christian ; and Rev. Lewis Howard, jMethodist, 
have been residents. Rev. Mr. Howard still lives 
here and preaches regularly, at the age of 
eighty-three years. 

Occasional or non-resident preachers that are 
called to mind, are Elder Ambrose, of Boscawen ; 
Rev. Edwin Burnham, ordained and preached 
her. nearly a year ; Walter Harriman, ex-Gover- 
nor of New Hampshire, preached for the Univer- 
salist Society a few years part of time, and Rev. 
Joseph Sargent for a few times, and Rev. Robert 
Stinson one-fourth of time, also, for the Uni versalist 
Society. Rev. Geo. W. Gardner, of New London 
(Calvinistic Baptist), Rev. Walter Phillips, Rev. 
Wm. S. Morrill and son, Rev. Alvah H. Morrill, 



now of Stanfordville, N. Y., Philomau Cloughand 
his son Newton, who were natives of the town, and 
many others have labored here to the general 
acceptance of the people. A flourishing Sabbath- 
school is still connected with the Union Church 
Society. A church was built and still stands upon 
the " Gore " annexed to Grantham. The church 
building at the centre, that was built and dedi- 
cated in 1799, and moved in 1851 from its origi- 
nal location on the five-acre town " Lot," occupied 
now as a cemetery, to its present location. It is a 
union house and contains our town hall. 

Rev. Daniel Noyes, Congregational, a native of 
this town, now and for a long time professor in Dart- 
mouth College, at Hanover, preached the dedica- 
tion sernuin at our church, after being repaired 
and moved to its present location. He was fol- 
lowed in the service by Rev. .John Moore, Uuiver- 
salist, of Concord ; Rev. Reuben Sanborn was edu- 
cated at Harvard a Presbyterian; died in New Y'ork, 
1830 ; Rev. Morrison Cross, now supposed to be 
living in the " West ;" Rev. James Fowler, an 
" adopted " native of the town, a succes.sful 
Universalist preacher in Tennessee ; Rev. Loreu 
Webster, son of Mrs. D. N. Adams, is an Episco- 
pal clergyman at Ashland, N. H. 

Augusta A. Adams, oldest daughter of Hon. 
D. N. Adams, who is the only man in town that 
has served in the State Senate, was educated at 
Meriden, taught in New Y^ork and in Massachu- 
setts, and married Rev. Lucian B. Adams, and 
went to Turkey as a missionary and died there. 

Hotels. — Ensign Nathaniel Little built the 
first real hotel on the " French Place," on the 
great " East and West " road, east of where Chas. 
M. Noyes now lives. Daniel Noyes built the 
hotel where John S. Colby now lives, about the 
time the fourth New Hampshire turnpike was 
built, which was a " toll " road ; said hotel was af- 
terward occupied as such, and did a large business 
(often stabling one hundred horses as transient), by 

James Willis, Enoch Chellis, Ring, Nathan 

Stickney for some fifteen years, D. N. Adams, John 
Brown, John Nevins, J. S. Durgin, O. C. Howard 
and Wm. E. Melendy. 



SPRINGFIELD. 



341 



Sam'l. J^ittle built a tavern upon the" height of 
the land " where Mrs. Wm. Bean now lives, known 
as the Calif place. After IMr. Little's death his 
widow, a very oajiahle landlady, managed the 
house, after which it gradually became extinct, 
passing out of the Little estate. Dr. Joseph 
Nichols built where J. Davis, Jr., and Dr. D. P. 
Goodhue now resides, which was occupied during 
the most of the time of its being a " hotel " by D. 
N. Adams, being some thirty years in all, during 
which time it did a very large business. 

Merchajsts. — We have been able to find that 
several of our citizens have at ditlerent times been 
engaged in mercantile business, and give them as 
tradition informs us. Captain Deputy Bowman 
traded in the house now occupied by Joseph Davis, 
Jr ; Daniel Noyes, where L. L. Hill now lives, 
who afterwards built a store where J. S. Colby 
now lives; James Willis, at same store ; also Wm. 
E. Melendy at same place ; David Colcord, at four 
corners in house built by Timothy (^uimby (2d), 
several years ; Moses Johnson and iSolomon Clem- 
ent, at same store ; then said Clement built the 
building or store now occupied by Henry E. Quim- 
by, and traded there stuue twelve years ; since oc- 
cupied by Wm. Carroll, John H. Williams, How- 
ard & Knisley, John White, Merrill & Johnson, 
Howard & Melendy, and Joseph B. Prescott as a 
store. Joseph Colby traded where James H. Co- 
fran now lives; Beuj. E. W^oodmau & Co., at 
Ltiugdou L. Hill's ; also Nichols &. Adams, Adams 
& Clement, D. N. Adams, Kimball Haseltine and 
Dr. Abner Johnson. At the store now occupied 
by D. N. Adams & Son, which was built by Dr. 
Joseph Nichols and D. N. Adams some fifty years 
ago, Levi Richardson, now merchant in Frank- 
lin, was clerk two years and partner with D. N. 
Adams eighteen years, said Adams having been 
in the business some sixty years. T. Cole, J. E. 
Babbitt, Dr. A Johnson and others at different 
times and jjlaces. 

Mills and Brick- Yards. — The following are 
among the jirominent mills that have been in use 
in town; Lowell's mill was built in about 1775, 
near Mrs. Austin Loverin's jiresent residence, and 



used for grinding corn, rye, etc. Robert Wadleigh 
Smith, Daniel and Joseph Bean built a " saw and 
grist " mill on land now occupied by M. C. Col- 
cord, west of the mill recently destroyed 
by fire, that was built by Edgar A. Washburn in 
1869, which was forty by eighty feet, and con- 
tained circular, lathe, shingle and other saws, 
planing-machiue, etc. ; said Smith and Beans re- 
ceiving land and money as per votes from the 

Protectworth proprietry herewith recorded. 

McGregory and John Field erected a cardingmill 
near the above mentioned mills and it was after- 
wards occupied liy Ebenezer Clough, now of 
Enfield. 

Seth Gay had grist and saw-nulls on different 
sites, near where Gilman Smith now lives. Reu- 
ben Hoyt purchased the Lowell mill and occupied 
it several years, after which his sons Tristani and 
Reuben, Jr., rebuilt said corn or grist-mill nearly 
opposite where the church now stands, and built 
a saw-mill near or just below the mill now owned 
and used by James T. Colby ; also they built sub- 
stantial dams at the Station Pond, which now 
remain. 

Deacon Moses Richardson and Reuben Stevens 
built the " Old Spruce mill," about 1795, near the 
site where Sargent Heath's now stands ; and tra- 
ilition informs us that said Richardson received 
fifty acres of laud (as an inducement to build C. 
McDaniels Karr .said mill), now contained in past- 
ure, and said Stevens fifty acres, about due east of 
the Hill Mica Ledge, near what is called " Scot- 
land." About 1833, Gilman Sawyer, of this town, 
built a shingle-iuill just " across the line " in Wil- 
mot, where Josiah Johnson had a saw-mill. Deacon 
Philip Brown owned a large tract of timber-land 
in this town and Grantham, and erected a saw and 
shingle-niill on same spot where the Washburn 
mill stood about the years 1887-38, afterward in the 
hands of Joseph and Moses C. Colcord and 
others. 

About 1810, Samuel Little and John Karr 
built a saw-mill near top of '' Sorrel Hill," on 
fourth New Hamj^shire tui-npike ; also had a 
brick-yard near by. Isaac Morse and D. Bean 



342 



HISTORY OP SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



had another brick-yard opposite where E. A. 
Washburn now lives, which furnished brick for 
many of the present houses in town. 

There was another yard near (iihuau Pond, 
owned by Enoch Collins, Jr., and Captain Jona- 
than Loverin, who sent their brick, many of them, 
to New London. 

Elihu Chase built the shingle-mill afterwards 
owned by Alonzo Cross, and now owned by Alon- 
zo B. Putney, and, in company with Kimball 
Haseltine, the sa^v■mill now owned by F. P. George. 
Seth Fisher built a shingle and clapboard-mill 
■where A. J. Kidder's lower mill now stands. 

John W. Noyes, now of Chester, built the best- 
finished mill on turnpike, on land now owned by 
John F. Hardy, which was destroyed by fire when 
about ten years old. 

Shingle-mills of Kneeland Stocker and Joseph 
W. Hill also had their day, and passed away. 
Warren Johnson andCharlesD. Sargent, under the 
firm-name of Johnson & Sargent, erected dams and 
saw, shingle and clapboard-mills at the outlet of 
Morgan Pond, where they owned five hundi-cd 
acres of heavy timbered laud, in the year 1847. 
now owned by A. J. Kidder, of New London. 

Orra (!. Howard, in 1848, purchased a very 
large tract of land of Nathan Stickney, of Con- 
cord, erected dwelling-houses and a costly mill — 
shingle, clapboard and saw — on the site of the 
" Old Spruce mill." After it had served its pur- 
jjose, the machinery and frame were sold to differ- 
ent parties and carried away. 

In 1843 a company was formed, and built a 
nice and expensive grist-mill, opposite the church, 
which was operated by the company known as 
Station Mill Com])any for about seven years, when 
it was sold to Ebenezer L. Nichols ; afterwards in 
hands of Alonzo P. Nichols, then sold to Albert 
H. Davis and A. J. Sanborn, and was run by 
Richard T. Sanborn, who with A. H. Davis, built 
the present saw-mill, now owned by J. T. Colby. 
Said Station Company's grist-mill was sold and 
moved away in about 1870. 

Kneeland and William Stocker have for many 
years had a carriage-sho]i and wheelwright mills, 



their wheels being noted for perfection and dura- 
bility. 

Cowles, Gass & Co. also had a carriage manu- 
factory on the Sugar River Branch, that was 
moved into Grantham, being on the Gore that, as 
elsewhere mentioned, has been annexed to Gran- 
tham. 

A " baker's dozen " or more of cider-mills have 
been erected, lived and died, or deca^yed, and 
only three now in the vigor of life remain, viz. : 
Sanborn's, Putney's and McDaniel's, with Boomer 
& Boschert, grater and press. There have been 
used in town three steam mills, — one near John 
Robie's, one in the Perly District, and one near 
the Eben Blood place. 

Physicians. — Dr. William Phillips, who lived 
on the farm owned by Levi S. Hill, is the first res- 
ident doctor, we are informed, who made a short 
stay here. Dr. Nathaniel Prentis served the town 
several years in different town offices and rejire- 
sented the town in General Court, as appears by 
record and this history ; and he was surgeon of the 
Thirty-first Regiment New Hampshire Militia, and 
a man who was very much honored and respected 
by the community. He was killed, almost in- 
stantly, October 10, 1<S10, on his way home from 
Newport in company with his comrades — from 
" muster" — by being thrown from his horse near 
the Cornish road and A. P. Welcome's buildings 
in said Newport. His residence was on " Phil- 
brick Hill," on the farm now owned by George H. 
Cross. Dr. Samuel Flagg, a traveling physician, 
ministered to the " physical " ailments of the j)eo- 
ple for a short time. Dr. Amasa Howard was here 
in 1812, located near L. L. and L. F. Hill's, and, 
after a few years, was succeeded by Dr. Abner 
Johnson, father of Mrs. Ferona Howard, and 
owned the place now occupied by Rev. Lewis 
Howard. He remained in town until about 1835 
and removed to Lowell, Mass. He, like Dr. 
Prentis, took an important position in State, town 
and societ}' matters, and was a skillful practitioner. 
Dr. Joseph Nichols, a native of this town, born in 
the house now owned and occupied by Joseph L. 
Brown, spent his life among his native hills. No 



SPRINGFIELD. 



343 



person labored more to benefit the town by im- 
proving the public roads, the scliools and church 
than did Dr. Nichols. As a physician he had few 
ecjuals about the country. He died in jMay, 18.53. 
During Dr. Nichols' practice he sold out to one 
Dr. Copp, of New London, reserving the right to 
attend his relatives and personal friends when 
called upon. Dr. Copp, a well-read physician, 
after remaining in town a year or more, teaching 
singing and other branches, decided that Dr. 
Nichols had more '" relatives and personal friends" 
than any other man he ever heard of, and left 
town for a clearer field nf practice. Dr. Valen- 
tine Manahan, a native of New London, came 
here and commenced practice in l.s.jl, liaviug been 
fitted by tne medical schools of Philadelphia and 
other places. He never accepted any town or 
other office within the gift of the people, but 
labored earnestly politically, and was very success 
ful both in politics and medical practice, having 
had a very large circle of patients. He closed 
practice here in 18G6, and, after looking over 
the Western country settled in Enfield, where 
he continues a very successful practitioner. Dr. 
D. P. Goodhue, a native of Dunliarton, after 
serving in the navy during the Rebellion, took 
Dr. ISIanahan's place as physician and still contin- 
ues to practice medicine here with great credit to 
himself, and has the entire confidence and sym- 
pathy of his townsmen. 

The following physicians, practicing elsewhere, 
were natives of this town : Joseph D. Nichols, 
died in Pennsylvania ; Dr. Moses C. Richardson, 
died in Marlborough, Mass.; Dr. John Robie, died 
in Corinth, Yt., where he had a large and successful 
practice; Dr. Yanransellier Morse; Dr. Willard 
Bowman, went to Vermont to practice ; Dr. Still- 
man Wood, practiced and died in Enfield; 
Dr. ]\Ioses C. Hoyt, emigrated westward ; Robert 
A. Blood, educated at Harvard ^ledical School 
is now practicing in Charlesto-.vn, Mass ; Charles i 
A. Messer, a graduate of Daitmouth Medical 
School, is practicing at Turner's Falls, Mass. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 

Bailey. — Josejjh Bailey moved here from Old 



Haverhill, Mass., and married Sally Sanders, of 
Grafton. She brought a cow here in 1810,thedescen- 
dants of which, witli a few exceptions, have been 
white-faced and been in the Bailey family, and are 
now owned by Westley. Roxana Bailey married, 
first, John F. Youngman, of Lempstcr; second, 
Moses Spaulding. John married Eliza Nich- 
ols and he died several years ago. Franklin mar- 
ried Eleanor Stevens, who died a few years ago. 
Lorenzo married Sarah A. Leavitt. He is at 
present temporarily located in Grafton, preaching 
there. His only son, John, lives on the place he 
formerly occupied. Westley married Ann Stevens. 
Nancy married Eli Spauling, and, after his death, 
the Rev. F. S. Bliss, a native of Cheshire, Mass. 
He was a very succes.sful Universalist clergyman, 
preaching at Enfield, N. H., and Barre, Yt , for 
fifteen years. He died at Greensl;>orough, N. C , 
March 23, 1873. Mrs. Bliss is now living in 
Cornish. 

BowJiAN. — Deputy Bowman married Sarah 
Philbrick, only sister of Abraham Philbrick, in 
179-5. She died in 1800, leaving two children, — 
Sarah and Walter. Sarah married John Loverin 
and had one child, Philander, who lived and died 
in town. Walter married and moved to Vermont 
Deputy Bowman married Margaret McClure, De- 
cember 2, 1802. The children were Wilhird, 
Joseph, Susanna, Sylvester, Deputy Ca,=son, John, 
Oliver, Mary Ann, Margaret ]\Iaria, Elizabeth and 
Narcissa. Willard was a jihysician ; Joseph a 
successful lawyer, of Belfast, Me.; Sylvester a 
brewer, living in Boston ; Mary Ann, the only one 
living in town, is the wife of Phineas Messer ; 
they have three sons living, — Melvin, Charles and 
Sylvester. Narcissa married George Thompson, 
living in Lexington, Mass. 

BoYCE. — James Boyce and Adam Boyce were 
also among the first settlers, both of wiiom had 
many descendants, only two of which remain in 
town, — sons of James, — viz.: Talent, who, with a 
fiimily, lives near Statifm Pond, and Moses O. 
and family on " Hogg Hill." 

Smith. — Israel Smith, a pioneer, had three 
adopted boys, — Charles Carpenter, Jac()b Smith 



344 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



and Josiah Chandler Williams, — and four chil- 
dren of his own, — William Plunimcr .Smith, who 
died several years since ; Jonathan B. Smith, now 
living in town and one of the largest sugar- 
makers; his twin sister Joanna, married Joseph 
Johnson, both died here ; and Mary W. Smith, 
born November 11, 1823. 

PiLLSBURY. — Joseph Pillsbury came here at an 
early day, having eight children, only one of 
which now resides here, — Asa F. and his son, 
Amos H. Pillsbury. Said Joseph was drafted in 
the War of 1812, and Adam Boye went as a 
substitute for him, 

Collins. — Some time about 1 798, Enoch 
Collins came to this town from Salisbury, N. H., 
and settled in the south part of town, where 
Richard W. Allen now lives. He had four sons 
and three daughters, — Benjamin P., Enoch, Jr., 
Enos and John ; jVIary lived in New York, 
Clarissa lived in Nebraska, and Nancy married 
George W. Craft and lived in New London ; she 
is alive now and a very smart old lady. None 
of his descendants now live in town but one 
granddaughter, Mrs. Charles Woodward. 

Enos Collins, Enoch's brother, came here before 
1800, and died in 1817- He left a large family, who 
are now all dead but Mrs. Susan Rol)ie, who lives 
in Salisbury, N. H. He has but two descendants 
in town, — Henry T. Sanborn and John Kobie. 

Joseph Collins, another brother, came here and 
raised a family of eight or ten children. He 
went from this town nioi-e than forty yeare ago to 
Stewartstown, N. H., and died there. One of his 
sons, Joseph, Jr., always lived in town, and died 
here when more than eighty years old. Only one 
of his descendants lives in town, Henry J. Collins, 
who is a blacksmith. 

Charles Collins settled here, and had four chil- 
dren, — Sarah, married Moses D. Richardson ; 
Nancy, married Nathaniel Loverin ; Hannah, , 
married Benjamin U. Collins ; and (/harles, Jr., I 
married Nancy McDauiel. They are all dead, 
and none of their descendants remain in town. 

Seth Collins, another l)rother, settled here, but 
njoved to St. Albans, Vt., many years ago. 



Deacon John Collins and wife came to spend 
their last days with their children in town, and 
died here. 

All the Collinses lived in School District No. 9, 
on the old road leading to New London. They 
were honest, respectable people, and very indus- 
trious citizens. 

Colby. — Benjamin Colby, born in Hopkinton 
September 25, 1776. Abigail Eaton, his wife, 
born in New Salem March 9, 1776. They were 
married March 25, 1800, and moved on to farm 
bought of Robert Hogg, in the southwestern part 
of the town, three days after their marriage. They 
had .seven children, — Benjamin, Jr., William D., 
Sally, Timothy, Eliza, James and Polly. Mrs. 
Colby died in 1852, and Mr. Colby in 1854. 
Benjamin Colby, Jr., born in 1801, married Polly 
L. Plistman, who was born in Wcare in 1804, but 
moved to Springfield with her parents, Moses and 
Polly Easlnian, in 1807. They moved on to the 
Colby place in 1851. They had four sons and 
one daughter, — Eliza, now sto])ping with her 
brother, James T., postmaster of West Spring- 
field. Stephen P. also lives in town. The old 
place still remains in the Colby name. 

William D. Colby, the oldest son, is an enterpris- 
ing farmer, living on "Sanborn Hill." He mar- 
ried Mahala Sanborn. They have five children 
living, one of whom is a very successful teacher. 

Philip Colby, of Salisbury, married Abra 
Greeley, and settled on the west side of Colonel 
Sanborn's hill, near where the large elm-tree now 
stands. He afterwards bought out Stei)hen and 
John Saw-yer, and built new buildings where 
Center F. Smith now lives, and died there in 
1842. He took a prominent part in town offices, 
in buililing the meeting-house, also the fourth 
New Ham])shire turnpike. He will be long re- 
membere<l by the old citizens. He had nine 
children,— John, Sally, Nancy, Bill, Rillah, 
Cinda, Sam, ("'lara and Sophia ; all are dead but 
Sophia. John, Bill and Sally lived in Rochester, 
N. Y. Nancy married I. Webster, of Wilmot ; 
she was thrown from a carriage and killed in 
1828. Rillah married Joseph Severance, of 



SPRINGFIELD. 



345 



Derby, Vt., aud died in Warner, N. H., in 1855 i 
Sally, Cinda, Clara and Sopliia never married. 
Ciuda died in ISLS; Clara in 1879. Slie was 
well known as a very industrious woman, and wiis 
highly respected by her townspeople. 8am Colby 
married Maria Adams, of Mason, and lived upon '■ 
the farm owned by his father until 1870, when he i 
sold it. He died in 1878 at his daughter's, Mrs. | 
Leora JM., wife of John H. Johnson. Leora died 
in 1888. Christoj)her C. resides in IManchester, 
N. H. Jdhn J), lives in Kansas. Charles JM. 
died August 14, 18G3, at Covington, Ky., while in 
the Union army. Henry A. died in Washington, 
D. C, from the etieets of a wound. 

Sopliia, the youngest of Philip Colby's children, 
still live.s within a few rods of the i)aternal home, 
at the age of eighty-three years. 

CoLCORD. — Among the early bettlers were three 
brothers — Thomas, Stephen and Joseph Colcord. 
They married three sisters by the name of Bean, 
and came here from Candia. 

Thoma.s lived on the hill east of the Timothy 
Davis place. They had several children. Hittey 
and Sarah mariied and lived in Vermont ; Abigail 
married John .lohuson, of Enfield, N. H. ; Nancy 
married John Heath ; Hannah married Andrew 
Pettingill. Pie lived in town, near Enfield, and 
died hei"e, after which .she married John Field 
aud moved to the West. David married Milly 
Philbrick. He died aud was buried in town. 
Jennie and Dolly died young, aud Moses went 
West. 

Stephen lived where John Johnson now lives. 
Had four girls. Elvira married Reuben Hoyt ; 
lived and died in town. Hannah married Dr. 
Joseph Nichols. Their children were named 
Ann, Joe, Jeannette, Elizabeth, Frank and Ade 
line. None of them live in town. Mary married 
and lived in Vermont. Abigail married James 
Johnson. Had two daughters — Betsy Ann, now 
dead, and Elvira, now married and living in 
Grantham. Mrs. Johnson is now living in town. 
Joseph Colcord lived where Sylvanus Gross now 
lives. His children were Sam, Hittey, Thomas, 
Joseph, David, Stephen, Mahala and Dorinda. 



None living iu town but Joseph. One sou, JSIoses, 
by first wife, also lives here. His second wife was 
Betsy Gilnian. Three only of their uine children 
are living. 

Hazzari). — James Carr Haz/.ard was born in 
Newbury, JNIa-ss. (now Newburyport), August 2, 
1759. He enlisted in the army at the age of six- 
teen, calling himself eighteen. He was at the 
battle of Bunker Hill and in several other battles. 

He married, February 11, 1787, Betsy Greeley, 
daughter of Shubael Greeley, of Salisbury. They 
moved into town when there were hut twenty 
families here, and endured the hardships and pri- 
vations of a newly-settled country. 

She sowed seeds from apples her father miscd in 
Salisbury, and ])lanteil with her own hands the 
orchard that now stands on the farm (known as 
the " Town Farm "), owned by Sargent Heath. 

They had eleven children, — Anna Hazzard, born 
April 15, 1788; Mary Hazzard, Uoin January 20, 
1790; James Hazzard, born December 30, 1791 ; 
Ruth Hazzard, born Felnuary 12, 1794; Sarah 
Hazzard, born March (i, 1796; Asenath Hazzard, 
born February 12, 1798; C'yrus Hazzard, born 
April 15, 1800 ; Thirzali Hazzard, born June 28, 
1802 ; Luther Hazzard, born December 28, 1804; 
Lucy Hazzard, born February 5, 1808 ; Thirzali 
Hazzard, born October 6, 1810. 

Anna Hazzard, when eighteen years of age, 
went to Salisbury, at Deacon Gate's, to learn the 
tailor's trade; she gave three years' time. She 
married Jesse Fuller, of Lebanon, April 11, 1811. 
They moved to Lebanon and lived one year; then 
they moved to Salem, Mass., where he was pro- 
prietor of the Boston and Salem baggage-wagons 
about seven years. He was returning from Boston 
one very dark night, when his wagon ran against 
a large heap of dirt which had been thrown from 
the town pumps, and he was instantly killed, 
April 18, 1822. His wife, Anna, was left with 
four small children. Abigail, who was known 
iu this town as a successful teacher. John was 
sent to Hanover to learn the tanner's trade. 
He went to New York as a teacher; married, 
lived and died there. Elizabeth S. was sent to 



346 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



iSj)riiigfield to live with her graudparents, where 
she was brought uj), and who prides herself of her 
Greeley descent. Lucius, the baby, his mother 
kept with her. He afterwards was a taih)r iu 
town ; he married for his wife Laurette F. Con- 
verse, of Lyme, N. H. ; he went to Troy, N. Y., on 
a visit to his brother's, and died. 

Mary Hazzard married Isaac Haseltou ; lived in 
Springfield. They had three children — James, 
who died young, Rhoda, James. Rhoda lives in 
Webster, N. H. 

James Hazzard married a lady in Vermont ; 
W'ent there to live. He had four children — 
Rosanna, Irena, Clara and Thirzah. 

Ruth Hazzard married Josiah Johnson, of 
Springfield. They had five children — Hauuah, 
Beri, Samuel, Melinda, Mary. Two are now liv- 
ing — Hannah Johnson Noyes in Atkinson, N. H., 
and 3Iary Johnson Davis in Jaffrey. 

Sarah Hazzard married Jonathan Stewart, and 
lived in Bow. They had nine children, only two 
living — Jonathan M. Stewart, dealer in carpefs, at 
Concord, N. H. ; Marion Stew'art Osgood, a dress- 
maker, at CJoncord, N. H. 

Asenath Hazzard married Jerry Tjaniboru, of 
Enfield, N. H. ; moved to Boouvillc, N. Y. They 
had three children, one living in New Y^ork in 
1885. 

Cyrus Hazzard went to New York ; married and 
lived there. He had six children ; five are now 
living. Thirzah died when about two years old. 

Luther Hazzard went to New York as a teacher; 
married and settled in Reusellearville, N. Y^., 
where he lived until his death. He had one child. 

Lucy Hazzard married, first, a farmer, Giles 
Stockwell, of Croydon; married, second, Jonathan 
Emerson, of Lebanon, where she now lives alone 
at the age of seventy-seven years. 

Thirzah Hazzard married, first, Silas Kinsley, a 
merchant, and lived in Springfield. They had 
three children ; two are now living. Orenda lives 
in Stoueham, Mass., and works at dressmaking. 
Charles lives in California. He married for his 
wife Fran Hill, daughter of L. L. Hill, of Spring- 
field. She married for her second husband Colonel 



Beals, of Lyme, where she now lives at the age of 
seventy-four years. 

Lucy and Thirzah are the only ones left of the 
family. 

Elizabeth Fuller, wife of Josejjh Davis, Jr., is 
the only one left in town of the descendants of the 
Hazzards. She had two children. Henry died at 
the age of sixteen. Abby is married and lives in 
Springfield. She is the wife of Dr. David P. 
Goodhue. 

Heath. — In the early days there was a family 
of seven brothers and sisters, who came here from 
Salem, Mass, — Evan M., Daniel, Enoch, John, 
James, Hannah and Rachel. Evan M. married 
Betsy Woodward and had seven childen, — Rhoda, 
Nathaniel, Jesse, Johnson, Enoch, Ira and Daniel. 
Rhoda first married David Beau, having two chil- 
dren, — Rhoda and David, — and then married 
Joshua Stevens, having three children, — Mary 
Ann, who married Joseph Robie, now living in 
town ; Nathaniel and Mauley, who are dead. Na- 
thaniel married Margaret Streeter, of New Y'ork. 
They had eleven children, — Uriah, in the navy 
three years, married Mary E. Stevens, of Grafton, 
daughter of Barnard C. Stevens ; Elias and H. 
Johnson Heath went to Canada ; Betsy married 
Albert Swctland, of Providence, R. I.; Evan M. 
uiarried Grace Loverin, now living in Salisbury, 
N. H.; Francis A. married Rhoda A. Heath, of 
Pittsburg, N. H., now living iu Enfield ; Charlotte 
died in infancy ; Vensana married John Jeffers, 
who havji only one child living, — Lizzie X., mar- 
ried to M. A. Burnham, — Mr. and Mrs. Jeffers hav- 
ing buried eight children with diphtheria; Rhoda 
A., widow of John Sanders ; Stephen S. died in 
the Union army ; and Charles J. died in tow n when 
eighteen years old. Jesse, son of Evan M., of 
Salem, married and died in New York. Johnson, 
son of Evan ^L, who married Nancy Sanborn, 
of Grafton, was the father of Monroe C. Heath, 
ex-mayor of Chicago, and of Warren and Calista, 
who are dead. Enoch, son of Evan M., marrietl 
Polly Jones. Children were Diana, present wife 
of John F. Carter, of Audover ; Nicanor, of 
Grafton ; Arville, wife of Joseph Whitcomlj, of 



SPRINGFIELD. 



347 



Audover; Josiah, died in Grafton ; Eoxanna, first 
wife of George Miller, who lives at East Canaan ; 
Aurilla, married Barauch Smith, of Grafton; and 
Ora C., living in Orange. Ira, son of Evan M., 
married Rebecca Greeley ; had one child. Dan- 
iel, son of Evan M., married Sophia Barnhart, of 
Cornwall, Canada. Daniel's second wife is the 
present wife of Moses Leavitt, of Grafton. Dan- 
iel Heath, who came from Salem, lived on George 
Hill, in Enfield, and was the father of Dorset 
Heath. Enoch Heath, a soldier of the Revolu- 
tionary War, married Lizzie Stevens and lived 
where Russell Kidder now lives. Enoch's son, 
Samuel, married Mary Dearborn. Of their chil- 
dren, only Sarah Ann, wife of Samuel Maxfield, 
and John Heath, are now residents. Enoch's 
other sou, Ezekiel, married Lucretia Babbitt and 
had one child. He then married Jerusha Fuller 
and had nine more, — Leonard, married, first, Sally 
Morgan, and, after her death, married Lydia Jane 
Hill; Levi married Priscilla Cliilbrd, he died 
several years ago, and his widow and several chil- 
dren are living in town ; Enoch and Hiram died 
in Vermont ; George is a depot-master of Sharon, 
Vt ; William died in town ; Van Buren, the 
seventh son, died in Lowell, Mass.; Gerrard first 
married Hannah Hook, and second Rosalette 
Heath, now living in town ; and Narcissa, died in 
town. John, who came from Salem, married Dolly 
Davis, lived opposite M. C. Burnham's and died 
at the age of one hundred and seven years. They 
had fourteen children, — James, Dolly, John, Zac- 
cheus, Lydia, Marion, Nancy, Hannah, Jonathan, 
Edmund, Christopher, Polly, Ehoda and Phebe. 
Dolly married John Jeflers, who came here from 
Hampstead. They had eight children. Mary 
Jeffers married Enoch Quimby; Phebe Jeflers 
married Samuel Sanders and is the present wife of 
Jeremiah Stevens ; Jacob Jetfers married Cathe- 
rine Kemptou, of Croydon ; Stephen Jetfers died 
in Lyme ; John Jeffers married Vensana Heath ; 
David Jeflfers married Meliuda Cummings, of 
Colebrook ; Edward Jeffers married a Smith of 
Salisbury ; Polly Jeffer.^, died. John Heath mar- 
ried Nancy Colcord ; their children were named 



Alfred, Jonathan, Charlotte, Dorothy, Stephen 
and Martha. Hannah Heath married Daniel 
Bean ; had one child, Emeline, w ho married Nich- 
olas Hardy of this town. James, who came from 
Salem, married Hannah Clark and livetl where 
J. C. Pettengill now lives; had three children, — 
Moses, lived in Wilmot; Lucinda, married John 
M. Philbrick, of this town ; and Mary, married 
Freeman Smalley, of Hanover. Hannah, who 
came from Salem, married Dr. Peaslee, of Alex- 
andria. One of his children is the present wife 
of Esquire John Austin. Rachel, who came from 
Salem, married Samuel George, commonly called 
" King George ;" had five children, none known 
to be living. 

Hogg. — Among the early settlers were Charles 
and Robert Hogg. Charles settled on a hill, which 
resulted in the name " Hogg Hill." We find from 
the records that James Hogg, the son of Charles 
and Hannah Hogg, was born in 1791 ; Polly 
Hogg, in 1793 ; Susannah Little Hogg, in 179G; 
Sophia Hogg, in 1799 ; BeujamiQ Franklin Hogg, 
in 1800 ; and Thomas Jeffei-sou Church, son of 
Charles and Hannah Church, was born in 1802; 
and Charles Church, in 1805. 

None of their descendants are known to be in 
town. Robert Hogg, brother of Charles, lived 
opposite where James K. Richardson now lives. 
Robert Hogg, Jr , born in 1787, married Huldah 
Winter, November 17, 1808. They had one 
daughter, Margery. John Hogg, son of Robert, 
married Susanna Sanborn. Their children were 
Betsy Hogg, born in 1807 ; John Hogg, in 1810 ; 
James Hogg, in 1812; Joseph Hogg, in 1814; 
Moses Hogg, in 1816 ; Daniel Hogg, in 1820; and 
Israel and Mathew Harvey Johnson. Thus it ap- 
pears that John and Susanna Hogg had their 
names changed to Johnson some time after 1820. 

Betsy married Kneeland Stocker and died soon 
after. James married Abigail Colcord ; had two 
daughtei's, — Bet.sy Ann, who married Mark 
Burnham, died several years ago ; Elvira, married 
Dr. W. C. Kempton, and is now living in Grant- 
ham. Joseph married Joanna Smith. They had 
two children, — John, who married Leora Colby, 



348 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



who died, and he has recently married Kate 
Gault, of Arlington, Vt. ; and Susan, who married 
Rev. Warren Noyes, who has preached in town 
several times and now lives in Vermont. Moses 
and Daniel were blacksmiths in town and both 
died here. Isiael married Huldah Sargent. He 
is dead and his widow now lives in town with her 
brother, Enoch Sargent. Harvey married Han- 
nah Sargent. They live in Concord, N. H. 

Karr. — Samuel Clay married Hannah Karr. 
They came here from Candia, N. H., and settled 
on the Colonel Sanborn Hill, so-called. He served 
as a town officer and was licensed to sell rum, gin 
and brandy, but cautioned not to mix water with 
it. 

John Karr, of Candia, N. H., married Eliza- 
beth Murray, of Chester, N. H. They settled at 
an early date on what is called Colonel Sanborn's 
Hill. Karr was a large, powerful man and fought 
wild beasts and witches. Our informant remembers 
when a small boy, of looking on with fear and .see- 
ing him destroy one with hot irons, but does not 
remember of seeing the dead witch. Old inhabit- 
ants claimed that Mr. Karr cleared more acres of 
laud than any other man that settled in town. 
He had four sons and one daughter, Hannah, who 
never married., and died in 1822 ; Samuel, married 
Nancy Greely, of New London, and lived and 
died there ; John, Jr., never married, lived at 
Concord the last of his life ; Mark lived and died 
at Epping, N. H. ; Josejjh lived and died at Man- 
chester, N. H.,and has several children living there 
now. Mr. Karr built where Joseph M. Robie now 
lives, and died there in 1843. He has no descend- 
ants living in town. 

Kinsman. — In 1794 Captain Ephraim Kins- 
man, Colonel Aaron, Deacon Stephen and Asa 
Kinsman, Joseph and James Riddle, Jr. , lived in 
that part of the town now called Fowler Town, 
then Kinsman Corner. 

It was about six miles from the centre of the 
town, and an unbroken forest lay between them 
and the small settlement at the centre. The 
Kinsmans had lived there several years, but it 
was not known to the people at the centre until 



Samuel Robie, Esq., and Captain John Quimby 
took a compass and went on an exploring expedi- 
tion, and, much to the surprise of both parties, 
found their neighbors. This was several years 
before 1794. 

John Morrill married Kinsman, and 

settled at an early date in this part of the town. 
He was a very worthy man, and " Let his moder- 
ation be known to all men." He had three sons, 
— Stephen, John, Jr., and Enos ; also two daugh- 
ters Stephen has been gone from town many 
years, but has one son living in Wilmot, the Rev. 
William S. Morrill. John Jr., and Enos still live 
in town, having sous and daughters living near 
them. 

Little. — Nathaniel Little was bom in Atkin- 
son, N. H., November 10, 1746; married Mary 
Carleton, of Plaistow, N. H. After living a time 
at Portland, Me., he purchased a farm and 
resided at Plaistow, N. H. About the year 1790 
he removed with his younger children to this town, 
where he cleared wild lands and settled them upon 
farms. His daughter, Susan, married O.sgood 
Taylor, who was a tavern-keeper at Springfield, 
Sandown and Hampstead, where he died. 

Samuel married Sally Pettengill, of this town, 
and built and kept a tavern at the James Calef 
place, on the turnpike. He died in 1814. Joseph 
married Sarah Webster, of Salisbury, and lived on 
a farm near Stockertown. He was a sea-captain, 
and died away from home, in 1820. 

Elizabeth married John Hoyt, and settled on a 
farm near the old Stickney tavern. 

John, at the age of twenty two, left home and 
was not heard from for thirty years. He was 
a sea-captain, and died in 1840, unmarried. 

Amos, the youngest of thirteen children (the 
only one born in town), was born February 
27, 1796; he lived with his father until he 
was fifteen years old, when he left home and learn- 
ed the hatters' trade. In 1818 he commenced 
the manufacturing of hats at Newport, N. H., and 
continued in the business until his death, August 
17, 1859. 

Nathaniel Little (Senior) was in the Revo- 



SPRINGFIELD. 



349 



lutionary War, served as ensiga, and was wounded 
at the battle of Saratoga. After the death of his 
son Samuel, in 1814, he went to Hampstead, 
N. H., to live with his oldest sou, where he died, 
August 11, 1827. 

LovERiN. — Eben Loverin and Lydia, his wife, 
came here about 1780 with six children, — John, 
J]benezer, Caleb, Polly, Lydia and Hittey. They 
walked from Salisbury on snow-shoes, bringing 
the youngest in their arms. John Loverin mar- 
ried Betsy Hall, of Croydon, and lived there. 
Ebenezer Loverin married Polly Bliss, of Leba- 
non ; lived and died in town. Caleb Loverin mar- 
ried Mary Kenistou, of Stratham. Polly Loverin 
married Joseph Nichols, father of Dr. Joseph, 
John, Phiueas, Eben and Lydia. John Nichols 
married Betsy Stevens; they had several children, 
only one of which, John C, is now living in town. 
Lydia Nichols married Cutting Greeley, of Salis- 
bury. 

Dr. Joseph Nichols married Hannah Colcord. 
He was a successful physician iu town ; had several 
children, all away from town now. Eben Nichols 
married Sarah McDaniel. Phineas Nichols taught 
over thirty years iu the High School at Ports- 
mouth, N. H. 

Lydia Loverin married Dr. Nathaniel Prentis, 
who was instantly killed, leaving one daughter, 
now dead. Hittey Loverin married Abraham 
Philbrick, who came here from Kingston ; had 
nine children, — Sally, Milly, Abram 8 , Porter 
K., Jeremiah, John, Hittey, Olive and Lydia. 
Sally married James Noyes and lived in town. 
She is now eighty -seven years old, living in Buda, 
111., with her daughter. Milly married David 
Colcord, who died, leaving two children, James 
and Ana (now Mrs. H. Hatch), both living in 
Lebanon. She died in 1882. Abram S. married 
Lydia Loverin, of Croydon, and had five children, 
— Henry, Horace, Marietta, Louisa and Betsy 
Jane. Henry lives in Manchester. Marietta in 
Croydon ; the others in town — Louisa living with 
her father, who is eighty-three years old. Porter 
K. married Nancy Hoyt, of Enfield, and lived in 
Wilmot. He died a few years ago. Jeremiah 



married Lydia Jane Sanborn and had four chil- 
dren, — James, Martha, Ellen and Orra, who is 
the only one living in town. His second wife was 
Mrs. Angle Williams, of Grafton ; one child, 
Leona. 

John married, first, Lueinda Heath ; four chil- 
dren now living, — Loren, Elwin, Warren and 
Milly. All in town but Loren. Second, Sephina 
Morgan, of New London. He always lived in 
town, and died in 1880. 

Hittey married James McDaniel. 

Olive married L. L. Hill. Only three children 
living, — Porter and Francis in California and 
Edson with his father in town. She died iu 1883. 

Lydia married L. F. Hill. Always lived iu 
town and have three sons, — Oriu, Cyrus and 
Charles. Oriu lives in Michigan. 

Jedediah Philbrick, of Kingston, brother of 
Abraham, married Hannah Thirston, March 19, 
1794. Their children were Betsy, Samuel, Dolly, 
Lua, Anna, Dinah and Emily B. 

Anna married Ezra Pillsbury, and is now liv- 
ing iu town, seventy-nine years old, and Emily is 
living iu the West. 

Jonathan Loverin aud wife came here from 
Candia aud settled on the old New London road. 
They had eight sons, — Benjamin went to Vermont 
and died there ; Nathaniel married Nancy Col- 
lins ; John married Sarah Bowman ; Prescott mar- 
ried Betsy Sawyer; Daniel married Sarah Russell ; 
Jonathan, Jr., married jMaloue, from Salis- 
bury ; Ira married Mary A. Brigham, from Ver- 
meut ; Austin married Susan Kinsman, and after 
her death married Lovina Morrill. Only two of 
their children now living iu town, — Ida L. aud 
Sarah Ann, wife of George H. Morgan. 

Thorp. — Samuel Thorp, of Beverly, Mass., 
came here with Ephraim Morgan and helped clear 
land near Morgan Pond. Said Thorp aud wife 
had five daughters. One married a Cressy, of 
Bradford ; one a Mr. Ward, of Lebanon ; Olive 
married Josiah Johnson, of Wilmot ; Hannah 
married John Silver ; Almiua married Ebenezer 
Whitteniore, of AVilmot. No descendants iu town. 

McDaniel. — James McDaniel we find was in 



350 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIEE. 



town before 1794, with a family of four children,— 
Mark, Daniel, John and Polly. He lived upon 
the same ftirm that is now occupied by Charles Mc- 
Daniel, but his buildings were upon the top of the 
hill, near what is known as the Whittemore house. 
John married Hannah Morse, of Kingston ; they 
were the parents of five children, — Abigail, Sarah, 
Daniel, James and Hannah. They moved to the 
house now occuj)ied by Charles McDaniel, in 180S, 
from a house about twenty-five rods north of the 
present buildings. Abigail McDaniel, born 1799, 
March 25, married Stephen H. Heath. She 
died in 1834, leaving three boys, who are now 
dead. Sarah McDaniel, born February 21, 1803, 
married Eben L. Nichols. They both died in 
town, having reared a family of four sons, — Alonzo 
P., Leonard, Lyman L. and Lovell W., only one 
of whom is known to be living, Alonzo P. Nichols, 
now of Manchester, N. H. Daniel McDaniel, born 
March 28, 1804, went to Cherry Valley, Ohio, 
and married Eliza Greene. Three sons, Lanson, 
John and James survive them ; Lanson, now living 
in tlie mining region in Pennsylvania; John, in 
Iowa ; and James in Rome, Ohio. James McDan- 
iel, born February 13, ]807, married, Novem- 
ber 24, 1833, Hittey L. Philbrick. He always 
lived in town, upon the old homestead, except while 
teaching a few terms in New Y^ork. He died in 
1873, leaving four children, — Charles, Ann, George 
and Ell?. Charles married Amanda M. Quimby ; 
Ann married S. H. Jaekman, a graduate of Dart- 
mouth Ci liege, now living in Sacramento, Cal. ; 
George also lives in Sacramento, Cal. ; Ella is at 
present living on the " McDaniel " farm, with her 
mother, who is seventy-three years old. Hannah 
McDaniel, born April 14, 1813, is now living at 
Enfield, N. H., as widow of Albert Currier. She 
has one son, Nathan, a graduate of Tufts College. 
Morgan.— Ephraim Morgan came here before 
1795, from Beverly, Mass., and settled in the wil- 
derness, on land which is now owned by Jeremiah 
Philbrick and used as a pasture. He had seven chil- 
dren,— John, Ephraim, Richard, Sally, Ebenezer, 
William and Garry. John ^lorgan, born August 
31, 1791, married Betsy Richardson. They had 



three children, — Betsy, who is now living in Wake- 
field, Mass. ; Sally, who married Leonard Heath ; 
and Rebecca, who died in town. Ephraim j\Ior- 
gan married and raised a large family of children ; 
died in Francestown, N. H. Richard Morgan, 
died in the West, and Sally died here unmarried. 
Ebenezer Morgan, born March 14, 1801, married 
Abigail Rowe, of Candia, had six children, — Mary 
Ann, who married Charlton Woodbury, and lives 
in New London ; Sarah Jane, now living in Man- 
chester ; Richard S., married Messer, and 

lives in New London ; Ephraim D., married and 
living in Manchester; Ellen J. and Frank B., 
who are now living in town with their mother, who is 
nearly blind. William Morgan married Mary Ful- 
ler ; had four children, — Garry ; George H , who 
married Sarah Ann Loverin, and lives in town ; 
Laura and Lucy, both living in Sunapee. Laura 
married Willard Chase, and Lucy, Alfred Mar- 
tin. Gai-ry Morgan, born October 22, 1806, died 
in town. 

Messer. — Phineas Messer and wife, of New 
London, cleared the land where his sons Phineas 
and Jacob now live (also had one other son, John, 
died young). Louis married Darius Kidder. 
Mary died of consumption. 

Phineas married Mary A. Bowman, and have 
three children living, — Melvin, Charles and Syl- 
vester. 

Jacob married Mariett Burpee, of New London ; 
one child, Herbert H., also living in town. 

Notes. — Daniel Noyes married a Miss Ware, 
from Andover; had two sons, — Hon. Jolin W. 
Noyes, now living in Chester, N. H., and is 
president of Derry Bank; Daniel J. Noyes, of 
Hanover, who has long been a professor in Dart- 
mouth College 

Ebenezer Noyes, of Kingston, married Lydia 
Sawyer Plaistow. They settled in this town at an 
early date, on the place now known as the 
"Blood place;" afterwards lived on the turn- 
pike, where Lorenzo Dow now lives. Our inform- 
ant well remembers him as the " king of good 
fellows." They had no children of their own, but 
adopted several and gave them good homes. One 



SPRINGFIELD. 



351 



of the number was the late Gilman Sawyer, 
another Eliza Jane Phelps (now Mrs. Cheney), 
living in Plaistow, N. H. 

John Noyes, brother of Ebenezer Noyes, first 
came to this town from Kingston, when a boy six- 
teen years old ; he came with Ensign Nathaniel 
Little and John Heath, in the full of the year, 
and stayed some six weeks, cutting timber and 
clearing land, on the place now known as the 
" French place," where Little afterward built his 
tavern and lived. Noyes afterward married 
Elizabeth Webster, of Plaistow, and came and 
settled on the farm where Moses Noyes lately 
died, and now occupied by Charles M. Noyes. 

John Noyes drove the first yoke of oxen 
into town, bringing the first sheep, six in number, 
on an ox-sled from Plaistow. He followed the 
business of teaming many years, from this town to 
Boston, Salem, Haverhill and Newburyport, 
Mass. He had four sons and three daughters — 
James, Stephen, Eben, Moses, Polly, Sarah and 
Eliza, — all being dead but one, Mrs. Sarah Hall, 
of Lowell, Mass. He died in 1847. James Noyes 
married Sallie Philbrick, and died, leaving four 
daughters, — Ursula A., Caroline P., Milly and 
Sarah J. ]\Iilly died and was buried in town ; 
Ursula married Mr. Durham ; Caroline married 
M. G. Loverin, formerly of this town ; Sarah mar- 
ried Cyrus P. Mason. All are now living in 
Illinois. Stephen Noyes married Mary Jane 
Brown, and had five children, — John, Eliza, Eben, 
Mary I. and Jane E. Eben Noyes was married 
twice and lived in Boston ; his widow and children 
survive him. Moses Noyes married Susan Whitte- 
more, and had six children, — Ellen married Mc- 
Dole, and lives in Bedford ; Lydia married Mc- 
Dole, and is now dead ; Mary married Horace H. 
Philbrick, and lives in town ; William married 
and lives in Alexandria ; Charles married Helen 
Pattee ; he and Mrs. Mary Philbrick are the only 
descendants living in town ; Florilla married 
Horace Tilton, and lives in Alexandria ; Polly 
married Kimball Loverin, of Croydon ; had nine 
children — Eliza, Alary, Martha, Lucy, Ann, 
Achsah Jane, John, Hiram and Caleb. Sarah 



married Calvin Hall, and had several children. 
Eliza married John Brown. 

Perley. — Paul P. Perley, a native of Boxford, 
Mass., came here from Dunbarton about 1795 or 
1796. He married Sally Story, of Dunbarton, 
and raised several children, — Sally, Betsy, Benja- 
min, Dolly A., Daniel, Jacob and Mary Ann. 
Sally married David Perkins, of Dunbarton ; 
thence moved to Washington, N. H. Betsy 
married Benjamin Bunker, of New London, and 
lived in Wilmot. Benjamin first married Han- 
nah Adams, of New London, having one daugh- 
ter, Adelphia, now living in Vermont ; second, 
Mrs. Eliza Gage Collins. They had two daugh- 
ters, — Augusta, married Edwin Messer, and Abby, 
not married, both living in New London. Dolly 
A. married Thompson Baxter, of Quincy, Mass., 
had a family of seven children. Daniel married, 
first, Mahala Gile, of Sutton. They had one 
daughter, Mary Ann, who is now dead. Second, 
Mrs. Lucy Morrill Brown, who is now living in 
New London Jacob died in infiincy. Mary Ann 
married Samuel Quimby, and still resides here, 
being the only one of the family now living. 
Daniel Perley always lived on the original Perley 
place, and Benjamin on an adjoining farm. 

Quimby. — Timothy Quimby married Shuah 
Sanborn, of Hawke. They came here soon after 
the Revolutionary War, and settled on two 
seventy-five-acre lots, the house being in what is 
now a pasture south of where Rev. Lewis Howard 
now lives. Their daughter Mary was born in 
December, 179.5. In 1807 they bought of John 
Gould the place where their granddaughter now 
resides. Mary Quimby married Abner Johnson 
in 1817, he having located in Springfield as physi- 
cian prior to this. They had five daughters, — 
Rosina, Ferona, Peluna, Lorana and Jelana ; only 
three now living. They left town in March, 1835, 
and lived in Lowell, Mass.. less than two years; 
then settled in Saxonville, a vill.ige in Framing- 
ham, Mass., where he practiced pharmacy. He 
died in Derry, N. H., aged nearly eighty- nine 
years, with his daughter Rosina, who married 
Hon. W. H. Shepard. 



352 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Ferona married Samuel Soden, of Saxonville, 
and had one son, Arthur, living in Newtonville, 
Mass. Mr. Soden died in 1844, and in 1848 she 
married S. H. Clement. They had one daughter, 
Mary, who recently married Horace Metcalf, of 
Walpole, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Clement came 
back to the old homestead, which had remained 
in the family since 1807, a few years before his 
death, in 1872. In 1879 she married Rev. Lewis 
Howard, who has preached here most of the time 
since. 

Captain John Quimby, brother of Timothy 
Quimby, lived here in early times, having three 
sons, — John, Samuel and Timothy. 

John Quimby, born July 21, 1773, married 
Mary Bean in 1798 and had five children. 
Samuel Quimby, born in 1800, married Mary 
Ann Perley. When a young man h,e and Sam 
Colby spent a few ye^>rs in Kentucky, since which 
he always lived in town, and served in military 
and all town offices many years, in the Legislature 
and as deputy sheriff' They had three children, — 
Amanda M., who married Charles McDaniel ; 
Daniel P., who married Emily E. Adams, daugh- 
ter of Hon. D. A. Adams (after her death he 
married Etta Huntoon, now living in Newport, 
N. H.) ; Warren S. married Ellen E. Keniston, 
and live in Andover, N. H. Samuel Quimby 
died in 1872. Hannah Quimby died in 1806. 

Horace Quimby married Nancy Jones, and had 
several children while living in town ; moved to 
Manchester, where he died. 

Eri Quimby married Maee, of Boston, 

and went West. 

Lucinda S. Quimby married Gilman Lovei'in, 
of Loudon, and, after his death, married Amos 
Copp, of Sanbornton. She is now living in Man- 
chester with her son, Alberto Loverin. 

Mary Quimby, wife of General John Quimby, 
died May 20, 1820, and, February 4, 1824, he 
married Mehitable March. They had two 
daughters,— Mary and Augusta Ann, who mar- 
ried, and are now living in Illinois. 

Samuel, brother of General John Quimby, 
married Susan Gilman. Had three children, — 



Sally and Philinda, now dead, and William H., 
living in Enfield, N. H. 

Lieutenant Timothy, the other brother of 
General John, married Lydia Robie. They had 
only one son, Timothy Hendiick, now living in 
town. He married Eliza Davis, of New London. 
They had six children, only two living in town, — 
Henry E. and Timothy H., Jr. 

Jeremiah Quimby, of Candia, came here about 
1780 and married Margaret Smith, of Candia. 
Children were Jacob, Maroa, Hannah, Polly, Eliz- 
abeth, Mehitable, Abraham, Aaron and Jeremiah. 
All moved from here but Abraham and Jeremiah. 
Abraham married Marion Jones, of Hawke. • 
Children, — Leify, Enoch, Jones, Ruth, Betsy, 
Abraham and Jacob H. Abraham married Olive 
Randall, who died several years since, but he is 
still in town. Jacob H. married Nancy Russell 

and lives in Enfield. Jacob married Bean, 

of Candia ; had three children, — Irene, Joanna 
and Jacob. Aaron Quimby married Hannah 
Heath, daughter of Enoch Heath. Children, — 
Enoch, Louisa, Sarah, John, Maria, Aaron, Jere- 
miah, Hannah and Peter. Enoch was twice mar- 
ried and died in Cornish. Louisa is the present 
wife of Willis Hardy. Aaron now lives in Grant- 
ham in single blessedness. Jeremiah married 
Rhoda A. Sanborn ; when a young man he had 
the small-pox ; afterwards was a local preacher 
and died here in town, leaving two children, — 
Lydia Jennie and Harris. Hannah married 
John T. Weeks. Jeremiah, son of Jeremiah and 
Margaret Quimby, married Nancy Jones, of 
Hawke. Their children's names were Charlotte, 
Nancy, Jeremiah and Irene. Nancy died several 
years since, Jeremiah married Belinda Hoyt, and 
Irene is the wife of John F. Hardy. Both fami- 
lies are now living in town. 

Richardson. — Moses Richardson was born in 
West Newburg, Mass., November 12, 1752. In 
early life he, with his parents, moved to Chester, 
N. H.; married, 1778, Sarah Chase, born Novem- 
ber 28, 1756. In 1788 he, with his family, moved 
to Protectworth, (now Springfield), N. H. His was 
the forty-second faniilv then in town. He was 



SPRINGFIELD. 



353 



one of the early school-teachers in town and ;vas 
chosen deacon of the Congregational Church, 
■which position he held until his death, in 1842, 
aged ninety years. The following children were 
born to them in Chester, N. H. : Jacob Cliase 
Richardson, born February 21, 1779, died in , 
Western New York in 1844 ; Moses D. Richard- 
son, born May 1, 1781 ; Prudence H. Richardson, 
born October 12, 1783, died October 23, 1857; 
Sarah Richardson, born August 31, 1788, married 
Theophilus Clough (she died October 22, 1863). 
The following were born in Springfield : Betsy 
Richardson, born August 2, 1791, married John 
• Morgan of Springfield ; she died January 10, 
1857. Daniel Richardson, born September 22, 
1793, removed to West Lebanon, N. H., in 1826, 
and died at West Lebanon, N. H. Lydia Rich- 
ardson, born February 11, 1796, married Asa 
Currier, of Raymond, N. H. ; she died in 1883. 
Joseph Richardson, born December 2, 1 798, married 
Rhoda Stevens, November, 1824 ; he died in 1880. 

Moses D. Richardson, born in Chester, N. H., 
May 1, 1781, moved with his parents in 1791, 
when but ten years of age, to Protectworth (now 
Springfield), N. H., into the wilderness at what is 
now called Springfield Four Corners, and always 
lived on the same farm until his death, February 
26, 1861, aged eighty years. He married, in 1809, 
Sarah Collins, born in Salisbur}', July 18, 1787. 
They lived together in Springfield fifty-two years. 
She died at North Boscawen, June 11, 1872, aged 
eighty-five years. To them were born in Spring- 
field nine children, as follows : 

Laura Richardson, born November 10, 1810 ; 
married, in 1828, David Flanders ; she now living 
at Ilion, N, Y. 

Amos Richardson, born August 28, 1812 ; 
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1837 ; 
married, August 25, 1840, Ruth Freeman, of Han- 
over, N. H. ; was principal of Fryeburg, Me., 
Academy until 1845, when he removed to Free- 
hold, N. J., and established the young ladies' 
seminary; he became totally blind in 1855, but 
continued the management of the seminary until 
his death, in 1882. 



Moses C. Richardson, born September 24, 1814, 
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1841, attended 
the Harvard Medical School, and graduated at the 
University of New York City in 1845. He 
married, first, Harriet Farnsworth, of Bridgton, 
Me., August 23, 1846. Married, second, September 
10, 1849, Mary S. AVingate, of Hallowell, Me. 
Married, third, Frances C. Ticknor, of New Marl- 
boro, Mass. ; he practiced medicine twenty-four 
years in Hallowell, Me., then removed to New 
Marlborough, Mass., where he died from rupture 
of a blood-vessel. 

Levi Richardson, born June 29, 1816, served 
as clerk for Shaw & Churchill, and B. & A. 
Latham, Lyme, N. H., from 1836 to 1840 ; then 
returned to Springfield ; served as clerk for D. N. 
Adams for two years ; then became a partner under 
the firm-name of Adams & Richardson ; married, 
September 28, 1843, Lucy Ann Gustin, of Croy- 
don, N. H. She died September 5, 1858. In 
1860 removed to Franklin, N. H. ; married, August 
2, 1862, Mary A. Currier, of Nashua, N. H. ; still 
living in Franklin, N. H. 

Lucinda Richardson, born May 5, 1818, married 
Calander Rathburn, now living at Dallas Centre, 
Iowa. 

David Richardson, born July 2, 1820, married 
Mary Hill, of Conway, N. H. ; on account of ill 
health was obliged to remove South, and located 
at Knoxville, Tenn. ; married, second, Laura 
Beardem, of Knoxville, Tenn. At the breaking 
out of the Rebellion, the noted rebel, general 
Longstreet, sent him an order to report at his 
headquarters at a late hour one evening, which 
order he obeyed. On his arrival at the general's 
quarters, the general told him his object in send- 
ing for him was to join their army. After listening 
to the general's proposition he firmly refused to 
obey. After his many threateuings, the general 
said that he was in his quarters, that his life was 
unsafe, and that he was liable to be shot, and made 
a move for his revolver, which lay on his table. 
David quickly drew his own revolver and told him 
to shoot if he dare. The general quieted himself, 
and said: "You are of good grit, just the man 



354 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



we want ; but if we can't get you, we want your 
lumber," of which he had a large quantity. 
Terms were made and tlie lumber delivered. 

Shortly after General Burnside's army arrived, 
and General Harriman, with the Eleventh New 
Hampshire Volunteers, was stationed in front of 
David's dwelling. During one of the battles his 
family were protected by retreating to the cellar. 
He died at Knoxville, Tenn., October 11, 1870. 

Sarah Richardson, born April 11, l.S'24, died 
November 24, 1839. 

Harriet Richardson, born November 20, 1826, 
married Marcus K. Houser, now living at North 
Boscawen, N. H. 

Martha Richardson, born September 15, 1828, 
now living at Dallas Centre, Iowa, married John 
White, of Franklin, N. H. 

RoBiE. — Lieutenant Samuel Robie married Dor- 
othy Worthen ; came from Chester, N. H., and set- 
tled in this town at an early date. As the history will 
show, he was a very prominent man in town offices 
and in building the fourth New Hi mpshire turn- 
pike, being a director in that corporation many 
years. He also built many miles of the road, and, 
it is said, lost a large share of his property in the 
enterprise. He settled and lived on land now 
owned by Joseph L. Brown, at the Four Corners, 
and raised a large family of children — Dolly, 
Reuben, Sally, Samuel, Jr., Lydia, Nabby, Ruth, 
John, David, Mahala and Anne. Only two are 
living, — David, a hale old man, lives in Salisbury, 
aged eighty-one years, and Mahala D. Gay, living 
in New London, aged seventy-nine. He has four 
grandchildren li viug in town— Timothy H. Quimby, 
Joseph M. Robie, John Robie and Mrs. Fifield 
Sanborn ; also two in New London — John Robie 
and Mrs. Jonathan George. Lieutenant Samuel 
Robie died in 1822, and Dorothy, his wife, March 
4, 1839. 

Uncle Ike Robie, a brother of Samuel Robie, 
came to the town in its early days. He was never 
married, was a tanner by trade, and had a small 
tannery on the shores of Station Pond, on land 
now owned by Levi F. Hill. He died about 1823. 
Sanbokn, — Reuben Sanborn, of Sandown, came 



to town prior to 1790; married Sarah Worthen, a 
native of Chester. They were the parents of ten 
children, viz, : Nabby, who married Moses Elkins, 
Jr.; and moved to Norwich, Vt. One of their 
sons, James F. Elkins, was the first superintendent 
of the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad. 
David W. followed a seafaring life several years ; 
then engaged in mercantile business in New York 
City; afterwards moved to Newfane, Vt., married, 
and one of his sons, Myron Sanborn, was a high 
bailiff in Montreal at the time of his death. Dolly 
married Ezekiel Johnson, of Enfield, and after- 
wards moved to Vermont. Sally married Joseph 
Wright, of Thetford, Vt. Thomas S. married, 
moved to Canada, and was drowned there many 
years ago. Reuben, Jr., educated at Harvard 
College and at Old Andover, Mass., was a Presby- 
terian clergyman ; lived and died in Painted Post, 
N. Y.; he married Mary A. Wood, daughter of 
Rev. Joseph Wood, Windsor, N. Y. Betsy mar- 
ried George Harlow, of Cornish, lived many years, 
and died in Grantham, raising a large family. 
Polly married William Quimby, and both died in 
Norwich, Vt, where they had lived and reared 
a large fiimily. Richard, commonly known as 
Colonel Sanborn, born in 1797, lived here contin- 
ually, and died in 1S75. He married Alice S. 
Collin.s, who survived him seven years, a daughter 
of Enos Collins. There were born to them Thomas 
Henry, who died at five years of age ; Richard F., 
who married Minerva Collins ; she died in this 
town. Afterwards, said Richard F. married 
Helen Hatch, of Grafton, and now resides in 
Ashland, N. H. 

Henry T., now living in town, and representing 
said town in the New Hampshire Legislature, 188.'>. 
He has always lived in town, except two years iu 
Haverhill, Ma.ss., and served lathe Union army of 
the " great Rebellion" three years, till the close of 
the war. He married Mary J. Sanborn, of Painted 
Post, N. Y. 

Reuben C, married Martha A., daughter of 
Rev. Timothy Cole. After her death he mar- 
ried Marion C. Cole, of Whitefield, who now re- 
sides at Lake village ; said Reuben died in 1879. 



SPRINGFIELD. 



355 



He was in trade in Haverhill, Mass., nine years, 
and clerk in the Cole Mauuf'actiiriug Compan}', 
Lake Village, N. H., twenty years, just prior to 
his death. 

Abna J. married, first, Martha A. Kelsey, of 
New York ; second, E.sther J. Kuowles, of Epsom, 
N. H. ; third, Martha Evans, of Derry, N. H. 
He is now living with his third wife in Manchester, 
N. H. 

Lydia A. married Albert H. Davis, descendant 
of Thomas Davis, one of the first settlers. They 
are now living in Lake village, N. H. 

Eobert married Esther, daughter of Enos Collins ; 
moved to Sharon, Vt., some fifty years ago. Only 
one child survives him, — Hon. Nathaniel C. San- 
born, photographer, of Lowell, Mass. Two chil- 
dren were buried in infancy, in Springfield ; and 
David W. served during the War of the Rebellion, 
and died in Sharon, Vt James served in a Mass- 
achusetts regiment, died in Lowell, Miiss., and 
buried at Warner, N. H., the residence of his wife. 
Sarah Alice married Geo. F. Heath, of Sharon, 
Vt. , descendant of Ezekiel Heath, of Springfield, 
N. H. ; she died several years ago. 

Jonathan Sanborn, of Kingston, married Betty 
Smith in 1786. They lived and died where Jona- 
than Sanborn now lives. Their children were 
Susanna Liza, Israel, Joseph, Jonathan, Reuben, 
Abram, Marsa, Smith, George W. and Jasper. 

Israel Sanboru married Goss, and had six 

children, — Stephen Colcord; Betsy; Lydia J., who 
married Jeremiah Philbrick ; Keziah, who married 
Chas. D. Sargent, now living in New London ; 
Rhoda, nowthewifeof Lorenzo Dow, and Jonathan, 
living on the old homestead, who married Emily 
Powell. After her death he married Sarah Stocker. 
Reuben Sanborn died in town. Marsa married, 
and moved from town. Smith Sanborn and Ma- 
hala, hiii wife, lived and died where Jonathan San- 
born now resides. They had four children, one 
being the wife of Wm. D. Colby. Jasper built 
the buildings, and lived opposite where Jonathan 
Sanboru lives. 

Joseph Sanboru, brother of Jonathan, married 

Abigail Smith in 1797 ; lived where Henry Pat- 

2:; 



ten now lives. They had eight children, and one 
of them. Chase Sanborn, lived and died on the 
homestead. His .son, John S., now lives in Maine, 
and his daughter Nancy is the wife of W. H. H. 
Cowles, ex-sheriff" of Sullivan County. 

Abraham Sanboru was also among the first sct- 
tlere, having eight children, only one of whom is 
now living in town, Fifield Sanborn, sixty-three 
years of age. The others were Hiram, Lavina, 
Alvin, Emily, Caleb, Clarissa and Ira. 

Joseph Webster, or better known as Gov. Web- 
ster, was a very celebrated potash and pearl-ash 
maker in his day. Raised a large family of chil- 
dren, but has no descendants in town now. 

Sawyer. — Stephen and John Sawyer came here 
from Plaistow, N. H. They were brothers to Mrs. 
Ebenezer Noyes, and first settled on the Sam. Col- 
by place. Sawyer Hill took its name from them. 
Not any descendants here. 

Davis. — Thomas Davis was born in Kingston, 
in 1767 ; married Sally Johnson and settled in the 
north part of town about 1800. They had four 
sons and two daughters. Their son IMoses lived 
in town, and died when sixty-five years old, leav- 
ing three sons and a daughter, who is still living 
here, being the wife of James T. Colby. 

MczzEY. — John and Hannah Muzzey lived 
where Mrs. Abigail Johnson now lives. He was a 
blacksmith, having ten children. Hannah mar- 
ried Mardin Gross, now living in New London. 
Their son Sylvauus is the only descendant living 
in town. 

PiLLSBURY — Moses Pillsbury, born in 1771, 
married Hepsibah Greenough, September 26, 1 794. 
Their children were Patty, Ezra, Greeno, Elizabeth, 
Jefferson, Lewis, Charles, Phebe, Moses and Betsy. 
Patty married James Boyce. Ezra married Ann 
Philbrick ; they have only one descendant living, 
J. B. S. Pillsbury, here in town. Greeno Pillsbury 
married Polly Stevens ; only one descendant, Lev- 
itt S., who now lives in town. Jefferson married, 

first, Eliza Colby ; after her death married 

Ea.stman, and lives in Enfield. Lewis married and 
died in Enfield. Charles married Lovina Clifford 
and had five children ; only one remains in town. 



]56 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Francis B. Pillsbury, who married Naomi Sargent. 
Phebe married Joseph Bui'jjee and lives in Grant- 
ham. Moses married Green and lives in 

Grantham. 

Bean. — Daniel and Betty Bean, we find, were 
the parents of eleven children. One son, Moses, 
lived and died in town, and of his descendants here 
are Mrs. C. H. Melendy and Mi-s. Wm. M. 
Powers. 

Hardy. — Nicholas Hardy and wife, who were 
among the pioneers had five children, — Benjamin, 
Biley, John, Susan and Samuel. Biley married a 
Miss Judkins and had six children ; no descend- 
ant in town except Mrs. J. C Severance. John 
lived and died in town, having three children living 
now in town, — Mrs. Moses Bean, Nicholas G. 
Hardy and John F. Hardy. 

Stevens. — Two brothers, John and Samuel Ste- 
vens, settled on Philbrick Hill. Samuel lived and 
died where Joseph Colcord now lives. His chil- 
dren were named Polly, Hannah, Mehitable, Sam- 
uel, Betsy, Rhoda and Smith. Polly married 
Samuel Hoyt, of this town and had two children, 
— Alvin who married Diautha Gilniau ; and Amy, 
who was deaf and dumb. Mehitable married John 
Brown, of Grantham. Samuel, Jr., married Anna 
Johnson, March 30, 1825 ; they had two children. 
He died in town in llSoO, after which she married 

Fisher and moved to Grantham, where she is 

living at the age of ninety years. Betsy married 
John Nichols. They lived and died in town. 
Rhoda married Joseph Richardson He died in 
town and she is now living with her son Willard, 
in Lowell, Mass. Smith Stevens married Maria 
Colby, having several children, none now living in 
town. John Stevens, born in Kingston in 1774, and 
Anna Judkins, born in Deerfield in 1777, 
were married in 1795. They had eight 
children, — Dolly, Sally, Polly, Peter, Almina, 
Prentis, Daniel Noyes and Eliza. None of their 
descendants are now in town. Prentis Stevens 
married Hannah Gross, of this town. 

Reuben Stevens came from Plaistow and settled 
in this town. He has carried a bushel of corn to 
be ground to Salisbury, twentv njiles and back, in a 



day. He had seven children,- — Jonathan, Reuben, 
Jr., James, Enoch, Sarah, Polly and Bathsheba. 
James died young, and Enoch was the youngest 
of the family and married Elizabeth, daughter of 
Jeremiah Quimby, and had a large family, — 
Samuel, Reuben, Jeremiah, Mehitable, Hannah, 
Jacob, Sally, Margaret Smith, Enoch S. and Eliza. 

Samuel married, first, Elizabeth Webster, of 
Kingston ; second, S. Silloway. They had four 
children, — Henry W., now lives in Grafton ; 
Sarah Jane, died aged twenty-seven years ; Mary 
E., married John Gilman, who died at Washing- 
ton, D. C., of wounds. She still lives in town. 
Horace W. Stevens married, first, Juline Pres- 
cott, of Grafton ; second, Caroline Gove, of Wil- 
mot ; they now live in town. Samuel jdied in 
1883 ; Reuben died in 1866. 

Jeremiah married, first, Nancy Quimby ; second, 
Mrs. Phebe Jeffers Sanders, — still living at the age 
of eighty-five. Mehitable married, first, Jepthah 
Russell ; second, Asa F. Pillsbury ; now living 
in town. 

Hannah died. Jacob left four children, — 
Frances, Enoch, jMrs. Westley Bailey and Mrs. 
Russell Kidder ; now live in town. 

Sally married Barnard C. Stevens. 

jNIargaret S. married Jonathan C. Currier. 

Enoch S. died when thirteen years old. 

Eliza married Sargent Heath ; they have seven 
children now living. 

From the records of April 1, 1885, we find the 
selectmen assess taxes on twenty four thousand 
eight hundred and eighty-seven acres of land, and 
the total valuation of the town, as by them ap- 
I^raised, is one hundred and fifty-four thousand six 
hundred and forty- two dollars. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



DANIEL NOYES ADAM,«. 

There is probably no name in American history 
fraught with more of interest to the student of our 




^''•f ^byAHFUJ^i^ 



^^^^yi^JL ^VC-^^^^^m^ 



SPRINGFIELD. 



357 



institutions, progress and political annals than that 
of Adams. 

We have not been able to obtain indisputable 
data connecting Mr. D. N. Adam.s with the illus- 
trious family of Quincy, Mass., bearing that 
cognomen, which has furnished us two chief 
rulers ; but all the facts we have been able to 
obtain point to that conclusion. 

John Adams, grandfather of Daniel N., was a 
native of Rowley, Mass., and was one of the 
pioneer settlers of the town of New London, 
N. H., whither he came about 1780, having j^ur- 
chased a tract of land a mile sijuare. He was one 
of the sturdy yeomanry of the land, and possessed, 
in an eminent degree, those sterling qualities of 
body and mind so necessary to those who spent 
their lives battling with the privations of the 
wilderness, to pave the way to the development 
and superior civilization which w^as to follow. 

Solomon Adams, the father of Daniel N., was 
also a native of Rowley, Mass., and came to New 
London with his father. He was a soldier in the 
War of the Revolution, and, after the close of the 
War, was captain of a company of State militia. 
His wife was Mary Sargent. 

Daniel Noyes Adams was born in New London, 
N. H., September 12, 1803. His boyhood was 
spent on the farm. When about eighteen years of 
age he went to Massachusetts, where he remained 
about a year; returning to his native town, he 
clerked in a store a short time, when, determining 
to embark in mercantile pursuits for himself, he 
came to Springfield, N. H. (1825), and, in com- 
pany with Emory Woodman, began merchandiz- 
ing near where his prerent store stands. From 
that time to the present he has been constantly 
engaged in that channel of trade, though not to 
the exclusion of other interests. After two years 
Mr. Woodman sold his interest to Dr. Joseph 
Nichols. This partnership continued seven or 
eight years, when Dr. Nichols retired, and a year 
or two later Levi Richardson became a partner 
with Mr. Adams, and so continued six or seven 
years. Since that time Mr. Adams has been 
alone. In addition to store-keeping, Mr. Adams 



has also been interested in hotel-keeping and 
farming. In 1841 he purchased a farm and 
tavern in Springfield ; the latter he conducted 
many years, until the railroad was built to West 
Andover and the tide of travel turned ; later on 
he sold the farm. He at one time owned an 
interest in the grist-mill at Springfield, and has 
done more or less lumber business. Mr. Adams' 
business life has been crowned with success. He 
has been untiring in his energy, systematic in his 
methods and honorable in his dealings, and, while 
he has won a well-deserved competence, he has 
also won that greater boon, — the sincere respect 
and esteem of those among whom his life has been 
spent. The respect in which he is held by his 
fellow-townsmen is amply evidenced by the fact 
that he has been so often chosen to the various 
positions of office and trust within their gift. He 
was elected selectman very soon after his settle- 
ment in Springfield, and has held that office a 
great many years since. Also that of town clerk, 
and, in fact, every office in the town repeatedly. 
He was representative to the State Legislature ia 
1841, '42 and '48, and again in 1870. He was 
county I'oad commissioner in 1847 and '48, and 
was State senator in 1850 and '51. He was a 
member of the Constitutional Convention for t!ie 
revision of the laws of New Hampshire, 1876. 

In political creed he has always been a staunch 
Democrat, and has been a member of the Baptist 
Church of New London since his sixteenth year. ' 

In his younger days he was much interested in 
militia matters, and was captain of a militia co;a- 
pany raised and organized in Springfield, and is 
now the only officer of the corapan}- surviving. 

He married (1832) Eliza, daughter of Job 
Williams, of Sunapee. They had three children, 
as follows: 

Susan Augusta, born 1833, graduated at Kim- 
ball Union Academj', Meriden, N. H., spent 
several years reaching in the High School in 
Haverhill, Mass., and in academies at Frances- 
town, N. H., and Whitehall, N. Y. She married 
a minister named Lucian Adams, and settled for a 
time at Petersham, Mass. They then went as 



358 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



missionaries to Syria, where she died, very much 
lamented by all who knew her, leaving no issue. 

Daniel Hamilton, born 1836, now in company 
with his father in the store. 

Emily Eliza, born 1.S40, was for a time a 
teacher in Colby Institute, New London, where 
she graduated. She married Daniel P. Quimby, 
and died, leaving no issue. 
Mrs. Adams died in 1851. 

Mr. Adams married, as his second wife, Calista 
A., daughter of Joseph and Rhoda S. Richardson, 
of Springfield (1852). To this marriage there 
were two children. 

Helen Frances, born 1855, married Waldo S. 
Chase (1875), and died, leaving one child, — 
Daniel Adams Chase. 

Jennie Josephine, born 1858, married Rev. 
Lorin Webster, rector of St. Mark's Church, Ash- 
land, N. H. ; they have one son. She was a 
graduate of the institution, Westfield, Mass. 
Mrs. Adams died October, 1860. 
Mr. Adams' third and present wife was Mrs. 
Sophronia Webster (nee Pierce), daughter of 
June and Sally Pierce, of Claremont. Her first 
husband was Lorin A. Webster, of Concord, 
N. H., whom she married 1852. She has one sou 
living. Rev. Lorin Webster, who, as before stated, 
married Mr. Adams' daughter, Jennie Josephine. 
Mr. Adams and Mrs. Webster were married 
November 26, 1865. By this marriage there is 
no issue. Mr. Adams has always taken much 
interest in the matter of education. Having in 
his own youth been deprived of the advantages of 
schooling, he determined to afibrd his children the 
facilities denied him, and so gave each of his 
children a liberal education. 

Mr. Adams is certainly entitled to much credit 
for the energy he has displayed and the obstacles 
he has overcome. The story of his business life 
has been briefly told, but he has not devoted his 
life solely to business matters. He studied at 
home, at night and during leisure moments, and 
acquired, without the aid of schools a fair educa- 
tion. He has been, all his life, a great reader, 
and thus kept himself abreast of the times and 



thoroughly posted on the topics of the day ; and, 
in his declining years, derives much pleasure from 
his books and papers. 



SAMUEL QUIMBY. 

Capt. John Quimby came to the town of Spring- 
field, N. H., at an early date, being among the 
pioneer residents of that town. He was the father 
of Gen. .John Quimby, who was by trade a carpen- 
ter and builder, a farmer to some extent, and a 
man of considerable influence and importance in 
town. He was twice married, — first, to Mary Bean, 
of New Grantham. Their children were Samuel, 
Hannah (died young), Horace, Eri and Lucinda 
S. Gen. Quimby's second marriage was to Mehi- 
thble March ; they had two children, Mary and 
Augusta Ann, both now living (1885) in Illinois. 

Samuel Quimby was born on what is known as 
the "Hill Place," near Springfield cemetery, and 
about a mile from the village. His boyhood and 
up to the time of his majority was passed on the 
farm, in the mean time learning the carpenter's 
trade with his father. When about twenty-one 
years of age he went to Boston and helped build 
the dry dock at Charlestown navy-yard. After 
nine years spent there he went to Norfolk, Va., 
where for two years he worked at carpentering in 
the navy-yard at that jjlace. He then returned to 
his native town, purchased a farm adjacent to the 
old homestead, and there the remaining years of 
his life were spent, farming being his chief voca- 
tion. He, like his ancestors, was much interested 
in military matters, and served in the State militia. 
He held repeatedly all the offices of his town, — rep- 
resented his town in the State Legislature at differ- 
ent times, was deputy sheriff several years, and in 
all these positions discharged the duties devolving 
upon him with the strictest fidelity. He was a 
man imbued with high principles of honor, far 
above petty intrigue or subterfuge. His opinions 
were clearly expressed, and with no doubtful 
meaning, when occasion required. The e-teeni in 
which he was held by his fellow-townsmen is 
most amply evidenced by the various and eontin- 




^St^-Vi-t^f 







J^^i^^j y^y^^^ 



n^-r 



< 



SPRINGFIELD. 



359 



lied public trusts whicli they so repeatedly placed 
iu his hands. In politics he was a Republican. 

He married, January 15, 1835, Mary A., 
daughter of Paul and Sally (Story) Perley, of 
S])rin_!ifield. Paul Perley was a native of Box- 
ford, Mass., but came with his parents when a 
child to Dunbarton, N. H., where his youth and 
boyhood were spent. Soon after his marriage 
with Miss Story he came to Si)ringfield, where he 
resided till his decease. The Storys arc a family 
whose name occupies a conspicuous place in the 
annals of New England, and always in honorable 
connection. 

There were three children born to Jlr. and 
Mrs. Quimby, — Amanda M., born January 10, 
1837; married Charles McDaniel, of Springfield 
(for further mention, see McDaniel's biography in 
this volume). Daniel P., born Aug. 10, 1839 ; mar- 
ried, first, Emily E., daughter of Hon. Daniel N. 
Adams, of Springfield (see his biography); by this 
marriage there is no issue. Mrs. Quimby died 
December 13, 1875. Mr. Quimby married, sec- 
ond, Etta Huntoon; they have one son, Harvey 
W., born May 28, 1882. Daniel P. Quimby was 
elected register of deeds for Sullivan County, 
March, 1867, which office he held four years. He 
was also engaged in mercantile business four years 
under the firm-name of llawsou & (Quimby. He 
was express messenger on the Concord and Clare- 
mont Railroad ten years, and is now local express 
agent at Newport, N H., for United States and 
Canada Express Comjjany, and is chairman of the 
Board of Selectmen of Newport. Warren S., 
born Dec. '■'>, 184(), married Ellen E., daughter of 
John W. Kenniston, of Andover, N. H. They 
have two sons, Vivian S. and John W. He is a 
merchant and resides in Andover. 

Samuel Quimby died January 7, 1872. 



REV. LEWIS HOWARD. 

The name of Howard is another form of Har- 
vard or Hereward, and is identified with the most 
brilliant achievements in various departments of 
knightly and honorable service in England, and 



is one of the proudest families in that fair land. 
We extract the following early trans-atlantic his- 
tory of the family from Burke's "Heraldic Reg- 
ister," an English work, valuable for its learning, 
research and accuracy, and standard authority in 
family history : 

" Howard, Duke of Norfolk. — The illustrious 
House of Norfolk derives in the male line from 
William Howard, a learned and reverend judge, 
of the reign of Edward I., and with him the 
authentic pedigree commences. 

" Dugdale sought in vain amid the mists of 
remote ages for a clue to the family's earlier 
origin. The alliance of the judge's descendant, 
Sir Robert Howard, Knight, with Margaret, 
elder daughter of Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of 
Norfolk, was the source whence flowed to after 
generations ' all the blood of all the Howards.' 
Margaret de Mowbray was great-granddaughter 
and heiress of Thomas Plantagenet, surnamed 
Brotherton, eldest son of King Edward I., by 
Margaret, his second wife, daughter of Philip the 
Hardy of France. This great alliance may be 
regarded as the foundation-stone on which was 
erected the subsequent grandeur of the House of 
Norfolk ; but the brilliant halo which encircles 
the coronet of the Howards, owes its splendor to 
the heroic achievements of the successive chiefs 
on whom its honors devolved. John Howard, 
Duke of Norfolk, fell at Bosworth manfully adher- 
ing to Richard III.; his son, the Earl of Surrey, 
was the hero of Flodden, and the latter's grand- 
son is ever memorable as the first {^oet of his age. 

" The gentle Surrey loved his lyre ; 

Who has not lieard of Surrey's fame? 
His was the hero's soul of tiro, 

And his the bard's immortal name.' 

" In more recent times the hereditary gallantry 
of the race continned to shine conspicuously forth, 
and to a Howard was reserved the honor of over- 
throwing the mighty power of Spain, and crush- 
ing the ' Invincible Armada.' 

" In point of mere antiquity there are several 
nobles who far exceed the Howards. But what 
family pervades all our national annals with such 



360 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



frequent mention, and often involved in circum- 
stances of such intense interest? As hei'oes, poets, 
philosophers, courtiers, pati-ous of literature, state 
victims to tyranny, and feudal chiefs, they have 
been constantly before us for four centuries. ' In 
the drama of life,' says an eloquent writer, ' they 
have exhibited every variety of character, good 
and bad ; and a tale of their vices, as well as their 
virtues, is full of instruction and would excite 
anxious symjsathy or indignant censure No 
story of romance or tragic drama can exhibit 
more incidents to enhance attention or move the 
heart, tlian would a comprehensive account of this 
house, written with eloquence and pathos.' On 
their escutcheon is the motto, 'Sola Virtus 
Invieta.' " 

John Howard, the first American ancestor of 
the Howards in Plymouth County, Mass., came 
from England and settled in Duxbury prior to 
1643. He came to West Bridgewater in 1651, 
and was one of its proprietors and original settlers. 
He took the oath of fidelity here, 16.57, was.one of 
the first military otficers of Bridgewater, and died 
in 1700. His descendants still own and live on 
the place where he first settled ; he always wrote 
his name Hayward, and so did his descendants till 
after 1700, and the early town records are con- 
formable to this spelling ; but for the last century 
or more it has invariably been written Howard. 
He kept the first " ordinar}'," or public-house in 
the town, and was a man of great strength of 
character, possessing nuich influence in the colony. 
None of the early settlers of Bridgewater has left 
more tangible results of his existence, nor more 
descendants ; and if he were jiermitted to visit the 
scenes among which his mature life was passed, he 
would find nothing in the conduct, character 
or worth of those who have borne his name 
for more than two centuries, that the grand 
old Puritan would severely criticise, and much 
in which he could take just pride. 

Rev. Lewis Howard, a descendant of the Puri- 
tan, John Howard, and the subject of this writing, 
was born in West Bridgewater, Mass., December 
4, 1802 He is the son of Abiel Howard (born 



March 28, 1771) and Kezia (Bartlett) Howard 
(born August 4, 1775). They were married 
March 12, 1795. Their children were lanthe, 
Lewis, Rachel, Susan, Abiel, Nathan, Emma- and 
Cyrus. All but the first two were born in Gran- 
tham, N. H. 

Abiel Howard moved from West Bridgewater 
to Grantham, N. H., with his wife and two chil- 
dren, lanthe and Lewis, in the winter of 1804. 
He bought a farm of fifty acres, mostly wooded, 
with a small, cheap house and a temporary sort of 
barn, and here, where he first pitched his abode, he 
resided until his death. The history of pioneer 
life in New Hampshire has been too frequently 
written and graphically portrayed to need rep- 
etition here ; it was a struggle for existence, and 
Abiel Howard's experience was no exception to 
the general rule ; but by hard work and frugality 
he was enabled to rear his family and supply them 
with the necessities of life. Lewis, being the old- 
est boy, was very naturallv trained in the labors 
of the firm, and when quite young was able 
to render efiicient aid in the struggle for life 
which was characteristic of tho.se times. The 
father, Abiel, was noted for his industry and 
earnest toil, and was refer^'ed to as the standard 
for honesty in the community. '' As honest as 
Uncle Abiel" was an oft-repeated reference in 
that section ; and it is said that no happier or 
purer married life ever existed than that of Abiel 
and Kezia Howard. Abiel died April 7, 1852 ; 
Kezia, July 19, 1857. 

Lewis Howard, when about twelve years of age, 
with most of the youug people of that vicinity, 
made a profession of religion, and was baptized ; 
but he, with many others, soon became somewhat 
indiflerent to religious matters, and for many 
vears the profession he had made exercised but 
little influence on his life, and he gave little 
thought to religious duty. June 26, 1826, he 
married Sally Stone, an estimable woman, who 
was born in Grantham, August 28, 1804. Mrs. 
Howard was a woman of rare intellectual and 
physical qualities, aud a well-chosen helpmate ; 
and for more than half a century the streams 



SPRINGFIELD. 



361 



of their lives were united in one peaceful current, 
liroken only liy the death of Mrs. Howard, 
October 21, 1877. Soon after their marriajie tliey 
removed to Springfield, N. H., wliere Mr. Howard 
taught school, fanned and was considerably 
engaged in public business. While here he was 
honored with the oflice of selectman two years, 
and waa one year chairman of the board, an office 
of considerable responsibility, as in those times 
there were no supervisors, treasurer, or overseers 
of tlie poor, other than the selectmen. While 
living in Springfield he renewed his religious pro- 
fession, his wife also uniting with him in an 
attempt to lead a life of service to the Saviour. 
After a residence of five years in Springfield he 
had an opportunity to sell his farm to advantage, 
and returning to Grantham, purchased a part of his 
father's farm, which then consisted of oue hundred 
and fifty acres ; here he lived sis years, until he 
entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church,and left his home in Grantham for new fields 
and different scenes. It was while living in Gran- 
tham that the anti-slavery question began to assume 
proportions. Mr. Howard was among the first in 
this section to espouse the cause of human liberty, 
and this proved to be a turning-point in his life. 
The discussson waxed warm, party feeling ran 
high on the subject, meetings were held and 
the cjuestion discussed pro and con in its various 
phases Mr. Howard joined in the public debate, 
and here were first developed the latent powers he 
posse sed for public oratory. His advantages for 
an education were limited, indeed, so far as school- 
ing went, but he was blessed with studious, reading 
[tarents, and they taught him at home the rudi- 
ments of an education, and inspired in him a love 
of books ; and books became his teachers. By 
the time he was twenty years of age he was 
qualified to teach, and did so winters till he was 
thirty-six years of age. So, when he became a 
public speaker he had a mind well stored with the 
kind of knowledge which could serve him. He 
became a candidate for the Legislature on the 
Anti-Slavery ticket, but of course was defeated, as 
the doctrine was at that time very unpopular 



among the masses, and its advocates were regard- 
ed as fanatics and dreamers. In July, 1839, he 
was received on probation as a minister in the 
New Hampshire Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and was stationed at Deer- 
ing to preach one-half the time at Deering and 
the other half at Hillsborough Bridge. 

We cannot devote space to refer at length to the 
various pastorates he has so worthily filled ; but 
the following is in brief a synopsis of his fields of 
labor, taken seriatim ■ Deering, Pembroke, Chi- 
chester, Sandowu, Bristol, Haverhill ; then for two 
years had charge of the boarding department of 
New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female 
College at Tilton ; then to Claremont, Nashua 
(Chestnut Street Church), then to Dover, after 
which he was for four years presiding elder on the 
Concord District, then Nashua (Lowell Sti-eet), 
Salem, Haverhill, Mass., Suncook, Lisbon, Ply- 
mouth, Antrim, Coutoocook, Warren, Webster, 
Contooeook, after which he was superannuated 
(1879) ; he then removed to Springfield, where 
he now re-sides, having supplied the pulpit in that 
town most of the time for five years. During all 
the long years of h's ministry it is said of him that 
no church ever dinjinished under his hand-s in num- 
bers or finances. He has won and held the respect 
and esteem of the intelligent class of the community 
wherever he has been stationed. His children 
are Euuna Orvntha, born in S[>ringfield, Mav 4, 
1828, married W. M. Kem])ton, and died May 17, 
1879, leaving three children ; Alonzo Dearborn, 
born in Springfield, February 17, 1832, married 
H. Augusta Jewett, November 27, 1855 (they 
have a son and daughter); Daniel Ed.son, born in 
Grantham, June 23, 1835, married Susan M. Pat- 
terson, August 18, 1858 (has one sou); Nancy 
Elvira, born in Grantham, August 27, 1837, died 
in Haverhill, N. H., July 16, 1848. 

Mrs. Howard died at Contooeook, October 21, 
1877. Mr Howard married, as his .second wife, 
March 25, 1S79, Mrs. Ferona Clement, the widow 
of Solomon Clement, who died in Springfield, Au- 
gust 3, 1872, and daughter of Dr. Abner Johuson, 
who was born in Grantham, 1783 ; commented the 



362 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



practice of medicine in Springfield, 1816 ; removed 
to Massachusetts, 1835, where he resided until near 
his death, which occurred at Derry, N. H., July 
29, 1872. Dr. Abner Johnson was a promi- 
nent citizen of Springfield, respected and honored 
by his townsmen, who still cherish his memory. 
His daughter Feroua's first marriage was with 
Samuel Soden, December 28, 1841. He died of 
consumption, March 18, 1844. Their son, Arthur 
H. Soden, was born April 23, 1843, and is now 
(1885) doing business in Boston. Her second 
marriage was with Solomon H. Clement, October 
17, 1848. Mary, their daughter, was born in 
Hartford, Vt. , February 26, 1851; married Horace 
C. Metcalf, February 26, 1885, of Walpole, Mass., 
where they now reside. After a long life spent in 
the service of God, the Rev. Lewis Howard is 
passing the autumn of his days pleasantly, hope- 
fully and cheerfully, blessed wi h good health, 
good friends and a good conscience. 



DAVID p. GOODHUE. 

The genealogy of David P. Goodhue is David 
Putney Goodhue, son of Jacob and Mary (Ager) 
Goodhue ; Jacob Goodhue, son of Seth and Eliz- 
abeth (Cogswell) Goodhue ; Seth Goodhue, sou of 
Jacob and Joanna (Story) Goodhue ; Jacob Good- 
hue, sou of John and Ann (Cogswell) Goodhue ; 
John Goodhue, son of William and Hannah 
(Dane) Goodhue ; William Goodhue, son of Wil- 
liam and Margery (Watson) Goodhue, who came 
from Assington, Sufiulk County, England, to 
America iu the year 1635 and settled in what is 
now called Ipswich, Mass. 

David Putney Goodhue was born in Dunbarton, 
Men-imack County, N. H., January 10, 1838. He 
was the youngest of ten children aud lived at 
home with his father until he was twentv-one 
years of age, except when away to work or at- 
tending school. In the spring of 1838, his father 
moved to Wilmot, N. H., where he resided for 
about fourteen years, when he moved to Boscawen, 
N. H., where he resided until the time of his 
death in February, 1866. After moving to Bos- 



cawen, he worked six months in a year for Hale 
Atkin-son, of Boscawen, for six years, during 
which time he only lost from two to five days' 
work from each year. During the winter he at- 
tended Elmwood Institute, on Boscawen Plains, 
two miles distant from his home, where he walked 
night and morning, however inclement the weather 
might be. After this he taught school three terms 
in Boscawen and one term at Saubornton S(|uare. 
When twenty-one years of age, he commenced the 
study of medicine with Dr. E. K. Webster, of 
Boscawen. He attended medical lectures at the 
University of Vermont and at Dartuiouth College. 
From the last named place he received the degree 
of M.D. in 1863, after which he attended lectures 
iu Philadelphia. 

He was aj)pointed acting assistant surgeon in 
the United States Navy, January 4, 1864, and re- 
ported to Boston for duty, from which place he 
was ordered to the " North Carolina," at Brooklyn, 
until the " Chenango " was ready for sea. 

April 15, 1864, the " Chenango " sailed from 
New York, but, before reaching Sandy Hook, one 
of the boilers exploded, severely scalding thirty- 
four men and officers, twenty-eight of whom died 
within a short time, although no one was killed 
instantly. 

The " Chenango " going out of commission 
April 21st, he was ordered to the " Nereus " the 
same day, and on the 23d sailed for the blockade 
off Fort Fisher (Wilmington), where he remained 
until September, when the " Nereus " came North 
and acted as convoy to one of the CsJifornia 
steamers to Aspinwall and back. 

The " Nereus " having to be repaired, he was 
detached from her, October 4tli,and was ordered to 
the " Maumee," which sailed the same day. After 
cruising ofi the coast a few weeks, the " Maumee" 
joined the squadron off Fort Fisher, wherejshe re- 
mained during both attacks aud the capture of the 
fort. 

Dr. Goodhue was on shore duty at the fort for 
three days after it was captured. He then went 
with the " Maumee " up the river to Wilmiiigtou. 
After this the " Maumee " came to Hampton 






^^>^^^^Z::^/^>ix^^. 




.m-<t<^-t:^ 



SPRINGFIELD. 



363 



Koads, and then up the James River, being the 
first gunboat up the river from Dutch Gap to 
Richmond. The " Maumee " was then ordered to 
Philadelphia, where she went out of commission, 
and the officers and men were detached, June 17, 
1865, and phu-ed on waiting orders. He was hon- 
orably discharged from the United States service 
Oct. 9, 1865. 

On his return home, his father being sick, he 
remained with him until his death, in February, 
1806. 

On February 19, 1866, Dr. Goodhue came to 
Springfield, where he has since resided. 

On November 14, 1867, he was married to 
Abby J. Davis, of Springfield, the only child of 
Josejih Davis, Jr., and Elizabeth S. Davis. Mr. 
Davis was appointed a recruiting officer during 
the war and has been one of the prominent men 
in Springfield, being for several years one of the 
selectmen and collector of taxes, besides holding 
other offices. 

To Dr. and Mrs. Goodhue four children have 
been born, — David Henry, born October 20, 1868 ; 
Libbie Abbie, born February 10, 1874 ; Lauretta 
May, born March 13, 1882, and died April 10, 
1882 ; Lucia Frances, born October 5, 1883. 

Politically Dr. Goodhue is, and always has been, 
a Democrat. He was for several years town clerk, 
and afterwards town treasurer and one of the 
supervisors. He was chosen representative to the 
General Court in March, 1878, for one year, and 
also in November of the same year, under the re- 
vised constitution, for two years. He was one of 
the Democratic candidates for county commissioner 
for Sullivan County in the year 1880, and received 
a larger vote than any other candidate voted for 
on that ticket. He was for several years a mem- 
ber of the Democratic State and County Commit- 
tee, but for the past two years has not been actively 
engaged in politics. 

Professionally he is one of the oldest aud repre- 
sentative members of the medical profession in the 
northeast part of Sullivan County, having been 
in Springfield about twenty years. As a practi- 
tioner he has been very .successful, both in medi- 



cine and surgery, his practice extending into many 
of the adjoining towns. He has been a member 
of the New Hampshire Medical Society for more 
than twenty year.?, and is also a member of the 
Centre District Medical Society, having been pres- 
ident of this society in the year 1883. When the 
Board of United States Examining Surgeons was 
formed at Newi^ort, N. H., he was aj)pointed one 
of its members, which position he now holds. 

He is re.spected by his brother practitionei-s as a 
man honorable in his profession and one who 
would scorn to do his brother wrong. He is em- 
phatically a believer in the " golden rule " in all 
things. 

As a citizen he is public-spirited and liberal, be- 
lieving that no one lives for himself alone. 



CHARLES McIMNIEL. 

Charles McDaniel is descended from the Scotch 
McDaniels, who emigrated from the north of Ire- 
land to America in the early days of our colonial 
history. James McDaniel, the great-grandiiither 
of Charles, is shown by the town records to have 
resided in Springfield, N. H., prior to 1794. He 
had at that time a family of four children, and the 
land on which he resided is now owned by Charles, 
having always been kept in the family. His 
buildings were upon the top of the hill, near what 
is known as the Whittemore house, in Enfield. 
His sou John married Hannah Morse, of Kings- 
ton. They reared a family of five children,— Aba- 
gail, Sarah, Daniel, James and Hannah. 

Abagail married Stephen H. Heath, and had a 
family of four boys, none of whom are at present 
living. 

Sarah married Ebenezer L. Nichols. She also 
had four boys, only one of whom i.s now known to 
be living — Alonzo P., who resides in Manchester, 
N. H. 

Daniel moved to Cherry Valley, O., and mar- 
ried Eiliza Greene ; died, leaving three children. 

Hannah, the youngest of the children of John 
aud Hannah, is now living in Enfield, N. H., the 
widow of the late Albert Currier. She has one 



364 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



son, Nathan Currier, a graduate of Tufils College, 
and a successful teacher. 

James, the second son, was born February 13, 
1807. He was brought up on the farm, and 
worked for a time at shoemaking, but soon aban- 
doned it. He was an earnest student, and was 
better educated than most of the young men of his 
town. He attended the academies of Salisbury 
and Meriden, and spent several years as teacher, 
both in his native State and in New York State. 

Returning to his native town, he tilled the an- 
cestral acres, and made tliis his chief pursuit 
through life. At his death the farm descended to 
his son Charles, whose only daughter still resides 
at home. Thus we see through five generations 
the original homestead of James McDaniel, the 
pioneer, has remained in the possession of the 
family. The original tract consisted of sixty 
acres, but the family have been thrifty, enterpris- 
ing and energetic, and each generation has added 
to the original possession till the domain now com- 
prises nearly a thousand acres. 

James IMcDaniel, father of Charles, was a man 
of strong mental and physical mould, and in many 
respects, and for many years, was the leading man 
of his town. He married, November 24, 18.33, 
Hittey L., daughter of Abraham and Hittej- 
Philbrick, of Springfield. Their children were 
Charles, whose portrait herewith appears, an<l who 
is the author and compiler of the history of the 
town of Springfield, as it appears in this volume. 
Ann, married Samuel H. Jackman, of Sacramento, 
Cal., where she now resides. George, unmarried, 
also a resident of Sacramento, and Ella, unmar- 
ried, is a teacher, having taught twenty years 
in New Hampsiiire and California, and resides 
with her widowed mother in Springfield. James 
McDaniel held at various times nearly all the 
different offices of his town, as will be seen by ref- 
erence to the general history of the town of Spring 
field in this volume. 

He took an interest in military matters, and 
was captain of a company in the State militia. He 
represented his town in the State Legislature, was 
an ardent Democrat in politics, and a Universalist 



in religious belief, but connected with no church. 
He died March 4, 1873. 

Charles McDaniel was born July 22, 1835, at 
the old homestead in Springfield. He was educa- 
ted at the district schools of his native town and 
at Andover, Canaan and New London Academies. 
After leaving school he farmed summers and 
taught winters. His first school was when he was 
but eighteen years of age, and from that time till 
he was nearly forty he taught from one to three 
terms per year. 

He made his home witii his father, and, for 
many years previous to the latter's death, he had 
practical charge of the farm and estate. Upon 
the decease of his father he purchased the inter- 
est of the other heirs to the home-farm, and has 
continually added to and improved it to the pres- 
ent time. He married,- May 31, 1862, Amanda 
M., daughter of Samuel and Mary A. Quimby, of 
Springfield. 

They have had five children,^Carl died in in- 
fancy ; Carrie died in her sixteenth year ; Cora, 
the only one living, born December 27, 1864, now 
(1885) attending the State Normal School at 
Plymouth ; Catie Ann died in her eighth year, and 
Arthur Quimby died in his sixth year. The 
three children, Carrie, Catie and Arthur, died 
suddenly of malignant diphtheria, within a few 
days of each other in 1879. They were bright, 
intelligent, lovable children, and only those 
parents whose hearts are bound up in love for 
their ofTspring, and who have suffered similar be- 
reavement, can fully conceive of the terrible blow 
to the grief-stricken father and mother. 

Charles McDaniel was chosen superintendent of 
schools for Springfield soon after his majority, and 
has held that position, more or less continuously, 
to the present time, and is now an incumbent of 
the office. In 1862 he was chosen selectman and 
overseer of the poor, which oflice he has held re- 
peatedly since, and as chairman of the Board every 
year except the first. 

During the War of the Rebellion he was ap- 
pointed special agent for securing volunteers for 
filling the quota of that town in the ranks of the 



SPRINGFIELD. 



365 



army. He has been town treasurer several years, 
and was a member of the Legislature in 1868. He 
is a member of Social Lodge, F. and A. M., En- 
field, Is. H., and one of its senior living members. 
He is also a member of the Chapter of the Taber- 
nacle, No. 19, Royal Arch Masons; overseer of 
New Hampshire State Grange, and Master of 
Montcalm Grange, No. 70, of Enfield. He is 
president of Grantham and Springfield Fair Asso- 
ciation, and for more than fifteen years has held 
a commission as justice of the peace, and has done 
considerable probate business in Sullivan and 
Grafton Counties. 

In 188') he, with his wife and daughter, made a 
trip to California, and spent several months pleas- 
antly and profitably, visiting friends and traversing 
the various sections of the State, and informing 



himself in regard to its products, resources and 
general features. 

His mother has twice visited California, and has 
spent, in all, more than three years there. She 
returned with her son Charles from her last visit 
there, and, in course of the return trip, visited in 
Illinois an elder sister of hers, Mrs. Sally Flan- 
ders, who is now eighty-seven years of age, and, for 
one so advanced in years, a woman of rare vigor 
and intelligence, cheerful in spirit and philosphical 
in mental temperament. A remark of hers to Mr. 
McDaniel will serve to illustrate the cheerfulness 
of her disposition. She said, apropos of some 
question or remark, " that this world was good 
enough for her to live in ; that she enjoyed life 
and felt content to remain here as long as pos- 
sible," — a rebuke to the pessimists of the day. 



HISTORY OF SUNAPEE. 



BY WILLIAM C. STUROC. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductiox.— It is fortunate that in 
attempting to write the history of a small town, 
the existence of which extends back but little 
over a century, we are not compelled to resort 
to the devices of the ancient writers of general 
history, sucli as conjuring up a she-wolf or 
some other friendly animal to act as foster- 
mother to our infant founders. 

The records we possess may, indeed, in some 
details, be imperfect, but there is enough to 
point out with sufficient clearness the kind of 
men and women who aided by their laboi-s the 
founding of our little municipality of six miles 
square. By an examination of some fragments 
of a proprietors' book, and the records in pos- 
session of the town clerk and selectmen, and 
other valuable aids, the following facts, among 
others, are found in regard to the settlement of 
the town : That that part of old Cheshire 
County, which is now included in Sullivan 
County, and bears the name of Sunapee, was 
granted by the colonial authorities on tlie 7th 
of November, 17G8, to John Sprague and 
othere, under the name of Saville. Four 'years 
later, or in 1772, it was settled by a small com- 
pany of emigrants from Rhode Island, and 
these first settlers were soon followed by an 
enterprising band from Portsmouth, X. H., 
who passed on their journe_v from the sea-board 
up the military road to " No. 4," now known 
as Charlestown, and thence to the south part of 
Sunapee. But the names of those first settlers 
366 



have become extinct, and few, if any, of their 
descendants remain in town. One of the female 
emigrants from Rhode Island has, however, 
left her name on a large rock near the outlet of 
Sunapee Lake, and which the inhabitants still 
call "Granny Howard," that being her maiden- 
name. On this rock she was wont to sit, day in 
and day out, plying her hook and line for the 
finnv tribe, long; before the introduction of 
black bass or land-locked salmon into this beau- 
tiful and romantic lake. This pei-sistent femi- 
nine disciple of Izaak ^Yalton was the maternal 
ancestor of the Scranton family, well known in 
town fifty yeare ago. The geographical con- 
tour of Sunapee has remained substantially un- 
changed until the present day, containing, as it 
does, about fifteen thousaud six hundred and 
sixty-six acres, three thousand of which are 
covered by the western portion of the lake. 

The Surface of the town is uneven and 
mainly hilly ; interspersed, however, are small 
patches of natural meadow, which yield a kind 
of wire or spear-grass, that, when cut early, is 
eagerly eaten by hungry cattle in winter, 
although it has been noticed that few animals 
ever become fat on this kind of fodder. 
The hills are found, M'hen cleareil of timber, to 
be largely covered by " wandered " boulders, 
the profusion of which, strewed in particular 
drifts or directions, would be suggestive to the 
eye of the scieutest, no doubt, of a period when 
the surface of our earth was undergoing vast 
and perhaps sudden changes. These erratic 
blocks, and the smooth and sometimes eroded 



SUNAPEE. 



367 



ledges on which they now rest, speak distiiietly 
of" a time when some tran.sj)orting power, equal 
(() a mighty glacier, dropped these huge but 
partially rounded lumps where they now lie, as 
no mere marine movement could be equal to the 
work of jilaeing those jjonderous monuments of 
a time when man was unknown in tiie mun- 
dane arena where we find them. But the soil, 
which had accumulated with course of ages 
among these granite boulders, is strong and pro- 
ductive, and for yeai-s after its first cultivation 
yielded immense crops of all kinds, — rye, corn, 
oats, barley, wheat and grass. 

The namk was changed in April, 1781, to 
Wendell, tiiat being the naaie of one of the 
original and ])rlncipal pro[)rietors, — John Wen- 
dell, of Portsmouth, — and it so continued until 
1850, when, by an act of the Legislature of that 
year, it received its present Indian cognomen — 
Sunapee. This latter name, which had adhered 
to the lake and adjacent mountain, and which 
seems to be, after all, the most appropriate, is 
alleged bv coiinoisseurs in the aboriginal tongues 
to be an Algonquin word signifying goose-lake ; 
and there is some corroboration of that assertion 
in the fact that a smaller pond at the north 
end of the lake proper still bears the name of 
" goose-hole." However that matter may be, 
there is no doubt that the lake M'as at one time 
the resort of large flocks of wild geese, this 
latter fact being attested by more than one aged 
citizen, who, although they have passed the 
limit of four-score and ten, are still clear-headed 
and communicative. 

The census of the town, in its earlier years, 
shows that it increased rapidly in population, 
for in five years from its first grant the number 
of inhabitants is given as 72; in 1786 it was 
195 ; in 1790, 267 ; in 1800, 355 ; in 1810, 447 ; 
in 1820, GO;] ; in 1830, 637; in 1840, 795 ; in 
1850, 787; in 1860, 778; in 1870, 808; in 
1880, 897. 

For almost thirteen years, or until 1781, the 
town was known as Saville, and was then classed 
with the towns of Newport and Croydon ; and 



a meeting wjis held in this town April 23, 1778, 
at wiiicli Benjamin Giles, Esq., — a noted man 
at tiuit time in Cheshire County, — was modera- 
tor and Samuel Gunnison was clerk. At this 
meeting Moses True, Esek Young and Sanniel 
tiunnison were chosen selectmen of Saville. 
A meeting of the inhal)it:ints was held, in eon- 
junction with the towns of Newport and Croy- 
don, on the 5th of December, 1782, or a little 
over a year after Wendell iiad been adojited as 
tlie niuue of the town. "Benjamin Giles was 
chosen, by a unanimous vote, representative for 
the above-named towns for thatyeiiv," meaning, 
of course, the next year, or 1783. Wendell was 
for several years classed witii Gosiien in tiie 
choice of representative, and was only able when 
the population reached over si."? hundred, or in 
1824, to act alone in the choice of that officer, 
Tiiomas Pike, or Uncle Tom, as he was formerly 
called, being the first representative of Wendell. 
The names and dates of service of the persons 
who followed, up to the present time, are these: 

Thomas Pike, in 1825 ; Lieutciiaut John Young, in 
1826-27 ; John Colby, in 1828 ; Joseph George in 
1829; John Colby, in 1830; Samuel Knowlton, in 
1831-32 ; John Colby, in 1S33; Samuel Knowlton, in 
1834; John Colby, in 1835; William Young, in 
1836-37 ; John Colby, in 1838; Daniel George, Jr., in 
1839-40; Charles Rodgers, in 1841-42; Moses F. 
Knowlton, in 1843-44; Hiram Sargent, in 1845-46; 
Bailey Pillsbury, in 1847-48; William W. Eastman,' 
in 1849-50; John Hopkins, in 1851 ; Joseph G. 
Tucker, in 1852-53; Josiah Turner, in 1854; Samuel 
Wells, 1855-56 ; John P. Knowlton, in 1857-58; Jos- 
eph P. Smith, in 1859-60 ; Daniel George, Jr., in 
1861-62; Dennis G. Knowlton, in 1863-64; William 
Cant Sturoc, 1865-68 ; Daniel A. George, in 1869-70 ; 
Bradford Courier, in 1871-72 ; Daniel C. Eastman, in 
1873-74; John A Tucker, in 1875-76; Jeremiah W. 
Morrill, in 1877-78; John Angell, 1879-81; Lyman 
Colburn, in 1882-83; John M. Cooper, in 1884-85. 
(The latter representatives since November, 1878, be- 
ing elected for biennial terms, the two-year system 
having been adopted by the (V)nstitutional Conven- 
tion of 1876). 

Postmasters. — The successive postmasters. 



358 



mSTORT OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



covering a period of fiftv vears, are given in the 
subjoined list. During the first two decades of 
that time our mail accommodations were small 
and imperfect, consisting, in the beginning, of 
one maU a week, growing at length to t^vice and 
and three times, and finally to a dailv deliverv. 
At the present time we have four mails per dav 
— an outgoing south at 7.30 a.m.: an incoming 
trom the west at 9 A.M.; an outgoing west at 4 
P.M.; an incoming from the south at 6 p.m. The 
Boston and other eitv dailies reach their sub- 
scribers regularly, and what is known in the 
cities at noon is in possession of the people of 
Sunapee in six hoars from that time, and, if 
need be, by telegraph or telephone, instantly. 

The postmasters have been as follows: John 
Hopkins to 1844 ; John P. Knowlion to 18-37 ; 
Franklin Morgan to 1861 ; Josiah Turner to 
1866 ; John Young to 1870; W. C. Stocker to 
1881 : X. P. Baker to 1885; Charles A.Knowl- 
ton, appointed 1885. 

Medical. Me>". — Although it has. from the 
earliest period of our town history, been a cus- 
tom deeply-rooted in the minds of the people to 
call in the aid of the medical men at Newport, 
six miles distant, yet as early as 1815 a young 
doctor of the name of Caleb Buswell openetl an 
ofiBce in town at the house of John Chase, Jr. 
Buswell was elected selectman and town clerk 
in 1817, but left town two years subsequent 
to the last-named date. He was followed bv 
Tiltou Elkins, who remained only three years, 
and Dr. James Corbin took his place and re- 
maine<.l until about 1829, when John Hopkins, 
a native of Francestown, settled in town and 
commenced practice. Hopkins remained ab*5ut 
thirty-five years, or until 1864. But in the 
mean time some younger practitioners had come 
in and taken a share of the business, as in 1857, | 
Isaiah M Bishop, who remained till 1864. 

Dr. Hopkins removed to Vineland, X. J., 
and ditnl there on the 24th of April, 1879, aged 
eighty-seven. ] 

Dr. Bishop removed to Bristol, X. H. 

In 1866 Ira P. Greorge, son of Rodnev George, 



and whose lather was a native of Sunapee, be- 
gan practice as a physician, but only remained 
about three years, when he removed to Newport, 
and finally to Nebraska. David M. Currier, a 
graduate of Dartmouth of 1867. came into town 
in 1868, and removed to Newport in 1871, 
where he is at present in go<.xl practice. The 
next doctor was Charles F. Leslie, from Maine, 
a young man of great natural gitls, who com- 
mences! practice here in 1874, and continue*! 
till 188-3, when he left for Windsor, Vt. His 
place ^Tas soon filled by our present excellent 
physician, Edwin C. Fisher. 

The Legal Pkofkssiox. — The lawyers" 
story is soon told in connection with Sunapee, 
the writer of this impertect sketch of the town 
being the first to establish himself in town. He 
was admitted in 1855 and has enjoyed the en- 
couragement commonly falling to the lot of a 
village attorney, using his influence rather to 
suppress than to foment litigation. 

In 1879 George Doilge, having been admitted 
to the bar at Newport, settled in town to pursue 
his profession. 

About 1855 Abial Cooper Sargent, son of 
Charles and Sarah Sargent, was prepiu-ing him- 
self, after a collegiate course, for law, but pre- 
maturely fell a victim to ci^>usumption on the 
14th of December, 1859, aged thirty. 

Chukches axd Religiocs Societies. — As 
early as 1800, Elder Nehemiidi Wo«.Hiwiu^, a 
Congregationalist. was locsited on what was 
soon assigned, or granted, to him as the " luiu- 
Lster's lot," being substantially the farm for 
many years and now owned by Gideon Angel 1, 
in the south piirt of the town. Religious ser- 
vices were, for about thirty years, held either in 
private dwellings, or in school-houses : and 
there are many citizens still living who look 
back with satisfaction on those devout gatherings 
in those primitive temples. Elder Woodward 
had finished his laboi's in town about 1815, 
when he removed to Westminster, Vt., where 
age comj^elled him to resign his work, although 
about 1824 he made a tarewell visit to his old 



SUNAPEE. 



363 



parish of Wendell ; and, while liis head and 
liand trenihleil with ]>alsy, lie unee more 
pivaehod in the ret! sehool-house in District 
Xo. '2. Meetings duriuji' those early times were 
also held at thedwelling'-hoiiseof'Elijah (leorge, 
in the north part, and at otiier points, and the 
leadinu; spirits in those lay-meetint;:* wei-e Fran- 
ces Smith, tlie progx^nitor of the Smith family, 
and Deacon Adam Keddingtou. 

(^n the 29th day of July, 1830, Elder Eli- 
jah Watson orgiuiizai a Free-AYill Eaptist 
(^liiirch, having at the outset fourteen members, 
which, for twenty years, was the leading relig- 
ious society in town. The last survivor of that 
memliership was Mrs. Mary Couant, widow of 
the late Josiah Conant. She was an exceed- 
ingly devout person, and bore with resignation 
the terrible affliction of total blindness for 
Hfteen vears, and died in iSTSt, aged eight v-nine. 

But no church e<.litice was erected until ISol, 
when the First Five Meeting-House at the Cen- 
tre was built. At an adjournetl meeting of the 
legal voters heki on the 1st day of Jnue of that 
year, it was votwl ''that Nathaniel Perkins, Jr., 
I>ieuteuant John Yonng and Charles Sargent 
be the building committee;" and it was further 
voteil, "that those wlio purchase pews shall pay 
for the same, one-half in money, the other half 
in grain." 

Even tiie hardy yeomanry of Sunapoe had 
becHuno liberalizwi in their views on religious 
frwdom when they proceeded to form this 
church proprietary, so that they set foith in the 
preamble to tiie constitution, which they adopted 
for their guidance, the following principles : 

'"Believing that public instruction in Piety and 
Rehgion has a tendency to jiromote the best interests of 
society, and considering a suitable House for the public 
worship of the Deity a desirable object; believing, 
also, that each person has a right to worship God ac- 
cording to the dictjUes of his own conscience and rea- 
son, — We, the vnidersigued, agree to proceed to the 
building of a Meeting House in Wendelh./Vee/or o/f 
lienomination) of Christians, under the regulations of 
the following Constitution." 



This constitution consists of twelve articles, 
and uiuler it the organization or i)riiprietorship 
has been maintained, their annual meeting being 
held on the tirst \\'ednesday of January of each 
year. The otflcers for 1885 are: Moderator, 
Joseph Russell; ClerU, William C. Sturoc; 
Standing Committee, Moses A. Young, Joseph 
Russell, John A. Tucker; Janitor, Joseph Rus- 
sell. 

For twenty yeai-s there has been no stated and 
permanent minister eugageil, but i)artial and 
occasional supplies have been had, chietly from 
the Universalist denomination, and the house 
is nsed on all proper occasions. In 18:12 a 
similar church edifice to that of the Centre was 
built in a like manner at the south part of the 
town, but of late years it has been but little 
occupied. 

In 18o;> Rev. Joseph C. Emerson was sent by 
the New Hampshire Methodist Conterence tothis 
town, and was reappiiinted in 1854; but 
there had existed for years before that time 
a '"class" of some dozen or more members. 
Chief among this little banil were " Uncle " 
Audi"ew Young, the grist-miller, and his 
brother Captain William Y'oung, Ixith ot' whom 
will long be remembered for their marked traits 
of character. 

In 185.") Cseits S. Morris was appointed 
to supplv Sunapoe, and served one year. In 
the spring of 185(5 J. C. Emerson was 
appointwl again, and renmined as local preacher 
and pastor for the fouryears following. In this 
year the tirst ilethodist Episcopal Church was 
built and dedicated on the 29th day of October. 
Joseph Emersou closed his labors here with the 
spring of 1860, and went to Fisherville, N. H., 
where he became chaplain of the Seventh Regi- 
ment New Hampshire Volunteers. At theclo.se 
of the war he went to Florida, where he died. 
Mr. Emerson was a man ot' varied gilb, a 
thorough organizer, with a deep insight into meu 
and their motives. 

In April, 18G0, Rev. J. W. Johnson was 
sent to Suuapeo. He is remenibei"cd as a faith- 



370 



HISTOKY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ful and devoted minister, but his feeble health 
limited" his effort and usefulness. During his 
second year he was able to preach only part of 
the time. He died here on the 12th day of 
April, 1862, and is buried in the Centre bury- 
ing-ground, and his wife, who survived him 
several years, also reposes in that " God's acre." 

In the spring of 1862 Rev. Joseph Hayes came 
to Sunapee as the appointee of the Methotlist 
Episcopal Conference, and during his pastorate of 
two vears forty were added to the membership 
of the church. Mr. Hayes was succeeded 
in 1864-65, by Rev. L. L. Eastman. He 
was a man of considerable energy and true 
to his convictions of right. 

In 1866 Samuel J. Robinson became pastor. 
He was a young man .fresh from the Biblical 
Institute, at Concord, X. H. He remained two 
years. He was followetl in 1868 by I... AY. 
Prescott, who remained three years. During | 
his second year the church was enlarged and a ^ 
vestry built. 

In the spring of 1871 W. H. Stuart received 
this appointment, but on the loth of June, of 
this year, tlie church and vestry were totally con- 
sumed by fire, after the raging element had spent 
its force on shops and dwelling-houses on the 
south side of the highway, including those of , 
John B. Smith, Closes L. Sargent, Isaac Ham- ' 
man and others. There was no insurance on | 
tlie church property. 

During the summer services were held in the 
First Free Meeting-House, and a new church 
and vestry having been erected on a new founda- \ 
tion, where it now stands, the latter building 
was detlicated on the 27th of December, 1871. 
^Ir. Stuart remained but one year and was re- 
placed by J. H. Hillman, who was pastor for 
two years, and was followed by S. E. Quimby, 
who remained three years. In 1877, B. W. 
Chase was the minister and served acceptably 
in that capacity for three years. 1880 found 
the Rev. S. C. Keeler laboring as preacher at 
this station, where, for two years, he enjoyed 
the esteem of the entire community. 



In 1882, Rev. S. G. Kellogg was sent by the 
Conference to this plaOe, he having years before 
tilled larger apjxiintments in various portions of 
the State. His industry and ability place him 
high in the ministry. He is now on his third 
and, perhaps, tinal year. 

Native Pkeachees. — A few men, born and 
reared in Sunapee, have become preachers of the 
gospel, the first and most prominent name among 
which is that of John Young, now in his sev- 
entieth year, but still hale and robust. He has 
preached for forty years, and in most of the 
towns within a circle of twenty miles from Sun- 
apee. He was ordained as a minister of the 
Christian denomination on the 24:th of October, 
1850, and in the forty years of his ministerial 
service has attended eight hundred funerals and 
solemnized about half that number of mar- 
riages. 

Ezra S. Eastman, another self-made but vig- 
orous son of Sunapee, had been a Baptist occa- 
sional preacher for quite a number of years, 
and died at the age of fifty-three, September 24, 
1874. 

Edward R. Perkins is a preacher of the 
Methodist persuasion, forty-four years of age, 
and is at present preaching at Goffstown, X. H. 
He has marked ability for the pulpit, and is a 
son of whom Sunapee may well feel proud. 

Charles E. Rogers, son of Charles and Xancy 
Rogers, is fifty-seven years old, and is an ap- 
pointee of the Methodist Conference. He is a 
grandson of Colonel Samuel Rogers, one of the 
early settlers and for many years a prominent 
orticial of the town. 

Alden C. Abbott, who was born in Sunapee, 
April 5, 1848, is the son of Stephen and Sarah 
Abbott. He is also connected with the Method- 
ist bod}', having been stationed in Connecticut 
and [Massachusetts, but was compelled, April, 
1885, on account of a tluoat difficulty, to 
abandon preaching, for a time at least, and is 
now acting as an agent for a life insurance 
company. 

Joseph H. Trow is the sou of John and 



SUNAPEE. 



371 



Hannah Trow, and is about tliirty-eio;ht years 
of age. He has been under apijointraent by 
the Conference and is preaching at Haverhill, 
N. H. 

John Batchelder was a son of Zachariah 
Batchelder, a graduate of Dartmouth and a 
minister of the Presbyterian denomination. He 
died in Iowa about 1870. 

Calvin R. Batchelder, another son of Zacha- 
riah, was an Episcopal clergyman, and died at 
Charlestowu, N. H., February, 1879, aged 
sixty-seven years. 

MII.ITAKY. 

RevoH'TIOX. — In regard to the soldiers, if 
any, who may have represented Saville — for 
that was the name of the town in pre-Revolu- 
tionary times — the writer is in great doubt, al- 
though it is claimed by the descendants of the 
first settlers, whose names were Young, and 
who came from Sraithfield, R. I., that they all 
particijjated in the War of the Revolution. 
Those first settlers were six in number, it is 
said, and their names are given as Abiather, 
Robert, Cornelius, Esek, Edward and James. 
There was also a half-brother to these six 
Youngs, Avho bore the name of Bryant, and ! 
tradition has it that he carried in one of his 
ankles a Revolutionary bullet through life. 
Our oldest records are silent on those soldiers. 
But when we come to the War of 1812 we are 
then treading on solid ground, the name, rank 
and service of each man being set down beyond 
question or cavil ; and if the record had unfor- 
tunately been incomplete, we have still with us 
the last lingering survivor of that memorable 
service in the person of our venerable fellow- 
townsman, Jacob C. Stickney, aged ninety, who 
will be found on the following list as a musi- 
cian, and whose mental faculties are still clear, if 
his physical powers give evidence of decay. 

W^AR OF 1812. — The following is a list of 

soldiers who enlisted from the town of Wendell 

(now Sunapce) in the First Regiment of New 

Hampshire Volunteers in the War of 1812, and 

24 



who went into camp at Concord, N. H., Feb- 
ruary 1, 1813: 

Samuel Rogers, 2d lieut, Amos George. 

John Gage, ensign. Thomas Lamb. 

AVilliam Gage, sergeant. Jame.s Young (2dj. 

Scribner Huntoou, sergt. James Boyee. 

William Lamb, sergeant. Daniel Pickernell. 

Corbin Huntoon, mus. James Young, 

Jacob C. Stickney, mus. Samuel Pickernell. 

Joseph Avery. Hezekiah Peck. 

Joseph Chase, Jr. Ezek Young. 

Richmond Clapp. Joseph Pillsbury. 

On the 12th of September, 1814, a detach- 
ment of " three months' men " joined camp at 
Portsmouth, X. H., as follows; 

Nathan Rogers. Moses Follansbee. 

Charles Gage. Joseph Chase, Jr. 

On the 2r)th of the .same month (September) 
a detachment of " sixty days' men " followed to 
Portsmouth : 

William Lamb. Moses Eastman. 

Edward Crosby. 

From the close of the War of 1812 to the 
outbreak of the Rebellion of 1861, a period of 
almost fifty years, Sunapee had sent forth no 
men to fight the minor battles that inter- 
vened, and her citizens had to content them- 
selves with pseudo-military displays under the 
military organizations of the State. 

The " Sunapee Guards," a company of the 
Thirty-first Regiment, Fifth Brigade, Third Di- 
vision, New Hampshii-e Militia, was organized in 
1841, with William Young for its first captain ; 
Joseph Le;ir, ensign ; and Francis Smith, lieu- 
tenant. 

As a not inappropriate way of preserving the 
names of some of the stalwart yeomanry of Sun- 
apee of that period, and also as a brief but fair 
exhibition of the /)er-ww»c/of that company, I here 
give the roster of 1846, that being about the 
middle period of the existence of that organiza- 
tion. Its last muster was held at Newport, in 
fall of 1851, and the writer of this sketch had 
the pleasure of seeing and heariag Captain 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



William Young beat the tenor drum with a 
perfection and vim that could not well be sur- 
passed. 

Commissioned Officers. 
Moses F. Knowlton, capt. John P. Knowlton, lieut. 
Abram Davis, ensign. 

Non- Comm issioned Officers. 
D. G. Knowlton, 1st scrgt. Janson George, 3d sergt. 
H. P. Muzzy, 2d sergt. E. D. Cooper, 4th sergt. 



James Trow, 
Benjamin F. Young. 

Francis Smith. 
William Trow (2d). 
Francis S. Trow. . 
Nelson Chase. 
Richmond C. Angcll. 
Joseph G. Eastman. 
James Eastman. 
Eli Davis. 
Jolin Colby. 
Robert Lear. 
Samuel Gardner, Jr. 
Solomon Bartlett. 
Edwin P. Stickney. 
Jesse E. George. 
Josiah Trow, Jr. 
Stephen Abbott. 
Andrew J. Kidder. 
Henry Remington. 
James W. Trow. 
Perlvins Trow. 



Musicians. 

Willard C. Severance. 

Privates. 

Caleb B. Stevens. 
James R. Muzzey. 
Daniel C. Eastman. 
Jerome Blaisdell. 
Ricliard C. R. Cooper. 
Elias B. Abbott. 
Ezra Carpenter. 
William Gardner. 
Samuel G. Rider. 
Wells H. D.avis. 
Joseph Young. 
Charles E. Rogers. 
AVilson S. George. 
James George. 
Samuel O. Baily. 
Benjamin Morrill. 
John Skinner. 
Warren Simmons. 
Charles F. Sargent, 



Tiiere was also at the same time an inde- 
pendent company, who carried the impressive 
name of " The Bold Rangers," but I have been 
unable to iind its complete jwrsonnci, and can 
only give some of the suce-essive captains, as 
Putney Roby, Moses A. Young, Moses C. 
Muzzey, all of whom have been saluted by their 
neighbors liy these honorable titles. 

War of 18G1-65. — We come now to the 
War of the Rebellion, in which Sunapee, by 
enlistments and all the other modes of that 
eventful period, contributed her full share. 



The following is the list of the men who 
enlisted into the service of the United States: 

Cornelius Y. Gardner. Nathaniel S. Gardner. 
Henry Young. Wilbur Young. 

Jeremiah W. Ladd. Samuel O. Bailey. 

Nathaniel Batchelder, Jr. Thomas Abbott. 



Josiah Trow. 
Samuel Thompson. 
John M. Colby. 
Oliver Young. 
Alfred Davis. 
Cyrus Thompson. 
George W. Haven. 
Samuel Abbott. 
Gilman Abbott. 
Charles D. Hopkins. 
Charles H. Watts. 
John Edminster. 



Perley Trow. 
William Thompson. 
Timothy Ea.stman. 
Nathan Young. 
William C. Eastman. 
W. H. Osborn. 
John T. Cotterell. 
Josiah Scott. 
Sylvester H. Powell. 
Frank Symmister. 
Jacob D. Sleeper. 
Charles Clement. 



Wilbury Leonard. 

lu the mean time, and before the last call for 
men was made, some twelve substitutes were 
put in by inhabitants liable to the draft, or who 
were drafted, and the town sent twelve in a 
bodv on the call of 1863, and the following; are 
the names given by this batch of substitutes : 



James Burke. 
William Sullivan. 
Alexander Peterson. 
Mitchell Benedict. 
George Woodman. 
Edwin Mathews. 



Thomas Leonard. 
James KenetT. 
George Johann. 
William Smith. 
Benjamin Williams. 
Isaac Brown. 



John Flanders enlisted in the navy. 

Educatiox. — In the widest sense, this head 
covers a s;reat deal more than the mere manasre- 
ment of our common-school system, and if ta- 
ken in this extended meaning, the inhabitants of 
Sunapee are at least equal to any other rural 
connniuiity in New Hampshire. They discuss 
in the village stores the passing topics of inter- 
est with an average amount of intelligence, and 
hardly a man in town but takes one or more 
newspapers. Our interest in our schools cannot 
be less tlian that of our neighbors, for the to- 
tal school money the present year was : Literary 
fund and e.xtra statute appropriation, $916.21-. 



SUNAPEE. 



373 



There are uine school districts, and the total 
nuniher of scholars in town is one huiidrod and 
sixty-one. Our school-houses are all in good 
condition, and some of them have been fitted 
U[J in the most modern style, giving the schol- 
ars of the present day many advantages as com- 
l)are<i with their fiithers and mothers of forty 
vears ajro. 

An act was passed at the last session of the 
Legislature abolishing the district system, and 
establishing the town system of schools ; but 
the prospect is, that the jilan will meet with lit- 
tle favor in Sunapee. The constant tinkering 
with our common-school system, making expen- 
sive and unnecessary changes in text-books, and 
introducing into the schools, supported by the 
public taxes, what are called " iiigher" branches 
— tiaese, with the general tendency among the 
would-be leaders in education to centralizine: 
the management in the hands of a few, are 
among the mistakes of our time, which can only 
be remedied by an honest return to the princi- 
ples of the founders of our State system of edu- 
cation, namely: to secure to every child of the 
commonwealth, from the public purse, a knowl- 
edge of the elementary branches, which form the 
basis of special and more advanced courses to be 
procured at private ex|>ense solely. 

Prominext Families and A'ames. — Our 
check-lists displayed for a long course of years a 
few prominent names, and these would, in the 
natural current of things, change places — at one 
time the Angelis would lead ; and then for a 
season the majority would fall to the Georges 
or to the Youngs. At our last annual meet- 
ings the Youngs had a ]>lurality of fourteen 
names. Then a host of names less numerous 
make up the body of the list, such as the Sar- 
gents, Gardners, Eastmans, Smiths, Abl)ots, 
Colbys, Coopers, Bartletts, Trows, Knowltons 
and others. But in a sketch of tliis kind, wliicli 
must necessarily be bi'ief, we shall only be able 
to refer to a few of the pioneers in the settling 
of our town, and perhaps make an allusion to 
the descendants of some. 



The connnon ancestor of the Smiths was 
Francis, who came from Rowley, Mass., and 
settled in the nortli part of the town, not far 
from 1792. His death occurred on the 8th of 
May, 1829. But he left four children,— Nathan, 
Mary, John and Hepzibah. Nathan was the 
father of John B., Hepzibah, Joseph P. and 
Thomas Pike. Joseph Pillsbury Smith and 
Thomas Pike Smith still survive, Joseph hav- 
ing held office in town for twenty years, and 
being the chairman of tlie present Board of Se- 
lectmen. 

Thomas is a leading business man, a justice 
of the peace, and a man of unusual literary 
taste and ability. The writer has been 
much indebted to his careful preservation of 
many facts. John B. Smith was in all respects 
an extraordinary man. As an inventor he had 
no superior in New Hampshire, and iiis death, 
from paralysis, on the 19th day of October, 
1884, left the whole community in sadness. 

Joseph George was the progenitor of the 
Georges of Sunapee, and had five sous, — Elijah, 
Samuel, Joseph, Daniel and Benjamin. Daniel 
was the founder of George's Mills, a subdivi- 
sion of our town at the upper or north end of 
Sunapee Lake. He was an excellent mechanic 
and miller, and specimens of his handiwork 
still remain, such as small and great spinning- 
wheels and reels. His son Daniel succeeded 
])im in the grist-mill and became an able and 
popular citizen, acting as moderator of our town 
meetings for full twenty years, filling the office 
of representative for four years and discharging 
various other trusts with fidelity and accept- 
ance. 

His son Daniel A. George, the fourth from 
the common ancestor Joseph, is the present 
miller, and still operates on the old privilege 
and has many of the qualities of his progeni- 
tors. He has been moderator, selectman and 
Representative and is still in the vigor of life. 
Daniel George, the father of Daniel A. died 
suddenly, in 1864, aged fifty-six. 

The Youngs, as we have already intimated, 



374 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



were of Rhode Island stock, and were early in 
town. They numbered, at the last census, for- 
ty-six persons. 

The Christian name of the oldest of the orig- 
inal settlers was Abiather, and he had sons, — 
Abiather, John, William and Andrew, — and the 
elder Abiather was the common ancestor of most 
of the name found in town to-day. Several of 
them held military commissions under the mi- 
litia laws of the State, and five at least of these 
descendants were in the Union army in the 
late Rebellion. Of Captain William Young, 
whom we have noticed elsewhere : — " He was 
every inch a soldier." He was also the best 
penman of his time, as the records still remain- 
ing will verify. 

The Chases were another of the pioneer 
families who, with great energy, joined in sub- 
duing the wilderness and contributing to the 
enterprise and prosperity of the town. John 
Chase, the father of John Chase Jr. came 
to Wendell in 1784, and purchased a lot and a 
half at the outlet of Sunapee Lake, embracing 
every foot of land now covered by the village 
commonly designated " The Harbor," and reach- 
ing from the Runals Hotel to the Methodist 
mesting-house. John Chase, Jr., married, in 
1 794, Elizabeth Rogers, sister of Colonel Sam- 
uel Rogers. They had children, — Richard Hills, 
Abigail, Sarah, Alvin, Elmira, Francis and 
Elizabeth. The elder Johu Chase was the 
first to erect and run a grist-mill in town, and 
during the above-named year (1794) he joined 
his son, John Chase, Jr., in the raising of the 
large two-story dwelling-house now modernized 
and owned by W. C. Sturoc ; Richard and 
Hills Chase left town when young men ; the 
first becoming a lawyer at A usable Forks, 
N. Y., and the last a physician at Syracuse, 
N. Y. Alvin Chase was remarkable for his 
many feats of skill after he was totally blind. 
He built, without aid, a chaise, the remains of 
which the writer has seen ; a cheese press, still 
in existence ; shingled the house where he lived, 
working on the roof in the warm nights of sum- 



mer, and accomplished many other things 
almost beyond belief. He died in June, 1834, 
aged twenty-seven years. 

Absent Natives. — Nearly sixty years ago 
quite a number of the families then in town and 
individual members of others removed to Ohio, 
and settled for the most part in the towns of 
Painesville and Concord, the latter name being 
established in honor of the capital of their na- 
tive State. Those emigrants were Huntoons, 
Youngs, Clapps and Chases. Without a single 
excojition, they all rooted in their adopted soil 
and prospered, and many of them have made 
pilgrimages to their native town. 

And there have been some, without going so 
far as the flourishing West, who still revisit 
with great pleasure the good town of Sunapee, 
where they were born. One of this kind is 
William Robinson, of Sudbury Street, Boston, 
who, about fifty or more years ago, left with 
his little bundle under his arm, and, footing it 
all the way to Boston, began life without a 
cent. He is now the wealthy owner of much 
property, and of a flourishing business in com- 
pany with his two sons, who are an honor to 
their worthy father. But in more recent times 
there have been some who have gone from Sun- 
apee in pursuit of business or of honor. Wil- 
liam W. Eastman, now of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
a native of the town, and son of Ichabod East- 
man, was for many years a leading man in Suna- 
pee, and it was under his hands, as Representa- 
tive in 1849 and 18o0, that the town received its 
present name. William, like his father, was an 
excellent general mechanic, and, in conjuuction 
with B. P. Page, of Bradford, started on a 
large scale the manufacture of threshing:-ma- 
chines in Sunapee, in the year 1847. He was 
afterwards warden of the New Hampshire State 
Prison. He has, in late years, been deeply in- 
terested in the oil business and other enterprises 
in Brooklyn. 

Charles H. Bartlett was born in Sunapee, 
October 15, 1833. He is the sou of John and 
Sarah J. Bartlett, bjth recently deceased. He 



SUNAPEE. 



375 



studied and was admitted to the bar of Hills- 
borough County iu 185S. Mr. Bartlett was clerk 
of the New Hampshire Senate from 1861 to 
1865, private secretary to Governor Smyth 1865 
and 1866. In 1867 he was appointed clerk of 
the United States District Court in New Hamp- 
shire. In the same year he was elected solicitor 
for the city of jManchester, and declined a re- 
election in 1872. He was mayor of Manches- 
ter till February, 187o. He has held many 
other offices and trusts, and waspresident of the 
State Senate in 1883. 

Alfred T. Batchclder, youngest son of Nath- 
aniel and Sarah Batchelder, also claims Suua- 
pee as his birth-place. He is about forty-two 
years of age and is the present mayor of Keene, 
N. H., a graduate of Dartmouth and a lawyer 
by profession. 

The most prominent dentist in Concord, N. H., 
is George A. Young, son of Andrew and Ly- 
dia Young, of this town. He is acknowl- 
eilged to be high in his profession. 

And in the same city will be found Moses F. 
Rogers, grandson of Colonel Samuel Rogers 
and brother of Rev. Charles E. He has been 
actively engaged in the express business for 
many years, and was deputy warden of the New 
Hampshire State Prison under John Foss. Two 
sons of the late Mark Dodge are also natives of 
Sunapee. Albert is an extensive grain dealer 
in Gloucester, Mass., and Parker a physician in 
the West. 

Caleb Colby, son of John Colliy, is now a suc- 
cessful jeweler in New York City. He has a 
double claim on recognition here, having mar- 
ried a native of Sunapee, Meliitable Young, 
daughter of Lieutenant John. 

Business Enterprises. — Although witliin 
easy reach of the excellent natural waterfalls at 
the head of Sugar River, the first settlers labored 
for some years under difficulties as to the con- 
veniences of saw-mill or grist-mill, and it was 
no uncommon thing in those early days of the 
settlement for the sturdy head of the family to 
start with his back-load of rye or corn, and 



proceeding through the then wilderness, by 
marked or spotted trees, reach the nearest mill. 

They were under the necessity, at one time, 
of going that way as far as "Number Four" 
(Charlestown). But an effort was soon made to 
remedy this evil, and on the 3d of December, 
1782, I find, by a document of that date, the 
proprietors invited one Joel Bailey, of New- 
port, to accept of the gift of twenty acres of the 
" undivided land," as an inducement for the 
said Bailey to build a grist and saw-mill in 
Wendell. The signers of this instrument, 
partly in the form of a ([uit-claim deed, were 
as follows : Esek Young, John Sprague, John 
Call, John Gardner, Thomas Martin, David 
Call, John Bevins, John Wendell and Stephen 
Hardy. 

It does not appear that Bailey accepted of 
this offer made by those land-owners, and 
nothing was done in that direction till about 
1784—85, when John Chase erected the first 
grist-mill, not far from the site of the Blodgett 
& Runals saw-mill of to-day. The entrance 
to the end of this primitive mill was by 
a steep descent immediately east of the present 
"Mill Hill "highway. 

Not far from 1800 a wooflen dam was put 
across the river, just below where the Granite 
Hame-Works now stand, and a power formed 
at the first steep fall, and that site has remainjed 
the Harbor Grist-Mill ever since. A saw-mill 
was sub.sefjuently combined with the gri.st-mill, 
and the ownership has passed through numer- 
ous hands. At an early date it was the prop- 
ertv of Hutchinson & Cheney ; then Jeremiah 
Newall and Jonas Cutting, Purniort & Stevens, 
Young tt Cobb, Lowell T. Nute, Charles Stubbs, 
and the present owners, Purington & Bartlett. 

About 1820 a privilege was taken np some 
wavs below the grist-mill, and lielow where 
William C. Stocker's excelsior-shop now 
stands. It was used by Hills, son of John 
Chase, Jr., at what was then called a clothing- 
mill, where home-made cloth was fulled and 
dressed. 



376 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Jonathan Wooster also pursued the business 
of au'ding and fulling and dressing cloth, and 
was followed by D. B. Coloord, the latter 
removing his shop to George's Mills, where he 
conducted the same for about twenty years, end- 
ing in 1845, since which time no such business 
has been done in town, the products of factories 
taking the place of the home-manufactured 
article. 

In 1842 the foundation of the present tannery 
was laid by George Iveyser and David Haynes, 
and has been run by successive occupants. The 
water-power for the tannery was procured by 
throwing a dam across Sugar River just below 
the grist-mill dam, and at a subsequent period 
another dam was formed still farther down- 
stream, this last being now occupied by Wil- 
liam C. Stocker for the manufacture of excel- 
sior. About 1837 the substantial stone dam, 
just above the Harbor Bridge, was erected by 
a company of whicli Stejihen D. Ford was the 
agent, but nothina- was done on this dam until 
about 1844, when Christopher Cross, from 
Lowell, Mass., built the saw-mill on the south 
end of the " stone dam." 

About the same time, Ephraim O. Whitcomb 
built a shop just below the Harbor Bridge, for 
the manufacture of bedsteads, and that business 
was pursued by various owners till 1852 or 
1853, when Dexter Pierce went into the making 
of clothes-pins, and this shop, the basement of 
which was, in 1857, occupied by Royal Booth 
wiiile he was constructing card-board machinery, 
took fire, and not only totally consumed that 
shop, but also the one on the north side of the 
river occupied by Abiather Young, for making 
shoe-pegs. The peg business was carried on by 
Abiather Young for years, until finally he oc- 
cupied the shop north of the saw-mill on the 
stone dam, and that, too, on the night of April 
11, 1877, took fire and was completely de- 
stroyed. Since then the shoe-peg business has 
not been resumed. On the 18th of October of 
the same year (1877), Abiather died, aged fifty. 
It has been mentioned, in connection with the 



name of William W. Eastman, that a large 
shop was built in 1847 for the making of 
threshing-machines, although in a smaller shop, 
called the " red shop," Mr. Eastman, in com- 
pany with James Perkins and others, liad in 
previous years been in that business. This 
threshing-machine business was for anumlterof 
years, say from 1847 till 1870, a prominent in- 
dustry in Sunapee, till finally it fell into the 
hands solely of Major Josiah Turner, one of 
the first makers, who died of apoplexy, April 
16, 1883. Since the death of Mr. Turner that 
business has also been entirely stamped out, and 
the last shop he occupied has been converted 
into a store-house for lumber. 

About 1852, John B. Smith having been 
pi'eviously engaged for a short time in different 
kinds of mechanical employment at the Har- 
bor, built a shop at the point now locally known 
as Sraithville, and began making clothes-pins 
and inventing machinery for their rapid produc- 
tion ; he succeeded at last in constructing a ma- 
chine that would turn out one hundred and ten 
per minute, and by procuring patents on his 
various machines acijuired a monopoly of the 
business. But his inventive genius was not 
satisfied with this narrow field, and he soon 
added a machine-shop and foundry for casting 
brass and iron, M'ith all the necessary buildings 
for that varied business. He continued increas- 
ing and extending until quite a village had 
grown up around his works, when, on the 19th 
of October, he was struck with paralysis, from 
which he died, aged sixty-six. He had always 
been an earnest student of the science of astron- 
omy, and was tempted, in the pursuit of that 
study, to try his hand at telescope-making, in 
which he succeeded so admirably as to com- 
mand the admiration of men long skilled in 
that business. 

Solon W. Abbott runs a planing, tonguiug 
and grooving-mill, and combines the making of 
coffins and caskets with his other business. 

Willis W. Trow has similar machinery and a 
good saw-mill. 



SUNAPEE. 



377 



Perkins & Alexander make hay-rakcs of all 
kinds. 

There has, from the earliest times, been one 
or more blacksmiths in town. Nathaniel Per- 
kins, a man prominent in our town affairs sixty 
years ago, was, perhaps, the first, having his 
first shop not far from where George W. Colby 
now lives ; afterwards near his homestead, 
long known as the " Perkins place." His 
forge has, however, been cold for forty years. 
Moses Muzzej' built his blacksmith-shop in 
1818, on the eminence near George's Mills, 
known even now as Muzzey Hill. He died 
about thirteen years ago. 

Moses C. Muzzey, son of the above, opened 
a blacksmith's forge at the Lower village in 
1840, and has continued ever since, having a 
partner a large share of the time in Amos D. 
Carnes. Asahel Lear has been a blacksmith 
at the south part of the town for more than a 
common life-time and still survives. 

Stores. — The stores in Sunapee have always 
been of the kind designated " country stores, " 
keeping a miscellaneous assortment, and taking 
the produce of the farmer in pay to a large ex- 
tent. In 1820, John Dane was keeping store 
in the house built by him for that purpose, and 
now owned by Solomon Bartlett, although 
among the older inhabitants it is still called the 
'Dane House." About 1825, John Colby 
succeeded Dane, and by 1830 he built the store 
which stood for many years on what is now J. P. 
Knowlton's door-yard. Colby was succeeded 
by Marble, and he by Wadleigh, and the 
Knowlton Bros., Moses and John, were run- 
ning the business in 1844, and the latter con- 
tinued till about 1863. John was followed by 
D. G. Knowlton & Sons, and the store moved 
from the hill to its present location, at the west 
end of the hame-shop, where it is run by 
Knowlton & Sargent. 

The store and dwelling-house which was built 
by Josiah Turner, the under part of which \\ as 
from the beginning intended for store purposes, 
was first occupied by Eastman & Kelscy ; and 



the line of store-keepers who have filled up the 
thirty-seven intervening years have been nearly 
as follows : H. Stanton, Colby & Jones, Cut- 
ler <fe Wade, Jabe Thompson, Quimby & 
Simmons, Rawson, Ingram, Wm. C. Stocker 
and for the last fourteen years, N. P. Baker. 
In this store, since the election of Abraham 
Lincoln, or since 1861, tiie post-office has been 
kept till the present year. 

At the Lower village the successive store- 
keepers have been jMarble, Wadleigh, Col- 
cord, Edson and the j)resent owner, Joseph 
Russell. 

The "Granite Hame- Works."— In 1869, 
W. H. H. Cowles and Lucius Buswell, from 
Grantham, commenced to build the large shop 
now occupied for the manufacture of haraes. 
While the building was being erected Mr. Bus- 
well was killed, and Mr. Cowles found a new 
partner in the person of George H. Bartlett, 
and some three years ago Mr. Cowles aban- 
doned the business and sold out his half-interest 
to Irwing G. Rowell, the firm now being Bart- 
lett & Rowell. They do a large business and 
emplov about twenty hands. 

About ten years ago a tin-shop was started 
by Healy Cunningham, but on the 2d of 
April, 1884, he died suddenly, and the shop 
was for a short time vacant, but during the 
present year Fred. C. Keyes purchased the 
stock and shop, and has extended tiie business 
by the addition of stores and a general assort- 
ment of hardware. 

ACCIDENTS. 

The events happening in our midst of an 
accidental character have not lieen very frequent 
or unusual. The conflagrations of any impor- ' 
tance have all occurred within thirty years. In 
the winter of 1857 the two shops below the 
Harbor Bridge, one owned by Dexter Pierce 
and the other by Abiather Young, were both 
totally consumed; the fire originating in the 
basement of Pierce's shop and spreading north- 
ward across the river to Young's peg-shop. 



378 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



On the 10th of June, 1871, the clothes-pin 
shop of John B. Smith took fire and soon 
spread to the adjacent dwellings, destroying 
those of Moses Jj. Sargent and Isaac Harriman, 
and damaging the Methodist parsonage and 
totally consuming the church on the north side 
of the highway. 

The large shop which has been described as 
being built for the threshing-machine business, 
and in wliich shoe-pegs were now being manu- 
factured, took fire on the night of the 11th of 
April, 1877, and, altiiough right on the river, 
for lack of any appliances to use the water 
was soon reduced to a heap of ruins. 

Drownings. — On a body of water as exten- 
sive as Lake Sunapee — nine miles by three — the 
number of deaths by drowning have been com- 
paratively few. If any loss of life occurred 
previous to 1800, the oldest inhabitants are 
unable to recall it, and the first of which we 
have any account is the death of Joel Fletcher, 
of New London, who came across with a neigh- 
bor in a " dug-out " or canoe made of half of 
a pine log. They came to procure clay from a 
clay-bed at the Harbor, near where the Wood- 
sum wharf now stands, and where a number of 
brick-kilns were subsequently burne<:l for the 
building of the first chimneys in town. 

Fletcher and his companion had almost 
reached New London shore on their return, 
when a sudden squall struck the boat, .shifting 
the cargo of clay and upsetting the frail craft. 
His companion swam on shore, but Fletcher 
was drowned. And this happened, as Aunt 
Betsey Knowlton informed me, wlieu she was 
thirteen years old. This venerable lady, who 
was a sister to Thomas Pike, our first sole rep- 
resentative, and mother of the three Knowltons — 
Dennis, Moses and John — died in July, 1881, at 
the advanced age of ninety-four. She retained 
her memory to the last, and passed away with 
the grandeur of a Revolutionary matron. 

On 9th of September, 1821, the babe of 
J. Harvey Huntoon, who lived not far from 
the lake, was carried, with the bed on which it 



lay, into the lake by the memorable " iuirri- 
cane " of that year, and tiie body was found in 
a few days drifted to shore, near " Job's 
Creek." 

In the spring of 1834, Josiah Currier, father 
of the late Bradford Currier and William 
Currier and ^Irs. John Boyoe, met his death 
bv falliny; throug-ji the ice near the " Hedjje- 
Hog Den," at the commencement of a terrific 
snow-storm that had begun just about sundown. 

His outcries were heard by Oliver Young, 
who lived at that time on the farm on which 
Lake View House is built ; but Young was 
unable to reach him on account of" the driving 
storm. It was nearly two months before his 
hat was found, when the snow had thawed 
away, giving a clue to the place where he went 
down. 

Not in the lake, but near it, in the river, on 
the 9th of March, 1882, Corana Richardson, a 
boy six years old, was missed, and on a careful 
search his body was found in the river a little 
way above the " stone dam." 

On Thursday, January 15, 1885, Leander 
Blodgett, of Newljur}', started with a horse and 
wagon from the Chandler shore to go in the di- 
rection of "Pine Cliff," and on his return must 
have dropped through a hole in the ice, as the 
seat of his wagon and the buffalo-robe were found 
near the hole. The water at that point was 
about fifty feet deep, but grapplings were pro- 
cured, and the body of the unfortunate young 
man, as also the horse and wagon, were soon 
drawn to the surface. 

A Fatal Shooting Affair. — On Thanks- 
giving day, 1828, as quite a number of the 
young men of the town were collected in the store 
of Colby & Newall, in the Dane House, one of 
the party, a Jonathan Marston, took up a gun 
that stood in the corner of the room, and resting 
it upon the shoulder of David Reddington, fired 
at random, fatally wounding Elbridge G. Sar- 
gent, youngest son of Deacon Moses Sargent, 
and injuring some others who stood in range. 
One of the injured was Dennis G. Knowlton, 



SUNAPEE. 



379 



from whom I had the relation of the accident. 
The biiclile of the cap worn by the Sargent 
l)oy was driveu into his forehead and twenty- 
two shot were extracted ; but after linsjeriutr 
nine days he expired. 

In the fall of 1869, when the hame-shop 
was being built, the younger partner of the 
concern, Lucius Busswell, while in the saw- 
mill, superintending the sawing of the lumber 
for the building, was struck in the forehead by 
a heavy slab which caught on the circular saw, 
and killed, lingering only a few hours. He was 
a young man of excellent promise, son of Oliver 
and Deborah Busswell, of Grantham. 

The Hurricaxe. — Among the memorable 
events connected with this town, and without 
some notice of which a history would be incom- 
plete, was the terrific hurricane of the 9th of 
September, 1821, which swept across the north- 
easterly portion of the town, towards the lake, 
on its devastating path to the neighboring towns 
of New London, Sutton, Salisbury and War- 
ner. It tore up trees and carried them onward 
for miles, and what trees it did not entirely up- 
root it laid over, in many cases, almost to the 
ground. There are evidences still standing in 
old orchards over which this tornado passed, 
especially near Job's Creek, on the land sloping 
down towards the lake. 

During the day of that memorable Sunday 
it was unusually hot and sultry, clearly indicat- 
ing electrical forces, and about four o'clock in 
the afternoon the black clouds began to roll, soon 
followed by the roaring of the bronzy, ashen- 
colored bugle of the whirlwind, as it sped 
on to the southeast, on its errand of destruc- 
tion. The writer has had corroborative 
relation from several eye-witnesses of that 
terrible scene. It was noticed to start ap- 
parently from the soutli side of Grantham 
Mountain, striking and partly demolishing one 
liabitation in Croydon ; thence onward through 
the northeast part of Sunapee, doing damage 
only to the forests and fences, until it reached 
the house and barn of J. Harvey Huutoon, 



near the west shore of the lake. It lifted tlie 
barn from its foundations and threw it in frag- 
ments down-hill towards the shore. It whirled 
the roof from the house and shattered to pieces 
all above tlie cellar, while a bed on which the 
youngest child was laid was snatched up and 
carried in the air to the centre of the lake and 
there dropped. 

A few days after, as Dr. Alexander Boyd, of 
Newport, with Moses ]\Iuzzey, the blacksmith 
of Wendell, and others were looking over the 
track of the destroyer, they noticed an object 
near the entrance of the creek, and, on reachmg 
it, they found the body of tlie child, its little 
dress torn to shreds, and its head bruised and 
battered almost beyond recognition. Mr. Hun- 
toon and his wife, Naoma, removed soon after 
to Concord, Ohio, where they died not long ago, 
and where they had lieen visited several times 
by persons now living in Sunapee. They re- 
tained, as a sad memento of that dreadful and 
fatal day, a small piece of the baby's dress, 
which they had encased in a frame, under glass, 
with its brief but sorrowful legend. When 
Charles Dickens, the English novelist, visited 
the United States, some one related to him the 
above-named facts, and on that he built his 
story of "The Fisherman of Sunapee," which 
had the run of the magazines and newspapers 
of that time. The havoc of this tornado, which 
ended its course at the south base of the Kear- 
sarge Mountain, has been described by other 
writers, so far as it aifected the other towns 
named ; but no circumstantial account of its 
ravages in Sunapee has heretofore been written, 
and soon the observers of that startling event 
will be all numbered among the things that 
were ; although to-day the dismantled cellar of 
the Huntoon habitation may still be traced, 
and a few of the leaning apple-trees are still 
bearing fruit, they were partially borne down 
by that terrific gust, now sixty-four years 
ago. 

The Lake and its Surroundings. — We 
now reach a matter in the history of Sunapee 



380 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



that, altlioHgli we have made last, is not the 
least, but, in truth, the gi'eatest, in regard to 
our material future, — the lake and its connec- 
tions. 

As early as 1820 a charter had been granted 
by the Legislature to Josiah Stevens and others, 
giving them the right to draw and control the 
sui-plus waters of the lake for the behoof of 
" the owners of mills and mill privileges on 
Sugar River ;" and for many years the whole 
matter of the lake was comparatively but little 
noticed, the regulation of the drawing having 
fallen into the hands, almost entirely, of grow- 
ing mill interests at the extreme west end of 
Sugar Kiver, where it emjjties into Connecticut 
River. All the intermediate mill-owners on 
the river had either become careless of their 
rights or they were ignored ; and this state of 
things ran along until about twenty years ago, 
when the importance of this beautiful sheet of 
water, as a navigable water, began to attract at- 
tention. The lake, before this time, had been 
ba])tized by N. P. Rogei-s, as the Loch Lomond 
of New England. I remember when there 
was at Sunapee Harbor but one small row- 
boat. To-day there are probably not less than 
two hundred row and sail-boats, many of them 
of superior build and rig. 

In 1854, Timothy Hoskius, an ex-State 
Senator, and William Cutler built a horse- 
boat. Hoskins was interested in the saw-mill 
and Cutler in the tannery. It was capable of 
taking on parties of one hundred, but, after 
running for about eight years, it was broken 
up and portions of it can still be recognized. 

On the 4th of July, 1859, Austin Goings, of 
New London, launched the first steamboat upon 
Sunapee Lake. It was a side-wheeler, the 
length of the keel being sixty-five feet. It 
could carry three hundred passengers. Its 
name was the " Surprise, But that point in 
the history of Sunapee had not arrived when a 
steamboat would pay, and, the war of 1861 
coming on, Captain Goings enlisted and his 
boat was dismantled. 



From 1861 to 1876 nothing but row and 
sail-boats floated on Sunapee Lake, but the 
centennial year was appropi'iately heralded by 
the commencement of permanent steam naviga- 
tion on our lake. 

In this year the little steamer " Penacook " 
was purchased by N, S. Gardner and put upon 
the lake. When she Mas first run she had 
side-wheels and her machinery was very imj^er- 
fect ; but Captain Nathan Young, her present 
proprietor, has remodeled her, putting in a new 
engine and screw-propeller and changed her name 
to the " Mountain Maid." 1876 will also be 
memorable for the advent of the Woodsum 
brothers, Frank and Daniel, who came from 
Maine and bnilt the snug, fine-looking and 
substantial steamer " Lady Woodsum," and 
have run her every summer since in connection 
with the trains arriving at Newbury. 

The " Lady Woodsum " can carry over a hun- 
dred passengers, and they have an attendant 
barge that will take a larger company. 

Mr. Craddock, the owner of " Liberty 
Island," has a small private steamer suitable for 
family parties, and used mostly for the con- 
venience of his family and boarders. 

For a few years past, since oar leading lines 
of railroad have given special opportunities of 
summer travel, a want seemed to be felt, on the 
occasion of extra trains arriving at Sunapee 
Lake, for still further steamboat accommodation, 
and in the winter of 1884-85 a joint-stock com- 
pany was formed for the building of a large 
boat, and in the summer of 1885 the commo- 
dious boat named the " Edmund Burke" was 
launched upon the waters of Sunapee Lake with 
appropriate ceremonies witnessed by a great 
multitude of people. 

She was named in honor of the late Hon. 
Edmund Burke, mIio was the first projector of 
this enlarged enterprise, and who had in his life- 
time become deeply interested in the prosperity 
of Sunapee Lake as a place of resort ; having 
built him a nice cottage near the " Lake View," 
where, during a few of the closing years of his 



SUNAPEE. 



381 



life, he spent the summer seasons. He liad also 
become the owner of the Lake View House and 
farm on wliicli it stood. But his liealth failed, 
and he died on the 25th of January, 18S2, aged 
.seventy-three, and his large property fell mainly 
to his daughter, Mrs. Frances M. Dana, wife 
of ('olouel George Dana, of Newport, who 
has iu a faithful and energetic manner endeav- 
ored to carry out I\Ir. Burke's plans. 

The dimensions of this large propeller are 
eighty-seven feet in length, eighteen feet beam. 
She has a double deck, and is capable of carry- 
ing five or six hundred passengers. 

So far as it concerns boating on Sunapee 
I^ake, we have traced the matter up to date 
(1885); but on the shores of the lake great 
improvements have, in the mean time, been 
made. At Lake View some dozen cottages have 
been erected for summer occupancy; at Blodgett's 
four times that number ; this last being a pub- 
lic resort for camp-meetings and great gatherings. 
At "Pine Cliff" quite a number of attractive 
cottages have been built, and are fully occupied 
during the summer by their opulent owners. 

The Hotels oidy remain to be noticed 
in connection with the outcome of the town's 
prosperity and its probable future. 

" The Sunapee House " was built by C. Y. 
& N. S. Gardner, about forty years ago, and 
for some years \\as occupied as a tenement 
building ; but has for nearly thirty years been 
kept as a public-house. The present landlords 
are Lafayette and Frank Colby. This tavern 
is kept open throughout the year. 

The " Lake View House" was erected by 
Lafayette Colby in 1875, and was run by him 
for a few years. 

Mr. (Jolby was really the pioneer in the 
large hotel business connected with the in- 
creasing interest in the lalce as a place of sum- 
mer resort. 

The "Runals House" was built in 1877, 
by Albert Eunals and John Y. Gardner. 
Mr. Eunals died February 13, 1882, aged 
seventy-two, and the interest in the hotel is 



now held by his relict, Lucy Eunals, in conjunc- 
tion with Mr. Gardner. 

The accommodating power of these last two 
hotels does not differ greatly, being something 
like a hundred apiece ; and now the demand 
is for more hotels. 

Conjectures cannot be history ; but the un- 
mistakable indications are that Sunapee is des- 
tined to be an important place of summer 
resort ; and if the next decade shall be as fruit- 
ful of progress as the immediate past has been, 
a spectacle of improvement will be witnessed 
that at the present hour might be deemed im- 
possible. 

XAJIES OF PRESEXT BUSINESS MEN. 

Graxite Hame-Worics.— George H. Bart- 
lett and Irving G. Eowell. 

Wheelwright. — Moses A. Young. 

Sa-\v-Mills. — Franklin Blodgett, Edward E. 
Sargent, Solon W. Abbott, Willis AV. Trow. 

Merchaxts.— Xathan P. S. Baker, Wil- 
liam Eussell, Joseph Eusscll, Knowlton & 
Sargent. 

Manufacturer of Excelsior. — W. C. 
Stocker. 

Tanner. — Gabe T. Yoimg. 

Livery Stables. — Frank Blodgett, Albert 
Huntoou. 

Shoe Stiffexixgs. — John A. Tucker & 
Son. 

Furniture, Etc. — Thomas P. Smith. 

Grist-Millers. — D. A. George, Puring- 
ton & Bai-tlett. 

Blacksmiths. — Asahel Lear, Moses C. 
Muzzey, Amos D. Carnes. 

Eakes and Handles. — James Perkins, 
George E. Alexander, Benjamin E. Sleeper. 

Machinlstand Founder. — Nathan Smith. 

Tin-Smith. — Fred. C. Keyes. 

Shoemaker. — Jeremiah W. Merrill. 

Butcher. — George S. Eeed. 

Carpi'xters axd Joiners. — Stephen Wood- 
ward, John V. Sargent, Moses I-/. Sargent, 
Orren Cross. 

Wallets. — Moses L. Sargent. 



3S2 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



THE RUNALS FAMILY. 

This branch of the RiiuaLs family traces its 
descent from Ayrshire, Scotland. The geneal- 
ogy has been carefully traced, with great labor 
and research, by Rev. M. T. Runorels, A.M., 
Sanbornton, N. H. 

John Eunals, the first descendant, settled in 
Dover, 1718, soon after moved to Durham (now 
Lee). His son Abraham is spoken of as a 
brave Scotch patriot. He, with five of his eight 
sous, served their country with distinction in 
the Revolutionary War. 

Jonathan, his seventh son, came to Concord ; 
married Dorothy Dimoii; died 1779; settled 
as a clothier near Turkey River, in Concord ; 
soon after moved to Deering. Being the seventh 
sou of his father's family he was consulted, ac- 
cording to tlie custom of the times, by hundreds 
of people for the cure of scrofula and other 
diseases. 

Samuel, eldest son of Jonathan and Dorothy 
Runals, was born in Concord, July 30, 1781 ; 
married, April 26, 1809, Eliza Lovejoy ; was 
a millwright. He resided successively in 
Bradford, Hopkinton, West Boscawen, Mere- 
dith Bridge and other towns, as his business 
required. He came back to Concord, where he, 
with his companion, spent tlie remainder of his 
days, tenderly cared for by their children. 

Albert Runals, who is more immediately 
the subject of this sketch, was the eldest child of 
Samuel and Eliza Runals, and was born in Brad- 
ford, December 23, 1809. He, like most poor 
youths of his time, was early taught to labor 
for his support, and assist his father in the 
maintenance of his young family. His schooling 
was limited to three uionths in winter, earning 
iiis board by tending the stock for the farmers 
in tiie vicinity in wliich he lived. By perse- 
verance and industry he acquired a good com- 
mon-school education for his time. He bought 
h!s time of his father a few years previous to his 



majority, and began to carve his fortune. He 
engaged to some extent in the lumber business, 
in which he was very successful. He purchased 
a farm in West Boscawen in 1835; built a 
house some two years later. He married Ann M. 
Colby, of Concord, a very estimable and -worthy 
lady, and settled on his farm in West Boscawen. 
He also engaged quite extensively in the lum- 
ber business, and when the city of Lowell, 
Mass., was in its infancy ho, with others, fur- 
nished large contracts of lumber for building 
coutraetors in Lowell, Mass., drawing the lum- 
ber to the foot of Sewell's Falls, in Concord, 
and rafting and taking it down the Merrimack 
River to Lowell, long before the advent of the 
steam-car from Concord to Lowell. 

In 184(3 Mr. Runals, in connection with his 
brother, purchased building-lots in Lowell, and 
a few years later built tenement blocks, from 
which they received large profits in after- 
years. 

To Albert and Ann Runals were born two 
daughters, — -Mary Maria, born June 10, 1836; 
Marcia Ette, born July 14, 1838. She married 
A. P. Bennett, of Concord, January 1, 18-59, to 
whom were born two sons, — Frank R. and 
Eugene A. Bennett. 

Mr. Runals was a man of superior business 
ability, a good manager, safe counselor in j)ub- 
lic aifairs, though he sought no office and held 
none until 1855, when he, with Mr. Winn, was 
chosen to represent the tow.n in the State Legis- 
lature, and re-elected tlie following year. 

In the June session of tlie Legislature in 
1800 an act was passed dividing the town of 
Boscawen, and forming the town of Webster, in 
the west part. In the following August, at 
their first meeting, Mr. Runals was chosen one 
of the selectmen, and the following Marcli was 
re-elected ; also chosen to represent the town in 
the State Legislature; was re-elected the follow- 
ing year. He held no office after this ; would 
accept none. His advice was frequently 
sought, freely given and safely followed by 
those who succeeded him in public office. 



SUNAPEE. 



383 



In the dull times of the War of the Rebel- 
lion, Mr. Runals was engaged principally 
in farming and stock and wool -growing. 
From the latter he received very large profits. 
His bright, worldly enjoyments were turned 
to sorrow iu the death of his fondly-cherished 
daughter, Mrs. Bennett, whose death occurred 
on May KJ, 1863. It was a severe blow to his 
tender heart and led him to accept Christ as 
his Redeemer. Nearly four years later he was 
railed to mourn the loss of his dear companion, 
with whom he had lived in perfect happiness 
for moi-e than thirty years, and of whom 
he could never speak without tears. She 
gently passed away on October 22, 1866. He 
married, October 3, 1867, Lucy J. Holmes, of 
Webster, a young lady of good abilities and 
firm Christian integrity, with whom he lived 
very happily to the close of his life. TJieir 
union was blessed with a daughter, ^larcia Alice, 
born in Sunapee, September 12, 1878, who, 
with her mother, still resides at his late home in 
Sunapee. 

In 1868 Mr. Runals purchased lumber of 
parties in New London, out and drew if across 
the lake to tlie mill of D. F. Emerys, in Suna- 
pee. The following year he purchased an in- 
terest in the mill and engaged extensively in the 
manufacture of lumber, boarding in the family 
of D. F. Emerys and others. He was called 
home to assist in the care of his only remaining 
daughter, who quietly passed away on February 
20, 1872, thus severing the last tie that held 
him to his first family. 

The following year he leased his farm and 
moved with his wife to Sunapee, where he had 
previously built a cottage ; he might almost be 
said to monopolize the lumber business in town 
and, indeed, in this section. He was the builder 
and joint-owner of the Runals House, drafting 
the plan of the building and superintending the 
wiirk himself; it is a beautiful structure and a 
credit to its builder, and is now a popular sum- 



mer resort. Mr. Runals was for a short time 
engaged in the tannery business with Calvin 
Angle, also with J. T.Young at the time of his 
decease, and being a man of property and active 
disposition, he was always willing to lend a help- 
ing hand to every improvement and to aid in all 
benevolent enterprises. Mr. Runals was a man 
of cheerful, pleasant temperament ; he always 
had a kind word for every one; he was tem- 
perate in his habits, never using tobacco in any 
form or intoxicating drink as a beverage, to 
which is largely due his strong constitution and 
general good health. He was a domestic man ; 
home was the dearest place on earth to him, and 
wife the loved object of his affection and tender 
care, and little daughter the pride and joy of his 
home. Mr. Runals was not a member of any 
church organization, but he was a liberal sup- 
porter of the gospel and a constant attendant on 
divine worship. He was a membf-r of the board 
of trustees in the Methodist Church where he 
resided, which office he held at tlie time of his 
decease. His busy, active life suddenly came to 
a close after a short illness of less than two 
days ; he was taken with erysipelas in the face 
on Sunday morning, and on Monday P.M. was 
seized with apoplexy and expired almost in- 
stantly on February 13, 1882, at the age of 
seventy-two years. 

In his death the town lost one of its most 
valuable and highly-esteemed citizens, and the 
business community one of its most active and 
enterprising business men ; the church and 
society its most able and willing sujiporter, 
and the poor and needy a kind benefactor. 
Our loss was his gain; he has his reward in 
heaven. 

We have followed in this sketch the career of 
this noble man from poverty to wealth and po- 
sitions of honor and trust, and to-day his mem- 
ory is fresh in the hearts of his townsmen ; the 
general exclamation is, " No one can fill Mr. 
Runals' place." 



HISTORY OF UNITY 



CHAPTER I. 

This township was grauted July 13, 1764, to 
Timothy Goodwin and others, to be divided 
"into such shares and proportions as the major 
part shall agree upon." The grant was made 
to enable some parties in Hampstead and Kings- 
ton to settle a dispute relative to some territory 
claimed by Hampstead parties under a grant 
from New Hampshire, and by Kingston parties 
under a grant from Massachusetts. Enough of 
the territory in this grant was to be transferred 
to the Kingston claimants to satisfy them. The 
controversy had created considerable bitterness, 
but was amicably settled by means of this grant, 
and the town was named in commemoration of 
the happy terniinatiou of the dispute. 

A portion of the town of Goshen, incor- 
porated December 27, 1791, was taken from 
this town, and another small tract was severed 
from Unity and annexed to that town July 6, 
1837. By an act approved June 20, 1810, a 
tract of land, with inhabitants thereon, was sev- 
ered from the southwest corner of this town and 
annexed to Charlestown. 

December 29, 1828, a small tract of land, 
with the inhabitants thereon, was severed from 
the northwest corner of this town and annexed 
to Claremont. 

Documentary. — The following is the war- 
rant for town-meeting, 1779: 

" this Is to notify &" the Leagal Inhabitants paying 

taxes in the towns of acworth Lempster Savel Croy- 
384 



don Unity & newport to meet at the Dwelling house 
of Cap' Nathaniel huntoon in said Unity on the firstt 
tusday In December next at one of the Clock In the 
after noon. 

" 1'' to Chuse a moderator to Govern Said meeting 
'' a'" to Chuse one Good & Lawfull man to Represent 
them In the General Assembly to be held at Exeter 
for the year Ensuing also to Chuse two Good and Law- 
full men to Serve as members of the Councel for the 
Year Ensuing 

" November the 29 1779 

"Amos Chase ^ Select Men 

"JOSATHAX GlIDDEX V of 

"John Lad J Unity." 

Colonel Benjamin Bellows, Jr., made a return 
of the com])any officers in his regiment ]\Iarcli 
15, 1776. The Ninth Company was located in 
this town and officered as follows : Captain, 
Nathaniel Huntoon ; First Lieutenant, Amos 
Chase; Second Lieutenant, Moses Thurston; 
Ensign, Simeon Giddens. Joseph Frost, aged 
twenty-six, was in First New Hampshire Regi- 
ment in 1778. 

Petition of Elijah Weed relative to Pettingill, 1785. 

" The petition of Elijah Weed in behalf of the town 

of Lenity Humbly shews — 

"That the town of Unity did in the year 1777 hier 
one Jonathan Pettengal Be longing to S"* town a sol- 
dier who Inlisted Dureing the war and Sarved 
through the hole of the war for said town and 
through the Neglect of the select men he was not 
Return'' for said town, nor no other town, — therefore 
your Petitioner Prays that the town of Unity may be 



UNITY. 



385 



Credited for Said Pettengal and your Petitioner as iu 
duty Bound shall Ever Pray 

"Conkordoct' 28"' 1785" 



"Elijah Weed. 



Petition of Jonathan PcttingiU, Soldier, 1777. 

" Unity May 8'" A D 1777— 
"This May Certify whom it may Concern That I 
Jonathan Pettiugall do Bargain & Engage to & with 
Amos Chase of Unity To do Eighteen Months Ser- 
vice in the Continental Army for him the Said Chase 
To be half the Town of three j'ears that I am engaged 
for the Said Chase having Paid & Satisfied me for 
the Said Service as witness my hand the day & year 
abov" 

Ilia 

"Jonathan X Pettingall 

mark 

" Witness 
"Richard Brown." 

Depositioyi relative to Jona. Petiingill, 1786. 
"the depotion of me the Subscriber this may Sear- 
tify that I did in the year 1777 agree with Jonathan 
pettengal of this town to Serve as a Continatal Sol- 
dier for eighteen months as half a three years tower 
and paid him ten pounds for Said Serves attest per 

me 

"Abraham Sandborn 

"Unity January the 3 and 178G " 

Sworn to before Elijah Frink, justice of the 
peace. 

The following, relative to State tax, was ad- 
dressed to the Legislature, June session, 1786: 

"The Petition of us the Subscribers In behalf of 
Ourselves and others of the Inhabitants of the Town 
of Unity^Humbly Shewelh— that Sence the Contest 
with Great Britton the Town afors** Have Been 
Greatly Embarrast by having a Considerable Number 
Enimical Persons to the Common Clause — so far as to 
Lead away from there Duty a number of S'' Inhabi- 
tants so far as to make a majority in said Town that 
the minor were Not able to act or transact any Busi- 
ness as a Town whereby no regualor Returns or Inven- 
tarories have been made for Some Years back and that 
in the Year 1780 there was no Invoice taken And the 
Town were doomed and Set Equal to the Towns of 
Croydon & Lempster whom have Sence Been abated 
the Seventh part of there Taxes and we are fully 
Sencable that the Town of Unity ought to be Set 
much Lower than either of S'' Towns — and as tlie 



Town of Unity are now Unamously Returned to their 
Duty and are Determined to pay Up their taxes and 
have Sold a Great part of their Person.al Estate for 
that purpose — 

" Wherefore we Pray Your Honors to take the Case 
into Your AVise Consideration, and make them Such 
A Batments as You in Your Wisdom Shall Se tit — ■ 
and Your Petitioners as iu Duty Bound shall Ever 
Pray 

" Cheshire ss Unity 1.5* day Oc" 1785 
"Charles Huntoon Amos Chase 

David Weed Joseph Huntoon 

Elijah Weed Joshua Bartlett 

Nathaniel Huntoon Abner Chase" 

The following is relative to warning a man ' 
out of town, addressed to the Legislature, 
1786: 

"The petition of us the Subscribers, In behalf of 
the Town of Unity Humbly Sheijreth That in Nov' 
19"" A D 1778— there was a Warrant Insueed by the 
Selectmen of this Town to Caleb Huntoon he being 
Constable of S** Town Directing him to warn Dearbon 
Sweat & others forthwith to Depart out of S'' Town a 
Greeable to the Law of this State in Such Case Made 
and Provided and that Said Constable Did Serve Said 
Warrant But Being mis Laid was not Entred and 
Cannot Now be found and as this Town are Like to 
Suffer Greatly and to be put to Great Cost by Reason 
of The Failure of Said Warrant not being Entred on 
the files of the Court of General Session of the County 
of Cheshire— 

" Unless Your Honors will Interpose on our Behalf 
and Establish the Doings on Said Warrant as tho' 
Same had been actually Recorded In the Clark Office 
for which Your Peititioners as in Duty Bound Shall 
Ever Pray 

"Nathaniel Huntoon '^ Select men 



JNTOON ^ Sela 
LETT J Lni 



"/ 



"Amos Chase 

"Matthias Bartlett J Vnity. 
"Cheshire ss Unity June 9" 1786" 

Depositions relative to Dearborn Sweatt. 
"The Deposition of Amos Chase of Unity of Law- 
full age Testifieth and Saith on the 19"" day of Nov' 
1778— Charles Huntoon Elijah Weed and Amos Chase 
being Selectmen for Unity for the Year 1778 — 
Granted a warrent Under our hand and Seal to Caleb 
Huntoon he being Constiible — To warn Dearborn 



386 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Sweatt and Others to Depart out of Unity aGreeable 
to the Law of this State in Such Case made and pro- 
vided — Your Deponant further Saith not 

"Amos Chase" 

Sworn to before Charles Himtoon, justice of 
the jjeace. 

"The Deposition of Caleb huntoou of Unity of 
Lawfull age testifyeth and Saith that Some time In 
the year 1778 I Received of the Select men of unity 
a vvarant toAvarn Dearborn Sweat and others to depart 
out of this town, which warant I Served and I 
Delivered the Said warant to amos Chase he being 
one of the Selectmen of unity Said Chase was In 
Charles town when I Deliver'' him the Said warant 
and I Saw Said Chase Deliver the Said warant to 
benjamine Giles Esq' and I heard Said Giles promis 
Said Chase to Deliver the Said warant to the Clerk 
of the General Sessions of the peace and further 
Saith not 

"Caleb Huntoon" 

Sworn to before Charles .Huntoon, justice of 
the peace. 

"The Deposition of Elijah Weed of Unity of Law- 
full age Testifyeth and Saith on the 19'" day of Nov' 
1778— Charles Huntoon Amos Chase and Elijah 
Weed Being Selectmen for Unity for the Year 1778, 
Granted a warant under our hand and seal to Caleb 
Huntoon he Being Constable To warn Dearborn 
Sweatt and others to Depart out of Unity a Greeable 
to the Laws of this State in Such Case made and Pro- 
vided—Your Deponent further Saith not — 

"Elijah Weede" 

Sworn to before Charles Huntoon, justice of 
the peace. 

Oath of Allegiance, 1787. 
"State of New Hampshire, Cheshire— ss 
"Unity October 23'": 1787— 
"These may Certify that we the Subscribers hath 
taken the following oath of Allegiance and the oath j 
of office — 

" I, John Huntoon, I, Stephen Gilman, I, Jonathan 
Glidden Jun' & I, Caleb Huntoon— Do truly and Sin- 
cerely acknowledge profess testify & Declare that the 
State of New Hampshire is & of right ought to be a 
free Sovereing & Independent State & Do Swear that 



I will bear faith & true allegiance to the Same & that 
I will endeavor to Defend it against all treacherous 
conspiracies & hostile attempts whatever: & I do fur- 
ther testify & Declare that no man or body of men 
hath or can have a Right to absolve me from the obli- 
gation of this oath Declaration or affirmation & that 
I Do make this Acknowledgement profession testi- 
mony, & Declaration honestly & truly according to 
the Common Acceptation of the foregoing words 
without any Equivocation mental evasion or Secret 
Reservation whatever — So help me God — witness our 
hands — 

"j0h>'^ huxtoox 
"Stephen Gilman 
"Jonathan Glidden J' 
"Caleb Huntoon" 

Sworn to before Charles Huntoon, justice of 
the peace. 

Vote of the Town relative to the formation of Goshen, 
1790. 

" Lenity January 14"" 1790 att a Legal meeting of 
the Inhabitants of S'^ Unity met att Time & place 
agreeable to warning of Said Meeting Firstly Cap' 
Moses Thirston Chosen Moderator to govern Said 
Meeting 21y Voted to Sett off at the East End of our 
Town to Extend West So Far as the East Side Line 
of the Lott N" 50 in the Second Rang of Lots with a 
Strate Line Far as the East Side north to Newport 
Town Line also South to Lemester Town Line to join 
in Union with a part of a Number of Towns Forming 
into a new Town — Viz. Lemester Newport Wendell & 
Fisherfield Sly — Voted to Divide Remander part ot 
this Town into Two Seperate Towns or Parrishes's 
According to quantity of Land by the plan of Said 
Town if it be Complied by the General Court of the 
State 41y — Voted to Choose a Commitee to Settle the 
Line Between the two Towns 51y — Cap' Moses Thirs- 
ton Charles Huntoon Esq' Jonathan Glidden Caleb 
Gilman & Lieu' Joishua Bartlett Chosen the above 
Commitee to Settle the Line in the Division of the 
Two Said Towns or parrishes 

" The within is a true copy taken out of Unity town 
Book of records 

"Attest Jonathan Glidden, Town Clerk" 

A portion of the town was taken to form the 
town of Goshen, December 27, 1791. 



UNITY. 



387 



Vote relative to the foregoinr/, 1791. 

"This may Certify tliat att a Legal Town meeting 
held by an adjournraent on the Ninth of Sep' AD 
1791 

" The Inhabitance met and Voted that the Town be 
Devided Voted and Agreed that the Line shall run on 
the North End of the fir.st Bang North of Corys Road 
in favour of a petition of William Story and others 
" Joseph Cutts Clerk protem' 

" September the 12"" AD 1791 " 

Petition relative to dividing the Town: addressed to 
the Legislature, 1791. 
'•'The Pertition of us the Subscribers Inhabitance of 
the town of Unity Humbly Sheweth — that if the In- 
habitenceon the East End of this town Should Perti- 
tion your Honours to be Set off with part of Several 
other towns as a Separate town we are perswaded your 
Honours will think it Reasonable that they Should 
Come as far west as the Court Committee Reportted 
Last Sesions agreeable to a plan taken by m' Jesse 
Lane of Newport Last fall and It is our opinion if it 
Should extend as much as fifty or Sixty Rods further 
west it would be for the benifit of this town and no 
damage to Said New town as there is a Very bad hill 
Running a Crost Said town and all East of Said hill 
will be much more Conveniant to the New town than 
to any part of this town— and we give it as our opinion 
that there ought to be a town Set off Nearly agreeable 
to the S"" plan of m' lanes as there Settuations is Such 
thev Never Can be accommodated with the towns 
they are now incorporated with and we are Sensable 
it must be a great damage and Discuragement to them 
not to be incorporated as it much detars the Settle- 
ment in that part and the prayer of your Petitioners is 
that they may be set off as soon as you in yourwisdom 
Shall See fit and we Shall Ever pray 
" Unity May 30'" 1791. 

" Amos Chase i Selectmen 
"James Lad j of Unitij 



Jeremiah Dean 
Sanborn Cram 
osteon Pike 



Hezekiah Yong 
Amos Hall 
Abner Colby " 



" Josiah Moody 
Daniel moodey 
Richard moody 
Daniel Moody juner 
Jeremiah Gliddeu 
Josiah Moody juner 
Caleb Gilman 
James Bodwell 
Eliphalet Bodwell 

•';j 



Joseph Huntoon 
Ezekiel Challis 
Ephraim Cram 
Abner Chase 
Moses thirston Juner 
Amos T Huntoon 
William Weed 
Nalh' Huntoon Ju' 
Rheuben Huntoon 



Vote of Town relative to the foregoing, 1791. 

" Unity January 14"" 1790 — At a Legal meeting of 
the inhabitants of s'' Unity met at time and place 
agreeable to warning of s'' meeting — 

" 1" Cap' Moses Thurston chosen Moderator to 
govern s'' Meeting — 

"2"'' Voted to set off at the East end of our town, 
to extend west so far as the East side Line of Lot N° 
oO in the Second range of Lots, with a Straight line 
to Newport town Line, also South to Lemster town 
Line to join in Union with a part of a N" of towns 
forming into a Ne\y town Namely Lemster Newport 
Wendal and Fishersfield — 

" Copyed from Unity town records — 

" Attest Sam' Chase to\n\ Clark. 

" Unity 9"" June 1791." 

Remonstrance to foreiping : ndJres.ied to the General 
Court, 1791 : 

'"The prayer of us a numlier of the inhaljitants of 
the Town, of Unity humbly sheweth that we are in- 
formed that a Petition was presented to your Hon- 
ours at your last Sessions at Concord, signed by a 
Number of Persons belonging to the Towns of Unity 
Lemster Wendell & Newport, Praying that the East 
part of s'' Unity with a part of those other Towns 
mentioned in s"" Petition Might be Incorporated into 
a Township distinct from those to which they now 
belong — 

" Your Petitioners humbly shew that we have not 
had any publick notice of s^ Petition, by any town 
meeting. But suppose that if our Selectmen have 
been serv'd with a Copy of s"" Petition and order of 
Court thereon, that it fell into two of our Selectmens, 
hands wlio from some self interested views, are de- 
sirous to part with the Land mentioned in s* Petition 
and have kept it Secret, and not given the Town any 
notice of it — We your Petitioners think that it will be 
very hurtful to s' town of Unity, to Part with the 
whole of the Land Mentioned in s* Petition But as 
the Town did vote to Let s'' Petitioners have a part iu 
our Town, when they Petitioned for it in December 
1789 we are willing that they should have the Land so 
voted to them, which was all the Land lying to the 
East of a straight Line ; running across s* Town 



388 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Parallel to the East side 


Line of Lot No 50 in the 


being separated from the east by a line on that moun- 


Second Range — 




tain and annexed to the north part of Charlestown, a 


" And we beg leave to in 


form your Honours that to 


Town might be formed of the usual size, and its In- 


part with any More of s'' Town would be very Hurtful 


habitants well united — 




to it on Many Accounts, Therefore we do in the most 


" They therefore pray 


that the west part of Unity 


Humble manner Request 


your Honours, that the 


and the north part of Charlestown may be incorpor- 


Prayer of s'' Petition should not be Answered (so far 


ated into a new Town, 


and as in duty bound shall 


as it respects s*" Town of U 


nity) by giving them any 


ever pray 




more Land off of our Town 


than we voted to Let them 


" Unity April f 28"' 1 


794 


have — 




" Jon" Glidden J' 


Jon' Dudley 


" And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever 


Jacob Smith 


Samuel Neal 


Pray— 




Aaron Marshall 


James Dudley 


"Unity 24"" of November 1791— 


Simeon Glidden Jur 


David Dudley 






Joseph Glidden 


James Dudley Junior 


" Joshua Bartlett. Selectman of Unitu. 








Jacob Glidden 


William Neal Jur 


" Samuel Chase 


Simeon Glidden Jun' 


Simeon Glidden 


Derbon Sweat 


Nathaniel Huntune 


Amos Lamson 


Nathaniel Lad 


James Harwood 


Samuel thurber 


Amos Buckmon 


Joseph Perkins 


Benjamin Webster 


Daniel Bachelder 


Elias Buckmon 


Jabesh Perkins 


James Lawrance 


William Long 


David Peirce 


Jacob Perkins 


Jeremiah Merrill 


John Huntooa 


Nickles Peirce 


Lemuel Wright 


Asaph merrill 


Benjamin Smart 


Moses fifield 


Elisha Perkins 


Stephen Bucknam " 


Wilson Shaw. 


Jacob Perkins 






Moses Chase 


Jonathan Glidden Jun^ 


The following signed a remonstrance to the 


Benjmin Huntoon 


Jacob Smith 


foregoing : 




Joseph welch 


Simeon Glidden 








" Charles Huntoon 


Jonathan Glidden 3'* 


Joseph Huntoon Junr 


Andrew Glidden 








Moses thirston 


Eliphalet Bodwell Jun' 


Benjmin Huntoon Junr 


Jacob Glidden 








Benj- Clough 


Asa Glidden 


Cornelius Clougli 


James Dudley 










Phinehas Sanborn 


Jacob Bartlett 


Stephen Huntoon 


Barnabas Sincklear 








Enoch Johnson 


James Bodwell 


Matthias Bartlett 


William Neal 










James Graves 


Joseph Whiston 


Charles Huntoon 


Ebenez' Barker 










Barnabas Sinkler 


John Ladd 


Josiali Huntoon 


Samuel Neal 










andrew Glidden 


Elias Bucknam 


Reuben Huntoon Jun' 


John Sleeper 


James Bodwell 


Ebenezer Barker 


Samuel Huntoon 


Abraham Samborn 










Benjamin Mathes 


Enos Lamson 


Jonathan Glidden 


Isaac Livingston 


J 








Josiah moody 


Amos Lamson 


Jacob Cram 


Jacob Bartlett 










John Huntoon 


Abraham Sandborn 


Samuel P. Glidden 


Darbon Sweat" 










John Sleeper 


Abraham Sandborn Junr 


Joseph Glidden 




Charles Hunton 3'' 


Daniel Batchder 


Petition /or a new Totcnfrom Unity and Charlestown : 


Asa Lampson 


Jacob shaw 


addressed to the Legislature. 


Caleb Gilman 


Wilson Shaw 


" The Subscribers Inhabitants of the west part of 


Abner Chase 


Saml thurber 


Unity in the County r 


f Cheshire, Humby show 


John Bartlett 


Nath' Huntoon 


" That the Township of Unity extends about eleven 


Amos Chase 


John Bartlett 


miles east and west and ! 


ibout six miles north and 


Isaac Levingston 


Jonathan Bartlet 


south, that your petitioners are separated from the 


Nicholas Parce 


Daiel Moody Jun 


Inhabitants in the east part of said Town by a moun- 


Joshua Parce 


Danil moody 


tain running across TheTc 


5wn north and south which 


Sanborn Cram 


Jacob Glidden 


renders their connection 


very inconvenient, that by 


Jonathan Glidden 


David Dudley 



UNITY. 



389 



Amos Buckman 
Stephen Glidden 
Jacob Cram 
thomas Smith 
Jeremiah Glidden 
Amos T. Huntoon 
Joseph Huntoon 
Moses Fi field 
Richard Moody 

The project failed. 



James Dudley Junior 
Samuel Neal 
Ezra Smith 
James Harwood 
hezekiah yong 
Josiah huntoon 
Ruben Huntoon 
epheram Cram 
Stephen Buckman " 



Nathaniel Huntoon' s Account for furnishing Soldiers 
and receipt, July 12, 1777. 
" Sam' White — Browns Company 

Jonathan Ston dudley-iRobinson 
Nath' frost— Bell 

Jonathan folsom — Drew 

wounded dogg — Rowel 

Richard How — Robinson 

Isaac moras — Robinson 

Paul Sandborn — Rowel 

Philip Blasdel— Rowel 

moses Blacke — Robinson 

John Cook— Bell 

"Victuals for the within Soldiers 13 meals. ..£0.13.10 
toddy 2 & i of mugs 0. 5. 6 

£0.19. 4 

"Rec'' of Ebenezer Smith the sum of nineteen shil- 
lings and four pence L. M. for the expence of eleven 
Continental Soldiers who he ordered to be Refresht 
at my house — for me 

" Nath' Huxton 

" unity July 12"' 1777." 

Petition of Joseph Huntoon, Soldier, 1779. 

"Unity March 2'* 1779- 
" To the Honourable the General Court — May it 
please your Honours — your humble petitionerprayeth 
to inform the Honourable General Court a.isembled 
in Behalf of the state of New Hampshire, that your 
petitioner hath served his Country in the present War 
(and the State of New Hampshire in particular) from 
the first Commencement thereof untill the Glorious 
Battle of Stilwater, in the Capacity of a Subaltron 
belonging to the Third Battl" of New Hampshire 
Troops Commanded by Colonel Scammell Esq' in 
battle Vitz at Stillwater I had the Misfortune to re- 
ceive a Wound in my arm, which hath proved so far 



fatal to me as to disinable me from doing Regimental 
duty any longer, as may be Certified as by letter from 
Colonel Scammell, and also am not able to maintain 
my self and Family by my Labour, sufficiently— You 
Humble petitioner prayeth your Honours will Con- 
sider him and Grant him the benefit of a Certain Act 
of the Honou' the Continental Congress made and 
provided for the purpo.se . . . 

"Joseph Hpntoon" 

Huntoon was wounded October 7, 1777, at 
Stillwater. In House of Representatives, June 
25, 1779, his name was ordered to be placed on 
the peusion-roll at half-pay until further orders. 
Senate concurred. April 19, 1780, he peti- 
tioned to have the depreciation of liis pay made 
up. March 30, 1781, he petitioned for some 
arrearages, and stated that his dwelling-house 
was burned " on the 16"" of February last," and 
that he thereby lost his house, furniture and 
provisions. He was appointed in 1781 a lieu- 
tenant in the battery at " Piscataqua Harbour." 
October 21, 1785, he again petitioned, stating 
that his half-pay was reduced in December, 
1782, and asked to have it restored, as his right 
hand and arm were permanently disabled, and 
his family large. He petitioned again January 
7, 1790, for arrearages. 

Petition relative to liichard Brown, Quartermaster. 

" To the Hon"'" the General Court of the State of 
New Hampshire. Oliver Tuttle and Mary his wife 
Humbly .Shew— That Richard Brown late of Unity 
in said state deceased, was a Quarter Master in the 
second New Hjimpshire Reg' late in the service of the 
United States— -That the said Mary was the wife, and 
is the sole administratrix on the estate of said Brown 
That the depreciation of wages, formerly due to the 
said Brown, have never been paid^Your Petitioners 
humbly pray, that your Honors will order all such 
depreciation (and other dues if any there be) to be 
paid to the said Mary Administratrix ae aforesaid, or 
to the subscribers or either of them — and as in duty 
bound will ever pray "Olivek Tuttle 

"ClaremontNov' H'" 1792— 

" Mary Tl'TTLE administratrix." 

The Methodists have regular preaching here 
by A. K. Luut. 



390 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The town of Unity furnished forty-nine men 
for the late war. Major Amos Perkins, now 
ninety-six years old, was one of the selectmen 
at the time. The State paid the town in bonds, 
forty-nine hundred dollars for forty-nine men, 
furnished under specific calls of the President. 

The Uxity Mutual Fire Insurance 
Company was formed in August, 18G2, being 
in operation twenty-two years. Major Araos 
Perkins ^vas president two years, and secretary 
and one of the directors twenty years. 

The present officers are Selem Sleeper, presi- 
dent ; Benjamin F. French, secretary ; Selera 
Sleeper, Benjamin F. French, Henry F. Stowell, 
Silas M. Gee and Levi A. Smith, directors ; 
Charles R. Lewis, treasurer. 

Hon. Amos Perkins was a native of this 
town, and one of its prominent citizens. He was 
a farmer by occupation, but had filled many pub- 
lic offices, and was an ex-major of the old State 
militia. When a young man he was several times 
elected a Democratic representative to the Legis- 



lature. In 1845 he was chosen a member of the 
Executive Council of Governor John H. Steele, 
of Peterborough. His associates in that office 
were Hon. Benjamin Jenness, of Deerfield, Hon. 
Josiah Bartlett, of Lee, Hon. William Parker, 
of Francestown, and Hon. Caleb Blodgett, of 
Canaan, all of whom have passed away. It is 
interesting; to note that the same vear Moodv 
Currier, of Manchester, the present Governor, 
was clerk of the Senate. Mr. Perkins had 
been treasurer of the town of Unity for about 
twenty-five consecutive \ears, and his annual 
reports, both in chirography and correctness, 
were most creditable^ models. He was the 
organizer of the Unity Mutual Town Insur- 
ance Company, and had always been its 
secretary. He was a gentleman of high exec- 
utive ability and of liberal public spirit, and 
during his life of almost a century, which was 
wholly passed in Unity, he enjoyed the univer- 
sal respect of men of all parties for his integrity 
and great worth. He died March 3, 1885. 



HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. 



BY GEORGE M. GAGE, M.D. 



CHAPTER I. 

The township designated as Monadnock 
No. 8, in the line of towns whicli were 
laid out to establish, approximately, the western 
boundary of the lands belonging to the heirs of 
Mason, was granted in Woburn, Mass., iu the 
year 1735, to a company of persons for the pur- 
pose of settlement. No stejis were ever taken, 
however, by the grantees towards its settlement 
and the chai'ter was forfeited. 

In the year 1752 it was again granted by the 
Masonian proprietors iu Portsmouth to sixty- 
two persons, most of whom were residents of 
Massachusetts, and thirty -three of whom were 
residents of Concord, Mass. This company at 
• once took steps to lay plans for the settlement 
of the township, to which they gave the name 
of New Concord. Innumerable meetings were 
held in Concord, Mass., and Boston, to discuss 
the plans, and many assessments were made to 
pay the necessary expenses. These debates 
were continued during a period of nearly six- 
teen yeai'S without any active measures being 
taken to settle the town, and the charter was 
revoked by the Masonian proprietors for non- 
fulfilment of its terms. 

It was granted the third time, in the spring 
of 1768, to Reuben Kidder, of New Ipswich, 
N. H., on the following terms: 

" One-third of the land surface of the town was to 
be reserved for the grantors ; ten families must settle in 
the township the firstyear, and ten more families during 
the second and third years ; during each of the first 
three years ten convenient houses must be built, and 
three acres of land cleared for each family; that all 



main roads be laid out three rods wide, and 
all cross-roads two rods wide, and no damage 
was to be allowed for land used for roads ; ten acres 
were to be reserved for a site for a meeting-house, 
school-house, burying-ground and training-field ; two 
hundred acres were to be reserved for the first settled 
minister, who should continue in the ministry until 
death or an honorable dismissal ; two hundred acres 
were to be reserved for a glebe for the use of a gospel 
minister forever ; two hundred acres were to be set 
apart for the support of schools forever; and all 
white pine trees suitable for masts were to be reserved 
for the king's use." 

The township, as originally granted, included 
not only the present township of Washington, 
but included lands now under the jurisdiction 
of Lerapster and Bradford. 

Colonel Reuben Kidder, the grantee of the 
township, which was at first known a.s Monad- 
nock No. 8, then as New Concord, and, at the 
time of Kidder's grant, as Camden, was one of 
the first settlers of New Ispwich, N. H. He 
was possessed of great energy and superior busi- 
ness talent, and had an ample fortune at his 
command. Under his direction the settlement 
of the town was immediately begun and carried 
on according to the spirit of the grant. 

The settlement of a new country is always at- 
tended with hardships and privations, and the 
pioneers of Camden found themselves beset by 
many difficulties. There were then no carriage- 
roads leading into the town, and the only 
means of conveyance was the backs of horses, 
the roads being distinguished by marked trees. 
The houses were hastily constructed of logs, 
until the time should come when saw-mills 

391 



392 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



could be erected. The tawn.sliip was covered 
by a lieavy grmvtli of timber of various kinds. 
In some parts of the town a white pine was 
found of a size which, at the present time, 
would be called gigantic. Many of the old 
houses now standing in town are finished with 
a quality of pine lumber equal to the best to be 
found in any market, and the immense stumps, 
still in existence, give us an idea of the size of 
the trees from which it was taken. The sugar 
maple was also found iu great abinidance, and 
of large size, and furnished years afterwai-d ex- 
cellent keels for ships. Spruce and hemlock 
grew in great forests in almost all parts of the 
town, while beech, birch, ash, oak and other 
valuable kinds of timber were everywhere to be 
found. Much of this magnificent growth of 
timber was considered by the settlers as an in- 
cumbrance which must be got rid of before the 
land could Ix; prepared for cultivation, and was 
therefore cut down and burned, trunk and 
branch. 

The soil, rich from the accumulation of ages, 
and further enriched by the ashes of the burned 
forests, produced abundant crops of corn and 
other cereals. Flax was raised, which was 
manufactured at home into cloth for all kinds 
of garments for men, women and children. 
The table, at this time, was supplied with food 
of a very plain but wholesome character, con- 
sisting principally of bean-porridge, corn-bread, 
meat and a few potatoes. Fruits, of necessity, 
were scar(-e at first, but the settlers showed 
their enterprise by planting large apple-or- 
chards, many of which remain to this date. 
Wild animals were numerous, including bears, 
wolves, and that noble animal, the moose, now 
never seen here, was sometimes found in this 
region. The streams and ponds were full of 
fish of fine quality. The speckled trout, always 
a favorite with fishermen, were very plenty in 
all the brooks and grew to a size which the 
angler of the present day seldom sees. 

The early settlers of the town selected the 
hills west of the present village at the centre of 



the town, and the region bordering jNIillen and 
Ashitelot Ponds for their new homes* They 
were generally from the southern part of the 
State and from the neighboring towns of Mas- 
sachusetts. 

Probably more of the early settlers of the 
town came from Harvard, Mass., than from 
any other town, the Saffords, Farnsworths, 
Sampsons and Davises being among the num- 
ber who came from that town. 

John Safibrd was born lu Harvard, Mass., 
and removed to Washington with his wife and 
oldest children, between the years 1769 and 
1771, and settled on the hill west of the village 
at the centre of the town, and on the farm now 
owned and occupied by his grandson, Joseph, 
and 'his great-grandson, Joseph B. Saiford. 
The family has always been of great respecta- 
bility and some of its members have been per- 
sons of note. Ward Saiford (aftcr\\ard Staf- 
ford) was a son of the original John SatFord, 
and was born in Washington after his father's 
settlement here. He prepared for college at 
Phillips Andover Academy and afterward 
graduated at Yale College, Dr. Dwight being 
at that time president of the college. He 
studied theology at Yale, and was for many 
years actively engaged in ministerial labors in 
various parts of the country, but principally in 
the city of New York, where he was very 
successfully engaged in missionary labors. His 
whole life was one of intense activity, and 
although it closed somewhat early, it had borne 
an abundant harvest for his Master. He died 
in Bloomfield, N. J., in 1851, in his sixty-third 
year. 

George Safford, a grandson of John and son 
of Mark Saiford, was a graduate of Dartmouth 
College and became a successful teacher. At 
the time of his death, which occurred at the 
early age of twenty-eight, he was principal of 
the Mount Pleasant High School, iu Nashua, 
N. II. 

The Farnsworth family also came from Har- 
vard, and was one of the earliest to settle in the 



WASHINGTON. 



393 



town. Probably the first of the name to settle in 
Camden was Simeon Farusworth, Jr., who came 
from Harvard and settled near the foot of tlie 
Safford Hill, west of the villai^e at the centre of 
the town. He died in 1791, at the early age of 
fortj'-six years, leaving a large family of chil- 
dren. His grandsons, William and Cyrus K. 
Farnsworth, are at the present time prominent 
and respected citizens of the town. ^lost of 
the brothers and sisters of Simeon Farnsworth, 
Jr., sooner or later found their way to Wash- 
iny-ton and made it their home. Simeon 
Farnsworth, Sr., father of the numerous sons 
and daughters who early came to Washington, 
himself came here to reside about the year 1780. 
He died in 1805, aged eighty-eight. 

Abner Samjison was an early settler, and 
came from Harvard, Mass. He settled on the 
old " county road " near Freezelaud Pond, and 
was an inn-keeper. He subsequently removed 
to the village at the centre of the town and 
lived on the spot where John L. Safford now 
resides. He died in 1797, at the age of fifty- 
four. 

Ward Sampson, son of Abuer, was very 
prominent and influential in town affairs, and 
held many offices of trust. He died in 1850, 
aged seventy-seven. 

Ephraim, Ebenezer and Timotliy Davis all 
came from Harvard, Mass., at an early date, 
though not until the town had been settled 
several years. Ebenezer and Timothy Davis 
were brothers and lived on the ridge of land 
extending northward from Lovell's Mountain. 
Ephraim Davis came to Washington about 
1780 and lived for a time at the village on the 
spot afterward known as the " Squire Sampson 
place ; " he afterward removed to the high land 
southwest of the village and resided on a farm 
on the INIarlow road. 

Ephraim and Ebenezer Davis were both 
.soldiers in the Revolution before comiuir to 
Washington to reside. 

Joseph Rounsavel settled on the farm at the 
centre of the town now owned by J. Henry 



Newman. He must have been one of the 
earliest inhabitants of the town. He appears 
to have resided, prior to his settlement here, in 
Middleborough, jNIass., though the family had 
long resided in Freetown, Mass. He was a 
man of enterj)rise, and built a mill east of his 
residence, on what is now known as ^Yater 
Street. He frequently held office, including 
that of Representative in the Legislature. He 
had sons, — Alden, Royal and John, — but none 
of the name now reside in the town. 

Archibald White was probably a resident of 
the town soon after its settlement, if not one of 
the very first to arrive in town. He was a 
native of Pepperell, Mass., and came to New 
Jpswich, N. H., in 1750. He was sent to 
Camden by Colonel Kidder, to whom the town 
had been granted, as his agent to look after his 
extensive interests. It is believed that it was 
largely through his influence that the name of 
the town was changed, in 1776, from Camden 
to Washington. The name of Washington 
was, as applied to towns, entirely new; no other 
town in the United States bore the name at the 
time the Legislature of New Hampshire changed 
the name of Camden to Washington. Archi- 
bald White was authorized to call the first 
town-meeting in Washington, and during his 
residence in to^\■n lie was very fre(juently called 
to fill important offices. He resided on the 
high land west of the village at the centre, 
near the j)resent residence of Jabez Fisher. 
Before his ileatli he removed to Windsor, \t. 

Jacob Burbank settled on the farm now owned 
by Edward W. Brooks, a mile and a half west 
of the centre of the town. He was, undoubtedly, 
one of the original settlers in town. He built 
a frame house prior to 1780, which is still 
occupied, and which is supposed to be the oldest 
house in town. His grandson, Rev. Justin E. 
Bnrbank, is a graduate of Dartmouth College, 
and after his graduation studied theology at 
Andover. In college he took high rank as a 
scholar, especially in his knowledge of the 
Greek language. He has paid much attention 



394 



HISTORi' OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



to historical matters, esi>ecially to tiie history of 
Washingtou, his native town. Many facts con- 
tained in this sketch are made accessible to us 
through his labors. His present residence is 
Concord, N. 11. 

The Severance family Mas another of the 
original, or very early ones to locate in town. 
The family came from the vicinity of New [ 
Ipswich, N. H., and consisted of Ephraim and [ 
sons, Daniel, Rufus, Abel, and daughter, Abigail 
Where thoy first settled is not now known, but 
at an early date Daniel, llufus and Abel all 
lived near the school-house at the east part of 
tlie town. Ephraim lived with his sou Abel 
on the farm now the residence of Ziba Cram and 
Charles W. J.Fletcher. lie removed to Tops- 
ham, Vt., where he died at a very advanced age. 
He was one of the first Board of Selectmen in 
Washington. David Severance was a Revolu- 
tionary soldier, and after he came to Washington 
resided just west of the school-house at the cast 
l>art of the town, on a farm which he sold prior 
to 1800 to Nathaniel Gordon. Rufus Sever- 
auce lived on the farm now owned by Daniel 
L. Monroe, and which he sold to Abijah Mon- 
roe nearly seventy-five years ago. Many of the 
descendants of Rufus Severance are now residents 
of town, but the descendants of Daniel and Abel 
Severance are widelv scattered, none beinac 
residents of the town. 

Simon and Peter Lowell were pioneers in the 1 
settlement of the town. They came from the vicin- 
ity of Qroton, Mass., and settled some two miles 
west of'the centre of the town, not far from the 
place where Charles Lowell, a grandson of 
Simon Lowell, now resides. Peter Lowell is I 
said to have come into the town with one of the 
very first pai-ty of explorers, though he did not at 
that time permanently establish his residence 
here. The farm where Simon Lowell first 
settled afterward became the home of Thomas 
Peuniraan, Esq., who came from Braintree, 
Mass., some years after the Revolutionary War. 
He was a man of wealth, and was a very promi- 
nent citizen of the town. Prior to his settle- 



ment in Washington he went to Canada and 
was present at the battle of Quebec, though he 
was not called upon to participate in the battle. 
He held office while a resident of the town, and 
bequeathed small funds to the First and Fourtli 
School Districts, the income to be applied to the 
support of the schools. 

Between the years 1772 and 1774 Captain 
Jonathan Brockway settled in town. He came 
from Lyme, Conn., where he was married, in 
1757, to Phebe Smith. He had been a sea- 
isiptain and had amassed an ample fortune. 
He came, bringing his wife and seven children, 
and settled at the west part of the town, near 
the outlet of Millen Pond, then called Brock- 
way's Pond. He is said to have purchased 
fifteen hundretl acres of land, which he after- 
ward divided among his children, giving most 
of them good farms at the east part of the town. 
His ample fortune, combined with great energy, 
enabled him to carry on a large amount of 
business of various kinds. He built a grist-mill 
at the outlet of Millen Pond, some of the 
ruins of whieli remain to the present day. He 
also built a mill for the manufacture of linseed 
oil, and a distillery, where very poor whiskey 
was manufactured from potatoes. Later he 
built a saw-mill at the east part of the town, 
near the spot where Mason H. Carr's mill now 
stands, aiud erected a house near by. On the 
8th of July, 1777, on the occasion of alarming 
news from Ticouderoga, he commanded a small 
company of nine men from ^\'ashington and 
vicinity, who marched toward the scene of war. 
They reached Cavendfsh, Vt., where they were 
ordered to return. At another alarm from 
Ticonderoga, July 13, 1777, he again marched 
at the head of a com[)any of fourteen juen to 
Otter Creek, Vt., where he met the American 
army retreating. Captain Brockway was a man 
of commanding presence. His towering form 
and broad sh(julders made him an object of 
attention in whatever place he occupied. He 
lived to an extremely old age, and died in Jan- 
uary, \9>'1\), at the home of his son Asa, in Brad- 



WASHINGTON. 



395 



ford. From him are descended all the Brock- 
wavs wlio have ever livetl iu this aTid the 
adjoiiiinir towns. 

Ill the liiU of 177.5, Captain William Proctor 
and his wife, Mary, with tiiree children, found 
their way through the forests to Washington 
i'rum Chelmsford, Mass. He settled near 
Ashuclot Pond, on the farm where Cyrus K. 
Farnsworth now resid&s, though for a short 
time previovis he lived on a neighboring lot, the 
title to which proved worthless. He lived in 
that part of the town many years, but finally 
removed to the east part of the town, where his 
son resided, and died February 19, 1846, at the 
age of ninety-nine years, lacking one day. The 
numerous families of Proctors who once resided 
at the east part of the town are descendants of 
his sons Israel and Isaac. His daughter Mary, 
who married Jonathan Broekway, Jr , and 
resided at East Washington, died at the remark- 
able age of one hundred and one years and 
eleven months. Captain Proctor was prominent 
ill town affairs, and during the War of the Rev- 
olution was a soldier in the American army. 

Ebeuezer Spauldiug was born iu Nottingham 
West, N. H. (now Hudson), March 27, 17.50, 
and at the age of twenty-two removed to the 
southeast part of Leiupster, -where he settled. 
The region where he lived was then, and for 
many years afterward, considered a part of 
Washington, and he frequently held office in 
Washington. He married Amy Roundy, of 
Lempster, .January 16, 1777. He removed to 
East Washington iu 1807 and died July 1, 
1808. His widow lived to the remarkable age 
of one hundred years, and died January 8, 
1859. They left a large family of children, 
whose descendants are widely scattered. Ebeu- 
ezer Spauldiug was a soldier in the Revolution, 
and was engaged in the battles of Bunker Hill 
and Ticonderoga. 

Although far removed from the seat of war, 
Washington sent a goodly number of men to 
fight for liberty during the War of the Revo- 
lution. William Mann, Nathan Mann and 



Abel Merrill were enrolled in the First New 
Hampshire Regiment, April 1, 1777, and 
served three years, being disciiarged March 20, 
1780. Asa Jackson was enrolled in the First 
New Hampshire Regiment April 18, 1781, and 
was discharged the following December. Wil- 
liam White was also enrolled in the same regi- 
ment January 1, 1777, and was discharged 
January 1, 1780, after a service of precisely 
three years. Ebenezer Spaulding, William 
Proctor, John Safford and Jonathan Broekway 
also rendered valuable service to their country 
during the struggle for independence. Many 
of the early settlers of the town had partici- 
pated in the battles of the Revolution before 
their settlement here. The Severances, Jacob 
Wright, the Davises, William Graves, Asa 
Pitts and Stephen Mead had all been actively 
engaged in the service of their country. 

Probably no family has occupied a more 
prominent position in town during the period 
of a hundred years tlian the Healy family. 

Joseph Healy, a son of John and Mary 
(Wright) Healy, was born in Newton, Mass., 
August 21, 1776, and removed to W^ishington 
with his parents in 1778. They settled in the 
southwest part of the town on a farm which is 
now deserte<^l. During the most of his lite he 
was engaged in agricultural pursuits, though for 
a time he was proprietor of the hotel at the 
centre of the town. He always resided in 
W^ishington, and during his active life M^as 
much engaged in public service. Besides fill- 
ing the various town offices to great acceptance, 
he also was a member of the State Senate in 
1824, and was a member of the Governor's 
Council from 1829 until 1832. In 1825 he 
was chosen to represent his district in the Con- 
gress of the United States, where he remained 
four years. During his long life he was active 
in all measures which tended to promote the 
weli'are of the town. He died October 10, 
1861, aged eighty-five years. 

John P. Healy, a son of Joseph Healy, was 
born in Washington December 28, 1810. He 



396 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



graduated at Dartmouth College in 1835, and 
afterward studied law w^ith Daniel Webster, in 
Boston, Mr. Webster and his father being on 
very friendly terms. Not long after his admis- 
sion to the bar, in 1838, he became associated 
with Mr. Webster in the practice of law, and 
continued to be his partner until Mr. Webster's 
death. He served as representiitive in the 
Massachusetts Legislature 1840, 1849 and 1850, 
and was a member of the State Senate in 1854- 
He was appointed judge of the United States 
District Court for the district of California dur- 
ing Fillmore's administration, but ileclincd the 
honor. In 1856 he was chosen city solicitor 
for Boston, which office he held without inter- 
ruption twenty-five yeai-s. In 1881 he was 
ap])ointed to the newly-created office of corpora- 
tion council for Boston, which office he held at 
the time of his death. He died suddenly, Jan- 
uary 4, 1882. The other sons of Joseph llcaly, 
viz. : Henry, Langdon and Sullivan W., were, 
during their residence in town, prominent citi- 
zens. AVith the exception of Langdon, who 
now resides in Brooklyn, N. Y., 'all are now 
dead. 

The early settlers, as a rule, realized the im- 
portance of religious instruction, and long be- 
fore a settled minister was employed the preach- 
ing of the gospel was maintained, at least a part 
of the time, at the town's expense. For many 
years a tax was assessed for the support of the 
gospel ministry, but not until about the year 
1801 Wixs permission grantetl to each denomin- 
ation to draw its share of the money raised for 
religious purposes. In the autumn of 1779, at 
a jniblic town-meeting, it was voted to extend 
a call to Rev. George Leslie to settle in town as 
a minister of the gospel. A committee, con- 
sisting of Joseph Rounsevel, Samuel Copelaud, 
Archibald White, Ebenezer Jaquith and John 
Satford, was chosen to make proposals for his 
settlement. They reported to the town that 
they should invite him to settle on the following 
terms : His salary should be fifty-five pounds 
per year so long as he should supply the pulpit, 



and that as pay he should receive rye at four 
shillings per bushel, Indian corn at three shil- 
lings per bushel, pork at four pence per pound, 
beef at two and one-half pence per pound, and 
other food and clothing sufficient to equal his 
salary. He was alsj, according to the grant of 
the town, to receive two hundred acres of laud 
for himself and his heirs. 

Robert Mann was chosen to wait on Mr. 
Ijeslie, who was then residing at Ipswich, 
Mass., and get an answer to the proposals of 
the town. The offer was accepted, antl he re- 
moved to Washington in the spring of 1780 
and began his labors. 

George Leslie was born in Ireland about the 
year 1728, but came to America in inliincy. He 
was educated at Harvard University, and set- 
tled in Ipswich, Mass., as a minister of the 
gospel in 1850, where he continued to preach 
until called to Washington. He is said to have 
been a man of much learning and ability. 
During his residence in Washington a professor- 
ship at Dartmouth College was tendered him, 
which he declined to acce[)t. He continued to 
serve the people as pastor until his death, which 
occurred September 11, 1800, his pastorate 
having extended over a period of twenty years. 
The town placed a monument at his grave with 
the following inscription : 

"Rev. George Leslie, died September 11, 1800, 
aged 72 years. He was a man of brilliant genius, 
great learning, and eminent piety and morality. This 
monument was erected by the town of Washington." 

In 1786 work was commenced on a meeting- 
house at the centre of the town, which was 
finished in 1789. It was the building which is 
still in use as a town-house. The church edifice 
winch is now occupied by the Congregational 
Church was erected in 1840. 

Hev. John Lord was called by the town to 
preach in the year 1803, but remained but two 
and a half years. Broughton White was in- 
stalled as pastor December 22, 1818, and re- 
mained with the church twelve years. After 
the close of the Rev. Broughton White's pastor- 



WASHINGTON. 



397 



ate, the pulpit was occupieil until 1844 by 
several different preachers, among them Moses 
Geroukl, Lemuel Mason and T. Darling, but 
uone of them were settled. In 1.S44 Rev. John 
F. Griswold wa.s called to the pastorate, and 
continued to supply the pulpit twenty-two 
years, closing his labors in 18()(i. His pastorate 
was the longest in the history of the church, 
exceeding that of Rev. (reorge Leslie by two 
years. Mr. Griswold was a native of Green- 
field, Mass. He was a graduate of Yale College 
and of the Theological Seminary at Andover, 
Mass. His first pastorate was at South Hadley, 
Mass., where he remained a long time. He was 
afterward settled at Fayetteville and Hartlaud, 
Vt., where he resided when called to tlie pastor- 
ate in Washington. He removed to Massachu- 
setts in 1866. His death occurred at Brooklyn, 
N. Y., February 15, 1872. During his long 
residence in Washington he won a larg(> number 
of friends, and his name is a familiar one to 
manv of the younger class at the present day 
who never enjoyed his acquaintance. 

Rev. Edward Basset succeeded Mr. Griswold, 
and remained two years under the employ of 
the Home Missionary Society. Rev. Mr. Clag- 
gett began his labors with the church in 1 868, 
but death closed his pastorate in 1870. Rtv. H. 
H. Colburn served as pastor from 1871 until 
1878, though a part of his time was spent with 
the church in Stoddard. 

Since 1878 there has been no pastor, and at 
times no preacher, although the church is open 
for preaching during the summer, and a Sabbath- 
school meets each Sabbath of the year. The 
membership of the church has diminished much, 
so that at present there is but one male member, 
and a total membership of less than twenty. 

The settlement of the east part of Washington 
did not receive much attention prior to 1785. 
William Graves settled at the west part of the 
town, but removed, not far from 1785, to the 
east part of the town and built a log house in 
the field just west of Mason H. Carr's mill-pond, 
and near the rope-factory of Mcllvaine & 



Fletcher. He afterward built a frame house 
on the other side of the stream,which was after- 
ward the home of Jolm Severance. Thaddeus 
Graves, a brother of William, settled on the old 
Mountain road, one mile and a half west of East 
Washington, and subsequently moved to the 
village, where he died. William and Thaddeus 
Graves were both natives of Sudbury, Mass., 
and came from that town to Wa.shington. Wil- 
liam had been a soldier in the Revolution and 
was engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill. Ac- 
cording to the testimony of some, Thaddeus 
Graves was also a soldier of the Revolution. 

Charles Brown, a native of Stowe, Mass., 
settled at an early date where Moses Jones after- 
ward lived, and where still later, his son, Simon 
W. Jones, resided. 

Captain Jonathan Brockway had built a mill 
where Mason H. Carr's mill now stands, and a 
house near by ; and his son, Jonathan Brock- 
way, Jr., settled, ai)out 1789, on the farm after- 
ward owned by Caleb Carr, and at present by 
his son, George W. Carr. 

The Severances settled short distances east and 
west and north of the school-house at East 
Washington. 

Caleb Wood ward, who came from Bellingham, 
Mass., in 1787 to the west part of Washington, 
on or near Oak Hill, removed soon after to the 
farm where Jerome Hamden afterward lived, 
and where Deacon Francis P. Fletcher now 
resides 

Joseph Crane came from Milton, Mass., and 
settled on the southeast slope of Lovell's Moun- 
tain about theyear 1782 or 1783. He had a large 
family of children, all of whom except the oldest 
wei'c born in Washington. His son Ziba, the 
only survivor of the family, still resides at East 
Washington at an advanced age. Most of the 
Cranes residing in Washington are descendants 
of Joseph Crane. 

John Vose also came from Milton a year or 
two before Joseph Crane and settled very near 
Joseph Crane. The family gradually found 
their wav back to Boston, Milton and that 



398 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



vicinity, and no one bearing the name of Vose 
has resided in town during the last fifty years. 
Wliiting Vose, whose son, James W. Vose, is 
the liead of the house of Vose & Sons, piano- 
forte manufacturers, of Boston, was born on 
Lovell's Mountain, wiiere tlie family lived after 
they came from Milton. 

David Taber appears to have come from 
Tiverton, R. I. He lived and died on the hill 
two miles south of East Washington. Church 
Taber, supposed to be a brother of David Taber, 
was at one time an influential citizen of the 
town. He resided at the southwest part of the 
town, on a farm now owned by Supply Barney. 
He was a carpenter, and is said to have done a 
considerable part of the work on the town-house 
when it was built, nearly a century ago. 

Benjamin Smith, a native of South Reading 
(now Wakefield), Mass., came to Hillsborough, 
N. H., about the year 1790. He afterward, in 
1807, purchased about five hundred acres of 
land in Washington, on the south slope of the 
hills two and a half miles south of Washington, 
including the farms afterward owned by Joshua 
D. Crane, Nathaniel Smith, William Ayre and 
William Dole. Most of the Smiths now re- 
siding in town are his descendants. He continued 
to reside in Hillsborough until about the year 
1827, when he removed to Washington. He died 
in Salisbury, N. H., in 1854. 

Lieutenant Ebenezer Wood came to Washing- 
ton from Littleton, Mass., about the year 1780 
and settled on the farm now owned by Anson 
S. Powers, just west of Lovell's Mountain. He 
raised up a large family of eleven children, but 
the family is now widely scattered, John Wood 
and family and Elzina Wood being the only 
survivors iu town. Ebenezer Wood was a 
soldier in the War of the Revolution. 

Colonel Jacob Wright was a native of West- 
ford, Mass., in 1758. At the age of sixteen he 
entered the Revolutionary army as a substitute 
for the man for whom he was employed. After 
his term of service expired he re-enlisted, and, 
including his first term of service, was engaged 



five years fighting the battles of his coinitry. 
In 1783 he removed to Washington, having 
resided a short time previously at Hancock, 
N. H. He settled on the high land south of 
Ashuelot Pond. He resided in Washington until 
his death, which occurred in 1844. He was 
the father of four children. Many of his de- 
scendants fill positions of eminence and respon- 
sibility. Nathan Wright, a son of Colonel 
Jacob Wright, became a physician and practiced 
many years in Washington, but finally re- 
moved to Cambridgeport, Mass., where he died 
in 1853. Rev. Nathan R. AV'right, a son of 
Dr. Nathan Wright, became a Uuiversalist 
clergyman of note. He preached in Dunbarton 
and Hooksett, N. H., four years, and in 1843 
became pastor of the Universalist Church at 
Washington, where he remained some years. 
Althougii advanced in age, he is still actively 
engaged in pastoral work at Lynn, Mass., being 
pastor of a parish containing four hundred and 
fitly families. 

Colonel Carroll D. Wright, a son of Rev. 
Nathan R. Wright and great-grandson of Col- 
onel Jacob Wright, has become eminent as a 
statistician, having been chief of the Bureau of 
Statistics of Labor in Massachusetts since 1873. 
In the War of the Rebellion he enlisted as a pri- 
vate in the Fourteenth New Hampshire Regi- 
ment, but rapidly rose to the rank of colonel of 
bis regiment. Colonel Wright, though a na- 
tive of Dunbarton, came with his father to 
Washington at the age of three years, and spent 
most of his youth in this town. 

Probably the first physician who practiced in 
Washington was Dr. David Harris, who was in 
town as early as 1785, in which year he was 
elected town clerk, to which office he was re- 
elected many times. He was a fine penman, 
and his handwriting is clear and legible at this 
date, though written a hundred years ago. 
His fees for professional services were surpris- 
ingly small, being seventeen cents for a visit to 
any part of the town. He removed to New- 
port, N. H., and died May 10, 1830, aged 



WASHINGTON. 



399 



tweuty-eight years. Dr. David McQuesten 
was for many years a practitioner of medicine at 
the centre of the town. His practice was ex- 
tensive, and he won a reputation for skill 
throughout the whole town. He died in 1850 
at the age of fifty-seven years. 

Dr. Austin Newton, who began the practice 
of medicine in Washingtou, studied with Dr. 
David McQuesten, of Wasiiington, and with 
Prof. Dixie Crosby, of Hanover, and graduated 
at the Dartmouth Medical School in 1840. He 
resided in Washington until his death, which 
occurred in 1853. The successor of Dr. New- 
ton was Dr. John Q. A. French, who had pur- 
sued the study of medicine with Dr. Newton, 
and at Yale College. Dr. French soon after 
removed to Hillsborough, where he is still suc- 
cessfully engaged in practice. 

Nearly a mile south of Washington Centre, 
on the road leading to Stoddard, Deacon Ebene- 
zer Jaquith settled at a very early date. He must 
have resided in town prior to 1 7 78, as he held of- 
fice that year. He was one of the first deacons 
in the Congregational Church which was organ- 
ized in 1780. The farm has passed from the 
hands of the Jaquith family aod is now owned 
by Darius Y. Barnes. Some of the descendants 
of Deacon Jaquith still reside in town. 

Stephen Mead, who was born in the vicinity 
of Westford, IMass., came to Washington as 
early as 1780 and settled at the southwest part 
of the town on the farm now owned by Jerry 
Gleason. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and 
one of his brothers was killed at Bunker Hill. 
He married a sister of Colonel Jacob Wright, 
who also came to Washing'ton to reside some 
three years later. S. Newell Mead, a grandson 
of Stephen Mead, still resides in town. 

The Barney family came to Washington from 
Sudbury, Mass., as early as 1784 or 1785, and 
settled at the south and west parts of the town. 
Thomas Barney was the oldest of the name in 
town. He settled on the farm where Stephen 
Farnsworth now resides. He had a son John, 
who came to Washington about 1784, and had 



four sons, — John Jr., Timothy, Levi and Sup- 
ply, who live<l in the southwest part of the town. 

The Steele family came from A mherst, and re- 
sided at the south jiart of the town for a time, but 
finally removed to the district west of Lovell's 
Mountain. William Steele was thrown from 
his horse into a small brook near his home and 
was drowned. James Steele removed from 
Washington many years ago to Western New 
York. Nothing is known regarding the where- 
abouts of any of their descendants. 

Although the town early took measures for 
educating its youth, by appropriating money for 
the support of schools, it is believed that no 
school-houses were built prior to 1788. By 
vote of the town in 1788 each district was to be 
allowed to build its own school-house, but it is 
not certain that advantage of the privilege was 
very soon taken. In 1797 tiie town voted to 
raise sixty pounds of lawful money to build 
school-houses, and chose a committee to build 
one at the centre of the town. Probably a 
house was also erected at the east part of the 
town about the same time, as it is certain that a 
school-house was standing there in 1800. In 
the course of time school-houses were erected in 
ten different districts in the town. The present 
number of school districts is nine, with a school 
house in each. The original school-houses were 
rude in comparison to the neat buildings now to 
be found in most parts of the town. A small, 
rough building, with small, high windows, too 
high to allow the pupils to look out ; a sloping 
fioor, with seats rising one above another ; a 
huge open fireplace on one side of the room, 
and walls devoid of paint or paper, with few, 
if any, maps or other illustrative apparatus, 
give one a pretty correct idea of the school- 
houses of our grandfathers. The masters and 
mistresses of the primitive schools were a pe- 
culiar class, noted not only for their ability to 
instruct in the common branches of learning, 
but for their power to wield the birch. The stud- 
ies pursued by the majority of the pupils were 
reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic and ge- 



400 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



ography, wliile a few of the more advanced 
received instruction in English grammar, and, 
in some instances, surveying. As has been said, 
much attention was paid todiscipline. The schools 
were large, and wiu-e composed of boys and 
girls of all sizes and ages, fi'om extreme youth 
to the age of manhood and womanhood. The un- 
lucky boy who seriously transgressed the school- 
master's rules was severely flogged or compelled 
to stand a long time on the floor, his knees un- 
bent and his finger on a nail in tlie floor, while 
tlio girl who neglected to thoroughly learn her 
lesson was seated on the dunce block as a means 
of punishment. These methods of discipline 
have given way to milder measures, much to 
the benefit of the pupils. Some of the best re- 
membered of tlie early teachers in town were 
James Faxon, Edmund Davis, Alfred Gordon, 
Joseph W. Shedd, Solomon E. and Simon W. 
Jones. 

At the session of the Legislature in June, 1849, 
au institution of learning was incorpoi'ated in 
Washington, to be known as Washington Acad- 
emy. The same year Russell Tubbs, of Deer- 
ing, gave to the new iustitutiou one thousand 
dollars, to be used as a fund for the support 
of the school. In recognition of the generous 
gift, the name of the academy was changed to 
Tubbs Union Academy. In LSoT ^Ir. Tubbs 
increased the fund by an additional gift of 
five hundred dollars. The school was opened 
in the fidl of 1849, with Dyer H. Sanlxirn as 
principal. He brouglit to the work a mind pecu- 
liarly adapted by nature to the work of instruc- 
tion, and enriched and strengthened by a liberal 
education. Tlie school was a success from the 
start, and in the fall of 1850 one hundred 
and eighty-six students were in attendance. It 
remainetl under his care four years, when he 
Wiis succeeded by C. G. Burnham, who remained 
but one term, and was himself succeeded by 
William Holt and Simeon D. Farnsworth, neith- 
er of whom remained long with the school. Since 
the resignation of Professor Sanborn the school 
has greatly declined, owing to the small amount 



of funds at its command. But, notwithstanding 
the number of pupils has been small, and 
most of them residents of the town, it has accom- 
plished a work of great usefulness. Its present 
principal is Frank P. Newman, who has man- 
aged the school to great acceptance since 1881. 

The Faxons were from Braintree, Mass. 
There were three brothers, — James, who first 
lived in a house near the soldiers' monument 
and afterward on the Faxon Hill, near the vil- 
lage ; Azariah, who lived just east of the town- 
house, where Dexter Ball now resides ; and 
Francis, who lived <m the hill two miles west 
of the village at the centre of the town and 
near the place where Thomas Pennimau re- 
sided. Azariah Faxon was engaged in trad(! 
during his residence in town. Before his death 
he removed to Vermont. Francis Faxon also 
removed to Vermont. James Faxon was a 
musician in the army during the Revolution. 
After coming to Washington he was engaged 
for a time in trade with his brother Azariah. 
He also was a noted school-teacher. His last 
days were spent on his farm on Faxon Hill. 

The Farwell family came from (Jroton, Mass., 
soon after the year 1 780, and were prominent 
in town for many years. 

The Millens came from the vicinity of New 
Boston, N. H., prior to the year 1780. The 
family has always been prominent in town af- 
fairs. Some of the name are .still residents of 
the town. 

Benjamin Newman came to Washington about 
the year 1791, from Deering, to which town he 
came from the vicinity of Woburn, Mass., about 
the year 1776. He settled in the mountain 
district, near the farm known as the Dinsmore 
place. He was the father of eight children. 
His sons, Joseph and Benjamin, both spent 
their lives in Washington, and raised large 
families of children. Joseph settled on the 
farm now owned by Hiram Q. Hoyt, and Ben- 
jamin, after residing in the mountain district a 
while afler his marriage, removed to a farm 
near Long: Pond. Some of the descendants of 



WASHINGTON. 



401 



Josej)ii and Benjamin Newman still reside in 
town. 

Tiie Draper family came into town at an early 
date, David Draper having married llebeccii 
Healey, of this town, as early as 1785. The 
Draper family lived near tlie village and gave 
the name to "Draper Hill," whieli rises just 
north of the village. 

Jonathan Draper held offiee in town in 1778, 
and Hanmel Draper also ap|)ears to have been 
in town in 1779. 

David Danforth was another of the pioneers 
f)f the town. He came to the town at a very 
early date and resided at the southwest part of 
the town. 

Probably the first lawyer to establish himself 
in business in Washington was David Heald, 
Es(}. He was born in Temple, N. H., March 
21, 1768, and graduated at Dartmouth College 
in 17!).'^ He studied law at Northampton, 
Mass., and came to Washington to reside about 
1800, where he remained until his death, which 
occurred January 2, 1841. He lived on the; 
spot where the present house, belonging to the 
family, stands. He was a member of the 
Cheshire and Sullivan County bar forty years. 
He was a popular man, and represented the 
town in the Legislature twelve years. He 
■was married in 1810 to Phebe Purbank, of 
Washington, by whom he had three children. 
Some years after Mr. Heald settled in Wash- 
ington, Abraham B. Story established himself 
in the practice of law at the centre of the town. 
He was a graduate of Brown University in the 
class of 1799, and was engaged a short time in 
the practice of law at Northwood, before he re- 
moved to Washington. He resided where Dex- 
ter Ball now resides. While a resident of the 
town he often held offiee. It is said that the 
present method of keeping the records of the 
town was introduced by Mr. Story. 

The settlers at the east part of the town, 
although too far from the centre to fully enjoy 
the religious privileges which the Congrega- 
tionalist Church there afforded, were particular 



to meet together in private houses for religious 
instruction and woi-ship. Sometimes a sermon 
was read by one of their niunber, and at other 
times a preacher was employed, though not reg- 
ularly. In 1800 it was thought best to organ- 
ize a Baptist Church, as a majority of those 
interested were of that faith. 

Accordingly, the 2d day of October, ISOO, 
a church was formed, composed of ten mem- 
bers. They continued to hold meetings in 
private houses and in the scliool-house until 
1827, when a meeting-house, fifty feet long and 
thirty-eight feet wide, was erected on the spot 
were the present church stands. This church 
was occupied until 1844, when it was destroyed 
by fire. But the society were not discouraged, 
but immediatelv erected another buildintr, of 
the same length as the first and two feet wider. 
This was occupied until 1877, when it shared 
the fate of the first edifice, being burned in 
Ai)ril of that year. Before ihe next winter, in 
theautunuiof 1877, a third house ofworshi]), 
of the s£fme dimensions as the otiier, but in 
some respects a finer building, was dedicated, 
and still stands, an ornament to the village 
and a great convenience to the church. The 
first settled pastor of the Baptist Church in 
East Washington was Rev. Nathan Ames, who 
was ordained pastor on the day the first house 
of worship was dedicated, in 1827. He was a 
native of New Boston, N. H., wiiere he was 
born in 1785. He began preaching in the 
vicinity of Newburyport, Mass., and in 1819 
was called to the pastorate of a church in 
Sutton, N. H., where he remained several 
years. He \vas pastor of the church until 
1834, and soon after the close of his pastorate 
he removed to Jamaica, Vt., where he died. 

The next pastor was Rev. David Gage, who 
was ordained in 1835. He was born in Wilton, 
N. H., December 26, 1809. He remained 
with the church ten years, closing his labors in 
1845. From East Washington he removed to 
New Boston, where he preached some years. 
After closing his pastorate in New Boston, he 



402 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



entered the service of the New Hampshire 
Baptist Convention as a missionary, beginning 
his labors in 1855, and continuing many years, 
a portion of the time as State missionary and 
financial agent for the Convention. His 
present residence is Manchester, N. H. 

After the resignation of Mr. Gage, Rev. 
D. P. Dunning, Rev. Nathan Chapman and 
Rev. Mr. Elliot each served as pastor a short 
time. In 1852 or 1853, Rev. Albert Heald 
became pastor of the church, and continued as 
pastor until 1865, when Rev. Eli P. Noyes was 
called, and remained three years. The next 
pastors were Rev. Horace G. Hubbard, Rev. 
G. D. Ballentine, Rev. Addison Browne, 
L. U. Anderson, Rev. L. M. Powers, Rev. 
William Beavensand Rev. E. A. Edwards, who 
is now pastor of the cluirch. Since the pastor- 
ate of Mr. Heald all the pastorates have been 
short, none of them exceeding three years. 

Rev. E. A. Edwards, the present pastor, 
came to Washington from Beverly, Mass., in 
the fall of 1883, and under his call the church 
seems to be in a prosperous condition. The 
present membership exceeds eighty. 

In 1858 a Methodist Church was organized 
at East Washington. Rev. Ij. L. Dudley acted 
as preacher at the time the church was organ- 
ized, and was influential in its formation. Its 
first class consisted of eleven persons. Samuel 
A. Clogston was the leader of the first class. 

Meethigs for public worship were held in a 
small hall until the erection of a church edifice, 
in 1859. The first pastor after the formation 
of the church was Rev. B. E. Whipple, who 
was succeeded in 18(30 by Rev. C. N. Lewis. 
During the year 1861 the pulpit was supplied 
by Revs. Hoppins, Brooks and Richardson. 
John H. Lane supplied in 1862 and a portion 
of 1863. Chester Dingman appears to have 
been employed during a portion of 1863. In 
1864, C. Marshall Pegg, a young man of bril- 
liant talents, supplied the desk. About the 
year 1869, A. J. Roberts became pastor, and 
was followed bv Rev. Mr. Dudley, who was 



the last settled pastor, the church, owing to 
deaths and removals, being unable to support a 
pastor. For a time the church edifice was 
occupied by the Free-Will Baptist Church, 
which was organized in East Washington, 
February 18, 1873. Its first pastor was Rev. 
Edwin Smith, who was settled in 1874, the 
pulpit having been supplied the first year by 
Rev. G. B. Tewksbury. 

The original number of members was thir- 
teen, and of this number Samuel Fletcher and 
Aaron Peasley were chosen deacons. Mr. Smith 
remained with the church two years. During 
the time of Mr. Tewksbury's service and the 
pastorate of Mr. Smith there were many addi- 
tions to the church. After Mr. Smith's re- 
moval the church was without a pastor until 
the autumn of 1877, when Rev. Thomas H. 
Smithers became pastor, but resigned in the 
spring of 1878, much to the regret of the church. 
The same year John Willis became pastor of 
the church and continued his labors two years. 
He was an able man and labored faithfully for 
the gootl of the church and community. Since 
1880 the church has had no settled pastor. 
The church has never owned a house of wor- 
ship, but its services have been held in a hall 
and in the Methodist Church. 

Near the beginning of the present century 
the First Universal ist Society was organized in 
Washington. No church was organized, but 
the society provided preaching a considerable 
part of tlie time. About the year 1842 the 
town gave the society permission to finish a 
room for religious worship in the second story 
of the town-house, and after that time relig- 
ious services were held there until the weakened 
condition of the society made it unable to em- 
ploy a preacher. 

Among the preachers who have served the 
society may be mentioned Rev. David Cooper, 
Rev. Mr. Gil man, Rev. Lemuel Willis, Rev. 
Mr. Holden, Rev. Mr. Anderson, Rev. Mr. 
Palmer and Rev. Nathan R. Wright. David 
Cooper, although a preacher during his early 



WASHINGTON. 



403 



manhood, was for a time engaged in trade on 
the spot where Nathaniel A. Lull & Sons now 
trade. Later he resided on the farm now owned 
by Edward W. Brooks. He removed from 
town about fifteen years since and resided in 
Sutton the remainder of his life. He died in 
Sutton June 25, 1885, at the age of eighty-six 
years. 

A sketch of Rev. N. R. Wright will be found 
in another place. He came back to his native 
town to jJreach in 1843 and remained tliirteen 
years. He is at present actively engaged in 
ministerial labor in Lynn, Mass. 

Near the commencement of the present cen- 
tury several families settled in town and be- 
came influential and useful citizens. 

Nathaniel Gordon came from Bedford near 
the close of the last century, and after living a 
year at the west part of the town, removed to 
East AVashington and pureiiased a farm, just 
west of the school-house, of Daniel Severance. 
He was familiarly known as Captain Gordon, 
and was greatly respected. He M^as one of the 
original members of the Baptist Church in East 
Washington. 

His son, Alfred Gordon, was a famous school- 
master in his day. He resided many years on 
the old homestead and then removed to Illinois, 
where he died at an advanced age. 

Jabin Fisher removed from Canton, Mass., to 
Washington early in the present century and 
lived where his son, the venerable Jabez Fisher, 
now resides. JabezFisher, just mentioned, was 
for many years successfully engaged in mercan- 
tile pursuits in Boston. He has preserved the 
old homestead, where he is passing his last days 
in quiet and peaceful retirement. 

Deacon Samuel P. Bailey came from Weare 
about the year 1803 and settled where his son 
Jesse F. Bailey now resides. He lived to the 
great age of one hundred years. His death 
occurred in 1880. 

Moses Jones moved from Hillsborough to 
Washington not far from the year 1815 and 
settled on the farm at East Washington, where 



his sou, Simon W. Jones, afterward lived. He 
came to Hillsborough from Weston, Mass. 
His sons, Solomon E., Simon W. and Nathan- 
iel G., were prominent citizens of the town. 
Solomon E. Jones was for many years engaged 
in trade in East Washington. Nathaniel G. 
Jones is still a resident of East Wasiiington. 

Charles French settled where his son, Charles 
A. French, now resides in 1814. He raised a 
large family of children. His son, William B. 
French, was fur some years engaged in trade at 
the centre of tiie town. 

David Lincoln came from Bedford in 1802, 
and purchased of a "Dr. Kelly" the farm 
wliich was afterward, for many years, the house 
of Isaac N. Gage. He was an active, stirring: 
man in all business matters. For many years 
he drove a team between East Wasiiington and 
Boston. He was a captain in the militia, and 
is sjioken of, by those who remember him, as 
Captain Lincoln. He never had children, but 
his kind heart led him to adopt several, whom 
he cared for as if they had been his own. 

The Trains have long resided in town, and have 
been influential. The family were originally 
from Weston, Mass., from which town they 
came to Hillsborough, N. H., at an early 
date. Harry Train was the first of the name to 
settle in Washington. Charles and Henry Train, 
sons of Harry Train, have been pi-ominent cit- 
izens of the town, the latter lieing for some 
years tlie proprietor of the hotel at the centre of 
the town, and representative to the Legislature. 
Arthur Train, another son.of Harry Train, was 
for many years a very popular and successful 
physician in Virginia and Chicago. 

Samuel Cheney came from Henniker in 1805, 
and settled on the farm afterward owned by 
Joel Severance (2d). He was probably the first 
settler on that farm. His son, George W. 
Cheney, was a highly-respected citizen of the 
town. 

David Dole became a resident of the town 
about 1803 or 1804. He bought a farm of 
Jeremiah Bacon, near East Washington, where 



404 



HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



he spent most of liis life. Jeremiah Bacon, 
after selling his farm, removed to Hancock. 

Daniel Greenleaf, who was born in Haver- 
hill, Mass., in 1780, came from Concord, IS". H., 
to Washington to reside just prior to 1820. 
lie was engaged in mercantile pursuits, and 
had previously been in trade in Concord and 
Hebron. During his residence in Washington 
he served for a time as postmaster. The 
Greenleafs of this and the adjoining towns are 
descendants of Daniel Greenleaf. 

Nathan Brainard removed from Lempster to 
Washington between the years 1823 and 
1 825, and engaged in trade at the centre of the 
town. He was also postmaster for a while. In 
1834 he removed to Cleveland, Ohio. The 
firm of S. Brainard's Sons, music dealers and 
publishers, of Cleveland, are of this family, 
and is composed of the grandsons of Nathan 
Brainard. 

Scth Adams, a native of Mason, N. H., came 
to Washington at an early age, and married, in 
1813, Comfort Barney, a native of the town. 
He was a woolen manufacturer, and, in company 
with his sons, Calvin and Nathan, established the 
fii'st woolen-mill at the centre of the town, in 
1843. 

Lewis Vickery removed from Lemjjster to 
Washington about the year 1815, and took up 
his residence on the Goshen turnpike, some 
four miles from Washington Centre. Prior to 
his residence in Lempster he had resided in 
Winchester', N. H., having removed from that 
town to Lempster in .1805. 

John Fisk, who was born in Hillsborough in 
1789, settled, in 1812, at East Wasliington, on 
the place now owned by Hiram J. Gage. His 
farm embraced what is now the eastern part of 
the village. 

Caleb Carr, also a native of Hillsborough, 
bought in 1818 the farm afterward owned by 
Jonathan Severance, near East Washington. 
He built the first house on the place. He still 
resides at East Washington, at the age of 
ninety-three. His sons. Mason H. and George 



H. Carr, are still residents of the town. Mason 
H. Carr has been engaged in the manufacture 
and sale of lumber in East Washington for 
more than forty years, owning the mill which is 
on the site of the first mill in the village, which 
was erected by his great-grandfather. Captain 
Jonathan Brockway. 

In 1850 Dr. George Hubbard settled in the 
practice of his profession at East Washington. 
He had, a year or two before, practiced there, 
but did not permanently locate until 1850. He 
remained until 1855, when he removed to Man- 
chester, and was succeeded by Dr. John Haynes, 
of Newbury. Dr. Hubbard was a man of much 
skill in his profession, and took high rank as a 
surgeon. In the War of the Rebellion he was 
long in the service as an army surgeon, and par- 
ticijiated in many battles. After his retirement 
from the service of his country he engaged in 
practice in Lansingburgh, N. Y., where he died. 
Dr. Haynes remained in jjractice until 1860, 
when he was succeeded by Dr. H. Monroe. 
Dr. Monroe was a native of Hillsborough, 
a graduate of Dartmouth College and of 
the iledical Department of the same institu- 
tion. He died in East Washington jSIay 2, 
1863, and was succeeded the same year by 
Dr. Silas M. Dinsmoor, a native of Antrim 
and a graduate of the School of Medicine con- 
nected with Columbian University, Washing- 
ton, D. C. He removed from East Washing- 
ton to Francestown in 1874. His present resi- 
dence is Iveene, N. H. 

Much might be written of the brave men of 
Washington who participated in the struggle 
for the preservation of the Union during the 
great Rebellion, but space will not permit. 
Upwards of sixty men, including substitutes, 
more than thirty of whom were volunteers, 
went from this little town to fight the battles 
of their country, and twelve lost their lives in 
its defense. 

In 1866 the people of the town erected, on 
the village green at Washington Centre, a beau- 
tiful granite shaft, upon which are inscribed 



WASHINGTON. 



405 



the names of those who lost their lives rluriiig 
the AVar of the Rebellion. This monument 
was one of the first of its kind to be erected in 
the State of New Hampsliii-e. 

Edmnnd Davis, Jeremiah Fletcher and Joiin 
May all settled in Washington near the begin- 
ning of the present century. 

Edmund Davis came from Hancock and 
was at first engaged in teaching. He afterward 
married a daughter of Deacon William Graves, 
and, with the exception of a very few years, 
their whole married life was spent in Washing- 
ton. He was a noted schoolmaster in his day, 
and was the first postmaster in East Wash- 
ington. 

John May also came from Hancock and first 
lived on the Goshen turnpike, nearly opposite 
the present residence of John L. Butterfield, 
where he kept a tavern. He afterward re- 
moved to the village, at the centre of the town, 
where he died. May Pond, near the place 
where he first resided, was so named on ac- 
count of his having resided near it. 

Jeremiah Fletcher came from New Ipswich 
and settled some two miles northwest of East 
Washington, where his sou, Francis P. Flet- 
cher, afterwai'd resided. The Fletchers, still 
residintc in town, are his descendants. 

In the year 1869 a free public library was 
opened in Washington, known as the Sliedd 
Free Library. It was founded by the bequest 
of Miss Sarah Shedd, a native and resident of 
the town, who bequeathed the sum of twenty- 
five hundred dollars as a fund for its sujjport. 

Sarah Shedd was the daughter of John and 
Lydia Shedd, and was born in Washington 
April 29, 1813. Most, if not all, of the prop- 
erty which she acquired was obtained by hard 
labor in cotton-mills. Notwithstanding her 



laborious occupation, she foiuid time to devote 
to literary labor, and was the author of many 
poems, which have been gathered into a small 
volume. Miss Shedd died April 5, 1867. The 
library, to which yearly additions have been 
made, now contains about seventeen hundred 
volumes. 

In 1881, by the munificence of Mr. L. T. 
Jefls, of Hudson, Mass., a beautiful library 
building, for the accommodation of the Shedd 
Free Library, was pi'esented to the town. The 
building is of brick, with slate roof, and is 
thoroughly and beautifully furnished in every 
part. Mr. Jefts is a son of the late Benjamin 
and Olive (Reed) Jefts, of Washington. He 
was born in Washington April 4, 1830. His 
parents, being in moderate circumstances, were 
not able to assist him to any great extent either 
in matters of education or busine.ss. At the 
age of eighteen he obtained his fiither's per- 
mission to get an education, providing he was 
able to pay his own expen.ses. He left his 
home for the academy at Marlow, with thirteen 
dollars, the gift of his mother on her dying 
bed. After attending school at Marlow and 
Washington several years, paying his expenses 
in the mean time by teaching, he went to Mas- 
sachusetts and entered a store as clerk. After- 
^^'ard he became one of the proprietors of a 
store in Assabet, Mass. In 18")9 he engaged 
in the manufacture of shoes in Hudson, Mass., 
where he has since resided. Fortune has 
seemed to smile upon his endeavors, so that he 
has become the possessor of a large fortune. He 
represented the towns of Hudson, Stowe, Little- 
ton and Roxborough in the Legislature in 
1883. At present he is president of the Hud- 
son National Bank, an institution with a cajiital 
of one hundred tliousand dollars. 



APPENDIX 



CHESHIRE COUNTY. 



KEENE. 

Dit. Airos Tavitchell, for so long a time the 
autocrat of surgery in New England, was born 
in Dublin, N. H., April 14, 1781. His fhtlier 
was Samuel Twitchell, one of the earliest set- 
tlers of Dublin, and his mother was Alice, 
daughter of Dr. Wilson, of Sherburne. 

Dr. Twitchell entered Dartmouth College in 
1798 and graduated in 1S02. From early 
childhood Dr. Twitchell's thoughts had been 
led to the profession of medicine, and during his 
college course his intimacy with Dr. Nathan 
Smith had tended still further to guide him on- 
ward in the same path. Upon leaving college 
he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. 
Nathan Smith, at Hanover, N. H., and in 1805 
commenced practice in the neighboring town of 
Norwich, Vt. Here he remained until 1807 or 
1808, when be removed to Marlborough, N.H., 
and entered into partnership with his brother- 
in-law. Dr. Carter. In 1810 he removed to 
Keene and there labored for about 11 irty years, 
gradually rising to a fame of which anv one 
might have been proud. He was chosen 
a member of the New Hampshire Medical 
Society in 1811, and from that time until his 
death felt the liveliest interest in in it. 

Dr. Twitchell was solicited to accept a pro- 
fessorship in Dartmouth College, at Castleton, 
Vt., Bowdoiu College, Maine, and at the Uni- 
versity of Vermont, all of which flattering pro- 
posals he declined. Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, 
in his memoir of Dr. Twitchell, says, — ■ 
4013 • 



" Dr. Twitchell was no shadow of another nor the 
exponent of any set of opinions, but a living s|)eci- 
meu of what a great, self-relying mortal may become. 
He was possessed of infinite humor, of a strong, vig- 
orous intellect and a reverence for truth in speech 
and act which, while it made him always ready to ac- 
knowledge his own errors, likewise aroused his indig- 
nation against hypocrisy and pretense wherever seen. 
Joined to these traits, and in beautiful harmony with 
them, was his warm heart. Ardent in his attach- 
ment to friends through every stage of life, and 
wisely benevolent to those closely united to him, he 
went about daily doing good." 

He died May 26, 1850. 



SULLIVAN COUNTY. 



BENCH AND BAR. 

WiLLiASi H. H. Allen is a descendant from 
old Puritan stock. Samuel Allen came from 
Braintree, Essex County, England, and settled 
in Cambridge, Mass., in 1632. With the first 
emigration from the Massachusetts Bay colony 
he went to Windsor, Conn., in 1635, and in that 
vicinity are many of his descendants. Ethan 
Allen, of Revolutionary fame, was the fifth in the 
line of de.scent from Samuel, through his second 
son, and the subjeet of this sketch is the eighth 
in descent from Samuel, through his third son. 
Abel Allen, the great-grandfather of William 
H. H. Allen, came from Connecticut and settled 
in Surry, Cheshire County, N. H., aboixt 1760, 
and died there in 1808. His grandfather, Abel, 
was born in Windsor, Conn., in 1756, and came 
to Surry witli his father and lived there until 



APPENDIX. 



407 



he died, in 1837. His father, Joseph Allen, 
was born in that town in 1798. He lived there 
and worked upon his father's and other farms 
in the vicinity, availing himself of the limited 
advantages afforded by the public schools of 
that period and other means of education within 
his reach, until twenty-two years old, when he 
thought he had a call to preach, became a Meth- 
odist minister and coupled preaching in Surry 
and some other towns and farming together for 
a few years. In 1828 he removed to Winhall, 
a small town in Bennington County, Vt., bought 
a tract of rocky but productive land, erected a 
house and other buildings upon it, and divided 
his time between farming and preaching. It 
was on this farm that William II. H. Allen was 
born, on December 10, 1829. About 1832 his 
father sold the farm and took up preaching 
again in connection with farmino-. 

From 1839 to 1844 he lived with his fomily 
at Hartland, Vt., farming and preaching. In 
the latter year he returned with his family to 
Surry and remained there, farming until his 
death, in June, 1877, at the age of seventy-nine 
years. He represented the town of Surry in the 
New Hampshire Legislature in 1857, held sev- 
eral town offices and was many years a justice 
of the peace. His wife, who survived him un- 
til ^Nlarch, 1880, was Lyna, daughter of the late 
Daniel Abbott, of Surry. By her he had ten 
children, five of whom are still living. 

William H. H. Allen lived in his father's 
family, working upon farms and attending pub- 
lic schools a few months each year, until he was 
fifteen years old. From that time until he was 
nineteen he worked on farms summers, attend- 
ing academies at West Brattleboro and Saxton's 
River, Vt., and one term at Keene, X. H., falls, 
and teaching winters, until 18o0. For a N-ear 
and a half he was under the tutelage of Joseph 
Perry, of Keene, an accomplishad scholar and 
retired veteran teacher, and under his instruction 
completed his preparation for college. He en- 
tered Dartmouth Collegein 1851 and was grad- 
uated second in his class of fifty-one, Walbridge 



A. Field being first in 1855. Among his class- 
mates were William S. Ladd, of Lancaster, N.H., 
an ex -judge of the Supreme Court of New 
Hampshire ; Nelson Diugley, of Lewiston, ex- 
Governor and now member of Congress from 
Maiue ; Walbridge A. Field, judge of the Su- 
preme Court of Massachusetts ; Greenleaf Clark, 
of St. Paul, ex-judge of the Supreme Court of 
Minnesota ; E. B. S. Sanborn, one of the New 
Hampshire railroad commissioners; Rev. Al- 
pheus Pike, D.D., now of Minnesota ; the late 
Frank Robinson, who was a prominent lawyer 
at Dubuque, Iowa; Samuel R. Bond, a distin- 
guished lawyer of Washington, D. C; and John 
K." Valentine, of Philadelphia, United States 
district attorney for Pennsylvania. 

Following his graduation, Mr. Allen was 
principal of a High School atHopkinton, Mass., 
until November, 1856, when he returned to 
Surry and read law in the office of Wheeler & 
Faulkner, of Keene, about a year; then went to 
Perrysburg, Ohio, and was superintendent of 
schools there until the simimer of 1858. He 
commenced reading law at Hopkinton, and de- 
voted his spare time to it there and at Perrys- 
burg. He returned to Surry, soon entered the 
law-office of Burke & Wait, at Newport, N. H., 
and was admitted to the bar at the Sep- 
tember term of court for Sullivan County, in 
1858. By general request of the bar, he was 
appointed clerk of the courts for Sullivan 
County in November, 1858, to fill a vacancy 
caused by the resignation of the late Thomas 
W. Gilmore, and took up his residence at New- 
port. He continued in this position, trying 
many referee cases anfl doing much other bus- 
iness now done by the judges, until September, 
1863, when he was appointed paymaster in the 
army, which position he held until December, 
1865. He was stationed at Washington, D. C. 
and paid soldiers in the Army of the Potomac, 
until May, 1865, when he went to Philadel- 
phia and paid discharged Pennsylvania soldiers. 
When he was discharged from the service he 
settled his accounts with the govermueut with- 



408 



APPENDIX. 



out difficulty, returned to his home in Xewpoi't, 
opened an office and commenced the practice of 
his profession, which he continued with a good 
degree of success, there and at Claremont, N. H., 
until 1876, when he was appointed to the Su- 
preme Court bench. He was appointed judge 
of Pi'obate for Sullivan County in January, 
1867, and held that office until July, 1874. 
During his term but three appeals were taken 
from his decisions, two of which were affirmed 
by the full bench of the Supreme Court, and 
the other one was not prosecuted. 

Judge Allen was appointed register in 
bankruptcy when the bankrupt law of 1867 
went into effect, and held that office until 1876, 
when, by general request of the Sullivan County 
bar, he was appointed associate Justice of tlie 
Supreme Court of New Hampshire, \\hich po- 
sition he still occupies. His opinions will be 
found in the fifty-eighth and subsequent vol- 
umes of the " New Hampshire Law Reports." 
In all the positions to which Judge Allen has 
been called he has discharged'their various and 
often difficult duties with fidelity and to gen- 
eral acceptance. 

Judge Allen removed from Newport to Clare- 
mont, N. H., in 1S68, where he has since re- 
sided. In politics he has always been a Re- 
publican. He is a Unitnriau in belief, but has 
latterly attended the Episcopal Church. He 
was lirst married, in 1856, to Ellen E., daugh- 
ter of John Joslin, of Surry, by whom he had 
nine children. Two died in infancy and the 
other seven are still living. His wife died in 
Claremont in June, 1873. In October, 1874, 
he married Sally S., daughter of the late Dr. 
John Sabine, of Strafford, Vt. By this mar- 
riage he has no children. 



LEMPSTER. 

Anson Keyes, mentioned as a trader, should 
be lawyer. He is practicing law in the West. 

There is a " Farmers' Club" and the "Or- 
der of Good Templars" which have done effi- 
cient work in the cause of temperance. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 

Census Table. — Tabulated statement, show- 
ing the movement of population of the several 
towns in Sullivan County at each census since 
1767, iuclusive, with dates of incorporation and 
first called name : 



o 




1 -, 




aC3DO'00^-<r=riO — r^«>Cli-iX 


CO 








r-H 


.-1 -^ 1-1 C-1 r-. 


. s 


O 




on 


r-- 








OI>.OC0Oi01^^CC— 'IXtir-OOOOCO 






-^ I-" ■^ r-« <M .-1 








,-« 



oc lo c-i rN lO t— M" t^ ^ (^ C-) r^ ■•- cc C"j 
-— »•- o i.-; t-, tf; ';s rr X o -^ o 1-- Of. X 

T-( ^ ^r r- cs) ^ ^ 









o t^ c-1 X »o i^ 1-^ t^ c; r-. 00 o ro »ra ?c 

■V i-^ i-t. 'O o (-^ o :o Ci CI lO CN :c c-i '— 

.-.r-.CNi-H'— .-I ^^,-1 r-lr-i 



C;MO.-«Ot^C^Tt<OOsOl--COI^'M 
r-1 I-. CM .- r-« 1-t i-H T-l r-« 



I O **< Ol CC -^ ...■ 

I I^ '.O X- « CO QO 

cc r^ -*. c-i c: r- 



'^ ^ oi -^ ■y: t-^ lO c:' —^ 



-t< « -fr (M r^ 

O OS CO 30 « 

!>. O -P CS iO 






CC cc lO <0 i-« 
CO <© -o O *» 
■^ Ci Oi CO CO 



M CI o c^ 
■^ CO . lOCO 



"T CO OJ CO 

c; c-1 O -^ 

iO IC CO rH 



O CO CO — 
CI -M — ■ OS 
«C -I" (M 



-^ h-. CO •-" 
CO O CO lO 
CO »-* .-H 



fe-M 






< c ■ ■*- '-^ 



.o 



Ol -w O 1^ 1^1 -f -f 

C4 »o 00 M 3i o r^ 

CO »0 *0 >— ' i-< -^ Tf 



CO r^ QO 
M >c o 

^ i-( CO 



CO ic t-- 

y-t CI 



o > 



!^ 



■je.- 



• ^ =^ ^ i:: ^« 






-,s 



„.!:' 









' • c 
, . o 

. 5) 

a 






' I-! M Z; i ac 3^ 3 ? 



APPENDIX. 



409 



GRANTHAM. 

The first settlement on tlic west side of the 
mountain was made in 17(jl or ] 7(!'2, where 
Samuel Beau now lives. 

The first .settlers were John Thrasher, Rich- 
ard Cohuru and his brother, John Merrill, Ez- 
ra Htowell, John Gove, Francis Xcwion and 
three brothers, Samuel I'ean, James Smith, Jo- 
seph Gleason, Captain ( 'liai'Jes Scott, Jolin lOa- 
ton, ^\'m. ^lonlton and Ezra Hnsweli. 

Captain Ivalph Thomp.son was an otlicer in 
the Revolutiouarv War. 

The west side of the mountain was muiexcd 
to Plainficld in 18o(i, instead of 1858. 

KEENE (CllKSIIIItK CnlTNTV). 

ThK SkcOND OrTHODO.X ('oNCIiKCVrioXAl. 

CHriicii' was ori2;anized October ].">, ]8(!7, bv 
a colony of one hundre(l and twentv-two mem- 
bers (forty-two of whom were male members) 
from the First Church in tlie same place. One 
other joined that day from the diurcli in .^^al•l- 
borough, making tiic niuid)er one hundred and 
twenty-three. Tlie immediate cause that moved 
this large body (including the four acting dea- 
cons) to leave its church and home was a con- 
flict between the society and the church. Per- 
haps I cannot make things plain in any better 
way than by copying from the church ri'cords 
a ])aj)er which was read before the council 
wiiich was called to decide whetlur it was ex- 
pedient to form a new ehurcii. J co])v this 
l)aper vfrhniim : 

" Dear Brethren in ('hrisi : 

"Believing that no step of thi.s kind which has the 
interest, of Christ's cause at heart, should be under- 
taken without much thought and prayer, after much 
prayer we have come to the conclusion that it will be 
for the interest of our Divine Master's cause here that 
we should unite in forming ourselves into another 
church. 

" \V - present the following as some of the reasons 
that have led us to this step : 

lat Reaaoii : Soon after the Rev. Mr. Hamilton's 
dismission, the Rev. Dr. Barstow sent a communica- 
tion to the Church & Society, requesting them to select 
& s( ' another Pastor, who should assume the chief 
care . "lonsibility of the pastorate. 

" '^ .imittee of the Society were by one of the 

Offictis ot the Church notified of the I'equest of Dr. 
Barstow. .4 part of them demurred and said there 
was no need of action, as we bad a Pastor. 

' By Mrs. Noah R. Cooke. 



" The church were duly called together to consider 
the subject, 1% chose a Connnittee of three to act in 
connection with a Committee of the Society to obtain 
a supply for the desk. 

" A legal meeting of the Society was called. .\t 
that meeting a part of the select Committee, 'who 
have since been among the minority of the Society,' 
contended, strongly, 

" 1st, that Dr. Barstow, whose health was feeble at 
the time, Wiis able & xlinuld jierform all the duties of 
the pastorate. 

" 2d, That the church had nothing to do with the 
matter — that the Society's t'ommitlee had the right 
^k fitU power to obtain all needed help, even if it was 
permanent ; but alter much discussion it was voted 
that the Select Committee of the Society be a Com- 
mittee to act in connection with the Connnittee of 
the Church for the above jmrpose. It soon became 
evident that the objection.s were planned in the mi- 
nority as to what kind of preaching we should have, 
& hence our troubles first l)egan. 

" '2<l Reason. The united committee having heard 
of Rev. J. A. Leach, after conferring with Rev. Dr. 
Harstow, engaged him for two Sabbaths, then for two 
more; in the mean time, by the request of many, he 
was engaged for six months. 

" God, in His providence blessed his labors, and 
many were brought into the kingdom of His dear 
Son, — an earnestness took hold upon many profes- 
sional followers of Christ, but not upon all. 

" A spirit of opposition arose from causes we need 
not mention. At a meeting of the Society for bn,si- 
nesa, about a month before Mr. Leach's six months 
expired, after getting in all his opponents they could, 
among whom were some who never or seldom at- 
tended meeting, an informal vote was taken, after 
much discussion as to its propriety, to see whether it 
was best to retain Mr. Leach longer than his j)resent 
six months. Twenty-four voted to retain and 
eighteen not to retain. One f>f the eighteen expres.sed 
after the meeting, tliat they got one more vote than 
they expected, and he did not know who that one was. 

" 3rf Reason. "When the meeting-house was re- 
built, all the pews were sold, .subject to be taxed to 
pay the current expenses of the Society. This was 
by a legal agreement of the Society. They were so 
assessed, and the tax paid regularly. After Mr. 
Leach's call and before his settlement in August, 
186(5, twelve of the jiew-owners, including one of the 
Select Committee of the Society, also some of the 
Church who had not paid their pew-tax due in July, 
refused to pay their just dues, and after the most pet- 
sistent and dishonorable means from time to time in- 
duced many others to withhold their pay, thus to 
cripple the financial afl'airs of the Society. 

" -ith Reason. If the Society were all united and 
harmonious, the house could not acconnnodate all that 
wished to have seats there, and indeed, they cannot 
all find seats now, for various reasons. The jiews 
were owned by various individuals, .some owning two 
or more. Some of these owners, among whom are 
church-members, let seats in their pews, and put the 
pay in their pockets and refused to pay their assess- 



410 



APPENDIX. 



ments, — also refused to let the occuprtiits pay to the 
Society. 

"Some have driven the I'rieuds of Mr. Leach from 
their pews, and others who had more than one pew 
have charged so exorbitantly for their pews that the 
Society have been deprived of their rental. Books 
and important papers have been withheld by the 
minority. The collector for 1866 declines to let the 
Society know who have iwt paid for that year. Legal 
measures might be resorted to, but for these and other 
reai^ons, we have concluded that it will be for the 
iiitere-st of our Blessed Master to be formed into a 
separate body. (JEORtiE Kinusiuiey." 

Others advocated the Ibrnaiiig of a new 
cliurcli, and mi one opposing, the council 
unanimously voted that a Second Congregational 
Churcii should be organized in Keene. This 
was duly carried out, the same articles of faith 
and the same covenant which they had used in 
First Church being adopted, and the same four 
deacons, three of them aged men, being voted 
into service in the new church. Seldom is it 
seen that the majority of a church leaves a 
church for the sake of jjcace, — in this instance 
without any church jiroperty, M'ithout even as 
much as a Sabbath-school book, though some 
of them had given largely towards the rebuild- 
ing of the First Church, and mauy of them owned 
pews in the same. The new enterprise highly 
prospered, and though the amount of property 
represented by the new church was not so very 
large, yet all were actuated by a generous spirit, 
and two gentlemen of their number, to whom 
God had given the means, gave very liberally, 
and so the new church was dedicated, free from 
delit, September IG, 1(S69, and at the same 
time the ]\ev. J. A. Leach was installed pastor. 
The church was dedicated as a free church, and 
renuiined a free church till 1884, when, though 
many were very reluctant to give up the free- 
seat svstem, still, on account of difficulty in 
raising the needed funds by voluntary subscrip- 
tions, it was decided to rent the pews, which 
has since been done. • 

The business arm of this ciiurch is a church 
association, to which none can belong but 
church members. This acts as a preventive to 
such trouble as was caused in the First Church 



by unconverted men having power in the 
society. 

It was wonderful how the new church pros- 
pered. Sermons, deeply in earnest, were 
blessed, and there were, for a long time, addi- 
tions to the chtn-ch at nearly every commimion 
season. The preaching of Rev. J. A. Ijeach 
was Calvinistic in doctrine, faithful and fearless, 
with a remarkable gift of originality. There 
was never a sameness in his sermons, but he 
possessed a wonderful power of so presenting 
truth that it should be spiritual, striking and 
attractive. The salvation of souls was emphati- 
cally his desire, and he would make any sacri- 
fice for that object. Starting with V2?> mem- 
bers, there have, up to this time, been added 
298 members, and 172 of these were added 
during the first four years. Of the 298, 90 
were added by letter, — the rest on profession of 
their faith. Therefore 421 persons have, at 
some time, been connected with this church 
during the nearly eighteen years of its existence. 
There are at present not far from 290 members. 

Rev. J. A. Leach resigned the pastorate 
January 8, 1882. Rev. W. D. Love was act- 
ing pastor one year, — 1882-8.3. Rev. W. F. 
Price \\'as also acting pastor for one year, — 
188;')-84. At the present time there is no 
pastoi'. Rev. Dr. Wallace, of INIanchester, this 
State, has for some time supplied the pulpit 
with great acceptance. 

Keene needs two Orthodox Congregational 
Churches. As has been seen in this jjaper, the 
seating capacity of the First Church was not 
sufiicient for its hearers at the time the Second 
Church was formed, and the need for two is 
much greater now. The result lias been good 
for the benevolent societies, for much more 
money is contributed for them by two churches 
than was contributed by one. 

The Second Church has been ])assing through 
troublous times, but it is hoped that it may 
endure, and that God's grace may yet enable it 
tu pursue the things which tend to the glory of 
(iod. 



ERR.\TA TO GENERAL HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY. 
Page 1, Chapter I., General History, should read " Willard Bill, Jr.," instead of" Willard Bill." 
Page 3, line 16, read " till " instead of " hill." 
Page 6, line 29, read " Ballard " instead of " Ballard." 

Page 7, lines 21-2S, read " Lauson " Robertson instead of " Lansnn " Robertson. 
Page 9, paragraph 3, read "Peleg" Sprague instead of" Peter " Sprague. 
Page 20, line 32, read J. " T." Abbott instead of J. " P." Abbott. 



L 



